The Squeee

FRIDAY After seeing both Wollaton Hall and central Nottingham, 3" Thorin went off to the local beer festival, despite it not being on until October. When I picked him up again to take the bus home, he was completely plastered and ended up vomiting on the pavement. Cheers for that, mate. For today, I thought I'd get him into nature, and where better to finish off our sightseeing trip than by visiting the renowned Sherwood Forest? Everyone who comes to visit us always end up getting carted up to Edwinstowe to see the Major Oak, and Thorin is certainly not going to be the exception!

THURSDAY On my mission to show 3" Thorin the sights of Nottingham, home of Guy of Gisborne, we have been to see Wollaton Hall, where Thorin suggested having some of the resident deer for lunch, and today, we've set the sights on the town itself. As my apparently too seldom used car decided to have very a flat battery, we had to take the bus in, something which 3" Thorin found very intriguing ... He thought it was a big, yellow dragon (is EVERYTHING a dragon to him?!) and we were transported in its oddly transparent belly. Just how do you explain the concept of modern public transport to a dwarf king from a fantasy world far, far away a long, long time ago?

WEDNESDAY So yesterday, 3" Thorin and I got talking about the lack of lonely mountains and dragons to slay around here, so I decided to take him on a tour of Nottingham, and letting him see the sights. Perhaps he would find something around here worth sticking around for, even if there's no treasure or glorious battles involved ... Here's how we got on!

TUESDAY Hello Thorin. Are you awake? I am always awake. Except when I'm sleeping, of course, but then I am still vigilant. One never knows when orcs might be on the prowl. If it's not orcs, then trolls, wolves and all manner of beasts that roam this land. What, like cats? Admittedly ... yes, fair enough, this version of Middle Earth is a little different than the one I'm usually accustomed to. Do you like it here? I was on my way to fulfil my destiny, slaying the dragon and reclaiming the Lonely Mountain for my people. Now I'm here , wherever "here" is, and I don't see any mountains, nor any dragons to slay. As far as I'm concerned, I have been taken hostage by powers far sillier than anticipated.

In the news today: The most recent adaptation of Jane Eyre was number three in the UK box office during its opening weekend. Well done! I think it was really well done considering out of the four cinemas in Nottingham (that I know of, anyway), only one is actually showing it - Showcase. Broadway will be showing it, but not until the end of the month. If that's the case here, what's it like in other parts of the country? #3 is well done! :) Keira Knightley, Jude Law and Aaron Johnson are billed to star in next year's adaptation of Anna Karenina . Haven't we known about Keira Knightley playing Anna Karenina for months now? Jude Law is to be Karenin and Johnson Vronsky. Speaking of adaptations, Joanna Trollope is apparently set to write a modern day re-make of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility . It's set to publish late 2013 and is a part of HarperFiction's attempts at giving all the Austen novels an update. I'm just slightly puzzled as to why this

Lammas , or Lughnasadh (Celtic), is celebrated either on 1 August or 2 August, and celebrates the first harvest. Personally, I celebrate it on 2 August and find Lammas a lot easier to spell. ;) Summer is still in full force, and will be for a while longer, but fruits are starting to ripen, fields are turning yellow and our kitchen gardens are bountiful with the treasures of Mother Nature. My favourite Pagan festivals are the harvest festivals, but that's because I like autumn. Around Mabon (the next holiday in the Wheel of the Year, i.e. the Autumn Equinox in September), we have the holiday as a pivot point between summer and autumn, but I've noticed the change more dramatically in Sweden. Before Mabon, it's basically summer. Then Mabon comes, and the trees quickly start turning yellow. For a harvest festival, I like to bake, even if it's just a little cake or something, as grains are one of the important things currently being harvested. Haven't made one today

With great sadness, we have learned of the death of  Columbo - Peter Falk. He was 83 years old when he died in Beverly Hills on Thursday. Apparently, he had suffered with dementia for a few years. Heard on the radio that he was fairly similar to his super sleuth character in real life. And "just one more thing ..." R.I.P. Peter Falk. You'll always be remembered - both as Columbo and as the grandfather in The Princess Bride . In more positive news, Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz have tied the knot . Congratulations! :) Latest news from Nottingham: Last night, driving past some traffic lights near Wollaton Hall, saw a yellow temporary road sign saying "WB LOC" and an arrow pointing toward the Hall, which I tried taking a photo of today. Wasn't successful. (We stopped too far from the traffic lights and they weren't red for long enough.) It made me go "ooooh!!" in the car. A Warner Brothers location practically in our neck of the woods! How co

