A few things I forgot to tell you about the mountain trip. . .

So, it's been pointed out to me that there are a few stories about our Ohakune trip that I've failed to tell you about, so here you are:

 - SpongeBob Squarepants became my war cry. I have a very strong opinion about Spongebob and his square pants. Firstly, they are square. Secondly, they are cardboard. Thirdly, he has to fold a new pair every morning. And Fourthly, they live under the sea. HOW does his folded, square, cardboard PANTS stay that way?! Why does he have to fold them?! Why are they cardboard?! Never mind that he has a stupid starfish for a best friend, or that he's a sponge, or that he works in a hamburger joint. The important question is WHATS WITH HIS PANTS?! anyway. . . he came up on Saturday (and in fact after looking at the video footage it would appear that I was the one to bring him up) I couldn't stop ranting about his square pants.

 - The Made You Look game. JP and I have been playing this for years. You know the game, the one where you fool someone into looking at something or somewhere and you say "ha ha, made ya look!". We are constantly trying to make each other "look". There are only three rules:
1. We are always playing
2. It's not safe to do it when driving
3. "Parallelogram" is the 'safe' word (for those times when you're NOT trying to make them look for a joke, but for an actual reason.)
JP's very good at this game and is constantly in the lead. I'm NEVER in the lead. We don't keep score, but more of a "I'm two up" or "we're even" type score. Apparently the snow works for me. When I do get JP, I tend to get them in runs, and on Saturday I managed to get him three times in a row, taking me from two down to one up! Needless to say that by the time we returned home I was back to one down, but nevertheless I'm super chuffed that I was in the lead for even such a short time.

- We watched "Kick-Ass" on the XBox. I didn't ask how it was obtained. Very funny I must say. Watch it!

- The Band that I said I'd start on the way home would consist of Me on drums, TC on the kettle drums, VR on triangle and JD on guitar. Not the most conventional band, but good anyway. Well, with songs called "Parallelogram" and "Rowdy and Rude" how could it not be?!

- Homemade Bread. VR bought along a loaf of fresh homemade bread. It was soooooo delicious - I had a couple of slices for breakie each morning. Now I want a bread maker. mmmmmm fresh bread. . . . . I wonder how many flybuys points I have. . .

"The Boys From Brazil"

Just looking at this movie of JP's I was thinking 'Oh good lord, here's another old movie about men with guns'. But, I was pleasantly surprised. After a long road trip home from Ohakune, we sat down in front of the telly to watch this one.

"The Boys From Brazil" is set in the 70's. A young Steve Guttenberg has discovered a plot by the Nazi's to kill 94 men over the next 2 years. All these men are 65 years old, civil servants and spread across several European countries, Canada and America. He manages to pass this information on to, what I assume was, a Nazi hunter. He then begins searching for the murdered men and the connection between them.

The story was a good mystrey story, but not so intricate that it was difficult to follow. I was rather proud of myself for being able to solve the mystry before it ended.

I'm not sure about the acting. It seemed to be ok, but didn't seem stellar. The only person I recognised was Steve Guttenberg - which probably just shows how young or perhaps thats naive I really am. The teenage boy in the movie was good if not a little creepy.

I enjoyed this one, probably because the story held my attention. It didn't go on and on, and have a hundred twists that I got distracted and lost my way. Which often seems to happen when I watch one of JP's movies.

Should you watch it? Sure, it's actually a good story. If you're a bit of a modern day movie person, then you'll need to get past that to watch this. But if you can, you'll really enjoy it. I probably wouldn't have ever watched this if I hadn't been doing this project.

Next? The Breakfast Club. Fun!!

Mum explains my dislike for snow. . .

This morning I got an email from my Mum:

"HI I LOVED your blog I laughed out loud several times. You are such a plonker. We did go up the mountain once when you were about 4, you HATED it and whinged and moaned the whole time. Its cold, its wet, it to far, its slippery, I wanna go back to the car , Lexi was right into it Hooning down slopes on plastic bags. etc. We never did it again !!"

Well that explains it! I never had any desire to go skiing, and now that I've been and stood in the snow and made a snowman, I'm done. It was fun to do and I'm glad I've done it, but it's now ticked off. No need to go again. heheehe.

O is for Oh My God Ohakune!

Where on earth do I begin with this post?! My very good friend TC turns 30 on Wednesday. She decided to head away for a weekend with her besties. Being the middle of winter a weekend away just screams SNOW! So the snow we did go. So many things happened, good and bad. How about I just tell you exactly what went down;

On Friday I spent my day racing around town trying to get my car warranted (didn't happen - stupid water in the stupid indicator) and keeping my workmates in hysterics. I'd mentioned that I was going up the mountain for the weekend but had no wet weather gear. My eight workmates managed to find me with an entire wet weather outfit, which I promptly tried on for them. Like I said, hysterical.

After being dropped off at home (thanks Matt) I quickly raced around trying to pack a bag of clothes, pillow, sleeping bag, games, booze, etc, etc. JP followed around behind me gathering things for me until VR arrived to pick us up. We went for a quick trip around the supermarket and a stop for dinner at Macers, then it was on the road. We arrived in Ohakune at 10.30pm - after being stuck behind some very slow and annoying campervan drivers and not being able to find the tiny little street in the tiny little town we were staying.

ES and JD had arrived in Ohakune around about the time that we were leaving Wellington, so they had the house nice and toasty and warm. mmmmmmmmmmmm. After a beer it was time for bed. JP and I were sharing the "cool" room - two singles in a largeish room, while VR, JD and ES shared a double bed and a single bed in one room and TC & MC shared the double bed in a room the size of my bathroom. We'd definetly lucked out on that one. Until we realised that my bed was right next to the wall shared with the couple and JP's bed was right on the other side of the toilet. Lovely. And, my bed was on rollers - when I moved, I slid across the floor and slammed back into the wall again. Maybe it wasn't the best room afterall.

