Moli goes to Utopia…

Moli

Last year Channel 4 broadcast a dark conspiracy drama called Utopia. It was beautifully shot and graded with striking colours. The characters and story were very original and very violent with a few look away moments. I’m excited that next week see’s the return of Utopia with two episodes over consecutive nights from Monday 14th July.

Utopia Season 2

However, I was lucky enough to attend a screening of these episodes a few weeks ago with some of the cast in attendance and unlike some shows that lose something from season one to season two. These first two episodes of Utopia were nothing less than business as usual but the first episode was set in the 1970’s with period grading and 4:3 aspect ratio that matched the use of stock news footage from the time. It sets up the events that ultimately lead to storyline of Utopia season one without me giving away any spoilers. The second episode then continues season two with some more shocks and surprises.

Utopia - Season 2

The subsequent Q&A afterwards offered a fairly limited insight into the creation of the show by writer Dennis Kelly.

Utopia Season 2 Screening

One of the more famous lines from season one was a question from the character called Arby played by Neil Maskel. The question goes, “Where is Jessica Hyde?”

Now that might not mean very much to those that haven’t seen the show, however I think this is a cool photo. So… Here is Jessica Hyde…

Fiona O'Shaughnessy & Moli (Jessica Hyde, Utopia)

I really recommend that you try and catch the first series. If you don’t Arby might get you…

 

M

Moli May Update…

Moli

The past month has been fairly ordinary from a work point of view but socially I’ve been fairly busy.

I went to see a play at the Royal Court that my girlfriend has bought tickets for some time ago called ‘Birdland’ which featured actor Andrew Scott famous for playing Moriarty in Sherlock.   Sadly over the years I’ve never seen a good play at the Royal Court. Not only do they have the most uncomfortable seats in the universe but I normally come away disappointed. I really wanted to break that tradition and for once I am pleased to report that the play was fantastic. Scott’s performance of a mentally disintegrating rock star was engaging with a great supporting cast and a world that literarily tips over the edge and into the deep end. The seats however remain bum numbingly terrible…

Birdland

I recently traveled up to Norfolk. I was invited to stay at a large farm for the weekend that was owned by a friend of my girlfriends. It was a simply stunning location and very relaxing.

Norfolk 2014

We were very lucky with the weather, 26c and blue skies. The farm rears around 800 pigs and I was able to get involved with the feeding, which is completed with the press of a button. However I wasn’t prepared for the noise they make. Something along the lines of an ear-piercing scream like someone is being murdered. A fascinating experience.

The next day we drove further north to Holkham Beach which I last visited a few years ago and have to say will never grow tired of visiting. The beach goes on forever and I can’t wait to go back again.

Norfolk 2014

It’s a good walk from the parking area to the beach and a very long way down the beach to get your feet wet in the North Sea. Once you do get down that far and look around you, then all you can see is beach. A truly stunning place…

Another highlight of the month was watching the filming of a new H&M commercial featuring Victoria Secret model Natasha Poly. She mostly spent the day walking up and down a Victorian Street pouting into camera and looking fairly thin while doing that walk that models do, crossing their legs and wiggling their hips…

Natasha Poly

Natasha Poly

Anyone else would fall over trying to do it… Not that I’ve tried.

Lastly I went to see Godzilla at the BFI IMAX. Oh my god… What a waste of money. Bryan Cranston was wasted and the acting from the remaining cast was unrealistic and the script fantastically awful. The only thing that looked realistic and had a credible performance was the CGI Godzilla and he rarely made an appearance in the film. I would imagine he was embarrassed at the pointless script and acting from the Ray Harryhausen school for dramatic arts.

Monster

I really need to find a cracking film to watch to get the taste of Godzilla out of my mouth…

Roll on June…

M

Moli goes on holiday and gets a fan club…

Moli

I think its time that I did an update to the blog. I’ve been busy having fun and that’s a good enough excuse I guess to be lazy and not write the blog. I really want to write weekly or twice a month. Anyway after Easter I decided that I really needed a short break out of the UK as the weather is fairly unpredictable and looking at the costs of UK based hotels, it was clearly cheaper to go abroad. Having visited Tenerife at the start of the year I was keen to try somewhere new with some guaranteed sunshine. I ended up going into Thomas Cook to book it and was offered some lovely places that interested me. However, the flight times going out and coming back at 3am and 6am would destroy any rest I aimed to achieve. It’s crazy that airlines actually have these as an option for holidaymakers. I really can’t understand why people would do it and I certainly wouldn’t, So, I decided to have a rethink and choose the holiday destination based on decent flight times. Well, the only one available was traveling to Tenerife again, so not an ideal solution as I wasn’t that keen to make a return trip so soon but I did enjoy my last trip. I reluctantly agreed on the destination and book the agents recommended hotel called the Blue Sea Interpalace. This was billed as a 4 star hotel. So, I paid my money and got excited about the trip.

