Mat and Aya came over for delicious LCC pizza and a movie – Dodgeball. I don’t usually like comedies like this one, but I love it!
LCC are my favourite pizza place, and do free delivery too. Wooo!
Pizza-tastic.
Alec’s Greek pizza.
Half dragon’s breath, half neptune.
My plain cheesey goodness.
The extra pizza pieces they threw in. Herbs and garlic. Yuuummm!
After a day of shopping, eating , hot chocolate and zombie movie, we all head over to Lisa and Matt’s place for Thai delivery and kitty cuddles.
One of my best discoveries while I’ve been sick is Menulog which is where I found Wi Marn Thai. They are located in Help St, Chatswood, have fresh, delicious food, and free delivery to Chatswood – or Wollstonecraft if you’re as persuasive as Beverly.
Alec poses because the girls asked him to. Bless you girls, look what he’ll put up with if you ask him nicely. Or offer a food reward.
Bev poses with kitty. Who’s cuter? It’s a toss-up!
Alec loves Thai. He especially loves it when I take pictures of him eating it.
Food lovers hoe in.
Who’s a crazier blogger?
Mmmm my fave dish, vegetarian fried rice.
After eating and then eating some more and shopping, Bev, Lisa and I went to Chatswood to meet up with Matt, Alec and Alec’s friend from work, Sean to see I Am Legend.
Beverly suggested the movie because she has a thing for Will Smith. I should probably have spoken up and said I don’t like zombie movies, but I didn’t realise how much of a zombie movie it actually was!
The general premise is that in the year 2009 a radical cure for cancer is discovered, but instead of being the miracle it is thought to be, it spawns a retro-virus that wipes out 90% of mankind. How this happens is skipped over however. There are quite a few plot holes and the exposition is told through random flashbacks that don’t quite fill in the gaps in the story.
There was a lot I liked, such as Will Smith looking buff and the cute dog, but also a lot that I didn’t, such as believing Will Smith masquerading as a scientist. The story could have done with more clarity around a lot of areas, such as the actual zombies and their intelligence. There seemed to be one who was smarter than the rest, but who he was and why he was smarter wasn’t explored.
After the movie we went to San Churro so Bev would try the magical churros.
Alec reluctantly posing for Lisa.
Must …. photograph … the … churros!!
A new chocolate shop! Of course it deserves its own post.
While shopping with Bev and Lisa, we passed this tiny little store just off Oxford Street. Did I feel like chocolate? Is that even a question!
I loved the pretty boxes. I will be back for presents – and for me!
Raspberry butterflies, strawberry hedgehog and caramel bombs.
Lisa can’t help herself.
The last chocolate to be eaten. Mmmmm.
To catch up with Bev, who had been in Singapore for three weeks, Lisa, Bev and I spent quite a jam-packed day together. We picked Bev up from the doctor (she had woken up with a swollen eye) and stopped in Paddington for lunch and to pick up a handbag from Belinda’s.
Bev loves Bite Me on Oxford Street, so it is now my turn to blog about it.
I loved the interior, hence the millions of pics about to follow. It has a kind of a retro diner feel to it, but 100 times funkier.
Jumbo menu when we walked in.
Can the world be a burger place? The eternal question.
The menu. I don’t know why I liked it enough to photo it, but I did.
Super-cute little wash towel thingy.
Crazy pictures on the walls.
Awesome attention to detail. I love the tomato sauce bottle.
Side-tracked. Cute magnetic bookmarks Bev brought me back from Singapore.
Poor Bev has a woe moment about her bad eye.
Who invited these crazy bloggers?
Bev defends herself from the dripping ceiling while slathering the chips in sauce. That’s dedication to the food.
My lentil burger with haloumi cheese, tomato and rocket. I would have preferred more of a stronger cheese, but it was still really tasty. It was also my first vege burger since going vego. Burgers were one of my favourite foods in my meat days, and I have missed them like mad. Was the vege burger just as good? No. Was it really tasty anyway? Yes, yes it was 🙂
Bev is serious about tomato sauce distribution.
Lisa tries some spicy horseradish.
My new sunnies. Bev was so happy I got them she needed to take my picture. Several times actually, so I could see how great they looked. Thanks Bev!
Trying to take a pic of the three of us in the mirror.
After seeing lots of movie promos with giant bears in the snow, Alec and I were keen to see this movie when it was released.
The Golden Compass is based on a series of books, which explains the huge amount of exposition they try to cram into the movie by way of the characters’ dialogue. It’s doesn’t entirely work, and is a bit clunky – it also doesn’t make sense all of the time, as concepts are introduced but not fleshed out. The editing was also clunky, making me think the movie makers had to edit a great deal of footage down to make the film and only had a short time to do so in.
The movie is set in a parallel world where a child, Lyra, is the only one who can work a magical artifact called the golden compass. Lyra’s friends have been disappearing, and she journeys into the far north – leading her to discover that the children have been kidnapped and experimented on, and only she can save them.
I liked a lot of the concepts, such as having your soul externally to your body, as an animal that walks by your side, and the large ice bears were impressive, but the large gaps in the storyline and bad editing took away from the enjoyment of the movie.
On New Year’s Day, Alec and I went to see Death At A Funeral, a British comedy recommended to us by Alec’s Dad.
I have to say, I did laugh a lot. I thought it was a bit odd in part, quite over the top in others, but in total, really funny and particularly good to watch when i had been feeling low over being so sick.
The general storyline is that a father dies and his family and friends convene at the family home for his funeral. The film interweaves multiple story lines, involving members of the family and a mysterious stranger who has a secret about the deceased. There is accidental drug-taking, nudity and dwarfs. How could it not be the funniest funeral ever?
I particularly liked Alan Tudyk as Simon Smith, who also stars in Serenity and Firefly.
With both Alec and I sick, we decided to spend NYE at home. It was a nice night actually. I tried cooking some different food and we watched new Heroes episodes.
Our little tree in its pot.
My gingerbread man tree decoration I bought this year.
Haloumi and tomato entree.
Trying to present it properly.
The main course – pasta salad wrap. It has all kinds of healthy things in it – asparagus, zucchini, peas, broccolini, semi-dried tomatoes and ricotta. It was really easy to make too!
I recently read the novel so was keen to see the movie version of Atonement with Rosalie.
The early reviews were not overly flattering, so I wasn’t hoping for an amazing movie. I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it was. Very much like the book, it was delicate, understated and old world in style.
Atonement was also very faithful to the book, with only one major deviation from the novel – the ending of all things! I would have much preferred if the movie had remained completely faithful to the book, but I think the change was made to enable Briony to voice her thoughts and hopes for atonement. In the book she internalises her thoughts on this, and without a narrator in the movie, it would have been much harder to get the character development and message across.
What I enjoyed most about the film was the cinematography and small details like musical themes and whimsical moments of filming, capturing tiny moments that summed up the characters so perfectly and spoke louder than dialogue. I also thought the editing was fabulous, as well as storytelling methods like showing the same moment through different characters points of view. it could have been disjointed, but it as seamless.
Since I read the book first, I don’t know how much people who haven’t read it would enjoy the movie, but I loved it.
After a few days of being sick and doing nothing, I went to join Lisa in Crows Nest for an excellent afternoon and evening of chatting and food.
We got takeaway Thai from Team Thai on the main strip in Crows Nest.
Fresh veges just waiting for me.
My food being cooked.
Mmmmm veges and fried rice. My fave Thai food.
Cute cute kitty watching trains.
Meow!