Saturday morning was SNOW DAY! It took several hours but eventually 7 of us were showered, fed, dressed for the snow and ready to go. VR took a few of us and we followed MC heading to Ohakune. Only, MC can't go lower than 100km on any road, and assumes he always knows where he's going. We knew it was the wrong road when we passed a "private property" sign, broccoli fields, unsealed roads with rocks the size of riverstones, and a toothless farmer looking very angry.

Finally we arrived in Ohakune (really only 5 mins away, not the 30 mins we'd spent after detouring down broccoli alley). We all piled out, assuming a shuttle would come padt at any time - well that's what MC told us anyway. We waited, and waited and waited.

After waiting for what felt like ages, we called a shuttle company and they arrived to pick us up and up the mountain we went. I have never been up the mountain before - I never have and don't think I ever will have any desire to go sking. (Being half death means that I have terrible balance, so even if I wanted to, I probably couldn't do it anyway.) So this was pretty exciting. My only memory of snow is playing in it on the side of the Desert road one year when I was a kid, and when it fell in our back yard several years ago and melted before it hit the ground. Now, I was like a little kid at Christmas - SNOW!

When we arrived, JP and I hired snow boots and snow pants - mmmm snow pants are so warm and dry. VR and MC went snowboarding, TC went skiing, ES went for a skiing lesson and JD sat inside in the cafe with a book and mulled wine (perhaps the most sane choice of the day).

Meanwhile, JP and I went out on to the learner slopes and made a snowman. We'd been talking about this for months and it was so much fun. To be fair JP did most of the work. My jacket (thanks again to Matt for the borrow) was so big and warm that I was snug as a bug in the rug, but it also meant that I was getting hot and my glasses were fogging up, but putting the hood down, snow would fall down my neck.

It was snowing pretty heavily which was awesome for snowman building and for such a snow novice such as myself. It took a lot of effort and an hour and a half, but JP and I finally made Basil the snowman.

We had a couple come up to us and tell us how awesome he was which was pretty cool. We headed inside at this point and de-layered - I must have been wearing about 17 layers, it sure felt like it anyway. The snow was getting pretty heavy and they eventually closed the mountain to uphill traffic, which meant our shuttle couldn't get up to pick us up. We had to wait several hours before they finally let it up and we could head back down.

We decided we'd have showers, change, have fish n' chips for dinner and head out to Mardi Gras - several hours of street partying and bands in Ohakune town. All was going to plan until TC & MC had some type of argument and VR, ES & JD kept arguing about who owed whom money. After a few hours of arguing and attempted peacemaking, I found myself being the "let's go out and have fun" person. Those of you that know me well will know that I'm a stay at home where it's warm and not many people type of person. It took several attempts, but we eventually got through to the shuttle company. Shuttle wil lbe there in 15 minutes they said. An hour and a half later we were still waiting, very cold and very tired. JP started making drinks (in coffee mugs, because there just wasn't enough glasses) for us girls and at 10.30pm I called it quits. The jacket and boots were off and we were officially staying at home. To be honest, we probably had a much cheaper, warmer and entertaining night than if we had actually gone out to the cold, freezing night.

JP started it with cocktail making and throughout the night we took turns making new drinks. We used whatever we could get our hands on, which wasn't much. We had:

* Beer

* Wine

* Diet Coke, Coke, Coke Zero

* Lemonade, Diet Lemonade

* V, Red Bull

* Mandarin flavoured Vodka, Absolut Vodka

* Midori

* Baileys

* Pineapple Juice

* Milk

What would you come up with out of that?! We had lots of Illusion type drinks, Midori based drinks and QF type drinks. Some of my faves were the 'different' ones. Particuarly:

* The Sweetheart - a teaspoon of raspberry jam stirred into a shot of absolut vodka, topped with lemonade and microwaved for a minute.

* The Ohakune Mousse - Baileys and Coke. You had to drink it quick before it curdled.

* The Ohakune Slapper - Midori, Lemonade and Pineapple Juice.

The worst would have to be :

* Brinks - a teaspoon of vegemite stirred into a mug of beer - TERRIBLE!

We spent the next several hours talking bollox and videoing ourselves (because ES kept saying 'For the record. . .' so the video was the 'record'). I just don't think it's safe for me to post any of the videos - they are funny, but perhaps not entirely appropriate for public consumption. At about 2am we all stumbled in to bed, very drunk and tired.

This morning we woke at about 10am, showered, packed and headed home. JP and I were sitting in the back seat. Needless to say that VR did threaten to pull over several times to kick us out. I maintain that JP was being naughty, not me. I'm innocent. The "stir crazy" part of a road trip settled in around Paraparaumu (not too far from home). I decided that I was going to start a band called "Parallelogram" (mine and JPs 'safe' word in our never-ending game of 'Made You Look'). The first song for the band goes "Parallelogram, Parallelogram" over and over in a monotoness tone. The second song is called "Rowdy and Rude" (after JP told me I was being rowdy and rude), the lyrics all rhyme with rude, so you get the picture.  

MC, TC & ES are still up there tonight. Hopefully having a good time. Happy Birthday for Wednesday TC.
ES is next - don't make us go away again!

Present hunting

Tonight I traipsed around North City Plaza with one of my besties, trying to find a present for another of our besties 30th on Wednesday. She's the first of my school friends to turn 30, so to say she's not real excited is an understatement.

So, this weekend a group of us are going to Ohakune. Madi Gras is on Saturday, half the group are planning on sking and the other half are planning on making snowmen - guess which group I'm in?! It should be a fun weekend of booze, booze and more booze.

Birthday's are important to me and presents are a great way of showing how much we love and respect those around us. Who doesn't love presents?! When I asked TC's partner what she wanted he told us he what he was getting her was because he didn't know what else to get. When I asked her what she wanted she said my prescence was present enough. I told her not to be such a loser, of course I was getting her a present.

So off VR and I go to try find a joint present from 5 of us, so that we can take it away and give it to her over the weekend. Needless to say that we spent several hours wandering through the mall and getting frustrated. So frustrated that we called all our friends (none of whom answered on the first call - how rude!) for ideas. We even called TC herself. So we could talk to her partner that is - if only he'd answered his own two phones!

