State of Play

So our last day in Ottawa. A touch sad, because despite the complaints it is a nice city. We could certainly live here if we ever decided to give up on Iqaluit. However, as that's not happening anytime in the future, we're not worried about trying to find a place.

All that's on the agenda today is to pick up our print, which has now been framed and looks quite lovely, and then get it and the IKEA out to First Air Cargo. I was talking to the cargo guys yesterday, so with luck we should be able to pick up the lot of it either tomorrow or Monday, which is great. I had visions of it being stuck in a warehouse in Ottawa for weeks because they were too backed up, but that's not the case.

No new Ottawa observations other than it is a tremendously stupid thing to be anywhere near a bridge that leads to Gatineau anytime after 3:30 pm on a Friday. Which we did yesterday.

Oh, and Cathy got a tattoo.

She's been talking about one for ages, but always manages to not find time or worries about having to do a lot of walking while recovering from it, as she wanted it on her foot. But we're at the end of the vacation, we'll be taking it easy for the next day or two, so why not?

Pictures will be forthcoming in a few days once we get home. We have a camera here with us, but no cable to load them to the computer.

And last night we went and saw State of Play, which is the suspense thriller with Russell Crowe in it. Pretty damn good movie, if I do say so myself. The movie also reconfirms Crowe's love affair with Great Big Sea. I thought so because I'm 95% certain it's GBS's "The Night Pat Murphy Died" playing in Crowe's car during the first scene where we meet him. Cathy thought it was because he had robbed Alan Doyle's hairstyle for the movie. You be the judge.

But it's a fun movie, and the last of a dying breed....the heroic, crusading print journalist determined to get the truth of the story, no matter how long the editor has to hold the presses. I haven't seen the original BBC 6 hour mini-series, which I'm told is quite good, and I imagine plenty of sacrifices had to be made to get this movie down to a zippy two hours. But it manages to hold at the seams despite the cuts.

Plus, I will watch Helen Mirren be a hard ass bitch who curses a lot any day of the week. I was laughing disproportionate to the rest of the audience when we see the sign on her desk which reads "Never trust an editor" and fuming at Rachel McAdams "Don't you be looking at me with those dewy, baby reporter eyes."

Roger Ebert wonders if this is the last of this kind of movie. And there is a certain poignancy over the last scene as the final credits roll. I hope not. It's a fun movie and I think most print journalists will get a kick out of it, unrealistic scenes (I've been around newsrooms four hours past print deadline. I don't recommend the experience) and all.

Good fun. Much like our time in Ottawa. But alas, time to head home. We miss our dog. Plus, we've got to go and do something to pay for this trip.