so it’s raining again.

to someone who grew up in england there’s a resignation about the rain.

to someone who grew up with a sense of adventure, the sight of a pink umbrella is like spotting a Kindred Spirit across a crowded room of people-in-suits – a Friend!

thank goodness there are Lots of Pink Umbrella people in manhattan ;-)

on the subject of Thanks:

we had an extraordinary moment yesterday where we suddenly (don’t you Adore Serendipity?) we saw the name of the person who first sponsored our Very First Visa to the USA – just there, in an innocent email – we had Quite forgotten them (we didn’t know them Very well as they were in Another Country for most of the time and we were charged to work on the Other Coast eventually – a long story – for another blog post – or perhaps another blog…)

anyway….

yesterday, we found their email address and said Thank You.

thank you.

and we invited them to Lunch (because they’re a business Chap and chaps-do-lunch – quite short lunches, but lunches nevertheless – however with the Lady – or more Cultured Executives and Glam Types we suggest Tea at the St. Regis because then there’s the Tantalizing prospect of cake. And Real teapots and china cups and cherubs and a grand piano and a harpist and Really Good Lighting – via a splendiferous number of Chandeliers…….business chaps don’t usually understand the Swoon factor of a Chandelier.  or cake.)

it felt great to say thank you.

then we said thank you to Kathleen Turner.*

it was a mid-week-oh-god-it-is-raining-and-we-are-tired sort of a feeling post-work-meetings so we took ourselves to the Cinema, because That Always Helps and saw The Perfect Family.

*we don’t actually Know Kathleen Turner – not yet, anyway. But we sent her a note to say thank you for making the movie.

what did we think of the movie?

well – it’s curious.

because the Trailer is cut (see – use of professional term alert ;-) to render the text (cue Academic treatise-style) as a comedic force.

but actually it’s a heart-warming, deeply serious look at faith, families and expectations and growing up with unbelievable pressures to conform and then – it being a movie – all hell (sorry, couldn’t resist) breaks loose and as the Original movie poster says “heaven help them”.

highly recommended.

a little slow in parts.

which was perfect for a wednesday – and the subject matter.

and yes – tears were shed somewhere around Act II.

so thank you to the Chap who sponsored our Original work visa to the USA – AND Kathleen Turner.

Wait!

one more…..

we’re Back At the Doctors this morning (no, not the surgeon’s office where we first heard about Tobias the tumor (before he had sisters and then there-were-three) but to the Other Doctor (it’s NYC – we have several – unlike England where we barely saw one our entire life until emigrating ;-)

this doctor is the one we said Thank You to as she (for tis a Lady Doctor) found the first lump.

don’t like the feel of this

were her exact words.

did you not notice this?

she said.

and we replied (Rather Wittily, we thought, despite the Great Fear of the word LUMP coursing through our Neuro-core at The Time).

gosh. no. um. that Is a Lump, isn’t it. Well, we don’t usually put our hands around our neck – or get into Those Kind of Relationships anymore so we didn’t feel it.

she looked sideways at us, was there a faint smile?

and then the World crashed in.

and you know the Rest.

so thank you.

to the Lady Doctor who-found-Tobias

thank you to the Chap who sponsored our first Work Visa to the USA in 2001

and a final thank you to Kathleen Turner.

for being Kathleen Turner – but also, most recently, making The Perfect Family.

which made for the Perfect Wednesday Night at the cinema.

a thousand thanks.

#delicious

a warm glow.

oh!

that Did Feel Good.