Enjoying this new BBC adaptation of The Country Girls on Radio4 - but it'll be a long wait until we get to the second book of the trilogy The Lonely Girl in October.

I'm still here ... hot and grumpy this afternoon as I'd convinced myself that autumn was here and, honestly, it suits me far better! I'm a summer person in my head - in practice, I'm lily-white and wilting.  Bought my first bunch of gladioli the other day and they're wilting, too, they didn't even open.
So do I disappear to the beach for the hottest weekend of the year ... no, I disappeared into the cinema with a like-minded friend. We must be a minority because even though cinema tickets were free last night at the local Odeon, it was only half-full. (Well, you had to buy a lottery ticket - but that's £2 for a lottery ticket v £15 for the cinema, even though we only managed one number between us. I gave up on lottery tickets when they doubled the price and introduced 'even more lucky numbers' to choose from - because I'm innumerate, but I'm not quite as innumerate as that!)
Anyway, we loved Once Upon a Time .. In Hollywood. Won't say more in case I spoil it.
To my surprise, I enjoyed it more than our Friday outing to Pain&Glory because I got the teeniest bit bored with Almodovar's film director and all his aches and pains. Possibly because the seats at the BFI are so damn uncomfortable that I had aches and pains of my own.
Oh well, they're both films about the pain of ageing ...
What the ladies with the bus passes really wanted to know, though, was what happened to cheap cotton housedresses like Penelope Cruz wears?



No movie today but I have at last finished Circe by Madeline Miller - not that I wasn't enjoying it, but  work got in the way. I've never had much interest in Greek mythology but this could easily end up as my best read of year.


As for sexed-up Sanditon ... well, I'm enjoying Anne Reid as Lady Denham. But as for the young lady who lost her innocence before she was old enough to know a prick from a pencil ...
Was it really necessary???
What I'm really looking forward to is this adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials which looks very promising indeed (especially after that truly dire film with Nicole Kidman.)
This documentary (coming up on TV) also looks interesting - I'd never realised that, during his wilderness years, Churchill was employed (very lucratively) as a screenwriter and historical adviser in the movies.

And has anybody been listening to Heartburn? My tea-break series of the week (with recipes thrown in ... but the temptation to rise from one's desk to make a key-lime pie can be overwhelming!)

As this post turned into a round-up, I should also mention Never Look Away which is far and away the best film I have seen all year. Three hours long - and I didn't blink! Only one other couple in the cinema and as we emerged into daylight the others confessed that they'd brought three bars of chocolate for sustenance - but been so gripped that they hadn't even opened the first one! Brilliant, as you'd expect from the director of The Lives of Others. Sorry, for this rather too late recommendation but you might still catch it if you're quick. I'd have willingly seen it through again - but might have needed a bite of that chocolate!