I will not bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that these past 2 weeks have been......hectic. During all this sturm und drang, I read a lot, watched quite a few movies, and chopped off my hair. The result can be seen above, after my interval run tonight.
I am just about half way through with a very interesting book of short stories which I got in South Africa a few months ago. Duiwelsbrood is a stunning collection of "short and long" stories. I am struggling with the language, as it is written in Afrikaans, and since I have very little opportunity to speak this, let alone read it, I am having to read very, very slowly! Still, it does force you to savour the words, which is exactly what this writer manages to get the reader to do. I will write more about this book when I have finished reading it.
Five fabulous films to see are: Europa Europa (Germany 1994) which sees a Jewish boy joining the Hitler Youth League; Mother of Mine (Finland 2005) which sees a Finish boy removed from his family and sent to neutral Sweden during the war; Caramel (Lebanon 2007) tells the stories of 4 women who work in a beauty salon, Dennis (Denmark 2008) is a short, which sees a body builder out on a date, and finally Open Your Eyes (Spain 1997) dichotomizes love and good looks.
I cycled twice, and was quite surprised that I managed to get up to 17 miles per hour, considering that I have not cycled since last summer. I am definitely going to practice more! Finally, I girded my loins and went for a run yesterday. I did 8 miles, and it was not too shabby. Actually I had a decent time (for me) of 10:32. Today I did some intervals, and I have 16 miles on Sunday.
This past week and a half has been very difficult. Sometimes it is hard to see a reason to do things, and my tendency is to be quite nihilistic. I am trying to change this (well for a long time now!) but as with all tendencies, this is quite deeply rooted. Running helps a lot because it has the power to generate a sense of purpose. Anyway, this seems to be the challenge I am facing during my marathon training. Well, a day off tomorrow and I will catch up on all your blogs....so long!
I know what you mean by difficult weeks. I've had such a busy week at work that it's hard to maintain my exercise schedule and eating plan because sometimes I just want to sit on the couch and eat simple and definitely not healthy, what I did last night. But there's always a new day to pick it up and we will pick it up.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you watch movies from different countries and the book you are reading. South African's looks a bit like the Dutch language so I guess it would be easier for me to read.
I love it that you're joining my virtual run. Thank you for that.
I am curious to watch Europa Europa and Mother of Mine, I will do it soon. Thanks for the advice.
ReplyDelete17ml/h is a very good pace after the long period off. Keep on running and have a good week end.
caspita che full immersion, ma quante lingue conosci? ;) vai così, i nichilisti sono più creativi.... :)
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you had a rough week. ::hugs::
ReplyDelete@Fran: Oh yes, we will be victorious! Thanks for the encouragement. Afrikaans is like 15th century Dutch, but more similar to Vlaams....in fact with my Belgian friends, we understand each other very well. But I think you would enjoy it!
ReplyDelete@Black Knight: Thanks Stefano, yes the movies are well worth watching....let me know what you think when you do see them.
@Yogi: Eh, come diceva Charlemagne "Chi conosce un'altra lingua, possiede una seconda anima".....hmmm a volte il nichilismo esistenziale puo' prendere una piega verso il lato non-creativo....