Film Review: T2: Trainspotting

The original Trainspotting cast reminisce about their younger days while plotting to either get rich, revenge or score some drugs. Danny Boyle provides some great cinematography. Make sure you've seen the first one. Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller Dir: Danny Boyle Genre: Drama

Event: Tough Guy Race

About 20 years ago I caught a news article about a difficult assault course created by a farmer from a little village, Perton, not too far from me. At that time I was training 5 or 6 times a week at judo, gym, fitness classes and on the bike, and it all sounded like a great challenge to take on. But I was bit lazy and never got myself organised. Over the years I kept catching news reports on the event but I still didn’t take any action.

So when I once again caught wind of the event last January I immediately took action and within 30 minutes I was a fully paid-up entrant of the Original Tough Guy Race. Then the penny dropped that this was going to take more than my credit card to complete.

It was obvious that over the years this event had grown much, much bigger. The number of obstacles had also grown massively and I expected this to be a real challenge. I immediately set about a plan for regaining much of my lost fitness since 10 years of sitting around, with just the occasional bike ride, was simply not going to cut it. And as all great athletes do, the first thing I did was buy a sports watch to track my fitness during the next 11 months.

And it worked. My first 20 minute run was laboured and took me 5 days to recover. I felt embarrassed my calves were no longer able to function at the pace of a short jog. However by the end of the year I was easily able to run for an hour without problem, and if some illness hadn’t knocked me hard over Christmas and then again mid-Jan, I’m sure I would have ramped this to my target 90 minutes without any issue. I was a little concerned I hadn’t hit my target but I was still ready to give it my upmost.

On the day of the race I looked outside to see a puddle frozen solid. This was not a good sign and it made the prospect of jumping through ice a real risk. As luck would have it, by 11am the air temperature rose enough to defrost everything and at least lacerations from the ice were now behind me.

After some traffic problems getting into the event, I eventually joined the mass start of 5500 people. Many were dressed up in various tartans or fun outfits. Some went the other way and dress down just to shorts or even trunks. Those were brave people given the temperature of the air, and in particular the water.

The course is about 15km long but the real killer is the 250 obstacles you need to tackle on-route. At the beginning you have some small hay bales (jump over), then medium sized hay bales (climb over), then large hay bales (clamber up and over) and so on. The obstacles were often laid out in sets and followed this type of pattern: easy, medium, hard then very hard difficulty. This also had the added advantage of spreading the pack in order to reduce over-crowding (for the most part it work at least).

After hay bales, there was a killer section of running up and down and up and down and so forth a steep hill. In all I think we must have crawled up that hill 7 or 8 times pulling on trees and various stumps. Moral breaking stuff and again something I saw repeated several times. Repeat some soul sapping obstacle multiple times while all the time draining your energy.

Other obstacles included climbing over tree trunks, through electrified wires, crawling under barbed wire, crawling through tight tunnels, splashing through muddy rivers, squelching through thick mud, overcoming hundreds of tires, jumping flame pits and climbing 30-40 foot towers using ropes. Everything meant to sap your strength just a little bit more.

However the real pain came with the water. Some early obstacles had us ankle deep and this chilled your feet. But as we progressed the water got deeper and each time it stabbed just a bit more. Just as getting into a swimming pool is worse if done slowly, the course carefully maximised the pain it could inflict my repeatedly attacking a little more untouched skin. And then it would take you out of the water and give you a few obstacles to warm up, then repeat the gradual soaking. Oh how sadistic.

The two worse obstacles involved going under water. In the first you had to duck below a log and out the other side. Then repeat 4 more times with the final one being double the size. The other was a plunge from a plank suspended 6 feet above the water. When I hit the water the shock was insane and when I popped up I had cramp in both legs but was also swimming as fast as I ever have. I needed to get out of the water and regain control of my hyperventilation.

I eventually finished after 4hr 18mins and this is indicative of just how long and complex the route was. Only at the end did I appreciate how much rain was being dumped on the spectators; Sue, Mum and Dad amongst them. I was totally frozen and not far away from hypothermia. Many had dropped out throughout the race due to the cold and this was the real barrier to completing it. The obstacles were hard and needed significant determination but it was the weather which was the most formidable of them all.

