We went and saw "The Friend" at the Batemans Bay cinema last night, but we might as well have stayed home. as it was a pretty forgettable kind of a movie, but go see for yourself why shouldn't bother to see it.
It was 'nice' but not the sort of movie you take something away from after two hours, which is what I expect after having spent that much time with a movie or a book. It certainly wasn't worth the forty dollars we spent on the two tickets - mine was 'Concession' after I flashed them my Seniors Card! - and after we had stocked up on drinks and popcorn. We always spend a little more when we go into an empty restaurant or café because we feel sorry for the slow trade they are having, and 'slow trade' it was for the cinema as we were the only two!
Today we drove twenty-five clicks south to Moruya to Padma's GP for a bloodtest, and then fifty clicks north to Ulladulla for lunch and to visit our favourite op-shops, of which there are four: The Uniting Church, Vinnies, SALVOS, and the Lions Preloved Bookshop, although I should point out that it is not the bookshop that is preloved (as the sign seems to imply) but the books in it, of which I bought nine (see below) for thirty dollars, which is less than the price of one as yet unloved book.
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I have been known to spend the whole seven hours of a Sydney-to-Bali flight reading a book about words and getting drunk on it, while my compatriots on the same flight got absolutely stoned out of their minds on the real stuff and ran the risk of being deported before they had even arrived. So after another word-lover seemed to have donated most of his English-language books to the Lions Preloved Bookshop, I was happy to re-home seven of them.
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The SALVOS had sprung a surprise on me: all their books were divided into male and female authors, which somehow made my selection easier as I hadn't read anything interesting by a female author since Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (who shortened it to Miles Franklin to help her overcome the kind of bias I am displaying here). Among the 'Male Authors' I spotted a book by Robert Dessaix who is a homosexual and has been living with HIV for a long time but who, with current medication, should, I hope, write many more books, as I enjoy his way with words.
On the way out, I offered the SALVOS lady my usual ten-dollar donation in addition to the pittance she asked for the books - among them Daniel Klein's "Travels with Epicurus" which I would like to give to a friend as a present - and the suggestion that she should start a separate shelf for transgender authors lest she runs foul of the woke mob. She promised to have it in place before my next visit which won't be until next month.
Oh, and I did find a six-CD audiobook of Harper Lee's "Go Set A Watchman", written before her only other published novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird", which was also made into a movie with Gregory Peck.
Am I all set for the weekend? You bet!
