It was the best of times it was the worst of times

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us..” – Charles Dickens – ‘A Tale of Two Cities

These opening lines from ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens may have been written in 1859 but feel very fitting for the events of this week.  So to this weeks blog post I will be discussing the Referendum so if you don’t want to read about my views and how I feel then don’t read I won’t be offended. So this week I will be discussing EU Referendum, spending time with friends,  new cinema and Independence Day: Resurgence and Adele at Glastonbury. So let’s get started.

The week started off quite positive. Work was good and I was feeling a lot happier in myself. I know I have a lot going on but things have been falling into place and more importantly I have been making some time for myself and when things start to get to me I just stop and refocus back on to where I want to be. On Tuesday after work I met up some friends and just chilled and sat chatting outside putting the world to rights and talking about things on our minds. I don’t do this enough and it was good to do. It was a lovely summers night, there was some jazz band playing near by it was perfect. I even ended the night with a Nando’s hard to beat really.

I’m currently in last-minute preparations for my annual summer outdoor Shakespeare performances. This year it is a change of venue. We will be at Head of Steam – Darlington Railway Museum but still performing outdoors. It is a great venue for both productions that we will be doing. We are doing Hamlet and Macbeth (The Scottish Play). Some people may have already seen Hamlet as we have performed it four times this year. Twice in April at the library and twice and St Augustine’s Parish Centre. We will be performing Hamlet twice t the Railway Museum and Macbeth three times. Here is the poster with details of performances and how to get tickets.

 

Ok so let’s talk about the EU Referendum. I know it has happened now and we have to just get on with whatever comes along but I do want to say how the result made me feel. I expected the vote to be tight and hoped Remain. After seeing some of the early results it was looking as if it was going to be closer than I would like. I woke up in the middle of the night about 3am to check the result so far and it hit me that it was probably going to be Leave that won. When I woke and this was confirmed I felt sick in the stomach. Now if you voted Leave then that is up to you and whatever reason that is. However I still believe we should have stayed and now like many people I am scared of what the future holds. Things will be tougher than they would have been but we will have to find a way through it. What scares me the most is the rise in hate crime that has happened since the result. The National Police Chiefs Council has reported that there has been a 57% increase in reported Hate Crime following the result. There is no place in society for this abuse. We are human beings and should be treated equally. We may not be able to do anything about the Referendum result now but we can stand against Hate Crime. We need to look out for each other more than ever now. This referendum has been like a mirror on the country and making us see all the bad things in our society. I’m still not sure how I feel. The numbness and feeling of being kicked in the stomach has lifted but I am still scared and not sure where I belong. All my life I have lived in the UK, part of the EU and now I’m being forced to leave the EU and the UK faces being split. Like everyone else I have to wait and see what happens and what the future holds. It is probably a good thing that I am writing this later than normal because at the weekend my emotions were still raw and it risked being a very angry piece of writing.

On Saturday I was still feeling upset so I decided to visit the new cinema in Darlington to see Independence Day: Resurgence. Now I wanted to see the film but following the result of the referendum I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate. I decided this was me just being silly so I went long. The new cinema is really nice and is certainly long over due in the town. The film was ok but not as good as the original 20 years ago. Without spoiling it I will say it was very similar to the  first one and I would have preferred it to have been more realistic of 2016 as it actually is instead of a futuristic version of 2016. Still it was enjoyable and took my mind off things.

On Saturday evening I watched Adele at Glastonbury on the TV. I have never been to Glastonbury (it is on my bucket list) but I do like watching the coverage on TV when I get the chance.  I like Adele but thought it was an odd choice to have as a headline act on a Saturday night at a festival. However watching her set after events of recent days seemed very appropriate. She seemed to just capture my mood at the time perfectly and I’m sure I wasn’t alone.

That is it for this week. sorry it is late but as I say I have been busy lately and not really been ready to blog because of how events have made me feel. Hopefully once this week is over I can get back to normal and get my life back on track as it feels even more important than ever to do so.

Top Programme of the Week – Game of Thrones

Top Song of the Week – Adele – Make You Feel My Love

Book I Am Currently Reading – The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon