The titular quote is from a film I’m currently watching – it’s strangely familiar – and underlines nicely, the importance (yet also the irrelevance) of the hours spent composing my thoughts and reflections.
Still… ‘don’t look back in anger, I heard you say!’ Let’s accentuate the positives: the last thing I wrote to you, dear reader, the esteemed restaurant critic, Jay Rayner, read and liked my review of Roski; he told me so himself…
I felt on top of the world: just in time for our very own World Cup Final – according to the strange German, anyway – which was yet another moral victory, and set me up nicely for World Book Day, on which I coincidentally dressed as an even stranger German.
Still, the positives kept coming: the best news arrived out of nowhere when yours truly was nominated to join a judging panel for a national book award organised by Empathy Lab UK… it reminded me of the reasons I became an educator many moons ago – Mr. Novell and the quote by Atticus Finch in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ – and I was proud as punch.
Plus, all of this was more than welcome when contrasted against the politics, soul searching, debates over exits and legal wrangles made the last few weeks seem a lot more difficult than it really ought to have been.
Despite the business of the everyday, I try my best to keep in touch (from a distance) with what’s going on in popular culture, if only as a distraction. I can therefore happily get excited about upcoming new albums for Morrissey, the wonderful (and highly underrated, although not by us) Richard Hawley – try to watch his input to the recent Sky Arts documentary, ‘A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets’) and the band I believe to be music’s best kept secret, The National. Both they and The Courteeners have upcoming gigs not too far away, too, although I feel like those days are gone now.
“Perhaps my best years are gone. When there was a chance of happiness. But I wouldn’t want them back. Not with the fire in me now. No, I wouldn’t want them back.”
Not when you’ve got Sky+, Netflix, YouTube Premium and Amazon Prime subscriptions to keep you entertained!
When time allows, I made it a New Year’s resolution to devote less time to watching football (thankfully) and more to the quality TV and film productions currently filling our screens and memory cards. I got very excited about ‘The Miracle’, and Italian series based on an innovative concept and produced by the same people as made one of my favourite TV series of all time, ‘Gomorrah’. I’m only one episode in, because you have to really concentrate and that’s often difficult after days spent teaching and marking, or dadding.
Much lighter viewing, although leading to similar frustrations, are the annual cookery competitions I love: ‘Masterchef’ and ‘Great British Menu’. I haven’t given up on the dream, in fact it makes me all the more determined, and do believe I’ll do something at least before it fades. And in the meantime, I’ll keep posting photos of our teas which I guess create envy and ennui in equal measure for some…
Everything… Nothing.
Honorable mentions this month go to ‘After Life’ and ‘Sick of It’, which were both very apt, plus the trailers for soon to be streamed ‘Stranger Things 3’ and ‘Cobra Kai 2’ plus my own little idea for the next series – if given the opportunity again to write an episode – of ‘Moving On’ about an evil neighbour whose daughter causes tension and upset then turns up unexpectedly at a stay and play session, causing awkwardness extraordinaire… that this should happen on the weekend of St Patrick’s Day – the first since my discovery I am a third Celt, therefore gave up lager for Lent and increased my Guinness intake for myriad reasons – is somewhat serendipitous, seeing as it was he who was meant to have driven the snakes out of Ireland. I’m sure the subsequent car scratch was an unfortunate accident too…
Talking of which, back to happier times, and the real TV highlights of recent weeks – the return of Alan Partridge to the BBC and some truly wonderful moments for those of us who have loved him since our early teens. The first aid sequence was particularly hilarious, but for me the classic moment came when his Irish lookalike appeared and sang some questionable ditties. The other – which also took me back to the olden days, but for different reasons – was The Bay, gripping and intriguing but also very nostalgic for me due to its setting and the very clever location scouts who have captured the character and beauty of Morecambe Bay perfectly.
Childhood and reminiscing would finally be the theme of the start of the Easter holidays, namely a trip to the cinema to celebrate the genius of Tim Burton and Dear Baby Jumbo. Spoiling my daughter with popcorn and selfies was special, but so was the storyline, connoting childhood trips to the circus and the initial awe of Disney classics as well as the countless visits to the cinema in my youth I’d forgotten about. We are very lucky to have a classic old picture house on our doorstep, beautifully restored and maintained and cheap as chips compared to the multiplexes others have to frequent but, aside from a handful of films for kids’ parties or the odd Star Wars episode we have really underused so far, so this couple of hours made me excited for the next few years as parents and introducing our little ‘uns to the love of cinema I used to – well, clearly ‘still do, and probably always will do’ – feel.
The other viewing has of course been (some) football, with some happy and not so pleasing resurgences. There have been many special moments from the likes of Leo Messi (over whom I admittedly swoon over, according to a colleague) because almost singlehandedly he has made football likeable again amidst the racism, the phone users and the tribalist twits who spoil things for us all. Still, I do maintain that the good will out
I’m trying to read as much as possible, too, still although I’m finding more solace and peace in lighter literature – definitely not newspapers – such as food magazines at present. Despite a difficult trip to the dental hospital and the pain and torture which more sweet things / decadent living will probably bring, I get very excited at this time of year by the new recipes and ingredients in season (especially resurrection-related) because Easter is pretty much my favourite time of year.
That we have just celebrated seven years marriage is not a mere coincidence; we married on Maundy Thursday, and have always held this period special.
New beginnings, light… first holidays, confirmations, celebratory lunches such as the one we look forward to this week, all the things that remind us of our good luck and blessings… seven years of really good luck, a true rags to riches tale.
I suppose it’s all a bit like the Easter story, isn’t it?
Nothing… everything.