Month: October 2020

I wish I knew the answer.

My last post was drafted while watching OHMSS and drinking some lovely Yellowtail Pinot Grigio, could you tell?

Life at the moment is more than interesting for all of us. We have COVID-19, Trump in the White House, Boris in number 10, and Brexit coming down like a steam roller. So, life is pretty good right? (Sarcasm mode in full on mode).

The universe is ever expanding, which reflects what our lives and knowledge should be – ever expanding. I’d like to think that every day has a new lesson, whether you recognise it or not. Mine is that, after watching some episodes of Futurama, I miss my Leela. Who is she? Someone I once arranged to meet in Milton Keynes. That will only mean something to the one person it’s meant to mean something to. I truly do feel as stupid as Fry sometimes, and maybe that’s fair.

Everything is a huge thing to consider. But for most of us it’s our lives and all that it comprises. Family, friends, loved ones, jobs, careers, stuff – you know, everything. It’s only when enough of it is going away or disappearing or leaving your immediacy that you realise everything is not all that is important.

Warning: at this stage the Yellowtail has been fully consumed!

Every day we get closer to the end of our lives. Some are closer to that time than others and some have hit the barrier. I miss good friends. I worry that soon I will miss people who are even closer. Apologies, those who know, know, those who don’t, don’t need to.

I was profoundly disappointed and upset to hear of a friend’s passing, especially given how I’d “been there” at certain key times For them and their loved ones. Hey ho, reality check.

I wish I could be more closely involved with some, especially “Leela”. Maybe one day.

Sometimes life can be a cruel whatsit and wants to highlight the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The good? Another time, anything I say now feels like self-aggrandisement.

The bad? Covered above. I guess sometimes it takes bad things to truly show your relative value to others.

The ugly? Truth. Truth can be a bad thing. To acknowledge that we’re all human. We all make mistakes, the impact of them is the key. Never rate work issues higher than personal ones – be it family, friends, or anyone close outside of work.

Net, make the most of what life offers, enjoy the great things that happen – and there are way more of those than we ever recognise or admit to the wide world, take life as it comes and be the best person you can.

The rest will take care of itself.

OK, so which is your favourite Bond film?

Goldfinger? Has to be up there, great song and lots of good action. Gert Frobe as the villain, Honor Blackman as, well, you know her name.

How about Skyfall? Daniel does a good Bond, a very good Bond. You believe he became the assassin we all love and has the gritty background, yet can act suave and sophisticated when the need arises.

The Living Daylights has some good action sequences, but Dalton doesn’t quite make it as Bond, nice enough, but not “the” Bond.

How about View to a Kill? What lost it for me was Mayday’s sudden and somewhat unbelievable conversion. Indeed, most of the Moore films are somewhat tongue in cheek, not what Bond really stands for.

Goldeneye? Now, Pierce is definitely a great Bond, for me better than Connery. It’s a great film, spoiler alert – Sean Bean dies at the end, and a wonderful set of action set pieces. It’s still not quite enough.

No, the best Bond for me is the one with the worst Bond, but best overall sense of Bond the hero, Bond the action man, Bond the spy, Bond the covert antagonist, Bond the fighter, Bond the lover, Bond the compassionate, Bond the womaniser – Bond, the complete man of that time.

Yes, for me, OHMSS shows Bond in the complete manner.

PS The only way to better this option is to use the original storyline from the book as originally written by Fleming for “The Spy Who Loved Me“. But it wouldn’t fit what we’ve now come to expect of Bond. It’s told from the female protagonist’s perspective. It’s nothing like the Bond story as we now know them. Nonetheless it is the best Bond story I’ve read and for me would have been an absolutely stunning Bond film. It just wouldn’t have sold, and even in these liberated and more equal times it is still wrong, because it was of an era, of a time when things were different. It’s a shame, it addressed issues of its time well, and being told from the female perspective highlighted the challenges women face. And Bond is the hero who saves her. Even better than in OHMSS.

One day perhaps. I for one would love to see that different type of Bond.

I wonder if someone will have the courage to make it.