Tales Of An Ancient Empire - rubbish.

there is something terribly, terribly wrong when a rather anticipated film, albeit anticipated by a modest sized cult following, gets its premiere on DVD in Thailand for roughly US$6, is there not? what's all the more alarming is when that film is not even worth that price. i guess let's go back and start at the beginning of this sad, depressing tale.

be warned, for there are *** SPOILERS AHEAD ***, although any lover of the first film i mention would do well to read the whole post and decide if they are going to be clever or if they are going to go ahead and watch the "sequel".

in 1982 a little masterpiece of a film called The Sword And The Sorcerer was released. and i do mean masterpiece. of all the swords and barbarians films made in the 80s, this was the best - and i do mean it was even better that Schwarzenegger's Conan.





Lee Horsley starred as Talon, a kind of warrior for hire, although gold was rarely what settled his bill. i wouldn't wish to take up too much time celebrating this masterpiece here, but remember, if you will, just how cool the three bladed sword of Talon was (and indeed is), featuring two blades that fire off at any given enemy (this is an important thing to remember).





one of the coolest things about this film was that the credits promised more :





some of us spent a fair part of the 80s and 90s patiently waiting for this Tales Of The Ancient Empire to arrive. it never did. there was some excitement, then, when a few years ago Albert Pyun announced that, at long last, he was making the film, now calledTales Of An Ancient Empire.

it promised much, this sequel. not only was Lee Horsley to return, along with the three bladed sword, but the likes of Val Kilmer and Christoper Lambert would be in the cast. excellent!





so how, then, does the film end up with such a dubious premiere? well, because, quite frankly, it is complete and utter rubbish. it's taken all the wonderful elements of The Sword And The Sorcerer, printed them out, wiped several bottoms on the pages, flushed them and sent them off to the depths of the Atlantic as untreated sewage. looking for the remains of that would be far more enjoyable that enduring this - and i use the term loosely - movie.

what you get here is a kind of bizarre family reunion film. a whole load of very bad actors and actresses, all of whom appear to be the offspring of Talon, decide to unite and take on some sort of very badly acted vampire Queen. except they never actually do much fighting. or anything other than unite one by one.


as for the cast, Val Kilmer and Christopher Lambert are not in it - apparently Pyun "wanted" them to be and thus shoved their names on the poster. oh, Lee Horsely is in the film. he is not, however, cast as Talon. yep, you read that right - Lee Horsley is not Talon in this film. instead he plays a character called "The Adventurer", and mumbles some story or other for no apparent reason. here's a glimpse.





oh dear. as for the three bladed sword, well, it is in the film. however, it fires three blades, and clearly leaves one behind - somehow it is now a four bladed sword. no idea who is holding it or why, really. an unnamed actor seems to have taken the Talon role, one who will presumably feature in the "sequel" promised at the end of this very short film.

a short film? yep, it's 70 minutes long, including the elaborate and confusing opening credits. the end credits go on and on after the promise of a third film, one that you really hope will never ever be made.

a lot of people seem excited by the fact that this bloke pictured below, Kevin Sorbo, is in it. i have never heard of him, and quite frankly if this is the best kind of work he can get, not many others shall hear of him either.





every possible aspect of this film, be it bad acting, no plot or script of consequence and some really bad cinematography which serves to highlight astonishingly bad special effects, is offensive and an insult to anyone who even midly enjoyed the original film. it is disgusting that anyone has been allowed to make it in the name of a sequel to The Sword And The Sorcerer, let alone the man who made that film in the first place!

apparently, a "longer" version will be released in the USA, and the director promises that "one big action star" will be added. i really don't care. after i have posted this, i am going to pretend that this film was never made, and that they never got around to doing the promised follow up to The Sword And The Sorcerer. this will not be too difficult to do, because they in fact have not done this with this trash.

apparently pirate copies of the film are widespread thanks to this curious DVD premiere. the director seems rather excited about this, as it seems it has increased people checking out the trailer on his site for the film. don't watch a pirate of this, don't waste time and money on the original disc from Thailand or anywhere is all i can say.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

greetings of New Zealand!

