The Independence of the Seas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5qWpe-XkUs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Shard.

Last Saturday, Mark and I took a trip to London to visit the Shard.

This is the tallest building in the capital and is located at Southwark.  There are 71 floors, with viewing platforms being situated at levels 69 and 71.  The first few floors of the Shard are devoted to offices, above those is the luxurious Shangri-La Hotel, then the ultra expensive apartments, and finally we have the viewing levels.

Mark had pre booked our tickets, which saved us £5 off the rather extortionate on the door entry fee of £29.  When you arrive at the Shard, after having walked past the historic Guys Hospital; you are firstly asked to queue outside, waiting for your relevant time to be called.  All visitors are able to book a half hour 'stay' at the top, adequate time to take in the sites. 

The Shard foyer is rather cramped, lined on one side by the automatic ticket machines, where all pre booked tickets can be collected. We soon printed off our tickets and were able to take our place at the start of the snake like queue for the 1.30 pm ticket holders.  A rather jovial security guard made sure we were entertained while we waited.

We didn't need to wait for long, and were summoned forward to go through the airport style security scanners.  After this we were both  called to one side by the official photographer, and had a cheesy shot taken of the two of us.  He handed us a receipt thinking that we looked foolish enough to pay the £22 for a single photograph, that could be collected when we came down.  We then moved on to the first lift, this was manned by a very chatty girl and whisked us up to the 33rd floor. It seemed to cover the distance in seconds and the only sensation you had of moving was a slight popping in the ear.  The next lift covered the floors to the 69th level, and was as fast as the first. 

Then, we had finally arrived at the first viewing platform,  enclosed from the elements;  which was a good thing on that cold February day, From all angles you could see for miles, the Tower of London looked miniscule,  HMS Belfast seemed to be a toy!  Two flights of stairs took us to the open platform,  although it was partially covered so as not to cause too much discomfort to the visitor.

My score out of 5

Would be 6, an absolutely superb experience and something that I shall never forget.  I have booked tickets to go again in March with my Mum.

A day trip to Oxford.

Saturday usually means a little trip out for Mark and I, and today was no exception.

For some time now we had wanted to see the film 'The Impossible' but it only seemed to be showing in Reading at the ridiculous time of 10.30 pm. Having checked various cinema listings,  I saw that it was showing at the Odeon in Magdalen Street,  Oxford.  As both of us are fond of Oxford,  and have long associations with the town, we thought a trip there would be a good idea.

From Reading a half hour train trip to Oxford costs just under £6 return.
We arrived at around 12.30 and headed towards the Oxford prison area in search of lunch.  Now, for those of you who don't know, the prison is now a chic Malmaison hotel surrounded by various eateries.  We chose to visit Prezzo and had a fairly uneventful meal.

The time was approaching 2 pm by the time we finished,  and we quickly headed to the cinema.  The Odeon is a shadow of it's former self, as the powers that be have decided to sublet space in the foyer to Costa coffee.  The box office no longer exists and even the automatic ticket machines were not working! We had to buy our tickets from the sweet counter.  They cost the absolutely exorbitant price of £9.95 each, an absolute con.

We went into screen 2, and were very disappointed to see that there were approximately 6 rows of seats and the screen was tiny. Both of us decided we could not sit through 2 hours of discomfort in what was also a very hot room. I got up to enquire about a refund, which we were fortunately able to get.

We then moved on to look at the shops, ending up in our favourite place - the Covered Market.  I absolutely adore this place for all its quirky shops which sell everything from food to clothes.  David John butchers produce delicious sausages and we bought their Sicilian sausage and their pork and leek.

They also make wonderful pies, and tonight I shall be enjoying their chicken and ham variety.

Outside we wandered around Turl Street, the winter sun in full force. I considered doing some clothes shopping,  but could'nt face carrying it all on the train.

Oxford is a very lovely place to visit and does live up to all your expectations.

My score out of 5

Would be 5, worth visiting for the day or maybe even longer.

Miranda - Television series.

This excellent television comedy series recently finished its 3^rd season on BBC1.

Miranda is written by Miranda Hart who also stars in the series.  I suppose you could call it semi-autobiographical, it is based on the love life (or lack of) of singleton Miranda.

The object of her desires is Gary the Chef, who works nearby in a small restaurant.  It seems that Gary and Miranda went to college together and ever since that time, she has basically lusted after him!

In the first series, we do see Miranda and Gary get together briefly, but sadly things don’t go to plan (do they ever?) and Gary decides to go travelling, leaving Miranda with only his photograph on a cushion for company.

In the second series, they are mainly just friends; but with Miranda ever hopeful that things could blossom from that.

The third series actually sees Miranda get a boyfriend – Mike, a local TV presenter, who first sees her whilst he is filming a piece on obesity!  We see Miranda sitting on a park bench eating, whilst the camera pans round and the commentator starts talking about weight problems in women!

Later on, she bumps into him again at a nightclub, and they hit it off.  Of course, Miranda is delighted to finally find a man.

Miranda’s best friend is Stevie: a lady with whom she runs their little gift shop.  They are rather a strange couple as Stevie can’t be anything more that 4ft tall and Miranda is way over 6 ft.  Stevie is always at the receiving end of size jokes, and invariably ends up being knocked over by Miranda as they both scramble to attract the attentions of the next unwitting male to come into the shop.

