Ashes to Ashes

So here’s the plan – go to England, visit a graveyard in Sussex and celebrate her life by saying goodbye to Beryl.

But…

My daughter’s passport expires today so on Saturday I sent it off to Paris and the British consulate.

On Tuesday they claim not to have received it even though I paid an arm and a leg to get it there immediately. I check the Chronopost tracking system on-line thingy and learn that it was delivered Monday.

Wednesday a very nice lady at the consulate runs downstairs and has a word with Adam who tells her, and thus me, that it will be printed Thursday and couriered back to my woods Friday, but might end up in a closed depot on Saturday.

I tell them to keep it there and I’ll drop by and pick it up.

Then the phone disappears and is found later, Thursday evening, jammed behind the radiator in the bathroom.

Meanwhile I go to the station and discover there is a National rail strike in France and no night train to Paris.

Thursday I speak to the nice lady again – her name is Danielle – and we arrange to send it to someone in the village, Doug, who lives in what his wife described as a more “sensible” house when I asked if I could.

It should be here this afternoon (Friday).

Then a Volcano erupts in Iceland and closes all the airports in Britain.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

And THEN France.
So, what to do?

Well............ write about Yes Man clearly.

Anne, from the not to be missed Island Weekly who seems to have a never ending wonderful taste in music, claimed that I had blogged about the film Yes Man somewhere in these pages.

So with nothing better to do and nowhere to go to I decided to search through Bitsnbobs to read what I wrote, only it turned that I couldn’t because I hadn’t.

I went to the pictures yesterday evening as it happens, invited by neighbours to see Shutter Island - Martin Scorsese’s newest film.

A dark, and for me disturbing film – though generally I am a Scorsese fan. Disturbing films can be good though, and I woke thinking of the moment in the film when the main character, Leonardo DiCaprio, in a much grittier role than I have seen him in before – and therefore impressive – asks “is it better to die as a monster or live as a good man?”

At last I think that is what he says. Whatever it was it was the key to the film for me.

Yes man, on the contrary, is not a disturbing film – unless you are one of those who find Jim Carrey disturbing through his physical presence.

I like Jim Carey and have enjoyed many of his films. I was impressed by his acting in The Truman Show; come to think of it disturbed me enough to make me feel nauseas at the beginning when what was going on was clearly not what I was seeing.
An over-reaction probably, but it happened.

I laugh every time I watch Bruce Almighty – a popular film in this house, though Morgan Freeman is a delightful part of it.
I cry a bit too.

He surprised me with his depth in Man On the Moon and I thought he was good in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind.

The Mask? Hmmm.

Yes Man is a fun movie but of course is nothing compared to the book.

It’s a shame that a lot of people only know about Yes Man the film (set in America) and not Yes Man the book (set in North London).

The writer, Danny Wallace – who can be seen sitting at the bar near the end of the film – also wrote the book Join Me. He did a lot of other things too.

Well, finally I have little to say about Yes man the film, sorry.

Go read the book.

At the end of The Truman Show the main character escapes on a boat.

I’m going to cycle up to the village to Louise’s sensible house and see if Minnie’s passport is there.

Then I’m off for a boat. I think you can sail through volcanic ash.

Bye.