Some films.....

...that we've watched recently!

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan": As offensive as the censors would allow, yet rather interesting to watch. Sacha Baron "Ali-G" Cohen takes on the role of the bizarre Eastern block journalist touring the USA, and thanks to his rather rudimentary grip of the English language, this results in some amazing reactions. You will *cringe*! Maybe 'the joke' wears old over the course of the running time, but overall "Borat" is a very funny film. It features some hilarious moments, whilst providing a disturbingly sharp look at ordinary people's attitudes and opinions. Racism, sexism, narrow-mindedness are all exposed.

Oh, one of the cut scenes on the DVD that features a poor supermarket worker is comedy gold!

"The Queen": A marvellous film which focuses on the British Royal family during a time of national crisis: it is August 1997 and Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are killed in that infamous Paris car crash. Helen Mirren is wonderful in this role, as are the supporting cast. Apart from dealing with a delicate time for the Royal Family, it explores the early relationship between her "old" values and traditions, and the new vision of the country from the recently elected Labour party. Tony Blair (ingeniously played by Michael Sheen) has the difficult task of re-connecting the public with the Royals. Worthy of its Oscar and box office success.

"Talk Radio": A late 80's Oliver Stone film about a Dallas radio 'shock jock', Barry Champlain. Stars Eric Bogosian, who also wrote it with Stone, and is based on the original stage play and book. Excellent and tense character study of an arrogant person who thinks he can help the common man though satirical attacks on his listeners. A complex film that I will definitely enjoy watching again.

I also bought "Doom" and "Clockwise" DVDs the other weekend as they were cheap, but we haven't watched them yet. I remember hiring "Doom" about a year ago and enjoying it for its sheer grade Z naffness! Soon we want to see "The Prestige", "The Notorious Betty Page", and give "Casino Royale" another viewing.

Meerkats and Lemurs

Just got to tell you all about two wonderful shows on TV at the moment. "Meerkat Manor" on BBC2 and "Lemur Island" on Channel 5. I don't usually watch nature programmes but I'm hooked on these two! Both shows follow the lives of these little creatures - and they are both fascinating and cute in the own little ways. I particularly like the Lemurs when they sit "Buddha" style-ee in the morning sun! Haha! :)

A Ring-tailed Lemur...sunbathing!...and some Meerkats chillin' out!! :)

Saturday cleaning and citizenship paperwork

It's been an easy going Saturday - didn't do anything special today. Carla was at work so I managed to do a few bits in the flat before going over to meet her, and do some food shopping on the way home. Cleaned the computer's internal fan out as the whole machine was *rattling* due to being clogged with black dust bunnies! Ugh. Then I cleaned the shower out and did a whole load of laundry, while watching "The Pink Panther" on DVD. I also managed to fit in a Tom Holland workout (I have two of his DVDs.) I like doing these but admit I don't work out enough for it to count (over the last three weeks, only 1 workout per week.) I seem to have lost my way with fitting them in! :(

As I type here, I'm looking at the DVD and bookshelves to my left, and they are a bit of a mess! Hmmm....need to have a re-think and a sort out. Also, Partners (the Stationary shop) in town have a really nice glass computer desk for sale, which if it fits nicely in this alcove, I may well go for it. Trouble is, I'll have to upgrade to flat screen monitor as well. I don't have one yet as this iiyama one has worked perfectly for years and provides a lovely crisp image.

Yesterday, I took half a day's annual leave to come home early and go with Carla to a local solicitor to get her citizenship documents all in order, so we could send them off for her UK citizenship application. I guess we have to wait now for a few months while the Home Office do their stuff. Let's hope for a speedy and positive decision. (see Carla's blog here.)

Good luck to our pal Tess who may well soon start a spot of world travelling and work experience. Her blog is in my list of friends. I have also added Mary Jo's blog in that list. Go there for loads of fun Star Wars chit chat!

Life on Kazakhstan

Here is the latest. Not much since the last entry but, hey, typing keeps me off the streets.

~ Carla passed her "Life in the UK test" today in Birmingham. Woohoo! This means she can hand in the forms and apply for citizenship. Well done the Mrs!

~ I'm reading a fantastic book called "The Prestige". It's about the rivalry between two stage magicians in the late 19th Century. Spooky and odd, but riveting. Christopher "Batman Begins" Nolan made the film version of this, which is out on DVD next week. Looking forward to seeing it, but I will finish the novel first. Looks like a great cast and I like Nolan's style.

~ We watched the latest episodes of "Life on Mars" and "Heroes" this week. Both shows are very entertaining, if a little bizarre...but that's what makes 'em fun.

