The Motorcycle Diaries. Perhaps movies are always better when they’re free, but I enjoyed this a lot. Certainly more than Age critic Jim Schembri, who apparently found it dull. I didn’t… I have no Che Guevara t-shirts, posters or other memorabilia, but his transformation from medical student to revolutionary was only part of the story. ... [More]
The other week I was reading some bit of junk mail that came through my post box, and noting that dish washers aren’t quite as exhorbitantly priced as I thought they might be. When I eventually own a house, I’ll be sure to get one, just to save the dish washing effort. But in the ... [More]
Tintin lovers, be sure to tune into SBS on Tuesday at 10pm to catch the acclaimed documentary Tintin & I. I heard of this one a while back, and was watching out for it in film festival programmes and overseas DVD releases, but to no avail… so it’ll be good to finally see it.
My latest Ebay listing: LOTR Two Towers collector’s DVD – box and Gollum only Just the box and the Gollum This is the Australian DVD collector’s gift box of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers… but WITHOUT the discs… eg it’s just the gift box and the Gollum/Smeagol. Just to emphasise: No discs, no ... [More]
The Triplets of Belleville. French animation, with some very funny moments (especially from Bruno the dog), and some very dark ones too, which possibly make it too dark for kids, despite the PG rating. Keep watching after the credits (I wish we had.) Maybe don’t watch it if you don’t like frogs… Great stuff. Japanese ... [More]
Service call part 1 On Tuesday afternoon I took my sister and her husband to go look at a car in West Footscray Kingsville. Consider it Used-Karma — my sister gave me lifts when years ago I was car-shopping. We got there, and then I locked my keys in my car. Oops. I tried to ... [More]
Here are my New Year’s resolutions. They start off with vague motherhood statements and get into some specifics further down. To be, in alphabetical order, a better boyfriend, brother, parent, son, uncle, world citizen… to be a better person. To keep learning and trying new things. To keep working for or giving to causes I ... [More]
Ate at Subway yesterday with the kids. I am seriously out of my depth there. Must have spent a good couple of minutes staring up at the menu before even daring to approach the counter. Eventually figured out what we wanted to order, and the woman behind the counter started asking the hard questions. Like ... [More]
Was chatting the other day to Tony about radio web casts from across the globe, and I was remembering how much harder it used to be before the age of the Innanet. About 20 years ago I had a rickety old shortwave radio with which I used to listen to the BBC World Service. It ... [More]
With my sister and her husband having returned to Australia after about 3 years of being away (and for my sister, about 5 years away from Melbourne), I find myself explaining the little things that have changed while they’ve been away. Things that are new. They’ve been reading the news from overseas, they know the ... [More]
A pretty good Christmas haul. A brilliant (two volume) book, some DVDs, some chocolate, a groovy t-shirt, groovy CDs, and a stuff-yourself-all-afternoon Christmas lunch. I’ve got no complaints. Tonight I tried to make nachos. I think I may have given myself excess cheese poisoning. I was sitting at home, on my own in the dark, ... [More]
Here is my bookcase. Well, one of them, probably the most interesting one. There are others elsewhere in the house containing CDs and kids books; videos; boring geeky books and magazines. If there is one thing I regret about my book collection it’s that in early adulthood I was so addicted to TV that I ... [More]
Here’s the Christmas tree late last night, with the presents at their most impressive. Slowly, today, the pile is being depleted. I should just add that today would be a good day to spare a thought, and some cash, for those in need. Donate to Salvation Army (southeast AU) The Smith Family (AU) Red Cross/Crescent ... [More]
Christmas means different things to different people… some mark the birth of Christ, others the solstice, for some it’s just another public holiday, for many it’s a chance to spend up big on presents, max out the credit card. I fall into the camp of using the day to get together with family, to give ... [More]
I have a once-a-year chance coming up. In my kitchen is a six-pack of beer of a brand that I don’t normally drink. I think someone left it after the last party. I’d rather not take it to somebody else’s party, as I’d feel duty-bound to drink it, and like I say, I normally don’t. ... [More]
I’ve been going to the same dental surgery for the last ten years or so, every 6-8 months. It should be every 6, but in practice I tend to wait until they ring me to make an appointment (what, like I’d WANT to go?), and so it usually ends up at about 8. The actual ... [More]