Of Demons & Dragons

I can sit through almost any kind of movie, no matter how boring or bad. I could sit through a Nicholas Cage movie, even a silent movie. I could sit through a movie starring Celine Dion & Gary Busey. I'm one of those people who can't watch a movie and stop halfway just because it's bad. I get a sense of not having accomplished. But there's one kind of movie that I can't watch, the only kind that makes me break out in a rash, with violent spasms and random singing of Justin Bieber songs. I'm talking about the demons and dragons genre. Harry Potter, The Sorcerers Apprentice, Lionheart. Doesn't do it for me.

So tonight was movie night. Well the Indian version of movie night anyways.
See in the non-Indian version, you meet up with friends, go for supper, go to a movie, then coffee afterward, and finally you pat each other on the back and say "We gotta do this again. It was amazing!"
In the Indian version of movie night, you go to your sisters house, she cooks a meal, then you sit on her new sofa and watch a pirate DVD movie not yet released in the cinema which her husband brought home from his Pakistani friend in Fordsburg, followed by Woolies malva pudding warmed in the microwave, and finally you hug each other and say "Next week at my house ok. I'm making Biryani and we getting this new movie which is 80% good copy."

See, when you tell an Indian about Piracy, he's picturing Somalians on a boat with machine-guns, not Pakistani's with a gym bag on a street corner.

Being Easter weekend, we tossed around the idea of going to the Rand Easter Show on Sunday. Is it still called the Rand Easter Show? I'm not sure.
I remember going there almost 10 years ago to check out the latest electronics and gadgets. Honestly though, today if I want to do that I just go to one of the bazillion Chinese malls within throwing distance of anywhere. I think that's possibly the one reason why the numbers at The Rand Easter Show are steadily dropping. Also, parking and entrance at the Chinese mall is free, unlike the Rand Easter Show, and the queue for the loo doesn't go around the block into the neighboring suburb.

Did I mention that when it rains, you don't have to claw through tsunami-grade mud or die a slow miserable death from the stench of pooping cows? Maybe this is just my recollection of the Rand Easter Show. Maybe thing's have changed since then and it's become really super-awesome. Maybe it's our version of Disneyworld. I don't know. But I bet you anything the pickpockets are still doing brisk trade, and the toilets still stink.

Ok I'm done ranting now.
PS: Did you notice I started not one but two sentences with 'but' ? My English teacher would be so proud of me :)