The Secret Garden (2020)

This is a great classic escapist film to fall asleep to on a sunday afternoon complete with a classical music soundtrack. It’s set on a classic english manor estate which must be enormous which is why all other countries think that all British people are elitist millionaires who live this way. I’ve not read the book so I can’t appreciate the childlike wonder of the characters, but I don’t think that the film was aimed at younger viewers anyway. The characters are portrayed as brats. The animation is amazing, and Jemima is very well trained. I particularly enjoyed the Avatar effect where plants came into blossom as the children ran into the garden and withered away as they retreated in times of peril. But it’s a bit unrealistic as to how far Mrs Medlock’s voice carries such a vast distance into the garden. I’d like to think that the film concludes with all the characters camping in the garden while they wait for the manor to be rebuilt; but it doesn’t look like that’s realistic.

The Truth About Power

Everyone wants to exercise it. They become corrupt by its authority. Will you do what you’re supposed to do or will you only work with those who give the most favourable or easiest outcomes and delegate the harder tasks to others? When you use it to help others, it’s a great feeling. But sometimes you have to exercise it to hinder them because that’s your role. You might get enjoyment out of hindering others which is quite sad. The good ones are those who are left feeling guilty afterwards because they know that they’ve hindered someone, even though they know that the other party is in the wrong. The bad ones are the ones that just don’t care. They use their position to bully and cheat the system  to get what they want, even if it means telling lies. It becomes addictive and they attempt to see how far they can exploit it.

On the Scent

The dog’s spotted something in the wall. Either that or he’s deliberately avoiding us. Maybe the scent of us is too much. Or maybe something inside the wall is more important. Perhaps he’s smelled our chickens. He might have spotted movement through the hole he’s starring at. Or he could be sniffing the remains of one of our fish dinners or a bird roasting on a spit. He’s confused because he can smell it but he can’t see it. He can sense the movement but he can’t understand how it got there. How long will it be before he starts barking? He seems well behaved at the moment. He’s just trying to figure it out. Will the scent overpower him to make an attempt to jump through the wall? If the coxswain doesn’t keep an eye on him, he won’t know that his dog’s gone. He’ll probably think it’s gone overboard. And if they do, our whole hideout is exposed.

 

A new career path #titanabell 24

The door moved. A small amount of light emerged in its place. There was a similar one to the left which also rested on the floor. Then, as the rest of the silhouette moved in the room, the maid realised what she’d done.

‘Your majesty, a thousand apologies. I had no idea what was going on’

‘-don’t stop. Please’ said the princess. ‘That was amazing. Come in.’

‘I’m not sure I should ma’am. I have duties to perform.’

  ‘Oh, never mind your duties. You work for me now. I’ll pay you beautifully. Come in.’ And with that, the princess wrapped a large hand around her waist and rested a large finger on her shoulder. She lay down on her back on what was left of the mattress and the room shook with a thud. More dust emerged from the rafters. She lifted the maid up towards the ceiling over her two mounds.

A Crowd Gathers

Now the missus has come up on deck to see what’s going on. From the back of her head, she looks quite young. Certainly fit and agile enough to be able to hop off the boat onto the banks to start winching open the locks. She might be young enough to be the daughter of the coxswain. She doesn’t look like she’s dressed for the cold weather though. Perhaps it’s the smoke that ha driven her out of the cabin. I wonder if anyone else will follow her. There won’t be room for anyone else unless someone mounts the roof. Maybe the coxswain will give a loud tap on the roof and the curtains will part to allow another set of eyes to view. Anything for a bit of entertainment. They might even have something to lob at us like rotten eggs or dirty sponges, though they haven’t exactly got the perfect getaway vehicle.

Ocean Waves

Will I hear seagulls? Will I be able to select the sound of waves crashing against cliffs? The ocean is usually quite quiet until it gets involved with land. I wonder if an annoying voice is going to come on at some point and tell me that I need to pay to continue. It sounds like quite a calm beach. I think it’s probably the same sound played repeatedly at different volumes and lengths. It’s not hard at all to look out at this at land, but then again a storm is passing through as I listen. I’m interpreting the water hitting the shore as the land. But there’s no seagulls. If you listen for a while, you can just make out a mechanical vibe at the end of each wave. It’s as if a helicopter is passing over in the distance. At other times, it’s like something is trickling out of a beaker.