hey everyone


Gillian, Grant, Daniel and indeed Katie have kindly sent on some pictures to show us how things are down in the land of New Zealand at the moment! all looks good, really!

now Gillian, it has to be said, gets a little (possibly rightly) uppity when i don't get the names of the places they go to as correct as i could. i can with confidence, then, state that, after some research, they have recently been to a place called either Ambury Park or possibly Ambury Farm. it could even be Ambury Farm-Park or Park-Farm of Ambury, really. i don't know for sure, but there's certainly Ambury in the name. happy, sister?

either way, it looks park-esque and farm-esque in places, but for the most part looks like a major, major fun place to go!





here's Gillian, along with Katie and Daniel, looking particularly keen on a ride they are on! Gillian looks like she is wearing one of the baseball caps that Grant sent me!





and indeed, in the garden of their home, here is Grant himself wearing a rather magnificent cap!





for too long, now, Grant enthusiasts have been denied the site of him on my blog, so i am delighted to put a new picture up of him just for you with a thing for him!

and what would Grant be doing in the garden? well, it seems that he would be helping Katie and Daniel with an ambitious and impressive cultivation corner!





nice one Katie and Daniel, hope that which you have planted grows in plentiful amounts! your two Uncles over here could make some suggestions of certain herbs to grow, if you like?

splendid to see all is happy and well on the other side of the world!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

meeting Ruby-Lee

hey everyone


well, today was rather a busy day, really! Grandma took me, James and William off to see the latest member of our family, Ruby-Lee Valentine! Michele is not to well at the moment, before you ask, and thus stayed at home to rest. wisely, it has to be said, as it was a tiring if incredibly fun journey!

here i am with my new niece, with Grandma and William having a look!





she is as light as she is gorgeous! i don't remember William or James ever weighing so little! so light, in fact, that James could hold her rather well without anyone worrying too much!





we tend to be a bit weary of James holding William as he is rather rough in his approach sometimes, but not so with Ruby-Lee! he loves her to bits, to the extent of, when it was going home time, running from the car back to the house to give her another kiss goodbye!





needless to say, Grandma was rather keen on getting pictures of her with the four of her six grandchildren that she could all at once, so we gave it a go! well done to Lyla and James for sitting reasonably still; William and Ruby-Lee don't tend to wander off to watch Batman or Barbie at their current age!





there's something distinctly odd about photographs of people with babies, as they tend to be so beautiful they make any ugly mugs look good so long as they are holding them. to prove this, behold Richard & I holding our youngest!





note that Richard, for some reason, decided to wear his favourite clown shirt today!





William, as you might have picked up from the above pictures, absolutely loves his Uncle Richard! whenever Richard is around, the whole world stops for William, and he will concentrate only on him! he's very happy to try and mimic him, and giggles away at all he says and does!





this is of course very excellent. Richard, Gillian and i were always exceptionally lucky to have three actual Uncles in the shape of Colin, Trevor and Peter who remain to this day most excellent people! glad that William has a similar relationship with one of his Uncles already! wait until you meet Grant, though, William - his insights into revolutionary and counter-revolutionary accountancy principles shall have you rivited!

now, remember how i said James tends to be a bit rough with William? well, when we asked James to sit by William for a pic, his first instict was appparently to wrestle him to sit where he wanted him to be! this means that we only got the one picture, so here you go!





otherwise, as well as the company, food is always excellent whenever we visit Richard, Erika, Lyla and now of course Ruby-Lee. today was certainly no exception. someone up in their area took the decision to make the most excellent pizza ever, and then make it even better, right, by putting spare ribs on it!





all that's missing is a piece of KFC in the centre! i included the other pizza that Richard seemed so excited about for comparative purposes. that one tasted all right, insofar as any pizza could taste without a kilo or so of spare ribs on it!

well, i am shattered, but have had an absolutely ace day! hope you have all had a most splendid weekend too!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

king of films and the film that would be king....

hey everyone

obligatory apologies for the lack of updates of late - been bust at verk, and indeed very busy with the boys! never mind, let me try and catch up with a few posts!

first off, some film reviews. and where better to start with than one of the most entertaining, insanely violent films ever made and possibly ever to be made?

