Sunday/Monday

I went to the cinema in the afternoon - yet again - and saw 'Burnt'.   I looked at the performance times for the rest of the week and they were all after dark, and although I think it will probably be on for a couple more weeks, I didn't want to miss it.   It was quite good, but I think I expected more.  The synopsis was straightforward, even for me......a 2 Michelin star chef screws up his life, becomes a drug addict, then turns life around because he wants a third Michelin star.

When I got to the cinema, the car park was absolutely full.  I had to park at the front and walk through the Mall, and there were crowds jostling in the foyer, so I was somewhat surprised when the cashier told me I'd have the auditorium all to myself.   I commented on the crowd and she said they were all seeing 'Peanuts'.

I must say it did seem a bit strange to have an entire cinema to myself.

I took some pictures with my little back-up camera.

 

I had left the spare room door ajar and Bubbles thought she'd make it her bedroom.  I disabused her of that notion though, but she was allowed to stay until she got up, then I closed the door.

 

 



Isn't this amazing, this car park just broke up.   When this happens it is usually called a sink hole, but this is bigger and has another name.   Some time ago a man was fast asleep - I think in California - and a sink hole just swallowed him up; and they couldn't recover his body.

'Sexting'  that's a word that wasn't around in my day, but with the advent of smartphones kids are taking nude pictures of each other and they are all flying around on each other's phones.   Whatever next.

Saturday......

Not a lot to update you about, except that I saw the movie 'The Martian' with Donna this afternoon, and it was TERRIFIC, AMAZING.  We both came out saying "WOW"  or words to that effect.  It is amazing,  the stunts, the effects, the cinematography.    I recommend it to anyone with the opportunity to see it.

Tomorrow, or sometime in the near future, we want to see "Burnt" about a chef.

Apart from this I haven't really done anything.   Just crocheting and watching tv.   And it was wonderful this morning to talk to my grand daughters on Skype.  That really made my weekend.

Remember, Remember the 5th November......

Hope the weather stayed dry tonight for your bonfires and fireworks.

The weather here has been funny.   It was very overcast this morning, I went to Communion, then we decided on lunch at a nearby Asian diner, but in the car park one of the group had a call from her husband warning of a severe weather alert and possible tornado, so we all hurried home.    A little while later we had very heavy rain, but then it cleared up and the sun came out.

 

Two big items of  news, firstly the crashed aircraft in Sinai......was it, wasn't it, ISIS  brought it down?  According to reports I heard, David Cameron seems to think so, but politicians over here were a bit reluctant - I don't know why - to say so.   I think by this evening though the general consensus of opinion is that it was.

 

The second news items is the Presidential Debate next Tuesday, the candidates have been announced.  To qualify for the 'top table' as it were, they have to have polled at least 2.5% in the four opinion polls chosen.  So the front runners are Trump (sigh) Dr Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.  I think one of those will eventually be President. Notice I am not giving the lying, untrustworthy Hilary Clinton any credence, my critics would say I've been brainwashed by the evil Fox News, but although there might have been a time when I thought she was alright, you can "go off" someone.

 

The other four making the top table are Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich the Ohio governor, and Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky.

 

Those on what I call the 'kiddies' table - who I would imagine would be dropping out soon - are

New Jersey governor the brash Chris Christie; former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee;  Rick Santorum and  Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal.  I like Bobby Jindal but I don't think he has much chance of making it.

 

Trump keeps attacking his closest rival, the gentle, softly spoken  Ben Carson,  accusing him of being "low energy" (like that's an insult).    Someone should tell Trump that anyone performing an intricate brain operation for 15 hours, with all the concentration that entails, is hardly "low energy".  I think Trump is jealous of his brilliance and popularity.  

 

So that is my two cents worth on the next debate.

4th November

Weather was a complete contrast to yesterday's warmth and sunshine.  It has been cold, grey and chilly.

 

I just went out this evening to the meal at Emmanuel.   For dessert they had the cakes I bought at the Kiwani bake sale yesterday, and I also knocked up some nutty crunch.

 

I took my camera there and showed it to my friend Stephanie, who officially pronounced it dead.   I told her I'd had it about 8 years since just before I came here and she said that is about its life span.   I think it is called - isn't it - built in obsolescence?   So I have been looking online at Walmart and Staples for a little inexpensive replacement.   But I will keep the old one, which was a present from Tim, on display.  It has served me well.  May it R.I.P.

