A grand day out

Thanks to our obtaining some free tickets for a film preview, we found ourselves actually doing something with a Sunday rather than spending the morning in bed with the papers and the afternoon on the sofa with US TV box sets. And, reader, we greatly enjoyed our day out! The venue for the film showing I chose was the Museum of Film and Photography in Bradford so, naturally, that meant having a curry for lunch (when in Rome and all that) and after that there would still be time to mooch around the museum.

Firstly, the film. It was Clint Eastwood's latest film (as a director), American Sniper. After watching the brainless crap that is The Interview (see yesterday's instalment), this was at the absolute opposite end of the scale: good acting (Sienna Miller is a bit of a revelation), plenty to think about and a feeling of being cinematically satisfied when I left the cinema. And it is the first film in ages that I have been to where no one moved as the credits began but the only time where no one spoke as we left the cinema: nothing, nada for a good minute or two. I shall say no more other than to urge you to go and see it.

Onto lunch. We had planned to eat at the Kashmir, just round the corner from the cinema (as those dodgy homemade ads used to say in between films in the 1970s). I had phoned them the previous week to check if they opened on Sundays. Yes, I was told, "after 11". When we arrived at about 1:30 - that is still lunchtime, isn't it? - it was not only shut, it looked as if it had not been open at all that day. Obviously I should have asked the question "Are you open next Sunday" - I didn't realise I needed to be quite so specific. Anyhow, this being Bradford,there were plenty of other curry house to choose from and we went to Omar Khans's. The food there was great and different - lots of things on the menu that I had never seen before. Between us, we went totally adventurous and tried all sorts. Well-spiced, well-priced and recommended.

Finally, a trawl around the museum. A lot of it is targeted at kids (and none the worse for that), but there was plenty to entertain the big kids. I especially liked the special exhibition based on the work of a Catalan photographer who documents 'miracles' and fantastical animals, many of which were on display in the exhibition: deer with the wings of an eagle, birds with turtle shells, a clam with two tiny ams so it can use tools to catch its prey. All completely crackers but hugely entertaining. There were so many times when I laughed out loud.

Finally, as we drove back on the M62, we found ourselves heading into the most beautiful sunset - a suprisingly pale blue sky as the light faded but shot through with pinks, orange and red. A sublime vision to end a lovely day. I think we might try to make more use of Sundays in future.