The Year That Was 2020!

We are well into a new year and it’s taken me a while to compile the video for our 2020, but here it is! It may not have been a year where we had rich experiences but we came out unscathed, valuing the small things in life. The joy of family and friends, of hearing the birds singing or feeling the prickle of sunlight on your skin. 2020 was definitely a year to make you think and be thankful for all that you have.

Like everyone else, here’s wishing 2021 is a more fulfilling year.

Thanks for following my blog and for your continued support!

Wishing you good health and joy in your life.

Christine xx

A Year in Photos – 2020

What an unprecedented year 2020 has been! From a stormy beginning to the new year to a global pandemic the likes no one had seen in a hundred years. We were told to work from home or be furloughed. The roads were quieter and the air felt fresher for it. Then we were allowed out but it wasn’t for long as we were soon all told to stay at home, again! People lost their jobs, their homes and small businesses suffered. It has been a year of struggle and stresses untold. Every day blended into one and mental health issues took its toll. Now Christmas is upon us but there’s not much cheer to be had. This year in photos has been the hardest blog to write. How has your 2020 fared?

January

Our 2020 started off slowly with lots of walks with Riley. If I knew what lay ahead I would have gone on more adventures.

David and Riley

February

Our aviary welcomed a new friend in the form of Nova, a Star finch.

Nova, the Star Finch

March

If I’d have known that this was the last time I’d see a live concert at the Philharmonic Hall, I would have made an effort to enjoy it more. However I was less than satisfied with this performance of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony.

The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

April

With all the uncertainty around lock-down it was nice to escape for a while. A favourite RPG of mine which I last played in 1997, had been remade and was released in time to save lock-down.

Final Fantasy 7: Remake

May

Social distancing meant that we didn’t see family as much as we would have liked. So we had many family quiz nights to catch up and have a much needed laugh.

Family Quiz Nights

June

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Evie, the family cat who passed away aged 18.

Evie

July

Once Covid-19 lock-down restrictions had been relaxed, we took a day trip to The Lake District. Wild swimming at Beacon Tarn was a reset button to all the anxiety of the year.

Beacon Tarn swim

August

A visit to a local sunflower maze with family was enjoyable, even though the sunflowers themselves had passed their best!

Sunflower Selfie

September

One of the best days of 2020 was when we took a visit to Buttermere in The Lake District. The weather was perfect, just like a summers day!

The Lone Tree

October

Like many who had plans this year, I had to cancel my birthday holiday to Scotland. I settled for a walk at Formby Beach with David and Riley instead.

Riley at Formby Beach

November

During the summer, on a walk with Riley, I spotted the Google Maps car. Fast forward to the end of the year and during a search I spotted Riley, Mum and I on Google Maps!

On Google Maps

December

With the country in differing Covid-19 tiers, there seems to be less hope and cheer this Christmas. Whoever you celebrate the season with, I wish you all the best.

2020 Christmas Tree

I’m keeping everything crossed that 2021 will be a kinder year to us all!

I wish you all good health and happiness for the new year ahead!

Thanks for your continued support,

Christine xx

A Year in Film: May 2020

How can we be at the end of May! Where has the time gone? I know for many that this pandemic has been a stressful period but I feel in some ways it has brought people together, maybe not physically but electronically definitely. In the past few weeks I have shared in family Facebook quiz nights when in ‘normal’ times we would hardly see each other from one week to the next. One positive that has come from this lock-down is that my road now has a Whats-App group where neighbours, I never knew I had, can join in social distance events such as street bingo and leaving favourite recipes in house windows. I for one feel more connected than ever before. How are you coping? Let me know in the comments box below.

In May David and I watched a grand total of eight films together, some rather more miss than hit. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my reviews.

Philadelphia ✩✩✩

A young Philadelphia lawyer who is infected with AIDS keeps his homosexuality hidden from his employers. When he is suddenly dismissed, he hires a homophobic lawyer for a wrongful dismissal suit.

This 1993 film really shows its age, starring a very youthful Tom Hanks in his first Academy Award performance. Watching in 2020 I wouldn’t say the film was riveting and David wasn’t too impressed but it is definitely a film from its decade. Worth a watch.

