More Movies & Gardening

Wow. It turned out to be a fabulous weekend after all :) Friday night was very quiet & laid back. Varen & I made a Chicken Nut Curry sauce with pasta for dinner (turned out far better than I expected!) and watched some movies (courtesy of TheBrad).

We started with the original Batman. It's always fun to watch one of those "good old movies" that you remember from your youth. It's also nice to have watched it in preparation for Heath Ledger's final performace as The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Can't wait. I'm still devastated he died. So sad.

Gotham City is in the grip of mob boss Carl Grissom. Reporter Alexander Knox and photo-journalist Vicki Vale begin investigating the truth behind the rumors of a shadowy vigilante figure dressed as a bat, who has been terrifying criminals throughout the city. Vale and Knox attend a benefit at the mansion of millionaire Bruce Wayne, who is taken by Vicki's charms. That same night, Grissom's second-in-command, Jack Napier, attempts to raid a chemical factory. When the police arrive, Napier realizes he's been set-up by his boss, angered by his affair with Grissom's mistress. In the midst of the shoot-out, Batman arrives and Napier falls into a vat of toxic waste. He survives, but is left with chalk white skin, green hair, and red lips twisted into a permanent grin. Upon discovering his disfigurement, the deranged Napier goes completely insane and renames himself "The Joker".

It was fab to watch again and we'll definitely be making time sometime soon to watch the 2nd installment ... with Danny de Vito as The Penguin!

And then we watched a truly dismal slasher-horror flick, The Cook.

Over a long holiday weekend, unable to escape the confines of their sorority house, a handful of unsuspecting girls are left behind to enjoy the quiet sanctuary. The normal house staff has taken off for the weekend, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. Thankfully someone was kind enough to send them a temporary replacement chef to cook their meals. However, when the girls start disappearing one-by-one, they begin to suspect something may not be quite right with... THE COOK!

Sigh. What can I say ... it was late on a Friday night. The movie was rubbish tho. Oh and it firmly seems to believe that half the girls in an all-girl's dorm must either be lesbian or at very least willing to experiment ;) Not especially original and I would highly recommend that you give this one a skip!

Saturday saw Varen getting up very early and heading to Pretoria to watch his mom's "Dance-off". Pahahaha. I just rolled over and went back to sleep for a bit. I had a very restful day - aside from my sheer inability to find anything I want for my birthday :( And I got regular smses from him during the day ... like this one at 10h30: "I'm watching section 7 of 112. Sigh". Pahahahahahaha. Yeah, I know, I shouldn't revel in his boredom.

I went for my Reflexology session at Spa Afrique. It was quite interesting, but I think next time I'd rather just skip straight to foot massage. I am however, fascinated by how they can pick up health issues ("You're holding a lot of stress and tension in your neck & shoulders" - okay, pretty standard horoscope type guess-work, but it is true none the less) from you feet. Will have to quiz Meira on this a little since she's started to study the technique!

I also did a little more gardening in the afternoon. Bell "helped" too ... mostly just by affirming my choice in her future food (if she ever give's it a chance to grow!). She is such a cutey! I especially love the determination to reach the leaves shown in this pic >

I got a new mint plant (how could I have killed the previous one in a mere 3 days ?!). Either way, this one is a way more established bush so I think it may just survive! And then I got some spinach and brussel sprouts, both of which should bush if given the chance.

After her enthusiasm and determination, the new plantlings have been "fenced" off. Although that didn't stop her finding a way under the fencing on Sunday and enjoying a nibble!

And that evening I met up with GalleryGirl & her sister at Rosebank for dinner and a movie. We had a lovely dinner at Doppio Zero and watched Starter for 10.

"Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to be clever," Brian Jackson confesses in voice over at the start of Starter for 10. A working-class student from Essex, navigating his first year at Bristol University, Brian (James McAvoy) has a lot to prove. While his mates worry about him, Brian's biggest concern is making the team for the long-running British television quiz show, University Challenge. The game show, which began in 1962 and is something like the UK's answer to 'Jeopardy,' pits four-member teams from posh universities against each other. 'Starter' questions, worth 10 points each, give the film its title.

Yeah it had it's funny bits ... but it was otherwise pretty flat storyline-wise. And no eye-candy for a girl's night out :( But otherwise the evening was really good and nice to hang out with the sisters without the rest of the Goof Troop for a change.

After that, I met Varen at Zej's (barely up the road from us) because we'd been load-shud and Zej had gas :) We whiled away the remainder of the evening till about 23h30 after the electricity had come back on and we headed home. I had a good day.

Sunday was a touch more frenetic. After a whirlwind grocery shop and some other admin items (needed more bunny food and a bolt to hang something etc. you know, the little things!), Varen's folks came over with his sister & Brother Zion for an afternoon braai. And naturally to see all the house advances (we also managed to get our final 2 orange-range cushions for the dining room chairs and hang 2 more of my wall-items before they arrived! All on track for the housewarming next weekend).

Was completely surprised by just how badly Bell handled the strangers. She was fine when Zej & Hammi had been over last weekend, but I guess having 6 people around was just a bit too much for her and she spent most of the afternoon in her hutch hiding away. After she was sure they'd left, she came and ran around as normal while Varen & I sat smoking hubbly on the veranda - I can never decide what to call the damn thing. It's not a balcony cause there's no railing. Porch and veranda just sound too grand. What else is there?

It was very relaxing ... although the house is in a complete state of dirty dishes! So we decided to continue on our relaxed state of being and went to a movie instead of tidying up :) We saw Vantage Point.

In Vantage Point, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are two secret agents assigned to protect president Ashton (William Hunt) at a landmark summit on the global war on terror. When president Ashton is shot moments after his arrival in Spain, chaos ensues and disparate lives collide. In the crowd is Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist videotaping the historic event to show his kids when he returns home. Rex (Sigourney Weaver) is an American TV news producer who is reporting on the conference. It's only as we follow each person's perspective of the same 15 minutes prior to and immediately after the shooting that the terrifying truth behind the assassination attempt is revealed.

I thought it was great ... once you get used to the way they've decided to tell the story. Admittedly it doesn't take too long to see some of their twists, but it was still great fun (although with a pretty unbelievable get-out-an-walk-away-from car chase). And that was the weekend.

Later today I'm trying out a new psychologist (it's so hard to find one you feel completely comfortable with). But I'm trying to be pro-active about all the "I Hate The World" feelings I've been having and the obvious impact it's having on my life. So fingers crossed there. And we're also getting Bell's little sister this evening, I can't wait :)