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Sunday, 30 November 2025

My earliest memory

 I'm back on Long and Short Review's blog challenge after a short break and had to think about this prompt for a moment. I can't really remember anything that happened before I was about four years old, but there was one memory that stuck out for me.

My grandfather owned a farm and my dad would take us down to Dorset to visit him at least once a year. I can remember running around the fields and the apple orchard, feeding ducklings and playing with the farm cat Ginger (who was friendly enough as long as you didn't try to stop him catching mice), but one thing I do remember quite vividly was an incident with Grandad's herd of cows. One of the cows had a calf, and after seeing the calf was lying down in the field I had climbed the fence and lain down next to it. 

The calf was happy enough to have me as a companion, but my mother was mildly concerned when she found me there, since the mother cow was standing over the pair of us looking very mama-bear and Mum wasn't convinced she would be able to get me back inside without the cow trying to protect me.

Fortunately, after a quick discussion with Dad, Mum managed to convince me that it was nearly time for lunch and to leave the calf to rest now. I remember the mother cow didn't look very impressed when I got up, but she didn't try to stop me leaving, which is just as well as, to my extremely young eyes, she was about the size of a house.

I'm interested to see what memories everyone else will have!

Tuesday, 4 November 2025

A strange or useless talent I have

 When this topic from Long and Short Reviews popped up I had to answer, simply because this is one I've had arguments with people about many times - ridiculous arguments, I might add, since the complaint is usually "Why do you know all this stupid shit?"

Remembering who actors are and whether or not they sign autographs.

I collect autographs in my spare time and absolutely love the cinema, so I'm quite good at recognising somebody and saying "Oh, that's X, they were in Y and Z. They sign, but only through venues, not via their agent." I've had a lot of people roll their eyes and wonder why anyone would need to know all this, and the simple answer is I don't need to - it's just something that comes from loving films and knowing who it's worth trying to contact. No point writing to Tom Cruise when he only signs at premieres.

I'm interested to see what everyone else will come up with!