As usual Liz and I have left behind cold and unpleasant England for the much warmer climes of Lanzarote. We’re renting a place that we first found two years ago but were unable to rent last year as it was fully booked. This time Liz got in early and so here we are for four weeks. The villa is very comfortable with a great outlook, sunny on the patio all day and it has a great pool and comfy outdoor couches.
For our first night out we went along to the Gourmet Indian Restaurant where we had so much fun last year with the staff. We were rather surprised to find that this year, all the staff that had made us so welcome had now left. That is probably the same in restaurants the whole world over. Staff come and go but happily, the new staff, especially our waitress were fun and friendly and the food was just as superb as it was previously.
Last year’s Indian restaurant staff, sadly missed
Another favourite of ours is the Café Berrugo down in the Marina Rubicon. The manager Juan greeted us as warmly as usual. Last year the food wasn’t quite as good as it normally is so I wasn’t sure what to order but anyway, we went for five tapas dishes and they were all excellent, so much better than our last visit. Perhaps the café has gained a new chef during our absence, anyway, we were really impressed and happy and Juan gave us an extra shot of vodka caramel, a drink I don’t think I’ve had anywhere else except Lanzarote.
The interesting thing is that a few months back I was writing about a run of bad meals and I have to say, I much prefer this, a run of lovely meals.
Before we left the UK we switched on our Sky box and I was pleasantly surprised to see the film Nuremburg available to watch. I was surprised because it was only on at our local cinema a few weeks previously and it was something I wanted to watch. So, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and settled down to watch. The film is the story of the Nuremburg trials held in Germany after the Second World War. Hermann Göring, played in the film by Russell Crowe, is the most prestigious prisoner in the dock. He was the number 2 in the Nazi government until the last few days of the war when Hitler, incensed by a telegram from Göring in which he asked permission to take over the Reich, ordered his arrest.
By Charles Alexander, Office of the United States Chief of Counsel – Harry S. Truman Library & Museum, accession no. 72-911 (Retrieved 2017-04-26), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=161339177
Even so, when Göring handed himself over to the Americans, he was perhaps thinking of the events of the First World War when the Kaiser abdicated and fled Germany and left others to run the country in defeat. Göring, perhaps thought that he was the man to take over Germany in this new defeat. Things would not turn out that way however and Göring, amongst many others, was to be put on trial for crimes against humanity.
The film is based on the story of Douglas Kelley, a psychiatrist who was tasked with examining the nazi prisoners with a view to determining whether they were competent to stand trial. Kelley also tried to get to the bottom of the nature of the evil they had practised. His theory was that they were just ordinary men rather than particularly evil men.
Kelley is played in the film by Rami Malek and the film focusses on his relationship with Göring. It was a good film though for me not in any way outstanding although Russell Crowe’s performance was excellent, I don’t think Malek’s portrayal was in the same class.
To be honest I remember a similar film, perhaps a made for TV film from some years ago which was much superior. I think it was a two part mini series also titled Nuremburg starring Alec Baldwin as supreme court justice Robert Jackson and Brian Cox as Göring.
Göring of course commits suicide rather than be hanged and in the mini series, they made much of the relationship between Göring and his American guard. Did the guard slip Göring a cyanide capsule with which to evade the hangman’s noose? It was probably more likely that Göring had it concealed all along. He was a charismatic character but at the end of the day, he went along with Hitler like many others.
Before leaving for Lanzarote, one of my friends asked me how many books I would be taking along to read. I wasn’t sure at the time but at least four I thought. So, she answered, we can expect another Book Bag post then! There will be a Book Bag post but to carry on from Nuremburg, I was surprised to see it on Sky cinema so soon after its theatrical release. I thought it might have been a Sky original production but it wasn’t so I was even more surprised to see it on Sky so soon.
Another film I watched recently on Netflix was the Thursday Murder Club. Again, it was on TV very soon after its cinema release, in fact I think it was actually a Netflix production. I enjoyed the opening part of the film but then lost interest somewhere around the middle. I might have picked up my iPad and started surfing and then got interested again towards the end. It was a good film with an impressive cast and its one that I should watch again and perhaps pay more attention to the next time.
It just so happens that I picked up the book to read here in Lanzarote. It’s written by Richard Osman who is more famous as the frontman on the BBC’s Pointless quiz show as well as various other TV shows. The book and film are about a group of people in a retirement village who meet to discuss cold case crimes but then find a murder committed on their very doorstop. The group of mostly eighty year olds then get on with the task of solving the murder. There seem to be a lot of things going on and a great deal of characters to remember which put me off a little at first but a great device used by the writer is having alternate chapters written as diary entries by Joyce, one of the club members. She goes over the past events, adding in details of her own life along the way, talking about her neighbours and daughter amongst other things and sometimes previewing the next chapter for us.
It’s a very original and witty book and even though I’m only half way through I’m already thinking about getting the follow up book. One minor complaint though, there is a large cast of characters and things do get complicated making it not always easy to follow.
You might have seen some horror stories on the internet and social media about Lanzarote lately. I’ve seen so many posts about the dreadful weather and the rain. OK, there has been rain, quite a lot of it which is pretty unusual for Lanzarote. The thing is, when it rains back home in Manchester, it tends to rain and rain and get pretty cold at the same miserable time. Here in Lanzarote, it rains for about five minutes and then the sun comes out and dries everything. It might get cloudy again and we might have another five minute shower but it soon slips away and despite what you may have heard, Liz and I have spent each day out on the patio swimming and sunbathing and occasionally moving our towels away from the edge of the patio canopy when the rain showers have encroached a little too close.
Now, time for another read or should I do a few more laps in the pool? Decisions, decisions . . .
As I write this we are on our 5th day in Lanzarote. I do love it here and it was nice to go to our favourite bar and see all our favourite bar staff there. The manager Juan was pleased to see us and greeted us in his usual fashion, calling out good morning as he does, no matter whether it is morning, afternoon or evening.
All holidays end, and eventually, no matter how wonderful a time you have had, you have to return home and go back to work. It’s sad to think that when I’m back at my desk, some other lucky fellow will be in my villa, sipping wine on my patio, and relaxing. At least he won’t be using my glass, because I bought my glass at a vide grenier and brought it home to the UK so, to the guy relaxing on my patio -get yer own glass mate!
Letters from an Unknown Author! 