Friday, October 8, 2010

The past 2 weeks


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!



5 comments:

  1. 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.

    I 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.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am curious to watch Europa Europa and Mother of Mine, I will do it soon. Thanks for the advice.
    17ml/h is a very good pace after the long period off. Keep on running and have a good week end.

    ReplyDelete
  3. caspita che full immersion, ma quante lingue conosci? ;) vai così, i nichilisti sono più creativi.... :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sorry you had a rough week. ::hugs::

    ReplyDelete
  5. @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!

    @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....

    ReplyDelete