Aaand....we're back!
Lots of start-the-year entertainment, fun and bucket-list-ticking joy to be had in your first Heyday Friday newsletter of 2024.
Hello!
Hopefully it’s not too late to wish you a very happy New Year. But as this is the first missive of 2024, I couldn’t start off without saying I do hope your festive break was as enjoyable/relaxing/busy/quiet/noisy/restful/fun-filled (delete as appropriate) as you wished for and that this new year has started in the best possible way.
I was lucky enough to see 2024 in on the beach in Oman, which was every bit as fabulous as that sounds - the celebrations and the country.
It was such a treat to have a burst of warm sunshine in the midst of winter, and to discover a little of a country where the people are as welcoming and friendly as the landscape is stunningly dramatic and arid. We didn’t do a huge amount of sightseeing - having a bit of a lie down being our main holiday priority to be honest - but what we saw of the desert, the coastline and the capital, Muscat, confirmed the endorsement of our several friends whose recommendations had been the reason for choosing it as a destination.
I might write about the trip in due course, but if you would like to know any more about where we went and stayed, drop me an email or a message in the comments and I’d be happy to share the info with you. I certainly would recommend it all as heartily as our friends did to us.
The break was a welcome opportunity to make a dent in the book pile that has grown to dangerously teetering levels on my bedside table - reviews to follow, one of which is below - and to discover what is now officially my new listening obsession.
It’s a new podcast which joins a cohort of wildly successful predecessors from a production company co-owned by a very well-known sporting personality, and which more than deserves to take its place alongside its successful stable mates at the top of the podcast charts.
Its two presenters have that magic combination of expertise, insight, humour and relatability that makes you feel not just entertained but smarter for listening to them. And its subject matter is something that touches all our lives.
You know I’m not going to tell you what it is, or who the duo are who present it, because all that will be revealed when you read this week’s blog. Which you can do by CLICKING HERE
You’ll thank me when you do. I promise.
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It only costs £5 a month. Thank you
FRIDAY FUNNY
Jet lag isn’t too much of a problem with Oman - they’re just four hours ahead of the UK - but this could well be me any night. How about you?
WHAT’S MADE ME HAPPY THIS WEEK
(actually a couple of weeks ago but you’ll see why I wanted to share it)
My Oman trip also gave me the chance to finally tick something off my bucket list that has remained frustratingly elusive up to now. Everywhere I’ve ever been in the world where there’s been the chance to see dolphins in the wild, something has happened that has meant I haven’t been able to.
As soon as we arrived at our hotel - which was on the coast in the far south of the country - I put my name down to go out on a dolphin watching boat trip. The outing, though, would only happen if there were at least four other guests who wanted to do it too. And until our penultimate day, there weren’t. It looked as if, yet again, dolphins and I were destined not to meet.
Then I was told another family was interested and could do it early on the morning of our departure day and would I like to join them, with the proviso that, of course, being wild animals there was no guarantee we’d actually find any dolphins?
Would I? And did we? Yes. And YES!
These were just a few of the dozens of dolphins that swam around us for a thrilling half an hour. It was utterly magical.
THIS WEEK I’VE BEEN…..READING
I know, I know, I know. I might just be the last person in the world not to have read Richard Osman’s blockbuster best-selling book (which has already been joined by no less than three more in the series) until now. But in my defence, your honour, there was a reason I resisted it.
When I was the editor of Woman’s Weekly, we had at least one fiction story in every issue. I really enjoyed reading and (mostly) approving them before they went to print. Except for one genre. I referred to it as cosy crime and it was something I knew the readers loved (so we did include it regularly), but I just….well, didn’t.
I’m ashamed to say I thought the premise of The Thursday Murder Club sounded rather too much like the plot of an extended version of a cosy crime story and for that admittedly appallingly flimsy reason, I decided it wasn’t for me.
I. Was. Wrong.
As the millions of people who have rocketed the book to its unassailable position at the top of the best-seller lists already know, The Thursday Murder Club is an absolute joy. Entertaining, clever, relatable, funny and wonderfully well constructed and written.
If you don’t know - and I’m sure you probably do, so I’ll be very brief - the book is set in a, really rather fabulous-sounding, retirement community somewhere in England where a group of the previously professional residents meet each week (on a Thursday) to pick over unsolved murder cases, the files for which a former senior police officer had secretly taken when she retired and moved to the village.
It’s not giving away any spoilers to say that the foursome find themselves embroiled in a real-life murder and take it upon themselves to do what they can to work out who is responsible. Which turns out to be quite a lot. To the, at times, consternation and frustration, of the local detectives attempting to do the same thing.
That’s all I’ll say, other than to add if you happen to be one of the very few other people in the world who also haven’t read The Thursday Murder Club, please do. You’ll love it.
You’ll find THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB at all good bookshops including Daunt Books
PS - The Thursday Murder Club also has a connection to this week’s blog. Find out what that is by CLICKING HERE
I’M ALSO….WATCHING
This drama has re-ignited public outrage at the appalling miscarriage of justice experienced by hundreds of sub-postmasters in the late 1990s when the computer system installed by the Post Office turned out to be faulty and they ended up being accused, and in many cases tried and convicted, of fraud when they were entirely innocent.
I’ve only watched two of the four episodes so far, but because this has been all over the news and has proved to be the catalyst to finally - after a campaign led by former sub-postmaster Alan Bates that has lasted over two decades - shoving the government into action to quash the convictions and pay compensation to the men and women caught up in one of the most shameful episodes of British judicial history, I wanted to encourage you to watch it too if you haven’t already.
A uniformly excellent cast led by the unfailingly excellent Toby Jones, bring this horrifyingly distressing story to life. Their performances and the un-showy script and direction only serve to highlight more powerfully the devastation the actions and behaviour of the Post Office caused to honest, hard-working people accused of crimes they didn’t commit and who no-one believed.
Watch MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE on itvx
And see the trailer HERE
I’ll leave the closing
WORDS OF WISDOM
to Richard Osman from his, as I’ve mentioned, really thoroughly fabulous book
And just remind you that you can discover what he has to do with this week’s blog by CLICKING HERE, before I sign off wishing you more good days in the coming year than you can fit in your pockets.
See you next week