Some things I have seen recently, with increasing levels of Randi participation:
- 12 Monkeys
Randi Participation Level: 0/12 monkeys
Terry Gilliam’s 1995 sci-fi film, starring Bruce Willis as Cole, plucked from Katie’s recommendation list while Randi was away in South Africa. It’s a nice twist on the “send someone back in time from the post-apocalyptic future” genre in that Cole is openly disdainful about the idea that he might actually change the past. His job is solely to do research; if he can uncover the true origins of the mysterious killer virus which exploded across the globe in 1996, it might speed up the research for a cute in his present. Of course, he gets distracted by being detained in a mental hospital, falling in love (albeit with a woman he kidnaps) and hearing voices in his head… and naturally we end up in a causality loop of sorts. A fun watch, but my god the mid-90s were a long time ago. - Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Randi Participation Level: 1/10 gnomes
A holdover from Christmas time. I thought the latest outing from Wallace and Gromit, facing off against the devious Feathers McGraw and his hacked robotic gnomes, was clever and well-done! Randi did not. But then I have (a) fonder childhood associations, (b) infinitely more appetite for animation. Basically, deep down I would just enjoy having some of Wallace’s time-saving inventions and his Wensleydale cheese. - Lavender, Hyacinth, Violet, Yew
Randi Participation Level: 2/2 tables (although we were both exhausted)
Our latest play at the Bush Theatre, about a non-binary person’s struggle for self-expression getting all tangled up with their parents’ latent grief over a close friend’s death to AIDS in the 1990s. Also, a lot about flowers and gardening. This had definite pros and cons! The acting was generally excellent, and the script thankfully avoided the cliché of setting up the parents as reactionary foils. The main problem is that I’m old now, so whilst I agree the dad in particular could have dealt with his buried feelings better (and to be honest, a quick chat down the allotment might have done the trick) my instinct is that the parents are perfectly nice people, and don’t need so much eye-rolling.
Unexpected bonus slapstick: the unplanned snapping of a table leg as it was being wheeled across the stage. Cue emergency hunt for a replacement table.
Oh, and we’re also deep into the second season of Severance. So much so that at one point we caught up, and were able to have a conversation with Katie and James without awkwardly filtering for spoilers on either side. Just like the old days!
This all sounds very passive so far, but actually we’ve been running around a lot in the last month. The more bloggable destinations include the Honriman Museum with Kirsty and Roger (but sadly no walrus), a wonderful (and incredibly helpful) Saturday lunch at Matt and Laura’s and – immediately afterwards – a Hidden London tour of Green Park station. This was Randi’s amazing Christmas present to me, and is sold as Dover Street as a nod to the station’s original name when it opened in 1906.
Today Green Park serves three lines, and the tour moves from the abandoned Piccadilly line lift entrance – later repurposed as an underground war office – to the construction of the Victoria line in the 60s and Jubilee line in the 70s. It’s probably just my bias in terms of the actual lines involved, but to me this was a progression from least to most interesting, culminating in us standing at the bottom of a giant ventilation tunnel just off the Jubilee line platform which really could be from a Terry Gilliam film. (I know “giant ventilation tunnel” is hard to make sound exciting, but trust me, it’s sorta awe-inspiring to actually stand in.)
Also in the last few weeks: Randi generously ran a 10k purely to acquire another medal we can use to cover up a hole in our wall, I saw my mum and grandma on a flying visit, and on the Otford Circular Walk I completely lost a shoe to the impressive suction power of mud.
Mud aside, it was incredibly uplifting to get a properly sunny day for a nice countryside walk, and Randi was especially delighted when we stepped off the train at Shoreham and she saw just what a small, picturesque village it is. All you have to do is tap on the Thameslink at Catford, and suddenly you’re in another world…