This was the last ever Tough Guy competition so I am very pleased that I got my act together to join in before it was too late. It was easily the single most difficult thing I have ever attempted and I’m kinda glad I don’t have to make a decision whether I do it again. I’m not sure I could stand it again.

Film Review: Sing

A theatre's owner attempt to put on a successful show sees him audition a group of animals to a sing competion. But it all starts to go wrong. Fun enough animation but too many characters to really feel for any. Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane Dir: Christophe Lourdelet, Garth Jennings "Auditions begin 2016" Genre: Animated

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Film Review: Lion

A poor Indian boy gets lost from his mum and brother but spends a life trying to find his way back. A beautifully told true story which tickles every emotions during his journey. Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara Dir: Garth Davis "The true story of a life lost and found" Genre: Adventure

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Film Review: Split

James McAvoy plays multiple personalities brilliantly in a great thriller. James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson Dir: M. Night Shyamalan "Kevin has 23 distinct personalities. The 24th is about to be unleashed." Genre: Thriller, Horror

Film Review: XXX Return of Xander Cage

Ripped Vin Diesel spends most scenes with bikini clad hotties in action nonsense. Save your money. Vin Diesel, Donnie Yen, Deepika Padukone Dir: D.J. Caruso l "Kick some ass, get the girl, and try to look dope while you're doing it." Genre: Action

Event: Visit Taj Mahal

Along with The Great Pyramid of Giza, Great Wall of China, The Colosseum and Machu Picchu the Seven Wonders of the Modern World included a great tomb in the north of India. Built in 1632, with a distinct ivory-white marble with a name that translates as “Crown of The Palace”. It is revered across the globe for it magnificent architecture. I am of course referring to the Taj Mahal, and while in Delhi it would be very amiss of me not to visit before I boarded a plane back home.

So Saturday morning 06:30 I was sitting with my driver outside my hotel waiting for my Indian host to turn up. Punctuality is not the nation’s greatest asset and it wasn’t for 30 minutes before he finally appeared. As our host was only to organise, we then shot around the corner to pick up one of the local developers to acts as our guide and translator. Again another 20 minutes of waiting next to rubbish tip (aka sidewalk). After he had joined us we finally drove and picked up Leandro, from the London office, and of course he was ready immediately.

Eventually we set off for Agra, and to my pleasant surprise this was an excellent journey. For once the roads weren’t overcrowded, noisy and unfinished. This was a 150 km of decent road and we enjoyed the trip.

At Agra the value of our developer-come-translator was a godsend since he soon had us queuing in the right place at the chaotic ticket booths. As is normal at all tourist spots, foreigners pay about 12 times as much as the locals for the same ticket however at least on this occasion we got the bonus of a bottle of free water. One other advantage is that we are allowed to jump straight to the front of the security checks queue. The time saved jumping a 200-300 yard line of bodies was worth every extra rupee we paid.

In the chaos of the queues we also managed to gain ourselves a tourist guide. As ever in these situations, we were very cautious about his real intentions but his claims, about being paid by the government to guide tourists, ultimately appeared to be true. He was open about the commission he would receive from the one shop he took us to at the end of the tour, and didn’t ask for any payment at any point. We tipped him well.

The Taj Mahal was truly a magnificent building. The story behind the mausoleum is wonderful and the attention to detail, even up close, is stunning. Some details, such as the fact that the surrounding minarets lean outwards by a couple of degrees in order to protect the central building in case of an earthquake, or the parallax corrections in the wall edges, is far from modern day untidy India.

The surrounding scripture, created by insetting onyx into the marble, is again particularly noteworthy and well worth enjoying.

Final as we left we were once again surrounded my dozens of children trying to sell not only poor quality necklaces but Taj Mahal snow globes! Of course we did the normal bargaining and bought some rubbish we didn’t want but it was necessary to pass some rupees over to do our little bit.

As I boarded my plane at 03:30 I was totally exhausted from both the long day and drive, but was very pleased to have made the effort. The Taj Mahal, because of its detail and size, is quite unique. If you get a chance definitely take the time to spend the day but don’t be surprised if you return with a little snow globe somewhere in your luggage.

Event: Watch Cricket In India

Apart from the occasional Scotland versus England rugby match or Olympic judo fight I basically flatline at any mention of sport. Don’t get me wrong, I love to partake in sport but there is generally little excitement from watching it. Over the years I have been to many a sporting venues and in all cases it’s been fun but not because of the sport, because of the company I kept.

