Continuing on with the tenth anniversary theme, on Thursday,
17 December 2009 I uploaded a post entitled The 2009 end of year full circle
review to this blog, a way to reflect on the past year. It became a ‘sorta’
‘kinda’ annual tradition for me for the first few years before becoming a
staple of the end of the year from 2014 onwards, it would seem I wrestled with
a title each year before settling on New Years blog post, thingy in 2015 so
here is my tenth anniversary, 2019 New Years blog post, thingy...
2019, I celebrated 10 years of being a Blogger but also 17
years of being a father, 6 years of being a husband, 7 months of being a Grandfather
and generally just being around and surviving for 40 years! Turning 40 was a strange notion as it reminded me of the first time I watched the
first episode of The Good Life ( one of my all time favorite sitcoms) about
the life of Tom Good (played by Richard Briers) a plastics designer who takes
up self sufficiency following a midlife crisis when he turns 40- when I first
watched it, the very notion of myself someday turning 40 someday never crossed
my mind, but here we are and so with that it seemed rather apt that this year we
visited... 55 Kewferry Rd Northwood,
Middlesex.
Otherwise known as the Good’s
house! It was at this house that Tom
Good, questioning his place in the world, follows his desire to escape modern
commercial living along with his faithful wife Barbara (played by Felicity
Kendal) as they both embark on a new life of self-sufficiency in their home in
Surbiton. Although set in Surbiton when it came to filming, they opted to film
at this house in Northwood. Written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde the show ran on the BBC from 1975 to 1978 and
it had been and gone by the time I had come into the world but I soon discovered
it during one of its many repeat showings and as I said it has remained one of
my favorites ever since. It looks a little different but there was no
mistaking it, and it was a delight seeing the garden as a lawn and not a
vegetable patch and looking over the fence and seeing the house next door in
which their friends/neighbors Jerry and Margot Leadbetter played by Paul
Eddington and Penelope Keith) supposedly lived and standing on the same curb
that Geraldine the goat chased off the vegetable thief back in 1974!
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| 55 Kewferry Rd Northwood, Middlesex |
I didn’t have a midlife crisis at 40, but I did
attempt to cross a fair few things off my bucket list, I finally had the opportunity
to try classic American breakfast cereals Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo
Berry! Only available seasonally in the US my very good friend Brian sent them
over to me in time for Halloween and if you follow this link you can see me
trying them out for the first time! Another thing that was was long overdue was
meeting writer, director, producer founder and face of Troma Entertainment,
Lloyd Kaufman whom I had wanted to meet for many years and remained an inspiration
to me since my art college days and I finally did that at this year’s Starburst
Film Festival at MediaCityUK- and as mentioned in a previous post, he did not disappoint and I know that my 16 year old self would have been overjoyed! Interestingly two
other bucket list things I wanted to do had a recurring theme... Robocop- One
of my all time favorite movies. After
years of being told I should be a contestant on a game show I finally took the plunge
and crossed it off my bucket list entering as a contestant on a new Welsh
language game show, Rhannu shown on channel S4C (although the show was recorded
in December 2018 it actually aired in 2019) and it was an experience I rather
enjoyed, despite not winning anything. During a round devoted to Superhero Movies
I was asked, “Which city was Robocop set?” little did I know that having given
the correct answer and winning the round I would be crossing off another item
and meeting Robocop himself, Dr. Peter Weller a few months later!
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| Meeting Peter Weller at For the Love of Sci-Fi |
A return trip to
Manchester for this year’s For the Love of Sci-Fi I relived all the memories accumulated
since fist watching this movie aged 10, watching it countless times and quoting
lined from the film more so! And I know that my ten year old self would have
been delighted if he knew that his 40 year old self would be getting a fist bump
from Alex J. Murphy while standing in front of a full scale replica of EDD 209!
