Vegetable Markets

The Lower Hutt vegetable markets are on every Saturday morning. I went along with my camera and along they way came up with a couple of great ideas for photography essays. In the meantime I caught these photos.

Puppy love

My good friend Anna looks after her Mums managrie of animals whenever they go away. I've taken to hanging out with gorgeous posse of critters. After work on the last day of the working year we had a few beverages and I gotten down on the floor with the animals. After being licked to death they got bored of me and I got some very sweet photos.

Check out these gorgeous puppies - Ruger, Poppy and Chester - along with their long suffering cat friend - Barclay.

Itinerary

I'm working on my trip itinerary at the moment. I have all my flights, tours and accommodation booked and paid for. Now to find day tours and determine the best deals for transport and entertainment in each city. In particular I'm doing San Francisco and Los Angeles by myself, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

In the meantime I hope to get an itinerary together so you can all keep track of where I am each day. Jealous much?!

Testing . . .

Hi folks,

It's been awhile since I posted on my blog. Life's busy I guess. Tonight I'm testing out how easy it is to use blogger on my iPad. So far so good. It's pretty easy so far. Not feeling the keys give way under the pressure of my press is a little odd, but I'm pleased with how natural it does feel despite of that. I'm also able to touch type a lot better than I had thought.

If I was you I'd be thinking who cares. Well, the whole reason I bought an iPad in the first place was to so that I have a much more realistic portable device to take travelling with me, that I can use to not only store all the thousands of photos that I'm bound to take, but also so that I can write home and put up blog posts of my trip.

In June 2013 I'm finally going on the trip that I've been planning since I was a teenager. My friends Tracy and Candy are getting married in Rarotonga. After a week of sun and fun with my friends, I'm flying to the USA and Canada. I'll be spending 8 weeks travelling around the countries, seeing and doing as much as I can. I'm really looking forward to it and to sharing all the adventures with you via this blog.

I hope to share more of the planning and details with you as the time gets closer. So stay tuned!

Don't panic, this photo has nothing to do with anything, I just want to see how easy it is to load a photo from here :)

Wittle People Wednesday

Time for more 'Wittle People". I have had a few newborn photo sessions lately and two lined up for this weekend, so there's plenty to share!

Here is Alexander, a sweet little boy that wasn't too sure about having his photo taken. He had a very prominent vein around his left eye and a noticable, but not as dark one around his right eye. I found black and white did wonders at making this a little less obvious and so you could see his sweet face a bit more.

 

Wittle People Wednesday

For this weeks "Wittle People Wednesday" post I bring a few pearlers from my photoshoot with Rowan, Jake and their 7 week old daughter Imogen.

Imogen is a gorgeous but  assertive wee girl. She decided that the photoshoot was all about her, and should anyone attempt to hold her she'd get very upset. This led to some candid photos of Mum and Dad trying to calm her, as well as some new and beautiful poses in an attempt to get a happy Imogen with her parents.

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Ashley Sisk" width="150" height="150" />

Wittle People Wednesday

I've really slowed down on the whole blogging aspect of my life while I spend more time on my new photography website. Check it out here www.hnjbrowne.wix.com/photography.

Meanwhile new Mum Ashley has started a new weekly challenge dedicated to the 'Wittle People' in our lifes. Since I've been doing a lot newborn photography (and loving it) I have lots of 'Wittle People' to share with  you. This week I have edited photos from a shoot with Storm, Rory and their six week old son Zen. He was an absolute delight to photograph, a real natural and very 'zen'.



Zen, age 6 weeks



Zen




Zen and Storm. A gorgeous Mother and Son.




Zen and Storm.

 

Eulogies

Have you ever given a Eulogy? I've done it twice now. Once for my Grandfather in 2009 and once this week for my Great Aunt. Both were for elders in my family and as the oldest grandchild I stood up to speak on behalf of the family.

It's always a lot tougher than I think. I don't have a problem writing what I want to say or feel nervous about getting up and speaking in front of everyone. It's the looking out at all the faces and realising that I only know a handful of them and that every single person has their own stories and memories of this special person. Then I feel the pressure to speak honestly and respectfully and tell everyone about the person I knew. And, no one seems to want to laugh at jokes or stories that are funny. I think it's ok to laugh at funerals, the people that we are there to remember were funny, they were happy, we should remember them as such.

