Sunday 17 January 2016

Saturday night, Sunday morning


I don't know whether or not I find this a comfort, but I have recently realised that my  protracted and severe January blues here in the U.K. is being experienced by almost everyone I know as well. It's not just little old me.

It seems the planets have aligned - or maligned - to create situations of extreme stress of an almost physical nature which are running concurrently with boring weather conditions following - and during - an extremely mediocre Christmas, plus suicide bombers don't seem to observe Christmas anyway, which takes some of the sparkle out of it to say the least.

Many of my young friends are arguing with their loved ones, and I try to calm them down by explaining that relationships suffer no more than when one or both parties (it always ends up with both parties) are under extreme stress. This stress can be to do with money, or - in some more extreme cases - impending court-cases. I have a friend who is involved in one, and I myself have been called up for jury service soon, but even though I will not be the defendant, I still find the idea very stressful. I ought to have realised all this sooner than my younger friends, but didn't until I tried to explain it to them, and in doing so, I made it clear in my own head.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that my youngest follower here is somewhere either side of 40, and the oldest are up in the 80s. Only on Facebook do you get a reluctant audience of under 40s, but this - as we all know - is not what we're after. We're not what they're after either. It says something when moments of light relief are provided by things like yesterday's rubbish incident account.

Last night, we settled down to a feel-good DVD, and although we wanted an old film, we decided that it should not be black-and-white, 40s old, so we settled for 'Local Hero'.

As it began, I suddenly realised that the one Scottish actor playing a lead role in it was none other than a very young Peter Capaldi - he who is now the latest reincarnation of Doctor Who, and had previously sworn his way to fame as the Peter Mandelson character in 'In The Thick Of It'.

It all went fine until Capaldi started to get involved with the half-marine biologist, half-mermaid character in the fishing village, but then the whole thing froze just as he discovered she had webbed feet. It wasn't just the DVD which froze, but the whole playing system. After I had managed to eject the DVD and throw it in the rubbish bin, I was in no state to watch anything else for fear of punching a hole through the screen.

I cannot tell you what a black mood I was in went I went to bed last night. Monday will be spent spending money on having 2 mirrors fitted to the car which were smashed off by yet another criminal. More lost income.




24 comments:

  1. This is a bloody difficult post to respond to. I have tried three times and failed. What I wanted to say is I am not affected by the weather or gloom but it sounded like it would annoy you so I deleted it. But I'm not. Then I thought I would say I hope you feel better but that sounded a bit feeble too. But I do.

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    1. Thanks Rachel. I wanted to say that it would take more than three months of continuously foul weather to get through to you, but thought it might annoy you too.

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  2. I blog bitched through the evil, subzero, ass deep snow of the five month winter of 2014/2015, and people sympathized with me and eventually it was over. It was lighter duty for me; I didn't have the angst then.
    I hope your mood improves, or the weather, or you take a vacation, or something. That's the best I can offer, except I do feel life should be better for all of us, and you, too.

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    1. I had the vacation - Rome. It will be better for all of us soon, I just know it.

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  3. I think cold and rain and bad weather and all the shit going on really does affect your mood. Our winters here are pretty mild but I always yearn for winter to end.

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    1. I want to know more than your blog profile says about you, Leisha. Are you as Arab as your name?

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    2. Tom I am an Australian woman living in Queensland, Australia. Mother of three boys and a Social Worker. I'm not Arab but like some Aussie's a bit of a mutt.

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  4. I'm quite blue here in Boston as well. I put it down to having too long a break between terms and not enough distraction. R. asked if I was reading anything right now. Me: Middlemarch. R: That explains a lot.
    Yesterday I went to the bookstore and picked up a good old Josephine Tey mystery and today we went to the theater to see Mark Rylance in Nice Fish. Feeling a bit better now. According to Rachel, being content with your life is the ticket. I think it's all about taking your mind off the meaninglessness of everything. Hope you can do that, Tom. XX

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    1. Did you get Mark Rylance in Thomas Moore on TV there?

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  5. I found a place where I can be considered middle-age as that is where I would be in your group of followers. Somehow, that makes me feel good.

    You are always an interesting read, Tom. Don't worry about the blues as they always seem to subside in late March when the sun slowly chases them away. - or at least makes us more comfortable.

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    1. Yes. We go to bed early. Very good in the Winter.

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  6. I've always wanted to be called for jury service, maybe it's on account of living in France that I haven't been. My hands are cold as I type this, and I was told that we could have snow today. I really hate snow.

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    1. Some people are never called, even in the U.K. Our address has been randomly selected 3 times in 18 months...

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  7. Explaining something out loud to someone else is always a good way of making sure it makes sense in your head...January is a bitch of a month sometimes for all sorts of reasons...and like Cro I have always wanted to be called to Jury Service..still waiting...and in fact now that I have typed that I realise that if I had a horrible case to listen to I would hate it so the Universe is looking out for me.....lets hope the universe is looking out for everybody this year....feel better Mr S.

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    1. Apparently it is the fraud cases everyone fears. They go on forever and nobody knows what's happening.

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  8. I love "Local Hero" (watch it at least once a year). You might like "The Brand New Testament" I saw two weeks ago - really funny in a grumpy though feelgood way:-)
    I'm happy to know so many people between 30 - 40 (in real life), though just that has been satirical stuff in the movie "While we're young" (still on my DVD shelf - with my new subscription for one year 12 cinema's in Berlin as often as I want I am preoccupied elsewhere)

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    1. Yes, I hang around with every age, including children. Local Hero is a feel good film, until it stops before the end...

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  9. Vitamin D will help you overcome SADS.

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    1. I haven't got SADS. The things which keep me awake are quite tangible.

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  10. I'm having a bit of a problem with this blog at the moment, in as much as it never fully loads up, so I cannot even make a new post let alone read yours. The only way I can get into it is by going straight to Google like I have here, and then all I can do is comment. I don't know what's going on, but I haven't time to sort it at the moment, and I spent about 2 hours trying to yesterday in vain.

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    1. Gwil is having same problem I believe. His comments on my blog refer.

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    2. Thanks. As I said on my comment on yours, if it works soon then fine. If not, you will have to learn to live without me - if that is possible.

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  11. Replies
    1. Aww - well my switch to Chrome has finally worked, I think I am back to normal service...

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