Up The Rams

Another lie-in, this time to midday. L wanted to give her ankle a break (of the unbroken kind) and this is clearly the best way of giving it a rest, doing something not load bearing.

I tentatively suggest that this is perhaps also a good chance to stretch the wheels of her bike (puts on tin hat). So later L cycles to Harvey Hadden, does the bike track there and then the gym.

I walk the boys on the park, again and again without balls. They are seriously starting to wonder if something is up.

In the evening we head to Broadway for our second film in two days.

Now here's a quirky one. Rams is a snapshot of life in a remote Icelandic valley, an environment so harsh that seemingly only sheep and stubborn bearded old men can survive there.

The stubborn bearded old men are two brothers, Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson). They live in neighbouring farmhouses but have not talked for forty years. Their only form of communication is the occasional written note which is delivered by border collie.

The film starts with them going head to head in the competition for the most highly-prized ram.

Kiddi wins with Gummi coming second. Kiddi’s celebrations are brief though when it turns out that the winning ram has scrapie. The outcome being that all the sheep in the valley will have to be slaughtered.

Kiddi refuses to comply with the slaughter. So he is arrested, his flock is forcibly destroyed and he goes on multiple drunken benders. Twice we see Gummi reluctantly forced to save his brother when he finds him lying motionless in the snow, drunk and about to freeze to death. On one occasion he scoops him up in his tractor's front loader and deposits him in front of the nearest hospital.

Gummi meanwhile kills his sheep himself against regulations, so that he can secrete a few ewes and his prize ram in his basement. At first he gets away with this but eventually they are discovered by the authorities.

When Kiddi learns what his brother has done, they start to become reconciled. Kiddi helps Gummi re-hide them and then when that doesn’t work, the two of them combine to drive them off into the mountains during a blizzard. A plan which doesn’t go too well due to the inclement weather, this time leaving Kiddi trying to return the lifesaving favour and attempt to save Gummi.

Quirky but excellent. Well worth seeing.


Afterwards we go for a few pints (rather appropriately maintaining the sheep theme) in the Golden Fleece on Mansfield Road, which has recently become Flipside’s second pub. Then it’s the traditional Sunday Indian.

(Sunday 28^th February)

The Girl Has Problems

I meet L in Derby after the match. The Rams have played out a lifeless 0-0 draw against an obdurate Millwall. L has a race tomorrow, so as a gentle pre-race night we are having an evening at Quad watching Nicole. In ‘Before I Go To Sleep’ that is. Unfortunately they have Tuck on in the Silk Mill which makes it less gentle than it might have been, and then afterwards we head to the Flowerpot for a few more. First though, the film.

Christine Lucas (Nicole Kidman) not only wakes up every day with no memory of the events of the previous day but she also wakes up alongside Colin Firth. Yes the girl has problems. Just when she’d thought she’s got over the Railway Man, here he is again.

Every morning she looks across at Firth, looks confused and maybe a bit pissed off before heading off to the bathroom where she is confronted with a wall of photographs. These are of herself and of herself with Ben (Firth) including several of their wedding.

Back in the bedroom, Ben confirms the whole horrible truth. Yes, she is married to Firth, again, and what’s worse is she can’t even remember doing it.

Well actually it’s worse than that, she has no recollection of the last twenty years. Which might appeal to some people but does seem a bit inconvenient.

Ben goes on to explain that she’d had an accident and can now no longer retain memories, then he buggers off to work and her doctor (Mark Strong) rings her. He tells her that she has been recording herself on a video camera to help remember things. Each day she’ll start to piece things together until it's time for bed again... and they’ll all be gone again.

Problem is he has to tell her where she’s hidden it. This incident, hiding the camera from her husband, sort of gives the plot twist away in the first ten minutes and undermines what is to come.

Her doctor gradually helps her unravel the mental mist and she also meets up with an old college friend Claire (Anne-Marie Duff) who disappeared from her life under somewhat dubious circumstances as the films builds to a somewhat grisly finale.

It's an odd but quite good film with a lot of ‘hang on but...’ moments. The overall premise is intriguing but ultimately once you’ve grasped that the film on the whole disappoints and peters out at the end. Kidman is again excellent though, Strong is good and Firth is, well, Firth. Probably a bit out of his comfort zone to be honest but he copes well enough.

(Saturday 4^th October)

Eighth Straight Win

The first thing to note is that the new settee turns up and so does the floor man, at the third attempt. Naturally they both turn up at the same time.

Still it’s early enough to get the boys on the park afterwards and then get to the match for the 1pm kick off where Derby record an eighth straight win against Leeds. Ta da. Very satisfying.

In the evening we head down to the Navigation on Meadow Lane for food, which is normally our post squash bolt hole. We would have stayed longer were it not for the bands they had on, which repelled our custom rather than attracted it.

Instead we embark on a not terribly exciting pub crawl. There’s still not any Midnight Owl on at the Vat & Fiddle, so we head across town to where the Ropewalk are running out of beer and the Borlase is totally out. The Hand & Heart may have had beer but lacked space, it didn’t even have standing room. So we wind up at the Blue Monkey pub, which I think is ok but L isn’t a fan of their beer.

(Saturday 8th December)