those of us who endured the full 3 odd hour version of the awful Grindhouse will happily tell you that the only decent thing about it was the joke / mock trailers at the start and inbetween the two horrid films. of those, easily one of the best was for something called Machete. clearly a lot of people thought that this was the best "trailer", as they have gone ahead and made an actual Machete film, staying very close indeed to what was presented in that mock trailer!





there's always the great danger of a film based on a loose joke such as this becomes distinctly unfunny when actually made, but i am delighted to say that this is not the case with Machete. it very much "does what it says on the box", or if you will, did exactly what it said it would in the trailer.

plot? you want plot details? very roughly, a Mexican super duper agent going by the code name of Machete has his family wiped out and is left for dead whilst pursuing Mexcio's biggest baddie. and i do mean biggest - the wonderfully oversized, making latter year Brando look rather mobile and swift Steven Seagal takes this role. Machete surfaces some 3 years later in Texas as a labourer of sorts, and somehow finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy to help re-elect a Govenor. all hell breaks loose thereafter is something of an understatement, really.

Danny Trejo, a regular in films of this calibre but one of those actors you never quite recall the name of, shines at the front of this film in the titular role. he is mental.





the film proved quite educational for me too, really. i had no idea who or what a Lindsay Lohan was, bar being someone apparently important enough to make the news every time she was arrested. if all her films are as ace as this, in which she is either without clothes or in a nun's outfit wielding a massive gun, i am all of a sudden very interested in her.





hard to pick out many of the other cast for doing a good job, really - there are so many well known actors and actresses making a film for fun that is supposed to be fun and doing it rather well. applause, though, for Robert De Niro - he seems to have long since given up on proper acting for massive paychecks (and why not?), so it's refreshing to see him do something with little artistic merit but going full out on the performance.





Machete is something close to being the ultimate action film. despite promised sequels, it's unlikely that we shall see a film as frenetic, fast paced and outright ridicuously entertaining as this for quite some time.

which brings us on to the film that should have been the equal to, if not greater than, Machete, but falls confusingly short of doing so.

for over a year now fans have been watering at the mouth of the latest Stallone project, The Expendables. he promised a cast full of action legends and a return to "old school 80s action films" with the project. did he deliver this? yes, maybe, no, really.





The Expendables uses a very 80s style plot, in which a bunch of well armed nutcases go off to try and liberate an imaginary island from some rich guy with enough money to hire thousands of poor soldiers with bad aim. no, that really is the plot. except to say that the reason for liberating the island seems to be that Stallone's character is rather taken with one of the ladies living on it.





the cast Stallone has put together for the film is theoretically cool, but in practice just doesn't deliver. other than Jet Li bumbling around demanding more money, the stellar cast of action stars don't get to do all that much, and that would include Mr Stallone himself. all of the best action sequences seem to get left to Jason Statham, and the funniest lines tend to get delivered by - get this - none other than Dolph Lundgren. on one side that tells you exactly how funny those funny lines are, then, but it's perhaps not as bad as you fear.





Eric Roberts turns up as the really bad bad guy. he is as forgettable here as he has been in every single film he has ever made.

there is of course the celebrated scene featuring Stallone and his two mates Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger. *** SPOILER WARNING *** if you want it. basically, Arnie turns up to say he is not in the movie, and Brucie just swears a lot. an amusing idea, then, very poorly executed. *** SPOILERS OVER ***





one of the oddities of The Expendables is Mickey Rourke's performance. my brother is highly dismissive of it, suggesting he is present only as a "favour". from whom to who he won't elaborate on. oddly, i found Mickey Rourke to be one of the better aspects of the film.

in terms of utilizing a well known cast, The Expendables finishes a poor second to Machete. in regards of a more sanatized yet trying to be fun action film, it falls short of The A Team film from earlier this year. there's an inescapable charm to the film, though, that makes it worth watching. like Machete, the actors here are clearing having more fun that they are attempting to flex their thespian muscles, and do their best to deliver the kind of film action fans crave. whereas they don't quite get it right, they don't go too far wrong, either. worth seeing , at the least. a second film is promised with, Lord help us, an expanded role for Bruce Willis' character. let's hope the follow up doesn't have the same level of bland moments, if they can learn from Machete's pacing and editing they could deliver quite a winner.


