Saturday 17 December 2011

All I Want For Christmas is A Dukla Prague Away Kit

That, for the uninitiated, is only one of two pop songs to refer to Subbuteo Table Football...a pastime I enjoyed as a kid and would still if the wifey hadn't made me sell my teams - for a lot of dosh mind you as they were all 70's heavyweights - if you have no idea about Subbuteo I won't explain here...the song was by Half Man Half Biscuit by the by...

The Undertones 'My Perfect Cousin' was the ONLY pop song  to ever mention Subbuteo by name by the way...

Anyroad...

Christmas is coming and I can almost taste my roast parsnips already.....bugger the turkey...give me roast parsnips any day of the week.

Odd how we can get emotional around this time of the year don't you think?

I watched 'The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader' for the first time last night on Sky.

When I was a kid I read all the Narnia books and loved them.

I burst into tears around the age of 9 reading 'The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader' when Reepicheep the heroic mouse - who had also played a major part in the previous novel 'Prince Caspian' chose to travel on to 'Aslan's Country' which basically meant he died.
My mother...aka The Dragon...snatched the book away and threw it in the bin...she didn't approve of books affecting people in that way.....I rescued it a few minutes later....

Watching the movie on Sky I was startled to find tears trickling at the scene were Reepicheep, as per the book, selects to travel to Aslan's Country at the end of the movie.

Must be something to do with Christmas....or possibly too many Buds......

Interestingly...well it is to me...I'm slightly puzzled why I adore these books so much given that they are clearly Christian and I'm agnostic at best.

Aslan is Jesus. Even at the age of 9 I realised this from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He sacrifices himself for humanity - well, Edmund Pevensie mainly - and is then resurrected again. Ring any bells?

Still. Maintaining my trasdition of being, according to my wife and daughter, a walking contradiction, I love everything about Narnia and recommend it to all who've never had the pleasure.

The three movies available are well worth a watch - although I would most strongly recommend you read the books - not in the order they were written mind you but in the order they should be read -

The Magicians Nephew heralds the very beginnings of Narnia.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe introduces the Pevensie children who become the High Kings and Queens of Narnia.
The Horse And His Boy is an adventure set within the reign of the Pevensie children.
Prince Caspian sees the Pevensie's return to rescue Narnia again.
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader brings back the two younger Pevensie's along with the terrifically obnoxious Eustace Scrubb.
The Silver Chair returns Eustace to Narnia to rescue an enchanted Prince and...
The Last Battle is just that.

Go read them for Christmas.....Go buy them as a Christmas treat for yourselves or someone else.

Right. I'm off to ask the wifey's Vicar why she doesn't read The Chronicles Of Narnia in church.

Be a damn site more interesting than babbling on passages from the Bible that's for sure....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/y4wouiPJ-e4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Rather worrying when my greatest hero is a mouse.....

If I don't get around to another post...have an excellent and drunken Christmas and be careful out there!!!

4D x

9 comments:

  1. Hello Forde-Innes. I only came across the Narnia Chronicles, when my eldest daughter was given one of them and I had to read it to her. After that I eventually read them all myself. I agree with you they're great reading for adults and children. I've never seen any of the films. Mostly, for me, the film of a book never comes up to the book's standard. The only exception I can remember to this is a film of the Hound of the Baskervilles, which I saw in (I think) the late fifties.
    Warm regards to you both, Mike.

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  2. P.s. I hope you don't mind my saying this, but what a weird mixture you are.

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  3. Well, christians can write good and convincing books, that's how they brainwash others into becoming christians also. Ditto with movies.

    Odd how we can get emotional around this time of the year don't you think?

    Speak for yourself, christmas just irritates the fuck out of me. World peace my ass, never has been, I'll settle for some christmas pussy.

    I'll go boating or spend the day on the spit in the camper.

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  4. P.s. I hope you don't mind my saying this, but what a weird mixture you are.

    That's because you are a boring idiot and 4D isn't. :-)

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  5. BBC - idiots aren't necessarily boring. Your vocabulary however is as boring and repetative as you are. Which makes you both a boring and a thoroughly offensive idiot.

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  6. No Mike, I looked at your blog, you're boring. :-)

    If you find me offensive I don't give a shit. :-)

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  7. Read the Narnia books - they are brilliant, they are the reason I'm into reading. My Mum read my sisters copies to me as a youngster and then I re-read them myself and discovered the most amazing place in the universe... inside my mind whilst reading a good book.

    The Subutteo - I had a load of 70s ones like that in those boxes - not Dukla but Ajax, Celtic, Palace, West Ham away etc. etc. I had the score board etc. Memories

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  8. We mouses have a knack for the "hero" biz.... *grin*

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  9. Billy!...Behave!

    Soz Mike...my adoptive dad can be a cantankerous old git at times but his heart's in the right place....er...some of the time.

    Now behave Billy!...Mike's a good egg and my pal.

    I respect you Billy...big time...so respect my pals eh old bean?

    Bloody cantankerous old git...it's like looking at me in 20 years...er...10 years...er...oh bollocks...54 years old in a few days...

    Me????? 54????.....oh eck...

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