I’m busy all weekend filming a short film which I predict will make for a life-long tale of hilarity for various reasons. So I’ll leave you with some musings that my favourite past-time left me with recently. This will probably not come as a surprise to you dear readers, but I love trashy TV. Love it! The more mindless the entertainment the better. A bit like this scene in “Gladiator”.
He was talking about people like me. Of course, I can be in the mood for something serious or educational, but when I come home, I like to turn my mind off just for a little bit and watch the foolish, drunken shenanigans of someone else.But what to do when that turns on you? Enter “First Dates.” England does trashy TV really, really well. The premises of the show is that it’s set in a restaurant that is only for first dates of people who have never met each other and chatted a tiny bit online. Each week’s show just shows clips from various first dates and then, at the end, the couples sit down in front of the camera together and tell one another whether or not they want a second date. Usually the show is extremely silly, like everyone’s worst Match.com stories but on film. Last week though, it destroyed me. Instead of getting 20 and 30 something singletons throwing back shots and trying to not act awkward we got a 79 year old man who just wants a lady to be friends with as he misses female companionship as his wife Alzheimer’s took her away mentally in 2009 whilst physically she is still here. It was devastating. There were tears and snot everywhere. I was a mess. 
Here’s a confession: I get weirdly emotional about the elderly. Especially elderly couples. I almost couldn’t make it through “Up”. I was extremely close to my grandparents before they were both killed in a car accident. Also one of my greatest fears is dying alone. It’s a recipe for disaster for me. Watching my distress with equal parts alarm and confusion caused Sam to blurt out, “Why don’t we just go volunteer?!”Which was a brilliant point. Why don’t we! So now I am looking into signing up for Befriending groups such as those through AgeUK, where people volunteer to go spend a few hours a week with someone who lives alone. Have any UK readers volunteered with Age UK or any similar organisation? Is there one in particular that you can recommend? Any specific to London?