We did finally get her a present. I can't tell you what we got on the off chance that TC actually reads this blog. But I think she'll like it, them, him ;)

And then I did the rest of my chores for the trip; washing, buying cat food, working out how I'm going to stay warm, finding my sleeping bag and mending my jeans. Packing a bag will have to just wait until after work tomorrow before VR picks up JP and me. phew.

Wedding Homework

Wednesday is Wedding Planning Night. Lee and I have dinner with Mum and then come up to my house to use the net and do wedding planning. Lee's future mother-in-law is heading up the Waikato division of the Planning Committee and checks in each week.

Everyone goes away with "Wedding Homework" and has to report in throughout the week or at the next meeting. hahaha.

I'm on Guest List tracking, Invite wording and emailing info to bridal party about accomadation and dresses. hmmmm. . . better get on with it then. . .

"The Blue Lagoon", "The Boat That Rocked" & "Bowfinger"

And the "B's" continue. It feels like we've been in the "B's" forever! There's still several to go before we get on to the "C's" and there's lots of them too. . . .

"The Blue Lagoon" is a movie that everyone laughs at when I say I own it. But I find it interesting that everyone knows exactly what movie I'm talking about.  Made in 1980, it's the movie that launched Brooke Shields into her stellar career. She was 15 years old when she did this movie alongside a very young and handsome Christopher Atkins.

If you've never seen the movie (or you're just pretending you haven't seen it to look cool in front of your mates) it's about two young children (I guess about 8 years old) that are shipwrecked on a deserted island along with an older man from their boat. After a few months the old man dies and they are left to grow up alone. Several years later they are starting to explore their new 'adult' bodies and find themselves falling love, having a baby and even walking away from ship sailing past.

Contrary to popular belief, they are not brother and sister. It's clearly spelt out at the beginning of the movie when they are on the sail boat. The movie focuses on that awkward puberty/teenage stage when they don't have anyone else to turn to or ask about what's going on within them. The relationship is that of friendship and develops into love. It appears to be a natural progression for the two. However the niggling Psychology training in the back of my head is wondering if they fall in love because they are the only one the other knows and has around. Although, if there was no chemistry it wouldn't matter. And it's only a movie, so I guess the psychology isn't really important.

To me, this is a beautiful movie about a pure and simple life and love. JP hadn't seen this before and it was interesting watching it with him. He made all sorts of 'man' comments and even some boy-ish comments about the puberty and love scenes. I didn't expect much less.

JP has recently introduced me to the Rotten Tomatoes website, which collates reviews on the movie and gives it an overall rating. "The Blue Lagoon" scored 13% and I think this is rather harsh. It's sweet and it's innocent. Perhaps it's all the young "bits" flying around under water?! Who knows.

I like it, so I say watch it. At least then you can give an honest reaction when someone asks you about the movie. You never know, you might surprise yourself and actually enjoy it. Don't worry, this isn't the end of "The Blue Lagoon" saga. I have the sequel "Return to the Blue Lagoon" as well. Look out for that when we get to the "R's".

Next is one of my all time favourites - "The Boat That Rocked". It's gotta be in my top 10 faves. I love it all - the music, the actors, the story. It even has a kiwi in it - Rhys Darby.

It's a brilliant British movies from the creators of "Love Actually" and "Notting Hill" - movies that I both love and own.

The story is set in the 60's when Rock n' Roll radio stations were outlawed and had to broadcast from ships anchored in the ocean. Radio Rock is one such ship, home to a group of eight random DJ's and crew, all male and the lesbian cook. They are living the high life - sex, drugs and rockn'roll. The government are trying to shut them down and will do whatever it takes to do it.

The music is fab - all classic 60's Rock n' Roll. The actors are all brilliant - Bill Nighy, Phillip Symour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Chris O'Dowd, Rhys Ifans and our own Rhys Darby. Along with a cameo by Emma Thompson. Each character is written wonderfully and acted brilliantly. I particualry enjoy the group scenes - they really feed well off of each other.

Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby is brilliant in this and really holds his own. His character is bit of a kooky nut that everyone pretends to find annoying. He has some great one liners. His character is evident of the amazing writers. His character could have been (and normally would have been) a one demential, insignificant, back ground character. But here the character is given room to be a fully fledged character. Rhys does kiwi's proud.

Rotten Tomatoes gives "The Boat That Rocked" 54% a pretty good rating for the site. However in my opinion there isn't much wrong with it and should be right up there around the 90% rating. I can't think of anything wrong with it to be completely honest with you - I just love it! I say you should WATCH IT! It's fun, the musics wicked, the actings brilliant and the story is very well written. If you don't watch it and love it, I'll eat my shorts.

Last night we launched  Monday Movie Madness - a little audience participation for our friends. In fact, if you want to join us you're welcome too. Every Monday at 7.30pm we're watching the next movie in the queue, just come along. ES, VR and JD joined us last night for the first movie - "Bowfinger".

"Bowfinger" is a comedy starring Steve Martin, Christine Branski, Eddie Murphy and Heather Graham. I like Heather Graham - mainly because she's got such a fabulous first name.

Bowfinger is a hollywood producer, or at least he believes he is. He works from his home with only a couple of thousand dollars to make a movie. He's found a script and a band of D-List actors and foreign crew. He just needs a big name star. When they can't get star Kit Ramsay he lies and says that he did. Now they have to film the movie around him, pretending that it's just his "method" not to be approached before filming. Let the hyjinx begin.

The first time I saw this I didn't enjoy it. I don't remember why, but now I do, again, not sure why. Christine Branski is great - so over the top. Steve Martin is the bumbling idiot producer, while Eddie Murphy plays up with his over the top facial expressions. Although one must admit that he is very good at what he does.

I can't think of much more to write about this movie. It's funny. That's about it. Nothing to write home to your mother about (Hi Mum). If you're looking for something to giggle at - this is a good one to watch.