This week there were two services held for Maryann. A memorial service was held here in Wellington on Wednesday afternoon (NZ time) in the Lady Chapel at the Wellington Cathedral. The funeral service was held in Mundford, Norfolk on Thursday afternoon (UK time) at the local church (I don't know the name unfortunetly, but I remember it from my visit there in 2008). A third memorial service will be held later this year by the acting community in London. Maryann would have been chuffed at three services and I was particularly touched by how many people attended both services. It's so touching to know that she meant something to all so many people on both sides of the world.

The two Eulogies were written by me (and read at the Wellington service) and my Mum (read by Jason at the Mundford service).

My Eulogy:

Last week our family lost one of our matriachs. Maryann was my Great Aunt. I’m a little sketchy on the medical details, but from what I understand Maryann died after developing a heart condition. It took her life as quickly as it surfaced. 

Maryann was the younger sister of my Gran Susie. They spent their early years in India before getting stuck in England during a visit when World War 2 started. At age 14 Maryann came to New Zealand with her family when her father was sent to establish BP here. Maryann made many friends here during her time in New Zealand, some of whom she kept in touch with and visited while here this year. Maryann returned to England with her parents after a few years, leaving Susie behind who’d fallen in love with a good kiwi bloke.

Maryann she was a like a second Gran to us. We saw her every three or so years when she visited. She was just like Gran, but had a much stronger British accent.

Maryann lived her life between her roomy London flat and a small cottage in Mundford, Norfolk. I remember seeing a lot of photos of the cottage during various seasons growing up. Four years ago I went to England and spent several nights with Maryann in Mundford. It was a great experience to see the famed cottage in person and spend a few nights there.  Many of Maryann’s nieces their friends and then her great nieces, great nephews and their friends have all spent their first few nights at Maryann’s London flat, before travelling onwards. She wouldn’t pick you up from the airport or take you to the tourist attractions, but when you’ve just travelled to the other side of the world, having someone to meet you at the end of the road with a cup of tea and a bed to sleep on it makes the overseas experience that much more homely.

I was amazed at the field at the bottom of the garden. A large plot of land that is owned by many families in the area. Maryann owned a large section of it that she had used for several things. A large part of it was used as a vegetable plot by Maryann and several local friends. The boy scouts had their club rooms on the field too. The field is not accessible by car and therefore will never be good for developers or used to build on. So what does one do with a large plot of land in the middle of the English countryside?  It had become a family tradition that should one find themselves in the english countryside one must Frolick in the Field. Because really, what else do you DO with a field?

Mum, Morgan and I have all frolicked in the field and all have similar photos. My sister Lee mentioned her sadness at the prospect of now never having the chance to frolick in the field. However I'm fairly confident that should any of Maryann descendants ever find themselves in the English countryside, they merely need to knock on the neighbours door, introduce themselves and visit the field. Of course once there, you must frolick. It's tradition after all.

Maryann wouldn’t travel half way round the world for funerals or for weddings, but she would come to spend a few weeks every three or so years. When she visited in February of this year she stayed a few nights with Lexi and Dad in Auckland then came to Wellington to spend the last of the summer weeks at the beach with Gran and Gill. I went to visit one weekend with Lee and Dorian. We spent the afternoon walking along the beach and playing in the sand. I took my favourite photo of her, which is on the cover of the service booklet. I lay down on the sand to take a photo of the dogs running towards me. Maryann stood in front of me and bent down to see what I was doing. She had the goofy smile on her face that I’ll always remember.  After saying goodbye she visited Mum in Australia before heading home to England. We weren’t to know it was the last time we’d see her, but I’m pleased we saw her not long before she died.

Maryann had attended Drama School in England and while she did many theatre shows, we knew her as a TV actress. It’s our families claim to fame. She was in many British shows and had more work after she retired than before. Most of my friends know her only from a one-off appearance in 'Little Britian' as one of the old frog ladies. She was in Kingdom with Stephen Fry and she appeared in shows such as The Bill, Doc Martin and many others. I can't remember the amount of times that we would get a call to say she was in an episode of some show and we had to watch. We would, only to have to watch the next episode because it was actually that episode she was in. And usually it was for half a minute about ten minutes in, but we would sit and watch the entire episode just in case she came back. I remember watching an entire miniseries that was completely horrific because she was in the first episode as the Grandmother going away on holiday, then the entire drama was about the horrible things that happened while she was away. In the last episode she came home at the very end, with open arms getting off the plane. That's how I saw her most times she came to visit us in New Zealand!

