Another week in paradise has gone.
I am being sarcastic in case you thought I was being all Pollyannerish. I am not. Getting fed up with everything now but I gather a glimmer is in sight that our Lords and Masters have decreed an end to lockdown in March. Not a total end, natch, but a gentle easing. That is all I want, I have no desire to go sit in a pub, go to a rave (not that I ever did) and dance naked in the snow (not that I ever did that either, at least I don't think so) but just to be able to pop into town and have a wander round the shops and stop for a coffee. It is the small things I miss.
But I have taken the time to catch up on loads of films and tv shows and have watched more tv in the last few months than I have in years so this post is all about that and is not literary in any sense of the word so if you have come here today expecting an erudite piercing analysis of a book you will be disappointed. Not sure you ever got that anyway so perhaps I am refining a tad.
After my last post on the Clancy biography of Cary Grant (please check it out if you have not already read it) which has received lots of comments both on and off blog, I have been watching some of his films. And oh my goodness I had forgotten just how simply gorgeous, charismatic and handsome he was. And so effortlessly elegant. I mentioned that I had rewatched North by North West and To Catch a Thief - well I have now watched Charade and the other night it was the turn of An Affair to Remember.
Now I saw this at the Saturday Night Pictures which I attended religiously for years with my mum and sister and I wept buckets. Not sure if it was a good idea to watch it at this particular time but hey ho. A few weeks ago I watched Sleepless in Seatle, the movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, which references the Cary Grant film and reminded me that I had loved it years ago.
Well apart from two excruciatingly nauseating scenes with ghastly singing children, badly acted, it was gorgeous. Cary and Deborah Kerr sparring with each other on a voyage trying to remembe they were already involved with others but unable to resist. And then promising to meet at the top of the Empire State Building. Years ago when I actually visited this place and was looking out over New York I heard this scene referenced by loads of people around me. I dislike the use of the word iconic but in this case it is the right one.
I ended up a sodden heap of course but oh how I loved it all over again.
Over the last ten years I have watched a French series Spiral about a team of cops in Paris. It was quite superb and gripping and attracted a huge fan base. Each series was followed in the Guardian newspaper in the Uk who did a recap of each episode, which I needed at times to comprehand what was going on, and then commented on underneath by devoted fans. This all added to the viewing experience.
The final two episodes were shown a couple of weeks ago and they were just so good. I was on the edge of my seat feeling the tension and the creeping feeling that something awful was going to happen. If you want something to watch then do get hold of this. Eight series though so a lot to catch up on.
After that I looked for something else and noted that many of the Spiral fans had enjoyed The Bureau another French series about the French Intelligence service. It is on Amazon Prime and the first series about a fiver so I gave it a whirl and soon found myself equally riveted. I have just purchased series two and there are three more after this so I think I can safely say I have a lot lined up at the moment.
I am still finding it hard to concentrate on reading and know many of my fellow readers and bloggers are feeling the same right now so I am just picking up random books and reading in a very haphazard way. So at the moment I am reading Catherine Aird who I am enjoying thought she does tend to get bogged down in long drawn out conversations which seem to add very little to the mystery, and The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie, have not read it for yonks and she thought it was a poor book so I am going to see what I think of it and I had better stop as this sentence is very long....
I am also doing a bit of knitting. Just a simple cowl which needs no close attention to the pattern which is just as well as I am working on it while watching the cricket which, calloo callay o frabjous day, is back on terrestrial tv for the first time since 2005 and also the Australian Open. I am spoiled for choice.
I hope all my lovely readers are Keeping Calm and Carrying On. I feel the end is in sight and having had my first jab (had a nasty reaction to it but no matter) and the second lined up in April, my sense of optimism is rising.
Let us hope it continues do to so.
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