The beat that my heart skipped *****

This brilliant film manages to portray a hard man hero’s sensitivity, without softening the gritty violent world the he inhabits.

No effort is required to believe in Thomas Seyr; the main character played by the cool Romain Duris, I found myself liking him despite his flaws. There is no gloss at all in this story, it has the kind of reality that the French seem far better able to achieve than does Hollywood.

It reveals the power of music and the result of having the courage to make big life changes

(The only thing that marred my enjoyment of this movie was the fact that half way through, someone in the row behind me let off with the most gag-inducing effect. One person at least actually complained and moved seats. Fortunately it blew over in a few minutes).

Yesterday afternoon

Cycle Shop

In the late sixties (I would have been around 5 or 6 years old) I used to go to Safeways (somewhere on the south side of Glasgow) to watch my mum do the shopping and to have a burger and milkshake at the snack bar. A little later we did a project on the Romans at school which featured mosaics. The only example of a real mosaic that the class might have seen, that the teacher could come up with, was the big Safeways "S" on the wall of the shop.

In the seventies I lived in Harrogate and used to pedal to the construction site of the new Conference Centre and Morrisons shop to watch the cranes and to be amazed at the speed of progress, (despite having no idea what was being built). Today the last four Safeways branches will be reopened as Morrisons.

I'm sure there is a moral in this tale, particularly as it is my birthday and I like Taoism.