#daily echo

It's not everyday you get a world famous pop star visit your pub for dinner.

So when One Direction star Louis Tomlinson visited The Woolpack in Sopley for dinner on Monday night, it's safe to say staff were a bit shocked.

The world famous singer, who topped the charts with bandmates Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and former member Zayn Malik, popped in to the picturesque thatch cottage pub near Christchurch for a spot of dinner.

“We haven’t posted much as it’s our last week but I couldnt help myself. when this guy shows up in your restaurant you have to, What a gentleman to allow myself and a lot of customers and staff to have pics with him. Thank you”

And it was the perfect leaving present for much-loved local landladies Teela and Dee Liberty-Spark, who hand over the keys to new owners at the end of the week.

The couple, famed for their food menu - and Dee's homemade pies - weren't aware the superstar singer would be coming for dinner.

Dee told the Daily Echo: "We were out but apparently he had phoned earlier to ask if we were serving food.

"Our bar maid didn't think anything of it - he didn't leave a name - and we often get enquiries like this.

"But when he walked through the door, Keith our bar man, immediately recognised him.

"I mean he's so famous, I don't know anyone who wouldn't know him.

"When we walked back in, my initial reaction was to just leave him alone.

"We had some of the people from the bible college in, who are quite young - 18 and 19 years old - and then it got quite giggly in the pub.

"After he finished his dinner - he had one of our chicken, leek and bacon pies - I approached him and asked if he would mind having a photo taken with them.

"If he'd have said no, I wouldn't have minded at all.

"But he was lovely and said it wasn't a problem."

Dee added: "Everyone left him alone after that. He's probably the most famous person we've had in the pub in our time here.

For about a week now I have been following articles from The Daily Echo trying to convince people that “Something Batman” related is being filmed in the South shore Sandbanks in the UK.

As a US citizen it was surprisingly easy for me to find out with certainty that they were actually filming The Sandman.

1.  Someone’s cellphone footage of a very distant (you have to squint) Tom Sturridge as Morpheus and another character (likely Rose Walker) are filming.  You can faintly hear a raven croaking in the recording a little too loudly to be genuine background noise.  There’s no mistaking Morpheus, even when he’s a blurry speck at a distance.  

2.   Boyd Holbrook (The Corinthian) posted a very short video just yesterday from that very location.  You can hear a voice (likely the director) say “We just got to Matthew.  We won’t do Boyd today.   Tell Boyd he can relax.”

 3.   We know The Sandman is stuck filming in the UK.  The articles say it is a DC “mini-series” for Netflix.  It’s a series for Netflix all right, but it’s not a mini-series.  There are only two DC properties currently at Netflix.   Lucifer and The Sandman.   Lucifer just finished filming for season 6 (and is releasing the conclusion of Season 5).   Lucifer is ending.  That leaves just The Sandman.  But Golly, gosh, it can’t POSSIBLY be The Sandman being filmed at the Sandbanks with Tom Sturridge walking around dressed as f--king Morpheus, and Boyd Holbrook (The Corinthian) posting to his instagram from about thirty feet away.  Nawwww.   Nope.  Must be Batman!  

This wasn’t just some shoddy journalism.  I am convinced that the writer of the article already knew they definitely were filming The Sandman but was unaware of how popular Neil Gaiman or his Sandman are right now. So he tried to slant his articles with speculation of the likes of “Could a new Batman series be in the works?” and peppering his article with mentions of characters like Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Aquaman.  I know what he was doing and it was worse than questionable journalism.   

It wasn’t just clickbait. He carefully chose questions, headlines, and peppered the names of A list DC superheroes into the articles so that they would turn up on Google searches for those characters.

As someone who values journalistic integrity I write this as a warning.  I will NOT provide links to the articles here.  They don’t deserve your clicks or comments.   Just know not to trust the UK website “Daily Echo.” 

I checked and it is VERY easy to find out what is being filmed there so a journalist on-location has no excuse for spreading misinformation and he was doing it all week long.  

I wouldn’t be so angry if I didn’t know how easy it was to find out what was actually being filmed.  Crew members talked to this journalist and heavily hinted at it being Sandman but he kept acting like it must be Batman or Superman or one of the Justice League somehow.

Timeshare ‘con artist’ sentenced to pay back victims!

Good news needs to be shared, so that is why we are pleased to have woken up today with the following articles in the newspapers:

Timeshare con artist Francis ‘Frank’ Madden in court and Timeshare conman must pay victims

Frank Madden is not unknown to this blog as we already posted a couple of years ago articles about this man.

One of these blogs referred to the company ITRA who hired his…

Life After the State ~ James Pyles #writephoto

David had lived underground all his life, his existence tied to the Hive habitat that had been manufactured hundreds of years ago, and his body, blood, work, all in the service of the state. He couldn’t have imagined the exquisite beauty of the garden he was now walking in, sunlight warming his back and shoulders, the sweet aroma of these spectacular plants, all so green, growing and alive, even…

Spur of the moment – Iain Kelly #writephoto

A fancy dress party. Not my sort of thing. But sitting in alone again made me think twice. Everyone out there having a good time. Why not me too? What can I wear? I know. My check shirt, old jeans. Rummage through the children’s old toy box. There it is, a toy gun and a small cowboy hat. A cloth round my neck. The final touch – Grandad’s old boots, complete with authentic spurs. Look in the…