Recuperating

 a walk in the clouds

 the secret lives of bees

 fried green tomatoes

 sense and sensibility

anne of green gables

little women

the duchess

For as long as I can remember, this has always been my way of slowing down. 

When I was a child and school holiday mornings were spent running about my Nana's farm, I welcomed the midday movie. I would come in from the heat and sit with my Nana to watch old movies: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Julie Andrews, Shirley Temple, Jerry Lewis, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and all of those wonderful Busby Berkeley movies.

When I was saving to go overseas, in my early twenties, I worked two jobs, six days a week. For six months, I left home at 7:30am and came home at 10:00pm on most of those six days. Sunday was my day of rest and most Sunday afternoons I could be found on my mums couch watching movie after movie. I really was too tired to do much else.

Even when I lived overseas, this was a Saturday afternoon ritual. Most Saturday's went like this: my friend and I would go to a gallery or out shopping, often it was to Portabello Road Markets, as we could walk there from home. We would get some lunch to take home with us and be home in time for the mid afternoon movie on the BBC: Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Kathryn Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Rock Hudson, Sophia Loren.

And for the month before my son was born, I spent a lot of time lying on a mattress in the lounge room, my swollen feet elevated up on the coffee table. It was so hot and my feet hurt, what else was there to do, than watch movies? This was the first time I discovered 7 movies for $10.00!

Now I'm a mum, there is no ritual of movie watching. I might put a dvd on, on a Friday night, but I rarely see more than half and hour before either falling asleep on the couch ( I hate this) or turning it off and going to bed.

But if I'm am sick or feel I need some rest time, I will still put on a movie in the afternoon. If I am sick, I hate to go to bed and sleep even though I know that it is what I really need. And often, if I pick up a book, seeking some quiet time, I find that the words just dance around the page, I will read a paragraph four times and usually put it down in frustration.

No, if I need to recuperate, getting lost deep into a movie is the perfect cure. The perfect way to recharge my batteries. I have not been able to shake this dreaded flu since arriving back from holidays. Today I feel better, but still exhausted. I must catch up on some housework (read MUST in large letters) Will I put on a movie later today? We will see.

These are the movies that I have watched over the last couple of weeks while being knocked out with this flu. As you can see I'm a bit of a romantic. Period dramas are the perfect escape.

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