Copocabana

So last night we had our Christmas Party for work. This year it was not a cruise, not a theatre restaurant, but some South American food and dancing at "Copocabana".

Numbers were a few down due to some staff having to go to hospital this week and our boss jetting in late from Sydney, but we more than made up for them. We started with a glamorous salad bar, which featured chips (my dream) and lots of beetroot. Soon after we got back to our table a man came with a huge sword full of spicy sausages. He came next to you and said "sausage" and you then said if you wanted said sausage or not. He then repeated this during the night with other meats, just exchanging the word "sausage" for the relevant meat ie "lamb" or "chicken". A nice concept.

Getting drinks was challenging. We placed an order soon after we got there and a lady came about 15mins later asking also if we'd like drinks. We explained that an order had already been taken, plus she'd taken a fiddy. The lady asked what the waitresses name was. Nick joked that he didn't like to ask waitresses their name in case they thought he was hitting on them, but he was pretty sure that the lady worked here. This baffled the lady and she left. Then another waitress came and asked for drinks. Eventually the first one returned with our drinks and even change (which was lucky seeing as soft drinks were $4 and Corono's $8).

As the night wore on, I mean got started, there was dancing, then a band and then apparently a stage show (we left before this). In all my years of partying I've discovered when you go to these things and decide not to dance, all you end up doing is watching drunk people dance, which loses it's wackyness after 15min or so, plus you're left just yelling conversations to people 50cm away from you. Not as fun.

Good food and good people though, although I don't think we'll beat the river cruise for some time. Also loses points for not playing Manilow's signature song.

2 Nights In Paris

"2 nights in Paris" is a movie that showcases Julie Delpy's pride in herself. She wrote the movie and also acts in it, directs it and produces it. All of that is a feat in itself you'd think but she also shows off her ability to speak four languages and casts her character as the sexiest and most sought after woman in France, which under the circumstances seems,well, a bit of a stretch.

The movie is a story about American Jack (Goldberg) and French American Marion (Delpy), a couple who decide to go to France to rekindle their relationship. Things soon get a bit akward though when Jack begins to notice many men checking out his lady and soon uncovers many of them seem to have expressed their love physically with her. He finds this a bit weird considering her apathy and lack of libido and does some research to see what the story is.Is she really the town bicycle or has there been a big mix-up? See it to find out.

Jack was an ok character, but it just seemed to unrealistic that he'd be hooked up with the unappealing Marion. Some good moments, but generally it was annoying.

The carpet cleaning man

So we had this guy come to clean our carpets this week from "Cheap As Chips" (Note for SA readers, it's not the same company as your beloved bargain store chain). Over the phone we were quoted $73 for the service, providing our rooms sizes didn't exceed the specified measurements. When the guy got here he said the floors were really dirty. I told him that i realised this, hence why we didn't just vacuum them and decided to call a company that specialises in cleaning carpets (actually I may have just thought this and not verbalized it). Anyway i argued they were the same dirty as they normally are and that we'd been charged around $70 the last 4 times we'd had them done, including by his company. He said "There's no way I'm doing that for $73. I've been doing this for 7 years". Long story short, we told him to leave it, got another company in who quoted less and everyone was happy, except "Cheap As Chips", and more specifically Michael, the carpet technician.

I love when people talk about their experience in an industry that doesn't seem to need a whole lot of expertise. I've talked before about the guy talking about the fish and chip shop owners who had "been in the game for 20 years". Man, they must have learnt a hell of a lot about dropping frozen food into huge vats of boiling oil. Other industries that many years of experience probably wouldn't account for a lot may include.............

-Shelf stacking
-Lawn mowing
-Gutter cleaning
-Postal delivery
-Bed salesman

Although i heard a story the other day about a 60yr old man who stacks bricks for a living. He gets paid $50 per 1000 bricks laid. He worked on his technique and now stacks 10000 bricks a day, meaning he's getting $2500 a week. Hard work but good pay, so maybe all of the above is rubbish.

Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull

Tara's turn for a dvd and this is what she chose.

I hadn't seen an Indiana Jones movie since the "Temple of Doom" (the one with the cute little oriental kid and where the guy gets his heart pulled out of his chest). I missed the Sean Connery one, which some tell me was the best.

This one features again Harrison Ford as Indy and this time he goes looking for an old friend who's looking for a crystal skull. A young friend (played by Shia LeBeouf) of Indy's old chum approaches him and tells of his quest and Indy decides to help him find him. Before you know it he's up to his old tricks (running from freaky animals and weird jungle people). Will Indy find his friend and solve an ancient mystery? See it to find out.

The movie started well, but the shenanigans in the jungle just annoyed me (except the flesh eating ants, they ruled). Wifey loved it for the adventure, so old fans of this franchise should be happy with it. You could do worse for a 4th installment in a movie series, so it gets points for that alone.

My week

From Mon to Fri this week I was in Sydney for a work conference. The highlights included..........

-Not having to share a room this time with work colleagues
-Eating at "Lone Star"
-Dinner at Darling Harbour
-Learning stuff
-Rekindling my love of watermelon

Got home pretty darn late Thurs night due to Virgin's seemingly new policy of always having delays. On Fri it was catch up on work, then home for a casual evening and of course, a dvd. Tara picked and went for the new Indiana Jones movie (review to come soon).

On Saturday I let wifey have a sleep-in and looked after the kids, then took the boys down to "Yo-Yo's Playhouse" with Dean and his girls. Fun had by all. In the arvo hit the garden hard, kept an eye on my fantasy basketball team who brought it big-time and shot me up to 2nd place, then went for a family walk.

Sunday was church, then home for more gardening and pottering before going for a bbq dinner for James's 30th. Came home and bathed the boys, watched Idol and Rove, then hit the hay.

I just realised how boring that weekend sounded, but it was thoroughly enjoyable. This week I will commit to more exciting blogging adventures and maybe even one of two opinion pieces.

Saturday

Started the day bright and early with 9 holes with Dean @ Ringwood. The rain just held off and we played some inspired golf. The first time I've played and not got angry in ages, which was nice. After this we came home and joined our families for breakfast.

In the arvo I spent a lot of time with my 2nd family, my fantasy basketball team. They played ok, but need to lift their game a little, especially the big guys. Not happy coming last in rebounds and blocks with that frontcourt. Also did some gardening and playing with the kids. Just before we were about to get ready for our big date we notcied Elijah's face had gone red and his face and eyes had blown up, so Tara had to pop off with him to the doctor. Seems he found a stray pancake from earlier in the day, and he has alergies, so.....All good though.

At night Tara and I headed to the movies (see below), then went for a late dinner at a Thai place around the corner. Really good food, just felt slightly rushed. I think they mentioned the kicthen would be closing soon about 17 times.

A lovely day.

Body Of Lies

On Sat night we used up our last babysitting voucher with the Telfer's and headed out for a movie and dinner date. Sadly most movies seem to start at 6:30 or 9pm on Saturday, which is ridiculous. I mean if you see a 9pm movie, you're not getting home up to and including midnight, which is just silly. Anyway, I digress.

"Body Of Lies" is a story about the work of the CIA in the Middle East, built around ground operative Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) and Washinton based chief Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe). Early in the film after an attack, Roger gets posted in Jordan to work with their local team, headed by Hani (played brilliantly by Mark Strong), to track down a fledgling terrorist group believed to be based there. As they don't use modern things like mobile phones (like my friend Darren. Hey wait a minute............) or the internet (like my friend Sam), they are very hard to track. Roger comes up with a great idea of creating a pretend terrorist group that will pose a threat to the dominance of the Jordan based one and hopefully flush them out.

A fantastic movie, set in a great surrounding, led by a brilliant cast, full of action and suspense. Truly one of the great films of this century. Gives a reasonably balanced insight into some of the going ons in these countries. Well worth seeing, even Tara really liked it,so........