ayme

Definitely not the best film I've seen so far in 2011, but it was entertaining, and Jeff Bridges was very good in it.

I like this version much more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZwM3GvaTRM

It was alright. I found it quite boring in a lot of places, and the ending was so predictably Tarantino. Was not impressed. Loved Christoph Waltz though. Thought he was great.

I find drinking tea (or substitute the hot drink of your choice) is brilliant. And curry. Suncream an hour before you go out in the sun and re-apply. And of course just generally plenty of fluids. But seriously, hot drinks and curry. Not sure whether mild or mental hot is best....as I don't do mental hot curry I haven't been able to test the theory. But Mild to medioum does wonders.

Sally Gap was inpassable also and certain areas of Dublin were covered in snow. My friend Gillian lives in Tallaght and she was snowed in the day before yesterday, and I have seen the pics to prove it. City West was blanketed in snow from the looks of photos one of my classmates had on her phone and we have snow in our garden today, enough to make a half foot high snowman if I wanted there still to be snow around him, or to make one about a foot and a half tall if I wanted him in just grass. Of course the delightful neighbourhood kids would probably kick his head off soon after creation.

There was about 3 thick inches of snow on my car when I came home this evening but as the road has turned slushy it's not so pretty and I was tired and didn't take any photos.

It keeps snowing during the day and being beautiful and white while I'm at work and then turns to sleet just before I get to leave. I did get to crunch the first fresh snow on the footpath behind stephens green shopping centre the other night though.... and it made me smile.

It is brilliant and by brilliant I mean brilliantly bad. Having said that I did enjoy every cheesy moment in it.

But really... I think maybe, Anthony you shouldn't see it.

It does contain such classic lines as "you're like my own personal brand of heroin" and "the lion fell in love with the lamb", "what a stupid lamb", "what a sick masochistic lion" - which had the whole cinema in stitches laughing. I'm assuming they are lines taken from the book. Lots of moments which were quite funny, I assume at least some of them intentionally so.

It really is a film for teenage girls, but the audience was mainly adults and mixed 50/50. AND for once there was no talking during the film at Cineworld so it must have been doing something right cos it's been a long time since I went to the cinema there without somebody talking the WHOLE way through a film.

I miss Veronica Mars

Which won't make sense in the context of the previous post. Unless you read the spoiler.

We used to do that and set off the fire alarm in school all the time. They could never prove it was us though.

I'm still quite scared of clowns... and it's not so much a fear I suppose, but I hate the sound of teeth being brushed.

What I love about it is going to the supermarket at about 10pm and watching people trying to buy wine just at 10pm... It's funny. The cash registers are actually locked against sales of alcohol, so they can't actually serve and charge you for alcohol after 10. It's brilliant, and hilarious to watch people get annoyed.

Cicadas are really annoying in the summer in Japan. They are bloody noisy. My students would get butterfly nets and knock them out of the trees into the nets and then run around putting them into people's hair/clothes/bags/etc.

I was told by one of my kids that they make all the noise when they breed, they bury their eggs in the ground under trees, and then the adults die and the next year the new ones climb out of the earth up into the trees to breed and be noisy for another summer and so the cycle goes on. I don't know hoe true this is and I'm too lazy to find out.

Spiders are great! I'm especially pro spider since I found out there is one that eats cockroaches.

Hope you are having a great time and I must email you contact details for a few of my weird New Zealand friends.

Went to Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic again this year. Really great way to finish my summer and three years in Japan. I love Japanese festivals. The atmosphere is fantastic, although I must say, the food was awful at Summer Sonic. IF you ever get a chance to be in Japan in the disgustingly hot summer try to go to Fuji Rock, it is so beautiful there. Pity Electric Picnic is sold out. I was contemplating going but wanted to wait til I got home to make final decision. Oh well.

I am sitting here doing nothing but typing and sweat is pouring off me. I hate summer.

You should watch Kaze no tani no Naushika. That's a good one. Tonari no Totoro is a great one. With a very catchy theme tune.

And Panda ko Panda is the cutest thing ever. Not directed by Hayao Miyazaki but written by him. Directed by the guy who wrote Grave For Fireflies.

But the fact that I am recommending it based on it being cute means I have definitely been in Japan too long. Also has an incredibly catchy theme tune.

I saw it Al. I rented it from my video store recently. It doesn't have subtitles though (most anime does), I enjoyed it...but I think I lost out by not really understanding everything. It was handy to know the plot beforehand.

I like Crayon Shin-chan...kids love him. Parents hate him with a passion.

So apparently there are two penis festivals in Japan. The one I posted about before which it turns out is somewhere near Tokyo and the one in Nagoya which is about two hours from here.

One of the other AETs, James went and there are plenty of pics on his blog...it is a real festival. http://fatjamesinjapan.livejournal.com/

Yes, avoiding life in a country where they don't speak your language is to be highly recommended. Everything takes on a surreal quality.

And as I have no intention ever of taking up teaching as an actual profession, it was pretty good for avoiding thinking about my future. Plus I got to travel....and get offered jobs in Cambodia which I'm starting to think might be a good idea.


Congratualations on graduation by the way!

I highly recommend avoiding the real world. My three year avoidance is about to end and I am already dreading returning to it.

Don't complain, at least you have real heating. I will be staying in bed all winter cos it's the warmest place in my apartment. And in school i sit at my desk wrapped in a blanket with 6 or 7 layers of clothes on.

get home in the morning they just pop right out.

Sorry, am an idiot. Hit enter by mistake

Not really the best thing to do...but a hint for making it easy to get them out at the start is to leave them in as long as possible. I used to find that once excess moisture was gone from my eye they would pop out. Once I got the hang of catching them I stopped doing that. Except for nights where I go out drinking...then by the time I

Finally got around to seeing this today. Well, it's not awful but it's not great either.

The acting in general is quite good. Didn't really like Keira Knightly although she was less slappable than usual. I actually prefer this Mr. Darcy to Colin Firth's version. But, as a whole, it didn't really seem to meld well together...it was a bit choppy. Now I know they only had two hours to do what the BBC did in six so I will allow for that, but it totally lost all the wit Jane Austen had in the book, and which was evident in the BBC version. I'll definitely be sticking to reading it and BBC one.

That's not just a robot...thats a transformer

They shouldn't have made a film of it. The BBC did a great version in 1995 and there was no need for a film version.

Friends of my parents had laser surgery done a couple of years ago and they said it was one of the best things they have ever done. They have to warn you about complications, there is always a risk involved with every type of surgery.

I'm having it done by the same surgeon as them when I come home. He's a friend of my parents and his main area of expertise is with small babies' eyes.

Contacts are grand as long as you aren't squemish and don't mind putting stuff in your eyes. Although if you want to wear them every day I'd recommend hard lenses over soft lenses.

Al, if you want the extra tracks I can give them to you. I bought the album over here so I have the bonus CD. Just let me know...

So jealous. I saw them in August and I've been listening to them lots and lots. They are so good live. I hope they come back again soon. You are so lucky!!