Surrounded by scary events that you cannot believe are happening, more of which below, I decided to lose myself in the new Harry Potter. Worry not, I will not publish any spoilers here, I have too much respect for Jo Rowling for that. Though I think most fans know the secret by now.

However, I will say it is again a testament to her increasing talent as a writer that a child's book can hold adult attention and have deep, well-rounded characters. A lovely book and she deserves all the success her talent will continue to bring her.

My other escape was to go walking at the weekend on the South Downs, the Seven Sisters country park to be exact. The weather was just right and in the early evening cool enough to take on some strenuous hills. Check out the pictures to see how beautiful that area is.

Now I have seen Quadrophenia many times but I was still incredibly surprised at the fact you could get right to the edge of those cliffs. We avoided looking over too close to the edge because the combination of gravitational pull and the movement of the sea made a drop over the side almost inevitable.

Walking is a great pastime, I've discovered, but you have to be careful not to get caught up in all that hiking jargon and nonsense about finding little parts of the world no one else has been to/seen etc. Much better to stride along exchanging greetings with those passing and taking in that scenery.

I'm working up to doing some walking in Scotland, and of course, I can always scout locations for my movies at the same time. Parts of those particular trails make the Seven Sisters seem like a stroll, so I think it'll take a bit of practice before heading up there.

As Londoners our lives have been dominated by trying to get back to normal after the bombings of July 7 and the subsequent attempt to repeat these acts on July 21. The knowledge that those responsible were born and raised in Britain with a normal and loving family life, has come as a real shock to everyone. I guess you expect the kind of people who would do this sort of thing to be monsters or stand out in some way. Again, as with serial killers, it could be anyone.

However, I won't dwell on this. There are people much more skilled in the news media who analyse events such as this. Suffice to say, most of the people I know, workmates and neighbours for instance, are determined we will not all be divided as Londoners. My opinion exactly. And nature always gives us something to help us forget the sadness, for a while anyway.

Fadin' out

What a difference...

So many things have happened in London since my last post it all seems a million miles away from my breezy, devil-may-care opening post.

I was lucky enough to win Live8 tickets for last Saturday, and as you can see by the pics, I was not in the Golden Circle (or Golden Shower area as we liked to call it) no, were two of the suburbanites at screen number something or other. We did however have a wonderful picnic, and who says you couldn't take wine in. We had two cartons of South Africa's finest. Keane, Madonna and UB40 blew us away. Pink Floyd put us to sleep.

Long day all the same, we were wishing we had called it a day/evening/night around 10.30pm and watched the rest at home. All that said, I was so over-the-moon to be there and somehow, someway, my sis and I walked out of the park and picked up the only cab working in the west end within about 10 minutes. Luck was not the word, though it did rhyme with the one that popped into our head. Now we only have to watch the DVD of the day to see what really happened.

I was out of London when the wonderful announcement came that we would be hosting the 2012 Olympics, and speaking as someone who was originally sceptical about the whole thing: "Why do we need them, we'll lose money, what about the transport system, etc". I came round to the idea and would have been gutted if we'd lost. I was jumping up and down when the announcement was made. Though at the same time I couldn't help but notice a couple of the bid team almost fell on Tanni Grey-Thompson in their celebrations. I know it was a strange thing to notice, but it did strike me as strange. She is one of their coolest reps after all, a true Olympian. Sorry, now I am becoming emotional.

Now you will know where I'm going with this and what ends my blog this week. Those terrible events of Thursday, which even those of us who had the misfortune to live through the IRA campaign found horrifying, frightening and incredibly sad for victims and their families. Now, don't get me wrong London can be a difficult place, but over the last few years the city has become more friendly, more accepting, more easy to handle. Someone resents this and also saw how easy it was to make a serious hit on the tube, bad combination. I cried last year for Madrid and now I cry for my chosen hometown. That should be it. The intelligence services must get to the bottom of things before the tragedies. And not be making plans on how to deal with what is seen as inevitable.

We all know someone affected by this and as Ken Livingstone said it was people of all ages, colours and creeds who were targetted. This must pull us together even closer. Don't let's be coerced by the bigotted or the racist to turn on each other. Be better than that.

To paraphrase the American slogan: "None of our colours will run."

Fadin' out:

Allow me to introduce myself...

While I was at the Cannes film festival this year, everyone had a blog. I have only now got around to setting mine up.

As you can probably guess from the name I am a big movie fan, now that could mean I'm big, I like big movies or the big refers to my fan status. All three probably apply. I love film as an art and entertainment medium. However, I also have a healthy cynicism when it comes to film and the way it can be used to manipulate, commercially in particular.

To show how skilled filmmakers can be and as an opening gambit here are some lovely shots of models for Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit. Dreamworks seem to be totally behind this film and so they should be. Check out these intricate models - every petal of every flower is perfect.

I have a few more of these photos I'll post now and then.

To keep you amused until my next posting here is a site with some pretty and kind-of-hippy games on it http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

Fadin' out.