~ We have the "Borat" DVD waiting to be watched. Probably will fit that in tomorrow evening. Looks like a great laff! :)

~ Still drawing Scottish woodland maps at work. This project will go on for a looooooooong time!

~ I still have to sort out that huge pile of papers/junk in the spare room. A weekend job, me thinks. Hello paper recycler.

a visit to the theatre and a birthday social!

Carla and I had Friday off work, so we got tickets to see the musical "Chicago" at the Cambridge Theatre, central London. Musical theatre is a growing interest of ours, and as we had both enjoyed the 2002 film version of this long running show, we thought it would be great to see it on the stage. It certainly did not disappoint! The show was really fun to see. The vocal performances were excellent and the dancing top notch from all the cast. Tony Hadley plays the role of Billy Flynn, Chicago's top sleazy lawyer. He was brilliant, but I've always liked his voice from his Spandau Ballet days. The two leading ladies were excellent as well. The songs are the stars of course and they are simply great. Highlights included "All That Jazz", " Razzle Dazzle", "Cell Block Tango" and "We both Reached for the Gun".

I think the show is definitely better than 'Wicked!', which we saw last November: the lyrics of the songs are superior and are more 'show classic' and less 'pop' in tone. It also has a dark feel to it, which really interests me, not surprising as it came from the same team behind "Cabaret" (Bob Fosse etc).

After the show finished we headed on up to Milton Keynes to stay with Mark. It was his birthday that weekend so people were congregating there to celebrate. Another friend of ours, Jane, was already there. They were kind enough to meet us at the railway station (in the rain) and after the hugs and hellos; we caught the bus up into the city centre to do some food shopping at Sainsbury's. Alas...no PG tips monkeys in stock! (see earlier post). When we got back to his house in the suburbs, we had a nice little meal and watched some of the newer "Battlestar Galactica" series on DVD. I also gave him his Darth Vader birthday card (which went nicely with his Anakin Skywalker one somebody had got him!)

The next morning we had a slow lazy start. We had short walk around Furzton Lake, which is in the park at the end of Mark's road. The large open green area and lake is pretty in a 'new man-made' kind of way. Mark informed us that the homes around the lake are quite expensive, so I suppose they are all owned by "city" types and the successful dot.com lot. It was lovely to see the a large variety of waterfowl, and seeing some geese having a bit of an argument was sooo funny! Nice walk as the sun was shining but it was soooo windy!

When we got back to Mark's place, some other pals turned up (Tim and Sharon) and after the obligatory cup of tea, we all walked to Bletchley Park museum. There we met up with some other pals (Jamie, Theresa and Joe) and we spent the afternoon there looking around. The museum is excellent and fascinating. It mainly covers the part played by the code breakers of the 2nd World War: the 'Enigma' machine and all that. There are also other mini museums/exhibits that cover such things as cinema projection technology, old toy trains and toy collections, and life in the early part of the 20th century. I particularly loved seeing the old toys and packaging materials! The mansion itself is an interesting example of varied architecture, having been built from different design influences. Shame we couldn't see more of the interior. (Pic is of us with the giant goose statue at the museum!)

We had had a little while back at Mark's place, then said our good-byes and made our way home by rail. We got home and had a lovely dinner while watching the latest monsters of the week (killer Do-dos this time!) in Episode 4 of "Primeval".

Today (Sunday) was rainy all day. Ugh. We did venture out for a few essential groceries and buy the film version of "Chicago" at HMV, which we watched over lunch. Fantastic!

poor Wall-E misses the latest episode of Lost!

I see that the CGI wizards at Pixar are developing a flick called "WALL-E", about a cute looking maintenance robot who tries to clean up a polluted future Earth. It looks like it could be wonderful. The robot looks sweet. Let's hope its not to maudlin and schmaltzy though. If its half as good as "Happy Feet", I'll be chuffed.

In the news today was the great BSkyB TV v Virgin Media fist-y-cuffs. Oh dear, I do hope this is sorted soon. At least one of my pals (hello Mandy) has suffered here because of two billionaires having an right ding-dong over cash. So at the moment, as far as I understand it, if you subscribe to Virgin Media cable tv you no longer get Sky One and Two, Sky Sports or Sky News etc…and you wont until they come to some arrangement (i.e. BSkyB TV get the dosh they want from Virgin - which looks unlikely to happen). Bugger. What a way to miss seeing "Lost" or "24"!

At the moment we only have the five basic network channels. I always new it was a good idea to invest the money into our DVD collection instead!! Still, I'm looking into getting Freeview soon, as its included in the awesome Panasonic DVD recorder I want to buy when it comes down a bit in price...its not in the top price range of Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, but those players costs the equivalent of the GDP of an small African nation, so a bit beyond my shopping basket yet!