Thursday 13 May 2021

Spring versus the news

My moods swing up and down these days, probably just like everyone else's. I had a dream the other night in which I was wandering through a landscape devoid of any vegetation at all, following a couple who were trying to ignore me because they owed me money. The landscape was totally black, and the couple's clothes were the only colour to be seen amongst the lumps of charred debris scattered between pools of lifeless and stagnant water, the surfaces of which were also black with oily soot. This was not what I think of as a good night's sleep on my 70th birthday.

H.I. has discovered a rich seam of very English Miss Marple thrillers on You Tube which I never knew existed. They seem to have managed to employ every well-know actor they asked to play in the series, and each episode is packed with familiar, well-respected faces from showbiz. I don't know how this production company could afford to have so many of them all together at once. The other amusing thing is that the actor who plays Miss Marble is a dead-ringer for a friend of ours, both in appearance and mannerisms.

This is, at the moment, is the only effective escapism from the news which threatens to overwhelm the less resilient amongst us. Where would you rather be today? Gaza or Tel Aviv?

42 comments:

  1. Well THAT dream is an easy one to understand! I dreamed the other night that I went into a shop to see if we could do a gig in it, but it had been turned into a fabric shop and I was OOOH FABRIC and NO ROOM at the same time but I walked behind a stand and it opened out into a bar! The perfect venue! And the owner was a hrd case Aussie woman who knew the Beatles and other 60s bands and loved the idea of using her inexplicably bar like shop space as a ..bar. ehehe

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    1. That's a lot better than my dream. A bar and everything.

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  2. If you mean it was your big birthday yesterday, then happy belated birthday! I do hope it was a good day, not a down day, bad dreams notwithstanding.
    Bad days seem to outnumber good days 2-1 in this house at times and I don't even watch the news. We cheer ourselves up by watching all the series of "Death in Paradise" from the beginning all over again. Each episode contains famous actors who likely jumped at the chance of a free holiday in Guadeloupe to film it! It's slightly unsettling how many episode there are where we still can't remember whodunnit, but the scenery and innocence of the story lines are lovely.

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    1. A friend of mine starred in the ill-fated 'Riviera' series which went bankrupt. He was never paid a penny for all that work. Apparently it was crap anyway.

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  3. Happy birthday dear old friend. My blog is on a similar theme today - must be on everyone's mind

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  4. Happy Birthday Tom. I'm a Miss Marple fan, largely because Joan Hickson reminds me of my gran. There is a scene in A Murder is Announced where she is walking along a churchyard path with her niece, head bent and holding her handbag in front of her, in exactly the way my gran walked. Who plays Marple in the ones H.I. has found? Re Gaza and Tel Aviv - I don't understand such hatred. Life is too short.

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    1. The credits run down so quickly these days that I have not yet seen who plays Miss Marple in this version. It could well be your granny.

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  5. Happy Birthday Tom! Despite the bad dream I hope you had a good one!

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  6. Happy Birthday, Tom! Hope you have a healthy, happy, peaceful, fun year! I will look for Miss Marple on You Tube...

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  7. Happy, happy special birthday Tom. Wishing you many happy returns. Hope you are celebrating in style !
    I think I’ve seen all of the Miss Marple’s …. Were you watching Margaret Rutherford, Joan Hickson, Julia McKenzie or Geraldine McEwan or one of the more obscure ones ? XXXX

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    1. One of the more obscure ones I think, but not so obscure in another way.

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  8. Happy birthday Tom. Was your dream the result of eating a rich, celebratory supper?
    Gaza and Tel Aviv, what a tragedy and it has been going on for all of your seventy years. No wonder we feel depressed. I'm escaping via Nancy Mitford, frolics and frocks.

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    1. I wish it was Cher. I am enjoying the Mitford one too.

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  9. I'm raising my glass to you at this very minute ! XXXX

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    1. Bless you Jack@. I will raise mine to you this minute too. XXX

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  10. Happy birthday, Mr. Spring Chicken with bad dreams.

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  11. Belated Happy Birthday young man! Hope you get some better dreams soon.

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  12. All the Best Tom. You are a mere spring chicken!

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    1. You're not the first older person to point that out...

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  13. Late to the party ... but I wish you a very happy birthday with many good things to come!

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  14. Belatedly A very happy birthday !

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  15. Wishing you all the best on your B-day. I escape life's realities when I'm sailing.

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    1. Oh yes, I can imagine. I have only ever sailed a little dingy once.

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