I can't do crowds so I'll wait until the initial rush has died down.   I want a full report from you both though!   Enjoy!

Just watched Indside Claridges absolutely fascinating.It's like stepping back in time,I would love to stay there. 

No chance

I have an ad blocker so I don't get to see what you are talking about even though you've posted a pic

Norah offering a free Psychic shocking  reading

I watched this last week - haven't seen tonight's yet.    Did you see that one?  Poor old woman was on her last stay.       I loved the programme - and I'd love to stay there too - even more I'd like to have the money to be able to!

I have just downloaded last weeks ,its the one with the American couple who have stayed there  every year for decades.Going off to watch.

Asda has sent me my shopping and they've just done the worst thing EVER 

They substituted my lovely smoked ham for a NON smoked one 

Ells that's why I don't do my grocery shopping online, I hated the substitutes they made.  Plus I found that they didn't give a toss about what state some of the products were in, wilted lettuce etc.

The substitutes are always a mixed bag for me.  Some great ones and some pretty shit ones.

Like today.....Ham?  Shit.  Beef?  Very good, I got a replacement roast beef that was double the price of the one I ordered.

They replaced my peanut butter ice cream with cookie dough though which is also a bit shit.

I'm going to get my Mum to buy smoked ham and we'll switch then.

I do Sainsbury's online ................I'm 99% happy enough with them TBH although every so often I do like to 'real' shop.

I've got a Sainsbury's order booked for Dec 22nd ..................I'll do Marks and Morrisons on the 23rd ....then hopefully all done.

(Still a couple of weeks 'normal' shop between now and the though'.

Sainsbury's don't deliver to my area otherwise I'd use them.  It's a choice between Tesco and Asda for home delivery so I chose Asda because Tesco is my where I do my weekly shopping and I wanted something different.

It's great to avoid all the queues in town though by just ordering online.....I think I will do an order for 22nd aswell.  Although I've bought quite a bit of my xmas dinner so far so should only need a normal shop on xmas eve this year and can do that at one of the costcutters nearer to me to avoid the town!

that facinated me - for 40 years they have hired the royal suite for 16 nights at £3.500 per night and only leave twice during this time 

wonder if they do similar any where else 

I missed last nights but see it is repeated tonight on BBC2 at 11.20pm

It's all the twelves today  12 12 2012

I'm just sat watching an old episode of Catherine Tate .............I love that woman who screams at any little noise - not unlike myself 

Mini Marti Mushrooms 

I've got Asda booked for the 22nd Dec., and I will also do a M & S shop for all the special goodies

I've got £60 in M&S vouchers .................been looking through the booklet - really can't decide what to buy ....................some fabulous stuff in there.

Bought Mr Woo a grow your own mushroom kit for Christmas but gave it to him early. Might be nice to have mushrooms for brekkie on Christmas morning or part of a starter - they're just beginning to pop up!

I picked up my Mothers Christmas present from my eldest sister the other day.  I won't see her before Christmas, but will see Mother on Monday, so I said I'd wrap it up and ask Mother to take the parcel back to Durham for my sister.  She'll never know she's actually delivering her own present 

Good one.

Rebekah Brooks received  a payout of £10.8 million on leaving News International,  newly-published accounts have shown.
This figure is higher than the £7  million previously reportedin October.

At that time, sources claimed that  the ex-editor of The Sun and News of the World had received  between £6 million and £8 million made up of cash payments for loss of service,  pension enhancement, money for legal costs, a car and an office.
The Guardian notes that in the accounts published by NI  Group, News Corp's UK holding company for its newspapers and HarperCollins  publisher reveal a £10.852 million payment to an unnamed director.
This  is described as "compensation for loss of office" and also includes "various  ongoing benefits", including "all legal and other professional costs... until  those investigations are concluded".
Brooks and fellow former News of  the World editor Andy Coulson return to court today (December 12) to face charges  relating to the phone hacking scandaland payments to officials.

Soon after her departure, Brooks's severance package  was reported  to be only £3.5 million. This sum was later revised  down to £1.7 million plus a London office and limousine.
Brooks had quit  as chief executive of News of the World in July 2011, soon after it  emerged that the newspaper had hacked  the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002. Brooks was editor of  the Sunday paper at that time.
Earlier this month, Tom Mockeridge  announced his departure as chief executive of News International, with his  replacement being named as Sky chief operating officer Mike Darcey.

Anyone tried this game Cargo bridge?

How can I not build a bridge

http://limexgames.com/studio/games/cargo_bridge

Built it then they all fell coming back!!

