Weeknotes 1490
diana, dorset, donked
- Hi gang. Hope you've had a good week! I was feeling quite ill in the middle, which wasn't ideal, and very tired for all the rest of it, but it was mostly a good time.
- We want to see Spencer, which was great and 100% a Diana Was Murdered film. The dead hand of tradition and ceremony maintains a tight squeeze on every member of the royal family which deforms them all differently: Diana constantly struggle to resist, Charles tautly insisting on dual personas and carrying on affairs, the Queen seeming fairly checked-out, letting it all wash over her. She's notionally the monarch, everyone has to stand up when she walks in, but really she's just the latest one in the chair. The stifling effect is felt both above and below the floors (the opening shot of a sign encouraging kitchen staff to keep quiet as "They Can Hear You") but power is only really expressed in a blunt way through the equerry Major Gregory. Good fruit of our effort to get to the cinema a bit more; an earlier start and a shorter film helped CM not to fall asleep as she almost did several times during Dune.
- The weekend was spent in Dorset, where my grandparents live and my parents have recently moved. They are in the process of doing up their house and I can definitely see how it could be improved! Nice big garden, though, and it's in a very quiet area. Also bumped into my aunt and uncle at my grandparents', which was an unexpected surprise. My family is quite geographically spread out, so I don't get to see many of them as often as I would like.
- We were really there to dogsit for CM's godfather, which we did; Humphrey and Dolly were lovely, and even though they're getting on a bit they still did a very good job of getting the ball. We also had a nice brunch in Dorchester and I met Bob the cat at CM's mum's house (but not George the cat, who is shy).
- I've only ever lived in a tiny village and a city. I think I might like to try living in a town at some point. I like the idea of somewhere a bit smaller, with the potential to know people and have more of a community, but also not to have to drive for 20 minutes to go to the supermarket.
- The long train rides were really good for reading. I'm trying to clear out about 6 months of accumulated Pocket backlog and now I'm down to 4 months!
- Keep it real, gang! Over and out.