Website of the week

What's the best - chess or boxing?

Well, in the words of Harry Hill, "there's only one way to settle this...... fight!"

Welcome to the world of Chessboxing.

No Country For Old Men

Out hunting a man comes across a drug deal gone wrong - dead bodies everywhere - and finds a bag containing $2million. Conscience forces him to later return with water for a survivor. He is too late, but returning to the scene he is spotted by people wanting their money back. So begins the long hunt in the latest film from the Coen brothers.

This film has garnered virtually universal great reviews and is one of the leading Oscar contenders. It is beautifully shot, superbly acted - Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson and Kelly MacDonald are all excellent - and has the greatest haircut you've seen in a film for years. But...

I seem to be in the minority who like this film, think it has lots of fantastic components, but just feel it is a long way short of the master piece everyone else thinks it is. It is definitely not a bad film; it will deservedly win several Oscars (though overlooking Kelly MacDonald for a Best Supporting Actress nomination is almost scandalous) and apparently is a very faithful adaptation of the book. But for me it is a case of the sum being less than the parts.

Should you see it? Yes. Should you herald it as a masterpiece? I have my doubts - in short I preferred Fargo.

Website of the week

Set those books free and back into the wild - enjoy Bookcrossing.

Downs on the way up

On a last minute whim I headed off to the Blue Square Conference South table top clash of Lewes v Hampton and Richmond - first and third respectively. Both teams have, in the past couple of years, made good progress up the non-league ladder and both are now on the cusp of the Conference.

Lewes has a small, neat ground and even with grey January skies you can see beauty of the South Downs all around. The chalky soil obviously helps the drainage as the pitch was lovely and green, even after all the recent rain - a real credit to the club and a pitch many clubs in higher leagues would be proud of.

The game was a stop/start affair. A fussy referee meant that it often didn't flow and, even though the match was far from dirty, his refereeing led to several bookings and a sending off. I suspect he was being assessed. Hampton scored twice - after 6 minutes in each half - and Lewes rarely threatened to scored. Their solitary goal was in the 89th minute and was from a soft and fortunate penalty. Overall an interesting game rather than a crowd pleaser - Hampton looked professional and Lewes did not look the run away league leaders their currently are.

Fluffy

One of life's little pleasures is putting on a brand new pair of socks for the first time. Clean and fresh - lovely. Of course, a little pleasure often comes with a little pain - which brings me to the annoyance that is sock fluff.

When you take off that new pair for the first time, all sorts of bits of fluff are left. Whilst for many blokes picking debris from between their toes could no doubt develop into a minor hobby - for me I just find the whole thing incredibly annoying.

Why does it happen? Why is it only socks and not new T shirts or new trousers? Do women have the same problem with tights?

I know, it's incredible, blogging has reached a new level of pointless banality!

A moment of your time

At home. The phone rings.

"Hello. I'm conducting a survey about transport on behalf of Transport for London. Can I ask you a couple of questions?"

"OK, I can answer a couple of questions." (After all, I've just been crammed on an overcrowded tube train after a 15 minute wait for one I could actually get on.)

"It'll take about 10-15 minutes."

"Eh, that's more than a couple of questions then."

I hang up.

Charlie Wilson's War

I've not seen many films for a while but the start of the new year heralds several movie releases I'm eager to see - first up is Charlie Wilson's War.

Based on the true story of how an alcoholic, womanising Texan Congressman managed to covertly fund the Afghan's war against the Soviet invasion. Tom Hanks is excellent as the eponymous lead - the right mixture of likeability and sleaze - and Julia Roberts is on good form as rich communist hating Texan belle. However, the complete star of the film is the wonderful Phillip Seymour Hoffman as the CIA agent Gust.

Witty lines, a good script by the West Wing's Aaron Sorkin which wears its liberal heart on its sleeve, and the fascination that Charlie Wilson did actually exist, all make for a good film. The ending is not quite satisfying, but the movie whips along and if the other films of 2008 are like this, then we're in for a good year.

Walk in the woods

Time to remember that just a stone's throw away from the M25, and under the Heathrow flightpath, there is still rural England.

Oh yes..... and weekend retreats for the Chancellor...

Writers Bloc

Scott from Neighbours, Tiffany from Eastenders, Mike Baldwin from Corrie, the bloke from The Full Monty and, most bizarrely, Mrs McClusky from Grange Hill - you have to say that Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach had some inspired casting.

