Sense and Sensibility revisited

Eleanor and Marianne

 I own the fact that I adored Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation , with the gloriously amusing and heartbreaking Emma Thompson leading the charge. Of course Thompson was far too old for the role but she made it her own , as did Alan Rickman as the weary Colonel Brandon, an unlikely suitor to Kate Winslet’s Marianne.

It would be unfair of me to list all what was bad in this recent remake by Georgia Oakley, suffice to say that cinematographer Arnaud Poitier chose to film the whole piece with drab subdued colours, the antithesis of Lee’s Chocolate box version. 

Colonel Brandon 

I shall however underline what I DID like about this version .

The character of Marianne ( played by Esmé Creed Miles) was more flighty and fickle than Winslet’s Cupid’s bow version, I believed it more when her affections changed towards Colonel Brandon ( played rather well by the Norwegian actor ( Herbert Nordrum) and I loved how Nordrum gave the Colonel a sudden rush of temper and menace towards the sneering Willoughby( Frank Dillane), it made him rather dangerous and ever so sexy, unlike his 1995’s character) 

Mrs Jennings

Fiona Shaw recreated the wonderfully overblown Elizabeth Spriggs ( Mrs Jennings) wonderfully and gave this film its only real humour which was unfortunate as Fanny Dashwood, mr Palmer and  Sir John  were great comic asides in the “ original”

I enjoyed it, I must say It was worthy but a touch bland ,and I must also admit the choreography at the ball was abysmal if not bizarre . 

Bring back Thompson I say 

Dear Tom - The Germans

A funny day….the eye clinic this morning with a new, perfectly polite and precise German Doctor who was a dream . I may eventually go blind in my right eye but I made sure she knew her bedside manner was  exemplary. I came home , made more beef stew and completed some of my counselling tax returns

Hey ho

 Now Operation Mincemeat seems to be the slow burning musical winner in the west End and on Broadway .Based upon the British wartime ruse of tricking the Germans of the date and place of the invasion, it has MI5’s aging spinster Hester Leggart’s chatty letter to her fictitious boyfriend Tom which was placed in a corpse’s uniform pocket to give credibility to him and rank.

The letter has been crafted into a song which is possibly one of the most moving songs about loss and grief and war ever written, I hope you enjoy it 

Speaking of Germans my friend The German is in Austria 

I asked him to reenact Julie Andrew’s famous Sound of Music spin for me

And he did …..

Counselling going forward

 I have been qualified as a practicing counsellor for a year now.

That’s approximately 240 hours of client centred therapy.

Quite a lot, you may think, given the fact that said counsellor has been occasionally suffering from bouts of imposter syndrome during the past year.

I’m only just emerging from imposter syndrome and today was an example of feeling stretched and truly challenged as a professional counsellor as I was not only faced with a safeguarding issue which necessitated liaising with a host of medical professionals but had to deal with a client , I felt I couldn’t help in the way they wanted me to. 

You can feel somewhat isolated as a counsellor

You have to think on your feet,

You have to remain honest and objective 

And you have to be able to listen to that inner voice, the one that sometimes screams to high heaven 

When all about you is silent. 

I needed that challenge this week 

And I enjoyed dealing with it all in a professional, slightly stressed sort of way

Bake Off

I bought sunflowers from Aldi tonight.

They look cheerful in the kitchen as the autumn evening draws in. 

The Great British Bake Off starts tonight

Another signal that winter is almost here.

I’ve lit the fire as Roger is gleefully chasing a daddy long legs around the kitchen . 

It’s a habit William used to do with honey bees in the garden and it pleases me to see Roger playing the same games

Weaver is sat under my desk and has already grumbled at Mary as she ambled to the sofa to sleep her old lady sleep.

I’m counselling all day tomorrow so have put beef and vegetables in the slow cooker with stock , chillies and Worcestershire sauce…..beef stew is a great supper on an autumn night.

I will leave you with this video , which a friend sent me this morning , a memory from 2018

The best memory of an awful year…..thanks to you guys I raised 5 grand for Samaritans , even though I looked like Shelley Winters in a sleeping bag

Bullerengue

 My Spanish Lisping Choir has been going for many years. This is one of their early pieces and a bloody powerful one it is too. I loved its Columbian/ Negro Slave origins.

Lovely to see faces I’ve got to know , but oh so young! 

Enjoy.

This video is priceless. 

It also sums up my day 

As I was lifting Mary out of Bluebell , I dropped my phone

Roger jumped past me with me still holding his lead spinning me around

And in my fat, ungainly, 64 year old way 

I almost fell over 

I Staggered

Founced around 

And crushed said phone with a large plastic left foot croc ! 

Alas phone is no more! 

Fuckity fuck , fuck fuck !  

Home

 

Fifteen years ago to the minute, I would be opening the field gate for the last time in the day . 

In small groups of threes and fours the hens would already be  making their way to the eight hen houses that made up the Ukrainian village, the fat bottoms of the buff Orpington’s swinging like the hips of buxom Italian field workers.

The runner ducks stood in a large almost hysterical group by the duckhouse, all drumming their feet on the ground in nervous excitement. Two steps forward and a quick raise of an arm , and they would chunner loudly and dive into their house in a blind panic 

The Geese knew then it was their time for bed, and would extend their necks and unfold their wings  at me in feigned protest but that protest was never too marked , for minutes later they were seeking the softest part of the goose house floor in which to nest for the night.

Boris and Gloria follow. Boris puffing and blowing like a freight train and galleon in full sail, Gloria limping like the fat old lady she is

They have to be escorted more slowly as, rushing a turkey always makes them fall over

They don’t roost quickly, but watch me carefully as I walk away to sort the last of the birds 

With the latch on the turkey house firmly locked the last of the long lines of hens weaved their way homewards, most overseen by a protective cockerel with his head raised high and weaving in between them but moving towards the graveyard came the rugby ball shaped guinea fowl, all running low to the ground . They were off to roost in the Elm trees and they called to each other in clicks and tuts, like humorous clockwork toys as they fled to bed.

The pigs snort loudly and sigh in their straw beds, as the light finally changes to a colourless grey and finally the last of the hens tiptoe to bed. I lock each hen house door in turn, and smile to myself as the birds bicker and squabble for the best perches inside. 

Left outside on the field is Albert ,and perhaps George who is tottering behind , quite happily. 

The three of us amble for home as the sheep kneel then lie in the grass border under the hawthorn and the lights from the cottage suddenly fall across the lane , leaving a path for us to follow, 

As night falls at last…….

Durme Durme/lisgor ma'agal

 I couldn’t sleep after nights, so played this Spanish / Jewish lullaby on a loop until Weaver joined me on my hip, and we both dozed until just after midday.

Blog Reader Lee had been taken ill on her beloved bar stool, I found out yesterday 

I thought that this was quite fitting and had some of the theatre about the woman who always seemed to sit in it. 

Her cousin told me that the Hebrew Language had a saying Lisgor ma’ahal which fitted her place of death, as its means the closing of a circle so to speak or the resolving of a life chapter 🍸

I miss her already

Fish Finger Butty

 A fishfinger bap, smothered in tartar sauce and coffee for lunch. I met one of my friends from my old counselling course today. She hurled herself into part time counselling from her social worker career and has stuck to it like the majority of our group. 

A wisecracking Glaswegian , I needed her straight talking, fresh approach to problem 

working tonight

Hey ho