Ski-DOOSH!

The weekend was really all that summer weekends can be: BBQ, matinee cinema, milkshakes, and just at the very last moment - sunshine!

Friday night we went into the city - a rare enough occurance any night let alone a Friday! - to enjoy some music and socialising at a friend's birthday. It rained, naturally enough! But the appearance of two friends who had disappeared into London this past year more than made up for it. Then Saturday we went to a BBQ - the rain held off - for more socialising (of the less raucous kind). I brough Pimm's and lemonade - instant BBQ success. We spent Sunday hungover... But dragged ourselves into the city to a matinee at the cinema - Kung Fu Panda: perfect rainy Sunday film-fodder. It was sticky sweet and cuddly but funny enough to keep us awake and entertained for the duration. I mean, A) panda (it is impossible to feel anything but gooey watching a panda - even a cartoon one) B) kung fu movie with feel-good message about knowing yourself etc etc etc C) PANDA! Then we came home and watched the penultimate Doctor Who ... no spoilers here - I have no idea what is going on. Though there is much speculation (and spoilers if you are sensitive to that kind of thing).

Then we woke up and decided to put everything we own in boxes. At least the hangover is gone! And tomorrow is Canada Day/Moving Day. And we have a shiny new flat. Bring on July - in which our heroic couple begin a new dawn in the magical land of 'Two Bedroomed Flat'...

That reminds me: I saw on telly the other night a new series of programs (I think it was for UK History channel?) called 'Real Heroes'. Which made me ponder. 'Real' heroes? Of course, everyone is a hero - I should apply for special status and funding for making it to work every afternoon in spite of an overwhelming natural inclination to sleep/find a beer garden/go to my allotment/take up possibly lucrative hobby (if only I had the time...!). I'm struggling against my nature here! This is the stuff of legend. I can spin it. So what, I ask, is a 'real' hero? Having done the standard opening volley into research (aka: google) I can safely say that in this case we are meant to be 'shocked' by the revelation that the 'real heroes' (in this case of WW2) aren't, in fact, the people we (apparently) think: nope, just yer average joe, unsung, unsought, unremarked. Given the fact that 'hero' is the watchword of post-9/11 media, I wonder if we would recognize Superman himself if he sprung from the pages of DC comics, in all his sincere, shiny, unreflective glory. Clark Kent - now he has a shot. But then, Superman is, well, super - kinda impaled by nominal determinism - by definition, he has to be heroic. So what to do with 'Real Heroes'?

It's a bit of a tired term is all. But it strikes me as odd, the use of that term everywhere - particularly because once applied, it becomes an act of agression to try to remove it. It sticks. Woe betide the cynic who dares suggest that someone isn't a hero - but by now, why bother - aren't we all heroes? Don't we all get to be special? Isn't everyone an individual, just like me?