happy viewing if any of those reviews are of use to you!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and we all shine on.....

hey everyone

well, Richard & Erika have been quite good with updating that face book thingie with pics of Ruby-Lee, but haven't had chance to email many, it seems! i thought, then, i'd take the liberty of putting some more up here for our friends and family around the world!!

here she is with the (rightfully) proud father!





now then, i note they gave Richard a blue gown for the delivery. oh dear! i got green ones, me. i think that means the medical establishment consider me higher ranking than Richard!

and, in case you were wondering, yes Ruby-Lee is crying in the above pic because her Daddy is trying to make her wear a Newcastle shirt with "King Barton" written on it!

Ruby-Lee's Mummy, of course, would never want her to wear such a ghastly garment!





good to see Erika looking well and happy after such an eventful week!

after a busy first day, it seems Ruby-Lee slept rather well on her first night with her new family. and here is proof!





quite adorable!!!


i am sure there will be many, many more pictures to follow!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome, Ruby-Lee Valentine......

hey everyone

well, talk about a good friday! for reasons i won't go into here, we got the newest member of our family today instead of in the middle of next week! big congratulations to Erika and Richard, and of course to Lyla, who has the baby sister of her dreams!

ladies and gentlemen, born today, Ruby-Lee Valentine!!





she weighed in at 2.74kgs, and is 47cm long/tall. sorry. Imperial lovers, no idea what that is in pounds and inches! i note too that she has a full head of hair - i think all of the babies except James and William came out (as it were) in such a way!

Richard says that Ruby-Lee doesn't half have a set of lungs on her too - guess there was some grumbles from her when she came out! well, no child of my brother would ever not let their presence be known!!





as an aside from our hearty congratulations - ha ha ha, Richard! you now live in a house with three (three!) ladies! kiss that bathroom goodbye, you are never ever going to get in again!

to Grandma and Grandad - well, in 5 years we have now given you 6 grandchildren, 3 girls and 3 boys. hey, that sounds like the plot for a TV series......





i guess Richard, Gillian and i - with some (considerable) help from our better halves, have created a Brady Bunch for our Mum & Dad! how cool are we?



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

deal of the century?

hey everyone

well, with the splendid news that Duran Duran are on their way here for a tour in December, i thought i'd share with you a recent purchase of mine.

behold, a limited edition (mine is marked number 158) box set of Duran Duran's first three albums. they come in "replica vynil" packs inside a lovely black box, and the Rio disc is an "enhanced CD", featuring videos and what have you.





and how much did i pay for this set? 1p. yep, one pence in British Sterling money! i love amazon marketplace!

the deal with it was that it was used as part of a window display in a store. the discs had never been touched, and the only problem was some slight damage to the bottom of the box, pictured here!





wow! not sure i have ever had that good a deal before! the packaging is as beautiful as these pictures suggest! as for the albums, well, their self-titled debut always gave a hint that they were destined for greatness, Rio is one of the greatest albums of all time, and Seven & The Ragged Tiger has New Moon On Monday on it, but little else. ho hum, 2 out of 3 isn't bad!





as for the tour in December, well, it will be ace if Michele & I can go and see them, but it looks rather pricey at the moment! might have to do some saving, which shouldn't be too difficult if i can keep landing deals like this one!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wow! manics single arrives!

hey everyone


well, in a little over 3 (three) weeks since it was sent, my package of the (then) new Manic Street Preachers single has arrived!





a bit of a grumble first, sadly. townsend records, they who established the "exclusive" Manics store which was the only place you could buy this from, don't seem particularly concerned about international orders. the three weeks this took to get to me, oddly, seems to have little to do with the usual superb standard of service from the SA Post Office, and everything to do with how it was sent. for some reason they send the stuff in a normal padded envelope (amazon, HMV and recordstore use much sturdier, possibly cheaper cardboard packaging) and further just put standard 1st class UK domestic postage on! it's a wonder it arrived at all!

at least everything more or less arrived in one piece - one of the CD boxes is broken, but by some miracle the 7" is in one piece.

OK, grumble over (for now). how are the songs? well....