Maryann always had a pet budgie named George. She had George when she lived in New Zealand and after that she always had a George. She would teach them to talk and to sit on her shoulder or knee. Some flew away and some died. Some were around for years and some weren't. One was returned for being a girl because the girls don’t talk. There was no George the 13th, just George the one after the 12th. George the 16th died a week before Maryann. While enjoying a cup of tea with George perched on the rim, Maryann left the room, only to return to find him head up, drowned in the tea. It's ok to laugh, I sure did.

The cottage in Norfolk and the London apartment were owned by my great-grandparents and now they will be sold. The furniture sold or donated to charity, the field gifted to the local church and her photographs, jewellery and precious belongings shipped down under. And just like that our small family will no longer have any roots in England. And that's ok, we're kiwis after all.

I’m sure there is so much more I could tell you about Maryann, her life and how much she was loved and respected. But the last thing I have to say is about the thing I’ll miss most. It’s her hands on my cheeks as she’d give a cheeky little smile and lean in for a kiss and a hug. I remember it well and always will.

Mum's Eulogy:

Maryann was born in India, her parents were there as her Father Reginald had a job there with BP. They had gone to India in 1929 immediately after their wedding and Maryann’s sister Susie was born there in 1930. It was truly the days of the British Raj. Recently we found my Granny, Kathleen’s, diary from 1936. It was filled with appointment for tennis and ‘tea’ with friends’ . They had a cook, and a nanny for the little girls and no doubt cleaners and so on.

In 1939 Kathleen  Susie and Maryann were visiting family in Britain when war broke out. They couldn’t go back to India and Reggie was left there  for the whole of the war. As Kathleen  and the girls had no home in the UK they spent the war staying with various relatives which I’m sure wasn’t always easy.

After the  war Reggie returned and they settled in London. In 1948 Reggie got word that he was needed  by BP to start up the company in New Zealand. New Zealand?? Where on earth is that? It was as far away as it was possible to go, 6 weeks on a boat. Maryann has talked to me about how torn they were to leave England and go to this stage place with unpronounceable place names.

When they arrived in Wellington they set up home and one of the first people they met was John Akers who came from the BP office to help set up the girls’ bicycles. He was of course to marry Susie and become my Father.

Maryann went to boarding school, in a small provincial town about 2 hours drive from Wellington. The girls there, from farming families in provincial New Zealand must have been very different to Maryann who had already travelled widely and lived through the war in Britain.  Maryann always talked about the wonderful times she had at school and made friends there who she was still seeing when she was in NZ this year .

After she had finished school she went to Victoria University in  Wellington for a while, then the family returned to London. Susie stayed on in NZ as she had a career there and of course, John Akers.

In London Maryann wanted to go to Drama college. Her father insisted that she also do a secretarial course so that she had some skills for when the acting bug was over. Of course she never needed to be a secretary!

Maryann worked in theatre and then television for the whole of her life from  then on, sometimes working a lot , sometimes with long gaps between jobs. In NZ we know her work for the snippets we see in UK TV shows. Many of you will know her stage work as  well. Her work took her all over Britain, and more recently she had parts that took her to Iceland and To South Africa.

To us she was highly glamorous, working in lovey places, holidaying in even lovelier places and able to buy cottages that she renovated, while still enjoying life in London.

Maryann has talked to me about the anguish she felt at not  finding ‘the right bloke’, marrying and having children.  Still,  her life was busy with work, her houses,  and gardens. She was a constant companion for her Mother and they lived and travelled together. The last time we saw Kathleen , she was 82 and she and Maryann had come to NZ for the usual 3 yearly holiday.

Maryann always ‘served’ whether it was to either  the church in London or in Norfolk, the conservative party, or various family members. She was a  devoted visitor to her cousin Eileen. When I talked to her on the phone she would have just been making 400 meringues, or 27 apple pies or 3  knitted eddies or a pile of little knitted chickens to be sold for the church or conservatives. She was never idle and kept a huge vege garden which meant she was mostly self sustaining  in veges year around.

