Finding Dory...

11 years ago this month a lovely Pixar film came out called 'Finding Nemo'. Ostensibly for children, but I remember going to the cinema to see it with my boys and a friend and her two girls and both she and I were utterly enchanted from the very first moment and confessed afterwards to shedding a few tears towards the end....

But I won't bore you with the details, other than to say it's an emotional roller coaster of a story, set underwater and starring a variety of fish,sharks, turtles and birds. There's also an Australian dentist and his rather scary young niece. It's fantastic. Watch it.

And for me, the star of the film was a cheerful, helpful and friendly blue fish called Dory. She captured my heart from the very beginning and although the voice sounded really familiar, I couldn't place the actor who voiced the part. And even when I discovered it was Ellen Degeneres, I wasn't familiar enough with her to be able to work out why Dory seemed so very well-known to me.

We bought the video and my children watched it over and over, and so did I. And had to admit that I identified with Dory. Not just because she has a short-term memory problem....though that was a part of it....but because she's an eternal optimist and utterly trusting, generous and good natured. Is this a self-portrait? No, I definitely not saying I am like this all the time but I have days where I definitely feel 'Doryish'. And there's also the occasional panic when my memory does let me down....and then I forget all about it and am happy again!

So, Dory was a favourite of mine from the beginning and then one day at work, in the office of the Education Service, a couple of teachers from one of the Special Schools came in with some art work done by the children. It was a set of characters from 'Finding Nemo' made from papier mache - and it included the lovely Dory. At the end of the period of the exhibition, I put in a request and a donation to be able to keep Dory and she stood in a corner of my office until the day I left. And then I had to bequeath her care to a willing friend, Helen, And Helen has been taking care of her ever since.

UNTIL!!! Last weekend, Denise and Jim paid us a special visit - special because despite Jim's illness, the two of them are on a great adventure around France and Spain. They have their home in Orkney and had travelled down from there, stopping off in Huddersfield where Helen had the wonderful idea of asking them to bring Dory back to me! So Dory has travelled in the back of the car through Belgium, France, over the Pyrenees, all the way through Spain and right to Alcala la Real.

I was delighted - and here we are - happily reunited. Daft as it seems, it has really moved me to have her back. Thank you Helen, thank you Denise - and good on you Dory,  you keep on swimming, just keep swimming.



And I'm quite surprised and pleased to discover that my title for this blog is also rather prophetic as Pixar are making a film of the same title to be released in 2016. Think I will definitely be seeing that one! If I remember, that is....

A view with a room

We have resisted buying a television since we moved into Casa Rosales but as the temperatures soar and the afternoons are best spent indoors, we felt it suddenly rather necessary to have something to look at on the days when a proper siesta isn't what we want. So that's what we did last weekend and as one of FR's many jobs this week, it is now installed on our wall in the lounge.

We haven't overdone the oggling this week - no, the children have watched a couple of recent DVDs and marvelled at the difference in clarity between our old machine and this 39" LED screen. And FR and Mateo watched a couple of strange films one evening whilst I went out.

However, today, after a morning sweating over some cherry jam (not literally, I hasten to add) and making fajitas for the kids, I knew exactly what I wanted to watch during the heat of the afternoon. Possibly my favourite film - 'A Room with a View' - and, thanks to YouTube, I was able to watch the whole thing in a high definition version.

Made in 1985 by Merchant-Ivory, it perfectly captures the subtleties of EM Forster's book; the acting is perfection and the scenery breathtaking. I love every second of it. There is so much to read in the body language, the unspoken words and the repressed feelings that are so reflective of the Edwardian period.

And that kiss, (with Kiri Te Kanawa hitting all the right notes alongside,) is just so innocent and beautiful - charmingly clumsy and unrehearsed. (Though had it been me, I think I might have stayed with the Italian coach driver who knowingly led Lucy to George, rather than to Mr Beebe, the vicar...He was definitely more my type.)

And probably one of the main reasons I love this film is because of the views of Florence you get in the first part. I went to Italy with my parents and my boyfriend in the late 1980s and fell in love with most of it but with Florence in particular. I was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the place that I wandered around with tears rolling down my cheeks - not cool, I admit, and possibly caused by the 48 mosquito bites on my ankles from the night before  - and with my eyes so wide at the art and architecture on view all around that I must have resembled some strange alien. It is a view that has stayed with me and really stirs up some deep emotions.

The only other place that had this effect on my was a visit to Cambridge which I found equally moving and beautiful. I have never been back to either place but really must put them on my essential 'to do' list.

Where in the world moves you to depths of joy, peace, pleasure and awe?