(It's Not War) It's Just The End Of Love : i've heard it quite a few times already, so no surprises. repeated plays does not render the song dull and tiresome, so i guess for now it will stand up as an above-average tune from them. if this represents the whole album, though - and who knows when my copy of that will land! - i would be a bit dubious. i don't expect the band to be all serious and what have you, but there is such a thing as "too much pop" from the Manics. i still maintain this would be better if it was called (It's Not Love) Just The End Of War.

I Know The Numbers : the b-side of the 7". as far as i can work out, essentially a James Dean Bradfield solo number, for it sounds like just him and his guitar. not sure if Nicky wrote the words of James did it all by himself. a pleasant enough acoustic track, really - not strong enough to be on an album, but not a "oh, this will do for a b-side" thing either. James' voice and guitar are never, ever a waste.

I'm Leaving You For Solitude : this is excellent! and also available for free - for some reason the band gave this b-side away as a free download on their official site a little while ago. let us be honest, as many have pointed out this song is little more than a slowed down Hey Jude with different words. and i have no problem with this, it sounds excellent!

Distractions : wow! please let the album sound more like this than the a-side! great James vocal, the band hitting some great notes on this rather catchy tune! if this got stuck on as track 3 of a CD single instead of squeezed on to the album Postcards From A Young Man, there must be some class stuff waiting! i suspect this might be the most played b-side of the lot, although Solitude will be a close second. great guitar work from James, Sean Moore really sounding like he's having fun on drums. Nicky's bass is, well, Nicky's bass.

Ostpolitik : an instrumental number. who is that doing the keyboards? sounds great! good guitar riff breaks it up a bit, a toe-tapping drum and bassline is a constant. sounds desperately like there were meant to be some words on it, i guess they couldn't get them to fit and just decided to let the instruments do the talking. no bad thing.

Lost Voices : the "excusive" track that you get only on CD2 when you get this bundle. rathe heavy bass pedal on the drums, some sort of distort trick going on with James' voice. has the sound of a semi-classic track that they have not or simply could not take any further. by no means is it essential listening, but if you happen to have it, not a bad tune to play once or twice.





OK, back to ranting. i am getting somewhat confused by what the record industry wants us to do, really. on the one side, the record labels are crying that "downloads" are killing music, everyone is pirating everything, and they are struggling to sell music in the conventional manner. odd, then, the approach that industry leaders Sony have taken with the new Manic Street Preachers releases. they have, in their wisdom, blocked all access to promo videos on sites to countries outside of the UK. you cannot purchase legal downloads of albums cross-border, yet they have made no effort to make it available to purchase legally in many countries. and finally, it seems, they have left selling & shipping the records outside of the UK to a company with a distinctly haphazzard approach to doing it. strange, and it makes you wonder if people just download the stuff via less-than-legal ways more out of frustration at not being able to buy it than they do just to get it for free.

i am no expert, but perhaps Sony's bizarre approach of trying to limit the sales of the record worldwide had some bearing on this excellent set of songs only getting to number 28 in the charts?

ho hum, whereas it seems tricky to get the new Manics records, it is worth the hassle for great tunes like these! now let's see when the album lands!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the inescapable Harlo gang......

hey everyone

tales of the Harlo gang seem to be forever popular on this site, so who am i to withold such tales? many of you might wonder what exactly it is that a Harlo does when they are not battling Icelandic volcanoes, randomly storing luggage or seeking out illustrations of the number ten. well, since you ask (if you did), they are involved in the world of theatre production!





now, dear reader, i have to tread very carefully here. i once got famously, and indeed rightly, lamped off my Uncle Colin after an alcohol fuelled but nontheless frank and explicit conversation around the sexuality of men who wear earrings. as i would presumably be one simple plane flight away from a similar lamping if i made any allegations at all about the gentry who work in theatre, let me be as delicate as i can with the wording here.....

usually Colin & Angela work at with the North Ormesby Minstrels in a behind the scenes, backstage capacity. please note i did not suggest in any way that Colin aspired to be a theatre choreographer, thank you. as this year they were doing the splendid play Our House, based on the music of Madness which both of them love, this year they treaded upon the boards themselves! here's Angela as what looks like a convict...





and indeed Colin in a similar state of dress and performance.