I saw two cameras online at Staples, one was $19.99 (£13)  but I think that sounds a bit too cheap.  There's another I am thinking about which is $37.99 (nearly £25)  Of course they are not the quality of the Samsung they are replacing but I think the latter will serve its purpose.  But first I'll see what Walmart has to offer.

Today, the 4th November, is officially 'Death to America Day' in Iran.  It was the day in 1979 that radical Islamic students seized the US Embassy in Tehran which led to the 444 day hostage crisis.   And the news has been showing American flags being burnt, and everyone celebrating in the streets.

And Obama has just signed a deal with them, and is giving them - among other things - $150 billion!!!    If I were a US taxpayer I think I'd be spitting feathers.  

I daresay there are British taxpayers spitting feathers at David Cameron taking in thousands of East European migrants, but better that than giving billions to Iran.

Ted Cruz is leading in the Presidential polls, because of his excellent performance at the Debate.  Mario Rubio is also doing well.    With honest, decent, candidates like those I don't think the lying Hilary Clinton has a snowball in hell's chance.  And I know, I know, critics, that I shouldn't be watching the evil Fox News.

There are those who would have me believe that everything on Fox News are lies.  But is it not an inescapable fact that Americans were held hostage in the Iran?  And is it not also an inescapable fact that Obama has just given them - among a lot of other things - $150 billion?

Time to jump off the soapbox and head for bed.  Bubbles has given up reminding me.

Tuesday 3rd November.

Weather is still lovely, blue skies and sunny.   I was at the hospital this morning, and decided this afternoon to do something about my camera.   I thought it just needed a new battery, that was all it needed this morning, but I couldn't get one in Shawnee, so I decided to be brave and risk driving to Mid West City, about 30 miles away along the interstate, where I'd established a battery shop had one.

 

The car actually is okay, it drives along fine, the problem is the fact that it is long overdue for a new timer belt - whatever that is - and if that goes while I am out driving then I will have a much bigger problem, hence the anxiety and the caution.   The timer belt is actually quite an insignificant part, the $600 it costs to put in a new one is all down to the labour charge of having to take the engine apart to fit it.

 

So I puttered along at just under 40 miles an hour and it seemed to take forever to get there, and when I did I was surprised  to find a HUGE shopping area with some nice shops and department stores.   At another time it would have been nice to have browsed around there.

 

Anyway, I got the battery, the guy in the shop put it in for me and to my extreme dismay, I found I couldn't see anything at all through the viewfinder.  It is just totally black.   The assistant seemed as perplexed as I was; it wasn't a camera shop, they just sold batteries and light bulbs.  But I took the new battery - the existing one had been in the camera for years - so I obviously needed it but now I have a worse problem to deal with, because I don't  know who to go to now ..... as I have no idea why it is malfunctioning.

 

Shawnee is a sizeable town, I just don't know why they haven't got a proper camera shop.   Hailsham - which is nothing like the size of Shawnee had/has, one.

 

The manager in the battery shop volunteered the information that they have a branch in Norman, and opposite the branch there is a camera shop.   IF ONLY  I had known that in the first place.  But I think I will have to go, a camera repair shop is the only answer.  They gave me their card with the address on it.

 

Driving back, I am carefully following the GPS instructions, but there are a lot of road works going on, and I think that was the problem.   I found myself at a road with a sentry in a box, obviously wanting to know where I was going.  I gaze around and realise I am on the biggest military base in the world, people who live here will know where I was.  Military man at the box wants my driving licence, and I can't find it.  While I am rummaging around in confusion and panic he spots my passport, and asks for that.  Honestly, I take a wrong turning, and I need a passport!!   But I don't argue, obviously.  I go all confused and humble.  So clutching the passport in one hand, he tells me he wants me to do a U turn, indicates where I am to go and says he will see me round the other side of the  box, where he hands me back my passport.   Phew!   From there I was on to the interstate and it was downhill all the way.   I needed a little rest this afternoon to recover.

 

Actually, I had made some moist fruit cakes for the Kiwani bake sale yesterday and I was out early taking those to the Senior Centre.  They're very popular, they didn't even stay on display on the table, and I thought I'd pass on the recipe - grand daughters, my own or others, might like to try them.