She also had a constant stream of Visitors from New Zealand and many of my generation and  my children and their friends visited and stayed or based them selves in Marloes road for a few days or weeks. Everyone remembers Maryann as a quintisential art of their UK trip.  Some of us  also came to Mundford to see where the family came from, visit the graves of Kathleen and Reggie and an essential part of our trip was always to ‘ frolick ‘ in  the field with the obligatory photograph to immortalise the event . 

Her constant companion was her budgie George. Actually I think she was up to about George 16th. Its  hard to keep count. George died a week before Maryann did. He was standing on the rim of her cup drinking from her tea, when he toppled in and drowned while she was out of the room. Its OK to laugh, we did. How fortunate that we didn’t have to find a new home for George .

In February this year Maryann embarked on her 3 yearly pilgrimage to NZ. She did a  5 day tour of Cambodia on the way, stopped in Auckland to see Lexi  and Terry then had 3 weeks in Wellingotn with Susie, Gill, Heather,  Lee and Morgan  and met her great great  nephew Dorian. She then came to see me in Australia for 5 days, and meet my partner Wayne.  She was fit and strong and on the last day she walked to the beach 3 times for   quick dip in the sea.  None of us had any inkling that  we wouldn’t see her again. Just a few weeks later she developed a  heart condition which lead to the multi system failure that she died of. The last few months really emphasised to us how fit and healthy she has been all her life.

Through the last few months Maryann has ben faithfully cared for by Jason Taylor and Mary Sweeny who visited her, and were working behind the scenes on some of the tricker issues like funding for treatment, and communication with the Doctors. All of this was carefully relayed to us in NZ, thank heaven  for E mail.!

It was an enormous comfort to us, and would have been for Maryann too, that Mary was with her for the last day and with her when she died. Maryann Loved Mary and would have known she was loved  right up to the end.

Jason has worked wonders in arranging this funeral and in starting to arrange the future of Maryann’s houses and so on. The family are eternally grateful to May and Jason for all they have done.

Maryann was very very special to me, we had a close bond that nothing could change. I miss her terribly already and look forward to the day that I can come to England stand stand beside her grave myself.

Thank you so much for coming today to say goodbye to Maryann. It is good to celebrate the wonderful life she had, and its Ok to feel sad and a sense of loss. I will miss her forever and she will always be ‘My Maryann’

Maryann

Maryann Turner
23 August 1934 - 17 July 2012

On Tueday our family lost one of our matriachs. My Great Aunt Maryann passed away in London. She had suffered from a heart problem (I'm sketchy on the medical details) over the last few months that finally took her life as quickly as it surfaced.

Maryann had visited us here in New Zealand in February as she did every three or so years. While she was a strong minded British woman that wasn't afraid to speak her mind and ruffle everyones feathers, she was loved.

In her London Flat. 2008

Maryann was an actress and a free spirit. She had no children of her own and lived her life in her roomy flat in London and the small cottage in Mundford, Norfolk. Four years ago I went to England and spent several nights with Maryann in Mundford. I was finally able to spend some time in the village my gran grew up in and in the cottage that I'd grown up seeing pictures of.

The Cottage. Mundford, Norfolk.

The Apple Tree in the backyard.

 

The backyard.

The path to the field.

I was amazed at the field at the bottom of the garden. A large plot of land that is owned by many families in the area. Maryann owned a large section of it that she had used for several things. A large section of it was used as a vegetable plot by Maryann and several local friends. The local boy scouts had their club rooms on the field too. The field is not excessible by car and therefore will never be good for developers or used to build on.

Collecting vegetable from her vege patch in the field.

So what does one do with a large plot of land in the middle of the English countryside. It's being gifted to the local church who I'm sure will continue to use it in the manner that is currently being used. It had become a family tradition that should one find themselves in the english countryside one must Frolick in the Field. Because really, what else do you DO with a field?

I frolicked in the field. August 2008

Mum, Morgan and I have all frolicked in the field and all have similar photos. My sister Lee mentioned her sadness at the prospect of now never having the chance to frolick in the field. However I'm fairly confident that should any of Maryann descendants ever find themselves in the English countryside, they merely need to knock on the neighbours door, introduce themselves and visit the field. Of course once there, you must frolick. It's tradition after all.

Morgan frolicks in the field. December 2008

Maryann ruffled feathers and disapproved of many of our 'kiwi' ways. She wouldn't travel half way round the world for funerals or for weddings, but she would come to spend a few weeks every few years. She met her great-great-nephew and she was generous with her money.

