TV and Movies – Page 3 – helenthura.com

March 22, 2009

Sunday

Well, Mum should now be firmly on the ground in South Africa, she flew out on Friday for about month away in Southern Africa (i.e. not just South Africa). She is going to have a wonderful time but it will be strange not been able to pick up the phone and call her when I feel like it. Things are starting to settle down at work which is nice. Last week I switched from looking after the medical side of the applications for all the Navy and Air Force full time general entry candidates to now looking after the Army full time general entry candidates. It means that I am looking after a larger number of candidates and am now faced with enlistments every Monday as opposed to three times a month like I used to have.

I went to see Two Fists, One Heart yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed, especially the strong WA music presence in the soundtrack. With a broad brush it had some similarities to Two Hands, in terms of fighting, cars, bouncers and the not the girl ordinarily expected girl as the romantic interest. I would definitely recommend checking it out. Parts made me laugh and parts made me sigh.

This morning I gave the kitchen an autumn clean, top to bottom, I scrubbed, wiped and shined. This photo was taken two weeks or so ago but it gives you a fair idea of what the kitchen looks like.

I also did the seemingly weekly clean of my room; vacuuming, dusting and tidying. I don’t believe I have shared a picture of what my current room looks like. It is small but I do quite like having everything at an arm’s reach.

Talking of my room, that reminds me, I must share the incident that happened earlier this week. I was getting ready for bed, I had closed the deck door, turned off the lights, started the dishwasher and gone to clean my teeth. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard a tumble. I thought something had dislodged in the dishwasher and thought nothing much of it. I finished cleaning my teeth, looked at the dishwasher and it was fine. Then as I stepped into my room, I saw that some of the things from my bookcase had fallen onto the floor, as I looked up I came face to face with a Possum sitting on top of my bookcase. I was slightly shocked to say the least. Possums on the roof, possums on the power lines or possums in the back yard are fine. A possum on my bookcase is another matter. As you can see from the above picture, my room is narrow and there is only one way in and one way out. As I entered the room further the possum jumped and I ducked, it landed on my bed and scattered up to the desk. I started yelling at it to get out of the my room. Johnno hearing my yelling came to investigate and we managed to get the possum out of my room and into the kitchen, then with some fancy footwork the deck door was opened and the possum was let free. As the light was turned on in the kitchen and I walked back into my room, I discovered something the possum had urinated all over my room; the carpet, my bed, the wall, my desk, my laptop etc. Cleaning up possum urine is not pleasant. It is a tick slightly gelatinous liquid and cleaning it off the laptop is not at all fun. Normally I close my laptop when I switch it off at night. That night though for some strange reason I had left it open… if only I had closed it. Now that that story is off my chest…

Something that would surprise most people would be that I actually scapbooked today! I know! It has been a good handful of months since I last did something but the other week, I packed up a fair amount of stuff from my old room and brought it over here. In the picture below you can see the little chest of Ikea drawers that I have covered. They hold my computer cables in one little drawer and then in the others scrapbookig goodies.

It is now just gone 10pm and means it is time to retire to bed with a book and prepare for tomorrow been Monday.

March 13, 2009

movies, baking and a brass monkey

It is a Friday night, and I have just come home from the movies. I have quite literally walked in the door, picked up my laptop and gone back out onto the deck and I am not going to move till I have written at least one recent adventure.

What day, week, fortnight, whatever it has been. Work is of course still work and hopefully in the coming the weeks the stress, the issues and the hours will start to settle down. Next week will mark the turning of a new leaf at work with staff changes and I am cautiously looking forward to it.

Yesterday at work it was the birthday of one of my â€œWork Mumsâ€ and to celebrate I made the Orange and Almond cake made famous by Claudia Roden (photos/recipe of course to follow). We had planned to have it for morning tea but one thing of course leads to another and before we knew it was just before three and the cake had not been cut. A mimed Happy Birthday was sung and then there was cake. I was really quite happy with how it turned out. It does take a little time in the prepping of the oranges but oh it was good.

Today was of course a Friday and it was even Black Friday, it was also a day where we had 29 candidates in for assessment which makes it a very big day. To fill our stomachs, a morning tea buffet was arranged which was a very fitting end to both the week and a booster shot for the day. I made these little Persian rosewater and cardamom rice biscuits which went down a treat (of course as above photos/recipe to follow).

