The Squeee

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

One of the things Richard Armitage is very fond of is sports. He likes skiing and seems to have looked into buying a little chalet in the French Alps (or how else would he actually know how much one costs?). In one interview, when talking about extreme sports, the interviewer said something about he wouldn't fancy a holiday on a river boat, Richard quickly - and emphatically - said "No!" I could do a whole post about him training until he throws up in preparation for Strike Back , good locations for skiing in the Alps (Chamonix maybe? Isn't that one they normally show on telly when there's winter sports on?), he wasn't keen on swimming when he took the role as Lee in Cold Feet and I've mentioned already that he enjoys watching rugby. So he keeps himself active. However, if there's a topic I care very little for, it's sports. And I thought there has been far too few piccys of Himself this week (especially today), so I went looking for something

I was meant to have written a few posts yesterday, but work got in the way. Funny how it does that, eh? ;) When I got home and sat down to do some writing, I stumbled across the place where you sign up to publish your own eBooks on Amazon Kindle and then I got caught up in having a look at what you can do with it, how it works and all that, which in turn led to looking into blog publishing to the Kindle and then all of a sudden it was time to go to bed. Dangit. But anyway, I'll see what I can fit in today, which is the day of St. Patrick! Have a great time, y'all, be ye Irish, wannabe Irish, of Irish ancestry or just like a bit o' craic ! :)

Is it true that if a person is artistically inclined and talented in one way, they are more likely to be artistically inclined and talented in other ways too? That is the question. Judging by Mr. Armitage, the answer is yes, very much so. We all know he can act, so that's one just for starters. He has mentioned on several occasions that he plays the cello, and that, to me at least, makes him a bit artsy. If he was just into music like most people, he'd be strumming an accoustic or maybe even electric guitar from time to time, because that's the most common thing, really. Or play the piano. But a CELLO? That's pretty impressive. (Thanks to Angelfish via Skully for this one!) If someone can play an instrument well, then they probably can sing as well, right? You'd think. With regards to Richard Armitage, from what I've gathered, he's said he's not a singer. However, listen to the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa and yo

In two words: Pizza and Beer. Oh and something about watching rugby on telly, but as rugby is a total mystery to me and I really don't get any of it, I'll focus on the first two things - both of which I can relate to very well ... one more than the other. I know a lot about how to eat pizza, I can make many different ones and the Squeeze and I have gone to the Robin Hood Beer Festival in October for the past four or five years now. It's the one time of year I get drunk, and then it's not for the sake of getting drunk, it's because I'm not very used to alcohol (seriously, I'm such a cheap date) and love trying lots of different flavours! I don't know anything about beer more than "ale is darker and drinkable, lager is lighter and tastes absolutely awful, and stout is black with a creamy head" - oh and the water, malt and hops bit - so as I was thinking what kind of beer would go best with which pizza and finding I haven't got the foggies

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to rustling up dinner. I'll happily make the same dish over and over again until I'm sick of it. At the moment it's salmon with couscous and tomatoes. I got it off the Jamie Oliver app on my iPhone. [ Sunday Times ] That's a challenge too good to miss! So, off to find a recipe for said concoction. Not having an iPhone to hand, I had to trust Google - and found it on a blog called Feelings of White , which also has a nice video to show how it's done. So a while ago, I printed the recipe as a PDF so I wouldn't have to try and find it again and fail when all the ingredients were purchased, and then, once all the ingredients were gathered, I set to work. Arthur doubling as a cookbook For this recipe, we need: 2x 7oz (200g) salmon fillets, thaw if frozen 4oz (~115g) cherry tomatoes (a.k.a. "a handful"), cut in half 1 cup (~225 ml) couscous 1 small bunch fresh basil 1 medium red onion, finely chopped 1

The subject of food is one a little too dear to my heart (there's being voluptuous and then there's just being fat, aaight? :P), and - hooray! - there seems to be some of this in Dear Richard too. After all, was he not the one who mentioned fantasising about kissing Nigella Lawson after she's eaten some of her sumptuous chocolate cake? To that, I say: Hey Mister! I make wicked brownies! *polite cough* So today, the topic is going to be food! Yeah, I could've posted a piccy of a chocolate cake here, but decided Nigella is better for our collective waistlines. Unless we eat her , but then that would be rather disturbed. Our man's also been on telly with another Richard, making a Thai green curry with Myleene Klass in the way, he's been known to make smiley faces out of chunks of stilton and he's also mentioned how he's fixated on a certain dish from Jamie Oliver - one which I have actually tried making! (How it went will be revealed later today.