After a good flight on Easyjet and chatting the cabin crew at the back of the plane abut the latest Galley FM which is all the tales and gossip of cabin crew the 4 hour flight passed very quickly. The stories were very funny and mostly involved which crewmember was shagging who and how rude most of the customers can be. Once we landed I had a 1 hour coach trip to the north of the island and my hotel. So, after 5 hours traveling from Gatwick I arrived at the Blue Sea Interpalace hotel and was presented with two Spanish reception staff. Now I was hoping for a “Hello” or “Hola” and a smile but I was sadly out of luck. I was however, ignored for 5 minutes while they chatted to each other and looked glum about life in general. Which they did acknowledge my existence it was almost as an inconvenience. Checking in with the world’s most unfriendly human was fortunately quick and I was offered a room on the 3rd floor. The room was tiny and next to a busy and noisy road. Bikes, cars and people seemed ridiculously loud and sleep was impossible. Sitting in bed I was getting more and more angry. I discussed my feeling with the 10,000 ants that were sharing my room that night. They seemed happy about the state of things and offered no real help. The next morning, having not really slept, I spoke to a new and slightly less unhappy man on reception about changing rooms. He said yes and asked “would I like a top floor room with a sea view?” I looked at him for a moment and replied, “Errrr…. Yeah” So I moved and got a much better view and less ants.
Tenerife

Finally I could relax but this was clearly not a 4 star hotel and I would be generous saying it was 2 stars with is worn out carpets and very average food and frankly awful nightly entertainment. The weather was my main reason for going and I had plenty of sunshine to keep me happy. I had some of the free beer that was like water and simply couldn’t have actually contained any alcohol. So, I mostly drank real water and played the games that were on offer.

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This for me was the highlight of the trip. A rep would walk around the pool area and call out the name of the game about to be played. First up was shooting which I loved doing and was actually fairly good at. The hotel was mostly populated by German OAP’s but one of them was to become my nemesis or my arch enemy. Eddie was actually a resident at the hotel and played the games every day and had become quite good at them. Eddie was a loud man and a bloody know all that kept beating me at all the games, normally ending with a “Yar” Some of the games I’d never seen or played before like a Dutch game called Sjoelbak. It was played with wooden discs and all the other OAP’s had over the course of the week become my fan club, all of them willing me to beat Eddie. I had become their champion and with their backing I focused on the game in hand and with a little bit of luck I managed to beat Eddie with much applause from my new fan club and to much frowning from Eddie. Take that!!!
TenerifeOn the only cloudy day I took a walk up to the botanical gardens which was a very relaxing place to sit and enjoy all the colours.
Tenerife

In the end I was able to have a relaxing break but I honestly couldn’t wait to come home and get back into my own bed and a decent cup of tea. I learnt that Thomas Cook have no idea of star ratings. German OAP’s are really good at unknown European games and you are never too old to have a fan club.

M

Moli needs a recommission…

Moli

I find it hard to understand the reasoning of those that commission and cancel television dramas around the world. I’m sure they listen to focus groups and look at ratings to make their decisions on the programs that we get to watch. However I can’t help but wonder if they really give that much care, thought and consideration to it or just decided on a whim to ruin people’s lives. 

Over the past few years I’ve watched some really great shows from America like House, Breaking Bad, Quantum Leap, Star Trek, Dexter, Twin Peaks, Heroes, X-Files, The Wire, 24 and The Sopranos.  The list of shows could go on forever and I’m sure you all have a show you couldn’t live without.  My TV listings are filled with shows I’ve never watched or even heard of and when I channel surf I see even more unknown dramas.  I’m starting to wonder if anyone in America could actually watch everything each week and still have a life where they go to work and go down the pub? Given that they broadcast over 120,000 shows I somehow doubt it.  To add to this multitude of visual excitment I then watch British shows like Luther, Utopia, Ripper Street, Doctor Who, Silent Witness, Life on Mars, Spooks and Sherlock. The amount of shows worldwide now exceeds 2,000,000 and despite this I’m not happy when my favorite shows disappear and so much drivel survives.

