Has this ever happened to you?
I was in York today, looking in shops for stuff that I can give to people to appease the gods of Midwinter. Of course a side effect of that is that I see lots of nice things that I want for myself. The shops had almost shut before I remembered that one of the reasons I wanted to go all the way to York was to have a look at the Cath Kidston shop they have there. Yes, I know it might be considered a bit effeminate, but I'm all about the challenging of the gender stereotypes, me, as you know. It's just when I thought I'd enjoy a case for me iPhone -
I saw the price tag (£25!) and thought better of it. They are nice though, so if anybody does want to buy me one consider this an opportunity to do so.
It's nice to have a day out, isn't it? Yes, I was supposed to be shopping. But surely there was room for me to have a look at class A4 locomotive Dwight D Eisenhower while it was on holiday in England for a couple of years? (He (she?) lives at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin, but is over here temporarily for next year's celebration of the 75th anniversary of Mallard's steam speed record. The six remaining A4s will be brought together).
Was a bit tricky to see him (her?) while he (are ships with male names still female too? Not sure of the convention here, although I know that naval vessels and locomotives don't bother with 'the' in front of names, i.e., it's just Flying Scotsman, not The Flying Scotsman, just as you don't say The Ark Royal, you only say Ark Royal) was at the back of the workshop but still a thrill to see this engine some fifty or so years after the last time it was in York.
I did a bit of exploring too. I've always wondered about the the streets that border the railway line from Scarborough on the approach into York station, especially as I could see they were named Scarborough Terrace and Filey Terrace so I had a bit of a mooch around there, finally discovering the whereabouts of York City FC's ground. All very good.
But it was at the end of the day that a dilemma of sorts unfolded. After making my relevant purchases (and yes, I did buy myself a comic or two) I pondered the possibility of going to the cinema to see Seven Psychopaths. I had greatly enjoyed writer-director Martin McDonagh's In Bruges (to the point of making it my Tenth Film Recommendation (slight warning, it's a bit gruesome, that link)) and so was looking forward to his next 'joint'. But it would mean getting back to Scarborough a bit later in the evening than I really wanted too, so I thought I'd check the review on the Mayo and Kermode Film Podcast thingy from Radio 5 Live. I stuck it on my headphones, but it was a fairly long programme so I had some lemon cheesecake to put me on before I went to the loo at the City Screen cinema fully intending to see the film as I had not heard anything contrariwise to that notion up until that point.
With only two minute to go until the advertised start time of the film, as I sat there on the throne in contemplation, Mark Kermode finally got round to giving a somewhat lukewarm review. And in that moment I decided I'd go home instead and watch it at some later time and spend my evening writing about it instead.
In fact I watched two episodes of The Killing III and had some Frosty French Fancies so it all worked out well in the end anyway.
More soonliest.