Interestingly Rotten Tomatoes gave it 79% which I don't really understand. When I compare "The Boat That Rocked" and "Bowfinger, I'd much rather watch the former any day.

Take it or leave it. It's up to you.

Surprise, Surprise, there are more "B's" to come - The Boys From Brazil, Breakfast Club, Brick, Bring It On, A Bugs Life and The Butterfly Effect. And then, the "C's" - finally!

Monday Movie Madness

We've been doing this Alphabetical Movie Project for a few months now and have welcomed several people to join us willy nilly, but now we are officially opening it up to audience participation. Each Monday night at 7.30 we'll be watching the next movie in the queue and everyone and anyone is welcome to come along. If you wanna know beforehand what the movie will be, then I'll tell ya. If you don't, just come along and be surprised. Should be fun.

Those that are coming along tonight should be on their way, so I will tell you that tonights movie is "Bowfinger".

"Blade Runner" & "Blast From the Past"

After "The Black Dahlia" I got a weeeeeee bit of a bolloxing from JP about not paying attention, not knowing the story and basically missing out on a good movie that he really enjoys. And then, I was informed that "Blade Runner" was another movie that I'd have to concentrate for.

So. We had to wait several days for a night where I wasn't exhausted from work and in a "Blade Runner" frame of mind. Then, when we finally did get to it, I made damn sure that I was alert, listening and concentrating so hard that I could tell you the script backwards. (ok, maybe not, but I didn't want another JP lecture, so I was concetrating pretty hard!)

"Blade Runner" was made in the 80's and set in 2019. I love movies set in the future, seeing what they imagine will happen based on life at the time. If life will be like "Blade Runner" then in just nine short years we will be flying cars, using computers with the technology of the 80's and dealing with robots so advanced they are just like humans and trying to take over the planet. We'll need to hire Blade Runners, men that look like a young Harrison Ford, that hunt and "retire" the robots. But we better be careful not to fall in love with one.

Harrison Ford kicks some serious butt in the movie. Daryl Hannah stars as one of the rogue robots, who appears completely normal at the start of the movie and is completely whack-a-doodle by the end. It's a good progression of charachter I'll say that. Ummm, I'm not really sure what else I can say about this movie. I wasn't overly enthralled by it all. There wasn't too much going on beyond Harrison chasing down robotic humans and lots of flying cars.

See it, don't. I'm ambivilant.

"Blast From the Past" is mine. Yay. This one was made in 1997 and is one of those movies that is just a feel-good, not thinking, fun movies. It was made when Alicia Silverstone was on top of the acting world, but she's the weak link in this one.

It stars great actors - Sissy Spacek, Brendan Fraser and the always brilliant Christopher Walkin. How can you go wrong with Christopher Walkin?!

The story starts in 1962 with an eccentric man that has built an underground bunker with all the ammenities to sustain life for 35 years. When a plane crashes in the back yard he makes it into his bunker with his pregnant wife and believes that a nuclear bomb has been dropped on LA. 35 years later the doors finally open and the son born in the shelter goes up top for the first time. He gets lost and uses his two weeks up top to get enough supplies to last them another 10 years. That is until he meets a girl and realises that life up top might not be so bad.

Of course, life in the bunker is stil in 1962 - decor, music, technology etc etc, making the son rather naive in the 90's, but also very gentlemanly. He manages to make some friends who find his quirks endearing. He even manages to discover that the "worthless" stocks his father gave him from 1962 are now worth millions.

Christopher Walkin does a great job as the eccentric father and Sissy Spacek is brilliant as the mother that hates her space and turns to cooking sherry to pass the time.

This movie doesn't require a lot of thought. It's fun and it's a wee bit different from most normal comedys you see these days. It's dated, but still very watchable. If you're looking for a bit of a laugh, something light-hearted, you'll enjoy it.

Next? "The Blue Lagoon" and "The Boat That Rocked".

Rain

I love the sound of rain. As long as I'm nice and cozy inside that is. Actually, not entirelly true, I do enjoy going out in the rain, as long as I have warm trousers, socks, boots that don't leak and a coat. A scarf can't hurt either.

The pounding rain makes me feel at home. I realised this when I went to Melbourne in the winter several years ago. It was raining so hard then and it occured to me that when you go away on holiday we always go in the summer, or to somewhere that is hot, sunny and beautiful. So we are usually at home when it's cold, rainy and miserable.

It's raining pretty hard right now on this Sunday morning and I'm tucked up in bed watching TV online and bloging about rain. I love days like this. Now if I only had a gorgeous man who would bring me a hot breakfast and snuggle up next to me. I'll just have to settle for my very needy cats instead.

Online TV

I don't watch much TV on TV. I watch all my TV online. So when someone asks me if I've seen that new ad or the promo for some new show I haven't seen it. But, if you ask me what's happening in some American show, I can tell you every detail and then some.

Here's the link for the site I use: http://www.tv-dome.net/

By watching TV online I can keep up with the American seasons. Winter can become a little boring because it's Summer in the US, meaning all the shows shut down for the season. I use this time to discover new shows. The website has most of the shows we see here, plus a whole lot that never get shown here.

So far, I've discovered:
"Being Erica" - a Canadian show about a woman who's psychiatrist can send her back in time.
"Life Unexpected" - an American show about a teenager that has been in foster care her whole life and tracks down her birth parents who were high school sweethearts. No longer together, they take her in and try to form a new family.
"Eastwick" - only 12 episodes long, about a group of 3 woman that discover they are witches
"Dollhouse" - a show about a woman that is a "doll" whose personality has been erased and is imprinted with new ones for clients.
"The Forgotten" - about a group of civilians that take on cases that the police can't solve.
"In Plain Sight" - another American show about a US Marshall that protects people in the witness protection program.

Another awesome TV website I visit is http://www.tv.com/
 
mmmmmm TV, I do love it so.

Always a bridesmaid. . .

There is so much going on at the moment it's crazy. So much to do, not enough time to do it. If someone could invite an eighth day, I'd be very greatful.

