All Blacks 13 - 9 Australia

Its been a while since I have been passionate about rugby, I didn't really follow the game much while I was living in London . . . but this year I'm back into it. Reid and I watched a few games of the Super 14 and have watched most of the All Blacks games this season. It has been so exciting and last nights game against Australia was no exception, a closely fought battle for the Bledisloe cup, NZ coming out on top 13 points to 9. Part way through the second half Carter kicked a drop goal and I thought what a waste, if they'd kept on running they might have scored . . . . but on the other hand if they hadn't scored then it would have been 10-9 for the closing minutes just when desperation kicked in for Australia and MAN was it tense!

Anyways - here are the results from All Blacks games so far this season:

New Zealand v Ireland 34-23
New Zealand v Ireland 27-17
New Zealand v Argentina 25-19

New Zealand v Australia 32-12
New Zealand v South Africa 35-17
New Zealand v Australia 13-9

Oh yeah, and how about that Haka - apparently the new Haka has been causing quite a stir here in Oz. Although since I live in Victoria and don't want much free to air telly I've missed all the controversy. Apparently the Aussies aren't that keen on the throat cutting action. I must admit it does look pretty intimidating, but last night the Wallabys didn't even watch the Haka they started up a mini training session off field - chickens!

Sione's Wedding

Generally when the characters are teens its a coming of age film, and when the characters are older its a romantic comedy. Sione's wedding is sort of a combination of both - the characters are all older but as yet haven't faced the time-to-grow-up-meet-a-girl-and-fall-in-love moment . . . . until it is now forced upon them.

Even though the story was pretty predictable it was still really enjoyable to watch. There was plenty of emotional turmoil, comedy, and originality to set the movie apart from other films in both genres. You could say it was something that hadn't been done before, it was almost unique!!

Making the whole experience even better was watching the film at a cinema with other New Zealanders - although I didn't know anyone else (except Reid of course) it was great to laugh along with others at all those things distinctly Kiwi.

I was also impressed with the cinematography - particularly in the opening scene, flying over Auckland city. I did wonder what time of day they filmed that scene because there was very little traffic on the roads or perhaps the traffic crisis in Auckland is just a myth!

google earth

how cool is this, I can see my Mum and Dad's house in lil old Dunedin, NZ on Google Earth!!!

Its clear as a bell, in fact because everything is so open and spacious it is easier to work out their place than my place in Melbourne, Australia

My Dad will be pleased to know that the shed the old farmer has built across the road sticks out like a sore thumb from outta space, but makes a great landmark in google earth.

Pirates

Went to see Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Mans Chest, last night

It was pretty good - funny, definitely entertaining, aesthetically pleasing.

I loved the first one - curse of the black pearl. I think the character of Captain Jack Sparrow is so entertaining and Johnny Depp plays the part superbly.

There's not much to say about this film, its not new anymore - so some of the impact of the first film is lost, and the story is very simple - typical themes of humour, courage, and trust.

I think Orlando Bloom is made for the stage, I've never really been a fan of his style

disillusioned

I have always been a fan of Macintosh computers and Apple products. They look great, and the software is awesome.

However. . . . .

I have a Mac Mini, one of the first off the blocks, and it was shipped without the airport card - many an hour wasted trying to work out why it wouldn't work!

I also have an iPod mini - 18 months in it just stopped working - $95 later I have a reconditioned iPod with a 3 month warranty under the battery replacement program.

Now Reid's iPod photo has crapped its pants - also about 18 months old. It doesn't seem to be a problem with the battery, and it is making some strange noises. Reid is pretty pissed that now he has a $600 shiny white brick and wont be replacing it with another iPod.

One of my gripes about studying was my laptop was too heavy and carting it back and forth to uni was a hassle, so I was going to buy a new MacBook. Of course now that the study is on hold I don't really need a new laptop, but the MacBooks are full of problems - the white ones are turning yellow, the mag safe power cord is catching on fire, and they overheat so much that you can't sit them on your lap.

I am sure there are several websites like it, but apple defects outlines a multitude of problems with Apple products.


In my mind Apple is slowly turning into crapple! bummer :(

post masters

so post masters life has begun already!!

On the weekend I bought a book - to read just for fun!! The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood - so far so good, and very well written!

