Thursday 23 December 2010

It's Feel Good Thursday



Last night Marion and I were flicking through the Sky Plus planner in a desperate attempt to free up some space in time for the holiday season. As we have a copy of virtually every episode of Paul's programmes, Magic Numbers and A League Of Their Own on the Sky box (in HD) we're almost always down to the last 25% of space. We decided it was a toss up between watching Jimmy McGovern's The Accused (feel bad) or Sam Mendes' Away We Go (feel good) and I'm delighted to say that we opted for the latter. Telling the story of a young couple expecting their first child and looking for the perfect place to live, this gentle and very funny movie left me with a warming afterglow that was deeply reminiscent of the times when we read The Trip To Panama to the kids.




If you haven't read it, this out of print book is one of the most joyful picture books ever. Like Away We Go, the book charts a couple (Little Bear And Little Tiger) in their search for their own Nirvana. They go looking for Panama - the land of their dreams, after finding that a broken packing crate stamped Panama smells of bananas. In the end, like Burt and Verona in Away We Go they find that their Panama is closer to home than they thought. Note to any publishers out there - get this back into print my (two) copies are battered.




And just to keep that feel good factor going, Film4 have got the wonderful Juno showing tonight at 9pm. Anyone who used to read my old Instanta blog will know that this was my film of the year when it came out. Why? Because it's just so nice and whilst you cringe at me using the word "nice" hey what's wrong with that it's the most appropriate word that I can find for the film. Watch it and I guarantee you'll be happy tomorrow.


All I need now is for the nice Amazon postman to deliver my copy of It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit (a guide to all things nice) to carry my pre-Christmas spirits through to the New Year. Written as a riposte to best seller Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit this should be the ideal light relief after my ten day marathon book reading. Today I'm reading a biography of Bess Of Hardwick one of the most interesting women in British history as research into the possibility of one day writing my own historical novel.


Life's all about choices. No doubt if we had chosen The Accused last night I would now be trying to work out how to hang myself from the bannisters with my dressing gown belt. But I'm not. So happy Thursday to one and all.


I'll leave you with another way to feel good. (Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this one @AmandaSweeney)

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