The Good Wife

So, you think that I am going to talk about my adorable and lovable wife, Rachel.  Well in a roundabout way. In fact I wanted to touch on the hit US series 'The Good Wife'. We have been followers from the very beginning and hooked but we don't have a set schedule every week to watch it, that would be so passe'. We record it on our state of the art box and then we have one of those cosy evenings in, with maybe cheese and biscuits and good wine or maybe nibbles. Its our version of hygge. The phenomena that will sweep in from Dan land that relates to wellbeing. We will be told it is something of a deep enduring heritage over there that might relate to the superior levels of happiness. That may well be a sound argument but I suspect a bit simplistic. However, it's not unique to them. I think both we as a family and many in the UK also do hygge. I certainly see my older girls doing a lot of hygge with their friends. We love to throw dinner parties and we invite different combinations of friends. Its good food, people and conversation. It is sharing in the pleasure of others and the small details as well as the big issues of our collective experiences. Its about the looking back at challenges and successes, the anticipation of the tomorrow but all embedded in a 'now' experience with people we have become to value and trust and those we are on a journey with to discover what friendship can give us.  

Anyway, we were watching The Good wife. Our little hygge. Three episodes in one go. I will not go into the storyline too much. It does all the right things as a good formulaic series. One episode stories, an underlying  unfolding plot with twists and cliff hangers. It has tried and test characters and moral, political and social topics. However, it has something else. I am not sure if this is something you have observed.  The movies and TV is embracing the power and influence of women. The Good Wife revolves around a central female character. But there are lots of female characters, some have stayed and some have gone. This current series is building on a central premise of what would a all female partner law firm be able to do from a commerce perspective. So for us this has all sorts of spin offs as we discuss the merits of the story and plot and what if scenarios  for the wider world of business and everything else. And what does it mean for our travels. What might we look for and ask of the things that we will see and hear. 

So, The Good Wife, as a vehicle for our regular ritual of hygge, is good story telling, food, intimacy and conversation/debate. Then we realised something this week. There are two episodes left before this one ends and we go away for 6 months on our #familyadventure. And the last one is the night before we fly. So filled with excitement, fear and constant list ticking to try and make sure we have packed the right things but also left the house sorted. The sadness of leaving our dogs with friends. The parents. The children. The grandchild. Our wonderful friends. The recounting of underwear, just how many micro-bacterial fighting pants should one take on a 6 month journey. Will 34 books on my kindle be enough. Will I survive with 2000 songs on my touch. Can 300 gb be sufficient storage for the photos. Will I be able to  actually sit down, have my last hygge with the last episode, with my wonderful partner and wife. 

For fuck sakes lets do a hygge approach to trip planning and make sure that for us this trip will be about our big

​#hyggeadventure.

Local places, local people, local conversations. 

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