We had a "date night", as Smallsteps went and spent the evening with her grandparents for the first time in a few months. She is going through a bit of a phase at the moment however, where she is nervous about being away from her mother and a bit clingy, even though once away, she is fine. It is likely because so many things are changing in her life (she feels) with preschool ending, friends moving away and her being unsure about what happens after the summer break. She doesn't even know (due to bad school communication) which class she will be in and with whom.
At least we had our night "soft planned"
On the Agenda:
- The Whale
- Dinner
- Billiards
- Drinks
The Whale was not necessarily the happiest of date movies, but it is ending its run here and had been pushed to a tiny second cinema (there are only two in the city) already, so if we wanted to see it at the movies, we had to go now. There is also very little on at the moment otherwise, so it was pretty much the only option.
It was decent, the acting was alright and it was appropriately uncomfortable. For those that don't know and without spoilers, it is a about a guy who has put on a little bit of weight and no longer leaves his small apartment. The entire thing is set in the apartment and you do get a sense of the isolation and a type of claustrophobia. The relationships in the movie are all quite dramatic and somewhat unnatural, which is more a tip to it originally being a play, not a a movie script.
Worth the watch.
Then it was on to dinner and we went to a little restaurant I had been to, but my wife hadn't. With dietary restrictions, it is good these days as we are able to see the menu before making the booking and there was at least something she could eat.
The only problem is, that when we were seated, it was a "for two" table right at the door of the kitchen, and every time the waiters walked past quickly, it was an uncomfortable surprise as they rushed by. But since one table finished a bit early and the next reservation was still a couple hours away, we were able to get reseated without any fuss.
The food was good and for starter drinks, they made something special for my wife that was strawberry, but not sweet - A basic Mojito for me.
And then the funniest part of the night.
We went to shoot some pool and it was the first time for my wife in twenty years and I have probably played three times in the same twenty. Suffice to say, neither of us are good at this, but I did grow up with a pool table, so I am not totally unskilled - which caused some friction.
Because, my wife is far too competitive over useless skills like this and while she was playing fine, she wasn't playing well. And of course, I stayed quiet during the first few frames, because I knew if I gave any advice, it wasn't going to be received with the love and support it was being delivered.
She was visible frustrated.
Annoyed, angry, pissed off....
Eventually though, she was open to getting a little bit of help and she started getting the hang of it again. We will never be good players since the next time we play will likely be in another twenty years from now, but still, it is nice to get that sense of progress.
After smacking balls around the table for an hour or two, we went for a walk around the city a bit to see if we could find a place for dessert and a coffee. We could get alcoholic drinks at a thousand places, but at only ten at night, there was nothing decent for a coffee available. We ended up at a bar that we both used to frequent (separately) when younger and it hasn't changed that much in the twenty years I have been in Finland. It is a local institution of sorts.
We had a coffee and a tea.
Wild.
Then, we caught a bus home. We probably didn't need to take the bus, but we did, just in case we wanted to have a few drinks. We left the car at a local shopping center anyway, as if we were coming back late, the bus doesn't go near our house. I was probably right to drive by that stage, but my wife drove the kilometer, just in case.
All in all, a decent night was had and I would like to do these things a bit more often than we do. So much of our life is spent on the daily grind and organizing for the daily grind, that if we have the opportunity to do something a bit different, we should take it. A monthly date night would be a good start.
One of the things that I was thinking while watching The Whale, was how so many people are getting more like the main character, locked into their home by lifestyle choice. They might not weight 600 pounds, but they are limiting their interaction with others heavily and I don't think it is for the better. However, because it is more comfortable perhaps in the moment, it becomes habit.
Habits stack and compound to make our lives better or worse. For some, they lead to a healthy lifestyle that is a pleasure to live. For others, they lead to being trapped at home and barely able to move. Which life we have might not be completely up to us, but we can influence the direction in which we travel.
Taraz
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