SILK

SILK

Last night I watched the final episode of SILK on BBC One.  I really love this show. Its a BAFTA award winning drama based in and around a Barristers Chambers in London. Last night the BBC decided they’ve had enough of it after 3 seasons and its now gone.  The same thing happened to other shows like Ripper Street, The Eleventh Hour, Survivors, Outcasts and The Paradise all of which seemed to have a steady following.  What are the commissioning editors thinking???  Clearly some people see extra mileage in these show with Ripper Street being recently recommissioned by Amazon.  Could this be the future for all our loved and cancelled TV shows? I really hope the likes of Amazon and Netflix can use their new online channels and money to keep these shows alive.  Or maybe the BBC could stop making Cash in the Attic, Bargain Hunt, Flog it, Heir Hunters and Homes under the Hammer? They even have a show called Pointless for goodness sake.  Please spend the money on shows millions of people watch and enjoy.  Alternatively you could shoot the people that cancel these shows and employ me. I clearly watch too much TV and could do a better job…

True Detective

I’m about to start watching True Detective, which I’m told is amazing and a must see.  However, if it’s really popular then it will undoubtedly get cancelled just as it gets interesting.

 

M

Moli in the Knight…

Moli

So that’s it.  February is over.  The weather continued to be very wet and windy and sadly like January it was very boring for the most part.  I’ve really struggled to find anything to write about.  Its not like I went on holiday or attended a concert and could give you all a Moli review.  I got up, went to work and for the most part. Came straight back home again.  I’m actually boring myself as I write this so I can only apologise and hope that you’ve not turned off and surfed to another website. Talking about websites, I’ve started learning about coding and was given a link to a coding training website called www.codecademy.com.  I’m still at the early stages of my learning and I’m told a child could do it but I do feel like a monkey ringing a bell to get some food.  I get the bell to ring, some food drops but I really have no idea what I did to get my tasty treat.  I’m sure it will come to me…

One thing I did do this month was start learning to cook something new. I do love to cook and should really spend time doing it.  This month I learnt to cook a Chicken Madras Curry. I’m sure those who are still reading are all scoffing. “Oh, it’s easy” But I’ve never done it before.  I always end up at Aladin on Brick Lane, Dockmasters in E14 or ordering in a take away.  I started like most things in my day with searching Google for a recipe and soon discovered currytastic.com what claimed to be the best.  I bought the ingredients and tried to follow along.

Chicken Madras Curry

Chicken Madras Curry

  • 4 Chicken breasts, one per person
  • 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 2 Onions, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2cm block of fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
  • 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped – Depends how much garlic you like. Personally I don’t like it to be over-powering
  • Sea salt and black pepper
  • 400g ripe tomatoes, chopped
  • 300ml water
  • 1 tsp Garam masala
  • 2–4 red Chillies, finely chopped – You can de-seed if you prefer, but this will make it not as spicy
  • 2 tsp ground Cumin
  • 1 tsp ground Coriander
  • 1 tsp ground Turmeric
  • 1–3 tsp (or more!) hot Chilli powder, to taste – Adding more or less will vary the hotness
  • 6–8 Curry leaves
  • Juice of half a lemon or lime (you can use vinegar here instead, but not both)
  • Coriander leaves, to garnish

In the most part it was actually very easy to do, as its mostly just creating the sauce to the taste and heat level you require.  I eased off on the chili powder and chili’s putting in half the recommended amount, as I didn’t want to over do it. 

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Strangely I found it to be about right for me. Apart from putting too much water into it and too many tomato’s, which made it very runny,  it was one of the most fresh and tasty Curry’s I’ve eaten.  I now need to try it again and as I’ve read somewhere, practice makes perfect apparently.

 

I bumped into someone recently who lives not that far from me.  This in itself isn’t unusual but I’ve never seen him before and given what he drives, I rather think I would.  He pulled into a local car park driving the Knight 2000, AKA KITT from Knight Rider.  Come On!!!  This guy really drives this car about to go shopping instead of cuddling it every night and day. Surprisingly it only cost £12,000 in mint condition, which is something for a car build in 1982 and fully converted into the Universal Studio’s super car of the future. Awesome!!! 

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He was a very nice guy who even let me sit inside the ultimate car from my childhood.

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That made my day and may have just helped me get through February…

M

Moli does Crossrail…

Moli

Today I was allowed to visit one of the construction sites of Crossrail.

