“Gav, you should of done that”

IT’S HAVE YOU ILLITERATE MORONS.  You should HAVE done this.  Maybe “You should’ve done this” but for fuck’s sake…

I can handle people writing things incorrectly, but when they also say it wrong? Cretins.

I’m with Giles Coren.*

*Note I didn’t end on an unstressed syllable!

I’d never heard of the film before, but I can see why it only narrowly missed out on an Oscar for best screenplay to Juno.  (And so do others, apparently!) It’s a real good film with some charmingly delightful characters, and led by a strangely enigmatic Ryan Gosling playing the eponymous Lars.  I won’t tell you much about the film’s plot (I find that knowing nothing about a film before I go and see it definitely enhances the enjoyment - don’t you?) but essentially Lars is a small town guy, so painfully shy that he won’t even go to his brothers’ house next door for dinner.  Things gradually change, but I love the way that the town rally around Lars to help him and Bianca out - it’s really quite touching and made me feel like a bit of a softie!

I enjoyed it, and so will you! Probably.  I give it 4.5 out of five, which is pretty good for me.  It’s probably a 4 out of five, but I’m in a good mood and I really liked it today, so there we go.  Not out yet, but only a tenner from the US.

I’m not a softie by the way, I went to the rugby today and spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer and eating a fab sunday roast (with Apple and Date crumble!) in the Superb Cricketers Arms near the SCG.  Highly recommended if you’re in the Surry Hills/Anzac parade area, and perfectly situated for a pre- or post-match schooner.  Oh, and doing childish tricks trying to get nice ladies to show off their boobies.  People are gullible, eh?

Right, well I went to watch the Dark Knight last week at the IMAX in Sydney.  Rather neatly, as I’m living in the future compared to most of the world I got to see it before it was released in Europe or the USA, on the day of its release here.  Even the hoardes of god-bothering locusts in the festival of the young and deluded couldn’t put a dampner on things.  I’ve never been a real fan of Batman and his ilk (not since the good old Adam West Batman days, anyway, though I sem to think Batman was the first 12 rated film in the UK? Am I right?) but this was a top film and well worth splashing out $50 for me and Annika to go and see it.  I think she only wanted to go for the hot boys in it, but there we are. (Her words).

You’ll hear a lot of people say that Heath Ledger steals the show as the deliciously psychotic Joker, well, I suppose that’s true to 99% of people who will see this film.  He’s really excellent and credible as a proper baddie, I’ve not knowingly seen any of his other films (and I don’t suppose I’ll see many more!) but if this film is to be his cinematic epitaph - it’s certainly a goodie.  I love the part where he makes the pencil disappear - he’s just brilliantly unhinged and mental.

But the real star for me was the IMAX cinemaphotography.  Filming in IMAX is a logistical nightmare - huge film, really heavy cameras and all sorts of issues.  Seeing the Hong Kong sequences and the skyscrapers in a screen 8 stories high was just breath-taking.  It really was one of the best moments I’ve seen at the cinema when the first real IMAX shots rolled by.  I think the new Batman was the first full-length feature film to be shot at least partially in IMAX - it’s not 3d, but the scope and depth of the lense means you see all sorts of things twinkling away in the distance (combined with amazing close-ups) that you wouldn’t see in a normal cinema.  If you are going to see The Dark Knight, splash out a bit extra and go and see it in IMAX, it’s well worth the extra money £12 or whatever you have to pay.

I’m going to give it a 4.5/5 too - it could well be a 5/5 film, but I think I might have been swayed by the IMAX, it could equally only have been worth 4/5 and my judgement has been equally blurred.  Who knows?!

OK, well that’s 750 words now, so that will do I think! Have a good week y’all - and let me know what you think if you’ve seen either of the above.

I’m rather excited, especially after reading this review.  It should be good!  I’ll let you know, and you know the nice part?  As I’m living in the future, I get to see it before it’s released in Europe or even the USA!

Woohoo!

