Conference

So I'm off Sat-Thurs for a Work Conference in the Blue Mountains. Should be alright, long time to be away from home though. Oh well, we get some time back to tack onto Easter which will be good. One of those days I'll get back is being spent playing golf, which is pretty sweet. So no blogs for a few days. Just read Darreen's instead, it's pretty good.

Movie reviews

Movie reviews you like then this guy the best for sure. He movie make review is funny and insightful. Here a taste is from review "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry"

This movie is about gay firefighters that puts out fire in buildings in New York. There names where Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine. Chuck Then they got hurt and laying down in the hospital. Then Chuck was with Hooters girls inside a car. Then a little later they went to Niagra Falls to get married gay.

See them more at the below link
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7458478/comments

The weekend- weeding, puzzles and sport

Started the weekend on Friday night with a date with my beatiful wife. We hit Knox for some food and a bit of clothes shopping. It was a great night, capped off by a lovely Bubble T...I've finally found an outlet not in the city!

Saturday startedwith a leaders meeting. Watched a dvd on strength leadership, which was really good, chatted and ate food.

In the arvo watched some ball and hit the net, then went to Macca's for Isaac so he could have a play indoors. Honestly. Came home, watched the end of the Suns game which was very enjoyable, then had a lovely dinner.

At night Tara and I watched "50 First dates" while doing a puzzle. During the week on our quality time night, i decided we should try doing a puzzle. I hadn't done one for at least 20 years and thought it might be something different to do, plus it meant we could work as a team etc which would surely be good for marriage. This was our second night on it and we made some great progress. It's of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You might be able to make out from the picture some good progress being made on the waterfront and of the LHS of the Opera House itself.

Sunday morning it was church time and today was an "Engage" Sunday. Our Home Group went to Janet's place, a lovely widower across the road from the Benn's. We did a mini backyard blitz, which was mostly out the front. I pruned roses and did a bit of weeding. Here's some pics of the team working, and the lunch after, which was a triumph, highlighted by the delicious punch.


Came home and worked on my golf swing with my new plastic balls with holes in them, then did some housework before flicking between the cricket and the footy. Early into the footy Danny Frawley commented on how he liked how Neil Craig was using Jason Torney, which I found unusual seeing as Jason Torney retired last year. He must have meant Brad Symes, who wears his old number. Easy mistake. Hopefully he doesn't get J Griff confused with Tony Modra. Got a few more jobs done and am now preparing for another go at the puzzle. Should be a huge night.

50 First Dates

Caught this on tv last night with wifey while doing a puzzle (we'll get to that later). Had seen it several times, but it's pretty rewatchable. Here's my IMDB.com review........

"50 First Dates" is the story about a zoo veterinarian (yeh right) called Henry (Sandler, who plays a loveable goofball for something different). Henry is a major player, renowned for his one-night stands. That's until he meets Lucy (Drew Barrymore in her most challenging role since ET). Lucy seems like a new challenge for Henry, even moreso when he discovers she's got brain damage from a car accident that means she can form no new memories from the day before the accident. Rather than quit, Henry decides to give this weird relationship a real go. He soon gains the trust and respect of her family and friends in his quest to get her to get through life in a more normal way.

There's plenty of decent laughs, about 70% of which are based around sexual innuendo, but there's some pretty good jokes and scenes in there. Sandler and Barrymore have pretty decent chemistry, which really helps, plus there's some great bit characters given some good stuff to work with. one of the better rom-coms you'll see, if you're a guy that is.

Music 101: Right On Track

When I talk to a lot of the young kids out there, it's clear many don't know much about music theory. They know their Justin Timberlake's, their U2's and their Robbie William's, but drop names like "The Breakfast Club" and they look at you like you're talking Cantonese.

I've decided to therefore start highlighting some of the great older bands to help the kids, plus relive some great memories for Gen X's like me. Today's lesson: The Breakfast Club.

"The Breakfast Club" formed in the late 70's. Nothing much happened for them until 1987 when they released their smash hit "Right on Track". There's little else I could find on them that seemed true (eg I'm pretty sure Madonna didn't play drums for them in their early days). After this they only had one other song of note "Drive My Car", a cover of the Beatles hit for the teen movie "License To Drive".

The only other things known about the band are..........
-They were cutting edge, not musically but fashion wise.
-They made awesome film clips
-They were characters

Anyway, here's the song that will be mentioned no doubt on their tombstones- "Right On Track"

24- Season 7

Hasn't got me heaps excited.........

