Monday 13 March 2023: Tap water or bottled?

I dislike the taste and mouthfeel of tap water (London, Chester, Durham, eastern Kent). I assume that my dislike stems from the chemicals used to sterilise the water. Consequently, I rarely drink unflavoured water. Whitsun 1973, I drank water from a hillside stream in West Yorkshire, between Malham and Kettlewell, hoping that there were no sheep carcases upstream. I have also drunk water from the copious public water fountains in Rome (1997). Mmm.

I do not much go in for bottled water. Partly I object to the use of plastic (containing plasticisers), partly to single-use plastic and this throw-away society,  and partly because very little bottled water tastes pleasant (variously ashy or of plasticisers). If I have to drink bottled water, then it has to be sparkling. If the weather is hot and I am out of the house without my tisane flask then I buy sparkling San Pellegrino water. It is ridiculously expensive, but does actually taste nice. Were I, for some inexplicable reason, to have to drink water all the time, and cost were no object, then this is the water that I would choose. When the weather is hot and I am working in the vegetable garden, then I might drink some cheap, sparkling bottled water from Tesco (Tesco own-label) in order to slake my thirst. I know that it is simply tap water put into a bottle, carbonated, marketed and sold. Mostly, however, my wife makes elderflower cordial from our elderflowers, and I dilute this with the cheap, sparkling bottled water. I have looked into buying a Sodastream machine, but the CO2 cannisters are very expensive. The cider I sometimes brew can be delightfully effervescent, and it is effervescence that makes cold drinks especially palatable.

If I have to drink water, then it has to be sparkling, and unless it is San Pellegrino, then I prefer it to be flavoured.

Thursday 9 March 2023: Movie Musings: Les Bicyclettes de Belsize

Thursday 9 March 2023: Movie Musings: Les Bicyclettes de Belsize

This is a short (27 minutes) movie made in 1968, released in 1969. It is very much of its period, and can be compared favourably with the much more serious and substantial movie Blowup (a 1966 movie directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, starring David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave and Sarah Miles, which was criticised for not capturing the energy and whimsy of ‘swinging London’).

Les Bicyclettes de Belsize has almost no dialogue, but almost continuous music, including songs. Other movies similarly without dialogue include:

• The Plank, 1967, written and directed by Eric Sykes, and starring Eric Sykes and Tommy Cooper; and
• Futtock’s End, 1970, written by, and starring, Ronnie Barker, which was shot only 11 miles to the north-west of Hampstead Heath.

The cinematography of Les Bicyclettes de Belsize is notable (including camera angles and camera movement), as are the editing, costumes, characterisations and the emotional arc of the movie. The near-absence of dialogue means that the viewer is required to infer from what is shown. The movie is set exclusively in Hampstead, London, and the geography itself (residential areas, commercial areas, Hampstead Heath and Parliament Hill) is a low-key but significant character (note that there are several flights of steps).