When I'm 64

…I hope I don’t end up under the bridge. It’s cold and it doesn’t offer much shelter apart from when it rains. Some of it could do with retiling. Perhaps that’s our job. Or maybe the tiled part that’s under the right-hand side opens to reveal a door that stretches into the ground and lets us live in the walls. We’re just locked out at the moment. It’s quite narrow underneath and there’s not much room to let others pass through. It’ll also let in a lot of wind. So we’ve just popped out for a bit of sunshine. We also might be defending our territory. Right below our feet are the beginnings of a hole. Perhaps this is where our bathroom is that you’ve just stepped into. Even the dog on the narrowboat has had to turn his head away in shame. Perhaps the coxswain has come to deliver us some supplies or throw us a few rolls.

Mitchell and Web Are Not Helping

This was just drivel. This comedic duo have certainly aged, and not for the better. They’re joined by an actor who’s got recognition from starring in another sitcom, and an annoying American who certainly doesn’t help the ensemble. There were some great environments which could have created some great characters, but following these was an insight into their writer's room where the jokes had to be explained and who they wanted to mock while constantly arguing if they were too unpolitical. I just could not see the point of the Australian farm sketch. It was as if someone challenged them to see how many times they could swear in a segment. Some situations were just too realistic for anyone to see the funny side of it like the airport screening team or the company trying to withdraw its sales because they don’t want their products to be associated with a certain type of person. In the words of a previous sketch, it’s miss, miss, miss, miss, miss.

Bridge over the Grand Union

This is a bit of a crap bridge shot pose. These people are lost without me. I’m usually posed as if I’m firing off a weapon for my bridge shot but these people just don’t have a clue. They’re usually amazed when I plan a circular route when we arrive back where we’ve started. It’s very rare that they recognise an area that we’ve passed through before either on a figure-of-eight route or through somewhere that we’ve passed through previously. They male have worked out which canal that they’re on but they have no idea how it links up to the rest of the walk. They’ll blindly follow me anywhere and trust that I know where I’m going without doing any research themselves. Either that or they’ve convinced themselves that they’re the Village People and they’re on their way to get themselves clean and have a good meal, but they are in some manner.

"Don't wait. The time will never be just right."

-Napolean Hill.

There’s the perfect moment, the most opportune moment to take advantage of something , and there’s the moment that you’ve missed and you know that you’re not going to get a better one. If you wait, you’re just being too polite. You need to make your presence known, even if you have to interrupt someone. You have to make them see that spending time with you is more beneficial. It’s hard to know when that perfect moment is, so sometimes you just have to go for it and hope for the best. The other person might think that you’re a bit rude for intruding though. You might not get what you want after all. How are you going to know? What works for one person may not work for another, not matter how far away they are. You will never have our unique moment when all the attention is on you.

Getting a Good Deal

One thing that we always want to be sure of is if we’re getting the best deal. But it’s better if we seek it out rather than be put on the spot via the phone. It’s often that you’re unsure if the person that’s calling you is genuine anyway. You don’t want to  hand over your details to a scammer. I’m told that Carl is calling. He doesn’t sound like he’s a Carl. Maybe he’s renamed himself to make things easier. If you call him back, no-one’s going to know who you’ve dealt with. And your money’s gone with no trace. At least a real caller would already have all your details on file. They’d probably have to confirm all your details first to make sure that they’re dealing with the right person. But then a scammer could ask for those details then run off with them and open a line of credit in your name. Sigh…

Enter the Shadows

They’re creeping in. It must be the time of the year when the sun isn’t as high as it usually is, and shadows tend to  be longer. Tall objects like houses and trees have more power to create the dark. It could also come from the railings on the bridge, or someone standing on the bridge itself. There might even be a high vehicle passing by. Then there’s something creeping up the wall in the corner. Could that be the shadow of the fingers? Could it be an animal on the other side of the road who’s stuck its head over the fence to check out the townies arriving at the pub? Or could it be a mouse-like creature that’s been trapped within the walls of the pub and it gets stronger as the light begins to fade? Is that a connection to an outdoor outlet or is its tail beginning to form on the next wall?

Do people actually get on the wrong flight when travelling?

I don’t think it can be done. The amount of checks that are carried out nowadays together with electronic boarding passes means that people should be denied entry to the flight at the gate. I suppose that if the electronic check should fail there might be a possibility of the wrong person being let through, but that would be quite rare. There’s probably exceptions for people with missed connections and they have to take a transfer on a different flight, but they’d probably follow the same boarding process. There’s also the possibility of human error where the scanner is too sensitive and what should have been flagged as an error doesn’t record a boarding. I did make a dash for a gate once as I heard it was the final boarding call, only to realise upon reaching the queue that it was the same destination but a different flight. But that was the closest I’ve been to boarding the wrong plane.