Film Review

you all must think that all I do is watch films - well yes that is partly true, but I don't get the chance to see all the films I want to - for example I've been trying to find the time for the last 3 weeks to go and see Inception. We turned up at the cinema on one of the films last few weeks of showing , on orange Wednesday night and gah it was sold out.

Anyway what films I do get to see I like to talk about, for example I get to review Disney films which are fantastic - if you have kids plus a blu-ray player then any sane parent must buy these films. I have lost count of the times my youngest as put them on and sat through the films again and again. Best of all is that they come in dual format - Blu-ray and DVD - which is mighty handy for those long trips that the kids have to endure when they visit the relatives in Scotland (it's about a 10 hour trip split over two days - "Mum are we there yet?" - know what I'm saying?).

Ok so back to the subject in hand, this time I'm reviewing The Princess and the Frog
What I liked about this film was that it wasn't the typical fairy tale story - you know the one about poor girl makes good and her princess saves her. This was more like poor girl who has a dream to make it big, becomes a frog, has adventure with prince frog, then they make it big! I wont give too much away about the story but it was most enjoyable film I've seen in a long time and more in keeping with todays "fairytales"!

Fright Fest Virgin

I have just spent a whole day sitting in a cinema watching 6 "fright" films. Fright Fest is a yearly 5 day festival celebrating new as well as classic horror films. And as a fright "virgin" Saturday the 28th was my official induction - and it was awesome. Our first film started at 11.00 am and we were treated to the Cherry Tree Lane - which was a tense film about a group middle age couple whose evening meal is interrupted by 3 teenagers looking for revenge on the couples son after he snitched on someone. On a low budget and short filming time they made an amazing film that had me feeling anxious and tense about what was going to happen.

Next at 1.15pm we sat down to watch The Tortured - which was quite gorey in the torture scenes, loved that, but sadly was a tad corny in their lines and acting.

3.15pm was 13 Hours - nice up to date UK take on the old werewolf theme. Can't say too much about this one as it looked good, but the baldcaps kinda ruined it for me, get the clippers out next time.

6.30 I Spit on Your Grave - was a quite disturbing story reminiscent of that film (which I cannot name - but lets say hillbillies, banjo theme tune and a fishing trip going wrong) . Yes I was disturbed by this film, my heart was beating, the adrenaline was pumping around my highly sugared out body so much that my blood almost turned to syrup. But the ending scenes were truly awesome and I have never ever heard an audience grimace, laugh and generally praise the originality in the thinking behind those scenes!

9pm saw us sitting down (did I say that our bums still felt fine at this point? comfy cinema seats make so much of a difference !) to watch the Monsters . A beautiful film, beautiful locations and so well put together - I definitely recommend watching this. Not so much a fright film but almost like Close Encounters of the Third Kind film - know what I mean? I don't want to give too much of the story away but see this one when it's out on general release.

Finally, 11.30pm, onto some Japanese gore - and boy these guys know how to make it! Dream Home - supposedly based on a true story is about one persons frustration on trying to buy a house to please her hard working but poor parents. This was gore, gore, gore and pretty darned good gore too.

I'm tired now - only got three hours sleep before my youngest monster decided to wake me up. That will teach me to come home at 3.30 in the morning from London.

Yes I did buy this

Yes this is officially my first bike - Honda CG 125. Nice little runner :)


And this is now officially Drew's new bike which he gives a :) :) :) :) :) (5 smilie rating)

My next bike... well let's just say it's going to be a Monster :)

25 - it's a magic number

Today I donated my 25th pint of blood - so that's taken me approximately 9 years of regular donations!

The allotment is still doing very well - courgettes are turning to marrows. No pictures but for the first time ever I grew cucumbers - yeah go me! A bit tough skinned but actually quite nice. Phoebe on the other hand has been getting creative making Pandora style bracelets and now wants to sell her wares :)

A jolly nice person

I had a rant at the ever so un-helpful post office staff this week. I got some passport photos printed for Emily but after getting the passport documents through the door with the leaflet of rules and regulations on how the photo should be presented I thought I'd go for some advice - and who would be better than the people who check and send. Ha I thought wrong. The late opening (yes they finally opened at 9.05 am rather than 9am - grump 1), next they didn't smile or say good morning (is a friendly hello these days too much to ask? - grump 2), I then asked if they could advise me about passport photos and if the ones I had were ok to use. All I got from them was "for £8 we do a check and send", I explained that I could check and send my own form and all I wanted to know was whether the photos were suitable or not. So she chatted with her boss, came back and said again "for £8 we do a check a send service". I explained that I was more than capable of checking and sending forms, all I wanted was a yes or no answer on these blasted passport photos. GRUMP3. She said no after I repeated my question again, so I politely said that their customer service was awful and they should be ashamed to be called a service of any sort. Grump 4

I then popped into Boots store and asked a nice gentleman at the photo counter what he thought. Gladly he obliged in measuring the photo and said that he didn't think that they would be suitable. I thanked him gladly for his advice, popped across the street to a photographer and had more photos taken (and a tad cheaper than that god awful un-usable badly designed user interface of a photo booth at Tesco - passport quality my @rse)

I then thought hey - it's not often I get a nice caring person in a shop who actually gives a darn about you and goes out of their way. So I popped Boots a nice email saying "thanks for employing people who care". And the lovely people at Boots send me a nice box with 4 eyeshadows - coolio. I'm going to start emailing more companies to let them know if I get a good service from their staff. Ahem not that I'm after freebies, but heck they are nice to get :)

Hero of the Week

I haven't blogged about anything significant for a long time. But after watching The Cove this evening I've been in tears. Watch baby dolphins being separated from their mothers, and callously slaughtered - all in the name of food - highly poisoned food, food so laden with mercury that it causes severe deformities in the unborn.

Richard O'Barry you are a hero

Green things part 2

ok since I last posted pictures of the allotment here's an update. Now I'm praying for rain as my poor potatoes are looking a bit yellow and wilty :(

Laughing cat says

CHEEZE!(ps no animals were harmed in this production. Cat bed proudly sponsored by Catit Design Senses Play Circuit - yes its a toy not a bed and he sleeps in it!)

What a difference a day can make

I forgot to take the camera with me to the allotment this morning, but I did take photos of the 12 courgettes we harvested this morning.

I managed to fob off 8 of them to a couple of my neighbours. Whilst using a couple more for making some gluten free chocolate zucchini cakes and muffins.




Next year I need to remembner not to plant so many courgettes ;)

Brassica section

Parsnips and carrots

Tomatoes

Potatoes

Strawberries and rasps

Peas and Beans

Corn salad, lettuce, leeks and flowers (edible flowers) cabbages

Spinich

Cucumber house (loofas too!)

Radish

Crikey it's still growing

The allotment has started yield us some veg ! hurrah hurrah - courgettes anyone?



Some of the crop - 1 over grown green courgette! a couple of yellow and green courgettes and some radish.