Variation on a theme: Life not as we knew it

This photo is Haugesund in Norway. Just lifted from Instagram.  We were packing our bags to travel there at this time last year. Glorious.

Variation on a theme: Life not as we knew it                      

Last night we were a little later than usual going to bed because we just had to watch the last episode of Little Fires Everywhere. It was on the whole an excellent series. It would be a difficult job to nominate the best actor in the production. It is full of new thoughts and has an amazing cast of young people, who play the children of the seemingly perfect family living in the perfect home in the perfect location of Shaker Heights, Ohio. In addition the main family group, there is the far from perfect runaway artist mother and her daughter. The cast is headed by Reese Witherspoon who is fantastic at the bitch wife/mother from hell. If push came to shove, I would say that the young Megan Stott and Izzy/Isobel the youngest of four children, we find out quickly that she was the fourth and only unplanned and resented child. The cast is the most polished group. Every one is a winner. 

The show was recommended to us by friends who are also struggling to remain sensible, calm and focused at this time, in more or less the same way as us. We all have made a point of staying over busy and using every moment of every day in a positive productive way, keeping a tight hold on the things that we feel are important in our lives. That includes being very selective about what we sit down to relax with in the evenings after dinner.

These friends are members of one of the few families that have taken the same or similar life style as a kind of Home Law, on how to get through this time. None of us are ready to mingle carelessly for a good while yet. We are not eager to start hugging all and sundry any time soon.

One of the great new stars in Little Fires Everywhere. Megan Stott is amazing in it.

So entertainment must also be arranged and must be top flight. My recommendation for tonight is The Magic Flute from the Royal Opera House. If you groaned on reading that, I will know that you are not an opera lover. Yet I would then stress that recommendation again and ask you to give it a try. The Magic Flute is one of a selection that I would say were perfect for those who have never watched of listened to a full opera before. It has lovely music great costumes and sets and; it is an out of this world pretty fantasy story. Mozart might have written some heavy duty music but he was not averse to some pretty silly story lines also. This comes on my list of first time opera level that can only be topped by Carmen that is full to bursting with lovely melodies.  Ballet for beginners productions like Nutcracker or La Fille Mal Gardée that are both perfect for children and adults. If you have never watched ballet or opera, you are sort of still in the junior school of music and I don’t mean to offend in saying that, but what I mean is that you have not completed the full musical course. I know it all sounds pompous but that is simply not the truth, if you take into consideration that I left school to go to work when I was fourteen. I didn’t leave dancing school then though. I did join Worthing Musical Comedy Society having fibbed about my age. The first show I was in was Oklahoma. Front row of the chorus, not a star, just a little dancer.

Fairy tails are great and a marvellous base for reading. Moving on to the Harry Potter books are essential reading as far as I am concerned for children and adults. Adults should always read the new popular children’s books in my opinion, know what the little darlings are enjoying. Yet we all like to move on to the great books don’t we. I remember when I was much younger and read, To Kill a Mocking Bird. I felt like I had been tipped off my planet and into the rest of the universe. Well that’s just me anyway, always wanting to find new pleasure in the world. Mad Old Bat. Good job we are all different isn’t it.

On to the new day so far. With another early start and Steve’s first words telling me that it didn’t look very nice outside. He told me that it had been raining and did not look promising for our run. Still, still we both got up and threw out running kit on, glugged down a cup of coffee and set off for the woods as usual.

Having parked Violetta; our VW Caddy van (all our vehicles, bikes included have names, our nineteen year old Golf is called Marcus), we looked at the drizzle on the windscreen and then each other for a nano second before getting out of the van anyway. We had an 8 mile run planned which Steve changed, to choice of run so that we would mainly have the cover of the trees although it would be darkish on such a mouldy day. I had brought I light weight waterproof coat and so I did not get too wet, but it was not cold, in fact it was fairly humid so I soon cast it off and tied it around my waist and only slipped it on when the on/off rain was more noticeable. The only good thing about the weather was that we didn’t see a single solitary soul for the whole run and only one little deer. That is one of the many joys of life that Steve and I share; empty woodlands are sheer heaven, full of bird song and beauty.  

Just another small difference in my behaviour over the last three months, is that I have not worn any jewellery at all and that is a little odd since I have been making an effort to keep myself dressed as nicely as possible, putting a bit of a face on and doing my hair presentably. I have enjoyed having more Steve’s company and he returns that compliment to me daily. We have both given thanks countless times that we have been stuck at home with somebody we love and reflected on how awful it must have been for other couples who not even friends.