On Three Dimensions and Vegetarianism

Well we had a pretty quiet weekend. Took Rex to have his stitches out on Friday afternoon. Myself and the vet could both NOT believe he hadn't chewed them all out and actually needed them removed - such a good boy :) And on Saturday we moved him back into the big hutch with the girls. The Bunny farmer's vet had told her to keep her male separated for a month to ensure no further litters but when I asked our vet about it, he said he honestly didn't know for sure but since it usually takes dogs 5-6 days (although vets will probably recommend you keep them separate for up to 2 weeks just to be 100% sure) he couldn't believe it would take so long for a tiny bunny boy. So, since the poor dude was pretty miserable on his own and tried every night to "sneak" into the big hutch and hide ... I figured enough was enough.

In other news my awesomest hutch has had an upgrade this weekend. (I love the fact that it is constantly improving!). For a while now we've been trying to find some tarp or canvas or something we could put at the base of the hutch: a) to make it easier to clean and b) to protect the tiles underneath. And on Saturday we found ready-to-use poly-tarp in an assortment of sizes (we'd been looking online till now and had no luck finding anything remotely resembling our needs - literally like a waterproof tent ground sheet) and it was a mere R89 (at *the best* Outdoor Warehouse in Woodmead). When we cleaned out the hutch we put in the tarp at the base (it's folded up around all the sides too) and I am thrilled with the solution!

On Saturday Varen & I went to watch our first 3D movie. Now all the 3D movies I've seen advertised so far have been animations. Which are really not my thing. I'll watch the ones you've gotta watch but really would rather skip the most of them. I am sorry not to have seen Coraline in 3D but anyhoo. So we saw Ice Age 3 in 3D.

Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive acorn (while, maybe, finding true love); Manny and Ellie await the birth of their mini-mammoth; Diego, the saber-toothed tiger, wonders if he's growing too "soft" hanging with his pals and Sid the Sloth gets into trouble when he creates his own makeshift family by hijacking some dinosaur eggs. On a mission to rescue the hapless Sid, the gang ventures into a mysterious underground world, where they have some close encounters with dinosaurs, battle fauna and flora, run amuck, and meet a relentless, one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck.

Okay, let me first point out here that a lot of people might find my movie-going opinions quite contrary and wonder why in fact I continue to do it. Inevitably a movie-going experience is ruined by some loud obnoxious people (never just one, is there?) talking thruout. Followed by the handful of parents who think their 10month old can appreciate the impressive editing and well-written story-line :P And then there's the price. I can't for the life of me justify more than R25 for a movie. And I get round the exorbitant R45 currently being charged by having an Edgars card (or a Discovery card would be just as helpful except that you only get one discount with it). So to discover that at Nu Metro (where we usually go because it's quieter and we can mostly avoid the annoying people for a slightly higher price), it was going to cost R120 for 2 tickets to a 3D movie, well I was not impressed. So we ended up at Ster Kinekor. Who when we booked our tickets online kindly told us that "included in the price was R8.28 for one-use only 3D glasses". Erm, then why are you charging me R20 more?

Not only that, why on earth are the glasses included in the price? How on earth can they be one-use only? Seriously folks? You are create a vast amount of plastic waste with these glasses *and* charging me repeatedly for something I now already own. How has no one complained bitterly about this??

Another thing that threatened to ruin our movie-going experience was the actual cinema. Hello, I booked online. You'd think I might have done that to avoid queues or something (another bane of my existance ... that and along with dealing with a teller at the movies ... why aren't their 15 self-service stations?!). But instead we had to queue to merely collect our ticket ... why? Because they only have 4 self-service stations. At least they ensure 2 of these were dedicated to those of us merely collecting tickets. Still. I am super-mondo not impressed with Ster Kinekor Rosebank after this experience. I can only recommend that if you insist on seeing movies there you arrive just as the show before yours is starting. That's probably the only time there'll be a gap in any of their queues on a Saturday night. Instead of doing that, we were munching on Cranks for dinner :) Haven't been there in ages!

So, onto Ice Age 3 in 3D. Seriously. After all that fuss and extra cost, the most exciting use of 3D I saw all night was in the promotional clip before the movie started :P Yes so they have some depth ... but my brain is not so disfunctional as to not be able to figure out what's in the foreground or the background without the aid of ill-fitting glasses. They didn't make anything come out of the screen more than once or twice the entire movie. Seriously. I can't fathom why I'd bother with a 3D movie again. Although I see Toy Story will be making it's 3-dimesional debut shortly ... maybe I'll try it again then. But seriously, if you haven't tried the 3D experience yet, my opinion is that you're not missing much!

On Sunday we went to the A-Maize-ing Maze in Honeydew for YogaCherryl's birthday :) It was great fun and I highly recommend it for kids or adults who enjoy unique experiences! The Maize Maze that they're famous for only runs between January and May. The rest of the year you can do their Elemental Maze (which is what we did). We split into teams of 3 and ran round the maze looking for the hidden gardens and quizzes to complete our answer sheet. What fun :)

After that we went for lunch at Angie's, a restaurant I'm not sure how anyone managed to find. I had a delish Duck & Cherry Pie for lunch. Yum yum. The day was lovely :)

The only downside and it's been gnawing at me for a while, but yesterday really came to a head: Vegetarians & Vegans. Now I get it, I can totally understand (mostly) why you're doing what you're doing. And I agree with some of it (not the spiritual reasons, personally, but I can understand them. Mostly I can relate to the being against cruelty to animals aspect) but, I am NOT a vegetarian. I'm not a huge meat eater, but live mostly on chicken. I'm what I guess you might call "a white-meat-etarian" ;) Although I'm not a giant fan of fish either (I'll pretty much only eat salmon or sole). But to be honest, dating Varen, a good Afrikaans boy, has increased my red-meat intake ... but on the flip side it's also decreased his. And I try to be accommodating about people's weird food-requirements (be they vegetarian, vegan, religious or pregnancy), no matter how inconvenient the might be.

That said, my primary gripe (and what almost ruined Sunday's lunch for me) is that I don't want to be converted during every mouthful. On Sunday the vegetarians & vegans close to out-numbered the rest of us. Which meant that for about 60% of the time the conversation was focused around why everyone should become one and how dreadful animal-farming conditions are and all the videos one should watch about abbatoirs. It's like people who've newly found religion and can't understand why everyone around them isn't a believer ... It's freaking exhausting and not a moment of fun. And the similarity to religion, in my opinion, doesn't end there. I don't care if that's what you believe in, I don't so leave me alone. I'm not trying to convert you to atheism or anything similar so kindly do not while away your time attempting to convert me to your religion of choice. I am still a meat-eater and wouldn't dream of telling you that you should be eating it if you've chosen to be a vegetarian. That's your choice and I respect it. Why do they then think that I have somehow not made a choice ... or have just not yet been fed enough information to have made the right choice, their choice? It is *so* the same. At least people with peculiar foodisms due to religion find it a lot easier to understand why no one else is eating *their* way. (Quick aside: I know that not all vegetarians or vegans are like this ... it's just been my experience of late.)