Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Let's know what you think of the film, Mike. JMW Turner, my most favoured artist since schooldays, was a fascinating character, and I'm sure that Mike Leigh and Timothy Spall will have accomplished a good representation of his life and work. I rarely go to the pictures these days, but this will be a must.

 

Edit: trimmed down quote to relevant part.

Just after we came out Mrs Stationmaster remarked that it posed more questions that it answered and that is definitely one way of looking at various 'unexplained' things which either happened in the film or didn't happen.  But there is a clear note on the screen at the end which says it is based on certain events and facts but it is dramatised and, in effect, some of it and some of the characters, are made up.  However the relationship with his father seems fairly accurate also those with Mrs Danby and with Mrs Booth.

 

With that lot out of the way we get to the good stuff - the film itself is superbly set and lit, a wonderful visual treat and worth seeing for that alone.  There seems to be some CGI (e.g the sighting of the 'Temeraire' on the Thames) but it was extremely good and not noticeable as CGI.  The scenes seemingly naturally lit by sunrise/sunset etc all appeared to be shot with natural light but probably some use of filters in some of them.

 

Spall is excellent - lots of grunts in his dialogue which some critics have criticised but that could well be genuine Turner (beyond my knowledge), the painting he can be seen to be doing himself is quite believable and there is a passing story background to some of the well known oil paintings such as 'The Fighting Temeraire'.  All the acting in the film is good in my view, no duff casting at all.

 

I think you either like Mike Leigh or you don't and Timothy Spall is definitely in the Marmite category as an actor but depending on how you feel on those two things go along and get a smashing visual treat, you won't regret that if you're a Turner fan.

 

My only real complaint - his watercolours were as good as ignored as made no difference.

[DDolfelin]

You would have to get your WiFi signal from your internet hub/router. Do you have something like a BThomehub? That is how my Hudl connects to the internet as it doesn't have a wired connector. My brother had a 3g dongle for his tablet (make unknown) but if you can't get a mobile phone signal that isn't much help. You will just have to move to Estonia, lots of free WiFi there!

 

I was rather hoping that it could be hard wired to the router while at home!

You've been very patient, thanks Tony.

[PhilJ W]

Back home from the club, the clubhouse is an ex cricket pavilion and sits on its own on the edge of a cricket pitch. There is nothing to muffle any noise however and tonight it seemed like being in a trench on the Somme at times. There seems to be an exhibition/swap meet near me every weekend between now and Christmas starting with the Romford exhibition on Saturday.

[Tony_S]

I was rather hoping that it could be hard wired to the router while at home!

You've been very patient, thanks Tony.

The USB socket for charging can also be used to transfer files from a computer. On PC the Hudl just appeared as a device that I could drag and drop stuff to and from.

Also I mentioned earlier that I can print. I forgot that my printers are all network enabled either to the cabled home network or by wireless. Also I enabled printing by downloading an "app (free!)" specifically for my HP printers.

I haven't investigated sticking other devices into the USB port yet but YouTube suggests various possibilities.

Tony

[Tony_S]

Back home from the club, the clubhouse is an ex cricket pavilion and sits on its own on the edge of a cricket pitch. There is nothing to muffle any noise however and tonight it seemed like being in a trench on the Somme at times. There seems to be an exhibition/swap meet near me every weekend between now and Christmas starting with the Romford exhibition on Saturday.

Really quite quiet only a few miles away in Benfleet. Robbie wasn't bothered when he went out. We watched Michael Portillo travelling in Russia. He visited some of the places we went too in St Petersburg.

[Jock67B]

Evening all (just),

Back from my scan - not a bad time to have it as parking was easy and I was seen just before my appointment time! For those that haven't had a CT scan, the only discomfort is from the fitting of a cannula and the slight burning sensation when they pump dye into your blood stream as you pass back and forth through the machine. Biggest problem was being desperate for a wee thanks to the litre of liquid, mixed with an iodine dyeing agent, that you have to consume in the hour leading up to your scan!

The squibs didn't cause as much grief as we expected this year although I suspect it may be different at the weekend!

