Hello all. I hope that you are ok. I think we did it, didn't we? Came out the other side, I mean. I hope that your Christmas was, hopefully, uneventful. Unless, of course, you were wishing for excitement and danger. I am too old for all that palaver.
We have spent a pleasant few days eating, chatting and walking, and that is more than enough to fill a Christmas. Telly was rubbish. We all sat down to watch the latest Knives Out on Christmas Day on Netflix, and it was excellent. I am saving the Sewing Bee for later, as no one else seems very interested. But I can't think of anything else that I wanted to watch. Culturally, because I find myself being of a bit more delicate disposition these days and because approximately 90% of everything that is released is horror (it's cheap and it makes a lot of money), I have only a few things to recommend to you this year.
In film, my favourite was The Ballad of Wallis Island, which was just lovely, but I also liked A Real Pain, which is about two brothers on a Holocaust Tour in Poland. (I know, I know, but trust me - it was excellent). As I said - Knives Out - Wake Up Dead Man is a great watch, and Christianity comes out of it reasonably well, which makes a change. If you don't mind a bit of horror, my daughter and several other people say that Sinners is excellent. Apparently, they are vampires, but they can all sing really well - or something.
On the telly - I am struggling a bit, as I said. I think it is difficult to see past "Adolescence" and quite right too. I watched it in one go when I was on my own on a Sunday morning. I spent most of it sitting on a footstool (hurt back), thinking that we are possibly living in the end of days. I really liked "The Residence" about a murder in the White House, and The Change. Other than that, I just seem to float in and out to watch Only Connect/Sewing Bee/Bake Off/The Football, so I don't have much to give you and bow to HOH's knowledge. He really liked All Her Own Fault, The Ambassador and Blue Lights. He thought Shetland had "gone off the boil" a bit.
Books. I have read quite a bit, but not all of it new. My annual Barbara Pym re-read, for instance, was Jane and Prudence. I also re-read Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. I'd forgotten how much Latin and Poetry and indeed what seemed to be Latin Poetry in it. My favourite was A Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans. This is about a country house and its residents after the war. It's funny and sweet but with an edge. I read Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers early on, but I think it came out in paperback this year. Can't recommend enough. There are really too many to mention, but I loved The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths, and I always like a Horowitz, so did enjoy Marble Hall Murders. I also read Discovering Christianity by Rowan Williams, but now I'm not sure if I am a Christian because I could not make head nor tail of it, and every Christian you have ever heard of LOVED it. Bah!
There is a possibility that Christmas has left you like Joseph in this painting by Orazio Gentileschi - The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. If so. I hope you can spend some time resting and getting a bit normal again as we go into the New Year.
Happy New Year, all.
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