‘You’re always on edge – it has consequences’: the extraordinary drama about working in an Amazon-style warehouse

In On Falling, first time director Laura Carreira exposes the hardships and humiliations of a woman struggling to earn a living in a ‘fulfilment centre’ in Glasgow

A lonely woman trudges the aisles of a cavernous warehouse, accompanied by the accusatory bleeps of the scanner that directs her every move. She picks objects off the shelves that serve other people’s needs – a baby doll, a vibrator, a rope washing line – as her own are slowly obliterated.

Laura Carreira’s acclaimed debut feature, On Falling, charts the exhausting and repetitive working week of an e-commerce employee. It is a testament to her skill as a director that she injects it with the pace, tension and jeopardy of a thriller.

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Continue Reading‘You’re always on edge – it has consequences’: the extraordinary drama about working in an Amazon-style warehouse

Kate Cross fears England have lost fans after debacle in Women’s Ashes

  • Bowler admits ‘cultural’ issues within England setup
  • ‘I’d like people to fall back in love with English cricket’

Kate Cross has admitted there are cultural issues within English women’s cricket and said she fears the national team have lost fans after a disastrous Women’s Ashes series in which the side were whitewashed 16-0 by Australia amid a sea of glaring fielding and batting errors.

Cross, an unused squad member on the tour, also called on the England and Wales Cricket Board to leave no stone unturned in their review of the tour, which she said is crucial to ensuring the public “fall back in love with English cricket”.

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Continue ReadingKate Cross fears England have lost fans after debacle in Women’s Ashes

Kate Cross fears England have lost fans after debacle in Women’s Ashes

  • Bowler admits ‘cultural’ issues within England setup
  • ‘I’d like people to fall back in love with English cricket’

Kate Cross has admitted there are cultural issues within English women’s cricket and said she fears the national team have lost fans after a disastrous Women’s Ashes series in which the side were whitewashed 16-0 by Australia amid a sea of glaring fielding and batting errors.

Cross, an unused squad member on the tour, also called on the England and Wales Cricket Board to leave no stone unturned in their review of the tour, which she said is crucial to ensuring the public “fall back in love with English cricket”.

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Continue ReadingKate Cross fears England have lost fans after debacle in Women’s Ashes

Satori, Birmingham B13: ‘Pomposity chimed loudly in the air’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

You really can’t put a price on this kind of excitement, although in this case it came to £12

The last time I dined in affluent Moseley, south Birmingham, a few years back and in quite a fancy establishment, a fight broke out mid-meal. It was more drunken argy-bargy than fisticuffs, but enough to count as floor entertainment. Sadly, no spats occurred on my recent visit to Satori, an enlightening Japanese restaurant in the same postcode, though that’s probably because it’s so dark in there – black walls, black floors, black tables – that its customers wisely choose to remain safely seated.

But this is not a Dans Le Noir-style themed restaurant where you eat in a blackout; no, it has instead merely been designed by someone who clearly really loves shiny, black surfaces with blood-red trimmings and busts of dragons. It’s giving, as the kids say, 1980s MFI showroom doing international playboy lair. Or the time Adrian Mole painted over his Noddy wallpaper with black paint, but the gold hat bells kept gleaming through.

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Continue ReadingSatori, Birmingham B13: ‘Pomposity chimed loudly in the air’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Satori, Birmingham B13: ‘Pomposity chimed loudly in the air’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

You really can’t put a price on this kind of excitement, although in this case it came to £12

The last time I dined in affluent Moseley, south Birmingham, a few years back and in quite a fancy establishment, a fight broke out mid-meal. It was more drunken argy-bargy than fisticuffs, but enough to count as floor entertainment. Sadly, no spats occurred on my recent visit to Satori, an enlightening Japanese restaurant in the same postcode, though that’s probably because it’s so dark in there – black walls, black floors, black tables – that its customers wisely choose to remain safely seated.

But this is not a Dans Le Noir-style themed restaurant where you eat in a blackout; no, it has instead merely been designed by someone who clearly really loves shiny, black surfaces with blood-red trimmings and busts of dragons. It’s giving, as the kids say, 1980s MFI showroom doing international playboy lair. Or the time Adrian Mole painted over his Noddy wallpaper with black paint, but the gold hat bells kept gleaming through.

Continue reading...
Continue ReadingSatori, Birmingham B13: ‘Pomposity chimed loudly in the air’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants