August was a pleasant month, and I took the above picture on one of our rare but welcome 30 degree days in Armagh. We have an Irish proverb - An rud is annamh is iontach - What is seldom, is wonderful. I took a book to the Palace grounds as there’s plenty of shady places to rest in, and got a bit of reading done.

Books

Lost Connections by Johann Hari was my book of the month, a superbly written and researched book about depression. It reframed a lot of what I think about the illness and I’ve brought it up in conversation so many times during the past few weeks. I’m lucky to have family and friends around at the moment and it’s emphasised the importance to me of our connections with each other.

Fiction wise, it was quite varied - Tennis Lessons by Suzanne Dickey was a talented debut, a raw and honest coming of age story, wonderfully written. The daughter of Dr Moreau was an intriguing book loosely based on a HG Wells story. I liked it without loving it but I did enjoy the setting of the Mexican Hacienda and it has a great pace to it. Beautiful cover as well.

Screen

The big one for me were the last few episodes of Better Call Saul, which came to an end after six seasons. Of course it’s always going to be compared to ‘Breaking bad’, which it was a prequel to, but I think it easily moves out of that particular shadow. Beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, with deep characterisation and engrossing storylines, this was a joy from beginning to end. I enjoyed the glacial pace of some of the episodes and it’s a masterpiece in how to wrap up a show. A moving and funny series, this was an immersive joy and long form drama at its best.

Speaking of finales, I can’t let this round up pass without a mention of ‘Neighbours’ the soap opera that ended a few weeks back. For a short period in the late 80’s I was the most popular lad in my class - I lived locally and would pop home for lunch, where I would watch Neighbours and then run back to school, where I’d be interrogated by my female classmates (who just couldn’t wait to see it at 5 30) as to what was happening in the lives of their favourite antipodean teenagers. Amazingly back then the soap was repeated only four hours apart on primetime BBC1, evidence of it’s popularity. But I thought the ending was tastefully done, and fair play to Guy Pearce who gave an acting masterclass, I presume to show how grateful he was for his start on the show. Top bloke.

A great find for me on Netflix this month was ‘Midnight diner.’ I like to watch something calming before bed and this is perfect - I often don’t get to the end of an episode, such is its soothing nature. It’s set in a restaurant in Tokyo which is open from midnight to seven and where there’s only one dish on the menu, but the master will try to cook whatever you ask for if he has the ingredients. Each episode is set around a customer, and a loose connection to the dish they’ve asked for. Sometimes at the end you’ll get a few tips on how to make the dish, but it’s not a cooking show. I love it because it’s quite sweet, sometimes sad but other times silly, often moving and contemplative, and I like to savour it one bite at a time. It’s the opposite of a bingeing tv experience and stuffing your face and all the better for it.

Music

After lots of outings in July, this was a quiet month for gigs or theatre. Even cinema wise, nothing took me fancy but I did get to a couple of Irish traditional sessions, which I always enjoy and badly missed during the lockdowns.

Musically, still a lot of Jazz, classical and instrumentals, which seems to agree with me at the moment. This leads me nicely on to Kraungbin who I have been listening/watching to a fair bit. Difficult to pin down - you can hear world music, soul, funk, surf rock - it’s all in there. I love how the drummer barely lifts his arms and they’re such a tight trio with wonderful bass lines and rather than have a vocalist, the lead opts to let his guitar sing.

That’s it for another month. Special thanks to those who’ve got in touch to tell me how much they enjoy reading my blog. It really means a lot to get that feedback and encourages me to keep going. Writing/blogging is a lonely pursuit and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t enjoy, that’s for sure. I get so much pleasure from writing and just to have some people enjoying my ramblings genuinely moves me. Thanks and take care and I’ll leave you with some wonderful Mahalia Jackson.