Thought of getting a 'Hudl' for Joanna this Christmas as she wants to do her ancestry but I'm a bit worried about the small screen size - have you found it an issue Tony? She hasn't got the best of vision thanks to glaucoma but is frightened to use my PC with the big screen!

Thanks for the critique of 'Turner' Mike, one of my favourites too! Can't sit long enough in the cinema sadly so I'll have to wait until it's out on DVDS or Blu-Ray or possibly shown on TV.

Over the hump now and racing towards the weekend,

Kind regards,

Jock.

Not forgetting G'night Pete!

[trisonic]

G’night Jock.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz...........WEEzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZ etcz

 

Zzzz, Zzzz.

Edited November 6, 2014 by trisonic

[bluebottle]

Stationmaster Mike -

Thanks for the review of the “Mr Turner” film. Rather more interesting then yer average newspaper critic's efforts!

The entry for Turner in the Dictionary of National Biography says that: “The facts of Turner's private life and a valid picture of his character are just as enigmatic as much of his late painting”, so perhaps some mystery and loose ends should be part of our impression. He's also described as a difficult and very private person, though not with his closest friends. John Constable (Not a particular friend) summed him up: “he is uncouth but has a wonderful range of mind”.

I'm glad that at least the better known paintings get a good showing. Tim Wright, who painted Spall for the National Portrait Gallery, spent two years teaching him to paint in preparation for his rôle, and Spall commented that “by the end I reckon I was painting as well as Turner – as a nine-year-old.”

I suppose that the watercolours were neglected because the general public think that real painters only paint in oils; I gather it's a long film and perhaps the producers felt that something had to go. A pity all the same; Turner was – and still is – regarded as the outstanding English watercolourist of the nineteenth century. But, I'm sure you know all this.

One of my favourite period dramas is “Chariots of Fire”; despite the dramatic licence taken (and I know a fair bit about track athletics history), it's true to the people and the society it portrays. I'm sure that I - and Jock! - will enjoy “Mr Turner”, too.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

It is a rather chilly morning here in this part of the world.

 

Plus, the DB are on strike - so the traffic is quite a bit heavier than usual.

 

Oh well, time for a coffee!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[Purley Oaks]

Morning all

 

To London today and the faded glamour that is New Cross Gate - fantastic train fare value at just £15 each way between Edinburgh and King's Cross. Am seeing my father, lives alone, very set in his ways, very deaf, now 91 and starting not to cope. He has no one else other than some cousins in New York State who never visit. Have to be very tactful asking what he wants to do for the future, making clear that I'm here to help and not to force him anywhere he may not want to go.

 

It's an unusual relationship as I only met him 10 years ago, so he's a father rather than a dad - it's complicated.

 

So I'm set for an interesting weekend.

 

Hope everyone has a good day and weekend

 

Mal

[Barry O]

Good Morning ERs!!!!!

 

Having a day putting point motors on and adding wiring to a layout my body is protesting gently...so it can just get on with it as I have to do some more layout dismantling today.

 

Have a great day everyone!

 

baz

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all. 'Tis wet and dreich… Coffee just drunk. Have a good one!

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a chilly area north of Ikea.  Nice and bright and looks like a nice day ahead.    We had a good time at the bonfire last night and I sampled SWMBO's lovely bonfire toffee.   As predicted I did lose a filling.  Fortunately it was a crown that I managed to save and it's a simple one on a post so this morning's first task aftrer 0900 is to try and ge a dentisits appointment.  Self medication with superglue or araldite was suggested but didn't meet with approval from the domestic authorities.  Then it's a morning of paperwork and an afternoon of sorting wiring on Green Ayre.

 

Jamie.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Rather cool (2^oC) start at 5.00am when I took Chris to work. Had to de-ice the car for the first time. Sun now shining but will cloud over later and there may be some rain this afternoon/evening.

Strange November 5th here yesterday - it was much quieter than the night before. Idiot in the next road must have used up his gunpowder allowance.

