Friends, as Ellie mentioned, and Film, as Grace mentioned and if I can add to that Books and Food then life is perfect!
Last night I went to see the The Best Exotic Hotel Marigold and I too fell in love with a genre of film that is too often missing from cinema. It filled the theatre with laughter, tears and finally a round of applause. We went with friends and ended up back at one of their houses for a spontaneous supper of a bowl of pasta, a glass or two of wine, followed by cheese, homemade fudge, good conversation and a dollop more of laughter. It can hardly get any better can it? Too often we are searching for a life of excitement and thrills when really it is the ordinary everyday experiences that can bring you just as much pleasure. On a night when the Academy handed out Oscars by the lorry load to a film, The Artist, that takes us back in style and form some 80 years which, when I viewed it, gave a small percentage of enjoyment to a half filled theatre compared to that which the TBEHM gave. My daughter asked me this morning how one gets to be on the Academy board and I have no idea however what I do know is that the judges are sent dvd’s of all the films nominated in all of the categories and, in the main, this friend of mine told me he watches them on his own……..surely that doesn’t create the atmosphere, make you feel the warmth of the feeling from the audience and it ends up being his very personal, slightly clinical, judgement of the film.
Apart from that I also took Husband on a 4 mile walk this weekend involving a very long, steep hill which, whilst he enjoyed as the Spring weather and the views were spectacular, I think there was a tiny bit of him wondering if I was trying to kill him off. Nevertheless it gave him the incentive to embark on a get fit and slim campaign, and he left for work chanting this mantra. I am now off to stay with Grace bearing a gift of Blondies (not Marilyn Monroe and Cameron Diaz but some pale version of a brownie) and I have left a few in the cake tin at home – let’s see how strong willed he is this evening!!
So another evening of wine, food, conversation, good company and more wine! Plus the last 20% (my Kindle’s calculation) of a book that I started this weekend and have loved every page. Ignore the cover which makes it look a bit lightweight as it is far from that. The reviews were sensational and it deserves them all.

‘Every once in a while comes a novel that generates its own success, simply by being loved. Louisa Young’s My Dear I Wanted to Tell You inspires the kind of devotion among its readers not seen since David Nicholls’ One Day’
The Times
‘Birdsong for the new millennium’
Tatler
Another book set during World War I, the characters are developed throughout the book and so it is not just another description of life in the trenches, albeit that side is well researched and depicted.
CW Tip: my recipe for a good life is, take a good book/film, add a pinch of spring weather, a dollop of good food and sprinkle with some delicious friends and enjoy over the next few days with a glass of wine!