Jojo Rabbit

A comedy where Jojo, a Nazi obsessed ten year old German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) and his invisible best friend Hitler (Taika Waititi) have to deal with the prospect of losing the war, a Jewish girl hiding in the attic, his mother's secret resistance work and the normal problems of growing up, doesn't sounds very likely but Waititi, who wrote and directed this odd little piece has crafted not only a very funny satire of every Nazi film ever filmed but has produced a gentle and an incredibly warm piece on growing up and the loss of innocence .
I am glad it was a comedy , for if filmed as a straight drama it would have lost buckets of charm as well as gaining an overload of trauma and misery.
The movie, at times is laugh-out-loud funny,
However when the reality of true horror of the story needs to be shown then Waititi shows them with such subtle power that those scenes literally rip your heart out

Johansson, a lovely turn

It took at least ten minutes for me to settle down after the quite amusing Hitler character charms himself into the action ( boy did this feel wrong) but after this the wonderful acting and sensitivity by Davis in the lead role and the performances from Scarlett Johansson and Thomasin McKensie ( as
Jojo's mother and the girl in the attic respectively) all drag you in to a story which is all about how a child sees his world .
I must also say something about the child actor Archie Yates who pops up as Jojo's overweight but relentless cheerful and pragmatic best friend. He almost steals the show. His final scene where he and Jojo experience the front line against the advancing Russsian forces is incredibly poignant especially as his character puts down his machine gun and admits that all he wants to do is to go home to cuddle him mother.

The delightful Archie Yates

Jojo Rabbit, like every satire of horrendous real events, has a great deal to say
But it also works as a simple story of a little boy growing up
And on both levels it succeeds in bucketloads .

Lazy Sunday Post

Rock'n Roll

I woke just before 4 pm
I had slept through the bun fight which was the arrival of the sexy bearded dog walker
And the dogs were lying in unconscious heaps in the kitchen when I sleepily came downstairs
I hadn't managed a shop so cooked gnocchi for tea
And prepared it simply with garlic and lashings of parmesan

I ate my tea, Amelie style at the kitchen table and read the previous posts' suggestions on paint and textures and light
I watched the final half hour of Cocoon and drank my usual bucket of coffee
A bath, ironing of the uniform, feeding the dogs and I'm off too to work

Not exactly rock n roll

Decorating On A Budget

I had just opened the first of a loaned mountain of Homes & Gardens magazines when the phone went.
I'm now working night shifts instead of day shifts over the weekend
Bang went my afternoon of decorating research.

I need to redecorate the cottage.
Psychologically that needs to be done
But physically that really needs to be done

A log burner maybe romantic and inviting when lit
( when you get home after a long shift and you have to light a mucky stove, romantic is the last friggin word that comes to mind)
But soot and dust and occasional smells take their toll in a tiny cottage
And everything looks a bit grubby, even in candlelight.

At the moment the living room is a gentle sage green, a plain background to my remaining original art, grandfather clock and furniture .
The paintwork is an old fashioned ivory cream and the ceiling and beams are painted white in traditional Welsh style.
Every surface is now slightly sooty and smoke stained.
The carpet is old and needs replacing.
It will have to be content with a good deep clean.

The master bedroom needs a total overhaul
The wallpaper remains a thirteen year old Laura Ashley rose print

I'm open to ideas on colours schemes
Send me your ideas

gifts

One of my colleagues in work gave me a gift today
It was the above framed map of Trelawnyd  with the caption "I'm staying in the village"
A small kindness but a thoughtful one/

I didn't get back home until 20.45 pm
Winnie's jagged wound is improving but she is still walking in boxing gloves, which strangely seems not to be bothering her too much

There was a bowl of macaroni cheese left carefully wrapped inside my mail box
thanks neighbours!

The Gayest Film Of All Time

I've Just Sat Through 

Magnificent Obsession

I've never seen it before

"May I get excited Tomorrow?"

Your Advocate, your mentor

No matter just how old you are, we all need an advocate of our own
If you are lucky, those mentors will be your parents and in some fortunate cases a healthy parent in their eighties can still parent a son or daughter who are approaching their sixties.
My mother died not long after the millennium, my father back in the late 1980s, so since then and to be honest since I was a child, my mentor and advocate has always been my elder sister, Ann

No matter just how old you are, its nice to have a protector
I remember when I was in my thirties and I brought my husband to be home for the first time my sister was gracious and welcoming and warm and funny
It was at a family meal and as we got into the car to leave she followed us to the road to say goodbye.
There was lots of  cheek kissing and hugs at that farewell and just before we drove away my sister leaned through the passenger window at my husband to be and smiled sweetly
"Don't you ever mess him around" she warned not unkindly but the subtext was clear to all of us
"For if you do, You 'll have me to deal with!"

who is your advocate?

A Little Fat Horse

Well I think I have found a hidden talent

My sisters and I went to our first pottery class today and we started off with my request at potting my own little fat horse

So here is my very first little fat horse

not bad for a first attempt

Next week we are being taught how to throw and centre our clay on the potting wheel!

My sisters in full concentration mode

When I was busy potting , Winnie was opening up her wound with her strong back claws so I's missing choir in order to watch her after bandaging her back foot in a boxing glove