Not released until 25 September, Get Outta My Way must be a contender for the best Kylie single of recent years. Once it’s lodged in your head, it refuses to go away. And although she’s used lighting effects before in her video clips, this film for the Aphrodite-sourced track uses human-sized magic light tables and firework-type projections to great effect (this is a preview, catch the glorious full-length 3 minute, 52 second video here). So, will catchy song + brilliant video = hit? Here’s hoping.
Kylie Minogue: Get Outta My Way
September 3rd, 2010Beside the seaside
August 29th, 2010
Last time I walked the pier at Southend, it was cold and windy. Today when we walked the pier it was cold and windy. So, so windy. There may have been over three years and two seasons separating the two strolls down the 1.3-mile wooden walkway, but the weather was uncannily similar. We just made it back to dry land, literally, too, as the heavens opened just as we headed inside one of the seafront cafés for our fish, chips and mushy peas. With Katharine, Luke and Emilie up from London, we spent the afternoon winning at bingo, playing air hockey and strolling down the promenade before heading down to Leigh-on-Sea. An undiscovered jewel of a place, few would believe that Southend is in sight from the watery, boat-littered mud flats; two completely contrasting coastal resorts.
Volkswagen Polo 1.2 TSI and BlueMotion driven at PoloDriver.com
August 20th, 2010
The new fifth-generation Volkswagen Polo range is almost complete. Yes, the performance-orientated GTI is still forthcoming, but the big sellers of the main range have now landed in the UK. Both turbocharged and both with a displacement of 1.2 litres, the TSI and TDI BlueMotion are now on sale, and although they both have very different jobs to do – range-topper and eco model respectively – there’s another common trait: price. Both are pegged between £14,000-£15,000, and as you’d expect of two models so varied in nature, they offer very contrasting driving experiences.
The TSI, only available in SEL trim, is quasi-sporting yet refined, its smooth new 104bhp engine the sign of things of come, while the BlueMotion proves that driving economically can be fun, if you’re prepared for a few sacrifices. We’ve tested them both over at PoloDriver; see how we got on driving around the leafy lanes of Leicestershire by clicking on the magazine graphic below, or if you can’t see the preview, visit this link. The third of PoloDriver’s specially-designed digital ‘mini-magazines’, check out the website’s bookshelf for the two previous titles.
Don Quixote at the Royal Opera House
August 9th, 2010
We didn’t know what to expect, but we did know it would be a nice night out, and so Saturday evening proved. The Royal Opera House in London was the host for the evening, while Don Quixote was the ballet performance that played out on the Covent Garden stage. Danced by the Bolshoi company, if Geoff hadn’t explained the – simple yet strangely complicated – love story of Kitri and Basil and Kitri’s other potential suitors, then I’m not sure Nik and I would have followed quite what was going on.
We would still have enjoyed the dancing, though. You don’t need a story to be in watch in amazement and wonder at the endless pirouettes, leaping and choreographed movements going on under the red velvet curtains. The costumes and dancing were spectacular, and the three acts and two intervals whizzed by. We were up in the Amphitheatre’s fourth-floor tiered seats mixing it with the arty, posh types and opera buffs, and arguably got a bigger sense of grandeur than those sitting on the floors below.
None of the 19th century spectacle of the Royal Opera House has been lost at all in the most recent renovations at the end of the 20th century, and it really is a place to visit should you get the opportunity. It certainly made up for the Paris ballet miss (we had aimed to go to a performance at the Palais Garnier earlier in the year but were unable to get tickets), and seems to be a never-ending maze of corridors, halls, and bars. The terrace balcony gives the best view of the Covent Garden Piazza, too.
From Clacton to Frinton
July 30th, 2010
The last day of our holiday proper (if you don’t include the weekends), and the promise of good weather meant only one thing – a trip to the seaside. And there are plenty sprinkled on the Essex coastline, but we chose the stretch of sometimes rocky, sometimes sandy shore from Clacton to Walton via Frinton as our seaside destination, not least because we could potentially walk from one town to the other. That actually turned out to not be the case in the time we alloted to the task, and a mix of circumstances meant that we only got as far as Frinton, somewhere mid-way between the two.
Strolling on the shoreline path, the wind was fierce at times, but the sun was hot, shimmering on the sea to our right an catching the blades of the wind turbines in the distance. So hot was the sun, the side of my neck on which it was shining turned a distinct shade of red, proving that we have had something of a summer after all. The walk from Clacton to Frinton took around two hours (much longer than we’d anticipated), and once we’d got past all the beach huts with their sea vistas that litter the eastern Essex coast, we’d earned our greasy-ish spoon café lunch of egg, chips and tea.
Why only as far as Frinton, though? That longer than expected walk, which meant that we wouldn’t make it back in time to the car park in Clacton, running the risk of a clamp. So tight was time, we couldn’t even just stroll back from Frinton, without carrying onto Walton and then doing the whole route in reverse. So, we misguidedly bought train tickets back to from Frinton, and then realised that we’d misinterpreted the train timetable, and the next service was too late. Plan B involved the local bus, which to be fair, took us back into Clacton town centre – where we had to run to the car park – but we paid a steep £7.00 between us for the privilege. More (walking) speed next time.
