...watching Tyrannosaur

...a harrowing afternoon at the picture house. Highly recommended.


Tyrannosaur

As we don't have a decent art house cinema in Bournemouth, we took our stinking hangovers up to the Harbour Lights Picture House in Southampton to watch Tyrannosaur. My love for Paddy Considine knows no bounds and after seeing his short film, Dog Altogether, I was a little prepared for the trauma in store for me.

But no one else can make his lead character kill his dog within the first fifteen minutes and then have me rooting for him by the end. That's the truth of a film like this, it's dangerous to stereotype people. You might hate an aspect of their character, but it's just that; an aspect. A few times I've tried to write people off and then they show a different side to me and I feel awful for being so dismissive. I'm in a constant circle; hating then liking, then hating, then liking the people on Big Brother. I guess you can't like all people, all the time.

An old lady was so moved by the film she had to talk about it and stopped me to voice her views over the sinks in the loos. "Unjust but very real" and "I wanted her to call a solicitor".

I did give Badger an extra tight squeeze when we got home though...poor pup.

...enjoying the sunshine at the Burley Cider Festival

...browsing twitter on Saturday morning, I came across tweets from @lostinthelarder and @thelarderhouse (thanks guys) about a cider festival in Burley. So we rounded up our cider loving friend Will & the dogs and went to sample some cider.

Roscoe the whippet having a little drink

Roscoe the whippet having a little taste

Not having a taste...

Smooching on the haybales

After the festival, we got a bit lost as we always do driving out of the New Forest. The boys brought home 10 litres, yes 10 litres of New Forest cider and we stopped off at St Catherine's Hill to take the pups for a sunset jaunt.

We found a wigwam and Will fiddled with the camera settings until it looked like daylight

As the sun set, we set off for cocktails at the Larderhouse

...watching A Streetcar Named Desire

On Friday night we went to see A Streetcar Named Desire at Poole Lighthouse.

My friend Rod knew the production team & invited us along. After studying & falling in love with the play during my A'levels, I jumped at the chance, dragging along a somewhat dubious Sam.

Surprisingly, he'd never heard of it, but I knew it was full of the gritty realism & shane meadows style dark endings that he enjoys...

The actress playing Blanche, Nicole Faraday (she of Bad girls fame apparently) did a super job channeling Vivien Leigh & Emma Stephens / Stella had a cracking southern accent which didn't falter once.

Rod made us sit right at the front as directed by his friends. I was a bit intimidated to start as the cast were almost on our laps! But by the second half I was grateful for the recommendation as we were lost in the performance. It felt like it was just us & the characters, perfect for such an intense play.

When the lights came up, all three of us had tears in our eyes after watching poor Blanche being sectioned in such a harrowing way.

Fantastic.

...wearing owl earrings

...adoring these cute owl earrings, a cracking present from a cracking  friend.
After seeing all my owl wrapping paper, Juliette knew they were the gift for me. And she was right too.

...spotting toadstools

...walking Badger on St Catherine's hill, I spotted a toadstool. But couldn't find any faeries, sadly.

And this is the first leopard spot mushroom I've seen.