Well, a bit of an update from me - nothing awfully exciting I don’t think in the last few weeks, erm, that sounds a lot worse than it is, but all good!  I did two weeks of the (f)Atkins diet - I quite enjoyed bits of it, it was a bit frustrating at times, but it kick-started a bit of a health kick and made me lose a good few kg’s.  I’m not sure how much as I never weighed myself though, d’oh!  I’d probably do it again, and I will at somepoint.  I have fallen off the wagon a bit, but not too much.  Been watching quite a lot of Entourage (what a good programme, I only discovered it a couple of weeks ago!) on the nice projector that I need to give back to work - I promise I will!  I’ve passed my probation period at work, so I’m here for good now, eeek.  Obviously they loved me.  It was nice to see Sarah back in the country again, we went for a few drinks on Tuesday, and my mate Colin’s birthday.  It was a really good day actually, a few drinks in pubs in town and watched a bit of the cricket.  Then we bought a few bottles of wine from a bottle shop in Darlinghurst, and on to the really rather good Bill and Toni’s restaurant in East Sydney.  It’s a proper old school Italian restaurant, you have to sneak up some hidden stairs through a cafe with a clientele list that somewhat resembles the bar out of Star Wars.  I thought I heard the theme music from The Godfather playing when we got upstairs, and everyone was Italian.

For veal schnitzel (they love schnitzel here - everything is schnitzellized!) and spaghetti bolognese, with salad, coffee and quite a bit of wine that we bought ourselves, the bill came to about £14 each.  Bargain!

Then just yesterday we decided to go to Cronulla for the day.  It’s all too easy to spend all your time in Sydney - there’s so much to see, but you forget that for just £3 ($6) you can get a train to a nice place like Cronulla (it’s a riot!) and get away from teh big smoke.  So the five of us trekked down there, (Me, Annika, Gertrud, Nik and Alison) and we took the girls to their first ever game of rugby league.  Cronulla was a nice enough sea-side surf town, a decent size, a great beach with a train station right next by, and an admirable selection of sruf shops.  It reminded me of Manly but with a bit more going on, and I really liked it - I could live there I think.  After visiting the RSL club (Where the bar was full of men gambling - the Aussies love betting on the horses like you wouldn’t believe!) and the three girls being the only females in a packed bar we went up to the Toyota Stadium, where the Cronulla Sharks play.

It cost us $20 to get in on the door with free transport to and from the stadium.  We managed to blag a spot right against the advertising hoarding and luckily we were at the end that my team, The Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles were attacking.  The game had really been hyped up and the small stadium was jammed to the rafters with just under 20,000 people in there, including a healthy Manly contingent.  The hype was because the two teams were top of the NRL ladder at the start of the game.  Well, the Sea Eagles answered any questions - the Sharks lived up to their big-game bottler tag, and Manly absolutely monstered them with a flawless first half performance to leave the Sharks trailing 22-6 at half time - rather pleasingly all the action seemed to take place within about 10 meters of where we were stood, so that was a real bonus.  The second half wasn’t much different, although I didn’t see too much of it as it was a) up the other end b) we were having too much of a good time to worry about the game and c) I was a bit pissed by this stage.

The atmosphere at Shark Park was really good, we met some great people (Nik thinks I always do!) and we had a really good day out.  The girls even went from never having been to a game of Rugby before (I know, I know this was Rugby League) to really enjoying it and wanting to go again, so I’m happy with that.  The night was polished off by a few drinks in a tacky bar, some kebabs (not for me! A bottle of Coke Zero!) and the late train back.  Rather nicely I got to see a really good fight outside a bar near me, so that topped the night off a treat.

Today, I’ve purchased both a bike and a multigym.  Well, I bought a bike off a dude on Gumtree and I’ve also bought the heaviest chain known to man to tie it up with.  Conservative estimates suggest the chain weighs about 15 kilos.  I’m going to be using it build the guns up, and maybe to shorten my 3 and a half minute commute to work!

OK, that’s all for now - I promise to be back with more random stuff and e few more opinion things rather than just my diary.  TTFN!