I also picked up some new wool and have started knitting a scarf!! Old lady much?? Still its fun to make things for yourself!

Anyway - here is a pick of progress after day one.



Its great to do things, even boring things, and not feel guilty that I'm not studying! I would spend my weekends moping around procrastinating doing anything to avoid studying and now I can do what ever I want and not feel bad about it!!!

WOOHOO :)

study

I think I have decided to chuck in my masters. DOH!

I’ve been at it now for just over a year, and looking back I’m not sure I remember enjoying any of it. My course is research only so I spend a lot of time on my own. I’m not really sure what I expected from my supervisor and in fact I’m not really sure what support a supervisor is supposed to provide. I didn’t meet with him very often and most meetings he was late or had to wrap it up early, he never really gave me feedback on any work I gave to him, except “yep this is good”. Even though I found my topic interesting, I was never really passionate about it so I guess I didn’t really put in much effort either.

After I finished university the first time I lived in London and I never really thought of pursuing psychology as a career – I just wanted to have fun and not be tied to my job. All care – no responsibility!

Then when it came time to start my post grad study I didn’t really give much thought to what I wanted to do – I had always wanted to study neuropsychology so I rocked up to the nearest neuropsychologist at Melbourne University and said where do I start. My first and fatal mistake!

I’m not saying I’ve giving up on further study altogether, at the right time and with the right subject I’m sure I’ll get back into it – political science is looking interesting, particularly environmental or maybe even health policy – although I definitely no politician!!

work

I’ve had a bit of turmoil at work recently. My boss has been “reassigned” and since I am a PA that has quite an impact on my job. Unfortunately, since this has all happened there has been plenty if activity on the grapevine and what I had managed to ignore for the most part now is front and centre in my mind. I’ve always thought of my boss as a real salesman, and I’ve certainly had the hard sell from him before, he seems to be able to talk his way out of or into anything and he knows all the buzzwords. But in general he has been really good to me and we have a pretty good working relationship.

On the down side I’ve often thought he was a bit of a slacker, he spends more time mucking around on the internet than I do, he never seems to take responsibility for anything, avoids confrontation like the plague, and takes advantage of all the perks of a business credit card.

Until now I’ve nicely managed to ignore all of this and turn a blind eye, however, ye olde grapevine has revealed many greater evils than extended lunches and suspiciously high mobile phone charges. Individually, any one of these things can be ignored, but when you put them all together it exposes a rather nasty person who is only out for himself. Now every time he opens his mouth I wonder how calculated his words are, I’m sure he only tells me what he thinks I want to hear or what will make him sound good. It becomes a problem when you can’t take your boss seriously any more.

we're free

HOORAY!!

Earlier in the year Reid and I bought 10 movie vouchers from the Entertainment Book for Hoyts cinemas. Unfortunately, the only Hoyts we can get to without a major co-ordinated public transport effort, is at Melbourne Central and they only show the major Hollywood blockbusters/flops.

Anyways the vouchers expired at the end of June so we had a last minute scramble to use the last of them. Recently we have seen:

X-Men 3 - the last stand. Good, not as good as the first one, but pretty damn good special effects!
Cars - amazing special effects and a nice harmless story.
Over the Hedge - it was short so I didn't have time to get bored, nice harmless story.
Superman Returns - again, good special effects, nice harmless story. Superman is quite long and I was entertained throughout, I didn't think there were any low points of significant length to make me realise my bum was sore. I also thought they did really well building tension - I oood and arhhhed in all the right places.

Now of course Pirates of the Caribbean is out this Thursday so I guess its another Hollywood film up next - hopefully soon we'll see something a bit more arty!!

what do you call a . . . .

All over the newspaper today is the story of the long agonising demise of the Channel 9 television network.

Now I'm no comedian, but I'm sure there is someone out there who could make a reasonably funny joke in the form of: what happens when you cross a cash cow with an arsehole

I'm sure there is something funny in there.

