My Days Off

Have been lucky enough to have almost a week off from work, with the way my days off have worked out.

We haven’t done very much though, as we are

We have organised some health insurance and hopefully will be getting a land line and cable broadband in the next week or so. Currently we are using pre-pay mobile broadband, using an internet key, or dongle as I would call it. It works out more expensive, and coverage isn’t always great, so looking forward to cable very much.

We have also been taking regular walks, in the hope we can build our fitness levels and lose some weight.

We also would like to apply for permanent residency in Australia. Our life here so far has been great. There is such potential here, for all those goals we have for our lives. With this in mind, we have been collecting various forms and documents we need in order to begin this process.

The local DVD rental shop is pretty decent. We rented 6 DVD’s for only $8, for the whole week. We picked up “Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging”, “Children Of Men”, “The Happening”, “Pineapple Express”, “Baby Mama” and “Mamma Mia”.

To choose which one to watch first, Sam shuffled the DVD’s behind is back, and three times I picked “Children Of Men”. So the choice was made by fate. As it turns out, it is a pretty rotten film. The plot is good (there have been, mysteriously, no births for eighteen years), but the execution of the film wasn’t as good as I thought it could be. I thought they were struggling to keep to a tight budget. They probably spent all their money on Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine. In fact, Moore, who is a headliner in anything she does, is only in the film for a brief spell.

Some scenes were impressive, with single rolling shots, having a lot of action and content running continuously. Otherwise, this could have been a by product of not having the budget to edit properly. In one scene, the camera lens is spattered, and remains so for the whole scene. This could have the effect of making you feel you are in the action, or simply make the viewer more aware that they are watching a film and the camera is dirty.

“Pineapple Express” is something else altogether. All I can say is: Rent it. Watch it. Make up your own mind. Seth Rogan seems to be doing rather well for himself. One to watch.

“Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging” was a nice effort. Aimed at a younger audience, and mildly contrived, but easy to watch and some good performances. Nice to see Alan Davies doing well. There are some bad ones too, but all done with intentional humour.

The other three were much better. Who hasn’t seen “Mamma Mia”? Meryl Streep is magical, as the mother of a girl with three potential fathers. Such a great talent, she impresses in all that she does. It would be nice to see Amanda Seyfried, the young girl getting married, in other productions. A gem of a film, that couldn’t fail, when supported by the miracle that is the music of ABBA.

“Baby Mama” is a lovely film, with Tina Fey (30 Rock), Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Amy Poehler (Blades Of Glory) and Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets). Tina is successful in business, but can’t have a baby. She opts for Amy to carry her fertilised egg as a surrogate mother. Funny in a lot of places, it also has some special moments between the characters in others, as well as making comment on society’s acceptable values.

“The Happening” was my favourite out the six. M Night Shyamalan (The Village, Sixth Sense) writes and directs. Shyamalan seems to see the world in a slightly different way, allowing for his films to open you to possibilities of what could or might be.

Mark Wahlberg (ageing well) is a teacher with a passion for science. The news spreads quickly that people are hurting and killing themselves. I will not ruin this for anyone who hasn’t seen it. I simply thought the proposed theory for what could have been causing these events was wonderful. The implications would make sense, in our current climate of preservation and damage control of our home, the earth.

trying to save some money.