The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This is the title of a French film I'd been wanting to see for awhile and was based on a book and true story. Elle magazine editor-in-chief Bauby suffered a stroke which affected everything apart from his mind and one of his eyes, which doctors described as 'locked-in syndrome'. He could only communicate by blinking his left eye, one blink for yes, two for no. If he wanted to say more a translator had to read out a frequency chart of all letters - so, in French it was E S A R I N T U L. It was this system that he used to write his last memoirs i.e. this film.

There were some genuinely funny moments with Bauby's inner monologue and some very sad ones pulling at the heart-strings. The art style and direction were excellent using Bauby's one-eyed view in places (the sewing up of his other eye will make you cringe) throughout conveying what could have been a very dull film.

Sunday was visiting a couple of garden centres for some new trees since we chopped down the Ash. Driving back from Hassocks we decided to take a back road guessing the way back to Brighton but got seriously lost. On the 25 mile round drive that should have been about 6 we saw a horse blind-folded (waiting for the firing squad?) and some strange metal art structure made of old metal bath tubs.