A Run In The Sun

Today was a brilliant day; it may only be April but it was in many ways the ideal summers day.

Sunshine, blue skies and just the slightest bit of a breeze to make sure it doesn't get too hot.

A run, a few TV shows, a BBQ and games of football and cricket. If there'd been some music it would have been pretty much ideal.

It's the kind of day i love, mixing active and lazy periods, enjoying some brilliant weather and just simply spending time with friends. And even better it barely cost me anything.

I ran the same route as i did on Sunday, out along the valley that is close to my home and then back again. Saw a whole bunch of horses, some sheep and some very cute Lambs. Did you know that Lambs wag their tales when they're happy like dogs? I didn't but i'm pretty sure i saw two of them wagging their tales while suckling on their mother. See, running is even educational.

I find there's something really peaceful about running, especially when i can find routes like this one where i'm not having to cross lots of roads or dodge groups of people and can really get a rhythm up, to the extent that i don't really have to think about the actual process of running and my mind can just wander, but due to the ever changing scenery and the activity it's never able to dwell on anything for too long, which for me is a very good thing. Then you have all the endorphins and whatever when you finish the run to give you a lovely dose of self-satisfaction; a rare sense of having done something genuinely good for yourself, a break from the eating, drinking and lazing around that makes up so much of my life. They're wonderful things endorphins, making sure i don't regret the run too much even as the ache sets in on my calf muscles and i notice the blisters on my feet.

I wouldn't advise running at mid-day on a day like this, especially if like me you've not been running regularly recently; the heat made it all a lot harder and i was seriously dehydrated by the time i stumbled back through my front door.

As a final point for this blog i'm just going to write a quick review of the film i watched late last night, 2012. Now it's a Roland Emmerich film so i knew what to expect and i didn't go in expecting to watch a film with great emotional depth or anything, but i was still pretty disappointed by it really. I love blockbusters (have a look at a blog i wrote in late November i think it was about my respect for the summer action genre) but this wasn't a particularly well done one. After blowing up the White House and freezing the entire Northern hemisphere i guess it was the natural next step to make a film showing the end of humanity as we know it.

He gets to play around with CGI earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunami's but when you consider the budget and his previous exploits, quite a few of the spectacles fall a little flat. That's not to say there aren't moments which i'm sure in the cinema were stunning; it's just the really good ones are few and far between and their impact is reduced by the sheer constant barrage of effects and disasters. Too many of the dramatic shots look more like a high quality video game cut scene than a big budget Hollywood film.

It's a perfect example of where a director going for quantity over quality ends up spoiling what could have been a perfectly entertaining idiotic blockbuster. Probably can't justify giving the film more than 2/5.

The song today is Arctic Monkey's new song, 'Don't sit down cause i've moved your chair'. I'm still not entirely decided on whether i like this song or not but it's definitely intrigued me enough to give the new album a proper listen when it comes out later this year.