Movie date with brand new mate

LAST week, I treated myself to something that I had not experienced before and am proud that I did... but I felt ambivalent about it in the aftermath.

It was such a simple excursion, heck, it was barely anything to write home about.

And to my surprise, I wasn’t the one left red-faced, smirked at or who prompted other people to think, “what a strange individual”.

It was a simple Thursday evening in Geelong.

Clouds were not particularly low, Armageddon had not yet struck.

I decided that I would waltz down to the cinemas. By myself.

There was no film that I went intending to see, I decided that I would pick on instinct.

Fittingly, as I left home, it began to rain, very, very heavily.

I arrived, drenched, laughing to myself at what a ridiculous exercise in self-security it was. “One ticket to Wonder

Wheel please.” I’d heard about it. Woody Allen’s new film about four individuals whose stories intertwine, each as catastrophic as the other. Fitting, once again. The advertisements were rolling, and there was not one other individual in sight. I got excited momentarily. I set myself up symmetrically in the middle of the back row, feet perched on the armrest of the seat in front of me. This could be very pleasant, I thought. Hardly anxiety-provoking, not at all self-aware. That was until I heard the crow of a man in his mid-30s who burst into the room. “How good is this?!” he boasted… to me! He decided it was appropri- ate to immediately start a conversation with the one other person whom he would end up sharing the cinema with.

But what was worse was that he had no hesitation of sitting just two seats away from me.

Throughout the film he commentated, gasped, smirked and maybe even cried a little … so did I.

What was supposed to be an embarrassing experience for myself quickly turned into something unforgettable for reasons beyond my control.

I quickly learned that going to the cinema with someone is necessary — not to avoid loneliness, but to escape overbearing, unforeseen and unwanted company.

I know what I won’t be doing this Thursday.