Oh, and the Pope arrives in Sydney this week - any ideas of how to piss off the estimated 250,000 god-botherers is much appreciated.  One idea was to try and shag a nice Catholic girl - for starters she’s clearly pre-selected herself as the gullible and easily influenced type, and she’s used to hanging round pervy priests, so all good.  We were hypothisising about this (beer’s great eh?) and we came up with the potential morning after scenario…

[BEDROOM - EARLY HOURS OF MORNING. COUPLE LYING IN BED]

GIRL: OH MY GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE, I’VE SHAGGED A RANDOM!

GUY: EY UP LOVE!

GIRL: OH GOD, WE DIDN’T DID WE?

GUY: ER…

GIRL: THIS IS TERRIBLE, PLEASE TELL ME ONE THING?

GUY: SURE

GIRL: WELL, I CAN GO TO HELL IF I GOT THIS WRONG - PLEASE TELL ME WE DIDN’T USE A CONDOM!

OK bye kids!:)

My last post seemed to be very popular with the ladies on Facebook - lots of comments!  Thanks for that - if you’d like to actually comment on my real blog - then even better.  It even puts a little flag next to the country where you’re posting from, I haven’t seen a Dutch one yet… *cough*

It’s fair to say reactions to me doing this diet have been mixed, 99% are negative and telling me it’s the worst thing I could do.  But the support from others is much appreciated.  Basically I know there must be more ideal and less faddy diets to do, but I think that what I’m doing is better than the alternative, it’s got a set of clear rules and it’s easy to follow, and keeps me focused.  There are no looking at labels, weighing stuff or complicated rules to follow.  There’s no temptation to fall off the wagon - I can’t even have one beer, and I’m liking it.  Here’s an example for the last couple of days, with what I would’ve had to eat/drink and what I actually did….

Friday - Old Reigime

Bacon Butty morning - so bacon and egg sarnie.  Cups of tea, quite possibly a mocha from Massimo’s. Probably a bit of fruit mid-morning, then over to the pub for lunch - probably 2 beers and as we went to the Harlequin in Pyrmont which serves wicked Thai food, so probably a Thai red curry.  In the afternoon there are always sweets and biscuits coming round the office, then we have the TGIF meeting, which would have been accompanied by 2 beers.  Then, back to mine, more beers, probably about another 4, and as Linnea came round for tea, maybe some pasta concoction before going out and drinking more beer with Ruth and Ashley and a 2am McDonalds.

Friday - What actually happened

2 Eggs for breakfast, a few herbal teas throughout the day.  Lunch - grilled chicken and green salad, no sauces but a bit of mayo.  No snacking, no beer.  Tea - Steak with loads of tenderstem broccoli and mushrooms.  Had a couple of gin and slimline tonics to get me in the mood, then out where all I drank was a couple of vodka and soda’s with a slice of fresh lime (naughty!).  Then sat down and watched everyone else eat a Maccy D’s at 2am and tell me my diet was a bad idea and wasn’t good for me.

So which of the above seems like a healthier alternative?

Today I had a jog around the park, then read my book and did a bit of sunbathing on the balcony.  It’s fair to say that mid-winters day here was better than midsummer’s back home by all accounts!  Not a cloud in the sky, and a lovely temperature.  Tuna salad for brunch, with, yes - a bit of cheese, and balsamic vinegar, then lunch I went to the fantastic Sydney Fishmarket (pictured) where I got some fresh sashimi sushi made for me - sliced off the freshest salmon and tuna fillets.  I got more than enough for lunch for just $10, and I must say it was great - just don’t let the seagulls steal it when you sit outside!  Just a shame I couldn’t have a glass of wine to go with it.  I bought loads of nice fish and meat - I’ve promised to cook steamed mussels for Annika tomorrow - I’m even becoming a decent cook!  I went out to meet a couple of mates and watch England get thrashed by the All Blacks at rugby, but no beer, I did have a vodka and tonic, but mostly water.  Then tea was a BBQ’d pork chop, with some veggies.

