People Time

 I wrote about The Odyssey last night and published it.  Few have seen it so I will keep an eye on it in case any comments appear.  Blogger still does not update very satisfactorily on reading lists, if it appears anywhere that is. 

Yesterday I went to Women's Institute meeting which I had mistakenly thought was the week before.  The speaker who was supposed to come had to cancel due to illness so one of the members spoke of her last winter's 3 weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia and Thailand.  Her two sons live there and so she put together a week with them and a two week tour on her own.  I am not sure exactly where her sons live, they do not seem to be connected and could be in different countries.  Anyway, she made it into a planned three country tour which involved helping one son at the embassy to get a passport when all his belongings were stolen in Bangkok and they had three days of form filling and attending various locations to finally get a temporary passport.  That seemed to take up most of the first week and then there was a short burst of when the other son and his partner joined them and then it was off on her own for the rest of the time.  It all seemed very nice in Vietnam museums where she took a lot of time learning about the Vietnam war of which she said she knew very little.  A bit odd I thought but probably true that we think we know but don't.  This area of the world has never particularly interested me except when my Thai lady invited me to Thailand with her for a personal tour with a native but apart from that Vietnam and Cambodia, no, not for me.   Hearing this lady's talk and seeing her photos did not change any of this for me. 

Then after her talk we did a quiz which me and my table of four found frustrating because there were a lot of anagrams and it was noisy and none of us could think straight in the noise to sort out the anagrams.  Funny because I can do them peacefully at home alone.  There was much laughter and no peace.  I have never been to a pub quiz so I have no idea if people keep quiet during the questions but I don't think I could cope if it was noisy.

I signed up for a winter outing to Cromer to the end of pier show which has a very good reputation so something to look forward to in December.  

I was so spurred on by the value of being with people that when I got home  I got in touch with the Chairman of the adult education group, the committee of which you may recall I resigned from a year ago,  and asked if tickets were still available for the summer party in his garden in a week's time.  He assured me I would be very welcome, ticket or no ticket, but yes, a ticket will be put aside for me.  

I still have not written any more about the new government cabinet and there are some names that I would like to write about and I will get there one day. 

The Tour stage yesterday was won by Philipsen with Schmit second.  The overall classification remains with Pogacar in yellow jersey Evenepoel second and Del Toro third.   Today's stage is stage 18 and for the climbers.  Voiron to Orciéres-Merlette passing by Grenoble.  I make no predictions because who knows who will be in the breakaway.  Too complicated for me to think about this morning.  

I am out to the hairdressers this afternoon. 

The Odyssey

 On Tuesday I went to see The Odyssey.  This is the latest Christopher Nolan film. Oppenheimer, Tenet, are two of his recent epics that have done very well and I liked.  I saw Oppenheimer many times because I enjoyed it so much and wanted to capture every detail of the script.  

The Odyssey will probably attract me back again before the end of the summer.  The first hour is rather slow though but you can't have it all. 

It was filmed for IMAX screenings but it would be good on any big cinema screen. 

The Odyssey is Homer's epic poem about the long journey home from the Trojan War of King Odysseus who has to battle monsters and angry gods and frightening witches, more gods and monsters and then the Sirens who are mythical half female half bird creatures out to steer sailors off course to their deaths.  There were bits where I was actually covering my eyes. 

King Odysseus is determinied that he will return to his wife and son waiting for him at home in Ithaca.  It is in a nutshell the story of determination and the importance of home and family.    The journey back takes 10 years and that is after 10 years of being at war.  

There are a lot of interruptions to Odysseus's journey caused by the monsters and gods and some stupidity in the case of men who do not listen to or obey instructions and suffer the wrath of the gods.  There are lessons to be learned here.   During that time Odysseus loses his men, he meets Athena (Zendaya) who is in the film for all of about three minutes if you add her appearances together and unless you know a bit about The Odyssey original story I think you would be wondering what she is doing there at all. She is the goddess of wisdom in case you don't know and she is in her brief appearances there to help Odysseus.   

Anne Hathaway plays Penelope waiting back at home and fighting off endless suitors who try to persuade her that Odysseus is never coming home.  

Odysseus is played by Mat Damon, you may think a rather unlikely Odysseus but I think he actually nails it within the script he is given.  I do not think that the script/dialogue is particularly strong.  It is a bit disappointing in fact.  However,  the film is  understandably for all and not just those who know Homer's Odyssey in its original version. 

I think those who go not knowing the story would struggle a bit and maybe confused.   But I could be wrong.  

The final third of the film is the best bit and the music score is very rousing and had me enjoying the music above everything else and quite blown away by it.  I am a bit of a softie for soundtracks.  The ending is not exactly the same as Homer's ending but given a film needs a bit of a closure it is probably better than how Homer left it.  

And when you have finished reading the original version as I believe many are now doing, you can then turn to Ulysses and see what James Joyce did with the characters.   It is all very fascinating.  

So did I like it?  Yes but if you had asked me that in the first hour I might have said I was finding it slow and looking at my watch rather a lot.  But stick with it, it gets better. 

Update

 It is still my intention to write a second post about the new cabinet post holders but not at the moment because other things are getting in the way. 

I went to see the Odyssey yesterday and I also need to write about that but that will have to wait too. 

The Tour time trial was won by Evenepoel yesterday and Pogacar was second.  Lipowitz, from memory only as I am not looking at anything this morning,  so fact checker  AI chapgpt  troll  Apple watch-wearer you have honesty here, I am not a Louise Haigh liar type of person, and had to retire from the race because he had a nasty crash on his own during the time trial.   What you see is what you get with me.   Yes, it was Lipowitz.  My memory is good. 

The GC remains the same with the adjustment for Lipowitz and Pogacar remains in the Yellow Jersey. 

