Reading Tracing Rainbows this week and all the problems Angela has had with her car reminded me that this summer, we said goodbye to our car. I am not the sort of person who is too bothered about cars. I am very much an A to B person. HOH and I and I both walk to work and when the kids were at school, they got the bus so really our car is a sort of extra thing.
I am sure that it is not healthy to give feelings to an inanimate object but I have to confess to a little tear as they towed it away. I wondered for a fleeting moment if it was a bit frightened about where it was going (not to a good place) then I realised how ridiculous I was. The thing is the car has been part of our family - oh yes it has. We bought it to take me to the Christie hospital for radiotherapy and since then it has seen some life. It has been packed full of teenagers and dog on their way to the beach for evening bbqs. It has provided a safe space to open envelopes with exam results in. It has been the place that hid me when I was too shy to go into a place for the first time. It has also been the place where I cried when work was just TOO difficult. It has sheltered us from the rain and the wind and was such a welcome sight when we were waiting for lifts late at night. It has taken family members to hospital appointments and transported us all safely down south when we moved. Do NOT try and tell me that it has not been an important part of us.
However, it is now 17 years old and it had started to overheat on a regular basis so that I was more and more tense when we were in traffic. It was costing loads of money to get it through its MOT and I kind of felt it was done. So we got something else and it's fine and the kids are less embarrassed by it and it is less likely to pack in during the pouring rain or on Plymouth's most notorious roundabout. But I waved it off, at least I did in my head and it takes some precious memories with it and I am very grateful for it. You can laugh all you want.
I am assuming that Summer has decided to sling its hook. It is still August but if the Bank Holiday is anything to go by, I think we can safely assume that we have more or less had it. No more leisurely breakfasts on the Hoe for a while. Probably just as well judging by waistline and bank balance. It is very damp here so hopefully telly will get a bit better. Anyway...Dr Who
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| BBC |
I love Peter Capaldi and I really hope it works out but...good grief. Without sounding too much like my Mum, half the time I had no idea what anyone was saying. It all seemed very intense and not in a good way. Not even a new story, FOW2 recognised it as an old Tennant story within 5 minutes. Don't strain yourself Moffatt will you? And that flippin Lizzard and her wife as they kept telling us again and again and again. They came out more times than Vicky Beeching! (Sorry Vicky, I think you are lovely and brave but I kind of think it might be time to talk about someone else for a while?)
FOW2 and I spent half an our this evening chatting about old Whos, funny Whos, sharp Whos. I miss Eccleston opening a copy of Hello magazine and commenting "That'll never work - he's gay and she's an alien" I miss him telling Billie Piper that what she needed was a doctor. I miss Tennant shouting "Allons-y Allonso!" or " You want weapons - we're in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!" or Donna shouting "You're not mating with me sunshine!" You get the idea.
I truly hope it's not an idea whose time has passed. It is in dire need of something though. A script perhaps?
Or we were...
Anyway, bit of London. We were there for 3 nights and 5 days if you get my drift. We planned ahead and did something every night. Just thought I would tell you about the theatre bits. We saw The Commitments, which is really just the weakest story in the history of the world held together by some of the most fantastic music ever. Basically, they get away with it by providing a twenty minute set of Motown belters at the end that they do really well. This sends everyone away happy and completely oblivious to the fact that the plot and dialogue could have been written in the gaps on the back of a Persil packet. Seriously not complaining though - we had a great night. We watched from a box which was on a special offer thingy. Several people must have thought that we were famous because they came and pointed their cameras up at us to take photos. Must have been a bit disappointing when they got home.
Also went to see The 39 Steps, which is a quite frankly hilarious parody of Hitchcock's film of the John Buchan Novel It has a cast of four who interchange roles quite brilliantly. It would make your cat laugh. We did spot a few Japanese people buying copies of the original film in the foyer after the play had finished. Just hope they knew it was the original film - rather than the funny play. I had visions of them getting home and putting their films in their lovely DVD players and wondering why the whole thing was so much darker and more dramatic than they remembered. Not as many laughs either.
Anyway, just to finish this portion of that was the month, that was, a photo of me and HOH. This is because he takes most of the photos and thinks that in years to come, strangers will look back and think that we were a one parent family because he is rarely there. That would never do.
I have been away from blogging. It was very rude to leave without a by your leave. This is not a Northern thing to do. I apologise. In my defence I have had a month and a half - in a month - all squashed in.
- FOW1 has had a friend to stay for a weekend. Not that I was involved much in that but my job was to keep the bathroom clean which turned out to be a full time job.
- We had a very welcome invasion from Northern type relatives for a few days.
- All members of family, except, me hit milestone birthdays - 18, 21 and 60. You can work out for yourself which is which.
- We have had leave from work and also been to London to see lots of theatre and cinema and history and shopping and stuff. And eating. Lots and lots of eating - trash mostly.
- Went to London with HOH-ON OUR OWN . Mooched around in a lovely romantic way without teenagers five yards behind asking where Bella Italia is.
- FOW2 got her A level results. AAA* since you ask - thank you very much.
It has been so busy. A more organised person would have blogged every day and kept you abreast of developments. I meant to, I really did. Instead, I kept guiltily looking at my laptop in the corner staring at me like a puppy I hadn't fed. (I have no idea why I wrote that, I have never not fed a puppy)
I have also been brave and booked for a writers' day in London in October. I don't really do things like this but really wanted to go so I went for it. Can always pull out (no, no I won't - almost certainly not)
So if you are still there, thank you. I shall attempt to continue as things were before the month that has just passed intervened. Can't say I am sorry though. We had a great month!
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| Guardian |
Some people made a terrible mistake this week. A shocking horrifying mistake. A passenger plane was shot down. They weren't aiming for a passenger plane, but that was what they hit. Because of that mistake nearly two hundred people - perhaps eighty of them children, including these beautiful faces here, lost their lives in a horrible, horrible way.
It is the kind of thing that should stop us in our tracks. We should be asking ourselves - is this too far? Does this awful thing show us just how near to the abyss we are? We should be asking ourselves these things personally but also as nations. Our leaders should be leading us to our knees. Yet, what do we see? Politicians on all sides jockeying for position. Trying to take advantage. Pointing fingers. We see people playing for time, hiding evidence, stopping grieving families finding their loves, their babies.Trying to shift the blame, to absolve themselves of all responsibility.
I am naive, I know. I sort of thought that something like this would make people stop. Say "Hang on a minute - this is too much, too far. Let's talk together like grown people who have maybe seen too much."
It seems not. I am afraid for what we are all becoming.
