Light reflections on Jenny

It's now a year since Jenny died (see post 'Jenny hurtled into the past tense' 1 November 2018)
Time to reflect on some of the many lighter moments.

AGE
I had a little bit of difficulty with our age difference at first.
The conversation went something like this:
Jenny: (encouragingly) Brigitte Macron is 24 years older than Emmanuel Macron.
Barrie: Yes, but he's President of France.
After I called her my girlfriend. Jenny: at no stretch of the imagination can I be called a 'girl'.
Barrie: but that's what people say at any age - girlfriend or boyfriend.
Jenny: but I'm 77 and you're 62.
Jenny: we're 15 years apart.
Barrie: sometimes 14.
Jenny: you mean we're 14 3/4 apart?
Barrie: no, sometimes it's 14, sometimes 15. We get a year off for good behaviour (or not).

RELIGION
Jenny liked it that I was Jewish. So the conversation went something like this:
Barrie: but I'm not really Jewish. It's true that I have Judeo Christian origins, but for several years I've been an atheist.
Jenny: you know the Jews wandered in the desert for thousands of years?
Barrie: I've been to Camber Sands - it was windy there, and sand got into my eyes. Does that count?
I never did get an answer. Just a huff.

MUSIC.

Jenny only liked Classical Music. Or that's what I thought. BBC Radio 3, CD's etc. Top of her list it seemed was Mr Hyphenated or alternatively Mr Double-Barrel. I just called him that because I couldn't remember his name. In reality he was the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I tried my best, but I never managed Dietrich.

Gradually it became apparent that she liked some non-Classical music too, and that interest went back years. I think she had heard Kraftwerk's 'Pocket Calculator' when she was a Maths Teacher - you can see the attraction for her with that title alone. She also liked their 'Autobahn'. I added 'The Model' and 'Computer Love' to the mix, but I think the Calculator had it. She liked The Beatles, particularly the earlier ones like 'Norwegian Wood' and 'And I love her'. Buddy Holly 'It doesn't matter anymore'. She really liked Jilted John's 'Gordon is a moron' - what a gem of a lyric - we laughed a lot at that. The Smiths 'There's a light that never goes out'. I think I introduced her to The Pogues 'Dirty old town'. There was Traffic's 'Hole in my shoe' she had heard many years before.

Jenny was very encouraging about the slideshows and videos I made, and put on my YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC91CicOwQSJxn9bmsHdSl1w/videos?disable_polymer=1

She loved an early short video (actually a slideshow) called 'Outdoors', which I think was made prior to having my Channel. She said that she saw it over and over again. I think I made it as a test to see how quickly it could be made, and to include music. I only put it on my Channel when she had died.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgr0Ja2wCrE

The videos all have music so far. One was 'Melton Mowbray' - nothing controversial so far, you might think -  but I didn't get permission to use the song in the video - Neil Young's version of 'Four strong winds' (the Ian Tyson song). That was the first time I'd had any music rejected. I replaced it with a song by the Decemberists - but Jenny hung on to the original file I had sent her on an email. That song remained a favourite of hers till the end.

Then there were The Kinks. She really loved a lot of it. Here is Ray Davies at Glastonbury 2010

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuSIDsWm-YQ

ART

Jenny was a good artist. She liked to go to two art classes a week, one for life drawing, and the other for a variety of styles. Here's a drawing, with a self deprecating comment!