Too early to say whether the new ITV series will work - and whatever you think of the general rubbish ITV put out, this is a brave piece of commissioning - but there seems to have been a glut of TV shows looking at writing and making TV shows.

Channel 4 had Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. With Aaron Sorkin and the West Wing team behind it - and the lovely Lucy Davis continuing to move away from "Dawn from The Office/Hayley from The Archers" territory - you feel it should have worked. Somehow it didn't, it just didn't gel and I wonder whether a similar fate awaits the Cornish based soap and the accompanying behind the scenes mockumentary.

The best show of this sort - and one of the best shows on TV at the moment - is 30 Rock on C5 late on Thursday nights. A witty, funny look behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live type show, it has a cracking lead character in Liz Lemon - played by the superb writer/producer Tina Fey - and an amazing turn by Alec Baldwin as the company boss. Definitely worth watching.

It's a kettle

Got a new kettle for Christmas - oh yes, it's all luxury, excitement and glamour chez smittyonline. Noticed that it proudly comes with "Stealth Technology".

It's a kettle - I want to make a cup of tea with it, not invade another country.

Website of the week

For those of you who haven't yet taken down your Christmas lights - a warning.

It's a slippery slope, and before long you could end up here.

And a bit off the top?

After taking a stroll around a pretty part of north Surrey I wander down the high street of the nearby town. Someone is handing out flyers.

"Would you be interested in a discount at a local hairdressers?"

Now, admittedly it was dark, but really! And after yesterday's horoscope...

And your lucky colour is...

Reading the Metro on the way to work - it has a pretty decent film section on a Friday - I noticed my horoscope said,

"It’s only the fourth and you’re restless already. Organise something unusual. If you can’t manage that, change your hairstyle."

Not entirely useful for me then...

Clippety Clop

Walking to the tube station tonight a couple of mounted policemen trotted by. Noticed that on their boots/stirrups they had the little red flashing lights so beloved of cyclists - made me smile.

Didn't notice if they had headlights though...

Jumpers for goalposts

Prior to the Aldershot v Woking game there was a short service to remember not only Phil O'Donnell, the Motherwell FC captain who died at the weekend (see here), but two people linked with Aldershot Town - director Paul Muddell and former player Gordon Henry. Conducted by the club chaplain, the service was a poignant moment, and the minute's silence was impeccably observed by everyone in the crowd of 4,728. There is something powerful about a minute's silence at a football ground - today even more so.

I'd gone to the game because I want to see more live football in 2008. For me there is something special, something real about the non-league game, and the nearest match of interest was Aldershot v Woking. Football in Aldershot has a fascinating history as the original club went bust back in 1992 and a new club was formed. It has been working its way up the non-league pyramid ever since and now finds itself on the brink of a return to league football as it is currently atop the Blue Square Premier Conference.

The ground is a throw back to the past, sandwiched as it is between the railway line and a 1950s style office block. It has four small stands, all tight to the pitch, and with a bank holiday local derby crowd, the ground was comfortably full. It's an earthy ground - hot chocolate could be purchased from a food van for 80p and the experience is one of real football, a world away from the monied glamour of the sanitised Premiership.

The match was fine - both teams play a good passing game. Aldershot scored twice in the first half but Woking scored one early in the second making it an open and nicely poised match - an excellent advert for the non league game. In the end Aldershot showed why they are top of the league and deservedly held the 2-1 lead. A return to the league game seems on the cards - and given what the club has been through in the past 20 years, and the quality of football they play, you can't begrudge them it.

Overall a very pleasant start to 2008 - who knows, watching more live football may be a 'resolution' that can be kept!

This year I resolve...

Well, last year's didn't go exactly to plan.

I'll have to wait for the official 2007 listing to come out, but I suspct that once again, for some completely inexplicable reason, I have probably failed to become one of the 10 sexiest men in the world. I mean, really, what has Jonny Depp got? Okay, apart from great looks... a good sense of humour... a sucessful Hollywood career... a lovely family life in France... great reviews for his upcoming Sweeney Tood movie. I mean *apart* from all that?.?.?

Anyway.... those resolutions I may have made for 2008 have probably been broken already...

However your 2008 resolutions are going, I wish you all a very happy and lovely 2008.