She was an actress in many British shows and had more work after she retired than before. Most of my friends know her only from a one-off appearance in 'Little Britian' as one of the old frog ladies. She was in Kingdom with Stephen Fry and she appeared in shows such as The Bill, Doc.Martin and many others. I can't remember the amount of times that we would get a call to say she was in an episode of some show and we had to watch. We would, only to have to watch the next episode because it was actually that episode. I remember watching an entire miniseries that was completely horrific because she was in the first episode as the Grandmother going away on holiday, then the entire drama was about the horrible things that happened while she was away. Then in the last episode she came home at the very end, with open arms getting off the plane. That's how I saw her most times she came to visit us in New Zealand!

Maryann always had a pet budgie named George. She had George when she was 4 years old and after that she always had a George. She would teach them to talk and to sit on her shoulder or knee. Some flew away and some died. Some were around for years and some weren't. One was returned for being a girl (the girls don't talk). There was no George the 13th, just George the one after the 12th. George the 16th died a week before Maryann. While enjoying a cup of tea with George perched on the rim, Maryann left the room, only to return to find him head down, drowned in the tea. It's ok to laugh, I sure did.

The cottage in Norfolk and the London apartment were owned by my great-grandparents and now they will be sold. The furniture sold or donated, the field gifted to the local church and her photographs, jewellary and precious belongings shipped down under. And just like that our small family will no longer have any roots in England. And that's ok, we're kiwis after all.

The thing I'll miss the most is her cheeky little smile and her hands on my face as she gave me a hug. I hope she finds the peace and happiness she deserves, wherever her she is now.

Erik the Viking

And now for more Alphabetical Movie Project reviews .  .  .

Erik the Viking was the next E movie and it's one of John's. Now, while I can remember the movie generally I don't remember enough to write a proper synopsis, so please forgive what I'm about to do. Namely, give you the blurb from the back of the DVD case;

In this Pythonesque staire of Viking life, Erik the Viking is a considerate man in a violent time. Erik doesn't enjoy killing and raping like his fellow men, so when he returns from another campaighn of rape and pillage, he wants to change his life. Erik the Viking gathers warriors from his village and sets out on a dangerous journey to Valhalla, to end the Age of Ragnarok, and bring peace and sunlight to the kingdom. To get there he has to lead a pathetic group of seasick sailors through the Gates of the World. But all threatens to fail when the local blacksmith plots to sabotage the excursion to protect his lucrative weapons business.

Tim Robbins stars as the naive and yet sweet Erik the Viking, leading his men to Valhalla. Eartha Kitt and John Cleese star as well as Terry Jones as King Arnulf. Mickey Rooney has a cameo as Erik's grandfather.

I always get a little bit nervous about John's movies. He loves his horrors, thrillers, gruesome movies as well as 'older' movies. But I'm often a little to harsh and found this 1989 comedy about vikings rather amusing. Funny even. It was worth all it's chuckles and humorous piss taking of era.

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and it was fun to see something that didn't take itself too seriously. If you like comedies then you should give this a try. It's typical of the time, not a lot of music but filled with lots of jokes and stupidty. Give it a go. Why not?

Next up is Erin Brokovich, Escape to New York and Ever After.

The Amazing Race

If I could participate in any reality TV show without a doubt it's "The Amazing Race". Which is exactly why John organised 'The Amazing Race' for my 30th birthday party - what an awesome best friend, I'm so lucky!

While I've been unwell over the last few weeks I've been catching up on the last few seasons of "The Amazing Race". They have just finished airing season 20 in the US. 20! I remember watching the first episode of season 1 while in Sydney when our family was on our way to Bali in 2001. Over that time I'm pretty sure that I've watched every season, or almost every season, I'm probably going to go back and rewatch them to check.