Still aching a bit but I seem to be over the hump ( well it is Thursday). Going to Hobbycraft this morning for a couple of odds & ends.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Sunny here! Aditi's car needed some frost removing from the windows. She set off early this morning so that she could get some work done before students arrive, that is the students who are coming in to shout at her.

She was amused that nearly all of her birthday cards opened this morning featured cakes.

I shall try to prepare a nice meal for her this evening.

 

Jock. The Hudl like all small tablets let's you magnify a section of the screen by putting two fingers on the touchscreen and moving them a way from each other. I was able to play with all the different tablets at our nearest big Tesco store.

 

Tony

[Killybegs]

Dark, wet 'n windy this morning. Judging by the amount of standing water everywhere there must have been a lot of rain in the night.However, someone out there must think that I have been a good boy as I managed to walk the dogs between showers!

 

The combination of full moon and onshore gales meant we also had a high tide last night, the wrack line was right up against the dunes. It's amazing how many huge logs get washed ashore. One of my biggest fears when sailing at night was hitting one of these beasts and heading down to Davy Jones locker. The biggest risk, however, was hitting a fishing boat trawling with no lights. Some of our neighbours across the water used to have a nasty habit of turning off their lights if they hit a good bit of fishing lest they gave away the location to the competition. They also used to trawl in the shipping lanes (brain dead?). We regularly heard officers on large ships come on the marine radio asking 'fishing vessel at xxxxxxx to get out of the shipping lane or at least maintain a constant course', first in English and then, when nothing changed, in Spanish and French. I used to come back from most trips swearing I would never crew on overnight crossings of the channel again but I always came back for more! Memories can be very short.

 

Anyway, another day dawns. We have friends coming to stay tonight, so I had better do some cleaning and general tidying up. It will probably be a late night so I may be late coming on line tomorrow!

 

Don't worry about the weather, enjoy the day.

[Shedman5]

Morning, dry but cold with with the wind, taking youngest and clobber to his new flat in Manchester this morning. Will let thew morning rush hour pass first, going to be quiet once more in the house after today.

 

Back later, breakfast first.

 

Enjoy your day

[Killybegs]

Morning all from a chilly area north of Ikea.  Nice and bright and looks like a nice day ahead.    We had a good time at the bonfire last night and I sampled SWMBO's lovely bonfire toffee.   As predicted I did lose a filling.  Fortunately it was a crown that I managed to save and it's a simple one on a post so this morning's first task aftrer 0900 is to try and ge a dentisits appointment.  Self medication with superglue or araldite was suggested but didn't meet with approval from the domestic authorities.  Then it's a morning of paperwork and an afternoon of sorting wiring on Green Ayre.

 

Jamie.

That happened to me once. I took it to the dentist (a locum) who glued it back on without prepping the surface. I told her as much and she told me to come back in if it fell off. Why wouldn't she at 60 euro a shot! It fell off next day when I was eating a sandwich at Dublin Airport. I kept it for a while then threw it away. I never thought I needed it in the first place!

 

John

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Not just fist & mog out there but everything is a fetching shade of white, definitely late auumnal/early wintry weather and leaves now dropping in great profusion, on my bl**dy lawn.

 

Sorry Gordon I forgot to mention - the film is 150 minutes long without a break, take a PNB and you miss something.  I was rather hacked off with the cinema as we were told sit where you like - so we did, at the back on the end of a short row so I can stretch my slightly wonky leg then some staff member comes along and says we've got to move for a wheelchair.  Somewhat angry and in fact even more so because after walking out she then put the wheel chair in the row behind us and we only just managed to get our seats back.  I realise it was a 'no reservations' day but why not at least identify and reserve wheelchair spaces?  Much more amusing was what happened as we got near to starting time - it was a full house so latecomers had little choice of seats and as usual the ones that were left were at the front - two women came in as the house lights were dimming and got rather fractious because they had to sit in the front row - maybe they should have done what many of us did and get there 30 minutes earlier!