I've been a bridesmaid twice in the past, and now going to be one again for my sister.

The first time was for an old school friend. There were four bridesmaids and I was the only one living in the country at the time. When we were at school the five of us were pretty inseperable and even today we are pretty close. We hosted a great hens night, and had lots to do on the day, but in the lead up there wasn't too much to do, other than be the dress guinea pig. While there was four bridesmaids there was only two groomsmen, and it actually looked pretty cool. The couple produced a gorgeous wee daughter and then unfortunetly seperated. Not a good omen for my part as a bridesmaid I thought. I've just been searching through my computer and I can't find one single photo from the day. I know I have hard copies, but nothing electronic, so sad.

TC and I were both bridesmaids for both friends. I'll miss her this time round :)

The second time was for another school friend, who has become a very close friend. This time I was one of three bridesmaids, and lucky enough to be asked to be chief bridesmaid. All three of us were in the country and we were involved a lot more. This bridal party was a lot of fun and we are all very good friends. In fact, I think this when TC and MC "hooked up" or at least started seeing each other, or whatever the correct term is. This is my favourite photo from the day:

This time round I'm Chief again and doing a lot of the planning. In fact I think I'm co-ordinating the entire opearation. There will be four bridesmaids, mainly because the groom wants four groomsmen. The more the merrier I say. It's taking place in the Waikato and will have a earthy, natural theme. So it should be a very beautiful and relaxed day. I can't wait!

It's Official, I can finally tell you

My sister's engaged!

Lee Browne and Morgan Samuel are getting married :) I'm so happy for them!  Wedding date is 26th February 2011.

Lee is in her final year of a four year arts degree and really needs to concentrate on finishing. So as her Chief Bridesmaid (or Chief Wakachumba we like to call the role) I am going to lead the planning charge. Tonight is the first Wedding Planning meeting between me, Lee and Mum. So watch this space for more details.

Alphabetical Movie Project - A quick recap

Just in case you're new to my blog (Welcome!) or you've forgotten what all this movie review business is about, here's a quick recap:

The Alphabetical Movie Project is a movie and writing project my flatmate/best mate JP and I are doing. We both love movies (JP studied film at uni) and writing (I do have this blog after all) and needed something fun to do. So, we're watching all the movies that we own in alphabetical order, and then writing reviews.

I post my reviews on my blog here and JP emails his to friends. If you wanna get JP's reviews just send me a quick email or comment and I'll get JP to add you to his email list. We have very different styles in movie tastes and writing styles, so it's fun to compare us.

We started on 18 April with "10 Things I Hate About You" (yep, numbers first, then letters) and will end with "Zathura". We can buy new movies for our collections, however if their slot in the alphabet has already been watched, they are put at the end of the queue and watched once it's all over.

I haven't counted how many we have, but at a guess I'd say between us we have about 300 movies. So I'm pretty sure this project is going to take us well over a year.

Part of the fun of this project is that JP hates musicals and I love them. I hate horrors and JP loves them. So there are lots of movies that we don't wanna watch but now we have too.

The project has it's financial benefits - no more dvd store hireage fees - we have to watch the next one in the queue that we own.

How can you get involved? Come to hang out with us and you'll have to watch whatevers next! It's the fun of the game. We can always tell you what's coming up, so you can make yourself available for something you wanna see, or avoid if necessary. Or you could just test your luck. LB and RC have already played this tame russian roulette game - LB had to sit through some vampire movie!
You can also read our reviews and make comments. (Remember to let me know if you wanna get JP's reviews emailed to you).

My computer told me "Do your filing"

Every Tuesday morning for the last three weeks my computer at work has lost all access to the internet. This in turn means I can't access the shared drive we have set up or the printer. So basically I'm screwed. And of course it's just me, not anyone else in the office. AND, I'm the office person, so I'm the most in need of a functioning computer amongest all my colleagues.

By now, I'm familiar with the routine and straight away get on the blower to head office, who in turn call our IT people - MINT technology. I then sit around twiddling my thumbs until someone calls me and they talk me through resetting my IP address or some such nonsense. Usually taking only a couple of hours from when I arrive in the morning until I get back online.

Today I told them I wanted it fixed. Not just "let's do this and see if it works" but properly fixed. I don't like spending Tuesday mornings without my computer. So, the IT team spent from 8.30am until 2.30pm going through my computer, resetting and rejigging, installing and whosewatsing around. And here's what I did in that time:

- Two months worth of my own filing
- Made up 15 client files
- Filed 98 letters
- Went to the post office to get the mail
- Opened all the mail
- Took a hundred million phone calls
- Updated a very out-of-date spreadsheet
- Audited new files

So all in all, what was a rather annoying day was also a rather productive day. I had the time to do many of the things that usually get left at the bottom of the priority queue. I wonder if it was the computers way of telling me that I needed to do my filing?

"The Black Dahlia"

"The Black Dahlia" is a movie that unfortunetly I can't tell you too much about because I wasn't really paying attention. I made the mistake of watching this on Friday night after a very long week and not realising that it was one of those movies that you have to actually concentrate and watch.

What's the story about you ask, well that's a very good question, I wish I could answer it. What I did pick up was that it's set in 1946 USA. Josh Hartnett stars as a cop that is promoted to Detective after throwing a Boxing match. Along with his partner he takes on a case about a serial rapist. While investigating this case they come across another case - a the murder of a young actress.

Josh Hartnett stars alongside Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank and Scarlett Johanssen. All good actors, but not brilliant in my opinion. I just can't buy Josh Hartnett in this type of role. I can't begin to tell you why Scarlett Johanssen annoys me, but she just does. Granted, shes gorgeous, but what does she really offer as an actress?

This was a real murder mystrey that I'm sure, had I been paying attention, would be a great movie. Unfortunetly I wasn't in the right frame of mind to give it the time that it needed.

I say, watch it. Then tell me about it would ya?! Ta.

