And now for something completely different.

I know this blog is supposed to be about Warsaw and I do tend to get distracted often, sorry, but once again I am going to get a little off track again.

Since being in Warsaw I have been able to read more, take more photos (of different things), eat a wide variety of things as well as smell, see, hear and feel differently. One thing that has happened due to all this cerebral, some would say cereal if referring to my brains, excitement and stimulation is that I have been a little more creative. Not so much with photography which would be the most obvious of things, either that or cooking I guess. No, it has been more in "artistic" ways. I have tried to paint, and please let me emphasise the word try here. I have also taken my free time between classes to try my hand, quite literally, to writing. I have written a short children's story about a fictional creature that created the Germanic Umlaut. I will release that to the world at a later date when I can figure out a good way to illustrate it. As let's face it children's books are doubled in fun with pictures!

The one story I have finished, apart from the editing process, is called Mr. Frost; here is a brief extract:

" “The weather had been sub zero but not to that extent”, many had thought. It had been the constant topic of conversation at The Peak and Trough. Many in there were talking of this the coldest winter, where the owner/barman and ex-Athletic goalkeeper from ages sixteen to fiftysix, listened to his clients. From his job and his long time living in the town, he had accumulated a lot of knowledge and information. This latest gossip and conversation was certainly making him grin.

“What d’ya make of it all Keep?” As a bar keeper and goal keeper the nickname had been sure to stick, where as his real name, Gary Winterbottom, was probably more apt to the current weather that the town had been experiencing.

“This world moves in mysterious ways”, he would reply being as non-comical as possible. Of course, Keep had his own suspicions, suspicions which would later turn out to be correct. However, it not being his nature to really divulge his thoughts on many such topics, he would keep retain these thoughts for his own pleasure. It has been honestly hard to get him to talk about idle gossip unless of course it was about football or beer. The only things he voiced his opinion on and normally with strong authority and passion. "

Ok, so I won't be winning a pulitzer prize, nor any prize at all. But what I thought I would do is let you all know about it. It's nearly finished from the first edit and I thought if any of you actually wanted to read it then just send me an email (garfy_masters@hotmail.com) to let me know. Then I can send it through and you can give me some feedback, it would be nice. Marty thinks it is a fun story, but then again, she has to say that!

Do you think living away from home makes you more creative? Leah Hyslop does here. Kind of makes you wonder how is best to stimulate the ol' noggin. Any ideas will be taken on board :)

Off Topic

Well sometimes in life you just need to say something.....

Last night I had the chance to watch the Oscar nominated movie the Wrestler. I was all excited thinking "Wow this must be a great movie", due to the press and the fact that it was nominated for so many awards. Not only the big hoooolywood ones but in Venice and other places too which tend to favour quality more so over budget etc. So we sat down ready to enjoy a story of an old Wrestler struggling with life in tights outside of the ring.

To be honest, this movie just sucked. I have seen some sucky movies in the past, but when it comes to wrist slitting action this was certainly higher than anything I have seen in a very long time. The life of the main character in the movie appears to reflect that of Mickey Rourkes'. It comes to the a head with the saying "Once a loser, always a loser". The most apt quote from the movie was "I'm an old broken down piece of meat", if you were to change broken down to rancid you could interpret the stench of this movie.

Within 30 minutes of the start of the movie it was obvious what would happen. Sometimes knowing the ending is good, however this wasn't anything to be excited by. It was more painful than slowly removing a band aid from your inner thigh that has been there for a month. I don't think I have ever wanted to see someone die so early in a movie, as I did with Rourke. Alas it takes until the end for this to happen.

To make it more enjoyable they should have shown in the movie should his early professional life. Allowing the v iewer to see him at his peak, not cheapening it with paper clippings and adverts for fights, I did however like the Nintendo game. If they barely paid for music, Rourke did it for free and they only took 35 Days to shoot it how on earth did they spend the $US6million?! Maybe this is what it cost to get Marisa Tomei's boobs done. Which overall was probably the highlight of the movie, in a way that I didn't actually expect to see her naked, I thought they would just show her from behind or similar, to keep her dignity. Then again maybe she lost that by doing "My Cousin Vinny"...... Overall the acting was about as deep as the water in a dog bowl, and it has the same effect on you. In the sense that, were you to drink the dog water you would feel sick like you should remove your stomach of any contents.

Anyway, to cease this rant. I recommend, if you are going to get this on DVD or go to the movies, instead you should by a lottery ticket, when you win a lot of money on this ticket, you should then burn it in front of your own eyes. This will indicate the amount of pain you would feel if you wasted the 109 minutes you would have otherwise lost in life to the Wrestler!