Discovering Hidden Secrets By Way of Eternal Law and Hustle!

I have currently been exiled to my room owing to the fact that Andy Murray is playing and I somehow seem to jinx him!  Obviously I don’t really but whenever I watch he always seems to commence a downhill trend!  Weirdly, by the time you come to read this his semi-final - that is currently forefront in the minds of all tennis enthusiasts - will have been consigned to history.  It’s incredible how quickly that happens.  Christmas seems an age ago now, not the month and a few days that it actually is.  Already I’m planning the year ahead, making presents, entering exams and festivals for my pupils, events that don’t take place for months and yet somehow I’m getting bogged down in it all!

Today in Caithness the sun is shining and from my little window (at about 40cm x 60cm it really is little!) the only clouds I can see are wispy white ones that look more like the result of a painting lesson than being full of potential rain.  I can’t see much else out of my window as it is so cold outside that the window is all steamed up, but I can hear the birds chirping and make out the vague and distant sound of cars every now and then.  It really is a day on which to smile!

These last few Thursdays at 9:00PM has seen the debut of the series Eternal Law.  I’m not someone who generally watches TV, normally I wait for things to come out on DVD and then watch them straight through without the tension of having to wait from one week to the next.  Now I’ve discovered that, with Hustle and Eternal Law, I’m so hooked on them I’m watching them as and when they come up.  I love the cleverness of Hustle, as well as which I think - as I’m certain you can’t have helped but notice - Robert Glenister is an amazing actor and I love the character of Ash Morgan.  I could have (and have!) watched all of the series of Hustle over and over again.  The characters are so loveable, and the acting of the main parts is just absolutely brilliant.

And Eternal Law is quite literally out of this world!  Finally, a series that prompts discussion on things beyond the crazy obsession with “talent” shows like the X-Factor.  Granted, I discovered it only through Judith’s close watching of Sam West’s Twitter page, but I can’t believe that it has been given such poor reviews, so here I am to redress the balance:

Since I first started studying Theology and teaching RE in schools, I’ve been amazed to discover just what a taboo subject religion is, but these writers openly try to get us to consider morals and ethics.  I love the thought that even in one of the most deplorable jobs - there is a reason “The Honest Lawyer” is a pub name! - there might actually be a moral compass.  Here, suddenly, is a programme that doesn’t matter that there is a week between episodes, because it takes you all that time to discuss and evaluate the ethics   in the latest part.  If you haven’t seen it, you should tune in this Thursday on ITV.  Unless of course you live anywhere but England, in which case you have to catch up on ITV Player - like we do!

What makes both Hustle and Eternal Law fantastic programmes is that you’re constantly looking for that key to unlocking the puzzle, be it con or case.  I’m guilty, as most of us are if we’re entirely honest, of making assumptions and not really looking at things properly.  Today, if you find yourself in a problematic or difficult situation, try and look for the hidden key to unlock the puzzle - it will be there, it just needs finding.  Cheat code: Smiling helps to see the best in everything!

*Picture by Susan Crow*

Looking Back At The Past And Forward To The Future

As I’m certain you all know - irrespective of how you got to this page because I’ve been raving on about it on Twitter, Facebook and through good old-fashioned talking! - 7th-10th January was our London Adventure.  It all began back in August when Judith and I were lamenting never having seen any play with Robert Glenister in and we made an agreement that whenever his next play was announced we would make sure we got a chance to attend.  And then the rest is history.

Noises Off, the play we went to see at The Old Vic, was absolutely fantastic, made only slightly less than perfect by my ridiculous idea of wearing mascara… not good for someone who always cries when they laugh.  And I don’t mind admitting that the point in the play when I came most close to crying with hysterical laughter was the part with the cactus, although the whole second act had me giggling away.

The trip was my first big adventure of 2012 - a year for which I already have high hopes, and none of them involving the Olympics.  I’m not in favour of New Year Resolutions as such, maybe because it shows up how most people lack a resolute mind, but I do have a set of aims that I would like to see fulfilled before the end of the year.  New Year is one of those occasions when people are happy to look to the future and forget the past.  I hope I never do that.

My past is fundamental to who I am.

Tonight we watched Stand By Me, the film based on Stephen King’s novella The Body.  It puts a lump in my throat every time I watch it.  There is a part of us all that when we grow up longs to be a child again, an idea that has become particularly poignant in the last couple of years with the premature death of one of our fellow childhood adventurers.  It’s a cruel reality that we six who wandered off to launch Lego boats and face whatever perils may lay around the bend in the burn or along the track and over the hill armed with homemade bows and staffs, shall never meet up again and discuss or share stories about those “Good Old Days”.

But I would never want to go back to them.  The past is what it is, and it is that which shapes the future.  Even the happiest and most exciting moments of our past if we tried to recreate them would just be a disappointing echo of the original experience.  I’m beginning 2012 with a good, honest look back at what has come before in the certainty that it is undoubtedly what will forge the future.

So to lay my cards on the table here are some of my New Year Aims:

To enter at least one writing competition each month.
To keep my room tidy - ooops! I think I’ve failed that one already!
To put on a concert of pupils’ musical excellence.
To get everyone’s birthday presents to them before or on their birthday.
To read more.

My hope of running a music school?  Maybe next year.

I’ll be thinking back on the past and forward to the future with a smile on my face, because whatever happens, if you face it with a smile the burden is a little lighter, for you and the people who will undoubtedly stand beside you.

In the meantime, if you’re around London in the next couple of weeks go and see Noises Off (Judith’s review of the play is here).  If you’re not laughing hysterically by halfway through then you must have gone to the wrong theatre!