Reasons to be cheerful, part one

To take the lead from one of my favourite songs by the late, great Ian Dury, I thought it time to list some of the reasons that I'm cheerful.

1. It's been raining! We've finally been getting proper rain, after months and months of bone-dry days. It's still a long way to go until the Victorian drought is broken, and our water catchments are in a better situation, but at least we've been having some rain. And rain makes me feel good; it makes me happy.

2. My friend Miss M came back from a business trip to London, and she brought me back two Jane Austen DVDs. They are of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, and are from the recent ITV 'Jane Austen Season'. (I wonder if we'll ever have one of those here on commercial television? We're far more likely to have a season of Home & Away great moments featuring Kate Ritchie.)


We watched Northanger Abbey last night, and enjoyed it very much. Lovely interaction between the two leads, and a good-hearted adaptation of the delightful, funny early Austen novel. It was also very prettily filmed, and thankfully didn't include a waltz (unlike the other two new Austen adaptations - Persuasion and Mansfield Park - in the ITV season, both of which ended in terribly corny anachronistic waltzes).

3. Soup. I've been making lots of it lately, and mainly from the wonderful Karen Martini cookbook, Where the Heart Is. Her pasta e fagioli is To Die For. And lucky me has some in the fridge for my lunch.