Sirens, and Ben Hur.

So it turns out I was wrong about Henry's. If you're reading this on facebook you'll see from the comments that apparently it used to be called Mount Pleasant Inn, so the sign I saw was just a relic from the good old days. So as far as we know it'll stay Henry's for the foreseeable future. Everyone breathe a sigh of relief...

After a week of study and the exciting new part time job I've taken on (decided I quite like the whole working in an office thing. Its surprisingly enjoyable) I thought I'd watch Ben Hur on Friday night. Being a postgrad, amongst other things, entitles you to free 24 hour dvd rental from the library, which can't be bad, and they have a fairly good range of films considering. Anyway, if you've never seen the 1959 classic that is Ben Hur then do see it. It has one of the greatest actions scenes I have ever come across...the chariot race is so brilliant partly because there's no camera trickery involved..when Charlton Heston's stunt double flips over the front of the chariot and scrambles back that genuinely happened (although apparently not intentionally). Admittedly the bodies crushed by the chariots are just dummies but I happen to think it still beats the computer generated stuff you get nowadays.
There's some brilliant lines too - my favourite being when Ben Hur gives his potential missus a broach 'It's especially for you' he says with more than a hint of pride; 'it's a broach for a woman'. Don't know why but I laughed out loud at that point.

Speaking of brilliant lines, the best thing I heard all weekend was this from an elderly couple in town, as they watched an ambulance screech past:

Woman: (Irritated) Very loud isn't it?
Man: Yes, unnecessarily piercing!

I weighed this up, and decided, on balance, that the number of lives saved by the loud siren (as opposed to the ambulanceman just shouting out of the window or something and arriving too late to the scene of the accident) was probably high enough to merit a small amount of discomfort on a shopping trip!

Anyways, tiredness beats me, I'm going to go and do something non-taxing like watch Top Gear. I'm indulging myself with a lazy evening.

All the best
Dave