I was dead chuffed...

...to be asked to write a guest blog for the CRT website a few days back. Odette, the lady I dealt with, gave me a few suggestions as to what I might write about, and gave me 300 to 400 words to do it in(!) It was published yesterday...

From house to boat: Making the move

There are some interesting posts in the Guest Blog. Worth a browse.

Grace had a brilliant idea for a table decoration the other day. The photo doesn't show very well the soft blue glow that emanates from it, but just imagine it...

It's a string of tiny LEDs, bought from the £1 Store. These are powered by a couple of AA batteries in a plastic case at one end of the lead, and the lead is waterproof. So these LEDs are in a Kilner Jar full of water, with chunks of blue glass. We got these from a nursery, the kind of thing with which you might dress the soil for a pot plant. We were hoping for warmer colours than blue; amber, red perhaps. But the blue's lovely.

Having missed The Lone Ranger at the cinema a couple of years ago, we watched it on DVD last night. I can't remember why the critics were so scathing at the time. And I don't care. I was a great fan of the TV original as a child. And this film was brilliant. Very funny indeed, superbly slapstick at times, yet with moments of horror and pathos. Even Silver (his horse) was comical. Johnny Depp was perfectly cast as Tonto, and Armie Hammer (flipping silly name!) did a great job as John Reid, the masked man.

John Reid: Do you know what "Tonto" means in Spanish?

It's a Comanche word, of course, but Spanish it means "fool"! Whereas, "Kimo sabe", Tonto's Comanche name for the Lone Ranger (the meaning of which has been debated for decades) means, according to Tonto "Wrong brother". He'd rather be riding with Reid's dead ranger brother.

The film covers in 149 minutes (so they say) what the first three 30-minute episodes covered in 1949; the story of who the Lone Ranger is, how he met Tonto, how he came to ride Silver, and why he wears a mask. There were lots of amusing references to the TV series way back (1949-57).

John Reid: Hi ho Silver, away!
Tonto: Don't ever do that again.
John Reid: Sorry.

This is one of the few films ever I'd watch more than once.

From the TV series. Yes, in black and white!

P.S.  I just had to do it! I've just found a DVD for sale on the web, for just £2.59. The first four episodes of The Lone Ranger TV series, three of which the 2013 film is based on! How cool is that?