Grans Norfolk Chicken

Tonight I made my Gran's Norfolk Chicken. Basically, a roast chicken. I'm not sure what actually makes it Norfolk, other than that's probably where it came from originally.

It was the first time that I really spent an afternoon cooking a roast and not just trying to do one on the sligh. I always thought that doing the roast was rather time consuming and difficult, but it's not. Ok, the actual cooking is time consuming, but it's not difficult. Even making the stuffing was pretty easy.

I did beans, potatoes, peppers, onions, carrots and garlic gloves as well. And gravy too of course.

There was four for dinner and I even got an approval from RC's 9yr old, that's the best kind.

I've come to the conclusion that I am good and doing the savoury stuff, not so much the sweet stuff. Check out the final products before they were gobbled up:

Short weeks

Short weeks sound good in theory but in reality they suck. If you have just one day off you're still expected to do a full weeks worth of work in four days. If you take two or more days you're not. The week obviously started with Monday off for Queens Birthday and it was womderful to have the extra time off, however this week has been so busy and draining as a result.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the extra break. But right now I'm exhausted.

This weekend is fairly low key thank goodness. Tomorrow night JP, RC and I are going to my sisters birthday mid-winter BBQ. Should be fun, relaxing at the least. I have a few errands to run at some stage, but nothing to taxing.

I think an early night is in order and a sleep in in the morning. . .

"The BFG", "Big Fish", "Bio-Dome" & "The Birds"

Queen's Birthday weekend was cold, wet and miserable. Over the three days I left the house once - on Sunday morning to do some shopping. It was the perfect weekend to watch lots of movies.

After "The Bee Movie" we moved on to " The BFG".  This one is the third in JP's DVD set that also contains "The Bear" and "Watership Down".

I loved Roald Dahl stories when I was a kid, but I don't remember reading "The BFG". I remember hearing about it but not reading it. And, I don't remember watching a made-for-TV cartoon movie based on the story either.

I love animation movies, but this is a cartoon, and I'm not so enthralled. The quality is different and the feel is different. Plus it's purely aimed at children, as opposed to more recent animations that have lots of adult references and jokes worked in for all those adults that have to take their children to see it at the movies.

"The BFG" is about a wee girl Sophie that is in an orphange. One night she sees a giant in her village and he whisks her away with him to the land of giants. He is the only friendly giant around and he and Sophie quickly form a strong friendship. He collects dreams and then gives them to children in the night. He and Sophie discover that the other giants are planning to eat the children in the village, so they concoct a dream to show the Queen of England so that she'll help them. Which she does.

I'd imagine that the truth of "the book is always better" rings true here too. There wasn't much to hold my attention other than it being a very famous book and my dedication to the project ot see it through. It's sweet and I wouldn't have a problem showing this to my kids if I needed too.

Not much else to say about this one I don't think. I wouldn't recommend it - there's no point to it. Read the book instead.

Next was "Big Fish". "Big Fish" is a beautiful, quirky movie. But it can also be rather sad.

The story is about a man that returns home to say goodbye to his dying father. He's been estranged from his father for several years because he's sick of a lifetime of his fathers over exagerated stories of his life. These stories are told over the course of the movie and they seem all very huge and unbelievable; like the time he drives underwater and when works for the circus and comes across a town covered in grass and no shoes, or when he parachutes in Vietnam during the war and convinces the siamese twins he finds to join the circus in the US.

JP's told me that I give away alot of good spoilers, so not this time. But I think it's fairly obvious where it leads in the end.

It can be a very sad tale, and I hope JP doesn't mind me saying that he finds this a difficult movie to watch due to the nature of the story and his own personal experiences. Knowing this, it makes me really consider how wonderful my father is and how much I need to make the most of family while I have the opportunity. Depending on my mood, it can make me sad too and thats why I don't often watch this movie, even tho it's a brilliant movie.

I also adore Ewan MacGregor. I've said before and I'll probably say it every review for every movie he's in. But I just love him. He's brilliant and he's supported by other brilliant actors - Albert Finney, Helena Bonham Carter and a host of others that are equally brilliant. It has Billy Crudup as the son, and neither JP or I can think of another movie that he's done.

Another very good reason that this movie is brilliant is that it's a Tim Burton movie, and Tim Burton movies are always quirky and fun. Think "Edward Scissorhands" or "The Corpse Bride". They are often dark and quirky and I like that. I like the movies that are different and quirky. I know I've used the word "quirky" alot, but I really think it's the perfect word to sum up this movie!

So to sum up - Ewan MacGregor + Tim Burton = Brilliant, quirky, fun movies that are well worth seeing, no matter your age or imagination. Just watch it. You'll be pleased you did.

Next up was "Bio-Dome". When I was a teenager I watched this movie over and over and over again. I loved it. Even then I knew it was a piece of fluff, nothing close to award winning and at times just cringe worthy, even crude. But it made me laugh and that's what counts. Since I was a teenager I haven't watched it much, I've kinda moved on in my movie watching. But I bought this on DVD for nestalgic's sake.

Meanwhile JP hates it. About 25 minutes in he asked if we could stop watching and in return he'd sit, smile, sing a long and not make snarky comments to the entire 'Glee' DVD collection. Tempting, but not a chance buddy. "Bio-Dome" is in the project, like it or not.

The story is about two junior college boys that are crude and disgusting and boys. On Earth Day their girlfriends trick them into leaving their house to make an effort. They stop off for a toilet stop and what they assume is a Mall opening. They go inside to pee and get trapped inside what is actually a Bio-Dome that is sealing 5 scientists inside for a year. Oh dear! Of course they resist and set about causing as much havoc as possible. About a month in they find a key to a lock that opens a window in the desert section and they invite all their hundreds of college friends to the biggest party of all time, all but destroying the Bio-Dome. After a large telling off by their girlfriends they realise the error of their ways and recruit 4 of the 5 scientists into helping them restore the Bio-Dome to 100% . The fifth scientest has mysteriously disappeared and reappears the night before the opening of the doors only to cause havoc and potential disaster to the Bio-Dome.

