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What a Lovely Sunday

What a lovely Sunday that was. In fact, what a lovely weekend.

 On Friday night we watched the new Bond film, which I found highly entertaining. The opening action, the general plot, the crazy villain: all good stuff. However, I have to say I was rather appalled at the portrayal of women in this one. I know, I know, Bond's a player and it's all tongue-in-cheek, right? Well, not this time. In my opinion, there's no excuse for the superficial way in which the villain's female slave was introduced and treated. Bond takes two minutes to figure out her past and then, twenty minutes later, despite offering to save her from her life as a sex slave, still thinks he's entitled to jump in the shower with her. Argh. And then there's Moneypenny: the female agent who misses one shot and subsequently decides she's not cut out for the field and would be better off behind a desk, doing the occasional 'favour' for Bond. I'm amazed that they managed to fit such a negative portrayal of women into what seemed liked a very limited amount of screen-time for these two Bond girls.

 Saturday was spent sleeping, cleaning, skyping with my Mum and playing with our 1yr old niece. Since we rearranged our bedroom and bought a new air cooler, she likes to come in and walk in front of the fan, laughing adorably on her way to finding something to steal, usually my phone!
We somehow managed to stay up long enough to make it to the cinema for another film at midnight: Paranormal Activity 4. Typically I don't get very scared watching horror films, but this one really got to me for two reasons. First, the level of suspense was awfully high, and second, I had a wriggling kicking fetus to make the whole experience extra stressful!

 Sunday greeted us with warm breezy weather, which is a rarity in Batam. Usually it's unbearably hot or pouring down. After church we enjoyed a family meal at a restaurant I hadn't been to before, and then Hadi and I walked across the street to one of Batam's well-known malls, BCS (Batam City Square). We picked up a few bargains, including a top for me and a Japanese language book for Hadi to use when teaching extra-curricular Japanese at school. And then, much to my delight, we came across a little baby shop with little baby things and little prices too! Previously I hadn't been impressed by the cuteness of baby clothes in Batam, but this shop was different and it was difficult to limit myself to buying only two items. We found a baby-grow covered in guitars for £2 and just couldn't resist. The rest of our afternoon was spent doing laundry and watching TV, skyping with my Dad and then watching more TV! This has been the first Sunday in ages that I haven't spend the evening feeling depressed, dreading going to work tomorrow morning. I am in a very cheerful and contented mood, which I am a little shy to admit is probably partly due to the baby-grow purchase!

Here's hoping your weekend was similarly fun and relaxing. And guess what...there's only another 112 hours until the next one!

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