Mrs. Pettigrew Lives a Day

Last night, I extended a spur of the moment invitation to N to meet at Greenbelt. I was finishing an office-sponsored dinner at Chili’s and had no wish to head home just yet as I had a lot of corn and rice to digest. N lives across the street from one side of Greenbelt, so I wasn’t surprised that she responded quickly and agreed to meet.

We didn’t have an agenda, and we found ourselves walking. We wondered why some dessert places close early, and if we would spend 499 pesos per head for videoke, given that we only wanted to sing for an hour. We made a snap decision to watch a movie, and decided on the late-release Mrs. Pettigrew Lives A Day. We figured a Frances McDormand - Amy Adams movie would be entertaining.

Though I thought the movie was inaudible at times, and N had nodded off more than once, we both agreed that the movie was indeed entertaining. It’s probably simplistic to say so, but I will say that the movie seemed like a Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris marriage to Nanny McPhee. We are always charmed when the ugly teach the uppity how to behave like proper human beings.

The actors in this movie were caricatures of characters they are famous for portraying effortlessly. Frances McDormand is lonely and unloved. Amy Adams is either cute or tiresome, depending on the mood you’re in. Shirley Henderson, who plays the corrosive Edythe, knows how to curve her spine and gaze at the camera just so that I am torn between loving her perpetually unhappy look or laughing at her face. I think this was the intended effect anyway.

There are enough good lines in the movie, and I would have caught more if I had paid more attention. Here is one that affected me in the viewing:

Guinevere Pettigrew: “You people, with your green drinks and your parties and your subterfuges! You're all playing at love. One minute her, the next minute someone else, flit, flit, flit! We'll, I'm not playing. Love is not a game.” (courtesy IMDB.com)

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We didn’t spend much time going over the movie after it was over. I walked N to her corner and I took the 3 minute cab ride home.

running wet

There has been much status-message complaining about the heat enveloping the city. I would have joined in the chorus, if it hadn't been that so many people were already stating the obvious.

It was my luck that during my run tonight there was a good downpour. I found it slightly odd that runners took cover under a shed as the drops started to pick up in intensity. Wasn't the rain exactly the tonic we need against this muggy weather? Perhaps they knew something I didn't because 20 or so minutes after, I started getting itchy welts on my collar bone and back. I was taking a shower in rain water AND some additional tree things. T, who had been running with me, felt the same itchiness. Regardless of the itching or not though, we were happy that we were getting soaked. 

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UP Diliman has a scheme that allows multiple exit points for students and faculty, but forces everyone else to exit the place via University Avenue. I do not understand the reasons behind this, but if the goal is improved security or easing traffic congestion, I doubt this is going to help.

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I finally finished Edmund White's the Flaneur. The flaneur or rambler/stroller of a city, isn't so much the topic of the book as rather a device used to organize White's account of the modern history of Paris. I enjoyed the book, and liked the fact that it was short (200 pages in fairly large print). I am starting to read a new book now, Saul's The Unconscious Civilization. It is similar to reading Nassim Taleb in that economics/finance is immediately being discredited (and with fair reason).  The lectures from which the book is based on  are almost 15 years old, but are still relevant and good reading.

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Successful design solution at work?

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More rain.