Friends you can take a risk with

 David and Carolyn are Pascoe’s godparents.  When we lived in the North East we saw them every week.  Now we live hundreds of miles apart, but still see them a couple of treasured times each year.

We wanted to take them to the Odyssey, our wonderful local independent cinema, but the choice was a predictable Rom Com, OR ‘Beau is afraid’  - a psychedelic journey of weirdness concerning the painful relationship between a man and his mother. 

We chose the latter and at the end of the three-hour film, another audience member said loudly ‘Well that wasn’t worth staying up late for!’

But the four of us found ourselves returning to ‘What did it all mean?’ throughout the weekend.  We certainly got our money’s worth.

On Saturday, we met the twins in London.  They wanted to go to ‘Healing King Herod’, a show previewing before the Edinburgh Fringe at the Soho Theatre.

‘King Herod, famed for his Massacre of the Innocents, now leads a self-development pyramid scheme. Ancient soldiers become modern clients in an interactive, drag-clown therapy session.’

I didn’t even know there was a genre called drag clown. 

After a little hesitation, we all went along and raised the average age of the audience considerably. 

The show did end with the star, Riss Obolensky wearing nothing but a nappy and rolling on the ground smeared all-over with jam, but it certainly made us laugh and Obolensky managed to pack her weirdness into one hour, which was certainly a better decision than three!

But the best thing about both shows was going along with friends who are up for something a bit different.

 

 

 

Seeking Asylum on Holiday

 When the real world is troubling, my impulse is to get away from it all.

In the last year, we were hosting a Ukrainian family.  They were bereaved in the war and although they were perfect guests, there was a weight of sadness on the house.  We found ourselves going away a lot at weekends. But each time we turned on the radio, the news from Ukraine found us again.

Likewise, on our holiday to Cornwall, I was prepared to be faced with our own family problems, such as dealing with ageing grandparents, but not the social issues which ravage our nation.  However, as we took a morning stroll around Pendennis Point above the shipyards and looked down into the dry dock, we spotted something which looked like a block of flats on a barge. 

We were curious so Perran googled the name on its side, Bibby Stockholm, only to discover that this barge was being fitted out as floating accommodation for 500 plus asylum seekers.  Suddenly the Cornish sun seemed less warm.

If we can’t escape the problems of our age by going on holiday, then I guess we just have to go on demonstrating and signing petitions and helping out voluntary organisations with extra fervour, and at least that is one thing that a holiday gives us - we return home with the energy to do just that.

 

 

Family Holiday

We just had a family holiday. In many ways it was excellent - we stayed in a capacious holiday-let overlooking the Fal River. The weather was brilliant, so we walked and swam the coast every

day and cooked wholesome meals together in the evening. 

 

However, a family holiday always ends up as a microcosm of what is going on in the family.

 

Pascoe, Carenza and Perran are all busy at work so we made sure the house had good wi-fi in order to accommodate a certain amount of working from home, also great train links in order to allow anybody who had to arrive late (Pascoe), or leave early (Perran).  

We stayed close to Truro to allow us several visits to my elderly parents who have had a tough year.  

We were late departing on changeover day because one person had an important phone meeting, plus we had to take something to the dump for my dad, which meant we then hit heavy traffic all the way home, exacerbated by a train strike.  

Which in turn meant it was a close thing for Nigel to catch the train north to support his mother in the act of moving house from the north to the south on the following day.

When I look back, however, I shall choose to forget all the stresses and to remember only the sun-filled days and the evenings sharing plentiful food and wine. After all, there's nothing to beat a family holiday.