I went to see Easy Virtue tonight and oh it was a tragic delight. Oh the costume design was just glorious and the music and the wit, I did adore the wit. On Wednesday night I went to see He’s Just Not That Into You which was a pleasant reprise from the week. It was a good laugh, which also had some sad/true/real bits in it as well. Two movies in a week is quite bold but through Optus Tickets I have a $8 movie pass for Birch CC till the end of the month and I plan on seeing a few more movies between now and then, especially as a ticket normally costs me $15 something!

Last weekend I had quite a pleasant Sunday, Windsor Brass was playing what was advertised as Jazz, Swing and Show Tunes at Gregory Park in Milton. I arrived a little early and picked up a turkey/cranberry roll, an apple scroll and a ginger beer. I found a patch of grass in the shade and enjoyed what turned out to be an afternoon of show tunes with no jazz or swing. I had been very looking forward to the jazz/swing but the show tunes sufficed.

An older couple enjoying the music

The Band

And a little video! Windsor Brass, play some James Bond

Finally I adored these rainbow pencil bollards at one of the entrances to the park, how cool are they?

Tomorrow I have a Risk Management course alllll day with SES which should be at least interesting.

January 19, 2009

Australia

Mum and I went to see Australia yesterday and much to our surprise it was a whole lot better than we had expected it to be. We went to a 1020 session on a Sunday morning and the cinema was full. The movie has been out for almost two months now, that was pretty impressive.

What I loved the most was the clothes, oh such style. I would quite happily have a few of the blouses and a couple of the frocks and oh the skirts. I think you get the picture.

Also the landscape was just as mind blowing, all those sweeping landscapes and not a hazy sky amongst them..
Whilst the movie far exceeded my story expectations there were a few things that were weird including the child Nullah not growing over the three years or so the film was based on, also the fact that the Japanese landing they show in the film never happened, in that sense I have never been a fan of the movie title, Australia is a pretty big name to live up to. I think call it it Faraway Downs or The Drover or something else would have been just as epic.

It was well worth going to see and I could quite easily watch it again. It has a decent story line that has more than enough action it for those who want it and sweeping vistas and the fox dance for those who want something a little more dainty.

Go see it.

February 17, 2008February 17, 2008

the past week.

Monday.

I went to my doctor on Monday arvo to see what he said about my ankle. He said that I sure did a good job of it, re-tearing the ligaments that I tore playing silly buggers about ten years ago. All that I can do is rest it, keep it supported and wait. He said that it should take no longer than six weeks post injury and I have to be very careful in that time not to injure it again.

I took this photo as I lay in the recliner watching something on TV

Tuesday.

This photo has the same tale as the one above. Laying in the recliner, watching something, seeing what photos I can take and only been slightly happy with this one.

Wednesday. Sorry day.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

Hopefully now we will only take steps forward and the gap will close.

One of the things I most enjoy about working on the twelfth floor is the chance to observe what is happening below me, watching people on the roof of a building having a smoke, the window cleaners, the witch’s hats on the roof a building that move round with the rain. Perhaps what I enjoy most is watching the going-ons of St John’s Cathedral directly across the street from me. I have seen the spires grow a little bit each day, watched the workers sitting on the scaffolding as they eat their lunch, observed the washing on the washing line of the residence and what strangely delights me the most is watching the portaloo move between spires as they work on different spires each day. Watching a crane lift a portaloo up and move it through the air is a strange sight to see. As in the above picture, it also sometimes has to get taken down to the ground to be emptied. The picture is not the best due to the windows we have, they are double glazed with blinds in the middle.

Thursday.

One of the things I most enjoy about catching the bus to work is that it gives me a chance to read a lot more. I have also been reading even more this past few weeks as I lay in bed with my foot up. One of the other things I have been doing is quizzing myself on trivia questions. 🙂

Friday.

I catch the bus from outside the Hotel Orient, a hotel I grew up hearing stories of as it was the resident hangout of my older brother when he lived in Brisbane, back when it was one of the icons of the local music scene. Now it the local pub for work and where I catch the bus from outside of in the afternoon.

I spent part of the bus trip home talking to Sam, and the job she is just about to start as the Indo (Indonesian) teacher at Townsville Grammer and the trip she will have to make to get there. Sam is from Emerald a town that has had some pretty bad floods this past month. The trip north to Townsville normally takes about seven hours. However, at the moment the whole area from the coast out west to Emerald area is in flood and it is not looking to improve any time soon, the only option she has to drive there is a sixteen hour drive the long way. At the moment she is just waiting in Emerald hoping the waters start to recede.