The main issue I’m finding is with breakfast, and the fact I can’t have any desserts!  Also you can’t have any snacks (unless you’re some sort of wierdo that eats ham for a snack - I know only one person that does this! ) but I guess that could kind of be the point!  You have to stick to meals, your mind is concentrated on what you need to do, and you invariably end up eating healthily.

Anyway, I am sort of enjoying it - the Atkins diet is making me plan my meals, eat more healthily and while you spend more on food, at least I’m cooking it myself rather than eating out.  I haven’t weighed myself yet, I’m not sure whether I should or not?  I know roughly what I was at the start, so I might just do it after a couple of weeks or a month - we’ll see.  What do you think?  Oh, and if anyone has any ideas for carb-free breakfasts or snacks - let me know!

I’m doing the Atkins diet, or at least having a guess as to what it’s all about.  Basically going to eat no carbs for the next couple of weeks - I’ll try and get some stats and measurements so I can really publicly humiliate myself!  I need to get weighed actually - about 105kg I think.

Any hints or tips anyone?

OK, no beer for at least 2 weeks - wish me luck!  I’m not going to post the before photo just yet…  I’ll wait ’til the end.

It’s Firefox day today.  Thanks to Matt for reminding me.

So - get downloading the new version of Firefox - Firefox 3.0.  It’s faster and better than the last one - I like the ability to search from within the address bar and the way it autofills.  The ability to drag and drop nearly anything from a web page is useful too.

Click here to get it!

God I keep meaning to write stuff, but never seem to get round to it.  Lame, I know.

So, what’s been happening?  Not an awful lot, truth be known - work seems to be going pretty well, the new iPhone 3g is launching soon, so that’s kept me busy with the Apple.com account (even though now it seems they’re not selling it through the site.).

For some reason I don’t seem to have had a single night to myself lately, which isn’t a bad thing really.  I always seem to have someone round, or are going round to someone else’s house.  I’ve even been leaving work on time at 5.30pm so I can go and watch the Euro2008 highlights.  The live games are on at the rather awkward times of 2am and 4.45am here - so not conducive to watching and living a normal life…  One game I’m glad I did watch was the France Vs Netherlands game the other day.  I tipped the Dutch to win the tournament, and with the 3-0 win over the Italians and then the 4-1 crushing of the French yesterday, who’d bet against them?  They seem to be playing the sort of total voetbal that everyone has always imagined the Dutch play - even if the reality hasn’t always been that close to the myth since 1988!

I’ve always been a big fan of all things Dutch really!  The Dutch and the English always seem to get on with each other (some cynic suggested that it’s because we all don’t like the Germans - a bit harsh!), and I seem to get on with them when I meet them, as you do tend to quite a lot when travelling!  At the Euro’s I think there were 125,000 Dutch fans in Bern for the latest game (the only other team I can think of that would take such numbers aren’t in this tournament, despite being ranked 9th in the world, as opposed to Austria who are 90th!) and they always look resplendent in their swathes of Orange, and look like they’re having great fun.  They certainly give their team the confidence to play like this.  In spite of the impression I get that he’s a bit of a cock, I’ve always been impressed by Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben is indisputedly talented and Cruyff, Van Basten, Davids, Bergkamp (so long as it’s not an away game) and Ruud Gullit are some of my favourite ever players.

Anyway, enough proselytising about the Dutch - I’ve got Portugal in the sweepstake at work - but I still hope the bastards lose!

OK - that will do for now, I hope everyone got their Dads a nice fathers’ day present - mine got a Turtley Amazing t-shirt.  Oh yeah.

Oh, and I missed Gorton’s wedding of the year - congratulations to Mr and Mrs Burrell!

That will do for now!

So chuffed that I’m at the top of google for that! Whumph!

While I’m here - if you’ve not bought the new album by The Whip - X Marks Destination, then you’re rubbish.  They’re the best thing to come out of Manchester since Noel Gallagher quit his job in the McVites factory in Burnage.  (He used to make the very finest Jaffa Cakes, don’t you know?).  By the way, while I’m here, a Jaffa Cake is a cake (for tax reasons) as when it goes off it goes hard (like a cake) wheras biscuits go soft when they go off.  Now you know.