i must say i am intrigued by this "mixed sex" prison they are in. if it was real and Colin was actually in it, i dare say he would be shanking and stabbing his way inside to a life sentence, really. who wouldn't? well, my good friend and mate Duncan ("Spiros"), who for a very real and well known reason that i would not put here has a desire to spend some quality time inside a Turkish prison. each to their own.

to illustrate that my Uncle Colin does not harbour any desire to be an actual convict, here he is as a member of what is lovingly and fondly referred to in some circles as "the filth", or as a member of the constabulary if you are not down on these new slang terms.





i am not sure if young Christopher was involved in the production too, but certainly Andrew was. here he is flexing those vocal muscles that i dare say are normally used to give some frank and forthright directional advice to attendees at the Riverside Stadium who displease him!





well, there you go! it looks ace, and the reports were all glowing and wonderful, in particular those praising (rightly) the stark, bold heterosexuality of my Uncle Colin.

right, i think i have avoided upsetting Colin, let me quit whilst i am ahead!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

on the subject of hats....

hey everyone


well, a couple of posts ago saw me showing off my celebrated new hat, a hat which most seem to think is a many splendid thing. my Uncle Trevor, however, is an enthusiast for nostalgia, and thus sent in this picture from a little over 20 (twenty!) years ago.....





this would be me at my Dad's 40th birthday party! the hat i have on in the pic is a sort of recycled one - it's a bowler hat from a fancy dress party that was a few months before this, to which i went dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange.

other than the unmistakable sight of John Chambury in the background, my profuse apologies, for i have no idea who anyone else in the pic is!

cheers for this Trevor!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary, Gran & Gramps

hey everyone

well, there's a persistent rumour that Stormin Norman himself, my Gramps, is contemplating getting all the equipment required to get "on" to this thing that they call, simply, "the internet". if this proves to be true, i have no doubt at all Gramps will enjoy using the internet for what it was intended to be used - spewing out opinions on absolutely everything to a global audience. that said, i thought i'd better put something else "out there" for him!

today is Gran & Gramps' wedding anniversary! i could tell you how many years, but i dare say that both or either would say it is "more years than they care to mention"! clever people can of course work it out from earlier posts!





these pics are from the last month, forwarded by Dad from a most excellent sounding cruise around the many splendid waterways of Scotland.





if i get to spend nearly as many years with Michele as Gran & Gramps have had together thus far, i shall have done very, very well indeed! Michele will need the patience and stamina my Gran has to keep with Gramps, mind!





hope you are having, or indeed had, a wonderful day, Gran & Gramps! lots of love from all of us here!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some new family pics

hey everyone


well, i've been fortunate enough to get some pictures over the last couple of days, so thought i would do a quick update with them. a number of the pics have been taken by James, though - he seems to get better images of William than i do!


first up, here's not quite the picture i wanted to take, but a most excellent one anyway!





James was riding around the house on the excellent "Dino Buggy" his Ouma Monica got him a couple of Christmases ago. William was quite excited, and charged around after him in his walker! as soon as i got the camera out, though, William (as you can see) was much more interested in coming and seeing what i was up to!

next up are two of the pictures i mentioned that James took. he really does manage to get some very good looking ones of William!





what more do you want? teeth? OK, here is a look at the little teeth William has popping out at the moment!





and finally, James wanted a picture of all four of us. i did my best to get one with the camera held at arms length, and the result is not too bad.





to be honest, we had great fun trying to pose and keep William still for the picture, i am not sure i'm all that bothered how the pic came out!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

new month, new hat.....

hey everyone

well, there i was at verk, prdoctivley having a coffee and cigarette, right, when one of the ladies summoned me over. another lady was selling hats, and they had one that was "perfect" for me.

as i am not strictly speaking known for wearing hats i am not sure how they had such a vision, but as i am always keen to support friends and colleagues i bought it. see what you think!





the general comments i am getting are that it does indeed look rather smart, if not dapper, placed upon my head. go figure!

i am not sure of the instances or events that will see me wearing it on any frequent kind of basis, but it is a handy thing to have when needed as anything else you care to name, i suppose!





many thanks to my dear son James for taking these pics of me!!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!