Before completing the all-time Ady movie top five in the world ever - and in so doing, drawing the latest subject of the 'month' to a close - some honourable mentions of movies that almost made it....
Lean On Me - Morgan Freeman as headmaster; 'you know what that guy is saying right now? "that black person can't throw me out!" You know WHERE he's saying it? In the parking lot!!"
Return To Me - David Duchovney (spelling?!) in an unlikely story of romance.
"Would you go out with me?"
"Yes"
"Tomorrow night?"
"Yes"
"Pick you up around 8 o'clock?"
"Yes"
"Wow, you're a very difficult woman!"
Christmas Movies - I decided not to include these in the top five; firstly as it feels weird to have seasonal films on the list, and secondly because if I had to include them picking a top five would have put me in therapy (my blog, my rules; so there!). Fret not though, you won't miss out, as guess what the subject of the month is going to be this CHRISTMAS.......!!
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.......
I should imagine The Shawshank Redemption will make it into the top films list of most people. Just like the four other movies in the top five; it is a story of struggle, of misfortune, of friendship, but above all it is a story of and about hope.
Set predominantly in a prison which we are told 'is no fairytale world', Andy Dufresne - a convicted murderer, sentenced to incarceration for the rest of his days - meets Red, an old man who has lived longer behind prison walls as he has outside them. There are so many stories - and stories within stories - during its two-plus hours (the warden, the library, Brookes, Zihuatanejo!......); all fantastic, but the relationship between the two main characters is what sucks me in. A man who has every reason to give up, yet finds that place in his soul that springs eternal - the hope that noone can touch - pitted against a man whom not only has hope long ago deserted; actually believes that 'hope is a dangerous thing; hope can drive a man insane'.
It's what we say isn't it? "Dare to hope". Do we dare? Do we recognise the possibility of something so good happening? Do we give that thought weight? Do we commit ourselves to it? Or do we shrink from it for fear of the misery should these dreams not come true? I believe most of us start off in the world with hope; lots of it, and it is such a shame that people - through cuts and bruises (metaphorical and literal), misfortune, struggle - start (as did Red) believing hope is to be avoided; a negative emotion.
If a movie is to get into the Ady charts (alright? not 'arf!) it cannot just be 'that's a good movie'; it has to speak to me, resonate with me; even teach me. The Shawshank Redemption is no exception. I'm with Andy (not the murdering part you understand.....mind you.....!!) when he says 'hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things; and no good thing ever dies'. It is a beautiful sentiment; one to live by.
I have had my knocks in the past. I have dared and succeeded, and yes I have certainly dared and failed (sometimes devastatingly so); but I am proud to say that my hope is very much intact. My life, my actions, my outlook on life is one of optimism and growth (albeit not in the waistline!), and I am all the better for it. I hope there will always be a part of me untouched by the negativity that life can bring, and I hope I will always look towards the future with...........hope!
So who wins? The hopeful or the hopeless? See it - if you haven't already - and find out for yourself!
Friday, 31 August 2012
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Weigh in (61)
You know how I said 'sorry for not blogging so often, from here on in I promise to post at least 3 times a week' (or words to that effect).......hmmmmm......yeah...........oops....... Okay, from here on in I will be posting at least three times a week......honest........no really I will.........
The worst was well and truly prepared for last night; it has not been a great week. As you know it started with the Chinese takeaway, but as you don't know the bank holiday weekend was about as nutritionally controlled as Sarah Millican in a doughnut factory (love her; but on some freaky chance she might end up reading this, I've seen your DVD intro!!). Much of it came and went in a bit of a blur, but the highlight was - visiting the folks on Saturday with nephew, niece, brothers, in-laws, John-Boy, Jim-Bob, Grandpa...... - a sister special for lunch, consisting of mini pork pies (more pie than pork), slices of pizza (more cheese than you could shake a Babybel at), quiche (more egg than can possibly be good for you) and ham in extremely doughy baps (more tea vicar?.....nope, can't think of a 'more' line for doughy baps); oh, and a choccy choclatey chocolitious birthday cake for my nephew (no more, PLEEEASE, NO MOOOOORE!).
There was also a lonely looking bowl of salad leaves on the table - trying to hold up the healthy side of life and straining it's neck above the goo of indulgence in the forlorn hope of finding a friend like a carrot or a stick of celery - but it wilted in the face of such overwhelming odds.
So virtuous felt I when choosing only a couple of sandwiches and a handful of salad; I even left the squidgy half of my birthday cake wedge. Yay me! Unfortunately I was unprepared for the doggie bag which went home with me (quite of it's own volition, nothing to do with me) containing said pizza, salmon (missed that one didn't I?), pork pies and further doughy baps. Getting in at about 8 o'clock in the evening with little inclination to cook anything, I was helpless against the lure of the dark side and my friends, I ate the lot.
Both a positive and negative is the effect this little bingette had on me, as I was up most of the night with pretty intense stomach cramps. I won't go into the gruesome details, but it is safe to say that my body gave a pretty clear message if its reluctance to take that amount of fat all at once.......and oh did it make me pay! Not something I care to put myself through again, and may I say it made the gym 17km on the following morning the hardest run I've had to do so far (almost didn't, and may well have been justified in the didnting, but nevertheless, I did!).
