h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Last weekend my girlfriend came to see me here At my parents’ house. She arrived Friday evening early enough that we could dash out to the cinema. Once again we went to the Electric (that place I was enthusing about early in March). This time we saw Transamerica which is the story of Bree, a pre-op, male to female, transsexual. Bree, played by Felicity Huffman (who is apparently in Desperate Housewives), is facing something of a crisis when he/she discovers that he/she has a son, Toby. Toby, has been working as a rent boy and has been arrested and Bree travels to New York to bail him out. Unable to tell her son the truth, Bree claims to be a missionary from a church and agrees to drive Toby to L.A. where he is hopeful of building a career in the movies. Along the way Bree’s carefully constructed lie begins to come unravelled and Toby eventually discovers the truth.

Though Transamerica is certainly an original film, it trades on more than just the quirkiness of the story. There are some truly funny and also quite touching moments, such as the closing scene when Bree takes the cap off a bottle of beer when Toby can’t manage himself. But the most impressive aspect of the film surely has to be Huffman’s performance. Since seeing the film I’ve seen pictures of Huffman in Desperate Housewives and it’s genuinely difficult to believe it’s the same person. But there’s more to it that just badly applied makeup, sensible shoes and women’s institute dress sense, the way she walks and talks and behaves actually has you believing that you’re watching a man on the verge of becoming a woman (rather than a woman pretending to be a man on the verge of becoming a woman). I find it not at all surprising that she was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe for this role.

I think the Electric Cinema is rapidly becoming a favourite of ours. One of the coolest things about Friday evening was having at least one transsexual/transvestite in the audience with us. Somehow I can’t see that happening in an Odeon.

On Saturday we didn’t really do much. We got up late and watched the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. Kenenisa Bekele was simply awesome, winning both the men’s short (4km) and long (12km) courses without looking like he was even trying. This means he has now won both races five years in a row, equalling Paul Tergat’s record. The British didn’t really feature with the exception of 17 year old Sian Edwards who put in an impressive performance by finishing 10th in the junior women’s race, the top placed European. Apparently this is the best result for the British team since Paula Radcliffe won the race in 1992.

After that I was inspired to go out for a swift run myself before cooking dinner. My girlfriend and I made gnocchi and Bolognese sauce for my parents. I’ve never made gnocchi before, but have always wanted to know how and since we didn’t really have anything else to do we thought we’d give it a go. It was quite a lot of trouble, but turned out okay for a first attempt. It was a bit heavy for my liking and I think the recipe needs a little refinement (we may have put a bit too much flour in) but we’re considering it a work in progress.

On Sunday we got up late again and this time watched the Australian Grand Prix which was another cracking race. I’m becoming a big fan of the new qualifying system, and if, as hinted by the commentators, they tweak the rules slightly and have the final session on low fuel loads like the first two rounds it’s only going to get more exciting.

This time around there was some controversy right from the outset when Yuji Ide spun his Super Aguri onto the racing line and the session had to be stopped while he found reverse gear! Later he managed to get in the way of Rubens Barrichello costing him vital time on his flying lap and causing him to be eliminated, only qualifying 17th, especially annoying for Barrichello since his Honda team own the Super Aguri outfit. In the second session Felipe Massa spun out in his Ferrari earning himself a pitlane start and causing qualifying to be suspended for the second time. As if that wasn’t excitement enough, a short rain shower at the end of the session ruined a few flying laps and resulted in Michael Schumacher failing to make it into the top ten. After an action packed thirty minutes, watching the top ten cars parade around for fifteen laps in the final round, was a something of a welcome relief. Aside from an inspired drive from Jenson Button to earn him pole position there were no real surprises, with the main players (Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Juan Pablo Montoya et. al.) all lining up close behind him.

The race itself proved no less exciting. Predictably Jenson didn’t hang on to first place for very long, but it wasn’t entirely his fault. There were no less than four safety car stints during the race and for whatever reason the Honda doesn’t hold heat in its tyres well at the low speeds behind the safety car and Jenson kept getting passed at the restarts. Once again there was drama right from the outset. Firstly Montoya spun out on the formation lap and was left at the back of the grid, but luckily for him Fisichella stalled on the grid and a second parade lap allowed him to retake his grid position. When the race finally got underway it didn’t take long for further excitement to manifest itself. In the first corner of the first lap Massa buried his Ferrari in the back of Nico Rosberg’s Williams; Jarno Trulli also managed to put himself out of the race by bouncing his Toyota off David Coultard’s Red Bull. The safety car was on track for a handful of laps and cold tyres meant Button lost the lead to Alonso at the restart. The cars had only been at race speed for four or five laps when Christian Klien drove into a wall and the safety car was deployed again. Once again in the restart cold tyres meant Button again lost out, this time to Räikkönen. Button then lost further places during the pit stops and finally put the icing on the cake of a perfectly dreadful race when his engine blew up, forcing him to retire from fifth place just yards from the line. There were two other safety car stints, as a result of crashes by Michael Schumacher and later Tonio Liuzzi in the Toro Rosso car, which led to more jockeying for position at the restarts. The final result wasn’t especially surprising with Alonso and Räikkönen occupying the top two steps of the podium and Alonso never looked like loosing the race after the first lap. But nevertheless it was a thoroughly entertaining afternoon.

Well that’ll have to do for now. I don’t have much on the cards for the next couple of weeks. I’m going to get my head down and write until Easter when my parents are going on holiday and my girlfriend is coming over again for a few days. It would be nice to relax for a couple of days without feeling guilty.