Friendly Friday Challenge: What was the last good …?

Sandy

Is it just me or has the world gone mad? In the last few weeks it feels as if there’s been crisis after crisis followed by scandal and mayhem. Covid. Omicron. Convoys. War. It’s as if two years of pandemic has unleashed a plague of madness. In times like these, it’s hard to promote my normal blog-fare of conviviality. But perhaps, because of times like these, it’s needed even more.

So, I’ll take a moment. Close my eyes and shut out the headlines. Breathe deeply and think “What was the last good …?”

What was the last good … thing I ate?

It was a Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate bar that I had squirrelled away for a dark and gloomy day. The flavor was Fruit & Nuts and I remember it as being my father’s favorite.

When he was a boy, my father worked in his Auntie’s shop where he was supposed to unpack stock and put them away on the shelves. One day, instead of loading the shelves, he munched on the chocolates. Before he knew it, he’d eaten an entire carton of Cadbury Fruit & Nut Chocolate bars.

Today, he is 88 years old, diabetic and hasn’t eaten sugar for decades. When I tell him about my chocolate stash, he chuckles and tells me this story again.

What was the last good … show I watched?

It was the entire season of All Creatures Great and Small, remade by BBC in 2020. I’d read and loved the original James Herriott books and thoroughly enjoyed the first serialization by BBC. On Monday night, I was skimming through CBC Gem (a Canadian TV streaming service) when I stumbled upon the 2020 remake. I watched Episode 1, was hooked and binged on the entire Season 1.

What was the last good … comic that reflected my life?

It was this one which portrays an all-too-familiar predicament.

How-to-Geek Comic for Feb 20, 2202

And now it’s your turn. I encourage you to take a moment, step back from the news and take a calming breath. Consider all things recent which have been positive for you and use it as inspiration for this week’s challenge.

The Friendly Friday Challenge is to complete the thought “What was the last good …” thing that happened to you and share it with us.

Feel free to share a picture, a photo, a story, a poem. It’s your choice. This Friendly Friday Challenge topic is good for two weeks up until March 10th, after which a new topic will be issued by guest host, Sofia from Photografias.

Until then, I look forward to reading your posts. Have fun!

51 Comments

  1. It’s so funny, but Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut is the only chocolate I ever buy for my Dad! I don’t know if he would ever admit it’s his favourite (he’s not a sweeties guy) chocolate, but he sure enjoys this one!

    I loved the James Herriot series of books, and the earlier serialisation on BBC! I think I religiously followed it when it came out on TV! I’m not sure how I’m going to get hold of this re-make … arghhhh!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I do hope you can find the new series. There is even a Season 2, which was released in early 2022. I have to subscribe for another service to get it, so I’m waiting a bit to see if it’ll show up on a channel that I already have.

      Like

      Reply
  3. Pingback: Friendly Friday Challenge: What was the last good…? – Lingo in Transit

    1. Reading about your good things, lifted me up too. I just checked out your book title from my local library. Now I’m wondering if I should make it later or order pizza to eat now 😉 Thanks for joining in this week Tanja.

      Like

      Reply
  6. Pingback: Friendly Friday Challenge: What was the last good…? – the Red Phone Box travels

  7. It does seem like one catastrophe after another, all of which we need a break from.
    The last good thing I ate was last night: PC Black Label Salted Caramel Ice Cream 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Thank you for the calming breath and the step away from the news, Sandy — it is very well needed.
    The last good thing that I ate was a Hershey’s Peanut Butter Cup (shhhh, don’t tell anyone). But it was absolutely delicious.
    The last good show that I watched was Love Hard. I know, I know. It totally sounds lame. But it was quite good. Richard and I BOTH enjoyed it — and that says a great deal! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. One Peanut Butter Cup is nothing to be ashamed of! I haven’t watched Love Hard. Are there vampires in there? I recognised one of the actors name, Nina Dobrev from The Vampire Diaries. ( of which I got an entire DVD collection from a shifty shop in Sanitulin 😉

      Like

      Reply
  10. Pingback: FF {Nothing Lasts Forever} – Cath's Camera
  12. Pingback: Last good Friendly Friday – An Embarrassment of Riches

    1. Do I detect a bit of choco-snobbery ???

      I was once condescendlingly told by an ex-pat Englishman, that real British chocolates were much better than the crap candy bars here. Maybe the perspectives change when you’re living in France ? 🙂

