Happy Valentines Day

So how am I spending my Valentines Day? Popping antibiotics, sleeping and keeping warm under my duvet. Drinking plenty of fluids, upping my vitamin C intake and sucking on real fruit ice lollies. Ive got an ear infection as well as tonsillitis. Though don’t know how I can have tonsillitis as I had them removed at the age of 5. Apparently not all the gland was removed, so they still swell up just like tonsils. Sorry for those out there who are squeamish.

I thought I would tell you the story about my very first Valentines Card. I was 13 years old when I got my very first Valentines Card, at the end of a school day when I had given up of anyone being my secret admirer. My best mate C had got a huge card at the beginning of the school day, from the best looking guy in our class. Lucky girl. At school I was quite timid, and just wanted to not really be noticed. Get through the school day, and then go home, and if I was lucky I might get a few words from the popular ones in my class.

In my History class I sat next to a girl called J, she was very sweet and we sat at a double desk right at the front of the class. Next to me across the isle was a guy called M. He was part of a gang we called the Hair Bear Bunch (after the tv programme) as they all had long hair and were into heavy rock music. He was an ok guy, but not someone I wanted to go out with, and he had asked me several times. Why didn’t I want to go out with him? Peer pressure, the popular ones in my class would have laughed their school ties off!

One day, long before Valentines it was pointed out to me by dear J that my name was written all over M’s books and pencil case. Oh the horror! On this particular Valentines Day I was waiting in the school foyer for my best friend C, she would walk me to my bus stop as she just lived around the corner. Suddenly J appears, looking all hot and flushed as she had thought she had missed me, and had been charged with the responsibility of giving me my Valentines Card.
I opened it, and it was signed Lord Shaftsbury with some lovely words in it. We were learning about Lord Shaftsbury in our History class and how he improved working hours and environments for children who worked in factories in Victorian times. As it was signed this way I instantly knew who the card had come from. I was well chuffed, my very first Valentines Card. Someone actually liked me enough to get me a card, and at that age it was very important to receive one, even if you made something up. But I didn’t need to make it up.

I never let on that I knew the card was from M, and I cant remember if he asked me out again after that or not. I kept that card for quite a few years, in my little keep sake box.

Hope you have a lovely day.

x x x

The Reader - Film Review

Went to see this film last Friday evening with my best buddie Debs. Its not what I would call a feel good film, but it is a film that will make you think. I certainly recommend it.

It begins in 1995 in Berlin where Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) is in his apartment, where he has a flashback to his 15 year old self (David Kross) meets Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet) who is a tram conductor and much older than him. Hannah helps Michael when he falls ill, and after a three month illness Michael returns to thank Hannah, and so their affair begins.

You see Michael growing from a boy to a man, in more ways than one! Hannah likes him to read to her, and hence the title of the film. The film goes from Michaels time with Hannah, modern day and then back to when Michael was a law student and watched Hannah’s trial. When their affair has finished Hannah moved on and became a guard at Auschwitz. She is on trial, and we watch how she is treated by her fellow defendants and how Michael reacts to her disclosures. Michael has a moral dilema, what will he do? Although Hannah was part of something very terrible, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as her story unfolded. She chose to be a guard, but circumstances in her life gave her no choice in some of her actions. Back to the 1995, can Michael make amends for his decisions at the time of the trial?

Very thought provoking and greatly played by Kate Winslet, who ages before your eyes.

If you see it hope you enjoy.

x x