happy-go-lucky

finally, after two weeks of seemingly endless days, we finished all our reports and we made our deadline just in time for fedex to pick it up. i dropped our reports to the fedex box a few teeny weeny minutes before the 5pm pick-up time. whoa!

it was a mad dash from the 4th floor to the mailroom in the ground floor lobby. good thing LA did not shake while i was in the elevator, otherwise, i would have been stuck and our two month’s worth of overtime would have all but ended with a penalty for late-submission – and that would have been so bad, ouch.

i wonder how sally hawkin’s poppy would react in such a situation. i bet she would all be cheery and bright whilst waiting for her rescuers. nice!

what a nice segue, eh? or was i trying too hard? either way, it’s already done. – lol.

last night, i was home early. if 9pm is early to you, then we’ll get along fine. on my drive home, i was thinking what to do at home. i know my basic cable is practically dead now since all networks are already on hiatus for the summer and the french open has turned into a bore after rafa was eliminated in the 4th round. (wait! sharapova also lost today. what on earth is happening?)

i was thinking i’d call my newfound bud rowell and invite him to go to guppy tea house along south st. in cerritos (they close late at 2 in the morning and they serve really good pan-asian cuisine – it’s where tweeners hang-out savoring the resto’s signature shaved ice and mixed fruit dessert. oh yeah, they don’t serve alcohol – yes, you may smirk, haha), but i realized he would be working at the hospital. darn!

so, i decided to drop by my favorite video rental and took out this copy of mike leigh’s 2008 extra-bright comedy cleverly titled “happy-go-lucky”.

when i got to my place, i washed the dirty dishes (eewww) that’s been sitting on my sink for what, five days now? – i know it’s so terrible. am gonna change, promise! after i set my brown rice on the cooker, i went to cook my favorite lightly-fried salmon. thankfully, i had the fish brought down from the freezer to the cooler section last sunday so i didn’t have to defrost it anymore. whew, that saved me loads of time. yay.

by 1030pm, everything was ready. i turned my blu-ray on and popped in the dvd while my dinner was waiting on my mini-table (don’t have a full table as it won’t fit my apartment anymore – haha).

sally hawkins is a delight. she plays poppy, who is eternally cheerful and friendly. she dominates the movie from start to end. the movie is basically plotless. what it does is take us through poppy's life and how she reacts to things and people that would bring normal people (like me, like me!) into a violent breakdown. that's true.

her bike gets stolen, and what does she do? she just laughs it off and loudly cries why she wasn't even allowed to say goodbye and off she dancingly walks away.

poppy is a kindergarten teacher. she shares an apartment with her bestfriend zoe and spends all her time laughing off everything.

one day, she decides to enrol for driving lessons and she meets scott who is her complete opposite. scott, played wonderfully by eddie marsan, is grumpy and is the type who hates the world for no concrete reason but just hates the world. poppy tries to inject fun into her lessons but always gets foiled by scott's distant and unaffected demeanor. their unusual relationship would later force poppy to face one of her greatest tests.

watching the movie, the audience is forced to assess his or her own world views. do you want to face the world with an easy smile or to march on with detachment and contempt? in my case, i would prefer to be rather pleasant all the time but poppy's personality is something else. she gets insulted but never shows it. she reacts as if she's having the best conversation ever. she goes to flamenco classes even with a back pain because she promised a friend she would go with her.

she doesn't attempt to please anybody. she is just the way she is. she is genuinely pleasant - though, there are times she gets so irritating, too. mike leigh, who is known for writing his scripts only on the set has created an honest and quite relatable character and in sally hawkins she found one of the most brilliant and delightful actresses ever.

for this movie sally bagged best actress awards at the berlin film festival and the golden globes.

i actually had so much fun watching this movie that i forgot to tune in to nbc at 1145 to catch conan o'brien's debut as the tonight show host. aw... too bad.

but i had fun watching the movie, and you will, too - promise! :)