And Just Like That

 

The series remains a fantasy, even to its last moments.

Carrie's "Last Supper" where she got together her nearest and dearest friends to say goodbye to her old apartment/life is something most of us would love to do at one period of our lives.

Friends are the family you choose and by having so many on screen (16 or so) is a testament of just how loved you are.

For Gawd's sake even Samantha almost turned up but due to a blip with British Airways found herself back in the taxi back to Chelsea.

AJLT  comes from a world that lasts in just 2 minute bursts. it would be lovely but exhausting to live that strange fantasy life for real. sex is always on satin sheets and last exactly four thrusts before intercutting with another friend bedding another man.....and poor Antony, almost forced into anal at his ripe age just because everyone has to be everything to everyone.

And Just Like That is rubbish

but its now a 50 something rubbish show that the fans have followed  so loyally over the years and we forgive the holes in the script for the little gems of sassy dialogue that occasionally remain.

Miranda now is being kind to her exes in a touching scene worthy of the 1998 production and the whole thing is left a little hanging so that season 3 can be commissioned, which it unsurprisingly has been 

I suspect season three will be the last we will see of the large ensemble cast of multicultural ladies. Good as the African American, Latina and Middle Eastern actors are, their characters are never more defined as the original three Caucasian ones, which is a shame

I also predict Samantha will return again.

Kim Cattrall always stole the show in the first place

Catching Leaves

 On my walk this morning I caught a leaf.

It was raining and the wind made heavy by the raindrops hit a patch of trees like a slap, letting several horse chestnut leaves spin, first up in the air and then downwards to where we stood.

Roger and Mary looked up and watched them and on impulse I caught the nearest one in my hand.

According to Sue Belfrage in her book Down to the River and Up To The Trees, there is an old British tradition that catching leaves is lucky.

Keep the leaf in your pocket, till dried out and fragile it crumbles, she suggests

I carried it home and left it on the dash board in Bluebell

It’s feel like autumn today

Shampoo and Gifts

 

Dorothy needs a shower today.

I’m gearing myself for it, because it ain’t going to be pretty.

Unlike the Welsh who adore a hot shower, the very mention of one will send Dorothy into a state of High dudgeon.

She will put on, what I can only describe as her I am just about to a terribly abused face and will make a run for the garden, where after a brief struggle she will go limp and will reluctantly be half dragged half carried to the bathroom

I’ve treated myself to a MacDonald’s coffee and hash brown  this morning in anticipation

The last time she was showered she had a dirty protest under the shower head and pooed on my IKEA stone effect shower mat.

I think she has already sussed the situation, for I’ve put her  baby shampoo on the table .

She is hiding in the front room under my desk.

The war will begin very soon.

Oh and I was given a delightful gift today. Margaret from London Road made me this beautiful felt seascape after I fell in love with the one she entered into the Flower Show arts class

I was rather moved by it

Ps……post shower

The bathroom looks as though a buffalo had been massacred in it 

Dorothy is presently sulking but smelling lovely.

She is lying on the couch with her head under the cushions

I am going to have a lie down in a darkened bedroom

The Highfields

 

The best neighbours I ever had was Bev and John in Hillsborough, Sheffield 

When we first met they were a youngish married couple with a pre teen daughter

I was a lumpy middle aged  gay man negotiating the end of a fairly destructive relationship.

We strangely hit it off !

Despite our differences we became firm friends and have been for the past twenty six years. 

They have been a constant in my life, always there , always supportive.

They came to my wedding and I braved a white out snowstorm to be at their daughters’ wedding and I know if I needed them they would be there for me as I would be for them. 

John was the showbiz reporter for the Sheffield Star and for years I was his plus one , attending every performance at the Crucible or the Lyceum.loving every minute of it. 

He is arch and camp and showbiz and fun and has recently dealt with some ill Heath with alacrity and chutzpah 

It was lovely to sit and talk to him in Llandudno today man to man, 

Not enough time …..