Anyway, it occurs to me that Phil must have one of the most amazing jobs. I figure he goes ahead of he teams to the next venue, films all the task intros etc and waits for them to come flying up to the mat. After 20 seasons you got figure he's been to so many amzing places. So I looked them up and here's where Phils been (in order from most visited, to least visited):

Visited 20 times:
USA (all seasons start and finish in the USA)

Visited 10 times:
India (seasons 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 20)

Visited 9 times:
China (seasons 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18)

Visited 7 times:
Germany (seasonss 3, 6, 9, 14, 16, 19, 20)

Visited 5 times:
Argentina (seasons 5, 7, 11, 16, 20)
Austria (seasons 3, 4, 14, 18, 20)
Italy (seasons 1, 4, 9, 12, 20)
Russia (seasons 5, 9, 13, 14, 17)
Japan (seasons 9, 12, 15, 18, 20)
France (seasons 1, 4, 6, 10, 16)
Thailand (seasons 1, 2, 9, 14, 19)

Visited 4 times:
Netherlands (seasons 4, 12, 15, 19)
Brazil (seasons 2, 9, 13, 18)
Malaysia (season 3, 4, 11, 16)
Australia (seasons 2, 4, 9, 18)

Visited 3 times:
New Zealand (seasons 2, 5, 13)
Chile (seasons 7, 11, 16)
Sweden (seasons 6, 15, 17)
Switzerland (seasons 3, 4, 18)
United Kingdom (seasons 3, 7, 17)
South Africa (seasons 1, 2, 7)
Tanzania (seasons 5, 11, 20)
Vietnam (seasons 3, 10, 15)

Visited 2 times:
Canada (seasons 5, 8)
Cambodia (seasons 13, 15)
Oman (seasons 9, 17)
Singapore (seasons 3, 16)
South Korea (seasons 4, 17)
Taiwan (seasons 12, 19)
Morocco (seasons 3, 10)
Botswana (seasons 1, 7)
United Arab Emirates (seasons 5, 15)
Panama (seasons 8, 19)
Norway (seasons 6, 17)
Spain (seasons 3, 10)

Visited 1 time:
Costa Rica (season 8)
Jamaica (season 7
Mexico (season 3)
Bolivia (season 13)
Ecuador (season 11)
Paraguay (season 20)
Peru (season 7)
Uruguay (season 5)
Belgium (season 19)
Croatia (season 12)
Czech Republic (season 15)
Denmark (season 19)
Estonia (season 15)
Finland (season 10)
Greece (season 9)
Hungary (season 6)
Iceland (season 6)
Ireland (season 12)
Lithuania (season 12)
Liechtenstein (season 18)
Poland (season 11)
Portugal (season 3)
Romania (season 14)
Turkey (season 7)
Ukraine (season 10)
Azerbaijian (season 20)
Bangladesh (season 17)
Indonesia (season 19)
Kazakhstan (season 13)
Kuwait (season 10)
Mongolia (season 10)
Philippines (season 5)
Sri Lanka (season 6)
Burkina Faso (season 12)
Egypt (season 5)
Ethiopia (season 6)
Ghana (season 17)
Kenya (season 5)
Madagascar (season 10)
Malawi (seasons 19)
Mauritius (season 10)
Mozambique (season 11)
Namibia (season 2)
Senegal (season 6)
Seychelles (season 16)
Tunisia (season 1)
Zambia (season 1)

Now, that's an impressive list! I'd love to visit that many places and have that many passport stamps.

Ella Enchanted & Enchanted

After a little refreshing of my memory I see that it's been almost a year since my last 'Alphabetical Movie Project' movie review. And it's probably been about that long since John and I actually watched a movie in project too. We finished the F's and then the project stalled. We needed a wee break I guess and we haven't started up again. Perhaps we will over the winter. In the meantime here are the rest of the reviews for the movies that we did watch.

Ella Enchanted is the Cinderella story with a little humourous spin. As a baby Ella was cursed by her fairy godmother with the gift of obedience. As a teenager she has had enough of the 'gift' and no longer wants to do what she's told, especially when her new step sisters discover that she has to do exactly what she's told. She goes in search of her fairy godmother to break the curse. To guide her she takes her other fairy godmothers boyfriend (who's been accidently cursed into a talking book). She bumps into the handsome prince that she's been picketing against and who her step sister is trying to marry, but she is less than impressed with his presence. Along the way she meets a dwarf that wants to be a lawyer, visits a giant village and gets rescued from ogres by the prince. She falls in love with him and before she can accept his marriage proposal his uncle discovers her obediance curse so he tells her she has to kill him at midnight. Will she be able to overcome her gift? Will she get the curse lifted in time?

Eric Idle narrates this fairytale, set in a magical realm with modern day music and fun. Anne Hathaway stars as the cursed Ella, alongside Hugh Dancy as the handsome prince. Joanna Lumley makes an appearance as the evil stepmother and Minnie Driver plays the fairy godmother (the good one, not the one that curses her).

