Home Alone

I'm experiencing the Home Alone syndrome at the moment. You see it's like this. My dear wife has gone back to see her mother - it's not what you think, honestly!! Everything is fine and dandy in the Madder household, so back, back my cuties!!

My dear wife had some business to deal with in her home state of Sabah, so she went back there for a week or so, leaving me to wallow at home like a kitten. The reason why I'm not following is simple - I've run out of annual holiday. So it's me, the house, my books and a stack of DVDs!!

I believe that every relationship needs to have a bit of breathing space from time to time. Especially when, like me, you are a TV widower. Yes, I actually don't get the chance to watch much TV when my wife is around because, bless her cotton socks, she likes to watch all these Indonesian TV dramas which I wrote about last year in these pages. Me, on the other hand, I like occasionally to watch movies and the BBC news, which I think is reasonable for an intellectual like me.

So, you can imagine, I have been busy filling my evenings with several movies that I either missed when they were out in the cinema, or missed because I couldn't watch them on TV! So, what have I been watching?

Last night I finally saw Scorcese's excellent The Departed, which is a kind of Godfather with Irish accents. Matt Damon and Leo Di Caprio are excellent, and were not too overshadowed by the veteran Jack Nicholson who was his usual menacing and witty self. If eyebrows were weapons, Nicholson would have an arms limitation treaty just for him!

I also caught up with some very well-done superhero movies namely The Incredible Hulk (latest version), Iron Man and Hancock. It's good to see cartoon characters translated to the screen in an intelligent, witty, story-driven way without overt moralising or skimping on the action. Very enjoyable. Looking out for sequels....

Tonight will be V for Vendetta, another movie based on a comic, and finally next week, I will watch Kubrick's 2001 a Space Odyssey, which I saw God knows how long ago, but I think it's one of those films you need to revisit several times in your life, you know, like re-reading Lord of the Rings (which I have read three times by the way).

So on top of doing the washing, going to work, cleaning the dishes, eating, and sleeping, I should think my home alone period will be over before I know it, and I will soon be re-united with my little sweetie.

And our household will once again boom to the sounds of Indonesian voices screaming and shouting at one another, and I will retreat to my home office where I will surf the BBC website on the internet instead!

Opposites attract, they say...