Tag: comedy

317: the gift that keeps on giving…

It is a truth universally acknowledged and so on that if  a group of middle aged women get together these days they’ll inevitably start talking about menopause. I mean, forget annual magazine or cheese subscriptions or whatever, menopause really is the gift that keeps on giving.

This week’s tick on the menopause bingo card was a bout of vertigo – I’d had a few twinges last weekend but only when bending down, but it landed fully on Wednesday and I couldn’t even sit up without feeling dizzy and sick, so I had to take a day off work. It is apparently all to do with oestrogen receptors in the inner ear. Why does one even need oestrogen receptors in the inner ear? It’s not like we have to listen to the damn stuff. Answers on an HRT patch to the usual address, please.

Luckily I was recovered by Thursday as I had a dinner date planned with old friends – Kersti (old school friend and ex-flatmate in our early days in London) and Nicky, over from New Zealand for the first time in years. Nicky had her two daughters with her so we had to mostly behave, but it was so good to see them both and briefly Nicky’s husband too. We started with a drink in a pub in Farringdon and then headed for the Market Place Food Hall in St Paul’s as none of us could decide what we wanted to eat. Kersti and I ended up at the Argentinian Grill while the others ate Nepalese dumplings.

Saturday was also a busy one: Thing 2 and I went to the cinema to see Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, Ryan Gosling’s cardigan and a (not The) rock. Based on a novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote The Martian, it was fairly long at about two and a half hours but was completely engrossing. It’s a buddy movie in space. We laughed. We cried. We were utterly invested for the whole thing and my copy of the book should arrive tomorrow.

The jumper, starring Ryan Gosling. Amazon MGM photo.

Ryan Gosling sort of passed me by until La La Land and Barbie but he’s wonderful in this. Go and see it. Take tissues.

A spur of the moment decision saw me out in the evening as well, at The Eric Morecambe Centre in Harpenden with Miriam and family watching a comedian called John Robertson and his The Dark Room show. The world’s only live action text-based video game experience, apparently, it’s described as ” improv comedy + retro gaming
fused into a deranged heavy metal game show” and I can’t think of a better description. I’d never heard of him before, but since this is a year of trying new things I decided to join the outing and had an excellent time. It’s hard to explain without ruining it, but it was very well done and perfectly timed. He did photos at the interval, took questions at the end and called everyone Darren. Also recommended!

Today is a walk with Thing 2, coffee with Miriam and Edith and then some interminable ironing…same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Report for Murder/Silent Bones/Common Murder – Val McDermid

264: funny peculiar or funny haha?

On Monday my friend Jill convinced me to go with her to a new exercise class, called Strength and Supple, or possibly Supple and Strength, I don’t know. It didn’t include glowsticks or loud music, anyway. It did involve hand weights, yoga mats and blocks and – somewhat unexpectedly – small beach balls which we were supposed to tuck behind our knees and use to commit some awkward stretches.

Those who know me well are aware that agility and I are, at best, very distant acquaintances. Graceful poses and I are not friends at all. Expecting me to get from downward dog back up to standing is, I feel, something that should only be undertaken behind closed doors and possibly in a darkened room. I can get half way and then I get sort of stuck, much like Winnie the Pooh attempting to make an exit from Rabbit’s house after a whole pot of honey. It’s best just to hang a tea towel on me and leave me to get out of it in my own time. Really.

After the downward dog bit there were some warrior poses and some leaping about in the name of cardio, the aforementioned beach ball bits, and then Jill had promised me a nice relaxing bit at the end. But first, FIRST, there were some contortions that involved holding the beach ball between our knees while lifting a yoga block over our heads and attempting to sort of not do a sit up. At least, that was what I think we were supposed to be doing. I could be mistaken.

Sounds simple, yes? Lying down is well within my wheelhouse, I thought, as at least I can’t fall over and I can deal with getting up again afterwards. This turned out not to be the case as my head decided that this was an opportune moment for one of its occasional bouts of vertigo and it was touch and go whether I’d throw up or not. I gave up, sat up and added ‘lying down’ to the list of things getting that little bit more challenging as I get older.

Talking of funny turns, this week I have been listening to Marcel Lucont, who first dropped onto my radar with the excellent poem ‘Wine in a Can’ which you can see below. He’s very dry, very funny, probably not actually French, and has a podcast with the best bits of his interactive live show ‘The Whine List’ which caused Thing 3 to ask what on earth I was listening to. He’s deliciously judgy without punching down, and worth a listen though not in front of young children.

Other things making me happy this week

  • A surprise in the post from TT2 – a cute picture of my Beloved, Thing 2 and GTs 2 and 3 taken a few months ago.
  • Sunshine all week! The cherry blossom is out and London is looking shiny
  • My Threads feed being completely full of penguins after the orange basketcase’s announcement of trade tariffs on the unpopulated Heard and McDonald Islands – no people, anyway, but thousands of penguins exporting who knows what.

This week the kids are off school so I don’t have to wrangle any of them out of bed, so that’s something to look forward to! Today we’re going for a swim and Jill’s mum – queen of the knitted bobble hat – will be coming to meet her subjects.

Same time next week,

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Red Bones/Dead Water/Silent Voices/Thin Air – Ann Cleeves

Raising Steam/Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett (Audible)