What a week - well not really

Hello. How are you? Proof that this is the most old biddy of blogs follows...it's supposed to be getting warmer this week. Hurrah! Also to reinforce my biddy credentials, I am watching Antiques Roadshow while I am writing this and I am not ashamed. 

We have had a quietish week here. We went to Dartmouth on Monday but I think it was shut. It was raining and that didn't help. We ended up sitting in the car, eating Marks and Spencer butties and surreptitiously feeding the crusts to a seagull sitting on the roof of the car next door. In case you haven't been - Dartmouth (1) is very pretty by the water - see above (2) has nowhere to get a decent coffee and (3) has a very low-level vinyl shop. The owner insisted that they didn't ever get asked about Motown. HOH felt that this was unlikely and also he felt it was unlikely that there was an overwhelming demand for Cilla Black's Greatest Hits which was taking centre stage in the window. (He can get very sulky when he seeks out a record shop and all they have is a lot of Val Doonican). Actually, I expect many people may have very fond memories of Val Doonican - Paddy McGinty's Goat, Walk Tall - all those songs. Those were real Saturday Night Telly programmes. When I explain to the young people that there was a weekend programme with a man, in Farisle jumpers, sitting in a rocking chair, singing songs about goats and that it got around 20 million viewers a week, they frankly get pretty close to calling me a liar. Is he still alive I wonder? (Public Service Announcement - I've just checked - he is dead. He was 88 so a good innings). 

Other than that, I am now bang up to date with Race Around the World (How is that so tense? t's just ten people getting on and off buses and shouting "Does the night train go to Bangkok?" through ticket office windows. I love it. I heard on The Rest is Entertainment Podcast last week that the couples have two cameramen with them at all times which sort of ruins the magic a bit but at least stops me worrying about those two young lads who look about twelve. They could quite easily be sold into slavery I think. 

We also went to the pictures and were very culturally refined  - watching a film about an exhibition about John Singer Sargent. The film was excellent as are his paintings obviously, although, whether we needed a discussion about whether this was queer art was a bit of a moot point judging by the number of men he painted in saucy poses with their hands jauntily on their hips. We are hoping to see the Godzilla movie this week to watch something a bit more on our level. 

Also, we went out for pizza with my daughter and her inamorato because it was her birthday so that was nice. Actually not that quiet a week really. Take that, Kim Kardashian.

Other than that, I have whiled away the cold evenings reading. Does anyone else read Marjory Allingham's Campion books? I finished the latest one this week. It is the definition of a 1930s crime novel and people use phrases like "old bean" and "I say Old Fruit" all the time and I am very much here for this. We have also been watching The Dropout on IPlayer - highly recommended but it will make you angry and I'm also getting excited about a dramatisation of the Shardlake novels coming this week. Disney+ I think

I have also been rereading Oliver Burkman's Four Thousand Weeks. It's a sort of time management book very much "sort-of" because he doesn't like to-do lists (I personally cannot express the level of satisfaction I get from pink highlighting jobs that I have done but never mind). Burkman says that, on average, we will probably only get to live for Four Thousand Weeks on this earth. He therefore reckons that we will never fit everything despite what Instagram tells us so he advises us to accept that we can't have it all and to choose the things that we really want to do, work out our real priorities and give all our best efforts and energies to those. This way, we will achieve the most important and profound things.

I have one or two problems with this. 

One - I am not sure how work fits into this and how they would feel about me only turning up for the bits I really liked.

Two - Would Environmental Health have to come in to sort my bathroom if I decide that cleaning it isn't a main priority?

Three - Can I still watch Interior Design Masters?

However, frippery aside, maybe it is a good thing to have a think about sorting through everything that has to be done and asking if it is all achievable. Am I the only one who feels I am getting older much quicker these days? (Not forgetting that ageing is a privilege) If I'm ever going to write that book or crochet that pouffe (I'll never crochet a pouffe) and if it's not too late, I might need to be putting these sorts of things first. Have a good week.

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:

A right time for birth and another for death,

A right time to plant and another to reap,

A right time to kill and another to heal,

A right time to destroy and another to construct,

A right time to cry and another to laugh,

A right time to lament and another to cheer,

A right time to make love and another to abstain,

A right time to embrace and another to part,

A right time to search and another to count your losses,

A right time to hold on and another to let go,

A right time to rip out and another to mend,

A right time to shut up and another to speak up,

A right time to love and another to hate,

A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Ecc 3