Sicko

Well it was my turn to pick the dvd this time, and I went for a safe bet- Michael Moore's "Sicko". Here's my IMDB.com review. Don't forget, all my IMDB reviews can be seen at http://www.imdb.com/user/ur7472847/comments?order=alpha

"Sicko" is the latest Michael Moore doco, this time putting the torch to the American healthcare system. He highlights all the massive flaws in the system, focusing on some people who have learnt the hard way that the system ain't that fair. He then looks at some other Western countries who have comparatively awesome systems eg Canada, Great Britain, France.

This movie is a little different as he doesn't really act like Superman as much (except for some 9/11 volunteers he helps), and doesn't attack George Bush as much. Generally he just seems to be highlighting some big problems in the US...yet it seems unlikely this film will do much about it.

It's reasonably entertaining and informative, and the content will make for some great "showing off at dinner parties" chat. Not his best film as a complete work, but decent enough and certainly better than wasting a night watching "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry".

Good Blogspot Sites

Here's my favourite Blogspot sites.

DARRENHUNTER
It's done by my friend Darren Hunter. He writes a lot of stuff about movies, food, tv and music.
http://darrenhunter.blogspot.com/

LOOKOUTLONDON
My friends Woz and Emma's site. It's more about living on a boat in London and overseas travels. Very few stories on cakes.
http://www.lookoutlondon.blogspot.com/

STRANGER THAN MIRJANA
Mirjana is a work "colleague" of my friend Darren. She has a way with words and gets up to many adventures.
http://www.mirjanasalopek.blogspot.com/

I have some other friends who have Blogspot sites, but until they maintain them more...no link for them.

Bowling and Golf

Last night we went bowling for work. Had another ripper game, pulling out a 170. One of my work mates, Jeff, suggested I join a league. Maybe I will Jeff, maybe I will. Nothing spectacular, but managed a decent ratio of strikes and spares.

Game 2 saw me move to a "competitive" match with 4 other workmates while the rest played "for fun". Jeff brought his A game and beat me comfortbaly. Getting 4 strikes in a row helps. After we had some delicious finger food and then birthday cake for Emily. Good night. There's talk me may move the work functions to more of a sporty theme and even branch out into tennis and golf. Good for me, unless I act like a jerk.

Just 8hrs after the bowling night I was back to the golf course. We had 6 rock up, so went into teams of 3. My team was me, Dean and Al. Al is pretty good, Dean and I not so much. I started poorly and was fearing a new "worst ever game". Luckily I steadied the ship mid-game, thanks largely to Al's tips. For the last 2 holes a guy called Richard joined us. He had an awesome driver worth about $400, which is probably higher than the cost of all of our sets of clubs. Richard was pretty good.

Late arvo Dean and I went golf shopping. Dean was after a putter, and was might impressed by the range and the ability to test them on a little indoor green set-up. He was going to buy a $200 one, then changed his mind. I purchased a new glove, new pencils and practice balls. I think they should all help my game (ok maybe not the pencils).

I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry

For the second time in two dvd nights, Tara picked the movie. When that happens, you're occasionaly gonna get a movie like "I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry". Here's my IMDB.com review......

"I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry" is a movie about a lady (Jessica Biel) who finds herself in many situations in her underwear. I think that was the point of the movie. The other subplot was about two guys (Larry, played by the fat guy from "King of Queens" and Chuck, played by the guy in "Little Nicky"), who are the best of friends who work together as fireman. Larry gets himself into some financial woes, and after hearing about new rights for gay couples, decides to ask Chuck to pretend to be his gay partner. Chuck, who is woman crazy, declines at first but then remembers he owes Chuck his life, so agrees. What they think will be a quick and easy case of pretending they are gay turns into the need to get married and trick even their family and friends into believing they've turned. This obviously throws up some hilarious circumstances, many of which aren't really that funny.

Very ordinary. Some of the humour was pretty off and some stuff just too weird. I don't know if I can ever trust Adam Sandler or Kevin James again. Jessica Biel did her "being taken seriously" chances no good either. She played a lawyer, yet always found herself in chances to be scantily clad eg a gay ball and taking Chuck underwear shopping.

I did it

Due to Tagworld rejigging (ie "changing domains to a more crap one"), I am finally relenting and moving to blogspot. A change is as good as a holiday they say, so maybe this could be good for my blogging career. So if you love hearing about what I did on my weekend, reviews of tv shows with waning popularity and comments on very commercial movies and music, I think you're gonna like my work.

Let the journey begin.....................

PS My old stuff can be seen at http://tagworld.flux.com/profile/0F9739F00009F73F90001009F73F9/?source_user=F9739F00009F73F90001009F73F9