 

Today is an honorary Friday - i.e. Waitrose day has been brought forward herself being off on a dental visit to Tilehurst which means that I can go trainspotting looking at the works on the new footbridge etc while waiting for her, thence to Waitrose in the Oxford Road; all a lot easier now Whitchurch Bridge has reopened.

 

Have a good day folks.

[The Lurker]

Morning all, thought I would post first thing rather than read through all the posts and then not have time to post myself.

 

Quite a few fireworks last night, the younger Lurker enjoyed watching them when he should have been in bed. We're going to a display at the elder Lurker's former school on Friday evening; they put on a good display last year so we're looking forward to it, follwed by sparklers at home and sauage hot pot and a solid red (well for me at least).

 

This morning is beautiful, clear blue skies and the first frost on the Fold in the Hill this winter.

 

I still have a thick cold but I'm hoping to have enough time at lunch to walk my way over to the Tower and view the poppies.

 

The year end progresses - the auditors seem mainly happy with what we've presented them.....

 

Hudl is one of those "words" or acronyms that I mentally insist on mispronouncing in my thoughts. I feel it should "Who- dl". A bit like DKNY which I insist is "Duk Knee". It's probably my impotent rebellion against something I think is ridiculous.

 

Can't comment on New Cross Gate the place (other than the 321s go from there or at least the Sainsbury's, to Tesco in Foots Cray. But the station itself and the reailway environs have changed with the reworking of the East London Line and the new overbridge. To think, the Terriers wre built for the East London Line, and people got in trouble when one was once commandeered to take a train all the way to Brighton.

[The Lurker]

Just had a text from Mrs Lurker telling me off for not telling her there was a heavy frost on the car, and so she was nearly late taking the younger to school.

 

I thought that the house windows were for looking out of.

[DDolfelin]

The USB socket for charging can also be used to transfer files from a computer. On PC the Hudl just appeared as a device that I could drag and drop stuff to and from.

Also I mentioned earlier that I can print. I forgot that my printers are all network enabled either to the cabled home network or by wireless. Also I enabled printing by downloading an "app (free!)" specifically for my HP printers.

I haven't investigated sticking other devices into the USB port yet but YouTube suggests various possibilities.

Tony

 

Thanks yet again, Tony.

I've never been entirely happy about security if I enable WiFi at home having seen how easy it is to operate keystroke copiers from outside a house.

That's if WiFi would work here anyway.

A trip to Tesco is called for - if only to give you a break!

[travelintrev]

Morning all,  not poked my nose out the door yet.....but will have to later.  

But I did find the Garratt kit  last night and first thing this morning started.  I did (as it's only going to be a display case model) for a brief moment  thing of building EM gauge  But decided that would take too much effort to no real benefit.

 

Now all this Hudl talk does any one know  if  you can fit a mobile (cell) phone network internet dongle to it via the USB port?

 

Off to get the peepers checked presently,

Make the most of your day

 

 

Trev

[skipepsi]

Morning all, chilly when I first looked out of the window we had a layer of frost turning the leaves white, by the time I had a shower, tea and toast it was all gone. I must do some work performance management looms.......

[AndrewC]

Morning all from a slightly chilly boring borough. All quiet here as work is quite busy at the moment. Also too wet to do any of the hard landscaping.

 

Health care costs. Did a bit of digging around. According to HMT a person on £30k will pay around £870 per year towards the NHS. (higher incomes pay more once the 40% tax rate kicks in) By comparison my corporate private policy would cost me £912 a year. As for the USA, its all political. The Republicans denounce "Obamacare" as evil and a waste of money as well as controlling people's lives. What they don't say is that what has been implemented is identical to what Mitt Romney was proposing 4 years ago. Partisan hypocrisy at its best and the sheeple blindly follow.

From an old Newsweek article (02/2009) The US spends 15.2% of its GDP on healthcare compared to Canada's 9.7% and the UK's 10.4% yet has a life expectancy of 78 compared to Canada's 81. So America spent more on healthcare per capita for less quantified results than either Canada or the UK. Its all about the profit.

 

rant over. Back to work. Have a good one.