So, let me tell you a story.....
The day started out much like any other Sunday; slowly, tiredly and with a blistering headache. Our plan to head off to York to see some Christmas stuff and do a little shopping was altered slightly when I got the idea into my thick head to get the car washed today. Realising none of the car washes would be working due to the freezing weather but I figured we'd head out to the hand car wash on the A1079.
Off we went and joined the queue. The long queue. But my wonderful wife and child agreed that we'd stay in the queue as we might as well get it all done now. Time passes, we snake slowly forward in the queue as each car comes out glistening. It's freezing cold, the heater's on and the radio is keeping us company.
Can you see where this one's going? All that electrical stuff on and the car stopped without the engine running?
Yes, I went to turn it on and got nothing. Just that sickening click, click, click of a dead battery. I'd love to say I handled it well. Love to be able to say that I kept completely cool. But I didn't. I did the works, got upset, shouted about how unfair it all was and what a crappy day it was. Moaned about the money it was going to cost to get fixed, shouted a lot and upset Louise and Molly.
To skip to the end, we got a jump start, drove home and since then I've turned it over a few times during the night and all seems well. Whether it will be okay in the morning I have no idea; guess I'll find out in the morning. Molly and Louise accepted my apologies for blowing my top and we settled down for the night.
Which is when it started to get slightly strange. Because tonight all three of us went to Pocklington Arts Centre to see It's A Wonderful Life.
It's A Wonderful Life is one of my favourite Christmas films. Along with Miracle On 34th Street and Love Actually it's a film I will always end up watching at some point during the Christmas season. So to have it at the local cinema was something we just couldn't pass up. We even convinced Molly to come along and she rather enjoyed it. Some things went over her head perhaps and it was rather a surprise for her to see both mummy and daddy wiping away tears. I always start blubbing when George is on the bridge and realises that he's got his second chance and it gets much worse as he's running back down Main St of Bedford Fall. But I start to really weep at the very end, as the townsfolk come in and give George money to rescue him and the Buildings and Loans firm. I controlled it somewhat with Molly there, but there were still plentiful tears to wipe away by the end.
So, what do these two things have in common? The battery and my moods and It's A Wonderful Life? Well, as Louise pointed out to me afterwards - I am George Bailey. It's me on screen. Okay, not the owning a bank, saving his brother's life and generally being the lynchpin of his community, but the moods, the stresses, the feeling of confinement and that life is just bearing down on me - that's all me.
Oh, dear god. She's right as well.
I guess the start of December is as good a place as any to make a change then?
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