I have indeed allowed time to slip through my fingers again like grains of sand; and although my intentions and thoughts went to Spicywatch on so many occasions, I was just so fatigued over the past six weeks that I barely had time to shower in the evening before exhaustedly falling into bed each night by 9pm. No, it was not a graceful slowing down for the end of the work year for me, but rather a fast furious skid into a stop sign on December 24th that made me feel every day of my 51 years on the planet deep within my bones. In a nutshell, I was weary; deeply, deeply weary and it made me want to retreat to my room to sleep for days.
However, you cannot do that on Christmas Day and not even Boxing Day really; but today, today I did. I slept soundly until after 10am and awoke with a new a smile because I still have two weeks to recharge my batteries before the cogs begin to turn once again. For the next 14 days I am going to do yoga, and meditate and take very long walks, and read books and share my time with people that I love - and that is all that I will be doing.
And as I lay there in bed thinking about this joy, I reflected on the whirlwind that the last 365 days of my life have been and I contemplated the ways that I have spent that time.
Unfortunately, I did not get to marinate in as many books, movies or TV series this year as I would normally, but this has meant that I have had to be more discerning about my choices. And two things that have been an ongoing theme for me this year has been the need to travel and the amount of classic tales that have come into my life. For some reason there are just a lot of classics being re-made and re-told, particularly horror and science fiction classics. And although I can't always watch or read them when driving, I can audiobook them, so my audiobook count has risen quite a bit this year. I've listended to heaps of classics like The Eeerie Book, The Midwich Cuckoos, Frankenstein, The Woman in Black, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Haunting of Briarwych Church, and In a Glass Darkly. And I have also noticed that many movies/ TV series that have presented themselves to me were also retell classics this year; like Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Dracula: A Love Tale, Wicked, Alien Earth and IT: Welcome to Derry.
And across the board I have had lots of opportunity to rediscover something old in new ways. Even returning to a position in Outside School Hours Care has been a returning to an old aspect of myself; however, when ever we return to something, we never really return to it in quite the same way do we? And that is because we are different, we have changed and that is why the return sometimes feel like rediscovering something for the very first time. We are not seeing it throught the same lens that we saw it the first time, we see it with many more years of experience and wisdom behind us, so what we see is different.
I suppose what I cam trying to say is, that I am returning to the old in new ways. I am rediscovering old books, old movies, old TV and even old ways of the self in fresh, original and unique ways. And what I have learned from this, is that we sometimes need to go back. Not because we want to dwell in the old but rather because we want to rediscover how it looks now that we have changed. What new can be gleaned from the old? And honestly, I would have to say quite a lot. And this too is true for all things that lie buried in the past, through reflection we can often discover a new truth or perspective if we give it enough space, and that is not because the situation or thing has changed, its because we did. I guess the old cliche is true, sometimes in order to move forwards, first you have to be willing to go back...
However, you cannot do that on Christmas Day and not even Boxing Day really; but today, today I did. I slept soundly until after 10am and awoke with a new a smile because I still have two weeks to recharge my batteries before the cogs begin to turn once again. For the next 14 days I am going to do yoga, and meditate and take very long walks, and read books and share my time with people that I love - and that is all that I will be doing.
And as I lay there in bed thinking about this joy, I reflected on the whirlwind that the last 365 days of my life have been and I contemplated the ways that I have spent that time.
Unfortunately, I did not get to marinate in as many books, movies or TV series this year as I would normally, but this has meant that I have had to be more discerning about my choices. And two things that have been an ongoing theme for me this year has been the need to travel and the amount of classic tales that have come into my life. For some reason there are just a lot of classics being re-made and re-told, particularly horror and science fiction classics. And although I can't always watch or read them when driving, I can audiobook them, so my audiobook count has risen quite a bit this year. I've listended to heaps of classics like The Eeerie Book, The Midwich Cuckoos, Frankenstein, The Woman in Black, Dracula, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Haunting of Briarwych Church, and In a Glass Darkly. And I have also noticed that many movies/ TV series that have presented themselves to me were also retell classics this year; like Nosferatu, Frankenstein, Dracula: A Love Tale, Wicked, Alien Earth and IT: Welcome to Derry.
