Something completely different to watch

It was a cold night until first light, then the air temperature rose from near zero to ten degrees, and I had to discard the extra blanket in order to be comfortably warm, not overheated. Overcast cloud again all day, however. After breakfast I made a video slide show to go with the podcast interview, so I could upload it to YouTube for posting on the Daily Prayer WhatsApp thread. I thought the visuals could help to make the content more recognisable. There may be more useful podcast hosting sites which I've yet to discover, but I'm not thinking of wider circulation, just the target user group in the Ministry Area. We'll see how it goes.

There was a coffee morning at St John's, so I went there and had soup, sausage rolls and a mince pie for lunch. Clare had already gone to the Fountain School Christmas Fayre in Llandaff North, and got back from there, just as I was setting out for my walk in the park. When I got back Clare was busy baking cake and then moved on to making mince pies ready for our four day rural Christmas holiday party. I scanned two more folders of negatives. One was from a hike up the mountain behind La Baume in Haute Savoie in 1997, and the other from a holiday locum in Howarth, Bronte Country in 1985, when it rained a lot, though we did have a few fair days to judge by the photos I took of a walk alongside the Leeds to Liverpool Canal.

I made supper early, as I was feeling really hungry after a snack lunch - mussels with brown rice and peas. Then I edited the scanned photos and uploaded them. Looking for something to watch to finish the day, I found a BBC Four drama series called 'Lykkeland' or 'State of Happiness in English, telling the story of the birth of the Norwegian Oil industry in the 1980's, and how this transformed the country's economy.  

There are three series in twenty four episodes. Having been predominantly a port with canning fish as its key industry Stavanger became its oil capital. The story of its development is told from the standpoint of locals and American oil prospectors, family domestic drama and the dangerous world of heavy industry meet. It's a superbly acted immaculately portrayed period piece about life before the internet at a time when huge upheavals are about to take place at every level of society affecting individuals differently. Is it the Scandinavian equivalent of Dallas? Maybe not. It has a solid historical basis, even if character driven story-lines are fictional. It's so different from your usual Scandi-Noir crimmies. I look forward to the other twenty two episodes there are to watch in weeks to come.