      Up to an extent I agree and given a choice, I much rather a bar of Lindt chocolate to Dairy Milk. However, for this particular day, my choice had a lot to do with nostalgia than taste … and what was in my secret stash 😉

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      1. Absolutely! I find Cadbury’s chocolate far too sweet for my taste, though both of my sisters absolutely love it. I prefer dark (70% minimum cocoa) chocolate, the stuff that snaps crisply. Not that I eat a lot of it, maybe 3-4 blocks a year. Most of the chocolate I buy ends up in my cooking.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

      2. It’s all what you’re used to. My husband swears he can taste the difference between British and Canadian Dairy Milk bars. I’ll take Cadbury over Hershey’s every time 🙂

        Like

        Reply

        1. I used to watch old American war movies where everyone loved their Hershey bar. I thought it must have been fabulous … until I tasted it.

          I have heard that chocolates made in UK are different than here, but I can’t say I taste the difference. On the other hand, when I was in Singapore the Dairy Milk Chocolates made in Malaysia did taste different. Either the formula was different OR my appreciation for chocolate wasn’t the same in 33C humidity!

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

      1. After reading the comments on your post, I wondered if my post should not have been more serious. But I am playing ostrich atm, as I can’t bear to think about the potential ways world events are going to head. And here, we have massive flooding atm, so it is a more of an immediate priority. War in Europe or water lapping at your doorstep and no end to the rain. I know which demands my attention. (My doorstep is fine, but others are not so lucky).

        Like

        Reply

          1. I think we are fine here, Sandy. It is a new estate so built with large volume stormwater capacity. Older areas like where my son lives, fare not so well. His street and his car is partially under water outside his house

            Like

  15. Pingback: Friendly Friday Challenge – The Last Good Quote I Read – Something to Ponder About

  16. Hey! I was just thinking today that since my last blog post 10 days ago, we had a big snowstorm, my diet failed, my kid had a hernia operation (!!!), and a war started. My blog post about Long Covid seems naive – who cares when our next door neighbour started a war! 😱😱😱😱
    Stressful times call for chocolate: loved your dad’s story. I would’ve done the same!
    The last good series I watched on Netflix was ”Inventing Anna” – loved it except the last 2 episodes were a let-down. It’s like the director changed and someone started telling a completely different story.
    Anyway, on towards a news-free weekend! Take care!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. A hernia !! I hope he’s feeling better now. Was it something that he was born with or do you Finns start weight-training early?

      We are living in strange times. Both you & I have looked at our last post and wondered. I had written a couple new posts, which I decided against posting, either because they were too trivial or too political. What’s odd is that my political post turned out to be depressingly prescient. A good sign of topics I should avoid!

      I hope you have pleasant week-end too, with extra hugs for your boys!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Hahah! Yeah weight training did it!!! 😆 Actually his identical twin had the same operation as a baby and so yes, they were born with it and so identical they both had it! Just took longer to notice this one. Plus we waited 5 months for the operation (on the plus side, it’s completely free for us). He seems fine now.
        Strange times, yes, and stressful. I forgot to add massive work stress to my list of what happened in the past 10 days. I wonder what kind of life my kids will have, surely things have to start getting happier at some point? Meanwhile, this war… back to the dark ages.
        Now I’ll have to check your latest post!

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply
  18. Pingback: What was the last good……. – bushboys world

  19. I loved All Creatures Great and Small when I was younger. It is curious how TV shows (which weren’t live streamed) can bring together people from across the world, uniting them into a kind of mini broadcast melting pot – much as the Simpsons unites a generation of younger people, or Star trek original unites older people. People name their kids after characters in TV shows, carbon dating a name so that one could guess when a person was born based on what they were called, say Tristan, for example.
    James Herriot is an iconic show and I have been recommended to watch the re-make, even catching one of the episodes already. Great memories and those idyllic country lanes, harkening back to a simpler but not necessarily easier life.
    You have set us a tricky challenge, Sandy. I will do my best

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. You are so right. I never heard of the names Tristan and Siegfried before the book. Shows how educated I am (not!) However, I can’t say I’ve ever met an actual Tristan or Siegfied. I have met a Cosmos and Finbar, whose names were suggested by a clergyman officiating the birth in 1950’s Trinidad. Their mother was a recent Chinese immigrant who couldn’t speak English, so it’s fairly certain that the names were not her idea.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment