Stiffed at the Speakeasy

So there was an invitation….
To Scapone Mansion, home of Al Scapone, the Godfather of the infamous Scapone family and master criminal. Ma Scapone was making her succulent pasta dishes. Rick Otta welcomed the accountant Nicky De’Lott and Al’s ditzy niece, Margarita Pizza.

And the guests were welcomed….
Toni Calzone, the muscles of the family, Francesca Pancetta, stunning opera singer and Connie Chiglie, Al Scapone’s girlfriend.

The places were set….
The three young gals always dressed to impress.

Stiffed at the Speakeasy
The trouble was that Al Scapone, the master criminal had been killed, gunned down in his own club!

But see, his face is black and full of blood,
His eye-balls further out than when he lived,
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man;
His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretched with struggling;
His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd
And tugg'd for life and was by strength subdued:
Look, on the sheets his hair you see, is sticking;
His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged,
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodged.
It cannot be but he was murder'd here;
The least of all these signs were probable.

Despite the frothing bubbly....
Word of the “hit” got out and the whole balance of power in the city was thrown into chaos. Al’s murder needed to be resolved – and fast – to restore the credibility of the family. Luckily, before the end of the night Detective Elliott Mess managed to unmask the murderer but discretion – and a forthcoming trial – means the suspect cannot be named in the media.

Who Murdered Al Scapone?
A Murder Mystery to rival Who Murdered Rick Toad. Lots of fun on New Year’s Eve with the Thompson clan from Badby. Luckily New Year’s Day was spent without murderous incident – or too much by way of hangover.

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile
So, one month into Slimming World (as announced in the blog here) and I can report losing 1 stone in a month – whilst still eating heartily and enjoying (moderate amounts of) wine and chocolate. I’ll update every now and again when I reach my own personal milestones.

Burn, bonfires, clear and bright

Bonfire night at Bolton Abbey in 2015

Fire burns and cauldron bubble

No sooner does Bowie die, but so does the elegant and gorgeously-voiced Alan Rickman, an actor I’ve long admired on both stage and screen. And both aged 69. Uncanny. Coincidental. I first got to know Alan Rickman in the RSC season where he played Achilles in Troilus and Cressida and Jacques in As You Like It. As Jacques says to conclude the “All the World’s a Stage” speech:

                             Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Alan Rickman in As You Like It and Troilus and Cressida

One fire burns out another’s burning
Memories of last November have leapt into my blog. Something about burning as a ritual of moving on, purging, cleansing... When Benvolio says “One fire burns out another’s burning,” in Romeo and Juliet, he goes on to say that

One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish....
One desperate grief cures with another's languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.

Can we forget and burn away sorrows?

Ozymandias
Does Alan Rickman’s death mean Bowie’s is less painful? Should the deaths of famous people affect an ordinary person at all? The ending of Shelley's short but perfectly formed poem Ozymandias captures the sense of life's futility:

                                     Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Why pictures of 2015 bonfire night at Bolton Abbey?

Why not? Everything turns to ashes. Ashes to ashes. But from the ashes new life can spring. And will spring. A phoenix will rise. Come on, 2016, flame on!

The Human Torch from Marvel's The Fantastic 4