A friend, Simon, has said (using our comments facility!) that, whilst another report of world-travelling he's following could be compared to a James Cameron film: all glam and exciting, ours could be compared to a Ken Loach film: all gritty and down to earth. I was quite pleased with this analogy. We're doing this blog in part to keep in touch with people at home but also as a record of our travels for our own benefit, and I thing a "real" diary will be good to look back on.
Travelling for such a long period of time means we're living our life at the same time as seeing the world, rather than getting away from everything and living in a "time-out" situation. Travelling can be pretty tiring, and we've had to make sure we do normal things and don't get sick to death of "another beautiful national park". We've made our own little routines and, being a creature of habit and slightly obsessive-compulsive, I've found ways to bring home away with me. I take the opportunity when I can of watching movies - one of my great loves - and this leads to some days when I watch three films (all good, none amazing). Yesterday was one of those days.
First we watched Swimming Upstream, an Aussie film which came out at the cinema when we were in Sydney. It's about a boy, growing up in Brisbane in the 50s and 60s trying to win the approval and love of his unpleasant, damaged father (Geoffrey Rush). I enjoyed it - three stars.
Then it was to the outdoor, deckchair cinema to see Whale Rider, a New Zealand film about Maoris. We'd read a lot about this film and were reasonably pleased with it. The little girl in the lead was impressive. Three stars. The outdoor cinema was fun!
Also three stars for the late night film we watched on SBS, Harry, He's Here To Help. This is a French film we'd wanted to see for a while. Whilst we enjoyed it, it wasn't a good as we'd heard and I get the feeling it got more praise than it deserved as it is French. Still a solid, entertaining effort though.