Funeral - Dorothy

It's been almost five years since I last wore my funeral attire. I know this because I found a COVID facemask in my trouser pocket from Granny Sue's funeral. But today was to commemorate Rebecca's Grandmother, Dorothy who passed away recently.

I got ready with Rebecca and her family, dressing in all black and waiting for the funeral directors to collect us from the house. We followed behind the hearse in the escort vehicle and filtered into a lovely little service. The wake followed at a nearby pub where select friends and family retired to where stories of Rebecca's Nan were passed around. 

In my mind there's two types of funerals. The kind where you get hugs and the kind where you give hugs. I was mostly there as an emotional pillar for Rebecca, doing all I could to make the day a bit more bearable for her. There was a lot of trepidation heading into the day but she's very glad the day went as it did. She's a very brave lady and I was proud to stand by her side throughout the day.

Book Club Basher

I forgot to mention that a couple of days ago I officially became the owner of a car. Rebecca transferred ownership of her old and faithful Vauxhall Viva over to me (after I gave her a couple of quid of course). Rebecca has recently acquired some new wheels which took us up to London today. Because it had air con and that new car smell I was half convinced it was an airport rental vehicle... Hopefully that magic lasts for a long time.

I brought my laptop and microphone along with me so I could attend my virtual book club. Everyone rated this month's book 4/5, minus me who gave it a significantly lower score. I didn't want to dunk on the book too hard though because I didn't want to make anyone feel too embarrassed for enjoying it - I kept circling back to 'and that's why I personally didn't get much out of it' which absolved me of a lot. These days I'm in the business of speaking my mind but not cruising to rustle feathers. 

Impressionable Stranger

Dropped in to my usual barber up the road for a trim. I've been seeing him for almost a year now and we've seldom said more than a dozen words to eachother in that time. It was only when I mentioned I was getting it cut for a funeral that he tentatively made conversation. A lot of my life I think about the strangers that have made an impression on me - I wonder how many people's lives I've touched who don't know my name.

People that aren't strangers though are Mark and Lucy, whom we shared an almost twelve hour Saturday with. They had a board game they were eager to share with us called Eclipse - an epic scale space war game which took us from lunch til dinner to play. I got trounced, but I didn't mind because they put on an immense spread of food for us. Homemade pizzas, strawberry mess, a light salmon dinner and simmered peaches with ice cream - what a bloody treat. The day went too quickly though, we looked up at the clock and the next thing we knew we were catching the night bus home. 

French New-Wave Nemesis

Caught up on writing my Letterbox reviews for all the films I've seen recently. I also made a little list of all the remaining films I haven't seen from Roger Ebert's 'The Great Movies' volume one. There's only nine I haven't seen so I'm quietly using that as a North Star whenever I fancy an old movie with gusto (there's a pair of hefty pick from the 1920's which will be fun). There was a short Jean-Luc Godard one I glossed over so I gave that a watch today... In doing so I remembered why I don't like his movies. I guess I just struggle with French New Wave, thankfully that's not a problem that affects my day-to-day. Only 83 minutes long and I was still counting down the seconds... Maybe I need to read Ebert's thoughts to see what he sees in it.

Obsession

Did a top to bottom house tidy, which was much needed after a week of DIY, but especially important because we had a bevvy of guests over for another movie night. This group has kinda turned into a 'lets all watch a modern horror film together because there's safety and comedy in numbers'. Obsession was tonight's film which was a remarkably intense viewing. It was virtually all in the central performances which were spellbinding, I didn't want to look away... Until I had to because I was too chicken to keep my eyes on the screen. We all had a hoot though, that was the key thing. It's always fun doing group movies sessions, always takes me back to the days of Film Friday.

Glue, Clamp, Oil

Operation shelves has entered it's final phases. I took some of the excess wood to get trimmed down into bookends which I then glued & clamped. Once bonded, Ioved onto oiling them all. I basically had a little assembly line of bits that I checked on every half an hour as I did other stuff. As a byproduct of this however I never really settled into anything. Even when I was done for the day, my mind couldn't settle on one thing for more than 30 minutes. I was antsy and fidgety for no good reason. The shelves will all be done tomorrow though as a result of my hustling - we can't wait to see them in action!

Manchester Motorhead

A very early night yesterday set me up well for my day of paid courier work for a TV job... At least, I'm cheaper than a courier and I get to keep all the profit! My car was packed out with costume returns heading to Manchester for a pre-9am drop off. This meant my alarm went off at the same hour you might expect when you go to catch a cheaper flight. Even in the middle of Summer I found the nighttime and was even driving in it for almost an hour. I low-key wish the trip out was actually worthy of an anecdote, but I drove there, dropped off, and drove home. Considering I'd been driving for seven hours and messed up my eating pattern I felt close to ok when I got back. The key lag bit me just before supper, but nothing a long sleep won't sort tonight.

Better yet, when I got back my Screwfix order was ready for collection. Rebecca's shelves needed some boards glued together which was a new experience for me, but now they look more robust and premium now. Our replacement internet box also arrived so after three days off grid I can finally doomscroll to my heart's content!