I'm a big fan of Anne Hathaway, I'm not entirely sure why, but it might be because when I imagine the movie of my life I picture Anne Hathaway playing either myself or at least one of my friends. Weird? Sure. Anyway, I like Anne Hathaway and her acting work. She is particularly fun and joyous in this lighthearted movie and who knew she could sing! And not only sing, it was 'Someone to Love' by Queen, not the easiest song in the world to sing.

I enjoy the magic and fun of the movie. The singing dwarfs, the giants, the curse and of course that the prince falls in love with her. Yes it's a children's movie, but it's fun and I'm all for fun, lighthearted movies.

You won't miss anything by not watching it, but if you enjoy a musical, magical, children's movie, then this is the movie for you.

The next movie in the list was in the same vain and even the same name as the one above. Enchanted is also a fairytale and aimed generally at children or tweenagers.

Princess Giselle is your typical fairytale, cartoon princess. The movie starts out in cartoon form with the Princess very quickly falling in love with Prince Charming as he rides by. On her way to the wedding she is pushed into a very, very deep well by the evil Queen and falls through to modern day, real life Manhattan. Giselle is very lost and confused, but is rescued by Robert and his young daughter Morgan. Giselle tries to find her way home, while Prince Charming falls through the well followed by several other cartoon characters. Eventually Robert realises that he's falling in love with Giselle despite being in a relationship with Nancy. He must decide if the beautiful and quirky Giselle is for him, or if he should send her back to her cartoon world.

Amy Adams stars as the beautiful but naive Giselle and Patrick Dempsey stars as the worldly Robert. James Marsden is Prince Charming and Indina Menzel is Nancy. Amy Adams has the childlike, innocent look about her that plays very well as the naive cartoon come to life. While Patrick Dempsey is gorgeous and a great actor, I can't help but always see him as Dr McDreamy from Greys Anatomy. Meanwhile Indina Menzel is fabulous as Nancy. She's just fabulous in general, beautiful and an amazing singer (not that she sang in this movie, but I've seen her sing and she's great.) She made her start as a broadway actress and has moved into TV and movies. Susan Sarandon also cameo's as the real world evil Queen and of course she's great, when is she not?!

This movie could be any fairytale retold, but what makes it stand out is that it starts as a cartoon and the characters come to life in the real world. Without giving away the ending, one real life character falls the other way and ends up staying in the cartoon world. Rather quirky for a Hollywood movie with some big stars. But, it is of course a children's movie and has the obligatory enchanting animals and birds, singing princesses, a child that can see the 'real' beauty and awe of the fairytale, a prince that loves her and another man that doesn't love her but fallens in love with her in the end. Is that typical? Apparently so in fairytale land.

Once again, this isn't a must see by any means. And honestly you won't enjoy it if you don't like children's movies or a sickly sweet Amy Adams. But if you have a child or need something that is completely predicatable, mindless and sweet then give this a go.

Next up for review is Erik the Viking, Erin Brokovich, Escape from New York and Ever After. Then it's the F's. And there's a lot more of them than you'd think.

Welcome Noah!

See how I joked about doing Joy's maternity photos 3 weeks before her due date "just in case"?! Well it was a good thing as little Noah Samuel Wadham made his appearance into the world 2 and a half weeks early, arriving yesterday 20 June in the wee hours of the morning. Congratulations Joy and Sam!

Maternity Photos with Joy

My friend Joy is expecting her first baby and asked me to do her maternity photos. This past Sunday with only 3 weeks until her due date we decided it was the perfect time to get together for the photo shoot. If we left it any longer we may miss the chance (much like I did with Ele who went into labour 3 weeks early).

I make a point of promising privacy with my photos, especially when children and such personal nature is involved. I don't publish any photos on Facebook or other social media sites, but I do ask permission to publish a few shots here on my blog.

I really enjoy doing maternity photos and newborn photos not much later (usually around the one week old mark). It's a real rush and you can feel the love that has created the little life about to come into the world. And don't get me started on the squeeshy-ness of newborns!

With several friends pregnant I'm looking forward to doing more and more maternity and newborn shoots. Let me know if you're keen on some free photos cause I need the practice!

Anyway, without further ado, here are a few sneaky shots from my shoot with Joy and co-starring Sam her husband, Frankie their dog and of course little baby Wadham.