All else being Equalizer

The end of last week was …

Thursday AM early the car went in for a service. It had been running hot and I was pretty sure something ‘significant’ was wrong. It’s old for a car (10 years) but the garage has been kind, and I was hoping it would come out of this service able to run for at least another year.

Coolant leak. New thermostat and housing. Big sigh of relief even while wincing when paying the bill. Fingers crossed it will behave on the two longer journeys coming up to move child out of uni house into storage early summer and then out of storage into housing in the autumn for new academic year. I have other large expenditures coming up this year. I’d appreciate not having to shell out for a ‘new’ car for a while yet.

(Oh, and on Saturday night, the motor for the front driver’s side window went. So, we’ll be returning to garage… )

Then, a loopy work day Friday – just relentless (and the guy I work for asked if I ‘was up for’ doing a long note over the weekend – uh, no).

Amidst this it’s been windy here. Not gale force winds – just shush-shushing all day every day for the past three days which can do your head in. It’s getting warmer. All I want is calm – in life and from the weather.

Within this context during one of my periods of downtime surfing YouTube the algorithm told me I should watch a video of the Equalizer, a Denzel Washington film from 2014. Watched the trailer and was hooked. If you’re my age, you might know about the original Equalizer TV programme from the 1980s with Edward Woodward starring as Robert McCall. Basic plot in both cases is former intelligence officer now helping out the ‘little guy’. I’m a sucker for these kinds of things. Turn the tables on the evil and the powerful. (NB: there’s now a reprise of the concept on TV starting this year with Queen Latifa starring – just found that out this morning so will have to have a look).

This is the guy who at family gatherings who hangs with the women and kids because they ‘get’ him even if they don’t know why whereas he makes the men twitchy.

The older McCall is white and British; the younger one Black and American. Both are old school, impeccable manners, dress well, no need to shout about their (prodigious) skills. Still waters run deep. You underestimate this guy at your peril.

Because I can’t help it in these situations I started wondering what the characters might wear regarding fragrance. I came to the conclusion they wouldn’t because it might be distracting when working. Still, I expect they’d prefer the same types of things and they might well not be classic men’s colognes – maybe old style but with a twist? I settled on Guerlain Djedi because they smelled it on a long gone lover and then adopted it as their own. Or Caron Bellodgia for the same reason. And they had someone who sourced the old bottles for them, someone running a tiny perfumery in Paris, in an arcade off the beaten track – stuff stashed in the back for when they called or called in. If the more modern McCall adopted something newer maybe it would be an Amouage, but still a feminine because that would be his way.

All this contemplating sent me off to my bottle of Mitsouko. That was what I was in during the weekend.

So, are you familiar with either/both of these versions of the Equalizer?