....and you know the real lemon juice in the wound?! Clare - instigator of said feast, and may I say packer of doggie bag - 'didn't eat very much, and didn't take anything home'. Do I sense sabotage in the air?.............! First the concert picnic (see previous) and now this!
Add to this the fact that I appear to have demolished much of a loaf of bread in the space of a couple of days, my hopes for the weigh in were not high. At best I hoped that I would put on sufficiently little weight still to be rounded down to 15 stone 11. It was with some sense of relief therefore that the digital read-out settled on 11.2 pounds, followed by unbridled joy when at the last minute it blinked back down to 15 stone 10.6!! Not so much as a decimal point change from last week....and yes, I did re-weigh a couple of times to make sure!!
Boring it may be, but that is a bullet which even Matrixing Keanauauenaau Reeves would struggle to dodge. Considering the expectation, it actually feels like a success to stay the same!
It's a lovely time at the moment, as everyone to a man - or woman - who sees me is commenting on how good I am looking and how much weight I have lost. This sort of validation is way down the list of 'reasons why I am doing this' but I would be lying if it doesn't give me a bit of a buzz to hear it! May I say for the record, that I agree with them! I look better, and more importantly I feel better. Significant though they are, the benefits of weight loss are not confined to appearance and health; the effect on someone's state of mind cannot be dismissed. It has certainly affected mine. Let's face it; life is hard, but from this new - lighter - perspective, the good things seem so much gooder, and the difficult things so much more fixable. Feels good!
Two more weighs until the Great North.......would be great to get another 4-5 pounds off.
The worst was well and truly prepared for last night; it has not been a great week. As you know it started with the Chinese takeaway, but as you don't know the bank holiday weekend was about as nutritionally controlled as Sarah Millican in a doughnut factory (love her; but on some freaky chance she might end up reading this, I've seen your DVD intro!!). Much of it came and went in a bit of a blur, but the highlight was - visiting the folks on Saturday with nephew, niece, brothers, in-laws, John-Boy, Jim-Bob, Grandpa...... - a sister special for lunch, consisting of mini pork pies (more pie than pork), slices of pizza (more cheese than you could shake a Babybel at), quiche (more egg than can possibly be good for you) and ham in extremely doughy baps (more tea vicar?.....nope, can't think of a 'more' line for doughy baps); oh, and a choccy choclatey chocolitious birthday cake for my nephew (no more, PLEEEASE, NO MOOOOORE!).
There was also a lonely looking bowl of salad leaves on the table - trying to hold up the healthy side of life and straining it's neck above the goo of indulgence in the forlorn hope of finding a friend like a carrot or a stick of celery - but it wilted in the face of such overwhelming odds.
So virtuous felt I when choosing only a couple of sandwiches and a handful of salad; I even left the squidgy half of my birthday cake wedge. Yay me! Unfortunately I was unprepared for the doggie bag which went home with me (quite of it's own volition, nothing to do with me) containing said pizza, salmon (missed that one didn't I?), pork pies and further doughy baps. Getting in at about 8 o'clock in the evening with little inclination to cook anything, I was helpless against the lure of the dark side and my friends, I ate the lot.
Both a positive and negative is the effect this little bingette had on me, as I was up most of the night with pretty intense stomach cramps. I won't go into the gruesome details, but it is safe to say that my body gave a pretty clear message if its reluctance to take that amount of fat all at once.......and oh did it make me pay! Not something I care to put myself through again, and may I say it made the gym 17km on the following morning the hardest run I've had to do so far (almost didn't, and may well have been justified in the didnting, but nevertheless, I did!).
....and you know the real lemon juice in the wound?! Clare - instigator of said feast, and may I say packer of doggie bag - 'didn't eat very much, and didn't take anything home'. Do I sense sabotage in the air?.............! First the concert picnic (see previous) and now this!
Add to this the fact that I appear to have demolished much of a loaf of bread in the space of a couple of days, my hopes for the weigh in were not high. At best I hoped that I would put on sufficiently little weight still to be rounded down to 15 stone 11. It was with some sense of relief therefore that the digital read-out settled on 11.2 pounds, followed by unbridled joy when at the last minute it blinked back down to 15 stone 10.6!! Not so much as a decimal point change from last week....and yes, I did re-weigh a couple of times to make sure!!
Boring it may be, but that is a bullet which even Matrixing Keanauauenaau Reeves would struggle to dodge. Considering the expectation, it actually feels like a success to stay the same!
It's a lovely time at the moment, as everyone to a man - or woman - who sees me is commenting on how good I am looking and how much weight I have lost. This sort of validation is way down the list of 'reasons why I am doing this' but I would be lying if it doesn't give me a bit of a buzz to hear it! May I say for the record, that I agree with them! I look better, and more importantly I feel better. Significant though they are, the benefits of weight loss are not confined to appearance and health; the effect on someone's state of mind cannot be dismissed. It has certainly affected mine. Let's face it; life is hard, but from this new - lighter - perspective, the good things seem so much gooder, and the difficult things so much more fixable. Feels good!
