Social Media can be a really useful thing 🙂 After my birthday party last Sunday, my little (second) cousin lost his favourite stuffed animal Koos while on the way home. He was seated on the back of the bicycle and fell asleep and probably dropped it. Since it was his favourite, he was devastated. Monday I discussed this with Kim and later that day she sent me a link and said “isn’t this it?”
The link was to a Facebook post in a a local group, someone had found a stuffed animal and was looking for the owner. It sounded just like Koos. So I posted there, saying it was probably my cousin’s and warned my cousin that it looked like Koos had been found. She contacted the lady and indeed, it was Koos! Yesterday they picked him up there. Lucky for them he’d already fallen off the bike still in town, and luckily there are people that are willing to put in some effort to return lost goods. Faith in humanity restored 🙂
Monday I also went to the movies with Kim. We saw The Mazerunner. It was entertaining, but a bit too fast and easy. It also reinforced that it’s really not a good idea to read the books that close to seeing the film (I finished the book that morning). The differences really stood out, and I think if there had been a week or twee between, I would’ve liked the movie better. Not that it was bad, but was okay-good, not good or good-good.
Then yesterday I went to see The Equalizer with Gert. I don’t normally watch straight-up action movies, but I’d seen the trailer for The Equalizer a few times among the previews before other movies and it seemed interesting. I’m glad to be able to say that the movie lived up to my expectations.
The story revolves around Robert, a middle aged man with a hidden past, who lives a quiet life with set routines. During the day, he works at a big hardware store where he tries to help his co-workers. At night, when he can’t sleep, he goes to a diner to read his book and talk with another regular there: Alina, a young prostitute. One night, he sees her being abused by her pimp and stands up for her. When she is then so severely beaten that she is hospitalized, he decides to act.
He seeks out Slavi who ‘owns’ her, and offers his savings to buy her freedom. Slavi ridicules him and declines the offer. Robert then kills Slavi and the four other gangsters present in about 16 seconds. Later, Robert is called in by the authorities and we learn he used to be a special ops agent who is now retired, and that the gangsters he killed were hotshots in the Russian mafia.
This is the start of the main action. Robert is pursued by a mafia hitman named Teddy and has to use all his skills and wits to outsmart him. Of course he succeeds, but the twists and turns in that are interesting, and not always as expected.