I enjoy a list - this is History Extra magazines list of the top historical films
No Life of Brian, nor Carry On, sadly
History Extra - 25 Best Historical Films
If I’m on Teams and my little dots are bouncing up and down in the way they do for a long time, it probably doesn’t mean that I’m typing a lengthy, but finely crafted, message
It probably means I’m taking ages finding a stupid and possibly inappropriate gif.
I just finished the Walk-In. Great show about fascists and the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate - very, very grim at times, but hopeful
I particularly enjoyed the brief appearance by the guy from Mrs Brown’s Boys (am I the only person in the UK that likes Mrs Browns Boys?)
I heard a program overnight that mentioned this guy - Wojtek, the bear that helped fight the Nazis
Wojtek was at Monte Casino, and I’m wondering whether my grandad ever saw him there
I’m not sure this is behaviour one would want to encourage, but it’s a nice story
When Donovan Shears sent a text message to a random number in 1998, it changed the course of his life. He had been given his first mobile phone for his 18th birthday and had just discovered text messaging. He made up a random number and sent off a message saying “hello”, to which his future wife Kirsty wrote back “hi”. That single moment led to over 20 years of love, laughter, and partnership," they said.
A photo from 12 years ago today. This is in Salisbury market place. The statue is Henry Fawcett, husband of the now more famous Millicent
Wikipedia page for Henry Fawcett
Wikipedia page for Millicent Fawcett
I was intrigued by the name of this LP - ‘Live at Basins Nightclub’. Most nightclubs of the time had glamorous sounding names - locally for example we had Oscars, Concordes and the Grange
I can’t imagine why anyone decided to call a nightclub ‘Basins’…but apparently it was in Porstsmouth.
It’s a great record, but as with most live albums, I’d probably advise beginners to listen to a straight Greatest Hits first
The Outlaws was fun
Nice to see the bad guy from ‘Bad Sisters’ being the bad guy in Outlaws…and also nice to have people who sound like me, or a bit like me anyway, on the telly
How to delete from a tweets micro.blog with powershell
These were my last three tweets on the blog…and, I think, the last tweets I posted
invoke-restmethod https://micro.blog/micropub?mp-destination=https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog`&q=source`&offset=0`&limit=3 `
-Method get -Header $RestMethodHeaders |
select -expand items |
select -expand properties |
select url,content
url content
--- -------
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/31/1609327355398443008.html} {Happy new year to you and yours!}
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/24/1606763511543209984.html} {God bless us, every one}
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/23/1606293329544548352.html} {My word of the day today is 'myrrh'.}
So, to delete a specific tweet from the micro.blog….
Set up the headers
$RestMethodHeaders = @{
"Authorization" = "Bearer $BlogToken"
}
Delete the ‘happy new year’ one
invoke-restmethod https://micro.blog/micropub?mp-destination=https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog`&url=https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/31/1609327355398443008.html`&action=delete `
-Method post `
-Header $RestMethodHeaders
…and abracadbra
invoke-restmethod https://micro.blog/micropub?mp-destination=https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog`&q=source`&offset=0`&limit=3 -Method get -Header $RestMethodHeaders | select -expand items | select -expand properties | select url,content
url content
--- -------
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/24/1606763511543209984.html} {God bless us, every one}
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/23/1606293329544548352.html} {My word of the day today is 'myrrh'.}
{https://mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog/2022/12/22/1605866305227087873.html} {My word of the day today is 'eggnog'.}
I am enjoying the ‘A Short History Of….’ podcast on BBC Sounds. They are about an hour long, largely straight history, with little bits of story
I especially liked the ep’s on Tolkien, the Mongols, the real Robinson Crusoe, the Famine, the Colloseum and, of course Stonehenge
Went out for one of my usual slow trots around Salisbury last night, but speeded up towards the end as I realized I was late for the football
Aching all over this morning
⚽🏃😧
Impressive
I have been in Johannesburg for 3 days and I am proud to say I’ve eaten at Nando’s 4 times.
I will not be taking questions at this time.
“The joy of watching a Lionel Messi will always outweigh the cringe of listening to an Infantino”
Finished reading Blue was the Colour. It’s a book about my favourite football team, by one of my favourite comics….so of course I like it. Marvellous, if slightly gloomy, book. ⚽📖
I’m sorry if they aren’t available outside the UK, but Hugh Bonneville reading Sherlock Holmes is good fun
BBC Sounds - Sherlock Holmes Short Stories
).jpg#](https://cdn.uploads.micro.blog/139254/2025/sherlock-holmesthe-man-with-the-twisted-lip-colored.jpg)
Mark Thomas's Pet Hates
I thought these were funny. Comedian Mark Thomas’s pet hates, from The Irish Times , quoted by Colin Murray on Midnight Meets Midnight Meets
The way Desert Island discs doesn’t play the full song.
The smug class-ridden blather of [Radio Four’s] Today programme.
Anything that involves Piers Morgan and an absence of violence.
Harley Davidson motorbikes and the over 50-year-olds that ride them.
Anyone who has been in a gymkhana.
Any film with Josh Grogan.
Litter and the people who complain about litter.
The Proms.
Christmas markets.
Dyson, the man not the machines.
Ageing.
The BBC notion of balance and inpartiality that invariably sides with the overdog and the establishment, but still manages to say “well we’ve had complaints from everybody, so we have probably got it about right”.
My children ‘borrowing’ my clothes.
News about the Royal Family.
S**t coffee that costs £2.50
Buying water in plastic bottles.
Macaroni cheese.
Having to throw away half of the weekend papers.
People talking about their piercings.
Garden centres.
John Lewis Xmas adverts and the coverage thereof.
Q and A’s
(NB: Tories, capitalism, sexism and racism come under serious hates.
15th of January, here in the Shire, is halfway through winter, by some calculations….I’m looking forward to Spring
Thoughts on Chelsea - Bournemouth
-
lovely to see Reece score
-
the first goal was sublime.
-
Not entirely sure how Jackson wriggled free of three of their players for that goal
-
our confidence is so fragile…it felt like it evaporated in the half a minute after that Sanchez’s misplaced pass
-
Maresca could probably have made the changes earlier
-
all 11 of our players seemed to be making mistakes…whether that was Bournemouth playing well or us playing badly I don’t know
-
I really need to nail down the best way of getting back to Waterloo
-
I’m far too old to be running up escalators to make the 22.50
Nice story about Brian Clough in the Telegraph today, from the Liverpool player Phil Thompson
Thompson views that rivalry as one of mutual respect rather than among the most hostile in English football. “I knew how much the Forest lads loved Cloughie from the England get-togethers and experienced a little of his man-management myself,” he says.
“There was a game at the City Ground when I had a bad ankle injury and it needed stitching up. I was on the treatment table and in a bad way with the doctor working on me, pulling the skin over my ankle. Cloughie popped his head in and could see what was going on, so started talking to me and telling me what a great player he thinks I am.
“He just kept talking away and it dawned on me later how he was taking my mind off the injury. Не went up in my estimation after that.
Reasons I’d like to be famous
- to be one of the VIPs on a half-marathon (because they get very well looked after)
- so I could get the people on the Who Do You Think You Are show to do my family tree (because I can’t really be bothered )
