good will hunting

Like most people, I have a list of films people suggest to me and that I'd like to get around to watching at some point. I'm really bad at actually watching any of them though. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm always fairly suspicious of new films; I think I have to be in a specific mood to be ready to have a go with a new film.

Last night though, Beth convinced me to watch Good Will Hunting, and I'm glad she did! I really enjoyed it. There were some really powerful performances, and while it wasn't hugely exciting or genre defying, I thought it told the story it wanted to tell well. The cinematography was interesting and effective without being flashy or drawing attention to itself: for instance, the scene where Sean sees straight through Will whilst they're sitting on the park bench, and the camera just lingers on Robin William's face for the whole monologue, slowly panning to reveal Will's speechless face.

I should get over myself and watch more movies.

tags: movies, self

permalink | posted by nathan on Sunday, the 5th of September, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day

wedding venues and all points east

Last weekend was Late August Bank Holiday, and we made the most of the three day weekend! We got a little weekend get-away in to go and see some wedding venues in Herefordshire, and then went to All Points East in London with Tom.

We stayed at a beautiful AirBnB, which was essentially just a couple with a farmhouse. The house was lovely and the garden more still, and we had a nice time walking around there, looking at the plants and the chickens! The owner explained how half of the chickens were rescue chickens, and the other half she had taken off her friend after they had some unexpected chicks return with a runaway hen.

They also had an old barn, half of which they'd rebuilt into a small "pub", which was very cute. The other half was used by the husband for his hobby: a huge model train set. It was incredible. Model trains and Hornby always remind me of Grandpa, but I don't think I actually have any first hand memories of his train sets. I think I was a little too young.

Then we went to see two wedding venues. The second one we saw was the one we'd organised the weekend trip to go and see. The first we only accidentally found! A couple of days before we left we were looking for places to eat on Saturday evening and Sunday lunch, and I found a lovely looking "farm to plate" restaurant with space for Sunday lunch. After booking, I realised that it was also a wedding venue, and looked pretty promising! We emailed to see if they could show us around before lunch and they were happy to do so. Pretty fortunate, as they were the venue we liked most by a long way.

The room where the ceremony would be was really nice, with huge glass windows overlooking the countryside. The bar underneath was lovely and cosy and the decoration in general was tasteful and simple. Unfussy, was the word we kept using. The lady showing us around was seemed very capable as well, giving us lots of space and tips, especially after we said it was the first wedding venue we'd seen. I could actually see us getting married there, which was really assuring. The food was really nice as well!

The second venue we saw wasn't as nice. It was a fairly nice country home, with fantastic gardens, but we'd have to have the ceremony outside in a marquee or something. That would be nice if it was a family house and free, but it's not, so I don't think that's really what we want.

Then on the Monday we went to All Points East. I haven't been to many musical festivals, but this was fun! We met up with Tom a couple of times as well. Lots of artists I've never heard of, some of which were nice, and Bombay Bicycle Club were really fantastic. They did It's Always Like This with the London Samba School as their last song and it was fantastic. I should see more live music.

tags: life

permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 4th of September, 2021, during the productive hours of the afternoon

parkrun - 4th september 2021 - thurrock - 22:26 (?)

Another parkrun! I've definitely fully recovered from my cold now, so I had no excuses today (other than my lack of fitness). I had planned to get up at 7:30 and run to parkrun, but that didn't transpire. Luckily Beth woke up at 8:30 and told me to get out of bed.

The run itself went shockingly well! Right at the start there was a man who just overtook me, and he seemed to have good pace, so I decided to try and hang on to him. I stuck with him all the way around. He was really supportive and I think we pushed each other. I felt bad when I outsprinted him at the end, but I don't think he had much sprint in him. He managed to push me to my best 5k time this year (I think!), a 22:26... ish. Sadly I forgot my barcode so I never found my actual time (and I'm still 4 runs away from 50 :'( ). I think I was only a couple of seconds behind the guy in front, and that corresponds to my watch as well.

I'm happy with that though! I think strength training through climbing is helping, and I think the lack of other things to do in Grays means that (when we're not ill) we're running and exercising pretty regularly, which is nice.

tags: parkrun, running

permalink | posted by nathan on Saturday, the 4th of September, 2021, during the productive hours of the afternoon

parkrun - 28th august 2021 - thurrock - 27:17

I knew there was a post I meant to write!

I was pretty ill last week. I took a day off work on Wednesday, and missed UWH and climbing on Thursday and Friday. I was feeling a lot better on Saturday, but still thought I should take it easy. I ended up running with/pacing Beth, which was nice. 27 minute pace still felt pretty tough, so I definitely think I was still a bit ill.

I'm interested to see how I do tomorrow! At UWH yesterday I felt very tired and unfit, and climbing today my arms were achy and I got tired very quickly. Hoping it's not too bad!

tags: running, parkrun

permalink | posted by nathan on Friday, the 3th of September, 2021, during the most productive hours of the day

american gods - neil gaiman

I'm not sure what I feel about this book. There's lots of very interesting and clever ideas, as well as a lot of great build up and foreshadowing to make some of the ending feel very impactful. On the other hand, it's very dense, and leaves a lot unexplained (which I guess is part of the idea and the aura of mythos it's going for). At times it also felt more like a description of events, rather than a story (although I guess that is also kind of the point, as it provides sharp contrast of Shadow before and after one of the main turning points).

It does some very clever things, especially with world building, and also has some clever twists. Still, I'm not sure if it's one of my favourite fantasy worlds, or one of my favourite stories. I enjoyed most of it but probably won't return to it.

tags: books

permalink | posted by nathan on Thursday, the 2th of September, 2021, when he should have been getting ready for bed