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?

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.

ZHE FIRST OF MANY!! (Possibly. Maybe. Hopefully?) If I can find inspiration, instrumental songs and time, that is. :) This one's about Guy of Gisborne from BBC's Robin Hood - Richard Armitage - and how he's unlucky in love. Based on "Lucky Guy" by Modern Talking. Or, actually, this is the instrumental to the "Ryan Simmons" version, but let's not split hairs. In retrospect, should've stuck with what I did originally, and have it as "you are no lucky guy", because "you are unlucky, Guy" sounds a heck of a lot like "you are a lucky guy". Ho hum, never mind. And for the next attempt at something like this, I'll prepare more beforehand ... and hopefully come up with better lyrics. ;) Not used to making fanvids, so it's as it is. Hope you enjoy it, anyway. Happy weekend everyone!

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...

I was trying to find the UK retailer which I knew used to stock the dress I wore for our wedding, but apparently they don't stock it any more. I came across this photo: That leather looks kinda Guy of Gisborne-y to me! I'm trying to find the ruddy outfit, but the only item I can find is this one, and it's just for the hat ! (£71.86 but it's real leather!) If only there was the whole outfit for sale, we could have made a proper comparison ... and then promptly taken the measurements of our husbands, fiancés, boyfriends or other kind of partners and put in an order! But, alas. You'll have to do some more of that glaring you're so good at, Guy! Yeah, that'll show 'em!

This is my slightly longer than anticipated comment on ‘Rise and Rise Again’ – 100 YEARS OF ROBIN HOOD: Part Two . Today the Google Alert summary on Richard Armitage actually yielded 100% articles about the actor, as opposed to the former US secretary of state ... and a US murder victim. I'm surprised - and delighted. As the comment turned out to be surprisingly long, well, I can post it here too. Because I can. *cough* Det är Robin Hood jag vill ... jag vill haaa! Leaving 2006 aside for a mo, I LOVE the Disney film. I know it almost by heart in Swedish (which, imho, has better voice acting than the original – shock horror). Prince of Thieves is fun in a “yeah Kevin Costner is soooo from Nottingham … not” and the best part is Alan Rickman’s sheriff. Men in Tights is brilliant (“I am a Robin Hood who DOES have an English accent!”), and features Matthew Porretta as Will Scarlett – the actor who went on to play Robin in that godawful New Adventures series. He left after 20-od...

This was something I posted as a comment on Avalon's Blog a few weeks ago, on the subject of why we love Guy of Gisborne of BBC's Robin Hood . Well, here's my reasoning behind loving the Man in Black: In a show where he was just meant to be a one-dimensional baddie, he turned out to be the hero. The transition from stereotypical goon, the sheriff's evil sidekick who leaves babies in the woods to die to lovestruck puppy - and later on very wounded puppy, and then fierce puppy - and angst-ridden emo to Man with a Tragic Past and then redeems himself... That range of emotion is very compelling to watch. A show where you don't root for the supposed hero (because the hero is a stuck-up brat) but for the guy you're supposed to hate - it's a bit confusing, but an interesting change to normal proceedings. A lot of the appeal of Gisborne is RA, though, that can't be forgotten. If someone else had played him, I doubt the show would've had the fanbase it n...

This is a general hommage to my favourite baddies from films and TV! :D The deliciously malicious people who you might love to hate, or hate to love... or just outright fancy. Whatever floats your boat. Most, if not all, of my favourite baddies are either Magnificent Bastards or Smug Snakes according to the TV Tropes Wiki. The two personality types being quite similar. What would Freud say? If I could make out in which order I prefer them, I would list them like that, but since I can't, I'll just go with an A-Z. So to speak. The links are to YouTube clips for the most part. Last revised: 3 June 2011.

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...

I've been re-watching BBC's Robin Hood recently. I might decide to write something about that another day, but right now, I just feel like talking about one character in particular. No, not Robin Hood. Jonas Armstrong plays him very well, but Robin is really not a very likable character. Start of series one, he's snogging a random girl, so he must've really missed Marian, right? And the way he treats Much is dispicable. Much is a really sweet character, albeit on the terribly naive side, but he's the sort of friend that sticks with you in thick and thin. His reward? Being bullied! Seriously, it isn't right. Then we have the whole peeping tom thing Robin does ever so often, especially when Marian's with Guy. Now, what would those scenes have been like if she didn't know Robin was there, eh? Anyway, that brings me on to the whole point of this post: Guy of Gisborne.

Like I mentioned earlier, season 3 of BBC's Robin Hood seemed watchable - and it was! Some new characters, and as it turned out, series 3 was the last of the show. It was a relief to hear they'd cancelled it because with the season finale the way it was... it would make no sense to continue with a series 4. Anyhoo, here's a quick run-down of what I thought of the third and final series - spoilers ahead : Kate: Crikey, how annoying was she? Didn't mind the actress, but the character just got on my nerves a wee bit. If she didn't get captured, she tried winning Robin's heart (who, of course, had only just missed his beloved Marian end of season 2, so c'mon) and being a bitch. Kh! Archer: Only just came in at the end and could probably be a fun character if he was allowed some space to develop, but as he only made a short visit, he was mainly just annoying as well. Shouldn't he feel some sort of loyalty toward his half brothers? Eh, didn't get hi...

We saw season one when it came out. Had to see if it was any good. It wasn't all that great, but at least it's a heck of a lot better than the atrociousness known as Merlin (the BBC series, not the awesome American miniseries with Sam Neill from 1998, which I love dearly). Didn't see much of season two, but saw bits of it. Season three... wouldn't have been very interested in it if it wasn't for the fact that I found out that not only would Prince John make appearances, he would (more importantly) be played by Toby Stephens. Two sides to this coin. Or actually, I list about five, so that's a well freaky coin as it happens, but I've had some Sheridan's liqueur so I'm excused.