Ideal Home Show Christmas & Film: The Imitation Game

Yes, I dutifully went to both things I had a free ticket for, today! Good for me.

After a late night blogging, I was up quite late. And I hadn't showered either, so did before I left - which made me quite late for the Ideal Home Show Christmas. Fortunately, it was on at Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, which is under 10 minutes walk away. Sad really - it'll probably be the last show I see there, they're planning on turning it into flats at the end of the year. Not that I'll be able to afford one, of course..

I made it with just under an hour to go before it closed. Less time than I'd have liked, really. My first port of call is usually to get a goody bag - they give away a bag-full of free stuff. Not usually anything useful, but you know how people do like to get something for free. Well, this year, for once, I was spared going through the bag to see what I'd got; the front desk was unoccupied, and further in, I found the stall where you could collect your freebies. And then I realised that the enormous queue, which I'd thought was for food, was instead for goody bags. Gee, that was that then - if I'd joined the end of the queue, I wouldn't have seen anything!

At least I didn't have to carry a bag-full of brochures then, as I meandered through the stands. It soon became apparent, however, that I wasn't going to have much to carry at all - this year's affair was a bit of a damp squib. I didn't want homewares or decorations. I saw plenty of candle stalls, but I didn't want any of those either. There were a few decent jewellery stands, but I didn't see anything I fancied - nor among the clothes stands. There were no fudge stands, or hot chocolate stands, as in previous years!

There were some of the usual suspects, whose wares I already have enough of. There was one really interesting chocolate stand, where they had chocolate novelty items, in the shape of.. tools. Now, that's really interesting, but unless you happen to know someone who's both a chocolate fanatic and keen on DIY.. The Cats Protection League tried to grab my attention, but I already donate to the Battersea Cats & Dogs Home, and I think that'll do for now. My attention was also craved by a guy who wanted to clean my glasses. Eh, no thanks. Indeed, not buying very much at all, I zipped through the exhibition in no time, and was out of there by 5.45. Glad the ticket was free..

My other mission of the day was to use my remaining Sweet Sundays cinema voucher. Now, these were available with sweet packets - max two per email address - and entitle the user to a free ticket with a named cinema chain - Cineworld or Odeon. Cineworld is handier for me, so that's what I chose. Unfortunately, I've been a bit busy, and before today had only used one of them. Anyway, they have to be used before Dec 7, and since they can only be used on a Sunday, and I'm in Ireland the next two weekends, this was my last chance!

So I had a look at what was on in Cineworld. Luckily, this is a great time of the year for good films, and the choice was decent - top of the list, having shot up the IMDB ratings, was The Imitation Game. There was a showing of that in my local Cineworld at 8.50, which gave me some downtime before I had to head out again. It was bitterly cold by the time I did, mind - I'm back in thermals for the first time this year.

No need to look up directions - it's been a while, but I remembered. And again, it's close enough to walk - so this was a cheap day's entertainment! I was glad to arrive and get in from the cold. Given that I had to hand in a voucher, I was worried that, as so often here, there wouldn't be anyone at a desk for me to ask - but it was the evening showing, and there was. Indeed, the person in front of me had one of the same vouchers, and asked for the same film, I think.

I ended up with a seat in a row that was quite high up - but the stairs here, although not complete with railing, are helpful to someone with a stairs phobia - they're graduated; every second step is a long one, which really helps steady me. The cinema was decently full, despite the film having been out for a while. And after a few ads, we were into the film..

This is a biopic of Alan Turing, the English mathematician who cracked the German Enigma code during the Second World War, but was later convicted for homosexuality. He's played by Benedict Cumberbatch, with Keira Knightley as his fiancée, Matthew Goode as his commanding officer, and Charles Dance as Commander Denniston, the head of the codebreaking school, who employed him. Mark Strong plays the head of MI6.

You'd have to say that Alan Turing comes across as an unlikeable character - geeky, introverted, unsympathetic. Displays a distinct lack of empathy with others. So it's immensely to Benedict Cumberbatch's credit that we find him so sympathetic, and find ourselves rooting for him so much! You know, you could get tired of Benedict Cumberbatch - he's everywhere. But it's a film like this that shows what a really fine actor he is. This is truly an Oscar-winning performance, and fans of Benedict Cumberbatch would be advised to see this film for him alone - as would everyone, really!

People don't like Keira Knightley, and I think it must be down to the jaw. She has a really pronounced jawline. But you know, we really shouldn't discriminate against her for that - and she does a fine job here, as do they all. Kudos to the film-makers for making cryptography interesting; this is a maths film - albeit with an interesting application - that grips its audience from start to finish. I rarely find a film where my attention never wanders, but this was one such. Highly recommended.

Tomorrow, back to the office, and back to normal, I guess! I've booked to see Our Town, in the Almeida, tomorrow evening. Pity it's such a long way away - the Almeida is known for staging great productions, that tend to make it to the West End later..

Ideal Homes Christmas Show

With having had such an enjoyable experience at Ideal Christmas last year, and it being just ten minutes walk away from me now, in Earl's Court, I could hardly resist! Having the day off, I got caught up in planning what films I might go to next week, but eventually scurried out of the house, leaving myself about an hour and a half to go around before I had to race for the airport to fly to Ireland for a long weekend.

I love the way they decorate the place. Here's a photo I took the night before..

Fake snow (on sale inside), abounding in Christmas trees, sleigh bells.. Christmas starts here! There are two floors, packed with things you can buy and people eager to sell them to you.

Here's a photo from last year:

There's an ice rink in the centre, a bandstand where a gospel choir started up while I was there, eateries.

The ground floor is mainly furniture and decorations. The food stalls are mainly on the upper floor. For an extra price, you can buy the show guide, which entitles you to a goody bag. My mother was very appreciative of the Yorkshire Gold tea, and I'm sure her cats will just love the free cat treat sample. The rest will probably get the bin, but hey.

In short, for an hour and a half, I raced around, quickly accumulating very heavy bags. I will say that it's great for present-buying - I got presents for fully five people here today! Japanese puzzle boxes. Decorative candles. Children's books, heavily discounted. Unusual bags. Magnetic jewellery, which I like the look of, but don't want to go through the palaver of discussing with the vendor what the health benefits might be. Then there's the Fudge Kitchen stall, which merits a visit all by itself! They have fudge slices, drinking fudge - which I was interested in last year but never bought, so I was kind of obliged to this year! What's nice about there is you can choose which flavours to include in the box of drinking fudge.

There's plenty I missed, that I got to last year, but then I was in a hurry. I didn't see any demonstrations, of which there were some. I didn't have anything to eat, although there were plenty of stalls where I could have, and would have loved to. And I didn't get much of a chance to go around the fashion, which was also upstairs. But, you know, I had enough to carry when I was leaving that I could say I'd done it justice. And I made it to the airport in plenty of time.

So, nothing major planned for the weekend. Watch this space, something might happen. Won't go to anything Monday - I don't bother, when I'm travelling. For Tuesday, well.. I do hear a rumour that the Southbank Christmas market will be open by then, and it was lovely last year..