Earlier in the year, I posted about Wollaton Hall and mentioned there's another hall further south which has been modelled on it. They filmed bits of the new Batman movies there and said they should use Wollaton Hall as a filming location. My wish has been granted! Probably the fanciest council house in Nottingham Starting on Monday, rumour has it Hollywood are coming to town! It's the worst kept secret in Nottingham right now: Wollaton Hall is to be Wayne Manor in the next Batman movie: The Dark Knight Rises (due out in 2012). There have been casting calls in town for an "unnamed project" and all, apparently. (Why didn't I know this beforehand so I could've given it a go?!) Nottingham has taken a step up from Magicians , shot at the Theatre Royal in the city. Holy heart of England, Batman! If I hear anything more I'll let you know. Also: I wrote this on my Kindle, so apologies for spelling being worse than normal. Will edit and add links and p

Last Saturday, we happened to venture to the old market town of Southwell in east Nottinghamshire. (It's either pronounced "south-well" like you'd expect OR "suth-ull" - haven't had a definitive "it's this way or the highway" yet, because there are people who argue both sides.) We walked around town for a bit - lots of old houses, particularly of the Georgian fashion (which I love). I'm happy to announce they have a very nice greengrocer's hidden away on a back street, and a nice little chocolate shop on the high street and a selection of cafés and restaurants. They also have a great big church for a fairly small town: the Southwell Minster. As we were walking back to the short stay car park (free parking for up to two hours), we came across this ... touristy informationy thingy: You should be able to make out that it says "SOUTHWELL MINSTER" and "IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF ROBIN HOOD" and that a green-clad gu

Can't believe it's taken us this bloody long to go and see the nearest hall/mansion/castle/thingy! Have lived in Nottingham for 6½ years now, pretty much, and the Saturday just gone saw our first ever visit to Wollaton Hall. Which is pretty inexcusable, considering the move we did about a year ago brought us closer to it than we were before, and yet ... nothing. Not until Relatives came to our side of town for a stroll in the park with Baby Nephew. Here's our chance! Let's go! Nottingham's Downton Abbey We did just go for a stroll around the park, and the wind was rather on the cold side and it wasn't a terribly pleasant day for a walk, but at least it didn't rain. It also gave us the impetus to go back when the weather's warmer. Wollaton Hall was built in the 1580s for Sir Francis Willoughby and should not be confused with Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire, which is a replica of this one, apparently. The replica has been used as a filming loc

Humber Road, to be precise. He was walking down it, in broad daylight. Right about here. Nice and sunny day too, like this. And why was I sort of having a conversation with his "manager"? And who was I walking with? And why was his manager (a man) on Twitter under a fake name - a random woman? It was very peculiar indeed. And if it sounds a bit weird, that's because it was a dream. Had it last night. For some reason, I ... oh hang on. I remember now! I was walking down said fairly non-descript street in the Nottingham suburb of Beeston together with Nat from the Richard Armitage Fanblog , for some reason. Perhaps because I don't know what she looks like in real life is the reason why I can't remember what she looked like in the dream? Like this, and with jeans. But in the flesh. Gorgeous isn't a strong enough word. We came upon Richard Armitage's manager, who was also walking down the road, and we spoke of his charge. And speak of the handso

Another day full of snowing, so I thought I'd share what it looks like outside the house at the moment! There's about 4-6 inches or 10-15 cm or so here, and temperatures are set to drop. Nice afro there, bird table! I also put together a little video for illustrative purposes! :) What's the weather like at the moment where you are?

Just saw a trailer on the SciFi Channel here in the UK. It's got dragons and monsters and... it's called Beyond Sherwood Forest . Yeah, that's right. As in Robin Hood getting another makeover, this time, in a fantasy monster-slayer type way. Its production company, Front Street Pictures , has this plot description for us: A reimagining of the classic Robin Hood tale merges the elements of magic and medieval romance. The Sheriff of Nottingham has targeted Robin and his band of heroes dwelling within Sherwood Forest. To destroy his enemies, the Sheriff unleashes an unstoppable creature that transforms at night into Alina, a striking woman. Robin must find a cure for Alina before her terror spreads, all the while keeping his childhood love Maid Marion out of harm's way. Or, as the Squeeze so eloquently put it: "If you didn't think Merlin went far enough... well, there you go." (That's BBC's Merlin , btw, and it went so far the only reason you'

I actually went to see the Robin Hood exhibition at Nottingham Castle last year, as I was showing someone around town and we decided to pop to the castle for a visit. (Brought the camera and all, should've taken photos, but I didn't. Someone slap me, please, I deserve it.) Now, going to a pretty small exhibition for a show you aren't all that interested in... well, you walk around fairly quickly. If I had been a fan of the show back then, things would've been different. There were clothes on display - one of the outlaws had a pair of Converse on... I'm pretty sure they weren't invented back then. :P There wasn't much to it. Some weapons, some pictures, some clothes, some info on characters, some video footage. Still plenty enough to take pictures of. And yet I didn't. There was also really big pictures of the characters, and I did go slightly weak at the knees seeing Guy towering over me. My reaction was thinking "woah, he's a bit attrac