It stars Pauly Shore, Stephen Baldwin (probably the lesser known of the four Baldwin brothers) and Kylie Minogue. JP said it - probably Kylie's lowest career point. I don't think there are any performances of note in this movie. Except perhaps from the voice of the Bio-Dome Homeostatis computer. He really makes me feeeel that he's the computer.

I don't have much else to say about this movie, other than if you need a laugh and don't want to think at all, this is a good one to watch. It's crude and rude and almost "typical" of American humour. Oh and I will just say that watching JP watch this knowing how much he hates it was more fun that watching this movie again. hehe.

I think the only thing that saw JP through "Bio-Dome" was knowing that Alfred Hitchcocks "The Birds" was next.

"The Birds" is classed as a horror movie, but JP wasn't able to really explain why it was. Oddly, I've seen this before and I didn't find it that scary, or scary at all in fact. Birds don't bother me in the slightest. Now, if it had been called "The Spiders" and had hordes of spiders attacking people and houses and not birds, I wouldn't be able to be in the same house, let alone actually watch the movie.

So the story is starts in a Pet store in San Francisco. Melanie is ordering birds and is mistaken to be a staff member by a handsome man (whose name escapes me right now). He tells her that he wants lovebirds for his little sisters birthday and then he leaves. She works out who he is and takes a pair of lovebirds to his families home in Bodega Bay (can anyone say stalker?!). The man notices her leaving across the bay by boat and raises to meet her at the dock where she is swooped at by a seagull. She makes up some phoney story about visiting the local school teacher for the weekend and agrees to stay for the sisters birthday party the next day. At the party the children are attacked by a flock of birds, so she stays a bit longer. Over the next few days (in which she only ever wears the one outfit - euw) the bird attacks get bigger, involve more birds (namely crows and seagulls) and deadlier. It all comes to a head when Melanie is bunkered down in the house with the family and it's attacked by a huge flock of birds and I mean huge!

While watching this I couldn't help but think that she was such a stalker for tracking down the guy from the store and then going to his house in a far off seaside town, sneaks into his house and leaves birds for crying out loud. But somehow the man finds this endearing and by the end of the movie (only three days later) he's hugging and kissing her and acting like an old married couple with her.

This movie is definetly a cult classic and how could it not be considering it's an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I'm proud to be able to say that I've seen it, but I wasn't that impressed by it really. Mainly because it didn't scare me at all and isn't that the main point of it. Of course I'm not looking forward to "Psycho", also done by Alfred Hitchcock, but after watching "The Birds" and not being scared, I feel ever so slightly optimistic about "Psycho".

Spoiler alert here people; What I did like is that you never find out why the birds start forming and attacking the town and people. That is the creepiest part. Not knowing the reason, makes it seem like it could happen anywhere, any time. Creepy right?!

Would I recommend you watch this? Hmmm. If you have any kind of dislike to birds, then no, definetly not, don't even dream of it. Otherwise, sure why not. If you're not scared by it then you'll at least appreciate the fact that it's a classic.

And that was the long weekend of movie watching. Next up is "The Black Dahlia" and coming up are "Bladerunner", "Blast from the Past" and "The Blue Lagoon". And there is still more "B's" to come.

We've been doing this project since 18th April and only half way through the "B's". I'm not sure if this shows great progress or just shows how long it's really going to take us to do this. I'm guessing it'll take at least a year, but probably more. Fun!

My Camera

I've always had a camera. Growing up I loved playing with Dad's SLR camera. I remember the day when I bought my very own film camera. I was 17 and it was one of the first things I bought with my very own, hard-earned cash.

When digital cameras started coming in I was very begrudging of them - nothing could replace film right?! Then in 2008 I stopped borrowing Dad's digital and bought my own compact digital camera, duty free on the way to Vanuatu. And I loved it!

In October I moved my compact camera to its new home - my handbag (it's surprising how often I need or want a camera on hand), and I bought my very own DSLR camera. (DSLR - Digital Single Lense Reflex). I bought it from Wellington Photographic Supplies store, which is undisputedly the best camera store in Wellington.

Tonight I FINALLY went and did the free "how to use your camera" class that comes with the purchase.The guys running the class were brilliant and very informative. They ran through a whole lot of the basics and some handy hints for getting the best use out of my camera.

And then to reel everyone in they were offering a 10% discount on any purchases bought that night. So, of course with today being pay day I did some shopping! I wanted to get one of everything, but of course had to rain myself in a little. I walked away with two new filters, photo clips, a macro lense and gold writable CD's for poto back-up. Plus I left me camera behind for a full clean - damn dust! I wanted to get the monopod, polarized lenses and card reader, but they will have to wait until my credit card is looking a little healthier.

I love my camera, and can't wait to get it back on Friday so I can do more playing with it now that I have a better idea of how to use it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LB

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LB

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

My little sister is 24yrs old today. Love you LB. xx

"The Bear" & "The Bee Movie"

"The Bear" is a movie that I had no idea about. I'd never heard of it before. JP owns it be default. It's part of one of those box sets you can buy. He'd bought the set for the movie "Watership Down" and at the same time became the loving owner of "The Bear" and "The BFG" (which is coming up after "The Bee Movie".) Based on it's pack mates I assumed this was going to be some kind of sweet children's movie about bears.

Before I say much else about this I'll tell you that I watched this on a Saturday night when I was feeling rather unwell and tired. So probably not the best time to be watching this kind of thing.

The movie takes place in British Columbia in 1885. It's about a bear cub that is orphaned and finds an old grizzly bear that has been shot by hunters to befriend. The hunters chase the bears around the woods and the bears keep getting away until the cub is captured by the hunters. The grizzly corners one of the hunters up on a high mountain top and just when you think he's going to eat him, he walks away. This leads to the hunter letting the bears get away and everyone seems to live happily ever after.