Lol

Rude lights lol

  That's very funny

^^^^^

I love those Brighton Lights ..........'Buy More Sh***t - nothing like a bit of honesty is there? .....I would imagine the skyline is very visible on the Gatwick flightpath .......it'd be great if you could see it all clearly from a plane seat 

  "I HATE MY JOB"

LES MISERABLES REVIEW

In the opening moments of Tom Hooper's Les Misérables, the camera  surges up through a tattered flag and over a giant, rain-swept boat being pulled  by prisoners under the watchful eye of Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). It's an  immediate statement of intent from the King's speech helmer - big, bold moviemaking that isn't going to shirk the  opportunity to showboat.
Hugh Jackman heads up the cast as Jean Valjean,  an ex-con who breaks parole and reinvents himself in bourgeois French society as  part of a 19-year quest for redemption. Valjean is the glue that binds this  lavish musical adaptation together, playing thief, conman, revolutionary and  doting father to Cosette (Isabelle Allen, then later Amanda Seyfried), the  daughter of Fantine (Anne Hathaway), a seamstress who falls into prostitution  when hard times come.
Jackman's talent for song-and-dance and action  heroics make him perfect casting as Valjean. He's a character constantly  reinventing himself in a bid to evade the clutches of relentless pursuer Javert  and find a new sense of self (expressed in 'Who Am I?'). The X-Menstar  may take centre stage, but the spotlight is irrevocably drawn to Anne Hathaway  and her outstanding performance as Fantine. Thrown out on the streets, she's  forced to sell her hair, teeth and eventually herself to survive.

For all Hooper's showy direction the film's  standout sequence comes in one unbroken take, a close-up of the shaven-headed  Fantine belting out 'I Dreamed a Dream' as her voice falters and tears stream.  It's utterly heartbreaking, and you instantly feel like this is a moment that  people will cite for the rest of her career. An Oscar nomination surely  awaits.
As Les Mis shifts away from Fantine, the focus moves to  the young revolutionaries barricaded in by the French army, and the love  triangle between Marius (Eddie Redmayne), the now-teenaged Cosette and Éponine  (Samantha Barks). Redmayne and Seyfried both have the looks and the lungs to  sell their respective parts, but it's newcomer Barks (a Les Mis stage  veteran and one-time I'd Do Anything contestant) who delivers the most  memorable turn of the trio. With 'On My Own' she gets her own solo number, and  like Hathaway she'll break you heart.
Amidst the personal turmoil and  brittle emotions, Hooper weaves in comic relief in the form of Sacha Baron Cohen  and Helena Bonham Carter's thieving innkeepers the Thénardiers. It's fitting  casting that makes for an entertaining watch, but they strike overtly comedic  notes slightly off-kilter with the rest of the film. When they appear, it's like  getting a glimpse of Tim Burton's vision of Les Misérables.
The  film's real masterstroke is getting its cast to sing their performances live, a  technique that hasn't been used since Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last  Love. There's tangible passion and soul in every note, with each actor able  to marry words to their physical performance. Les Mis's success in  ditching the lip-synching may well represent a turning point for the Hollywood  musical.
Les Misérables clocks in at a bum-numbing 158 minutes,  but it justifies its running time thanks to its scale, scope and  decades-spanning storyline. This coupled with an old school moviemaking approach  (giant sets, hundreds of extras, considered camera work) make it emphatically  epic. Major awards nominations, big box office bucks and well-pleased crowds are  a certainty.

Can't wait to see it
 

^^^^

Thanks for that Erin Sounds brilliant .....................I can't wait 

You are so lucky Soozy that you get to see it very soon.

Well..........................I'm assuming that Mr Woo has bought tickets as a Christmas pressie (he will have done if he knows what's good for him ) - I'm kind of hoping that there might be tickets for Matilda in there too ..........I did hint but he never listens properly. It seems daft to go all the way to London and stay overnight for just one cinema visit - a theatre trip just tucks in nicely doesn't it?

I drop hints every year but I think I drop to many I leave people .

I do like your thinking ,get two pressies as it makes more sense since you are way overnight.Well thought out Soozy

I've given up hinting, I just take him by the hand to the shop point at what I desire and say 'please buy that'.   It works 

I email my OH the links to everything I want, he writes down the product number and walks in and asks one of the staff do they have it in stock, they go get it for him, he pays and that's it.

He'll go to town on Christmas Eve and spend less than 2 hours getting my stuff whereas I have spent hours upon hours either in town, online or making lists and thinking of gift ideas 

At least 27 people are dead, including several children, after a shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut