Volume down and Glows
Scroll to the bottom for me recommending a beautiful Norwegian story
Hello!
There’s a classic genre of my blogging going back to my magnum opus, 28 DATES LATER - a dating blog I wrote in the early 2010s, where I went on 28 Dates on 28 different dating sites, and met my now-wife*.
That genre is me apologising for not having a promised post up on time.
But!
Last week I was late for a different reason to normal - specifically because I think I was posting too much. 3 posts a week was easy for me to write; at this point it just pours out of me, and takes me less than an hour to do each one. But I think it was too much for people to actually read, and a couple of people told me they weren’t getting a chance to read one before the next arrived.
As usual, as I was a little too much, an ongoing challenge in my life - I’m reminded of my old boss when I used to make Dispatches and Panoramas, Karen Edwards. She developed a hand signal - imagine a volume dial being turned down - to subtly indicate I was getting too loud and too excited in a pitch.
To which I’d think every time ‘But I haven’t even got to the best bit!’
Anyway - this is just a short post to say, “I’ll post less! I promise!” Maximum of 2 posts a week, with at least one strong recommendation on a Friday.
But - you’ve probably opened this hoping for more than just an apology that I haven’t posted a post you wouldn’t have read. You’d like an audio recommendation.
So here’s something short and sweet and lovely - an absolutely gorgeous 30 minute Norwegian doc (in Norwegian!) about an 86 year old postman who thinks he’s invented an infinite battery, and his sceptical wife who wants him to stop trying to save the world and enjoy life.
You can hear the whole thing (and read the subtitles) here.
It’s a fantastic story with fantastic characters and an incredibly hopeful message about trying and trying at the hardest things. Do give it a listen!
*My old blog is really good, honestly! About 750,000 people read it at the time (which was very weird), and it’s been optioned for TV/Film 3 times since. I adapted the concept into a podcast with Grace Campbell doing the same 28 Dates challenge a couple of years back.