Mothering Sunday and the Pink Panther
Last Sunday was Mothering Sunday which was a bit different as it was the first Mothering Sunday since my mum died in May last year. The day started too early as the kids tried to get us up at 6:45 (answer was no!) and then they made Liz breakfast in bed as it was "mummy's special day". Toby made Mummy some butter sandwiches (lucky Mummy!) and the day was off.
We kept busy by doing some retail therapy at the new Ikea store in Milton Keynes which is about 30 miles away from us, but it took more like 50 miles to find it after we'd been several times round MK. I think the IKEA map on their website is 'vague' to say the least! Anyway, once it was found I programmed it into the Satnav in my car so we can find it again without the detour.
As usual in Ikea we seemed to buy lots of little things but the bill added up. In our defence we did buy some stuff for our Brittany Holiday Home (cushion covers, light for the bathroom, etc) as although the prices are slightly cheaper in France the nearest Ikea is in Lorient which is over 2 hours drive away.
After Ikea we went to the pictures to watch a film. Given that our two children are 5 and 8 we were looking for a family film and the only one on (at all) was the remake of The Pink Panther with Steve Martin. I've read a couple of reviews of it that used phrases such as "Peter Sellers must be turning in his grave" so it wasn't the top of my "must watch" list.
I have to say that I wasn't really all that impressed by the movie. Peter Sellers I loved but Steve Martin just bumbled his way through the movie. The film seemed to contain many of the same Sellers jokes (failing to say words properly, attacking his accomplice at every opportunity, getting his hand stuck in a vase) and not a lot of original humour. Normally I quite like Steve Martin (Father of the Bride was one of our favourites that we saw a year or so before we got married and loved it so much we bought a copy for both of our parents), but PP wasn't Steve Martin's best hour IMHO.
The beauty of the Sellers "Clouseau" was the subtlety that he brought to the character - he was clumsy as opposed to stupid. Martin's Clouseau was just stupid and vain and in the end solved the crime by intellectual reasoning rather than 'having it fall in his lap' as per Sellers. Jean Reno plays the straight laced sidekick very well and there's a nice scene with Clive Owen doing a cameo role as 006 in a casino, but all in all it wasn't my cup of tea.
By the by, apparently the French celebrate Mother's Day (Fete des Meres) on the last Sunday of May. The typical celebration is to present a very special cake, which usually resembles a bouquet of flowers, to their mothers at a family dinner.
We kept busy by doing some retail therapy at the new Ikea store in Milton Keynes which is about 30 miles away from us, but it took more like 50 miles to find it after we'd been several times round MK. I think the IKEA map on their website is 'vague' to say the least! Anyway, once it was found I programmed it into the Satnav in my car so we can find it again without the detour.
As usual in Ikea we seemed to buy lots of little things but the bill added up. In our defence we did buy some stuff for our Brittany Holiday Home (cushion covers, light for the bathroom, etc) as although the prices are slightly cheaper in France the nearest Ikea is in Lorient which is over 2 hours drive away.
After Ikea we went to the pictures to watch a film. Given that our two children are 5 and 8 we were looking for a family film and the only one on (at all) was the remake of The Pink Panther with Steve Martin. I've read a couple of reviews of it that used phrases such as "Peter Sellers must be turning in his grave" so it wasn't the top of my "must watch" list.
The beauty of the Sellers "Clouseau" was the subtlety that he brought to the character - he was clumsy as opposed to stupid. Martin's Clouseau was just stupid and vain and in the end solved the crime by intellectual reasoning rather than 'having it fall in his lap' as per Sellers. Jean Reno plays the straight laced sidekick very well and there's a nice scene with Clive Owen doing a cameo role as 006 in a casino, but all in all it wasn't my cup of tea.
By the by, apparently the French celebrate Mother's Day (Fete des Meres) on the last Sunday of May. The typical celebration is to present a very special cake, which usually resembles a bouquet of flowers, to their mothers at a family dinner.
posted by Geoffrey at 10:21 pm Permalink
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