Another big character in Miranda’s life is her Mum – Penny, played excellently by Patricia Hodge. Penny could be described as ‘a lady who lunches’ and is always keen to get her daughter married off to the most eligible batchelor.  Most of whom, Miranda is not the least bit interested in.

The whole series does hark back to the glory days of British comedy, the 1970’s – shows such as Are You Being Served, It Ain’t half hot Mum and a lot of the slap stick has echoes of Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies about it.

I am a great fan of the series, and am very sorry to see that it has now ended it’s run.  Not sure if appeals to men in such the same way, but I for one can certainly identify with all the love life woes plus the public gaffs (well some of them at least!)

My score out of 5

Would be 6!  Excellent TV programme, great cast, well written and acted.  They all clearly had loads of fun filming it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/9555385/Miranda-Hart-slapstick-queen-is-back.html

Lincoln.

Saturday usually means a trip to the cinema for Mark and I.  This week was no exception,  as we decided to see 'Lincoln'.

Good films seem to be like buses, nothing for ages; then a whole host of them come along.

Lincoln is a Steven Speilberg film, and being one who has enjoyed many a Spielberg film in the past, I was keen to see it.

The plot of the film is basically the abolition of slavery in the United States.  It is fairly similar to the idea behind a British film from a couple of years ago about William Wilberforce.

Now,  I don't know an awful lot about American history; but this was a truly excellent performance by Daniel Day Lewis.  Throughout the film, you were convinced that you really were watching Abraham Lincoln.  Quite clearly he had slimmed down for the role, and I thought he looked positively ill at times.  We are given a great insight into life at the White House in 1865, the relationship between Lincoln and his loyal wife Molly - played so well by Sally Field.   We see Lincoln's relationship with his sons and inparticular his eldest - Bob, and his great wish to join the army, of course against his parent's wishes.

The film could be described as a bit too talky, but that is needed because of the significance of the subject matter.

My score out of 5

Would be 5, great film and fabulous cast,

What a rip off!

My last post somewhat extoled the virtues of Pizza Express,  my opinion after a trip tonight had completely changed.

Like most restaurants at this time of year, Pizza Express seem keen for your custom and roll out numerous tempting offers.   One of their current ones is 40% off food.  Well, who could resist an offer like that?  Mark and I couldn't,  and went along to the St Mary's Butts branch.

As seems to always be the case, I had to squeeze into the tiniest corner of the room to reach our table.  Before we had even removed our coats we were asked for our drinks order, I would prefer to at least have a chance to look at the menu before I decide what to drink!

At this point, Mark showed the Maitre'd our 40% voucher, we ordered drinks and stared for ages at the menu.   I considered having my Pollo Pesto again, but thought it would be better to go for something more expensive as I would get a 40% reduction.   So, that meant I should have the £12.95  Calzone, the filling looked enticing!

Mark agreed with my choice, and he too went for the Calzone.

We both had our usual starters of dough balls for me and polpette for Mark.

I decided against having a pudding,  two lots of dough was quite enough for me.

We asked for the bill, and presented our voucher to the waitress.   But, the bill was not what we were expecting - the discount had not been applied to the calzones.  Mark queried this, and the waitress had a look at the voucher, and on it ; in the tiniest print were the words 'offer excludes calzone'.

She went away to speak to the Manager,  and we had expected him to come and maybe offer us a coffee; but all he said was that 'we couldn't use the offer on calzone'.

Now, why; oh why did the waiter who took our original order not say to us then that Calzone were excluded?? Why did the voucher have the tiniest small print you have ever seen?

Whatever the answer, we both know that we will NOT be returning to Pizza Express.

My score out of 5

Would be 0. Utter con, don't bother with it.

Pizza Express.

Just back from a trip to the cinema to see Les Miserables, which was a very good film.  Before that, we decided to have  a meal out at Pizza Express.

This is a chain restaurant,  which advertises that it first started out in 1965.  It basically does what it says on the tin, and mainly offers pizzas.  Unfortunately for me, I am not a pizza fan, so everytime I visit, tend to opt for the pasta.

They are currently offering a number of deals, including 3 courses for  £12.95 at the weekend.  This seemed appealing to us, so I trawled through various web sites on my mobile, trying to track down the elusive offer code.  Typically, I was unable to find it so we had to pay full price for the a la carte menu.

As a starter,  I chose the dough balls. I know that seems boring when you can have something as spicy as the polpette (meatballs), but I always like them and particularly the accompanying garlic butter. Mark of course ordered the meatballs, which he did enjoy; but complained that they were on the spicy side.

My main dish was chicken and pasta, (pollo pesto). A really lovely dish, with just the right combination of mushrooms and onions. It was served straight from the oven, in a piping hot dish.

Mark went for his favourite,  which was Pizza, and enjoyed it,

It was now that I was glad we weren't having the offer, because the only desserts you can choose with that were either cheesecake or chocolate cake.   I am not a fan of either.  I had a dolcette. This was a small serving of semi freddo,  and a cup of coffee,  the two costing £3.95.  Believe it or not, this was my first experience of semi freddo,  and I truly enjoyed it. Mark had a tiramisu,  which I helped him finish.   That too was good,  but could have benefitted from a bit more alcohol.

Overall the meal was good, the staff were ok, I found them just a bit too attentive to start with. After that, they drifted away rather too much.

My score out of 5

Would be 4, a good meal, but nothing special.

Www.pizzaexpress.com