One of the interesting comments Richard Armitage was when an interviewer asked him, because he's a great dancer, is if we'd ever see him on something like Strictly Come Dancing . His response was that we'd never get to see Richard Armitage as Richard Armitage on TV. Basically, he's not the kind of celebrity to show up as soon as someone waves an invite to a reality TV show. Richard Armitage as himself. On telly. But not in a reality show. Things that make me love and respect the man: +1! Before I read that interview, I was thinking about him on Strictly , and then started to think of a host of other reality TV shows and whether or not he would be a suitable candidate. This is what I came up with ... Top Gear What it is: This is a car show, or ... a comedy show with cars in, depending on how you look at it. Rupert Penry-Jones and Peter Firth came on it to promote series 7 (?) of Spooks , so why not Richard Armitage? He does drive a car, after all ... Why

When the news broke about Richard Armitage landing a major role in The Hobbit , I couldn't help but being filled with mixed emotions. One part of me was absolutely thrilled that he's been given such a chance, and another part of me wants to start writing sympathy cards or "I'm sorry for your loss ... of privacy". Bearded goodness, courtesy of Richard Armitage's Beard @ Tumblr Don't get me wrong, I think The Hobbit is a great opportunity for advancing his career. Being disguised by the beard, he's not going to get admirers from an "OMG he's GOWGEOUS!" point of view (although those of us who are familiar with him will of course go "OMG that's one smoulderingly hot dwarf!" - especially now that we know what the man looks like in a beard) but rather, he'll be judged on his acting merits. Which is great! Those eyes can express what a thousand words struggle to, and there's still The Voice. He'll get to act an

We interrupt the regular broadcast of FanstRAvaganza 2 in order to have a rant about some mucking fuppets I just came across online and want to scream about for a bit. If you're the sort of person whose religious prejudices get in the way of, oh I dunno, education , you should really give this post a miss, or you're likely to be tremendously offended. Don't say I didn't warn you. The first one, Jane Eyre: Oblivious or Needy? tries to make some kind of point of Jane being oblivious for not realising there was something shady going on at Thornefield. "No one can be that oblivious" it says, and also goes on to claim that Jane was needy for ... St. John wanting to marry her? Does not compute? How can Jane be blamed for being needy when it's not as if she encouraged St. John's attentions and in fact, when he asked her to marry him, she flat out refused? If she was needy, surely she would have accepted his proposal and ignored his jibe about her being ma

Hello and welcome to the second annual FanstRAvaganza - a week-long festival of everything to do with Richard Armitage. There are a number of participating bloggers with the most amazing Richard Armitage fanblogs (or, like this one, it's not an RA fanblog per se , just that he happens to be an often recurring topic) - see below - and we'll be discussing a lot of Richard Armitage over the coming week. If you're here, you've arrived at a blog called The Squeee . It's run by myself (Traxy, hello! *waves*) and is normally a place of film and book reviews and stuff like that, when I'm not busy fangirling over Richard Armitage or Jane Eyre , or a number of other things. My topic for this year is: An Ordinary Leicestershire Lad I'm not going to post about Guy of Gisborne, Claude Monet, Harry Kennedy, John Thornton, John Porter, John Standring, John Mulligan, John Bateman, (yeah he has done a crapload of roles where he's been using his dad's name, bless

Originally posted 3 April 2010 on a different blog. Another hand-written draft. This was written shortly after having watched some of the 2006 adaptation, so I felt as if Rochester's voice was coming through loud and clear for the first time, because it was as if I could hear him speak, telling his story, and me being there to write it down. It was rather pleasurable, really. :) And yes, it's back to first person, because it felt like the most natural way to write Rochester. I suppose I should tell you of how I came in possession of the litthe French girl, but in order to do so, I must first introduce her mother. Céline Varens, a danseuse at the Paris opera, where I happened to be taking in a fine performance one night. It was the day before New Year's Eve, the event spectacular, yet I can no longer recall the subject of the performance. There was this young woman among the dancers - everything so perfect, just what I was after. Her dark eyes mesmerised me; I could no

Originally posted 3 April 2010 on a different blog. (Another handwritten draft, but this time, I've corrected a couple of places where I had left out some words. Here, I'm trying out a third-person narrative. Which didn't feel quite right either, as it happens...) Black like night the birds in the nests on top of the roof of Thornfield Hall. They had been told many times they were not allowed up there, but when you're an invincible youth, you don't always heed warnings from those of superior age. A boy appeared through the hatch from the attics below, his hair as black as the rooks in their nests.    "Come on, Edward! You're not scared are you?"    From below, the voice of a younger boy was heard: "Mamma said we were not to go up there. You should come down."    "Mamma is in Millcote all day, she will never find out. Unless you tell her. If you keep quiet, all will be well. Do you not wish to see the view from up here? All this