Philadelphia

The Best of Enemies

The Best of Enemies ✩✩✩

Civil rights activist Ann Atwater and local Ku Klux Klan leader, CP Ellis, who regard each other as enemies, co-chair a meeting to discuss racial desegregation of schools.

I quite enjoyed this film starring Taraji P Henson (who was great in Hidden Figures) and Sam Rockwell. Based on a true event, a Ku Klux Klan leader and civil rights activist find there is more similarities between themselves than differences.

Sonic the Hedgehog ✩✩

The world needed a hero — it got a hedgehog. Powered with incredible speed, Sonic embraces his new home on Earth — until he accidentally knocks out the power grid, sparking the attention of evil genius Dr. Robotnik. Now, it’s super villain vs. supersonic in an all-out race across the globe to stop Robotnik from using Sonic’s unique power to achieve world domination.

We finally succumbed and watched Sonic. I remember playing the game in the 90’s. This film, though not as good as the original game was watchable. I think one for the children! Looks like a sequel with Tails is on the cards!

Sonic the Hedgehog

Inheritance

Inheritance ✩✩✩

A patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and destroy their lives.

I like most things with Simon Pegg in, though he should keep away from writing Star Trek films! This recently released thriller wasn’t bad. I enjoyed the twists and turns of this dark mystery. I’ve read reviews and not many people enjoyed it, but I thought it was worth a watch.

The Goldfinch ✩✩

Theodore Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day — a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch.

You all know I couldn’t even finish reading Donna Tartt’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, The Goldfinch, but imagine my surprise when I managed to sit through two plus hours of the film! Knowing a bit of the story helped, however the film is just as plodding as the novel. The only highlight was Finn Wolfhard’s performance as young Boris.

The Goldfinch

The Island

The Island ✩✩✩

Lincoln Six Echo is just like everyone else who waits to go to the island. But he soon discovers that his existence is a lie and everybody including the other inhabitants are human clones.

This 2005 release was a film I remember seeing though somehow I had mixed up the character names and only remembered certain scenes. The music by Steve Jablonsky is one of the highlights of this film for me.

Vivarium ✩

Hoping to find the perfect place to live, a couple travel to a suburban neighbourhood in which all the houses look identical. But when they try to leave the labyrinth-like development, each road mysteriously takes them back to where they started.

I don’t know whether I enjoyed this unsettling thriller or not. Both Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots portray convincingly a young couple trapped in a strange housing estate taking care of a ‘cuckoo’ child given to them by their captors. Who these captors were was never realised. However there were more questions than answers. On reading further it seems the film was a commentary of suburbia and post natal depression. Who knew!

Vivarium

Escape from Pretoria

Escape from Pretoria ✩✩

Based on the real-life prison break. Two white South Africans, imprisoned for working on behalf of the African National Congress (ANC), determine to escape from the notorious white man’s `Robben Island’, Pretoria Prison.

Daniel Radcliffe plays a convincing South African in this real life prison escape. Set during the apartheid in South Africa, Radcliffe plays Tim Jenkin a political activist supporting the ANC who is imprisoned for distributing leaflets. The film is full of tense moments and you do care about the fate of the cast, it just fell a little flat for me.

Have you seen any films recently that you have enjoyed or disliked? Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Christine x

A Year in Film: March 2020

The year 2020 is going very well, is it? After stormy February we now have pandemic March. I’ve been grounded since the 24th and my mental health is in a state of flux. It’s been a mixed bag of films watched this month also!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters ✩

The members of Monarch, an crypto-zoological organisation, must rely on Godzilla and Mothra to defeat King Ghidorah and Rodan, after the former awakens other dormant Titans to destroy the world.

Oh dear, I don’t even know why we watched this film as I’m not a fan of computer monsters fighting. I quickly got bored watching fight after fight. Have you ever watched a film that bored you?

Godzilla

I am Legend

I am Legend ✩✩✩✩

Robert Neville, a scientist, is the last human survivor of a plague in the whole of New York. He attempts to find a way to reverse the effects of the man-made virus by using his own immune blood.

With all this talk of pandemics interfering with life as we know it, the first title that popped into my head to be re-watched during this stressful time was, I am Legend. Its a scary movie about a cure for cancer which has lasting after effects on those cured. The scenes of empty New York streets foreshadow our now quiet roads.

