Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Mum’s the word when it comes to meatloaf
Plot promises much but delivers little
This week’s recipe is a tribute to my mum, who sadly passed away recently.
She was the person who gave me my passion for cooking and has left me with many happy memories of time spent in the kitchen together.
I now have possession of many of her handwritten recipes, which I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks. For this week let’s start with one of her all-time favourites, for which she will be well remembered.
The thing that everyone laughs about is the fact there is coffee in the gravy... but it works!
It’s fair to say there have been some challenging conditions for walkers in Monklands over the past few weeks.
But that didn’t stop photography fan Tony Harris from taking a trip to Airdrie’s West End Park during some snowfall.
Tony, who lives near the park, said: “I have always loved walking around the park; even more so now as we are limited to a little bit of daily exercise.
“It was bitter cold, with snow falling for a while, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
“I hope your readers like these photos of the park looking wintry.”
Send your photographs, along with your name, where you are from and details about the images’ content, by email to ian.bunting@reachplc.com.
You Should Have Left Cinema Premiere
●●●●● Kevin Bacon is better known these days for starring in mobile phone adverts, but the 62-year-old still turns his hand to the odd movie.
Unfortunately, mystery-thriller You Should Have Left is a long way off his CV heavy-hitters like A Few Good Men, Apollo 13 and Mystic River.
And that’s despite the thoughtprovoking story – loosely adapted from Daniel Kehlman’s novel by helmer-writer David Koepp – which sees Bacon’s Theo and his wife Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and daughter Ella (Avery Tiiu Essex) enduring all sorts of strange goings-on during their vacation in the Welsh countryside.
This is the second time Koepp has directed Bacon after 1999’s Stir of Echoes but a patchy time behind the camera (Secret Window, Mortdecai) belies his vastly superior scriptwriting career (Jurassic Park, Panic Room).
The isolated modern house Theo and his family move into is more Grand
Designs than gothic horror mansion but the discovery that some rooms are bigger on the inside than they are outside promises eerie explanations.
However, the subsequent revelations fail to get pulses racing and predictable twists makes this feel like a retread of other material when it could have been something terrifically original.
Bacon commits to the more psychologically demanding aspects of his character but he’s a long way from his best.
His relationship with Seyfried fails to convince too – and not just because of the 27-year age gap between the two.
There are one or two unsettling scenes, with a mysterious figure creeping around in the background of the spacious house, and the threat of paranoia eating away at Theo.
Sadly, You Should Have Left has little else to make it worth your while.
One of the best things about it is adding Seyfried as another option in the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game.
●What are your thoughts on You Should Have Left? Do you have a favourite Kevin Bacon movie or performance?
Pop me an email at ian.bunting@ reachplc.com and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers.
Kevin Robertson contacted us to say: “I really enjoyed The Serpent on BBC1. It was a very slick production and Tahar Rahim and Jenna Coleman both gave really good performances.”