Originally posted 25 January 2010 on a different blog. Wow, that header sounds like a 50s/60s band! :) Work has begun on a second scene, set in Edward Rochester's childhood, where we get to meet not only him but also his older brother Rowland. From what I can tell, there's no names given for their parents, nor does it say what the age difference between the brothers is, or indeed what Rowland eventually died of. This means, I suppose, I'm at liberty to make these things up as I go along, which is both exciting and scary. I want to be following Charlotte Brontë's original text as closely as possible, so if I do come across a reference that actually mentions these things, I'll go by the book. Now, I don't think there are that many years between the boys. Doubt it's more than five. Haven't exactly decided on what, but on the other hand, I haven't even decided how old Edward is supposed to be in the scene, or exactly what happened, but I have an in

Originally posted 25 January 2010 on a different blog. Edward is about 38 in the book, so that means he got married at 23, which I think explains a lot. He was still very young, and it explains why he was so quick to become besotted with Bertha Mason, even though he was never allowed to be on his own with her until they were married. He thought he was in love because she was so beautiful. It's a heavy burden to lay on a young person, forcing him to marry someone who it turns out is known to be insane, as insanity runs in the family. Do I think Edward was in the wrong for bringing Bertha to England? No, I think he was mistaken. To be perfectly honest, I think he should've dumped her back on Jamaica and gone back to England alone; however, I understand why he did it. He's not an awful person, he has a big heart, and even though he technically can't stand her, she is his wife, and as such, he feels obliged to take care of her. After all, they are married. Perhaps he se

Originally posted 23 January 2010 on a different blog. I recently read that new writers often find third person narrative to be very difficult, because they are more accustomed to first person, and writing things from their own perspective rather than someone else's. While this might be true in some cases, perhaps a lot, it is not true for me. I struggle with it immensely. It's uncomfortable and weird. Most of the stories I have ever written, regardless of which age I was at the time, have been in third person, either in the mind of one character or switching between them, or omnipotent. This whole "I", "me" and "my" business feels unnatural, somehow. Not sure why. Okay, blogging and letters and that sort of thing I have no issue with writing in the first person (obviously), but stories are a problem. It doesn't flow as easily. There might be many reasons for it. First of all, I'm definitely more used to third person narratives, but eve

Originally posted 23 January 2010 on a different blog. Handwritten draft, exactly as it was written on paper, so no corrections more than the ones on the paper itself. Just typing it down makes me want to change stuff around, add things, remove repetitions, and realise that there are a few instances of where the text gets rather confusing, or even goes to innuendo town...

I was curious to find out if there was going to be a third series of Horrible Histories , so I asked tweeting actors Laurence Rickard (@ Lazbotron ) and Ben Willbond (@ benwillbond ) about it, and one of them was kind enough to confirm it : @the_squeee Thank you please. Series 3 should be appearing on TVs some time in May. HOORAY! Can't wait! :D Thank you so much for answering the question, Mr. Rickard! In fact, thank you for just responding at all! First time I've ever had a response from a celeb tweeter, so I'm all tingly now. Yeah, I'm silly like that, sorry, but it just made my day. Laurence Rickard responded to my tweet. Squeee! "Stay calmer when you want to harm a llama, call a llama farmer!" Oh, and a P.S. Series 2 of Horrible Histories is available for pre-order from Amazon UK . It's released 2 May 2011. So yay for that as well! :D

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!

I don't quite know what the spy theme is all about, but Thomas Anders in a tux - hey, that works for me. ;) Besides, it gives me something to look at while I'm waiting for Strong to be released in Germany because I'm not keen on paying £40 for the Russian version of the album. (I know it comes with a DVD but it's not like it's got a whole lot on it, you know?) And there's STILL no release date for it! It's been out like a whole YEAR in Russia now and Stay With Me is the new single, apparently. Ph33r my hacking skillz for embedding this video without it actually having an embedding link! (It's you and me, Tariq!) The song? Yeah, 's awight. The video ... yeah, err, looks shiny but I don't really know where the whole James Bond thing came from? And if we're talking spies, then I prefer talking about Spooks , because of who's in it, or who used to be in it. Yeah ... Him. Now that's a thought ... Thomas Anders and Lucas North