About Me

I ramble about a number of things - but travel experiences, movies and music feature prominently. See my label cloud for a better idea. All comnments and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not in any way reflect the opinions/position of my employer (past/current/future).

19 January 2007

Movie: Little Children

The movie is narrated as a children's story; but it is nothing like a children's story - no happy endings; no children content. Rather, the movie uses children (mostly playing at the park, in the streets, at the pool) to expose some of the hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies that make up western society. At the core there are two major story lines: Firstly there is the affair between a man who takes the role of the care giver in the family (while the wife works, and is ignored in bed) and a young wife of a rich, older man (who is older, and prefers jacking off to Internet porn than his wife). The affair develops while they take care of their respective toddlers at the town pool or the park.

The second major storyline is the tale of an ex con, who was in prison for exposing himself to a minor and an ex cop who wants him out of the community. This angle certainly raises questions - the prison service is supposed to rehabilitate inmates; and thus they should be fit to live in society - but that is hardly what happens. The anger and revulsion is certainly food for thought.

Off course it all blows up etc etc. It is a tragic movie in many parts; a thinking movie while providing many comedic moments brought about by the many hypocrisies. It is however not the most entertaining movie ... and maybe a bit too much food for thought.

14 January 2007

Back on the saddle

After a long time (49 days to be exact), I finally went for a bike ride ... and a long one at that. Basically up to Constantia Nek (11 Km almost all uphill) down to Hout Bay (7Km of downhill bliss ... going faster than the 40 Km/h speed limit for cars :P) up Chapman's Peak (about 5Km and another 2 Km of uphill) - but the scenery alone is worth it down to Noerdhoek, back to Rondebosch via Fish Hoek. It did not feel too bad, but the last 10 Km were torturous ... even though most of it was relatively flat. And most of all, I think I need padded shorts ... I have done the route before, but it did not feel this painful last time!

Some stats:
Total Distance: Just over 61Km
Total Time: Under 5 Hours including a long stop at Noerdhoek for "brunch"
Pedalling Time: Just over 3h 30min ... giving a rather slow 16.5 Km/h average speed