 

You will need - (and just multiply if you are making a few like I did)....  A large saucepan.

 

12oz dried fruit.  4oz butter.  4oz sugar (brown or caster)  13oz tin crushed pineapple.  Simmer a few minutes, then cool.

Stir in 8oz flour.  tspn (or so) of spice.  1 tspn baking soda.   2 eggs.   And cook in a low oven, like 350,  for however long you think it takes, depending on the size of the tins.  I actually use little disposable aluminum loaf tins.

 

I've had this recipe a long time. Years and years.  A colleague in the radiology department at the Nuffield, Woodingdean made it, and it was so popular everyone had a copy of it.

 

 

Monday

The weather starts off chilly in the morning, then becomes warm and spring like by the afternoon.   I am conscious now that with the clocks going back at the weekend I need to be sure I go out, and do what I need to do, before it gets dark.   Going to Emmanuel doesn't count, it is a very short distance and along a main road.

The inquests into the Presidential Debate are still going on, it seems universally agreed that it was a debacle, and the candidates all had a cosy get together on Sunday and they have decided how it is going to be run in future, which I gather will be a lot more professionally.

One would think, looking at the supermarket tabloids, that Hilary Clinton is in trouble.........

 

 

But I doubt it.   A Democrat Senate, and especially a Democrat President , who would have to okay it, is not going to - I think the expression used here is -  "throw her under the bus".

 

And there isn't even anyone else standing in the wings ready to be a Presidential candidate.  There is of course, Bernie Sanders, but he is a socialist, and socialism doesn't have any traction in this country.  Maybe by the next election.

 

It has just been revealed that she warned the  Libyan President of the Benghazi attack.   But not - as we know - her ambassador.

 

The White House also told her not to blame the Benghazi attack on the offensive video about the Prophet because nobody in Libya, in the general public, would have seen the video.  They just don't have these things over there.  

 

There is a drip, drip, leakage of her e-mails, coming from someone in the FBI who are holding and investigating them.   If this carries on much longer I can foresee FBI resignations on the horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween

Well, I got the candy in but I didn't have any takers, any trick or treaters.   I did go to the movies just before 7.30, but I don't think I missed them, I think they would have come earlier, before dark, if they were going to.    They probably go round the better neighbourhoods.   So - oh dear - I will have to eat the candy myself.

 

I don't like Halloween, I never have, so I am glad it is over, but they make a big thing of it over here, dressing up, decorating the front gardens and the stores do a roaring trade in HUGE bagfulls of candy, and costumes.

 

The movie I went to see downtown was 'The Visit'.  It was on in one of the main cinema complexes for quite a while and I'd kept debating whether to see it or not because it was billed as a mystery and suspense.

 

 It was alright - better than 'Steve Jobs' but it was very weird and I don't think I would recommend it to anyone, but it did keep me engaged trying to figure it out.    And as anyone married to me would testify, if a film isn't straightforward I need  constant explanations on what is happening, and who is who.    Fortunately, when I got home I found a very good website which gave a  detailed, day by day account of all that happened.   So now I know what it was all about.

 

I doubt if anyone reading this plans to see it, so I will tell you it is about two children sent to visit their grandparents they have never met because their mother was estranged from them.   The grandparents are WEIRD - but it transpires near the end that they are not really their grandparents, but two patients from a mental hospital who have murdered the real grandparents and put their bodies in the basement.  The children get hold of their mother on Skype, who sees the pseudo grandparents and rushes to the scene with  cop cars, and lights flashing, and all ends well.   But one would think, in reality, the children would go home extremely traumatised and need years of counselling to get over it all. 

 

The dust has been settling following the Presidential Debate, and Rubio seems to have done very well.  It was announced this evening that a billionaire has come forward donating millions to his campaign.  

 

Jeb Bush is not doing at all well.   He criticised Rubio at one point in the Debate for his attendance record at the Florida Senate where he had missed votes because he was campaigning, and asked Rubio if he was adopting the French working week of three days.  Unfortunately the French ambassador was watching the Debate, he was very irate and complained to the Republican party.  So that hasn't helped Jeb.

 

Sadly, I won't be able to see the next Debate, it is on a channel I don't get with my basic tv package, but I guess I'll get to hear the main points.