Two more weighs until the Great North.......would be great to get another 4-5 pounds off.
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Weigh in (60)
Now, be honest; has someone been putting me on an intra-venus drip of liquidised chocolate brownie while I've been asleep?!! Come on, I won't be angry; just tell me!!
I have lost precisely nothing....and have gained precisely......nothing....which means........yes, still 15 stone 10.6 pounds (officially 11 pounds then). A little surprised if I am honest, but there have been a few naughties this week which although not excessive are a clear indication of - as the amount to lose is steadily reducing - how much harder it is getting to shed the load.
Was a bit stymied on Friday night as - at an open-air concert (Kate Rusby....fab-u-lous!) - my Sister Clare (not a nun - faaaaaar from it! - my sister called Clare) put together a picnic which was 50 shades of unhealthy (see what I did there?!). I could have turned down the bad stuff, but a combination of not wanting to be rude, not wanting to limit my dinner to a couple of sandwiches, and not by any means least thinking 'stuff it, I'll stuff myself' meant mini pork pies, pesto pasta and chocolate fudge dessert went places which haven't seen such delights for quite some time. That was the killer blow; but during the rest of the week I did on occasion slip into the 'blob of margarine on everything' syndrome as I recall. Don't know why I do it, as it just makes everything taste of melted margarine!
Prepare yourself now people; I am about to come out with the classic cliche. It may be the first - and hopefully last - one I will ever use, but in this case it might actually hold some validity. Are you ready?!!!.....here it comes.........
Muscle weighs more than fat......
There, I said it; the classic excuse for 'I exercise a lot, so why am I not losing weight'. That said, I do look in the mirror from time to time and although hardly Mo Farah, I can see my body shape is changing, and I am toning up. Much less wobbly these days (don't worry, as my wobble quotient (wq) used to be extraordinarily high, 'much less wobbly' still makes me a bit wobbly! Do you get the impression I like the word wobbly?!). It may be clutching at straws of justification, but as the fat goes down and the muscle goes up, maybe the weight loss is not going to be as pronounced as I would expect - or like - it to be without keeping tight control of the diet.
Either that or somebody really IS injecting me with 'essence of lard' in the wee small hours......be warned, CCTV is now in operation in the bedroom area (that sounds so much more pervy than intended).
Not a good start as succumbed to a Chinese after weigh-in; got my work cut out now to salvage the week!
(P.S. Sorry I've not been posting enough over the last few days. Very little in the way of excuses, but I make a promise to be blogging the crap out of this thing 3-4 times a week from here on in. It's kind of like going out for the evening; you feel like you're not in the mood, but once you get started, YOU LURRRRVE IT!!)
I have lost precisely nothing....and have gained precisely......nothing....which means........yes, still 15 stone 10.6 pounds (officially 11 pounds then). A little surprised if I am honest, but there have been a few naughties this week which although not excessive are a clear indication of - as the amount to lose is steadily reducing - how much harder it is getting to shed the load.
Was a bit stymied on Friday night as - at an open-air concert (Kate Rusby....fab-u-lous!) - my Sister Clare (not a nun - faaaaaar from it! - my sister called Clare) put together a picnic which was 50 shades of unhealthy (see what I did there?!). I could have turned down the bad stuff, but a combination of not wanting to be rude, not wanting to limit my dinner to a couple of sandwiches, and not by any means least thinking 'stuff it, I'll stuff myself' meant mini pork pies, pesto pasta and chocolate fudge dessert went places which haven't seen such delights for quite some time. That was the killer blow; but during the rest of the week I did on occasion slip into the 'blob of margarine on everything' syndrome as I recall. Don't know why I do it, as it just makes everything taste of melted margarine!
Prepare yourself now people; I am about to come out with the classic cliche. It may be the first - and hopefully last - one I will ever use, but in this case it might actually hold some validity. Are you ready?!!!.....here it comes.........
Muscle weighs more than fat......
There, I said it; the classic excuse for 'I exercise a lot, so why am I not losing weight'. That said, I do look in the mirror from time to time and although hardly Mo Farah, I can see my body shape is changing, and I am toning up. Much less wobbly these days (don't worry, as my wobble quotient (wq) used to be extraordinarily high, 'much less wobbly' still makes me a bit wobbly! Do you get the impression I like the word wobbly?!). It may be clutching at straws of justification, but as the fat goes down and the muscle goes up, maybe the weight loss is not going to be as pronounced as I would expect - or like - it to be without keeping tight control of the diet.
Either that or somebody really IS injecting me with 'essence of lard' in the wee small hours......be warned, CCTV is now in operation in the bedroom area (that sounds so much more pervy than intended).
Not a good start as succumbed to a Chinese after weigh-in; got my work cut out now to salvage the week!
(P.S. Sorry I've not been posting enough over the last few days. Very little in the way of excuses, but I make a promise to be blogging the crap out of this thing 3-4 times a week from here on in. It's kind of like going out for the evening; you feel like you're not in the mood, but once you get started, YOU LURRRRVE IT!!)