getting Lost in the flashbacks....

I've come across a realisation about myself in the last couple of nights. While watching the Lost series re-cap 2 nights ago, and then the actual last ever episode of Lost last night, amidst my smiles and tears of sadness and happiness, I realised that I was really enjoying the flashback scenes.


It wasn't just the fact that it was the final episode and I was getting all sentimental, what with the sudden visions of what the characters had gone through in the last 6 seasons, however that did really add to the nostalgia of the episode. It was realising that I REALLY enjoyed the flashbacks, and I had enjoyed the glimpses we got as viewers, of the lives of the Lost characters throughout the entire series. In fact, it was what drew me into the show over the years..

It was never the storyline of a plane full of people shipwrecked on an island that captured me. It was having the TV on late at night, in the background, and watching temporarily while a character's past was explored. Then the story would move back into the present world, to explain how the past had affected that particular character's personality, morals or decisions.

The more I thought of it the more I realised, that quite simply point blank, I LOVE flashbacks. I started thinking of other shows and forms of media that I enjoyed. Angel, one of my all time favourite shows, had recurring flashbacks where we would see where Angel/Angelus, or one of the other vampires/demons first got their beginnings.

I would love those scenes, as they provided a view into a world that we weren't readily exposed to. We were only privy to the present world of Angel and his crew, and so being given a small window into his past world felt like a privilege. Understanding why certain present choices and actions were made, and how it related to the past, made everything gel together, and made the entire Angel-verse that much greater, unique and intricately involved.

Then I remembered my current obsession (and possibly long with-standing), the Twilight series, and how in Eclipse we are given Jasper's and Rosalie's back-stories; it gives us an understanding of why they are the way they are. I LOVED these parts, how whole chapters were devoted to these characters and their past lives, and the one thing I've kept saying to bestie Red (also a fellow Twilight obsess-ee), is how I really hope the movie version shows us these characters prior selves, and not just merely glosses over it, like some scenarios and story plots that we witnessed in the New Moon movie.

Even The Bold and the Beautiful (yes as daggy as it sounds but I hold no regrets for loving this show!) has flashbacks, often when a character is going through a particularly emotional moment, such as the experience of strong love or loss, and they start to "remember" the past, the good old times.... I love those moments! Yes, the moments they visualise are always things that actually happened in the shows history which played out on TV once upon a time, but still, looking at the past or being reminded of it is something I love in that ultimate daytime soap of soaps.

And all in all, this love of flashbacks I own lies testament to my love of psychology. It all makes sense really.

The flashbacks in mediums such as TV, film or books gives us a window into a world that we are not aware of, due to the nature of these mediums usually and in most cases exploring a story in the PRESENT. Seeing the past allows us as consumers of these mediums to understand why the characters we have grown to know and love are the way they are, and provides depth to the story so that we can better relate to the characters and scenarios we discover. The depth is needed; it helps us bond, attaches us to these stories and characters. We feel the characters and their lives and it becomes more real.
We see the transition: them= then ; them=now. We begin to analyse the process, however subconsciously, of how they came to be like THAT, and what was going through their minds when they did THAT. Because we start to understand their mind. And that makes them more real, then the medium itself.

I say we, when I really mean I :) However I think I'm not the only over-analytical mind out there.

In a nutshell? I love flashbacks in media. Because I love psychology.

As for Lost? I was never a Lost devotee. But having seen episodes here and there over the last 6 seasons, and then watching the final episode, however enlightened I may be it's still left me asking questions. So I'm going back to the very beginning!

