The weekend - movies, signing and a workout at the gym...

By the way... this isn't me... yet!

Following drinks in Soho's Thirst bar with the VEE-TV team on Friday night, I went to the gym on Saturday morning partly to try and rid myself of my hangover (which was then replaced by lethargy in the afternoon!) and partly to remind myself that I've got a fitness regime I'm trying to keep up! Every time I go to the Oasis gym in Holborn, it seems that I bump into more and more deaf people - and it seems that every deaf person that keeps fit in London goes there!

The great thing about this is that while I'm sweating buckets on a 20mins cycle ride, I can sign to the person on the step machine at the other side of the room. The hidden benefits of being deaf, eh..? Particularly because the music in there is so loud that someone who can't hear can still keep up with the vibrating beat...

From there, it was only a short walk to the City Lit college for their annual 'deaf day,' which combines the twin benefits of being an opportunity for deaf people to find out a host of opportunities for deaf Londoners, and also a chance for the deaf community to have a good old chin-wag on the side! After I'd checked out everything that was on offer (including recieving a religious sermon from one stall...!) then it was off to the cafe for a cappucino (glamorous life!).

I picked up a prospectus and think I'll defintely be doing some kind of part-time course in September - although in what I haven't yet decided! I'm interested in doing something related to scriptwriting, but then they also have drawing classes, photography classes... and acting too, which I'm really up for doing more of... as ever in my life, I'm interested in a few too many things at once!

There's a set of courses in British comedy which involves writing and doing some performing that seems most likely - lately I've been addicted to comedy shows like Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Fast Show, so I'm going to check this one out!

Feeling lazier and lazier into the afternoon, and having seen two other VEE-TV people who were suffering from the night before, I headed back to the flat to watch two films I've waited a long time to see, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset.


Made nine years apart, they cover the brief yet intense romance between a young American traveller (played by Ethan Hawke) and a French girl (Julie Delphy). In the first film, over the course of one night, they embark on a passionate affair in Vienna, promising to meet in the same place six months later. The second film answers the question of whether they did meet up, and finds the two lovers nine years on in their lives.

What's great about the films is way that the two characters are drawn. In the first, we see two fairly confused, young adults, whereas in the second we see that they've grown up, they've matured, but they're still essentially the same two people. They attempt to make sense of their emotions and feelings, which seem far too strong to be based on just a few hours of their lives.

The movies are a reminder of how at any moment life can throw something unexpected at you - and how moments and people can stay with you for far longer than you would think (I know nothing of this, naturally!). Both films are beautifully written, naturally acted and well recommended by yours truly...

I fell asleep after watching an epsiode Seinfeld... and that was my Saturday night.

I'm guess I'm a real party animal, eh?!