Another item crossed off the list that
might surprise some of you was being an Ice Cream Man! My love of retro is no
secret but perhaps my fondness for vintage ice cream vans is not so widely
known, particularly the ones I remember as a child. Living further out in the
country, ice cream vans never visited us but we would often hear their chimes taunting
us in the distance as they visited other streets in the village but occasionally
I would be visiting my grandmother who lived further in the village and we
would catch the ice cream van but it was a rare treat that never left me. So when
Bourne Leisure put out the call for someone to provided an “outstanding
Ice Cream experience, ensuring service, quality and Consistency, within a clean
and safe environment catering for all” in their vintage van, seemingly
identical to the ones I remember at
their Haven holiday park in Pwllheli, North Wales I thought I would give it a
go!
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| "flake and sprinkles?" |
So if you were at Haven, Pwllheli this year and came over to Bertie’s
for an Ice Cream it was more than likely me that served you your ice cream
cones and lollies! I was only there for a few months before the moved the van
to another venue but it was great fun! Another bucket list item was visiting Chessington
World of Adventures’ Vampire ride. Perhaps better suited for a Monster Memories
post I mentioned a few years back how much I adore the Haunted House at AltonTowers, and how I visited it in its opening year of 1992. We all remember that
infamously (long) queue line that snaked around Gloomy Wood and the humorous
gravestones littered around the path but I also remember one particular sign
that had a bat on it daring me to ride another horror themed ride called ‘The Vampire’ at Chessington World of
Adventures... I didn’t know that much about the ride, but I was curious to know
more! This ride designed by theme park
legend and the man responsible for the Haunted House, John Wardley first opened on the 11th of April,
1990 two years before the Haunted House and it was the UK’s first ever hanging roller coaster. The trains designed to look like bats hung from a track that
stretched 800 meters and was capable of reaching speeds of 45 MPH offering
riders the opportunity to swoop over the rooftops of Transylvania! But alas I had
never got around to going on the Vampire (later shortened to just ‘Vampire’ in
2002) and although many changes had been made to the ride over the past 29
years I was so pleased to finally cross it off the list! In fact I rode it a fair
few times to make up for lost time, and enjoyed it each time- so much so I’d
say it’s now my favorite roller coaster!
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| 27 years is the longest I've had to wait to go on a roller coaster... |
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| Was ripped off in 2019 by T-Shirt company Crazytee.net who stole this design from this very site. Asked nicely, they removed it- then they put it back up again! Please don't support them this is not an officially licensed item and I certainly get nothing for it! |
Entertainment, fully intended to go to the cinema much more than I did, not through trying and not because there wasn’t anything I wanted to see. TV, we only stream now (a vast majority of what we watch is on YouTube I predict this to be one of the first topics to be discussed on this Blog in 2020) ‘modern’ telly is not something we partake in much these days, instead catching up on every episode produced of such shows as The Time Tunnel, Robocop: the Series, Unsolved Mysteries, Knightrider, Baywatch and its spin off series Baywatch Nights but we did watch and enjoy Stranger Things 3 and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, hands down the best show I have seen for some time, so much so that I still feel compelled to sing its praises and urge you all to watch it if you haven't already. Creepshow on Shudder was very good, I had been eagerly awaiting its premiere on the channel and it didn’t disappoint- especially enjoyed “The House of the Head" "The Finger" "The Man in the Suitcase” "The Companion" and Tom Savini’s "By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain" Shudder did however drop the ball a few times when it came to my favorite show on their channel Joe Bob Brigg’s Last Drive In, the show who’s praises I sang last year and still regard to one of the most important shows about horror today was mostly inaccessible to Shudder viewers in the UK, HOWEVER they have started to release the Joe Bob segments minus the copyright infringing movies which is a start- let’s hope they sort it out in 2020!
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RIP Professor David J Bellamy OBE, Hon FLS |
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| With The Unofficial Dr Who Annual 1987 |
Well, that took a lot longer than I thought it would- hope
it was of interest (the memory isn’t as good as it once was- apologies if I
missed something out!) my sincere thanks to all that have regularly/ occasionally
contributed to this Blog, your comments are always gratefully received. I shan’t
lie, I have high expectations for 2020 it has long been the coolest sounding
year to me and really hope it delivers all the promise I expected!
Happy New Year to you all!
Happy New Year to you all!
© Arfon Jones 2019. All images are copyrighted throughout the world.
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