Life in A Day

Friday was a day I will remember and want to forget with equal measure. It was the day of the MOT which means a thirty minute drive to the outskirts of Poole to leave the car at the main dealers, then a mile walk to the nearest bus stop followed by another thirty minute journey by bus into Poole itself.

Well about five minutes after leaving home, at 7:30 a.m, in the dark, it began to rain and didn't stop until early afternoon. Having dropped Nathalie off at Tesco's (where the bus stop was) I then drove onto the dealers before making the walk back. By the time we met again my feet were soaked (not wearing footwear suitable for a flood), my trousers were stuck to my legs (not wearing a suitable coat) and I was generally pissed off. The day just got better as one of our fellow passengers was a small child who decided to scream for most of the journey and whose mothers idea of pacifying was to smile at all the other passengers and look embarrassed.

Walking along Poole with the wind and rain at our faces was akin to impersonating Marcel Marceau, I cannot tell you how miserable the experience was. I looked at my watch at just after ten and said to Nathalie, "Oh well, only six hours until the car is ready, let's put you on a bus home." And so we did.

I went and did a bit more shopping and then decided to head back out of town to the cinema complex and see what I could watch to get out of the wind and rain and alleviate the general sense of despondency. In the run up to Christmas most of the films on offer are either for little people or feature little people, the exception being The Seven Psychopaths.

Obviously the marketing department of the cinema chain aren't expecting a big demand for this film because it was being shown in one of the 'studios' rather than one of the 'screens' - this means a maximum audience per screening of forty two, well even that was overestimating the public demand because there were ten of us. It's a good film, Christopher Walken steals every scene he is in and whilst mots of it is good there are a few moments where the director has tried to be too clever and it loses its way. That said any film that can feature a cameo role by Tom Waits as a rabbit loving serial killer of serial killers and Harry Dean Stanton in a non-speaking role as a Quaker can't be too bad can it? Add to that Linda Ronstadt on the closing credits and you have a three out of five star film.

Anyway out of the cinema and into sunshine, albeit one watered down by a fierce south westerly gale and a walk back to collect the car, MOT passed.

Then it was home through the rush hour traffic to discover that whilst I might be cold, wet and generally pissed off there were some people who were having a far worse day of things