Sideways; a review.

Sideways is a newish film from 2004. I'm about 20 mins in and it smacks very much of a Woody Allen in California. Two guys -groom and best-man- go on a pre-wedding trip to the Santa Barbara wine country. The groom seems to be on a big hunt for a last female hurrah while the best-man is on anti depressants having divorced two years earlier.

Writer and actor. One with and an ever unpublished novel and the other peaked early and is now voicing commercials.

There's a pretty incessant soundtrack a la the Rockford files, and lots of semi documentary filler.

It seems the car, a convertible Volvo 940 sedan is as much a character as the actors.
It turns out the ex-wife, now remarried, is going to the wedding. And he's just drunk dialed the ex.
OK. The groom found a sex buddy that he didn't tell he was getting wed the next weekend. And the writer found a woman to ease his heartache. Didn't end well for the writer for he told the truth about the up coming event.
The writers book was turned down so he'd left being a middle school teacher. Odd sort of concept of failure IMO.
I had to stop and follow the film that's now rolling credits. 

Right, was it a waste of time, no. How it was nominated for 5 Academy awards is utterly beyond me. Yes the acting was excellent, but the story was thin and could be summarized using the words queer in the old meaning and odyssey. 

It was made for 16 million and that seems a lot for what I saw. But it made that back and brought another 100 million of it's brother dollars home with them. I must have another look at the producers, for I really wonder how it could've been pitched to the money men unless those guys and gals were of the industry and could see the potential.

Anywoos, I'm now looking at The Descendants, with Clooney and a good little actress named Shailene Woodley. I think she just might have real potential.

A few images of arches and castles

Last shot of the babies

Last shot of the babies in their bed. Next morning they were flying and now roost with mom and pop in the bike hoist cable. Two have fly in their beaks.
I bought a bivouac tent. I think Sage has one like it. It's basically one pole to rise the body and a fly-sheet. All held by a plethora of pins.

I have a 5-man tent that can fit a raised bunk. So I'm of a few minds what to bring on a trip I'm planning in a few weeks. The new one is really light. But the big one is about as comfy as one can get in a tent.

Something with a coloured flash.

The poppies are natural.

I lost her

Today, I lost Jessy while bringing her for a walk in the Dukes Meadow, a park in Kilkenny. She does this thing of walking about 50 yards in front of me and glancing back every-so-often. But it's a twisty turny path with other paths veering off at different points.
Anyways, she was gone. No sign of her. Did not come when whistled. Just gone.
At first I wasn't worried and kept walking on the notion she would find me rather than me finding her. But nope, no sign of her.
I decided to check if she was back at the car. A good mile from where she went missing. And there she was, I was so relieved.
Little brat. And a smart little brat at that.

Just go away with that darn camera.

Something to test ones liberal position.

You are at a pharmacy and the teen boy who's taking your 16 year old daughter to a dance that night is making a purchases of condoms. 

Tri-monthly treatment.

Today was the day that Jessy got her flea and tick treatment and her six month worm dose. So, Jessy was on my mind when I was in town looking for Velcro, €20 for the stuff btw. But next door to the big box crap store is the BIG pet shop. 
In I went and cruised about looking at things and leaving them. Frankly, I wanted to scare the bejapers out of myself looking at snakes behind glass, but they had none. What they had was something I've had in my head for a while now. 
Puzzles. More exactly toys for the dog to keep her sharp. She has some toys but she mostly gets real sick of them real quickly. Ergo, the puzzles idea. 
Well, I was looking at the 'offers' section -big shock there eh- trying to fathom out one of the puzzles when an assistant seeing my consternation arrived over to help. Now, I consider myself fairly sharp and assuming that the girl knew her stuff you'd think the solving of the puzzle would've been child's play, or in this case dogs play. Well not a bit of it. It took the two of us a good five trying to work it out.
Remember this is a toy for a dog. 
If anyone remembers those toys where you moved the numbers about. This. Well then THIS  is the toy/puzzle for a dog. They have to remove all the bone shaped things from the outside and move the corresponding segment in order to move the segments sideways until they get to the one with the treat.
Frankly I was really teed off. And I'm still a bit bemused. And a little bit intrigued to see if Jessy could manage it.  

More on Georgina

This is the tomb that she lies now. It's in the style of a Celtic reliquary. 

This is the church her grandfather was rector.

And this is the rectory where she was brought up. It's not 100 yards to where she now lies in the Whitechurch at Castlane.

This or this. And a real sad story from 150 years ago.