Sunday perambulations

I had quite a relaxed weekend. The wife had stamped her foot down earlier in the week and a wise man takes the hint. Sunday - I ended up going to work Saturday at the last minute - morning started off quite early in comparison to most Sunday mornings. I was quite undecided whether I wanted to watch the first-ever Chinese F1 GP or just go out and catch a movie and lunch.

I know I've married the right woman because she had been hinting all week that we could go to Sidewok for appetisers and then someplace downtown for lunch. Or I could improvise and come up with something better.

Since I couldn't find much fault with that logic - it got rid of the thinking and it was her plan after all - and so we left for Sidewok. I gambled on the fact that

• the World Championship had been won two weeks ago
• Michael Schumacher was starting P20
• it was too early in India for most people to wake up and crowd to a restaurant

I only made a mistake with the race timings and so by the time we walked into Sidewok, the race was already 5 laps down. The atmosphere was rather infectious and I had a great race. So did Rubens Barrichello and Scuderia Ferrari, who won the first-ever Chinese F1 GP. Perhaps the only one who didn't have any fun, I guess, was Michael Schumacher.

He started last, worked his way up the order and then down, spun around once more, suffered a puncture, a collision and was actually lapped by the drivers in the points. This is one weekend he - and I - won't forget in a hurry. For someone who has finished in the points in every race that he has finished in the last five years, I guess this brought together all the bad luck in store for him!

Michael Schumacher apart, the Shanghai circuit provided for a lot of overtaking opportunities and the Williams, BARs, Renaults and McLarens had many a kerfluffle at the chicanes. Since this was the first race ever, it took away any advantage that Michael Schumacher has at every other circuit. Jacques Villeneuve was back and racing for Renault in place of Jarno Trulli. Takuma Sato actully finished his race without blowing up his engine. Ralf Schumacher started well but then retired after a collision with David Coulthard.

The race over, I laboured to finish what the wife had ordered - and only nibbled at - then waddled as fast as I could to the car and drove to Sterling, to catch "The Terminal". The wife had been keen to see "The Village" but something told me we'd have a long wait between lunch and the five o'clock show, so I'd ended up buying tickets for "The Terminal" instead.

"The Terminal" turned out to be quite an amusing movie. Since it is inspired by the story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri, who has been stranded at Charles de Gaulle Airport since 1988, I expected it to be a tear-jerker, but I'm quite surprised by the treatment given by Steven Spielberg. Oh well, I guess that's what they call an artistic licence.

Midway through the movie, the wife and I agreed - on an impulse - to watch "The Village" so out I went and bought tickets for the following show - I got the same seats!! There we were, back again watching "The Village".

I'd rate this effort next to "The Sixth Sense" though there are a lot of tell-tale clues that give away the plot less than three-fourths into the movie. The twist wasn't entirely unexpected, though I had rejected the final outcome as being too farfetched. M. Night Shyamalan has done a decent job on this plot, making the movie watchable. Not quite as scintillating, not quite as unexpected as "The Sixth Sense", but close.