Weekend Catch-up

Righto, so it's Monday morning and I best fill you in on the weekend's antics:

On Friday evening we did head over to Wanderers Stadium and enjoy an evening of Pro20 cricket ... a little drizzle, but in a fun rainy sort of way (not a drenched & soaking unpleasant sort of way, thanks goodness!) Unfortunately, SA lost. Oh well. But, we did get to be on TV very briefly :) So it was a good evening all round aside from this 17-yr old harpie sitting behind us with an real South African accent that made you cringe every time she decided she was a better coach and cricketer. Awful. I always wonder if people are aware that they are the stereo-type ?

Saturday was fairly uneventful. Bean went off with some mates to enjoy the Gilroys brewery for the afternoon and I spent it lazing pool-side with my book, eating strawberries ;) Gotta work on my tan a little. That evening we watched Happy Feet.

A comedy adventure, Happy Feet is set deep in Antarctica. Into the land of the Emperor penguins, where each needs a Heartsong to attract a soul mate, a penguin is born who cannot sing. Our hero Mumble (voiced by Elijah Wood), son of Memphis (voiced by Hugh Jackman) and Norma Jean (voiced by Nicole Kidman), is the worst singer in the world... however, as it happens, he is a brilliant tap dancer!

It was quite cute - gotta love penguins! And nice to watch knowing a little more about the creatures after seeing "March of the Penguins" when it was showing. Especially impressive for an animated movie was they didn't even bother with animating the humans, when they eventually made an appearance. Thank goodness because that is usually where the animated shows deteriorate dramatically. My only really annoying thing thruout the movie was that the main character never seemed to grow up, I mean he was an especially late bloomer ... being the only penguin in the entire flock (?) with fluff instead of his grown-up feathers for the *entire* movie. It's probably because they all look fairly similar and you need to be able to spot him amongst the bunch, but still.

Sunday we had a fairly relaxed morning and emerged for a very late brunch at the new Gia's at Morningside Nursery. Nice setting with fairly good food. And Bean got some more plants for the garden. So he spent the rest of the day gardening while I finished my book and then we started on the Prison Break series. Only 2 episodes in, but I'm enjoying it so far. That evening we went to see Casino Royale. I know it seems like we've seen a lot of movies lately, but it follows a serious movie-watching drought, there's been rubbish on lately.

Daniel Craig stars as "007" James Bond, the smoothest, sexiest, most lethal agent on Her Majesty's Secret Service in Casino Royale. Based on the first Bond book written by Ian Fleming, the story, which has never been told on film until now, recounts the making of the world's greatest secret agent.
James Bond's first "007" mission leads him to Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), banker to the world's terrorists. In order to stop him, and bring down the terrorist network, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale. Bond is initially annoyed when a beautiful British Treasury official, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), is assigned to deliver his stake for the game and watch over the government's money. But, as Bond and Vesper survive a series of lethal attacks by Le Chiffre and his henchmen, a mutual attraction develops leading them both into further danger and events that will shape Bond's life forever.

So, initially I wasn't all that keen to see another Bond movie, I find the latest ones have really been a drag. And to top that off, I wasn't too impressed with their choice of leading man either. But I relented after making such a poor movie choice earlier in the week ... and was pleasantly surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My favourite part of the movie was that since it was essentially supposed to be the first, where Bond has just become a double-O, he wasn't nearly so smooth or swauve. When he jumped unbelievable distances, he didn't always make it and certainly didn't always land upright with his suit uncrinkled. I liked it. Oh, and he wasn't really too bad as the leading man ;)

What I certainly didn't like was all the silly Under-18s in the cinema. Hello, why do these people even bother going to movies? All they seem to do is chat to their friends thruout the movie, chat on their cell phones (probably to their friend two seats down!) and get up, leave and return en masse. It is truly one of my most annoying things ever! Ever. I just want to yell at all of them: "If you want to talk during a movie, rent yourself a dvd and stay home". On the same topic, people who bring their toddlers along (my fav, to movies like War of the Worlds & The Ring 2 - hello ?). Just accept, you had a kid, you're renting dvds for the next 5 years of your life, at least! If your kid is a boy with a short attention span, factor in another few years to be safe. I wish cinemas would install little headphone-jacks into all their seats ... then if you want, you can bring along your very own non-communal earphones and watch the movie uninterrupted. Fabulous. SterKinekor & Numetro, I hope you're reading!

Well there, my morning rant out of the way, I can get on with life as usual.