The Big Picture
Flew back to a sun-kissed Inverness this morning and was in the car in time to catch Cover Stories and Edi Stark's interview with Bill Bryson. She also interviewed novelist William Boyd and seemed to catch him off-guard when she demanded to know why he often writes about the bowel-movements of his various characters. Caught me off-guard too, I have to say.
I was so glad to be out of London. I went through three different security checks at Gatwick - four if you count the questions you are asked by the automatic check-in machine. At the x-ray scanner we had to remove jackets, shoes and even belts. You feel like moaning about this but then another wee voice pops in to your head saying that's exactly what the terrorists would want you to do. I wonder how long things will be like this.
I couldn't get on a flight last night so found myself at a loose end in central London and decided I'd walk along to Leicester Square and watch a movie in one of those big screen, surround sound cinemas. was on the bill at one of the Odeons and I was curious to know if it was as awful as everyone had said.
A bit of a shock after I bought my ticket and was guided through a narrow door next to the popcorn stand and into a room no bigger than a school classroom. There was maybe ten rows of eight seats and the screen was mounted so high on the wall that you had to tip your head right back to watch it. The audience looked like they were taking part in a gargling competition.
It really was miserable and things didn't improve when an anti-litter advert came on with the blunt message that dropped pizza leads to more rats. The final scene showed a couple sleeping in their bed with a nest of rodents scurrying across their duvet.
An American man sitting in the row behind me suddenly exclaimed "that's the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire life!".
Maybe so, but that was before we'd all watched The Da Vinci Code.
