Askamum love my blog – ooo-errr how exciting!

When it comes to movie viewing, the meaning of ‘good’ is in the eye of the beholder and we all have different ideas of what makes a ‘good’ film! For me, I have very definite types as I do when it comes to television and books. I like a comedy and I like a rom-com. I know it’s not very high brow, I understand it doesn’t make me look very cool and I am thoroughly aware that I have to bribe my husband to watch the rom-coms with me so they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but I can’t help it… I just love em!

I can watch a good one over and over again and indeed I do! I have a few favourites which have been watched so many times I probably know them word for word! Films which I have watched every single day for weeks at points in time, films which have special memories for me, films which have, dare I say it because it’s ever so dramatic, changed my life…

My Mum thinks I’m bonkers watching the same things over and over but I find it enjoyable… It’s rare I would say, that I find a film good enough for my ‘special list’. There are films I like, love even, might even watch more than once. Recently ‘Bridesmaids’, ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting’ and ‘Tamara Drewe’ have joined that group for me but the last time I found one of my ‘special films’ was just after Florence was born with the majority of them being discovered when I was a child or in my teens.

The ‘special list’ are ones which have just caught me and changed me a little. I have special memories for each one but it would be far too long to go into all of them so I’ll just tell you about a few…

Some are clichés, ‘Pretty Woman‘ and ‘Dirty Dancing‘ are two. They have special memories for me and my best friend Eve, we watched them together in our teens and dreamed of romance.

Some are typical, ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off‘ is SO my generation of the Brat Pack lovers… My friend Emily and I would giggle at this one all the time and I guess we wanted to be IN the movie and have a friend like Ferris!

‘Jack and Sarah‘ was a film I had seen a few times and enjoyed. I can’t remember the fist time I watched it but it certainly didn’t make my ‘special list’ until I started watching it in the middle of the night when I was breast-feeding Florence. One day when she was a couple of weeks old I just wanted to watch it then I literally had it on repeat every night for not just weeks, but months. I can’t put my finger on why I love this film so much but I do, everything from the ‘Simply Red’ soundtrack which I also listened to on repeat at the time, dancing just as Richard E Grant’s character does with baby Sarah, with my baby Florence trying to get her to sleep in the small wee hours. This film is about having just had my baby, falling in love with her and the special time we had together at various 4 am witching hour moments…

‘The Goonies‘, This was the first film I remember belly laughing at. Sitting with my Step-Mum and Dad in Holland where my Dad lived at the time, having rented it for a treat, we laughed from the moment ‘play’ was pressed. It’s funny because my brothers who are over a decade younger than me, never ‘got it’ when I phoned excitedly one day to say ‘It’s on TV, make sure you watch it’. They didn’t laugh as I had hoped and expected. Perhaps it was too dated by then but this was JUST my era. I recorded it on an old VHS as a child and would have it on every morning before school, I loved it. ‘Don’t say that, never say that, Goonies never say die’! is the line which stays with me!

‘The World According to Garp‘ is a lovely film and my Mum and I would rent it often… Probably a bit old for me when I first saw it but loved it I did anyway. I’ve been trying to get it on DVD but can’t find it anywhere… I loved watching this with my My Mum, I don’t know why but I just did. It’s sad and funny and lovely and well, just one of my special favourites!

‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape‘ captured my attention and I don’t know why? Perhaps because of Jonny Depp? Perhaps yes, that might have been why it started but then it just stuck with me. And my best friend Eve. We would watch it so many times and recite the lines to each other, ‘Greasy Floppy Bacon’ would have us in fits! I love this film and even had the poster for it on my wall. I went into the video shop asking if they’d finished with the poster so many times that eventually the man in the shop just gave it to me…

And then there’s ‘Tootsie‘, my favourite film of all time and the one which my WHOLE family love too! I watch this with my mum. I watch it with my Dad, my Step Mum, my husband, my brothers and sister and I’ll watch it with Florence and Jimmy too when they’re older. I saw it for the first time when I was 6 years old. It made me want to be an actor. Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels made acting seem like the best job in the world and that was it! I wanted to be JUST Like Jessica Lange… Oh this film… I’m smiling even thinking about it. The sound track is just perfect too and Steven Bishop’s ‘It Might be You’ has got to be one of my favourite songs too… Dustin Hoffman at his best,  a film which is SO funny and SO moving and SO believable when it just shouldn’t be… I love it! I’m always slightly disappointed when I see Dustin Hoffman talking in an interview though, I always really just want him to be Michael Dorsey. They drink in the Russian Tea rooms in New York and when I visited we tried to go but it had shut down! Apparently it’s re-opened now and I’d love to go back and have a dubonnet with a twist!

I wonder what film I shall find next to go on my ‘special film list’?

MY LIFE WITH 2!

Jimmy is walking! Ok, that’s a bit of an over exaggeration, he took a step! But he took a step!! My little baby boy, at the age of ten months has teetered, tried and made his first of many, many steps on his ladder of life and I’m so thrilled I could dance and sing! Just look at how thrilled with himself he is!!

We’re all in love with how much Jimmy is pleased with himself at taking his first step!

I adore the way Florence looks after him and when he does something new like this she claps and says ‘Well done Jimmy’! She’s been such a good girl recently and after I attended my very first parents evening I couldn’t feel prouder of her either. Her teacher says she is a lovely little girl with bags of intelligence, she makes friends easily and her language skills are beyond anything they would expect for her age. They said she is making word associations and sounds which they don’t teach until year one! I would be proud of her whatever her abilities of course but I don’t half feel proud of my gorgeous girlie!

Florence loves nursery and learning, I wonder if she’ll stay enjoying school? I will have to try to nurture her love of learning and not push too hard but make sure I don’t just let her coast… It’s a fine line that my parents would be the first to say they got wrong with me and I just hope I can do right with my children!

Well, that’s it from me this week, see you next week but in the mean time follow me on Twitter @rocknrollerbaby