Emotonal Romps ( with Friends and On Trains)

The Peace Gardens in Sheffield.......site of my Scotch Egg tea picnic
Last Night I met up with five old friends.
Our histories have intertwined for two decades, through thick and thin....at work and leisure...and through much laughter and occasionally quite a bit of pain. I have passed through my thirties and forties and now have crept into my fifties and still they are there...a little greyer, a little older but still constants in my life, albeit now more intermittent contacts than they were when I lived in the old steel city.
I miss them. 
I miss my neighbour and friend John swishing his arms like a demented Bette Davis in my back garden.
I miss Jane's warmth and ability to laugh at anything, I miss Mike's sensible geniality, Sarah's unflappable nature and I miss Ruth's machine gun "Frankie Howard" repartee. 
Life and distance can get in the way of friendships if you let them so
it was good to touch base...........a year was far too long to be apart.

We chatted and laughed, like we have always done and like we will undoubtedly do again in a few months time when I get my arse into gear again to make the short trip across from Wales..........
and I went to bed at midnight happy in the fact that somethings in life dont really change
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have you ever cried on a train?
I have...well just a little that is......I have just watched the Israeli film "Yossi" which is a surprisingly unsentimental yet incredibly moving portrayal of the long tern grief suffered by the 34 year old closeted gay cardiologist Yossi after the death of his soldier lover during their army service in the Lebanon a decade previously.
Yossi is an over weight, workaholic loner who spends his life in a quiet, emotionally flat sort of desperation, a sad, lonely existence that is challenged quite unexpectedly by a chance meeting with four young soldiers to whom he gives a lift to.

Eytan Fox has produced a little gem of a movie a decade after his breakthrough first feature Yossie and Jagger( 2002) , ( which is the story of the original doomed love affair between the two twenty somethings boy soldiers.) for Yossi is a quiet and measured study of depression and loneliness without the usual Hollywood histrionics and emotional romping

Ohad Knoller reprises his original title role quite magnificently. In hushed tones and with sad whipped puppy eyes he portrays Yossi as a character who is not only still grieving for a past life and love but who is an emotionally flat, unconfident lump of a man reminiscent, a little, of Ernest Borgnine's Marty.
It's an incredibly restrained performance in a rather understated, moving film.
9/10

26 comments:

  1. sounds like you had a great time! you inspired me and i made scotch eggs yesterday! i will have to look for that movie here. it sounds like something i would like a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yossi is remarkable - I loved it. And thanks to you when M&S this morning I bought bloody Scotch eggs! I wonder if they have seen an increase in sales lately?

    ReplyDelete
  3. We simply do not have time left to make friends like those who stood by us through thick and thin, through decades. I did give a dear friend a little water color of two Auntie Gladys sorts, inscribed "We've been best friends forever and when we grow senile we'll be new best friends.'

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yossie and Jagger was a great film - I hadn't realized they'd followed it up so will definitely be looking out for it now. Thanks for the thumbs up, John.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm glad it made you a happy bunny - how was the egg? Did you get the one from PJ taste? xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They bleeding didn't have any.....I had one from Tesco express

      Delete
    2. When I next pass, I will call in and get you one - i'll post it! xxx

      Delete
    3. Please do....I will love you forever

      Delete
  6. Are you sure that is a photo of Sheffield John? The sun is shining.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a warm sunny day.....and it was lovely

      Delete
    2. The sun always shines in Sheffield, but don't tell everybody - we don't want 'em flocking here! xx

      Delete
  7. I am glad you had the friends reunion and enjoyed it so much...friends feed us in so many ways really don't they? and the film sounds really good...I must look out for it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Friends...we should always take the time.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reunions with friends are always fun, especially if it feels like no time has passed. And I will check out both films. I've heard of Yossi and Jagger but never got 'round to seeing it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, we certainly should take the time for our friends - but sometimes time takes them from us far too prematurely. Sounds like a lovely bunch of them you have there - long may they continue.x
    (ps you don't half go in for the depressing type of films, don't you? although 'Of Mice and Men' was my fav Steinbeck book until I read 'Cannery Row', then I wanted to go to Monterey and pack fish!).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nana... By the end Yossi was one of the most uplifting films I have seen in a long time

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'll try and watch Yossi - It sounds fantastic .Thank for the recommendation. The very mention of scotch eggs makes my mouth water now. A trip to the fridge for some newly discovered vanilla milk as a substitute.....

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thats a lot of emotion going on there - reuniting with friends, movies with feelings...Hope Chris is ready for you when you get home!!! xxx

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hope you have a wonderful couple of days catching up on comings and goings, old friends if you are like me, n o matter how long the time in between, we always seem to pick up right where we left off.
    ~Jo

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sad that films like Yossi still strike a chord because there are still many people who don't dare to come out for fear of the consequences.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The films message nick is more about being true o yourself

      Delete
  16. My group of high school girlfriends got together a few months ago and it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling that they can take you back and still be with you now...enjoy them whenever possible as some are gone too fast.

    ReplyDelete

I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes