Humorouz

I don’t know I made a conscious decision to always look at the bright side. It’s probably a bi-product of my parents and grandparents being wonderful people. Even my social media, for the most part, focuses on the fun, light-sided parts of life. I say “for the most part” because lately I’ve struggled to find the “bright side”. Maybe that’s the bi-product of Divorce?

I’ve done all the things I was supposed to do. I kept a positive attitude. I didn’t speak ill of my ex. I filed all my paperwork, spent countless hours toiling over car insurance, health insurance, setting up therapy for myself and my kids and spoke openly with friends about their experiences to keep myself in some type of “support group” for divorcees. I worked out, I bought new underwear, sold my “Marital Bed” and renovated my house. I did all the things. But it’s nine months post divorce and I feel more lost now than I did before.

Sure, so many things are better. I’m happy, my kids are in a better place and I’m EVEN….I don’t know if that word means anything to you but there’s no more “ups and downs”. No more wondering what kind of day it’s going to be. My days are EVEN and I FEEL calm. I think it’s when you add up all the other changes that occurred over the last 2 years (losing my dad, the kids moving out to college and beyond and no longer being “partnered”) I really struggle with who I am now.

I feel like I’m in my 20’s again, trying to start a life for myself. In so many ways, I know I’m lucky. I know I SHOULD be grateful and I am. I guess I just am reminded of how easy things used to be….when the kids were young and I my biggest stressor was getting the kids to stop fighting over a Bob the Builder cup. Of course, I’m going WAY BACK, which just makes the comparison seem unreasonable. If I’m honest with myself, I should be comparing it to where I was 2 years ago….and when I do that, I’m in a better place.

Change is so hard. Finding a new routine is hard. Being on your own is hard. So many amazing women do it….everyday. And I guess, at some point, we all do it, whether we are ready or not. When I tell people I’m divorced the reactions are so funny. Some give a sad face and I’m compelled to say, “It’s okay, it’s for the better.” Other times I’m met with a “Congratulations!”, which feels equally uncomfortable.

I guess I thought that the hardest day in this process was my divorce day. And it was…it was horrible. In my mind, I thought “well, every day after this should be better” and, most days, it is. Sometimes though….the days last forever and I think too much and then I think “I should make a cake” and well….it’s just a downward yummy slope from there.

My friendships have become so much more important to me and connecting with people on the hardships of change, whether through divorce, losing a loved one or a job change, has been therapeutic. So…Thanks for being there with me every morning….”in good times and in bad”. What a weird way to use that phrase now? Know that I appreciate everyone’s kind words as I figure myself out….at fifty.

Recently, an old interview of Kareena Kapoor Khan has gone viral on social media. In the video, a reporter can be heard asking the actress about a rocket being sent to Mars in pure Hindi, and Kareena seems to be completely unaware of the subject matter. Her response has garnered mixed reactions from people online.

The video clip shows the reporter asking Kareena about India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2013. The question seemed to be too technical for Kareena, who struggled to comprehend it at first. She then requested the reporter to repeat the question in English, stating that she needed a translator to understand it.

After comprehending the question, Kareena responded by saying, “Very scientific. I also want to go to space. Meri bhi yahi icchaa hai. Mujhe bhi le chalo sath mein.” While some people found Kareena’s response amusing, others criticized her for not being aware of such a significant scientific event.

space exploration ke liye isro aur mere college juniors hain
can we let the cuteness be cuteness? https://t.co/U8XCNNxy1u

— Pulkit Saraf (@Pulkit_Saraf)

Why take potshot at an actor for her knowledge or lack of it? 🤷🏼‍♂️

— Seriously Foolstop. (@bhatkahua)

kareena Kapoor is an actress, an entertainer and one of the best in the world. Questioning her about Mars in a promotional event which seems to be of a shampoo only shows how desperately the questioner is trying to show off his oversmartness! pic.twitter.com/mVfcRXFjaT

— kashif Qureshi (@kashiflion)

Bebo is the last real celebrity before filters (instagram and otherwise) took over the glam world

— Shoaib Zulfi Nazeer (@nazeer_e_aazam)

Mujhe bhi aisaich banna hai.

— Catty Stark. (@CatWomaniya)

Good response, real and unfiltered. Theres no need to be gyaan givers all the time like so many actors now days are.

— vodkaDietcoke (@VDietcoke)

Rest of the actors/actresses: My politics needs to be 100% perfectly curated lest I be cancelled for any problematic/ignorant stance

Meanwhile Bebo: pic.twitter.com/GlcA2zVwLQ

— Fatima Khan (@khanthefatima)

It would take a hard heart not to fall for Changing Ends. It is a steamroller of a comedy, open, welcoming and beaming with easy charm. Written by Alan Carr and Two Doors Down’s Simon Carlyle, it tells the story of Carr’s early life in Northampton, joining him on the precipice of “big school” in 1986. Carr is not your everyday 11-year-old, with his penchant for scarves, earmuffs and Murder, She Wrote; that he ends up as a confidant of the dinner ladies, and not the football lads, is no great surprise to anyone. Still, it isn’t easy being different in the east Midlands in the 80s and young Alan has issues to deal with on all sides.

Carr himself appears as a sort of ghost of Christmas yet to come, albeit a more cheerful one, dropping in to scenes to narrate for a while, or crack jokes about the star he would become. But the show belongs to Oliver Savell, who is remarkable as the young Alan. Sometimes, on screen, you can tell when a child actor is just doing their best, but Savell is fantastic and manages to embody the real Carr without it seeming like an impersonation. He is camp, he is cheeky and he gets it just right. He deserves all the acclaim that will inevitably come.

From family to friends, from school to home, young Alan has a lot to contend with. He has “the voice of an elderly grandmother”, his teeth and glasses provide the regular punchlines you might expect, and even as a child, his busybody neighbour Ange suggests he might be, so to speak, “half rice, half chips”. His mother, Christine (Nancy Sullivan), supports him all the way, but he has a more complicated relationship with his father, Graham (Shaun Dooley), a gruff man’s man who manages Northampton Town football club – languishing at the bottom of the fourth division.

The first episode sets up Alan as the perpetual outsider. Graham is embarrassed by his un-sporty son – “Everything this family has is down to sport,” he says, though it looks as if the family line might stop with his eldest – and Ange won’t let her son Charlie play with Alan any more. Less self-possessed children may have crumbled when faced with such disapproval, but what makes this series so lovely is that Alan is absolutely certain of who he is, and he refuses to be “normal” for anyone, whatever that means. He gives it a good go with football, not to please his dad, but to win back the friendship of Charlie. As an over-dramatic and not entirely graceful boy, it doesn’t quite go to plan.

Football’s loss is a comedy audience’s gain, however, and this is relentlessly funny. In a clever twist, Alan is also embarrassed by Graham, particularly when he starts big school and he desperately attempts to cover up the fact that his dad is the Cobblers’ maligned and unpopular manager. Both of them, it seems, are used to getting grief, but oddly enough, Alan seems much more capable of carrying it than his father. “To think my dad got his knickers in a twist because I liked country dancing,” he says, as the footballers of Northampton Town share cigarettes in the communal bath.

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Still, whenever you think it might start to dip into schmaltz, it swerves it, preferring a light, self-deprecating touch instead. Its recreation of the mid-80s is so faithfully unglamorous that you can practically smell the Old Spice and the pies radiating off the screen, and it hits that sweet spot of nostalgia that is unsparing while allowing itself to be just a little bit fond of those days, too. Episode two deals with the horrors of enforced showers after PE, the horrors of PE and post-divorce PE teachers, while episode three sees Alan finding his true calling in the form of drama lessons, with a fantastically over-the-top teacher who sees him for who he really is. “Alan, you’re a one-off,” she tells him, “That’s why they don’t like you.”

Crucially, young Alan doesn’t much care about being liked. He loves Prince, shell suits and Angela Lansbury and seems unbothered by whether he is “bloody embarrassing” or not. The Carr family’s rivalry with their uptight neighbours is great and that aspect has the feel of a classic British sitcom to it. Changing Ends emerges as a sillier, warmer cross between Ladhood, Liam Williams’ own fourth-wall-breaking comedy about his youth, and Keeping Up Appearances. That might sound about as appealing as a Frazzle dipped in Tizer, but when he raids the bag of clothes that Ange has donated to charity, young Alan makes it clear that sometimes, clashing patterns just work.

Changing Ends is on ITVX.

Ryan Reynolds — the real father of the couple’s four children — has yet to respond.