The mattresses

I'm not a fan of accepted wisdom. Like in some quarters it's the accepted wisdom that 'Citizen Kane' is the best film ever made. It's not. It is fantastic but, for me. it fails the fundamental test of a good film or book: is it telling me a great story? 

"The Godfather', on the other hand, may well win my personal Oscars for the best film ever made. Beautifully shot, brilliantly acted, with wonderful sets and a terrific soundtrack, it also has a story which paces itself expertly, sometimes so immersively slow and then so fast you think it might throw you out of your seat.

I remember reading the novel before I saw the film. I must have been fourteen or fifteen, I guess, and we were staying in cottage in the Lake District, possibly in Bowland Bridge, one Easter. I was a voracious reader and Mario Puzo's book was on the bookshelf. It's slightly different to the film but still an astounding read.

There's one part on the film where the families go to the mattresses: all these gangsters holed up in houses full of mattresses, waiting to fight, and we see one of the characters - one of my favourites - Clemenza, cooking up a huge pot of food for all the men.

I felt a bit like that, this evening, albeit without the gangsters and guns, or, indeed, the mattresses. But I did cook a huge pot of my signature* spaghetti Bolognese for dinner with Dan and Abi, Milly and Evan, and the Minx and miniMinx. (Granted I had to make a more mainstream version for Abi and the mM.)

It was a lovely evening; lots of food and chat, and then more 'Oh hell!' but this time with Milly confidently in charge of the scoring.

*I don't really have a signature dish; it's a 'Frasier' thing.