Why is getting up at 5.15am like a pig’s tail..? Twirly!
(Apologies to Noel Coward).
Another horribly early start. I was out at 0535 after a few minutes stretching. I jogged very slowly for a half mile or so in the hope that the gradual warm-up would keep these chest aches at bay, but they were always there, and have been popping back throughout the day. I think it’s some kind of pulled muscle, possibly a result of going to the gym, and perhaps aggravated by running without a thorough warm-up. In other words, I don’t really know what it is. Must visit a sports clinic. Feels like a screw has worked its way loose behind my breast-bone, and something has been displaced.
To make things worse, it never stopped raining throughout the 40 minute run. And to complete the misery, my route took me along a narrow lane filled by a large puddle several yards long. There was no option but to tiptoe through it, soaking my feet in the process. Yuck. I’ve had better runs than this, it has to be conceded.
Second cinema trip in 24 hours this evening, to see A Beautiful Mind. Our only serious complaint about our new habitat (apart from the lack of a fish and chip shop in the village) is that there’s no decent cinema in this part of Berkshire. Just a couple of multi-screens. But at least the Hexagon in Reading shows the occasional one-off film that you might have missed first time round, hence our two recent trips.
The movie was reasonably diverting, despite my feeling that mathematical calculations don’t make great cinema (see Good Will Hunting for further evidence), and the depressing sense that we were beholding little more than a successful formula: the presentation of a serious mental problem (schizophrenia) as Hollywood entertainment. We’ve been here before with Shine and Rain Man. But it did touch you in the end, and the make-up that plausibly aged the Russell Crowe character by nearly fifty years was a wonder to behold.