The Crossrail project is an underground tunnel stretching across London and connecting new and existing areas together for the first time and making journey times far shorter. At a cost of over £15bn, it’s a massive engineering project that should be ready for passenger use by 2018. As I’m living near a couple of the proposed stations I’ve been interested in the engineering, science, technology and some of the improved travel times, such as Custom House to Heathrow in 43 minutes which is much better than the current 74 minutes. I also think this will add great value to the area and do wonders for house prices.

Crossrail - North Woolwich

Crossrail

Crossrail - North Woolwich

Crossrail
The drill head that cut under the Thames, called Sophia, had just finished its job and was awaiting removal back to Germany to be dismantled. The size and depth of the site was truly awesome and the engineering team that escorted me around were very informative and knowledgeable. This certainly wasn’t on the tourist map and I doubt anyone will ever get the chance to go on site without an engineering qualification. Also, the Crossrail team were not travel guides but that didn’t stop them being very hospitable and friendly. A very different and interesting Sunday morning.

M

Moli goes to Tenerife …

Moli

I finally managed to navigate my way through the dismal month of January. On the whole I just lived as the month galloped passed me but normally that’s a boring experience. This year I decided to find some winter sun for the first time. I travelled to Tenerife with a friend for some well earned rest and relaxation. While waiting in the departure lounge at Gatwick airport I couldn’t help but notice that the majority of the group were geriatrics with walking sticks and wheelchairs. My first thought was, oh great. I’m on an OAP tour!!! I then had a realisation that I’m actually closer in age, attitude and walking ability to these people. Not only that, I could have a decent conversation…

Sandos San Blas Nature Resort & Golf

When I arrived at the Sandos San Blas Nature Resort I was pleased to find an all-inclusive 5 star paradise that catered to my every whim. As much food and drink as I could consume and a very comfy room with a Jacuzzi which I did make use of during my stay. With the inconvenience of a nut allergy, I’m always a little concerned about eating from a buffet as the chance of cross contamination is fairly high and my death from a reaction can interfere with my relaxation, as I’m sure you can imagine. The staffs at the resort were amazing and took my concern seriously, even changing the menu to nut free. This was absolutely fantastic and fairly dangerous as I ate far too much. Three times a day!!! I’ve never felt so stuffed. All I could do was sleep in the sun and relax. How terrible…

Moli

On the only poor weather day we had, I escaped the resort and ventured into the small town nearby that wasn’t much to write on home about but having been away from home for nearly 24 hours I was really missing a good old British cup of tea.

Moli

Its sad but the Spanish really can’t make a decent cup of tea. Lucky for me I discovered a British run tea room that served a decent cuppa… This was turning into the perfect trip. Good food, a tea room and sunshine. What more could I ask for? Maybe a few more days…

It was certainly the best January I’ve ever had and I’d certainly recommend it over a cold and miserable Britain.

M

Happy New Year… Miss Me?

Moli

Happy New Year… Miss Me?

January is one of those months that really just lead to the rest of the year for me. Nothing interesting ever happens to me in the month of January and from the typically dismal New Years Day to the very last day of the month it has always been dull. This year has been a little different. I still hate January but I’ve had a couple of distractions, which have helped me pass the time towards February.

At the start of the month of gloom I’ve been watching TV and like half the planet I love the TV series Sherlock. If you are one of those people, that for some reason have failed to watch the show, it’s a modern take on Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

If you don’t know what that is then you really need help!!!

At the start of January I was lucky to meet some of the cast of Sherlock. But sadly Sherlock himself Benedict Cumberbatch and Watson played by Martin Freeman was unable to attend the reception for the shows Season 3 finale but the rest of the cast however were in attendance which was great.

Meeting the cast was a real thrill for me as a fan but season 3 of Sherlock was less than satisfying for me with much less detective work and mystery that for me had made the show so interesting to watch. It changed and become more self-indulgent and comical. Also, the two years that had passed since season 2 finished had clearly allowed Sherlock to find a zany personality with a more character driven narrative that was very different to the style that I had preferred.

The new super baddie of Charles Augustus Magnussen played by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen (The Killing) was fairly cold and scary but like most of Steven Moffat’s characters, they fail to get used properly and finish before they get started. He had such potential and could have been a fantastic replacement to the amazing Moriarty played by Andrew Scott. However, the tease that the character of Moriarty might be coming back in an exciting cliffhanger for the confirmed season 4 promised at the end of this year.

Sherlock, Season 3 was good but not the show I was expecting and had been waiting a long time for.

Next, my short holiday…

M