Friday night, Mum and I went to see 27 Dresses and oh what a laugh it was, a whole lot better than I had expected from the previews. Then I came home and watched Pride and Prejudice.

Saturday.
I woke up to see a message from Karl on Sykpe after messaging for a little while, I picked up the headset and pressed dial. We spoke for a while and then Mum and Pabbi came in chatted as well. Then they went shopping and we kept on talking, nearly two hours later we hung up. I went to have breakfast, Karl went to entertain. I could not fathom to imagine how much that phone call would have cost if I had made it on the landline, nearly two hours from Australia to Iceland, it would not have been cheap. The best thing is that he had little piece of news for us, he is planning on coming home for Christmas :D, also my second eldest brother, his wife and his two daughters are also planning on coming to spend Christmas in Australia too 😀 Christmas 2008 is going to be a blast 😀

Sheets on the line, the sun coming and going between the storm clouds to the south. Sheets billowing in the wind.
I was getting a bit stir crazy yesterday laying inside, so I went outside with my 85mm lens and lay on the old brick bqq taking a few photos. I took a few frames of this shot, trying each time to get the sheet billowing just right in the afternoon breeze.

I have looked up at the antenna on the roof next door numerous times, each time thinking that would be a cool photo, yesterday I took the photo.

That was my week.

August 5, 2007January 15, 2013

BIFF Movies 3 & 4

Movies, Movies, Movies

First up was Dol: The Valley of Tambourines. A movie set in Kurdistan, starting in Turkish Kurdistan, then Iraqi Kurdistan then onto Iranian Kurdistan before returning to Turkish Kurdistan. The opening scenes they were warm and for a second you weren’t in geopolitical hotspot, you were with two young loves. It was scary, sad and thought provoking. There are three very different Kurdistans shown but they all have the same turmoil in the life. It was good, the landscape and the horses were stunning but something was missing to make it fantastic for me.

Unfinished Sky and Yolk.
Yolk is a 15 minute short film about a teenage girl with Down Syndrome, an egg, a boy and a mother (possibly single) who is frazzled. Shot round The Gap area it was great to be able to recognise local landmarks. I didn’t love it or it didn’t really grab me with the first viewing. It was better than average than though.

Unfinished Sky. A movie I have been waiting to see since I heard about it been filmed round Boonah last year. It was dark, gripping, contentious, a romance and a comedy in one. It was real in so many ways and I think what really made it that real was the decision not to subtitle Tahmeena when she was speaking in Dari. As the movie is really about John and his response to Tahmeena entering his life rather dramatically. He can only understand what she says once she has learnt some English until then her speaking Dari is just noise. It isn’t been released in cinemas till next year some time but if it happens to be screened at a Film Festival near you, I would highly recommend seeing it. I can’t express in words how much this movie is and what it counts for and what it portrays. The highlight of the festival for me so far and I think it will be hard to top.

Anyway I am off to The Troubadour to see Svavar Knutur and co

August 4, 2007January 15, 2013

BIFF Movies 1 & 2

This evening I saw my first two BIFF Movies. The first was Bamako. I missed the first 10 minutes because of traffic chaos and perhaps that is why I never quite got my teeth into it. It was one of the movies that I was most looking forward to seeing but I ended up drifting off quite a few times. Reading some reviews I think if I had caught the beginning it probably would have made more sense for me. One of the things I loved about it was the fact that they were holding a trial in this courtyard – World Bank vs the people and the everyday life of the courtyard just continues on during the trial. That was funny.

Between the two movies I grabbed bite to eat and headed over to Captain Burke to take some photos of the city and the Story Bridge. Here is one photo.

The second movie I saw was Control and I just, this movie in terms of the art in it was the best for sure I have seen in a while. The cinematography was just so perfect. I was apprehensive about the decision to film the movie in black and white before I saw it but from the very first frame it just clicked. This movie needed to be in black and white for the pure starkness of the movie.
Joy Division is not a band that I have ever really gotten into other than loving Love Will Tear Us Apart for which I can vividly remember the film clip for. Seeing the movie though definitely made some of the songs click a bit more as to the context in which they were based. I will say it again, a really really great movie. Just so raw and powerful but still with the occasional laugh.