Thursday, August 29, 2013

Oh, the irritation of it all.

Settling down with the moggie last night to watch my favourite stud muffin, Mat Bomer in White Collar and what do I get, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum promising me the world on a plate. Promise me Mat and I'll vote several times over for you. That ruined my entire night. Tonight isn't much better, instead of Grimm being on at a reasonable hour, say 9.30, it's on at 11 because 'Please marry my son' and 'Prom Wars' are so much more to the taste of moronic viewers. And when did footballers become more important than cake? The great bake off finale got booted for updates on Essendon's drug buys. All this in one week, now that's irritating.

Mother has a new roomie, no, not that one from last week, she's gone, nor the other from the week before, she's gone. I haven't seen the new lady but mum says she's quiet and only a little demented not like the other roomies who are ramping up dementia to new levels.  Mum puts on her headphones and pretends she can't hear them even if she doesn't have the dvd viewer on. I ordered another load of dvds last night from this ebay site in Melbourne. They are made in Taiwan with Chinese subtitles but with the original movie soundtrack in english, just turn off the subtitles. 
I found that she had trouble comprehending modern movies but the old movies from the 30s and 40s which she was familiar with are fine. The Midsomer Murder and Agatha Christie series she knows off by heart.  She's already sobbed her way through 'Mrs Miniver' and 'Random Harvest' and laughed through 'Arsenic and old Lace'. I bring home the movies she'll re-watch later but she keeps those she really likes. I did find a movie last night called 'A portrait of Jennie', comes under the heading of romantic thriller and stars Jennifer Jones. I'll say this about the psychological thrillers of the 40s, they didn't need blood and masks to keep you riveted to the seat and chewing the fingernails. Another good thriller was 'The Spiral Staircase' with George Brent and Dorothy Maguire and a neat twist at the end.
She's not fussed about musicals because they put those on after lunch in the dayroom and they go round in a perpetual loop. If she never hears Sound of Music again she'll be happy. We decided on 'Meet me in St Louis' for the costumes and 'Easter Parade' for the great songs. She doesn't really like Fred Astaire, not fussed about Gene Kelly but loves Tyrone Power and Cary Grant and will tolerate Errol Flynn if he's playing a pirate. June Allyson whines and Joan Fontaine is whimpy but Katherine Hepburn is a winner.
It's amazing really that she can hardly remember last week but give her a small hint about a movie made in 1936 and she'll tell you the whole story. If she goes out watching her favourite dvd, it's a great way to go.

2 comments:

River said...

I don't mind Midsomer Murders, but I don't like Agatha Christie, not the movies or the books. It's nice that she gets enjoyment form the dvds you bring her. Nice that she has a quieter roomie now too. I still like The Sound of Music, but that's because I only watch it maybe once every couple of years.

JahTeh said...

River, the best of the Agatha Christie Miss Marples is Geraldine McEwan. The stories seem to be more involved and production is better. I'm still trying to find the 3rd series with Geraldine starring.