Bollywood Moments

There's a Bollywood Film Festival on at the moment, so being avid Bollywood fans the lovely Suzanne and I went last night (which also happened to be the opening night - hence the red carpet!) to see Parineeta, a film based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay set in Calcutta in the 1960s. It was visually beautiful and apart from a few Bollywood moments it was a wonderful story. Surprisingly the two main characters actually kissed and even more shocking there was even a sex-scene - something I've never seen before in a Bollywood film. What is Bollywood coming to??? Tomorrow night I'm going to see Veer-Zaara, which looks fantastic, with Judith and Ben.

I was thinking about getting a DVD out tonight, but am glad I didn't as I ended up spending most of the evening on the phone - first to Cath, who has just come back from 3 months in the Big Durian, Jakarta, then to Judith to find out what the plans were for tomorrow evening and finally to Sophie in Oxford. Am feeling a bit phoned out now!

It's been quite a week. Today I didn't go to work as I decided that despite not being payed I'd much rather have the day off than be subjected to a day of corporate-speak. The school I work at is just part of a much bigger company and once a year there's a big gathering of all the employees to hear from the powers that be where the company is heading. From having been to them before I knew I wouldn't be able to deal with it, so instead I did the very beautiful Spit Bridge to Manly walk with some of my students. We had a great day and when I spoke to Judith this evening she told me that it was worse than usual today, so I'm very happy that I decided not to go.

Earlier in the week we had a bit of a crisis here at 58 Union St. The main sewer blocked and with the heavy rain early Tuesday morning we ended up with raw sewerage coming up the drain in the back garden. Not very pleasant. We called the landlord and he got on to Sydney Water and although it took them a while they eventually managed to find where the blockage was and unblock it. Where I live is quite an old area and the sewer line runs down the back of the properties, which meant it was very difficult for Sydney Water to get access to the service hatches. I'm glad it was sorted out fairly quickly because the prospect of not being able to use the toilet or even have a shower not was not exactly appealing.

While this was all happening I was having to mark research reports and then counsel 4 students who failed. All I can say is thank god for Gelatomassi! When I was marking all the research reports on Monday evening it was the rocher chocolate and wildeberry (no fresh fig at the moment - very sad) that kept me going.

Saw a very sad but powerful film on Wednesday evening - a Palestinian film called Paradise Now. I was actually supposed to see it at the Sydney Film Festival, but the print that arrived didn't have subtitles, so in the end it was cancelled. I went to see it at Dendy Opera Quays, which is on the way from Circular Quay to the Opera House, for those of you who don't know Sydney. Coming out of this film I felt completely disorientated and just kept looking around and thinking how different our lives are from the rest of the world. The film explored what drives young Palestinians to become suicide bombers and although it tries not to take any sides it's obvious that the continuing occupation of Palestine has reduced the Palestinian people to what they are today and when people are oppressed for that long and feel like they have no hope this is what happens. I really don't know how the problem can be solved, but something has to be done.

I actually didn't think I had that much to write about, but as always I've managed to find something to write about. Am starting to fade ( it's that time of the evening when I start to shut down) so I think I'll say goodbye for now.