As I walked through our local shopping centre today, I noticed one site was vacant. Many years ago there had been a lady who ran a video shop there though, as I walked past I could not recall her name. She ended up closing down and sadly, a little while later, she died.

I’d forgotten all about that moment this morning but, 12 hours later, I’ve stumbled upon a note which has it. She was Denise Carter. What’s more, I actually had included her in a post on my old 8lanefreeway blog from more than a decade ago. So, in memory of Denise, I’ve copied my old post and added it here:

Video Games (4 June 2010)

It was reported last August in the local rag that local businesses were doing it tough following the Cooper Park landslide. There were such large losses in revenue for shops because of the reconstruction works that the video store proprietor Denise Carter feared she might have to close her business. In her eight years Ms Carter said she had never seen tougher times: “I’ve got staff who depend on me, I’ve got bills to pay, but the fact is the customers are not coming in, even the regulars”.

Alas for DC, her words proved prophetic. Exactly one year after the drama of the hill’s collapse the video store closed its doors. But not before a massive clearance sale by the effervescent Denise. Many locals dropped in for the farewell and 8lanefreeway joined the final days frenzy returning home with more than 30 DVDs many of which were old favourites. They will be good for Friday night viewing – a night when interruptions are  often the name of the game. But this sudden influx of DVDs has also provoked a challenge: the 2010 movie game – to score and so rate these 30 or so DVDs in order of preference as they are watched through the coming weeks and months.

Here are the opening five contenders: Sliding Doors, Spy Games, Something’s Gotta Give, The Lake House and Junebug. Stay tuned in future posts for highlights, reviews and the all important order of preference!

But first, to see if you are familiar with one of the above scripts – which of the above films had these lines (with minor language modification to enable this blog to remain family friendly)?

“Gerry, I’m a woman! We don’t say what we WANT! But we reserve the right to get angry if we don’t get it. That’s what makes us so fascinating! And not a little bit scary.”

PS  What does the placement of the retirement ad say about the paper’s thoughts on the landslide’s impact on the local businesses?!