Sneaking time off with my wife

Wednesday is my day were I do my other job.  I have been on holiday from my main job, but have attended meetings already in the days before today so I was able to finish earlier than normal and was able to sit in the garden with my wife.  Leia joined us, but decided not to rest, as can be seen in this video....

With the kids at school, being able to be together without them was a time where we could bond more.  Though I did have to return to do some work after this video was taken, it was great to sit with her in the garden.

13 Reasons Why; Tape 4, Side A

Yesterday my son and I watched this episode. 

It is one which involves some quite mean behaviour.  I think that I got this more watching this than reading the book.

The vindictiveness of the acts towards her no matter what media this chapter was experienced through though is sadly, all too true for too many people.

This Is Us; Her

My wife made me watch this ages ago, and I have been watching it from time to time.  Tonight, I watched the final episode of the third series.  And it made me cry.

When it comes to the men in the series, my favourites, other than Jack of course, are Randall and Toby.  In this series, it appeared that Randall was to break up with Beth.  But thanks to the intervention of one of the characters, he saw sense, as his more sensible wife came to her senses as well.

The point? Deja reminds Randall that he needs to get it together and figure things out with Beth. “Most people don’t win, Randall, but you did—you won the lottery twice. Once when you got adopted and again when you met Beth,” she tells him.

It reminds me of what I said once about my wife.  Well, I said it once and I have continued to say this since then.  The first time that I can remember saying this was after my wife and I got married.  My father-in-law had said that someone who saw the wedding pictures had said that I had won the lottery by marrying into his family.  I responded by saying that I had won the lottery of love. Like Randall in This Is Us.  Like Randall, I won the lottery twice, once when I met my wife, and the time before that was when my Mother left my Father while pregnant.  Thanks to her, I became the person my wife fell in love with.  

For the record, I love both Beth and Randall, but while I disagreed with her in the lead up to this episode (not that Randall was right about things either), I am definitely Team Beth as she shows extraordinary patience in dealing with her husband.

 

My children and the dog are bullies

I was subjected to an unprovoked and brutal assault by my children.  I was trying to help my daughter up from the floor when I slipped, the children and Leia then took the opportunity to attack me.  Allegations that I pinned my daughter down for Leia to lick her are obviously wrong, and so are similar allegations that I did the same to my son later.  What I do not understand is why my dog attacked me by licking me when I am obviously the Alpha. 

Yes Day

This started as an okay film which my wife and daughter watched, but became one which was poor at the end.  My son was not in the mood to watch something together so stayed upstairs in his room, and it can be argued that that was the better choice.  To be fair, it was nice to watch it as an almost family and this is a film that would appeal to kids more than adults but only at the end of the film.

I think that the best bit of the film was the father and daughter moment singing to Epic, by Faith No More.

I am not sure who this film is aimed at as I think that it fails to hit any target.  There are worse films out there and I would have much preferred to watch another film with my wife and daughter.  Saying that, my wife fell asleep towards the end of the film, and considering that this is where the film started to fail, that was quite sensible of her!

13 Reasons Why; Tape 3, Side B

It was good to watch this with my son.  The main issue here was how rumours can affect how others see you.  That and sexual assault.  Again.  

My son did not like being a man after watching it, though there was one person who was decent to Hannah.  

Comparing this episode to the book is hard, as they are very different media.  The book gets across the pain that Hannah feels, while this episode concentrates more on the other issues taking place at the school.  I have to say that if I had the tape, I would not be able to listen to them over a long period of time like Clay in the series, but like in the book, would want to listen to the tapes as quickly as I could.  

Meghan Markle and THAT interview

I am in the surprising position of siding more with Piers Morgan than with Meghan Markle over her interview.  Before I watched it, I was not, and was a lot more sympathetic to her.  Issues like the way her father has cashed in to berate her in public disgust me, not just the father for doing so, but the way some of what has been said has been manipulated to frame her in a worse light. But since watching it, I have changed.

There is a difference in how Harry came across in his interview on the bus about what happened.  He talked about the appalling way that elements of the media treated his wife, he talked about how this affected his mental health.  Of course, with Meghan being pregnant, she is not able to go on an assault course, or be taken to the house of the Prince of Bel Air.

There is always going to be an issue about who has said what and how it was said.  The issue of who made who cry is going to be a matter of perception.  There are ways to ask about the skin colour of a baby which are innocent, and there are ways to ask which are racist, and I can see how she will take offence when hearing about the comment.  But the facts are that Archie has not been discriminated against when it came to being called a prince based on his skin colour.  

I do not agree with everything that Piers Morgan has said, but I am not going to trust someone in an interview who has got an issue about royal titles wrong.  Saying that, while wrong, I understand that Meghan Markle will have issues about joining the Royal Family when so many elements of the press have been so cruel about her.

The sad thing is that now, people are focusing on her insinuation of racism from a member of the Royal Family rather than ignoring how she was so harshly judged on the same matters where her sister-in-law was praised.