The Night Listener ✩✩

Gabriel Noone (Robin Williams), a writer and host of a late-night radio show, begins a phone correspondence with Pete (Rory Culkin) a teen who claims to have survived a nightmarish childhood. Though he becomes close to the youth and his mother (Toni Collette), Gabriel must begin a harrowing search for the truth when questions about Pete’s real identity begin to surface.

Searching for something to watch one night we stumbled upon this 2006 film by Robin Williams. A more straight role for Williams but it wasn’t his best.

The Night Listener

Contagion

Contagion ✩✩✩

The death of Beth Emhoff and her son leads to the discovery of a deadly virus. While the US Centers for Disease Control struggles to curb its spread, a worldwide panic ensues.

With all the rising tension surrounding Covid-19 we just had to watch Contagion a film from 2011. Pretty scary times we are living in!

12 Monkeys ✩✩

James Cole, a convict, decides to volunteer for a mission, wherein he has to travel back in time to learn about the main reason behind the outbreak of a virulent holocaust.

I see a theme developing with the type of films watched this month! I really wanted to like this film, but in the end I just couldn’t. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t like Terry Gilliam films!

12 Monkeys

The Grudge

The Grudge (2020) ✩✩

A detective investigates a murder that has a connection to a case that her new partner handled in the past. The killings occurred in a haunted house that passes on a ghostly curse to those who dare enter it. Soon, the curse spreads to a terminally ill woman and her husband, and another unsuspecting couple who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

David doesn’t like scary movies so I watched this one on my own. I like The Grudge 2 so was hoping this would be good. It had a good premise but the end was a bit disappointing. I wonder if anyone can ever defeat The Grudge?

The Invisible Man ✩✩✩✩

After staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist uses his power to become invisible to stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend. When the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fight back.

I really enjoyed this edge of the seat film. Elizabeth Moss was good as the ex-girlfriend being stalked by the Invisible Man! There were some genuine stomach churning moments and a truly satisfying ending!

Invisible Man

Onward

Onward ✩✩✩✩

Two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, go on an journey to discover if there is still a little magic left out there in order to spend one last day with their father, who died when they were too young to remember him.

Onward was such a lovely film. I knew I would have a tear in the eye come the end but I thoroughly enjoyed this animated film. The voice actors were fantastic and there were some laugh at loud moments. I’d definitely recommend a watch!

The Fellowship of the Ring ✩✩✩✩✩

A hobbit, Frodo, who has found the One Ring that belongs to the Dark Lord Sauron, begins his journey with eight companions to Mount Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed.

Since David is working from home and I am grounded, there’s been nothing for it but to dig out my old extended DVD’s of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This extra long fantasy is perfect for sick and pandemic days.

Fellowship of the Ring

Underwater

Underwater ✩

Disaster strikes more than six miles below the ocean surface when water crashes through the walls of a drilling station. Led by their captain, the survivors realize that their only hope is to walk across the sea floor to reach the main part of the facility. But they soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they come under attack from mysterious and deadly creatures that no one has ever seen.

Oh dear, this film was appalling, we probably should have read reviews before hand. The premise sounded good, similar to alien (1979) but under water, however the final cut was lackluster and forgettable.

Downhill ✩✩

Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other.

I was in the mood for a comedy and thought this was going to bring some chuckles, in the end it was lifeless and had no touch of comedy at all. Best to avoid this film!

Downhill

Bad Boys for Life

Bad Boys for Life ✩✩✩

The wife and son of a Mexican drug lord embark on a vengeful quest to kill all those involved in his trial and imprisonment — including Miami Detective Mike Lowrey. When Mike gets wounded, he teams up with partner Marcus Burnett and AMMO — a special tactical squad — to bring the culprits to justice.

We weren’t having much luck with our film choices, and I was worried Bad Boys would be the same but it was an ok watch. There were some jokes, lots of action and an abundance of car chases. If you like action films, you’d enjoy this too.

How are you coping with this quarantine? Are you a key worker? Have you seen any films recently that you have enjoyed or disliked? Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading and stay safe!

Christine x