Today is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make single people feel like crap.
For once, this isn't my own sarcasm, but the classic opening line from the movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.
"Think positive! Statistically speaking, half your friends in relationships will be splitting up or getting divorced eventually," my friend J. said today. Is that how one thinks positive? If so, perhaps I'm not the cynic I thought I was.
"Think positive! Statistically speaking, half your friends in relationships will be splitting up or getting divorced eventually," my friend J. said today. Is that how one thinks positive? If so, perhaps I'm not the cynic I thought I was.
In fact, my single Valentine's Days have always turned out better than the ones when I was all coupled-up. I had no expectations, and full control over my day. And London is a great place to be single, because there's always so much to do. Here are ten happy things I did this weekend:
1. Re-watched the Czech movie Kolya,
which had won an Oscar in 1997, but back then I was too young to really appreciate it. I almost cried when little Kolya sits in the bath and uses the shower head to call his dead grandma. And I almost cried with laughter when Louka uses the same pick-up line (a very poetic one at that) every time he calls up a woman, any woman. The camera work in the movie is beautiful. The English subtitles aren't much, though, and don't really translate the finer nuances of the movie's bittersweet humour.
which had won an Oscar in 1997, but back then I was too young to really appreciate it. I almost cried when little Kolya sits in the bath and uses the shower head to call his dead grandma. And I almost cried with laughter when Louka uses the same pick-up line (a very poetic one at that) every time he calls up a woman, any woman. The camera work in the movie is beautiful. The English subtitles aren't much, though, and don't really translate the finer nuances of the movie's bittersweet humour.2. Went to see the exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh at Whitechapel Gallery, next to Aldgate East station. Good pictures, but absolutely swarmed with people who can't help but point at everything and say, "Interesting." Thank you for your interesting and insightful comment; I don't know how I would have been able to come up with anything like that myself. I didn't even get to see all of the photos; there were that many people. A lot of the prints were rather small, and I can't say I'm a big fan of that. I prefer large sizes at exhibitions -- it's more powerful.
3. Went to see the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery in Soho. No entrance fee, large prints that you can look at from a distance and go "hell yeah" (in your head), and an audience that didn't feel the need to find everything interesting. Success!
4. Spent lots of time in the kitchen, resulting in coconut-filled pancakes, tom yam soup, and Wiener schnitzel with potato mash, among other things. My belly had a good time, and cooking is such a relaxing thing to do when you have the time, the energy and the inspiration.
5. Took a shower with my new Nivea Happy Time shower creme. I like products with cute names like that. My fabric conditioner is called Barefoot in the grass (by Lenor).
6. Read the novel Signed, Mata Hari
by Yannick Murphy and spent hours afterwards daydreaming about Java, about the sound of a gamelan orchestra, about smoking volcanoes, about the humid air and mist rising over rice fields surrounded by dark green mountains, about long train journeys that cleared my head of all thoughts, about the puppet master concentrating on moving his 200 wayang kulit puppets to recreate a story from the Mahabharata, about the nasi goreng I ate everywhere, about the good people who smiled for me, about the man I met at a train station and unexpectedly followed him to Bali for a spontaneous night of kissing on the beach ... Indonesia, it's been 8 long months, and I can hear it calling me again, louder and louder.
by Yannick Murphy and spent hours afterwards daydreaming about Java, about the sound of a gamelan orchestra, about smoking volcanoes, about the humid air and mist rising over rice fields surrounded by dark green mountains, about long train journeys that cleared my head of all thoughts, about the puppet master concentrating on moving his 200 wayang kulit puppets to recreate a story from the Mahabharata, about the nasi goreng I ate everywhere, about the good people who smiled for me, about the man I met at a train station and unexpectedly followed him to Bali for a spontaneous night of kissing on the beach ... Indonesia, it's been 8 long months, and I can hear it calling me again, louder and louder.
7. Watched a family while waiting for a Victoria line train at Oxford Circus: mum, dad, sleepy daughter in a pushchair. "You're grumpy because you've just woken up," the dad said and took his daughter in his arms, stroking her hair and trying to comfort her. They looked so sweet, I wanted to ask questions. Where did you two meet? How did he court you? How long have you known each other? How did he propose? Does your house look like a family idyll from Country Living magazine? ... but instead I smiled, and didn't say anything.
8. Spoke to my mum on the phone after three long weeks. She's well, I'm well and no news is good news.
9. Sat down to do some long-postponed writing. It's going slowly, but slowly is better than not at all.
10. Bought a steamed chicken bun in Chinatown for lunch. Yum.
2 comments:
Ah Kolya, a favorite Czech film. Even though some of the humour does not translate it is still a very nice film.
Sounds like you had a good day :)
It was a strange thought process that led me back to Kolya. A friend of mine told me she was looking at apartments in Marylebone and asked if it was a nice area. I told her yes from what I remember of it, but then I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that Jacqueline du Pre was a former resident ... which reminded me of a play about Jacqueline du Pre I saw at high school, and then I listened to some of her music on Spotify ... and I noticed from her picture that she looked similar to the Slovak girl whom Louka in Kolya teaches to play ... the cello of course! And then I thought I should re-watch it. :o)) Aaaah, brains work in interesting ways.
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