Dear Life - Rachel Clarke

There has been a flurry of medical memoirs recently, a genre I am always drawn too.  This one by Rachel Clarke, a Palliative Care Consultant is one of the better ones.  She weaves in stories about her practice, her medical training and her own personal stories in a way that carry the stories forward, and brought me to tears by the end. 

We have lots of shows and books that talk about birth and pregnancy, but there is little to help us prepare for the death of family and friends, and our own demise.   That is where books like this shine a light on a part of life that was familiar to our own grandparents and  ancestors, but has become a bit taboo in recent years.  I think my own experience with losing both of my parents would have been less scary and traumatic, had I had some information and preparation before the event. 5/5

Blue Moon - Lee Child

Oh man, deja vu again.  There's a bus, a country town, a bunch of bad guys, punching, shooting, running, car crashes, not many police, a chick, some ex military and more of the previous 23 books.  I kept wondering  when he got a fresh change of underpants and how bad he smelt with no deodorant after all of that running around.  I keep saying I won't read the next one, but I keep coming back I guess until it's all over.  2/5

Music Monday - Better Be Home Soon - Neil, Liam and Elroy Finn

I just love Neil Finn and have lucky to see him play many times over the years, with Split Enz in the 80's and in Crowded House in the 90s, playing with his brother Tim Finn and also touring by himself more recently.  I much prefer these pared back acoustic performances, where his voice shines on these timeless tunes.  Such talent.

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Hustlers

I guess this is a step up from the usual stripper with a heart genre of movies, with Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez as a couple of strippers who try to increase their business after the Wall St crash of 2008, by drugging their clients and running up their credit cards.   It was nice to have a female centric view, and it was pretty steady throughout.  4/5

Pale Rider - Laura Spinney

I guess in the time of virus it is the right time to read about the flu that wrecked havoc around the world in 1918.  Called the Spanish Flu, it spread around the world and killed approximately 50-100 million people, which is horrific.  It is horrid to read that this disease killed mainly young people and it killed them quick.  In a time before antibiotics and modern medicine people were often stricken down with the flu quickly and dead within days and some in hours after becoming sick.

I felt like I should have walked away from reading this book with great insights into the virus we are dealing with today, but I wasn't stunned, as many of the facts I knew before I started reading.  Still if there is a time to read this book it is now. 4/5

Music Monday - Don't Stand So Close To Me - Jimmy Fallon, Sting & The Roots

Aww a little bit of old school music tonight.  They showed this one on our news tonight, with no weekend sport they are struggling to fill up the whole hour , but at least this did make me smile.

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Late Night

Emma Thompson is the hard arse late night television host who is struggling in the ratings and is losing approval from her new boss, in comes Mindy Kaling to add a female voice to the all male writing staff.  Somehow when I saw the press on this I thought it was aimed as a comedic movie, but I found it mostly unfunny and something was missing for me.  I wanted a touch of funny or magic but instead found it a bit flat, and devoid of any real chemistry which is a shame, as I usually enjoy watching both female leads. 3/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - The Hustle

Oh hell to the no.  I'm so old that I saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels when it came out in the cinema in 1988, and now live 10 minutes down the road from the movie theatre I saw it in. I strangely can recall the friends I went with to see the movie on a distant Friday night.    This modern day remake starring Anne Hathaway with a horrid English accent and Rebel Wilson playing the only character Rebel Wilson portrays is a pale imitation of the comedy classic. To me it is like the producers and director just read the wikipedia  entry about the 1988 movie rather than watching it or indeed understanding its subtle humor.  They then replaced the wit and intelligent comedy with skits, stereotypes  and slapstick making it a low brow poor imitation.

So it is a lowly 2/5 from me.  Better luck tomorrow night.

Motherwell - Deborah Orr

I think I will think about this book for some time as it resonates with me in all kinds of ways.  The author talks about her childhood, growing up in a small Scottish housing estate through to her mid twenties, with small tidbits about her marriage thrown in.   Being from a similar vintage as her, the cultural references made sense to me, and that feeling of wanting to get away from home at 18, heading off to University and trying to have a relationship with your parents as an adult.  Also the references to the Bureau - that piece of furniture that seemed to be in all our parents houses, holding all the important papers that you were never allowed to ferret around in or look at, yet once our parents have died you find yourself in all the bits of paper artifacts in its drawers and nooks and crannies.

I felt for her, that even when she was an adult living her own life, her mother still used every opportunity to disapprove of her choices and that you are left with the impression that she never felt particularly loved.   Sad too, that not long after the book was published she herself died of breast cancer, and never got to see the relationship from a greater distance of time, when she may have been more forgiving of her parents behavior. 5/5

Music Monday - Bolero - National Orchestra of France

So lovely.  I felt like something peaceful this week and I watched this a couple of times at the weekend.  I got to see Torvill and Dean perform their  award winning routine to Bolero at a show at Wembley sometime in the mid 90s - it was ok, not as moving as when they did it at the Olympics in 1984 (doesn't that make us feel old).

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - Fighting With My Family

So it is another night on the couch in lock down land.  Tonights movie was a 99c special Fighting With My Family.  Based on a true story it is the kind of British story that is meant to warm the heart - the down to earth girl turned good.  In this case Paige, a young girl who starts wrestling with her family at 13, and ends up following her dreams of going to WWE.  Look it had its charms. I liked the group of kids that were getting trained, and it is always a pleasure to see the Rock.   It just felt that it would have been a bit Disney, except there was too much swearing to qualify it.  3/5

Middle Aged Lady Movie Night - The Two Faces of January

Chester and his new wife Colette are touring through Greece, when they meet Rydal an American con man who is ripping off tourists.  The group become entwined, and you can see the infatuation growing between the beautiful young wife played by Kristin Dunst and the handsome Oscar Isaac.  You can tell that the older Viggo Mortensen is not going to be pleased with this love triangle as he looks annoyed or angry for 90% of the movie. 

Although beautiful to look at with the hot dusty countryside as a backdrop, and stylish clothes and hats I felt a bit unmoved by this movie, and felt that it was desperately trying to be a Talented Mr Ripley, another movie that didn't do anything for me.  In fact by the end I was annoyed with the plot, wandering why you would continue to chase someone who was trying to frame you.  2/5