Tony Talbot's Blog, page 5

Books of the year: 2018

My year in books at Goodreads. I’ve been a member there since 2012, which raises an eyebrow from me when I think about it. Six years of reading habits! 22 books this year, which sounds about average for me. One every two weeks seems about right! I managed to knock two books from my I-will-read-everything-by-Dickens list. … Continue reading "Books of the year: 2018"

It’s Chrisssst-massssss!

Merry Christmas (and a Festivus for the rest of us!) I hope you had a great 2018, and that 2019 is only going to get better! Now go eat some of that chocolate!  

A word from the quiet guy in the corner

I don’t like Christmas. Well, that’s not entirely true. There are bits of it I enjoy…mostly the eating parts and the buying presents parts. I like buying people presents, thinking of something unusual to match their personality. I dislike wrapping them because I genuinely suck at it (ask my wife), but that’s another story. The … Continue reading "A word from the quiet guy in the corner"

Movies: The Greatest Showman

Two minutes into this, my wife said she knew exactly where it was going. Penniless man becomes rich, forgets the friends who helped him, has a major setback, and discovers his real richness is his friends and family. No surprises there in the storyline, to be honest. But it’s a musical, after all, and the story really … Continue reading "Movies: The Greatest Showman"

Review: Moondust

2/5 In 1999, Andrew Smith was interviewing Charlie Duke, astronaut and moon walker, when he was interrupted. A fellow moon-walker had died, and now there were only nine of them left. Inspired and motivated by the fact that soon there would be none, Smith set out to track them down and talk to them about … Continue reading "Review: Moondust"

A conversation

I work in a school, and I was sitting in the staff room the other Friday, reading Eleanor and Park, lost in my own world. There were two other people in the room with me when one of them started talking. I watched their conversation for a while, listening to the rhythms and the sounds … Continue reading "A conversation"

Travels: London, October 2018

In October 2018, Mrs T and I had the opportunity to visit London for two days. The focus of it was a concert by movie music maestro John Williams at The Royal Albert Hall, but that didn’t quite go as expected…   Thursday: The Cutty Sark and Greenwich Before we went anywhere, we found this left … Continue reading "Travels: London, October 2018"

Movies: The Fog (1980)

“To the ships at sea who can hear my voice, look across the water, into the darkness. Look for the fog.”   I’m not a fan of horror movies. I really don’t like gore or excessive violence in a horror film (or any other, for that matter: I tend to hit fast-forward if it goes … Continue reading "Movies: The Fog (1980)"

The face of my father

That is, in case you didn’t know, the actor Daniel Craig. I’d seen him interviewed and seen every Bond film he’s been in before I suddenly realised something: How much he looks like my dad. My dad has been dead since 1998, so perhaps it’s not surprising I’d see echoes of his face somewhere. But … Continue reading "The face of my father"

Movies: Suffragette (2015)

“What you gonna do? Lock us all up? We’re in every home, we’re half the human race, you can’t stop us all.”   Do you know what I studied in school? Triangles. Lots and lots of triangles. Angles, cosines, tangents. Right angled and isosceles. Squares and rectangles too, and oh my god, the endless circles! … Continue reading "Movies: Suffragette (2015)"