Social – Paul Clews

National Space Centre

Today we drove to the National Space Centre in Leicester. We left home about 7.00am and arrived at about 9.45am after a short break at the services.

It costs £14 each entry and the ticket can be used for entry for whole year so is reasonably good value for money. had a great day out – some pics to follow.

We also met Al Worden the astronaut who flew in Apollo 15 in 1971 and went to the Moon. He had a signing session so we shook hands and got him to sign a photo and also sign our Lego Saturn V Rocket which is of course the rocket he flew in Apollo 15. We had some fun getting it there as its 1M tall but thankfully comes apart in three sections. His assistant held the second stage whilst Al Worden signed the fuselage in sharpie.

Is this the first Lego astronaut signed model I wonder?

Family Bowling Night

Another Thursday evening at Maidenhead Bowling. 2 games for £10 with a meal and drink. We took the Australian contingent with us this week.

Pool night

After work, this afternoon, Christian and I went to Bar H for some Pool and Beer. After a challenging day at work it was nice to chill with some beer and games of Pool. The games of pool were not exactly competition standard.

The first game, Chris sank the black for me. The second game, I returned the favour. The subsequent games could have been better from both sides. It was great to have a few beers and games of pool after work no matter what the final score.

Final score 4:3 to me: Yeeaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Brighton Chilli Festival

Got to Brighton seafront and parked at 8.30am. Parking was £16!

Walked into town to the Post & Telegraph for a fry up.

We went to the Lego shop to see the new Millennium Falcon. It was out of stock so we were disappointed. Will have to wait until they manufacture some more.

We went to Choccywoccydoodah and had a melted hot chocolate drink with candy straw, cream and marshmallows. Yummm!!!!

We went to the Chilli festival. Listened to some live music in the sun, drank beer and tasted lots of chilli based products.

On the way back from Brighton’s Flea market we had a quick pit stop in the Yellow Book.

We finally made it to the Cloud gallery and bought a new signed limited edition print from JJ Adams titled “The morning after”.

It’s a large framed print measuring 50″ across by 32″ tall. It features a parody of Masterss of the Universe characters including He-man, Skelator and Lion-o from Thundercats. It’s no 147/195 and every time we look at it we notice something we hadn’t seen before. It’s a fantastic adult take on an 80,s cartoon and film. It’s my new favourite piece of art and has resulted in a signed Roger Moore photo being relegated to s cupboard (but only temporarily)

Monday Blues

It was the first day back to work after a six week holiday. Fantastic break, lots of DIY work kept me busy but definitely got the Monday morning blues going back to work for the first day of the new term.

Looking forward to some Bowling on Thursday after work, Henley show at the weekend, and in a couple of weeks, the Brighton Chilli Festival and the Retro Computing Show in Cambridge.

Also did a bit of retail therapy by ordering the rather pricey (£449) Xbox Project Scorpio due for release on the 7th November from Amazon.

Atomic Blond

Went and saw this movie at Slough’s cinema on Tuesday evening as two tickets is only £8.50 so its cheap compared with other cinemas. However once again you get what you pay for. Great film and loved the music as well. Must look out for the soundtrack. Some great fight and x-rated scenes with our blond haired lead. We look forward to its 4K release later in the year.

Slough cinema continues to decline though. There were just a handful of staff present in the cinema. Screen no 8 was about 28 degrees. They are obviously trying to save money but not switching on the air conditioning. There were only about a dozen people in our viewing. There was a group of teenage lads came in 40 minutes into the film. Sat down and proceeded to pull out the phones and record the juicy bits of the film on their mobiles. After a bit of filming they left again. We went and told one of the staff downstairs in their reception area but their security turned up 15 minutes later by which time they had simply left again. There were also a group of girls at the back who could not have been more than 12 giggling away. The film is classified as 15 but with no staff you could easily walk out of one film and straight into another and not be challenged.

I’m sure any locals of a certain age will remember the original Slough cinema near the police station. With torch enabled staff leading you to your seats, Saturday morning matinee’s, interludes with ice cream and popcorn to buy. Damn I must be getting old!

Most people now probably have a smart TV, at least one computer, mobile devices etc that are all capable of streaming film and TV programs. I’m sure a lot of people know how to download/stream content that isn’t even officially released. Its not difficult to find whatever you want to watch online and often not pay for this. With this in mind, people are going to cinemas less. Its not the social event it used be in the 20th Century. If I go the cinema now its generally because I want to see a particular film on a very large screen with a THX sound system that flaps my trouser legs and not have to worry about keeping the neighbours awake with my cinema surround system at home. I’m sure with all this in mind that the only cinemas that will be doing business in the next 10 years will be the ones offering a great customer experience, not just the cheap ones. Hope you’re listening Empire Cinemas!