I love them both dearly….

And I want them both to know that x

I met them in Llandudno’s Mostyn Gallery today and bought this Orme Goat on a whim….

What fun 

Let's Hear It for the Boy (s)

Last night was another film night, this time with Gorgeous Dave who dressed up for the occasion ! He has a new rather glam girlfriend so the glam is rubbing off.

As usual I had gravy stains on my t shirt

I won’t review the movie Joy Ride  as it was only mildly amusing and not very good, but I enjoyed the night as we always have big chats to and from the venue, in-dispersed with lots of laughs.

It’s been a testosterone filled few days with me meeting up with a gaggle of male friends . Nigel, Colin, Dave and today I’m catching up with an old Sheffield friend John who is in holiday in Llandudno. 

He was an old neighbour who turned into a best mate 

I’ve always gotten on better with women than I have men. Only in later life have I cultivated male friendships and have a good dozen men, straight and gay who I am close to. 

I find that most men are more emotionally intelligent than they used to be.

I know that’s a sweeping statement but for the good of all, I think they are and that, I think, underpins why I have more man friends than I did 20 years ago.

How good is that…..

On The Promenade

 

I’ve just met the guy I had that date with

I wanted to see him face to face and tell him I didn’t want to go on another 

Of course he wanted to know why and I told him.

I thought he wasn’t ready to date as I felt he wasn’t over the death of his long term partner three years ago now.

When he asked me what made me think that, I stopped myself from saying

“Duh the way you cried, everytime you mentioned his name !”

I merely asked him if he thought he was ready…..

and his eyes filled with tears and after an age

he shook his head.

We left things on good terms and hugged in the car park 

I stood on the promenade and watched the sea, overlooked by the reclaimed cormorant statue.

And felt a little tired 

L'immensità

Anyone who grew up in the 1970s may identify with this Emanuel Crialese’s autobiographical study of a dysfunctional family negotiating the ups and downs of life in the affluent suburbs of Rome.  

Children growing up with little help and despite the adults of the household .

Clara ( Penelope Cruz) is the loving yet emotionally unstable mother of three children. Her eldest girl Ariana ( Luana Giulani) identifies as a boy called Andrew, middle son Gino ( Patritzio Francioni) overeats and defecates in the closet and youngest Diana ( Maria Charia Goretti) gamely tries to keep the peace as a bemused father ( Vincenzo Amato) shouts and bullies.

Everyone exists in their own bubbles, with Clara’s illness reinforcing the children’s fantasy life instead of helping them. 

Ariana is especially affected by her mother’s reinforcement to her differences , as she explores a chaste romance with a local girl from a transient workers camp and together mother and “daughter” with the rest of the family have to face clara’s admission to psychiatric hospital and subsequent return home without the benefit of support or therapy. 

It’s a strong, emotionally honest film, which sticks to its guns and Cruz and Giulani are magnificent)

There are no epiphany moments, no high resolution final moments,  

Just a sad girl and her loving mom seeking solace and fantasy in tv variety show moments 

Chubby Lesbians down Watergate

 

Pride flags photographed of Eastgate

I forgot it was Chester Pride today and the city was full of rainbows and very jolly people .

I met Nigel and we sat chatting in the cathedral gardens before having a late lunch in the Storyhouse

Midnight Cowboy is one of his favourite movies , so we had a lovely film debrief before he caught the train home to Manchester. 

It was lovely to see him and the film which I think I’ve never seen in it’s entirety. 

We’ve know each other over thirty years so we laugh together easily using shorthand jokes and phrases

I love him dearly 

I left him at the cross in Chester, as he needed to walk to the railway station and I needed to go to my car parked by the racecourse

….and moments later I was surrounded by a gaggle of chubby lesbians all screaming  Madonna’s Save A Prayer on Watergate and all wearing rainbow Stetsons

How very gay!