John Adams.

A couple of weeks ago I began watching the HBO mini-series “John Adams”. I am not American so my knowledge of American history, of that era, is basic. I knew George Washington was the first President of America and that Thomas Jefferson wrote some of the Declaration of Independence. In all honesty I knew nothing about John Adams. If I’d been asked in a quiz who the second President of America was, I wouldn’t have had a clue. I really enjoyed the mini-series and am glad that I watched it. It was absolutely interesting for me. His friendship with Thomas Jefferson was amazing, given that they often had opposing views, and when Jefferson became President, they never saw each other again, although they did reconcile when they began writing to each other in their later years. Coincidentally or not, depending on how you want to look at it, they died within four hours of each other on the 4th of July, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Both men apparently asked, shortly before they died, is it July the 4th? I found that quite touching – how can it not be? Both men lived well into old age, Adams was 91 and Jefferson 83, if I remember correctly. Most people then, died before they were 60, so the two certainly defied the odds of their era. What I enjoyed learning about John Adams was that he was well aware of his weaknesses. When asked to write the Declaration of Independence, he refused, because he knew he would have overcomplicated it and been too opinionated. Instead, he persuaded Thomas Jefferson to do so and through Thomas Jefferson we have “All men are created equal”. Yes, he was a slave owner, but we have to look at the man in the context of the times he lived in – and the area of America he was born and died in. This is my opinion and it’s not my place to judge or condemn him. Slavery was wrong, but it happened. It’s history and we need to keep history alive and not try and get rid of it, because we don’t like what happened 200 years ago. We need to not repeat past mistakes, but unfortunately as humans we often seem to be incapable of that. It’s a very good watch, great acting and if you enjoy history but don’t know much about American history, John Adams is a good place to start. I found a Kindle book – The Letters of John and Abigail Adams, so I am going to get stuck into that. Adams was devoted to his wife Abigail and they had, from all accounts, a long and faithful marriage. When John was in France, he was there for a reason, it was for his country, and where other men might have had an affair or even a few, he did not. He was aware of his weaknesses, but being faithful to his wife was certainly not one of them. An amazing man indeed and a really good mini-series

Weekend Watches.

When my husband and I moved nearly three years ago, in order to be able to afford the increased rent of our new home, I had to cut down on some subscriptions like Discovery Vitality – an awards subscription which encouraged you to get fit and eat healthy, so if you ran lots, you logged in your miles using your fit bit or whatever you used, and you got movie vouchers, cappuccino vouchers, air ticket vouchers etc and if you got to the highest level your rewards were good. I also cancelled my cell phone subscription and my premium tv package. So, I have not watched TV for nearly three years. Which I have no problem with. I have Netflix on the one device package and I keep current with the news from You Tube and the internet. I guess I do miss some of the sports on the premium tv package, like tennis, rugby, cricket and cycling, but I can get commentary for example, on rugby, on You Tube.

During the last two years of course there hasn’t been much South African rugby, because of a certain pandemic, so it’s good to see it going again. There’s no more of the “Super Rugby championship” with New Zealand and Australia and now the South African teams are playing in the United Rugby Championship against mostly UK teams and an Italian team I think. Yesterday evening I listened to commentary on the Sharks vs Leinster game in Durban and being a Sharks fan was happy they won. I follow rugby commentary on Rugby Ascendant https://www.youtube.com/channhttps://www.youtube.com/c/ForeverSports/videos – Chris Wyatt is a retired US army colonel who is a rugby fan and covers rugby games from around the the world. For a South African perspective I occasionally watch https://www.youtube.com/c/ForeverSports/videos.

Chris Wyatt also has a channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/ChrisWyattAfrica and he covers world news with a focus on African, particularly Southern African news. He’s definitely worth checking out and I enjoy watching his livestreams when I can, to keep up to date with current affairs.

I also watched “The Engineers who died to keep the Titanic’s lights on, on You Tube, on the Timeline – World History Documentaries channel. This film was about the engineers, firemen and boiler men of the doomed ship. It was interesting and these men were the unsung heroes of that night, doing their best to keep the Titanic afloat for as long as possible, to save as many lives as possible. There was very little of the glamour and romanticism that James Cameron’s Titanic portrayed and certainly shovelling coal was from glamorous. We hear of all the famous characters most of the time, but do we remember the names of those men? Hard working class men, earning little and doing what they had to in life to make a living. Worse maritime disasters have happened since, but there’s something about The Titanic that has kept the story of it alive for so long.

Year end book buys and Netflix/You Tube watches.

I have some serious reading to do in the coming months. I ordered some books online a couple of weeks ago – actual physical paper books. I got my first three today, and then I ordered some more. My year end gifts to myself. I also got a couple of books with my husband in mind. He doesn’t read fiction anymore, so the one book, which I won’t mention, in case he does happen to read this, is an autobiography and I will give that to him on Christmas Day. The second book, I will give to him now to read is The Last Rhinos by Lawrence Anthony. The third book I got myself to read is The Last Survivor by Tony Park. All South African themed books.

The books I ordered today are novels and not South African. Living in South Africa, I do enjoy South African and Zimbabwean books particularly, but I do also need to read other books from around the world be they fiction or non – fiction. So, the books ordered – 1) Don’t Tell the Bees that I’m gone by Diana Gabaldon, the latest in her series of Outlander books. 2 )Beach House for Rent by Mary Alice Monroe – I have been wanting to read this book for at least a couple of years, after reading The Beach House and really enjoying it. For whatever reason I cannot order Beach House for Rent, for kindle, because I am a South African amazon user, I guess there are other countries as well that are unable to do so. I think it’s silly, surely Amazon and especially the author would want to make their books more widely available around the world? 3) The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.

Netflix – I finally finished watching Vikings. I started watching it a few years ago, and then during the last few months I finished the last three seasons. It was often brutal and gory, but when it comes to downright brutality Game of Thrones wins hands down. Towards the end I really got into the characters, despite the brutal lot that they were, but they were products of their times, like we are ours. While I have been tapping away now, I’ve been watching Heartland, the Canadian TV series. It’s my chillout series. Scenic views of the Canadian mountains, forests and a horse ranch are good for the soul, and the stories are family themed and wholesome, which makes a break from the likes of Vikings! I did read the other day that a Viking Spinoff will be aired next year, so will be interesting to see if it’s as good as the original. As for Squid Games, I watched the first episode and don’t really think I am that interested in finishing it. Just wasn’t that taken with it. Occasionally I watch a You Tube movie if it looks interesting. Yesterday I watched Point Last Seen starring Linda Hamilton, based on the life of a woman called Hannah Nyala, who suffered from spousal physical abuse. It really got me teary at the end, but worth the watch.

So, happy weekend reading and watching, whatever you are doing.