Two little lives

Pets go from childhood to senility within the lives of your children. A guinea pig aged five is an old man, his whole life encompassed within just a few years of a child's development. And today we buried the last of our two -  Flopsy, no longer the heavy aggressive overweight big boy he had been when overwheening his brother Scamper, but skinny and prone to fly attack. Scamper had died on New Year's Eve in the morning, as if not wanting to see another year. And this afternoon, on what was probably the last breath of a summerlike Sunday, Flopsy quietly slipped away. We won't have another pet at the moment. So our garden is now just for plants and grass and trees. I'll no longer see, through the window of my study on misty mornings,  my daughter moving his run and putting him out to crop another patch of grass.
Though brought up to be a  non-pet person, hardly ever having handled an animal before, I learned a lot of love and care from these two little men. Now they lie at peace, buried in the garden that was almost their whole world.  

Just watched Rush. Very enjoyable, even when you know who's going to win. Some uncanny likenesses, eg Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt. I went with my son who's about the age I was when it all happened for real - but he didn't know what was going to happen - (unlike the cinema's other handful of customers) -  that Hunt was going to scrape through at the last lap, while Lauda was the moral victor. Whilst I idolized Hunt, modern kids are all more like Niki Lauda. Focused. Hunt seems like a buccaneering throwback, an Errol Flynn out of his time. Or, as my son acutely said, a vague romantic Englishman in the mould of Scott to Lauda's calculating precise Amundsen. The interesting difference is that Lauda displayed all the physical courage of Scott. He comes out of the film very well - the benefit of being the survivor. If Hunt was still alive, an older statesman in his 60's, this would have been a different movie - if made at all.

It's a good movie though.
If you were alive in England in 70's, or even if you want to know what 'life was like' then (one of my other son's favourite expressions) this is well worth a watch. Have to be quick though. Only about 10 people watching it tonight...