And across the board I have had lots of opportunity to rediscover something old in new ways. Even returning to a position in Outside School Hours Care has been a returning to an old aspect of myself; however, when ever we return to something, we never really return to it in quite the same way do we? And that is because we are different, we have changed and that is why the return sometimes feel like rediscovering something for the very first time. We are not seeing it throught the same lens that we saw it the first time, we see it with many more years of experience and wisdom behind us, so what we see is different.
I suppose what I cam trying to say is, that I am returning to the old in new ways. I am rediscovering old books, old movies, old TV and even old ways of the self in fresh, original and unique ways. And what I have learned from this, is that we sometimes need to go back. Not because we want to dwell in the old but rather because we want to rediscover how it looks now that we have changed. What new can be gleaned from the old? And honestly, I would have to say quite a lot. And this too is true for all things that lie buried in the past, through reflection we can often discover a new truth or perspective if we give it enough space, and that is not because the situation or thing has changed, its because we did. I guess the old cliche is true, sometimes in order to move forwards, first you have to be willing to go back...
DRACULA: A LOVE TALE
Release Date: 2025
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 134 mins
An English-language, French gothic, romance-fantasy film written and directed by Luc Besson. Based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, this lush and beautifully realised version leans into the undying romance behind the tragic figure of Dracula retelling the story with a mixture of tenderness and violence that I found incredibly enjoyabe to watch.
Prince Vladimir of Wallachia renounces God and becomes Dracula after the death of his beloved wife Elisabeta during a battle with the Ottomans. Over the centuries, Dracula attempts to track down the re-incarnation of his long lost love, creating vampiric companions to assist in the search. Four hundred years later, whilst negotiating real estate plans with Jonathon Harker, Dracula discovers that his wife to be Mina is the reincarnation of his beloved Elizabeta and attempts to find her in Paris and rekindle her memories of their immortal love.
There are some fresh ideas being presented here that I really appreciated, and the overall appearance of this film is simply stunning. The sets, costumes and attention to the finer details are something that you do not often see any more in modern cinema and I really enjoyed just how good this was visually.
The perfomances were equally fabulous with Caleb Laundry Jones delivering an explosive and compelling Dracula whilst being incredibly well supported by Zoe Bleu as Mina Murray and Christoph Waltz as the priest. I enjoyed this just as much as Nosferatu which came out early in 2025 and think that they both delivered very different and fresh perspectives on the classic tale of Dracula.
FINAL SAY: Do you think God will forgive us for loving each other so much?
4.5 Chilli Peppers
Release Date: 2025
Rating: MA 15+
Running Time: 134 mins
An English-language, French gothic, romance-fantasy film written and directed by Luc Besson. Based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, this lush and beautifully realised version leans into the undying romance behind the tragic figure of Dracula retelling the story with a mixture of tenderness and violence that I found incredibly enjoyabe to watch.
Prince Vladimir of Wallachia renounces God and becomes Dracula after the death of his beloved wife Elisabeta during a battle with the Ottomans. Over the centuries, Dracula attempts to track down the re-incarnation of his long lost love, creating vampiric companions to assist in the search. Four hundred years later, whilst negotiating real estate plans with Jonathon Harker, Dracula discovers that his wife to be Mina is the reincarnation of his beloved Elizabeta and attempts to find her in Paris and rekindle her memories of their immortal love.
There are some fresh ideas being presented here that I really appreciated, and the overall appearance of this film is simply stunning. The sets, costumes and attention to the finer details are something that you do not often see any more in modern cinema and I really enjoyed just how good this was visually.
The perfomances were equally fabulous with Caleb Laundry Jones delivering an explosive and compelling Dracula whilst being incredibly well supported by Zoe Bleu as Mina Murray and Christoph Waltz as the priest. I enjoyed this just as much as Nosferatu which came out early in 2025 and think that they both delivered very different and fresh perspectives on the classic tale of Dracula.
FINAL SAY: Do you think God will forgive us for loving each other so much?
4.5 Chilli Peppers
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