A chilly but largely dry week with lots of bright blue skies and freezing or near freezing temperatures. Allegedly, we may even get some snow this week although I am not holding my breath.
As I mentioned last time, we took Annabelle and Jessie to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford last Sunday for a production of the Box of Delights which was excellent. Indeed, it was a delight! An orphaned schoolboy is charged with looking after the Box of Delights by an ancient wizard. Naturally, there is an evil villain who is desperate to get his hands on it and equally naturally, the boy and his two similarly orphaned school friends manage to escape a number of dire situations and ultimately defeat the villain and save Christmas. Hooray!
We had worried a bit about whether Jessie would be able to follow the somewhat convoluted plot but she managed very well and was well and truly (and literally) on the edge of her seat throughout. At the end, when we asked her if she had liked the play she said, “No. I did not like it.” [Pause for dramatic effect], “I LOVED it!”
The drive home was quite amusing. We set off from Stratford towards Warwick to drop Annabelle at home when the driver, who shall remain nameless, made an error in his navigation. To be fair, it was dark, there was lots of traffic and he (the driver) is not as familiar with the convoluted series of roundabouts where the Stratford and Warwick roads intersect with the M40 motorway as he might be. The driver (who shall still remain nameless) was looking for the exit on to the M40 when he saw it – unfortunately, it was across two lanes of traffic. Very carefully, the driver made his way across the two lanes of traffic and onto the slip road. Only then did he realise that he was joining the M40 going north and, by this time, there was no turning back.
No matter, this stuff happens from time to time. So, the driver asked his faithful navigator to enter Annabelle’s address into her phone and we awaited directions. Unfortunately, there was no exit for about ten miles (which the driver knew) and we expected that once we reached the M42 we would exit, go around the junction at the top and retrace our steps. Imagine the driver’s surprise when the Satnav instructed us to continue going north. Towards Birmingham. At each roundabout the instructions were to continue straight ahead. And, the driver has learned from many similar past experiences never to argue with the Satnav navigator, crazy as her directions might appear from time to time. She’s always right in the end.
Eventually, however, the driver realised that this could not possibly be right so finally found a safe place to pull over. Once safely parked up, he took the phone from the navigator and discovered the problem. In entering Annabelle’s address she had entered the first few bits, i.e., 6 Medley and selected the first one that came up. Sadly, we were headed to 6 Medley Road, Birmingham rather than 6 Medley Grove, Leamington. So, the twenty-minute drive from Stratford to Leamington ended up taking about an hour. And it wasn’t even particularly scenic.
We watched the film Saltburn this week with Barry Keoghan (he played the young, abused boy in The Banshees of Inisherin), Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant, amongst others. It’s been widely trailed and promoted with mostly positive reviews and Adam had recommended it. I thought it was “good” and Penny thought it was somewhat better than “good” so slightly different opinions. An “ordinary” boy from an ordinary, middle-class family earns a place at Oxford where he is shunned by some because of his “common” background. He is, however, befriended by an aristocrat who is very popular and is invited to spend the summer at his stately home – Saltburn. So far, so Brideshead Revisited. But there, I suppose, the similarity ends. Some clever, dark twists and the ultimate surprise at the end. It’s on Prime in the UK so you may find it there. Worth a look. The final scene in particular is outstanding, I thought.
And, on Friday evening we went out with some of our lovely neighbours to the cinema in Northampton to see One Life with Anthony Hopkins and Helena Bonham Carter which was tremendous. Absolutely outstanding.
It’s the remarkable story of the “British Schindler”, Sir Nicholas Winton, who, in the months leading up to World War II, helped to organise the transport of hundreds of predominantly Jewish children from Prague to the UK. Their families had fled Germany and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia when the Germans annexed that area in late 1938. Winton travelled to Prague at the invitation of a friend to see what he might be able to do to help and was overwhelmed by the plight of the refugees. So, he began the ”impossible” task of organising the transport of children to the UK against unbelievable odds. He had to deal with the catastrophic chaos of the appalling conditions in which the refugees were existing in Prague along with the relatively uninterested and largely unhelpful British bureaucracy. He had to secure the parents’ consent to send their children to an unknown future, he had to acquire visas for each individual child, had to raise the money for the transport and had to find foster homes for the children. Amazingly, the group managed to transport 669 children to the UK before the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II prevented any further rescues.
Winton was a modest man who sought no recognition for his part in the achievement, always regretting that he couldn’t save more. Life moves on and the incident possibly would have been forgotten. However, his daughter was expecting her first child and his wife wanted him to get rid of the boxes and files and clutter that he had kept all this time. In doing so, he begins to look through the documentation and reminisces about his experiences and decides that some of the documentation should be given to a library or museum somewhere. In trying to find someone who might be interested his story gradually comes out and ultimately his heroic efforts are recognised. In 1988 he was the subject of a piece on the television programme That’s Life.
(There is a longer clip on YouTube from which this excerpt is taken – Children Saved from the Nazis – the story of Nicholas Winton).
It’s a staggeringly moving and emotional story wonderfully well filmed and acted, made even more poignant when compared with the heart-breaking situation in Gaza and our own government’s appalling and despicable treatment of refugees fleeing war and persecution. Watch it if you can.
Finally, Happy Birthday to our Nick on Saturday who will be somewhat older than he is today.
And finally, finally, a few photos of Dirty Daisy after her afternoon romp and roll in the mud with one of her best pals, Poppy, the mad Staffordshire Bull Terrior just up the lane from us. And, a photo after the hour-long bath and shampoo she was forced to endure after the event. For some reason she just doesn’t seem to get the whole cause and effect thing.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg