A Fruity Obsession

I just woke up one day and wanted some fruit…

Lately I’ve been buying quite a bit of fruit every time I do my grocery shopping. And it keeps getting worse (or better, either way you like it). Earlier this year I attempted to become healthier by buying less chocolate, chips, and so on, but I soon went back to buying it (in larger quantities), mainly because I didn’t buy any substitutes to nibble on every time I felt peckish. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went completely overboard and bought so much chocolate I won’t say just how much it was, and subsequently ate it all over a period of 4 days. So I felt bad about it. And started buying fruit instead. Now I have a constant supply of apples, pears, mandarins, oranges, bananas; last week I even came home with two eggplants (squash), an onion, a lemon, capsicum, salad – to use in cooking/lunches. I mean, come on – onions?! Since when did I start eating onions? I’ve hated them all my life! But I used it in a meal, and it tasted delicious.

I also keep making epic (and healthy) lunches:

This looked so good it was almost a shame to eat it, but I couldn’t not eat it, because it looked so good. And it was.

It’s been a very rainy day here today, and I feel all moist, but in a good way. I think it’s finally easing now, and it’s supposedly going to be sunny and warm for the next week or so.

Also, a quick newsflash: I don’t know how much the rest of the world is actually hearing about the Hobbit and PJ vs. actors drama currently unfolding here in NZ, but down here it’s on the front page basically every day now (today’s headline reads: ‘Nats [Nationals, ed.] take up arms for [Peter] Jackson’). A fantastic blog entry by up-and-coming Wellington film maker Chaz Harris sums up the main points of the dispute so far, and thankfully he shares my exact view on the situation, so please have a read of it if you like. PJ is not the villain in this scenario.

That is all. (For now.)

Nature’s poetry

It’s one of those rainy days today. Not one of those grey, dark and miserable rainy days, but one of those quiet days where the steady patter of rain hitting the ground is the only sound that can be heard. I love those days.

It also suits me perfectly, considering what plans I’ve got for today. I’m going to spend most of the day inside, reading stuff for my courses, while drinking delicious mochaccinos produced by my amazing new espresso machine. And tonight I’m going to the movies – I’m finally going to see Inception, which I’m sure you’ve all heard as much about as I have. I really wish I had someone to go with, but alas, that’s life. And I’m not one to stay at home because of it. I like to think I’m cool like that (or brave, stupid, sad; call it whatever you like).

I feel really at peace with the world and everything in it today. I’m not quite sure why, but I suspect that it has something to do both with the weather, and the fact that I watched my favourite film last night, In My Father’s Den, and there’s something about that film that just gets to me like nothing else does. It bares all my emotions, makes me feel vulnerable and sad, which makes me feel so close to the story it tells, and gives me a real sense of peace afterwards. There’s no need to tell (but I’m doing it anyway) that it’s my inspiration as far as filmmaking goes, especially scriptwriting. In My Father’s Den is subtly understated throughout, and emotions are expressed in the most poetic way without seeming fake or melodramatic; put simply, it all seems real. You have no idea what you’re missing out on until you’ve seen it.

I also feel very creative today. All I want to do at the moment is to sit down and focus on writing my screenplay (which has been in the making for several months now), but I know that I’ll regret putting off doing my course readings, because that’s what I did last weekend and it seriously ruined my entire week… So here’s the plan: I’m going to read as much as I can before going to the movies tonight – that way I won’t feel guilty. And on my way home from the movies I’m going to stop by the supermarket, pick up a bottle of wine, and then when I’m back at home I’ll allow myself to sit down with my laptop and a glass of wine and let my mind wander freely into this other, imagined world which I’ve become so well acquainted with over the last few months. I’ve grown so fond of my characters that you wouldn’t be wrong in calling them my imaginary friends… I know, how sad is that? But then again, how many writers have you come across that don’t empathize with their characters and act as if they were real, and not fictional? I don’t expect them to suddenly appear somewhere, or talk to invisible people around me, all I mean is that I can imagine their lives; their backgrounds, mistakes, fears, hopes, desires, and so on. They live in a parallel world in my head, and so far about one fourth of that world has been put down on paper, and I’m really anxious and excited about getting the rest of it out there, as well. I want to do them justice, and I want people to see them and know them like I do. They are real to me, like the characters in In My Father’s Den – I want to recreate that same magic in my script.

That’s one mocha down. It’s amazing what coffee does to me. It’s divine – the nectar of the gods. I better make another one.

This is where I belong

I have never felt more at home in Wellington than I do right this moment. “Why?” do you ask. Because it’s raining.

Not like, drizzling. It’s actually raining. Properly. The best part is that it’s still incredibly warm (we’ve had 20 degrees today) and hardly any wind; so big, heavy raindrops are falling almost vertically, with an occasional warm gust of wind just to make you smile. And such great timing! I didn’t have my first tutorial until 3pm, so I had the entire morning and most of the afternoon to just do my own thing, so this morning I put on a pair of shorts and went into town to do my grocery shopping. However, even shorts were too warm, but I mean, I saw people wearing large coats, boots, scarves, hats and so on, so I guess I’d look even more ridiculous if I’d taken my light jacket off and walked around in a T-shirt and shorts when apparently, it’s almost winter. I walked past a shoe shop with a big sign in the window which said: ‘Weeeeee! Winter is here!’ I just smiled at it and kept walking.

Then when I was walking to university I felt a raindrop land on my head, and a minute later I’d walked straight into a shower, but once you manage to get inside a building you’re pretty safe, because you can walk between all the buildings without having to go outside. It kept raining during my tutorial and the lecture I had straight afterwards, and then I was off home. I was lucky, though, because the rain came at a slight angle and hit me on the back, which makes it more pleasant than annoying. Before I was halfway home (it only takes about 5 minutes for me to walk home) I was contemplating just staying outside to play in the puddles and get soaked to the skin, but then I decided against it just because I started thinking about the song ‘Bowl of Oranges’ by Bright Eyes, which begins with the words ‘The rain, it started tapping on the window near my bed’ and this made me want to play it in my room, so I went home.

Oh and lest not forget: I got a test we had before the Easter break back today, and I got an A-. It made my day.

(Completely intentional blurred movement by the way…)