Like too many big businesses Channel 9, hasn't prepared for the huge sweeping changes in technology. Almost every part of my life has been affected by new technologies in the past 5 years. I left sunny Dunedin with my brand new 35mm point and shoot in mid 2001, I remember oooing and aarrhing at the few digital cameras, smirking at the strange habits of a digital camera operator (holding the camera at arms length to take the photo their peering into the tiny little screen, "yep that was a good one!"). Six months later, I was the odd one out, everyone had digital. In 2002 I was introduced to the iPod, now I have all my music in my pocket. Laptops have gone from small and portable, up to huge powerful desktop replacements and back to small and portable again. Mobile phones got smaller and smaller, then briefly bigger, turned into clamshells, and now smaller again. And these are just the ordinary everyday gadgets that everyone has, not to mention the DVD replacement is nearly here (GO BLU RAY!!), and 3rd gen gaming is on our doorstep.

The same changes are happening in our lounge rooms, people are looking to different sources for the supply of their entertainment. There seems to be no limit to the amount and content of entertainment now readily available via the internet, and none of this is high tech either, you don't need to be computer whiz to download music videos, songs, TV shows, and movies. Plus, all the mini versions - video podcasts, mobisodes, tardisodes, and miniscreen film festivals. And did I read somewhere that wikipedia has encyclopaedia shaking in its boots???

What has Channel 9 been doing all this time?? . . . . . looks to me like nothing. In fact I think they may have even been fighting to try and keep things the same, watching as their viewers left in droves. As much as I think old Bert can be a pretty funny fellow it really was a step backwards, and perhaps the nail in the coffin, to pit Family Feud against Deal or No Deal. Enough with the “return to the good old days”, stop asking what the formula says to do now – try doing something NEW. The crowd is hushed, what’s this?? Something NEW they say?? It will never work!!!

Channel 9 isn’t the only big company with change phobia, many businesses have such a good thing going that they don't want to change. Some more than others are fighting hard too keep the status quo, American oil companies for one. Others have joined the revolution too late (Kodak) and others have finally tried to pick up their game (I can't believe I'm typing this but McDonalds at least at face value have tried to recapture some of their lost market - but who really knows what is in their food, if someone could make a salad unhealthy they are the ideal candidate. Even Coke-a-Cola took a hit with the health drink fad.

Not to mention, my favourite, Microsoft - every which way they turn someone is clawing away at their dominance. What have we seen that's new from Microsoft recently??? And don't tell me Vista is coming - so is Christmas! and Christmas really will be here first!

Let’s not forget the arse part of my joke. Seems a very disgruntled ex - senior Channel 9 employee has diligently kept detailed accounts of juicy conversations with the top dogs. Then when Channel 9 tried to stop him from defecting to rival Channel 7 this employee whipped out of his pocket all the dirt he had meticulously collected over the recent months for the court and public to see. Before Channel 9 could blink crikey.com had dutifully posted as much of this dirt as they could!! Unfortunately, the court has now suppressed the information so all of us who where too slow to pick it up first time round will have to wait.

Disclaimer: disgruntled employee often translates into vindictive employee, so this post claims no responsibility for the accuracy of said dirt!

What’s the moral of this story? Watch out because the cow just might bite you in the arse, and then you’ll have a big cow bite out of your arse, and that wont be good because it might make sitting down awkward, and people will probably look at you funny, and jeans will never look the same on you again. . . . . . .

no seriously though - what are we paying for?

The Da Vinci Code - the movie

DISAPPOINTING! What a shame, I really loved the book, it was so exciting, a real page-turner. None of the suspense, action, thrill, or anticipation from the book was translated onto the screen. I’m sure there are cinematic techniques for building suspense just as there are literary techniques, even just the use of timing. For someone who was just about to expose the greatest story ever told as a lie, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) certainly didn’t seem very excited – you wouldn’t think he had a passion for symbols or was a world-renowned iconologist from one of the worlds leading academic institutions! If that was me I’d be peeing my pants with excitement – despite the fact that I was also running for my life. I really didn’t feel that Robert Langdon and Sophia Neveu grasped the enormity of their situation.

Today it has a rating of 18% on rotten tomatoes. Out of 150 reviews, 123 are rotten - 4.6 out of 10

Mission Impossible III

Went to see MI-III last week . . . . . should have written this blog closer to the time cos now I can’t really remember much about the film, although I couldn’t really remember much about the next day either. I guess that says something about how I felt about it.

