Thelma and Louise is just as relevant post #Metoo | Zella Compton

I’d forgotten just how brilliant it is.

And, knowing the ending, I spent most of it welling up in tears.

It’s an excellent story of friendship and the desire for freedom which still resonates keenly today because of the issues women still live with, even in the #MeToo era.

Just because we’ve named all the crappy sexual stuff that surrounds us, doesn’t mean it goes away.

It’s an excellent piece of storytelling, hitting all the right notes and set in one of the most iconic areas of the USA, the Grand Canyon.

And even knowing how it all ended, it still kept me totally engrossed in the story.

The spirit is willing to rave but the flesh is too weak...

At first I was aghast to receive an invitation to a 50th birthday party with a bright yellow face and a beaming smile.

Yep, you guessed it, a rave.

Seriously, I thought, who on earth wants to do that after all these years?

Sometimes going back in time is the worst thing you can do.

Firstly, you end up having a rubbish time and secondly, it ruins all the times before which were super awesome.

A hard one to balance out.

Plus, with that music going on, there would be no chance to catch up and chat with people, which I quite like to do. Although some would argue loud music’s a blessing. But my fears were ungrounded, as dancing the night away to a groovy mix of old favourites like Black Box simply made me feel glorious.

I clearly remember the first time I heard that song, in a dodgy student union which, I think, may have originally been a portable cabin, while I was at Winchester School of Art.

It was a bleak Friday night, with some turgid tunes and then Right on Time – see what I did there? – Black Box cut through it all and lifted the crowd into what became a few amazing years of travelling the country and dancing for dancing’s sake. How wonderful it was.

The birthday rave was, in all fairness, a lot more comfortable being as there were chairs there, a bar, handy snacks and inside toilets which weren’t overflowing or being used for illicit purposes.

But the next morning was much, much much harder than before.

Aside from my super smashing hangover, which is still ongoing days later, the main issue was my knees.

They can’t take it any more, and neither can my back which has come out in a sympathy twist, reminding me that spirit and ability are two separate entities.

When I was much younger I’d judge older people out dancing in nightclubs and think how sad they were – though they were probably only 25.

Now I think they were awesome and I wish, I so wish, there were more opportunities to wind life up and see where it takes you for the night – but not the following morning.

Thanks to Storm Dennis we have a new water feature

How did you fare in Storm Dennis? My husband predicted it would not amount to much as the name ‘Dennis’ doesn’t fill you with a sense of foreboding.

So I was hoping we’d get away with a few broken branches at the worst. Sadly not. An internal water feature developed, cascading down the walls, a river of rain currently damned on window sills with towels.

I’m not surprised given the ferocity of sea water which was being blown across Stokes Bay and up our road but I’ve yet to discover whether it made its way in, or even where it all came in.

Surprisingly – all the tiles appear to be intact even though I could hear them lifting and shifting all night.