So when I got a call from Darren to say that he was going to try and get some tickets for an England versus India cricket match in Pune I surprised myself at how excited I got. For many years I’ve worked closely with, and had friends, from India so I appreciate the enthusiasm they have for the game. Their home games are renowned for being fun events so getting the chance to see this first hand was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

One of the key guys based in India, Kaustubh, was tasked with obtaining the tickets, and to my delight and surprise he came back over Christmas with the goods. Apparently the venue of 37,500 was sold out in 4 hours so it was quite a miracle the plan came together.

Traffic in Pune is crazily bad, so we decided to time our arrival to be about 1 hour late. This felt a little weird but once I had appreciated that a cricket match goes on forever (ok, perhaps just 7-8 hours) skipping the early overs is no great shake. Our driver for the day dropped us off near the venue and we left him to park up and sit with the car until we were ready to leave. If you have money, this is the way transport works in India.

Inside the venue the crowds had already warmed up and the noise was insane. England were first into bat so the only time the crowd slightly quietened was when England hit a boundary shot. Of course they went crazy when a batsman was caught or run out. Small trumpets, similar in sound to vuvuzelas, were blown with enthusiasm at any opportunity, and after a few hours our ears had that familiar nightclub ring.

With so many business and family ties between Europe and India you would expect at least a splattering of white faces in the crowd. There wasn’t. Over the many hours we were at the stadium I only saw 2 others (and I was looking) so Darren and myself were a little ‘different’. People wanted pictures with us. People would take surreptitious selfies with us in the background. Worse, people would glance at us to see our reaction (and sometimes takes pictures) when India pulled off a good move.

After 50 overs and 351 runs, it was India’s opportunity to bat. Their captain, Kohli, was on form and showed off his skills by notching up a century. Of course England fought back but given we were so outnumbered we decided to be a little conservative with our celebrations when England managed to dispatch an India player.

Ultimately England were beaten by the better team, but not by much. Of course this was not the point and the experience was everything. The general consensus is that India and England are currently probably the best two teams in the world, and I was able to see them play in probably the best venue in the world. Shame I still don’t understand the fascination with cricket but the whole the experience will definitely stay with me for some time.>/p>

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Film Review: Assassin's Creed

Some nice graphics but story, while unique, is somewhat hollow. No feeling for any characters. Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons Dir: Justin Kurzel "Enter the Animus." Genre: Action, Adventure

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Album Review: Night People/You And Me At Six

Although it’s been 9 years since their debut album, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I was introduced to You And Me At Six. I immediately loved the sound of the Surrey based 5-piece and ‘Cavalier Youth’ is firmly on my favourites playlist. But can they do it again with their latest release, ‘Night People’?

Night People Plus One Heavy Soul Take on the World Brand New Swear Make Your Move Can't Hold Back Spell It Out Give

The new album, released on 6th January, is a little mixed bag. The general feel is a little darker however it still has all the YAMAS vibes although perhaps tweaked in slightly different ways. Josh Franceschi vocals continue to punch through strongly on both the quiet and louder beats. As expected Dan Flint’s drums carry much of the tempo as many of the tracks snake through different volumes and crescendos. Some are reporting that they prefer the closing track ‘Give’ and although it’s a more mature track I personally prefer the moody ‘Spell It Out’. Overall this is a satisfying album and perhaps not as strong as Cavalier Youth it shouldn’t disappoint anyone who already has YAMAS in their collection.

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Film Review: A Monster Calls

Don't be fooled by the trailer, this is a dark tail about a boy's mother dying of cancer. Lewis MacDougall, Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones Dir: J.A. Bayona "Stories are wild creatures." Genre: Drama, Fantasy

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This was a packed 'adult only' show (498 tickets sold). Standard show with some added risker jokes and cruder visional humour.

Film Review: Why Him?

Good comedy film with some great character play. Zoey Deutch, James Franco, Bryan Cranston Dir: John Hamburg "Of all the guys his daughter could have chosen..." Genre: Comedy

Film Review: Rogue One

Epic graphics scenary. Acting good. Story way too predictable. Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk Dir: Gareth Edwards "Save the Rebellion. Save the dream." Genre: Action