Late Lunch

We get up early this morning because Son is away and we have to do his paper round. Once that is complete we head off for an early morning swim. We try a new pool (for us) at Southglade as it advertises a laned adult's session. Doggo gets all excited as we pull into the car park, he's not been here before, and there's plenty of grass to romp on and trees to pee up. Regrettably he has to stay in the car. At least for now.

It turns out that we've been lured in under slightly false pretences as only half the pool is laned. We are not the only ones; it is packed. So not a terribly pleasant swim and there are steps that protrude into the pool and I keep catching my arms and ankles on them. Ouch.

The swim itself goes ok; I perfect a method of stopping for a five-second breath of air every length or two which enables me to keep going, more or less without stopping.

Once that is out of the way we take Doggo for a good long walk around Bestwood Park. It starts raining when we are about halfway round but it is still very pleasant. Then we head off home and back to bed. We've got a lie-in to catch up on. No, not sleep!

Post lie-in I leave L to kip and I do a few emails on the computer. Then I scrape L and Doggo out of bed and we all head out for a late lunch. Pate followed by steak in red wine gravy with mash and veg. Very good. L had a vegetarian pate that was far nicer than mine was, wish I’d had that. Have a pint and a half of Grantham stout which is a bit naughty after quite an alcoholic weekend.

In the evening the kids return and we catch up on the Wainwright programme we missed. A walk up Haystacks and then we watch the DVD of Tsotsi.

Tsotsi, which means thug, is indeed a thug who lives in the slums. His life is turned upside down when he shoots a woman and steals her car only to discover he's unknowingly kidnapped her baby.

He stuffs the baby inside a paper bag, and then takes him back to his tin hut where he makes nappies out of newspaper and slides him under his bed. He goes onto make more comical attempts at looking after the kid before he commandeers the services of a local woman at gunpoint.

I suppose the point of the film is that in the end he does the right thing and returns the baby and maybe turns his life around. Although surely he's going to jail for life? It's all rather predictable.

L has read the book and says it's nothing like the book and they've taken terrible liberties with the plot. However it's still not bad. It is well shot and well acted but is essential a pretty hollow film. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

31 units for the week. Would have been on target had it not been for the boozy lunch.