Today is Stage 17 and is called flat but it has a couple or more climbs and is about 175 kms and is Chambery to Voiron.  Chambery is the gateway to the Alps so we know where they will be off to next.   No paperwork in front of me this morning and tiredness has overwhelmed me.  

Sorry, better posting next time.   I blame the Odyssey.

The Cabinet

 Well Miliband got a demotion and that has to be good news.  Foreign Secretaries don't hold much clout because big decisions are not made by foreign secretaries, they are made by No. 10. 

That is the good news for me. 

John Healey as Chancellor is the shock news.  He was in Gordon Brown's Treasury Team.  I hope he issues some war bonds to raise money for defence.  I think he is a good appointment but time will tell of course.   I may eat my words.    (I can't help but think of Denis Healey here and the IMF and the battles of the 1976  and all that terrible time of inflation of 25% and economic crisis but hopefully we will not see any of that.  Denis and John are not related).   But is this going to happen all over again?  

I am sorry to see Rayner back as Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary after her little misdemeanour with the stamp duty on her house purchase.  Now put to rights and she paid up the £40,000.Let's see if she can get Healey to abolish stamp duty. 

Shame that Hilary Benn is out of Northern Ireland and former priest Chris Bryant is taking over.   I like Hilary Benn.   I am always a bit sceptical about priests in politics, the two don't seem to go together.   And Paula Vennells certainly did no good for the image of former priests in  executive power positions in the post office scandal and should be in prison. 

Stephen Kinnock is to be Welsh Secretary, one of my favourite Labour MPs during Brexit when he respected the Leave voters and didn't become hysterical over Brexit in the House of Commons.  Burnham is a Kinnock fan, of his father, and perhaps we will see young Stephen rising through more to the fore.  If he continues like he did with Brexit he will be ok.  I don't see him as his father's son for some reason, but again, I might be proved wrong.  (Father would have led Britain to ruin if he had ever been PM).

Good to see that Rachel in Accounts declined to be defence secretary (at least rumoured that she did) the first wise move of Rachel.  Wes Streeting, son of Hackney, grandson of Kray friends and drinking partners, goes into defence.  Well, he may not know much yet but let's hope he has a good team of advisers as I don't think he knows much about defence but then that won't be a first. 

Ellie Reeves becomes AG and that gets rid of Richard Hermer, thank goodness.  I think Ellie has the brains of the family and has at least worked as a barrister and been involved in cases for the workers.  She is a bit trade unionisty but that can't be helped in a Labour government.  She does not come under that heading of "civil rights lawyers"  which so defined Starmer.  (In case readers of foreign lands are confused here, Ellie is Rachel Reeve's sister).

Well that is all for now, I could go on.  Oh, and  talking of civil rights lawyers, Lammy goes too which is good.  He can get back to some local constituency matters on the back bench and probably be a better person for it. 

More if I can write them out later. 

On balance, I am not so unhappy as I thought I would be with Andy Burnham.  But of course, they haven't done anything yet so I am prepared to eat my hat but I truly hope I don't have to. 

Tour stuff

 I just read that doping tests were carried out on Vingegaard at 2am in the "night" morning of the day he crashed out and  Pogacar at 5am.  Given the gruelling day ahead in the mountains it is staggeringly unfair to break into their sleep which is so important to the riders.  They were woken up in their beds. 

Tim Merlier has abandoned the race, he is one of the sprinters who has won stages 12, 8 and 7.   Sprinters often find that their bodies just give up in the mountains.  Cavendish was well known for this and often struggled to finish such stages before the cut off point.

Tomorrow we are back to the tour again. Stage 16, time trial. 

Pidcock has been docked 20 seconds for holding on to a car, twice, in stage 15.  He was also fined, but I am not sure how much, a few hundred euros.  The time docking is a blow to him. 

Air Mail Friends Old and New

 The emails I have received from blog readers over the weekend has been like having penfriends all over again.  It has been very nice and reminded me of schooldays when one would have penfriends all over the world.  I had a penfriend in Uppsala, Sweden, a girl in Brussels, Belgium, a boy in Kuala Lumpur and a girl in Wangaratta in Victoria and I remember learning from her that you can go ski-ing in Australia.  It was fun and watching out for the aerogramme in the post, that lightweight single sheet of blue paper that could be folded into a self-contained letter and envelope and you had to fit all your news into that folded format and then fold it and lick all round the edge to stick it down.   And they were bought at the post office and the price included the airmail fee so no stamp was required.

And then there were airmail writing paper pads and envelopes and airmail stickers.  I remember when one of my early relationships ended sometime in the 1970s and the guy moved to Papua New Guinea  and we corresponded by airmail for years as we remained friends.   He then moved to Trinidad and Tobago and then Australia.   He eventually settled in Hamilton, New Zealand.  He was more in love with me than I was with him and not marrying him was probably one of the biggest mistakes of my life.  He remained single and lives with two dogs somewhere up there, or down there,  in Hamilton.  We don't correspond anymore.  His dad worked for ICI on Teeside, ICI, Imperial Chemical Industries, the barometer of the British economy for many decades. 

PS   The blog will remain public at least for the time being.  

Life

 The  information received from the lovely emails I have received is that the people who really appreciate my writing and who return here day after day are those who never say anything!   

To those who have said that they do not feel that they have anything to say but like to read my views, learn things and think,  please never feel that you cannot just say hi, thank you, you enjoyed the post, the post made you think or anything else like your family are like mine, not like mine, or  you live like I do, alone and have to work at it to not just give up. 

I write but I cannot forever write in a vacuum. Please never hold back from tellilng me that you like my writing, I am only human.  I sit here tonight watching the World Cup Final alone, that must be an illustration of living alone.  I am enjoying it in the chair alone.