WOW. What a weekend/s, what a week/s - Part 2 of my Marathon

Friday morning I had instructions. Before work I was to get half a piece of bread, make it soggy with water and then break it up into little-itty-bitty pieces so that the little-itty-bitty bird could eat it.
I was shitty because firstly, I had to do this. Why couldn't Hubbie do this, he found the bird? I'm almost late to work everyday as it is, let alone having a bird I needed to feed.
His excuse was it's still dark when he gets up. Yes, but.... hmph.
So, I did my bit. And I must admit, when I walked into the shed, and tentatively peeked into the beer box, through the old bbq rack, and saw this cute, so so so small bird staring up at me, my heart melted. It was standing, just staring up, quite unaware of all the trauma we were feeling because of it.
It was soooo sweet. I started crumbing up bits of soggy bread, dropping it through the bbq rack steel slats, and they just dropped around the bird. The bird didn't flinch, it just kept looking at me, it didn't even look down at what I had just dropped. Although I crumbed up the whole piece, I realised this bird was probably looking at me as a substitute for its mother, and expecting me to put the food directly in its mouth. After trying to aim the bread INTO its mouth, unsuccessfully, I whispered some words of eating encouragement to the little one ( I was growing quite fond of it now ) and left.
I had an appointment to get my hair cut and coloured that day after work, so I went there straight after without going home. Before I walked in, I called Hubbie to find out what had happened with the bird when he got home.
I was so surprised, both happy surprised and sad surprised, when he told me he had taken the bird to the local vet, so that they could feed it properly to eventually release it. Happy because this poor bird was finally gonna get some decent help, but sad because in that short amount of time, I felt like I needed to say goodbye to it first before it continued on its journey. Weird, huh?
But I was glad, glad that our efforts had paid off, and that this bird which would have otherwise been eaten by a neighbourhood cat, was getting a second chance at life. Albeit without its little family of birds, but better a life alone than death....
When I got home, more good news. Hubbie had left the fridge in its place, but now the bins were outside in the backyard again. Although we couldn't take them out through the garage anymore, we could just roll them through the house. A little price to pay to make everyone happy.
I had to wait for my U.S pal to stop by to drop off some stuff, and once she had, I rushed to the shops to FINALLY do my massive grocery shop. In my heels, I ran through the store, trolley flying in front of me, and managed to get everything in about 30 minutes. There was no checking for prices or brands, I was just randomly grabbing whatever it was I needed with no usual grocery shopping deliberation about which brand is better and/or cheaper. The store closed and I was on my happy way.
I managed to make my cookie batch that night, and then there was still heaps to do awaiting me the next day.
In summary, Saturday was spent going to the shops, making a lasagna ( and this is a lasagna! ) cleaning the ENTIRE house and getting myself ready for the wedding we had that night, my U.S bestie's sister. It may not sound like much but let me tell you, I barely had time to eat. And all this preparation, for my Hubbie's birthday the next day, where we were having both his and mine immediate families over for lunch, plus some close friends. And Hubbie and I don't do things in halves.
By Saturday night, as excited as I was about having a great night out with my friends, I was spent, and having a glass of red didn't help the cause either.
By the time I got to sleep at 1.30am, I was so tired, not just from that day, but from knowing what would await me the next day, and how much I still had to do.
7.00am I got up, it was painful, really. I'd set my alarm for 6.30am, but I just couldn't get myself up. I trudged out of bed and made my way to my tasks ahead.
Which included: making a cake, preparing the tables, making various salads and other foods and just a whole lot of preparation. If Hubbie hadn't gotten up and helped me out, I'd have been screwed.
Ha ha. The irony of that.
The day went fine, busy but fine. I barely had a chance to sit down, other than when I ate, and after when the cake had been cut and we'd sung happy birthday. I'd actually been finishing the cake throughout the day, so you can see how busy the day had been. The cake was a white chocolate cheesecake and it was a definite success! Everyone loved it, especially Hubbie, which is what mattered most :)
On top of everything that day, my friends came over that night, mainly because my U.S pal was now heading back to the States the next morning, so it was our last little get together.
Thank goodness I'd taken the Monday off. I had a surprise for Hubbie, I'd organised a Crime Tour of our city, after some lunch, and the tour alone took about 3 hours. It was nice, if not just to see our city through new, refreshed eyes.
That night our folks came over to help us eat the leftovers, and then more friends came by later on. It was fun, but the busy-ness was starting to look never-ending to me.
I thought the next night was gonna be quiet, but we ended up out to dinner with some OTHER friends, and then they came over for drinks. Sigh.
FINALLY my break came on Wednesday night. Once I'd finished my nightly duties, I think I just sat on the couch (actually I LAY down) and watched eps of The Bold and the Beautiful that I'd taped. And it felt sooooo good.
Although the previous week/s had been fun, because they had involved our close family, close friends and fun celebrations, I was still so wrecked by it all. As much as I love them all, I was so glad for it to be over. That following weekend we still had some stuff on, but this time it was different, because I didn't have to cook everything and clean the whole house in preparation! We were going out, which was easier....
We had dinner out Saturday night with Hubbie's boss and his wife (boss had gotten a bonus, so we were benefiting from it!) and Sunday night was another wedding.
A public holiday came during the week, and usually on a day like that where I would encourage Hubbie and I to do something with friends, you know what it was that I wanted? All I wanted was "peace and quiet." As my 7-year-old nephew says to his parents when they have a hectic weekend going everywhere, and all he wants to do is stay home and play with his toys. I just wanted to stay at home, and relax.
Which is what you need. Sometimes you need it. Nothingness can be so good.
We won't mind the story about the back-door neighbours stupid dog that dug underneath our fence to make it into our backyard and ruin the small vegie patch we had going. That's a stupid incident we won't indulge in here, because here and now, it's all well, and it's all good.
The weekend ahead looks promising. The forecast says the sun will be shining, there are blue skies ahead, and good times look like a definite. With weather like that, I think I'm ready to get busy again :)