It wasn’t all bad the explosions, special effects, stunts, and gadgets were cool, and Tom Cruise wasn’t dreadful - I was entertained at the time, and I didn’t really expect thing more, its an action film and fulfilled most of the requirements of an action.

The Great Southern Touring Route

Over 8 days Mum, Dad, Grandma, Reid and I travelled from Melbourne down the Great Ocean Road, through to the Grampians and back to Melbourne.

Now the weather is renowned for being unpredictable in Melbourne, but after holidaying in here in May 2004 with beautiful weather my Mum and Dad had no qualms returning to Melbourne at the same time this year. It is a big ask of someone from far south Dunedin to travel in Australia in the height of summer with the risk that the mercury could top 30 degrees. Unfortunately, we were lucky if the temperature reached 15 degrees during the entire trip, and it did rain on most days.

That said if the weather had been beautiful and calm we would never have had some of the fantastic experiences we did. The highlight of the trip would have to be watching the tide come in at Loch Ard Gorge (particularly at Thunder Cave) – along the coast of the Great Ocean Road. The Loch Ard sunk just off the coast of Port Campbell and was Australia’s worst maritime disaster, 54 of the 52 people on board the ship drowned. The coastline around the 12 Apostles is very fragile and is said to erode at a rate of 2cm per year, I think we would have seen a good proportion of this erosion occurring on the day we were there. The sea swells were huge and massive waves were crashing against the cliff face. My best guess is that the cliffs would be at least 50 meters tall, and very regularly a wave would crash into the cliff sending a wall of water well over the height of the cliff. In some of the bays the water was becoming brown as waves washed away layers of the cliff, on one occasion a wave sent water over the cliff top and as water then ran off a stream of brown sludge poured back down into the sea.

Just briefly, other highlights from the trip would have to be

Seeing a koala stop traffic as it wondered out onto and eventually across the road

Feeding the cockatoos at our villa in Apollo Bay

The Otway fly (in pouring rain)

Triplet Falls

The rainforest walk at Maits Rest – which has the biggest (tall and wide) trees I have ever seen, including the Hobbit tree (if you use your imagination you can definitely see a door on the front of this tree AND the tree trunk is hollow!!!! (I peaked inside)


Cape Otway lighthouse (in gale force winds)

The 12 Apostles (where I heard an Asian tourist say “excuse me, mate” in a very board accent – try saying it out load in your best generic Asian accent – sounds hilarious)

The tide coming in at Loch Ard Gorge and eroding the cliffs before our eyes!


An emu stealing a woman’s lunch

Recovery of the Grampians National Park after the January bush fires





Lake Lonsdale – or as it is known to the locals, Lonsdale Paddocks

Walking/climbing/clambering to the top of Mt Zero and watching the rain shower pass over us (the getting wet part was less fun, but unavoidable)

Sunset at Reid Lookout

Having wildlife all around, including kangaroos in the back yard or hopping down the street in front of our villa. Although kangaroos and emus running onto the road in front of the car was quite worrying, but a highlight nonetheless . . . I guess


Other points of interest
National Rose Gardens at Werribee Mansion

The house on a stick

The Ladies of Lorne (the have names I’m sure but I didn’t write it down, so from now on will be called the Ladies of Lorne, by me anyway)

The Beehive Falls

McKenzie Falls

Wildlife of the creepy kind

View from the Balconies

And of course spending time with my family ☺ (ah, isn’t that nice) this trip was for Mum and Dad’s 30th wedding anniversary.

Australia and NEW ZEALAND Army Corps

As a New Zealander living in Australia I understand as well as any that Australian’s are fiercely proud of being Australian and of the sacrifices made by those gone before to secure the future freedom of this nation. However, today at the ANZAC day dawn service, in Melbourne, amid talk of commandery, mateship, and sacrifice not once was the contribution of the New Zealand soldiers acknowledged. In fact, not once were the words New Zealand uttered. I was saddened that the respect shown to the Australian soldiers was not afforded to their New Zealand comrades.

It seems in this case we have forgotten.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

I’ve just finished reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon.
It is a really great book, well written and constructed and an amazing insight. The story is written from the perspective of a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher. He has never mastered the ability to understanding the minds of others, although he does recognise that he can’t understand people and most colloquialisms of language.

Christopher discovers his neighbour’s dog has been murdered and decides to investigate. His investigation leads to a series of discoveries about his mother and father that send Christopher on a journey to places he has never dared to go, yet are places most of us take for granted.

The book is so well written you would believe the narrative is coming straight from the mind of an autistic boy. Mark Haddon gives the reader the ability to see the world from a perspective that is hard to imagine, and with such simplicity and clarity. The book is so moving, your heart goes out to Christopher in every dilemma he faces.

33 & 1/3

Reid and I went to 33 & 1/3 on Saturday night and had a blast. As per usual Reid was glued to the dance floor while I roamed around looking for poor suckers who would listen to me blather on endlessly! Uberzone and A-Skillz were definitely the highlights! I have never seen anyone play the drums like the dude from Uberzone and A Skillz had incredible energy right throughout his two hour set – the hits just kept on coming ☺

It's great to have a blow out every now and then

Dinners

Reid and I LOVE good food! Especially when someone else cooks it for us and it is accompanied by good wine. So every two or three months we shout ourselves to a dinner at the fancy restaurant. The entertainment book is our good food guide to Melbourne, a quick flick through the fine dining section usually leads us to a great restaurant. However, this time we strayed from the book. Magic City is our local fancy restaurant, and although it isn’t in the Entertainment Book it is in the Age Good Food Guide, it reviews well on the internet, and is gets good reports via word of mouth – plus it looks really nice and has a great wine list.

Unfortunately, after months of anticipation we were quite disappointed. Our entrée’s were well presented, but a bit cold and certainly not a taste sensation, and the mains were quite ordinary. I had a pork dish, and apart from being doused in ginger and Chinese five spice (my least favourite flavours) it was very chewy and over cooked. It certainly dampened the conversation since I had to spend five minutes chewing every mouthful. Reid had a noodle dish, which he thought was no better than the $10 takeaway noodles from the neighbouring noodle bar! The service was pretty good – although they did forget to bring us our first drinks.

Bummer.

Doubt

Last Saturday I scored 2 free tickets to the opening night of Doubt, at the Playhouse theatre at the Arts Centre. The head teacher at a Catholic school suspected the priest of foul play with one of the vulnerable young lads. The theme of doubt was introduced throughout the investigation of her suspicions and the difficulty tackling such issues when all you have is that feeling in the pit of your stomach that drives you to make the toughest of choices.

The play was set in the Bronx – and the Australian cast did a reasonable job of the accents. Overall it was entertaining and thought provoking and we had a good time!

Aeon Flux

Two no brainer movies in as many days!! Have just come home from seeing Aeon Flux, staring Charlize Theron.

There isn't really much to say about this film - it followed the time honoured Hollywood tradition: good guy/girl, bad guy, love interest, solve the mystery, save the day!

Nothing very much happened, and I don't really know the comic books so I'm not sure if they stayed true to the originals, so can't really comment there. There wasn't very much character development either - but do you really need that in an action film?? How much did we really know about John McClane in Die Hard?? With a running time of only 93 minutes there wasn't really anytime for deep and meaningfuls.

The film was set in 2417ish. Many years earlier most of the population of the world was wiped out by a virus, and the few survivors now live in a big bubble. Over many years an underground group of rebels gather strength and numbers and begin to challenge the long reigning leadership. Aeon Flux is their greatest weapon and is sent on a mission to challange the ruler. The mission quickly unfolds and a the delivery of a few key lines neatly explains 100s of years of back story.

Charlize Theron played a good action character . . . like a true professional

That's about it - I was moderately entertained and it did look quite good - so it gets a pass.

the opening ceremony

Went to the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games last weekend.

What was that all about????

Dunno!!!!!

Looked good though :) So I guess if it was a movie it would get a pass cos it was highly visually stimulating.

But seriously - I didn't have a clue what was going on, but it was still and awesome night and it felt great being in the crowd at the MCG. The key point for me was the poem read by the little boy - if I had been paying attention when he was reading it, instead of turning my little flashing light on and off maybe I would have understood what on earth was going on! But those little flashing lights did look good when they were all on and you really can't go past the fireworks! They were spectacular!

All round great night and I'm really pleased that I went :)