World pieces

Not the wildest Saturday evening I've ever had... But we had fun :)

And now I know where the Solomon Islands are...

Stepping Back

Due to excessive levels of stress and anxiety in my life of late, I've decided to take things slow for a while, to switch pace from insane, adrenalin fueled rat to mellow-easy-going snail.

No more having 5 windows open on my laptop at work all day,
no more compulsively checking gmail/facebook/twitter etc etc,
no more listening to/watching the radio/tv and reading the newspaper at the same time,
no more trying to keep up with all the latest movies and theatre,
no more sitting in Dublin traffic,
no more social occasions that I'm only attending out of obligation,
no more rushing,
no more taking on more than I can handle,
no more incessant planning of tomorrow, next week, next month, next year...
no more feeling like I'm running out of time,
no more unnecessary panic,
no more irrational worry,

Yes to more time writing,
yes to more time reading literature as opposed to journalism,
yes to listening to really good music and maybe playing some,
yes to slow meandering walks in the park/the hills/by the sea,
yes to meeting friends over coffee and having a really good chat,
yes to taking time to shop for and cook nice meals,
yes to nights in,
yes to walking to get to my destination,
yes to talking about how I'm really feeling instead of pretending everything is fine,
yes to yoga,
yes to getting and giving massages,
yes to doing one thing at a time and doing it well,
yes to relaxation,
yes to a realistic appraisal of how good my life actually is,


yes to the simple life...

Dimension Tension

I'm not proud of this but I somehow managed to let myself be coerced into going to see My Bloody Valentine 3D at the weekend.

I'm not a big fan of horror at the best of times - I just don't see the point of making yourself deliberately anxious and scared for 2 hours - I can ring my mother for that sort of emotional trauma. The last time I watched scary movies with friends I managed to fling a glass of red wine over the beau who unwisely chose to sit beside me during Dawn of the Dead.

I was not allowed a drink at this movie.

The whole 3D thing did make it an entertaining experience - to look over your shoulder and see a cinema full of people wearing rayban style glasses was amusing and at certain points in the movie it made the goriness pretty dramatic. Mostly I just giggled with my companions over whether it was the mistress or the smouldering ex-boyfriend who was the masked miner pickaxing the poor innocent townspeople.

We also had the added entertainment value of some extremely drunk Dublin scumbags sitting right beside us - it would seem from their willingness to shout at the screen and inability to stay in their seats for more than 5 minutes that the 3D had them really fooled. They were part of the movie as far as they were concerned and even added a 4 dimension to proceedings with their foul odour.

Ah Parnell St...

I was glad by the end that I wasn't watching Revolutionary Road as I had wanted - luckily any interruption of My Bloody Valentine was most welcome.

There were 4 or 5 trailers for other 3D movies which would indicate a strong resurgence in the format - mostly they were animated movies and the trailer for the new Pixar movie Bolt looked really good. The headache that accompanies the use of 3D glasses is not all that pleasant though - feels like you've had your eyes crossed for 2 hours and €15 is a staggering amount to pay for a movie (especially one of My Bloody Valentine's woeful calibre). Being in 3D is not enough--a good script or some decent actors are also necessary.

Speaking of Valentine's Day...It's coming up soon and for the first time in ages I have someone to share it with! Huzzah! Ok, ok it's a Hallmark holiday that is artificially constructed to make couples buy cards and chocolates and flowers etc but...but I'm going out with someone for once so who cares!

Romance and rose petals and chocolate hearts for all!