As it promised to rain for much of the day, we drove out to St Fagan's museum of Welsh life, now celebrating its designation as Museum of the year. After from a walk to the Gwalia Tea Room for a snack lunch, we spent most of our time in the two exhibition galleries, interesting arranged with artifacts reflecting mainly 19th and 20th century life in Wales. They are a marvellous asset to educationalists, far more interactive and engaging for youngsters than any museum in my childhood, soon after it first opened. It was lovely to see so many things displayed belonging to my early life, reminding me of growing up in South Wales. I think Clare and Ann felt the same.
In the evening, I watched a beautiful Pedro Almodóvar movie 'Julieta' on BBC 4 iPlayer. It was in Spanish, and I was surprised to find how well I could follow it with the help of subtitles, as well as I can a French film. Years of daily language drill on DuoLingo are paying off, even though it's fifteen months since I was last in Spain.
The film tells the story of the life, loves and losses of middle aged woman, estranged from her only daughter, who disappears from her life aged 18, with the film ending as they are reunited by a similar loss in the daughter's life more than a decade later. It's a sensitive closely observed portrayal of intimate human relationships, echoing in a contemporary way, many stories of families in 20th century Spain, broken by extreme poverty and the ideological divisions of the Civil War, without reference to them. The tragic losses here are not due to violence, but illness and accident, but the impact is similar.
It made a refreshing change from the dominant theme of unmasking criminal conspiracy in today's diet of on-line drama.
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