What's amazing about this movie is that it's all filmed with live animals. It looks like it was shot by people filming real life animals in thier habitat. If it were not for the disclaimer at the beginning of the movie advising that the scences where animals were injured were simulated I'd probably not believe it was filmed to a script at all. The movie follows the various animals (but mainly the bear cub) around the woods for the majority of the film and really shows the uninterrupted nature that exists out there.

The other thing that I really liked was that there wasn't a lot of talking. In fact there are no people in the movie until about 10 minutes in and even then there's no dialogue until 17 minutes in. There are only three men the entire film and they only have a handful of lines all together.

Personally I'm not to good with the gory bits - mainly the shooting of the bear, the defleshing of bears, injured horses and dogs, and even the scene where the bear cub licks the bullet wound of the grizzly. Euw. If those bits had made the editing floor I'd have been much happier.

I'm divided on whether I'd consider this is really a children's film and whether I'd recommend that children watch it. On one hand the natural environment and the animals is awesome and I think children these days don't get to see that as much as they should. Also, there's no fake voices, it's all completely natural, so it's not trying fooling children into thinking that they are some magical animal that talks like in so many movies you see today. On the other hand though I have the whole hunting, shooting, bullets and blood flying everywhere thing that I don't think children really need to see.

Perhaps I was not in the right frame of mind last night because I wasn't definetly firmly on the 'No way is my kid ever watching that' hand, but 24 hours later, I'm feeling better and swaying towards the other hand, and perhaps thinking that sometimes we need to expose our kids to this kind of 'violence' so that they gain a more realistic view of the world. If we're watching it with them so that they can ask questions etc, that can't be a bad thing.

Oh who knows, I'm obviously conflicted and not likely to make a proper decision until one day in the distant future and my kids say "Can we watch Uncle JP's "The Bear" movie Mum?"

This afternoon it has been pouring with rain, cold and miserable. JP and I went to the supermarket, stocked up on beer and junk food and came home to plop ourselves down in front of the heater and have us some good old fashioned movie watching.

The next movie in the project was "The Bee Movie" and JP hates it. I find this rather amusing to be honest. He tells me it's because they are talking bees, that talk to humans and then sue them. It makes no sense. My response to that? It's an animated children's movie, if it was all real where would the fun be?! I keep coming up with movies that are similar (as in movies where animals talk to humans) and seeing if he hates them too, but no, apparently it's just "The Bee Movie".

I do conceed that I am not the hugest fan of "The Bee Movie". It's a Dreamworks production and those that have read my previous reviews will know that I'm a Pixar girl any day. Dreamworks is a distant second in my opinion.

Anyway, "The Bee Movie" is written, directed, produced and stars Jerry Sienfeld. So if you're not a Jerry fan this isn't the movie for you. It's about Barry B Benson, a Bee that has just finished college and must decide which job to take in the Honey factory in the hive. Only, Barry is more interested in what's outside the hive and takes a flight to find out. While out he gets stuck in the rain and must take shelter inside a humans house. He's rescued from a good old swatting by Vanessa (a human) and they strike up a friendship. When Barry accompanys Vanessa to the supermarket he discovers that humans are using all the honey the bees make without their permission. He sues the honey makers and wins. Now the bees have more honey than they no what to do with so they stop making their own honey. This of course means no more pollen collecting or spreading as they don't need it for their honey. Slowly all the flowers and trees start dying and Barry realises that Bees are needed for a lot more than making their own honey. So he and Vanessa steal a flower float from the tournament of roses festival and fly it back home. All the bees are called in to help land the plane when Barry accidently knocks out the pilots. Once the plane is laned all the bees take off with the flowers and start pollenating again. Everything goes back to normal - hooray.

I hear you already, JP is mildly right - the story is ludicrious. Not only do they talk, but they sue humans, land a plane and save the world just by pollenating flowers.

What I do like is that it's an animated movie, and like "The Ant Bully" and "Antz" it goes inside a world that we don't know much about and brings it to life. It has a great cast - Matthew Broderick, Renee Zellwegger and Patrick Warburton. I could take of leave Jerry Seinfeld as an actor, but as a Comedian I think he's great.

This one is definetly for the kids. But once is more than enough for the adults.

Next: "The BFG" and then "Big Fish".

Nature you freak me out.

JP has freaked me out once again. (Thanks JP) He told me about this sinkhole that has appeared in Guatemala about a week ago. After a tornado swept through Guatemala a sink hole appeared. It looks like a photoshopped pic, but it's really real.

There are several things that freak me out about this. Firstly take are really good look at the photo. The earth goes down about 100m and then NOTHING! NOTHING! How can there be nothing?! There's literally nothing there! It freaks me out. Think about it, there was a three story building sitting on top of only 100m of earth and then nothingness. That's just creepy. If that happened here in my backyard I wouldn't be able to live here anymore. If it happened in Palmerston North I'd be very nervous about living here.

And then my next thoughts are about how far down does it go before you hit something? How far underneath of the rest of the city does the void go? How are more people not freaking out about this right now?!

And, how are they going to fill it in? Normally with sinkholes they use debris and earth from otherplaces to fill it in, but with this sink hole they don't know how far the void goes, so no idea how much debris they will need.

And then there's the whole "how the hell did happen?" question. Officials are saying that it was discovered by nature, but made my man. Something about bad sewage, plumbing etc that has eroded the pipes and earth. What makes it even worse is that this is not the first time this has happened. In 2007 Guatemala had a 30 metre sinkhole that was similar. Only this one is 100 metre deep and opens up in to a gaping hole.

Guatemala you are officialy off my 'places to travel to' list. I just simply can't go to a place that has gaping holes that open up into deep black holes not that far from the surface. It freaks me out just thinking about the possibility of existing on only 100metre of earth and then nothingness. The fact that it was a result of man makes me feel a little better and the fact that it's not in NZ makes me feel much better, but even so.

Nature discovered what Man did and showed the world. Shame on you Man. Sorry Nature. Please stop freaking me out now!

You can check out the full story and more photos on this link:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/photogalleries/100601-sinkhole-in-guatemala-2010-pictures-world/#guatemala-city-sinkhole_21110_600x450.jpg