After a moderately successful week, visiting the radiology department of a small hospital half way to Aberdeen, yesterday I travelled to Glasgow primarly to pick up Helen from the airport, but secondly to visit with Pete. The evening started, as all evenings should, with a trip to the pub to watch Ireland play some rugby.
It was a great game with a large number of ex-pats, Scots and French cheering on the men in green. After an initial clumsy mistake which lead to an English try Ireland dominated the first half, scoring a try themselves and should have scored a few more points, but lead by a single penalty at the half. As in all games against England the second half was a tense affair; England hitting back soon after the break with a period of sustained pressure, which eventually lead to an easy try, before Ireland responded off a poorly thrown line-out with a superb piece of individual skill from Leamy, the No. 8, to get his hand to the throw and then to force it to the ground for the score. The atmosphere in 'Bar Budda' was far from Zen-like, with nervous faces all round. After a sin binning for one of the Ireland players, England took the lead again with a couple of penalty kicks, leaving the score at 24-21 with less than 5 minutes to go. Our adopted Irish friend in the bar, whose name I never actually found out, declared that he'd "had a feeling all day" that Ireland were going to win, and despite my disbelief at this prediction, I wanted him to be right.
And he was. One Ireland rush forward lead to a huge cheer, a second made people leap to their feet and by the time the winning try was scored people were shouting as loud as I've heard in a long while. It was a great game. [Why are the English always such bad losers? See 'England blame luck of the Irish' It's not like they haven't had enough experience of it recently].
After a pizza at the legendary Dino's on Sauchiehall St, we crossed the road to the tallest cinema in Europe to see George Clooney's much praised directorial debut, 'Good Night and Good Luck'. It was certainly an enjoyable film, with quite a leisurely feel, probably due to the excellent understated acting of David Strathairn, and despite its weighty topic. I enjoyed the black and white cinematography, full of shadows and boxed-in architectural claustrophia, adding to the tension. I didn't feel it was a pro-communist film, as I imagine dissenters would accuse, but more a rallying against trial by prejudice - this reminded me of the current controversies surrounding the detainments in Guantanamo Bay. And the musical interludes from Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves were very pleasant as well. So, all in all, one to check out if you're in the mood for a quietly spoken film that will lull you in and subtlely make you think.
I think I've written enough now. Rock on.
Dave.
No comments:
Post a Comment