Month: June 2025

An American, a Mexican and an Irishman…

I’ve started watching films again.

Robert DeNiro as The Irishman
Clint Eastwood as The Man with no name

The Irishman

Firstly, I started with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.

Loved it.

The main cast have been great in everything I’ve seen them in. And this film was no different.

A masterclass.

For me it had those Jackie Brown vibes, in that a lot of it felt like I was just chilling out with these characters for most of it. Characters I quickly became fond of, despite their dubious business dealings.

And until I saw the conversation between Martin Scorsese and Pacino, De Niro and Pesci afterwards, I had no idea it was all based on a true story.

It took me three sittings to watch it as it was done between sleeps (raising a 2 month old)

Despite it being such a long film, I actually wished it was longer.

A Fistfull of Dollars

The first spaghetti western, and the film that launched Clint Eastwood’s film career.

A Fistfull of Dollars is cool as hell.

The man with no name wanders into a western town where two families are at war with each other.

So he decides to cleverly pit them against one another for his own gains.

I had seen this many years ago, but for some reason westerns didn’t do much for me. That was until I experienced the Red Dead Redemption games, especially the story of Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2

Since then I have been eager to explore more of the genre.

To be honest I think I’m trying to re-experience what I got with Red Dead Redemption 2, but with other stories.

But Arthur Morgan is always there at the back of my mind.

Sobs.

I loved this film.

Trivia: this features the scene featured in Back to the Future part 2, and the emulation that Marty performs in Back to the Future part 3.

At the time of writing I am 30 minutes into “For a Few Dollars More”.

Only taking breaks as I only get chance to see them at night when I have baby duties and of course at that point I’m knackered.

But I’ll get there eventually.

And at least my little girl is getting a good film education early.

The ever-growing sleep debt

I have a compounding sleep debt.

We have a 2 year old and a 6 week old. To say my wife and I are tired is an understatement to say the least.

Our children are definitely worth it all but I am looking forward to a full night’s sleep again.

It’s like being in a constant foggy haze — a fugue state.

The weird thing, is that I know I will miss these times. When they are all grown up, or even a little bit grown; when they no longer need us for basic survival; when I’ll no longer be woken at 3:30am to feed her a bottle, followed by an hour of playing Silent Hill 2 remake whilst she rests on me as her milk settles before she sleeps.

Also those decaf cups of tea in the middle of the night. Delish. And the opening of the fridge door to get the milk, only to be greeted by an ocean of melted ice below the fridge door.

These times will be but a memory sooner than I think — I should enjoy the insomnia while it lasts.

The Tsunami in the fridge

This morning I opened the fridge door to be greeted by a slight splash of water.

Okay — not quite a tsunami — but that’s clickbait for you.

Underneath the veg drawer of our modest 500mm wide fridge freezer lies a small pool of water in the recesses of its base.

First thought of course is “Ah great. Amazing. The fridge is buggered. One of the stalwarts of the modern home… packed in.”

But no.

The fridge is fine.

Upon lifting the vegetable drawer out I notice a block of ice on the back edge of the fridge base.

What I’m assuming is that the temperature drops to freezing to create this block over time, then as the fridge goes through some kind of cycle where it’s not quite freezing, it melts a bit.

I should do something about the temperature but I’m yet to find the dial.

If I should find it surely I should fix the issue with a simple nudge in the direction of non-freezing.

If I was loaded I could trash the old fridge and get a brand spanking new one.

But then… That would be cold…