The Weekend Recapped

Friday

A very lazy evening of DVD watching. After travelling down to Durban with my mother to drop off my sister, I curled up on the couch under a blanket and watched some episodes of ‘Allo ‘Allo, followed by last year’s remake of Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. At that point the long week caught up with me, and I was fast asleep by the time Violet chomped down on her snatched chewing gum.

Saturday

On Saturday morning I picked up the much belated Mother’s Day present I had ordered from Amazon.co.uk- a treasury of Mr Men and Little Miss stories for my mother.

Afterwards we went shopping at the Pavillion, where for the second weekend in a row I failed to find clothes that I like. I was specifically looking for a nice pair of jeans, and some long skirts. Despite trying, I could find nothing that I considered flattering. I must be in a weird inbetween size at the moment. Not even the R400 Levi jeans looked good. Either the waist gaped open or the jeans ended up looking like leggings, and felt just as uncomfortable. That kind of thing makes me feel intensely despondent so I gave up at that point. I did buy an embroidered Batman bathgown for Paul though, which I think is really awesome.

Back home in the afternoon, I lay outside in the sun reading. In the evening I joined Kate, Hugo, Warren and Kirsten at the Pavillion to see Over the Hedge, the latest 3D animated film from Dreamworks. Apart from some crap songs, that sound like Bruce Willis sang them himself, it’s a great, entertaining little film.



Unusual for Dreamworks animated films, Over the Hedge actually had something of a deeper message beyond the usual Ra-Ra ‘Family is Important’ stuff. More specifically it offered commentary on the gluttonous contemporary lifestyle so many people lead, and how distant we have grown from nature as we craft the environment to meet our superficial suburban needs.

Anyway, the film features excellent use of celebrity voice cast, that includes Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Eugene Levy, Steve Carell, William Shatner, Wanda Sykes and Allison Janney. The characters actually match the voices. It’s weird to look at a possum and see Avril Lavigne in her dark eye shadow. For once, not one single cast member is annoying.

I especially enjoyed the human caricatures, and the depiction of a pampered Persian house cat. And then there is a slow motion sequence that, once it kicks off, will have you in tears from laughing. It’s brilliantly done.

On Sunday morning, I was up bright and early to head down to Durban and take part in the Spar Ladies 10km with my mother, my aunt and uncle (in drag, naturally, to take part in a women’s race).

There were over 16 000 of us taking part and the R35 entrance fee was worth it alone for the goodie bag that included a T-shirt, a copy of Glamour magazine, iced tea, cereal samples, tampons, Bar One chocolate, a Spar recipe booklet and a number of discount vouchers for UShaka Marine World and its surrounding shops.





The day started out all beautiful and sunny- I was actually concerned that I had forgotten to put sunblock on my nose. However, a wind came up and by the time we crossed the finish line 2 hours later (we were walking the totally flat 10km distance), it was drizzling and freezing cold.

Back home we warmed ourselves up with tea, and bacon and egg sandwiches while sitting by the heater. And that really set the tone for the rest of the day. Fearful of flu, I curled up in a blanket on my bed, munched some chewable Vitamin C tablets and continued to read more of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, and dozing a bit.

I was a bit more constructive in the late afternoon / early evening. I got around to so much needed hard drive back ups, burning copies of documents, pictures, MP3 and all that amusing rubbish you tend to accumulate over time to DVDs. While the burning and verification was staking place, I revisited my vampire novel (still to be finished, ho hum). Recently I’ve been playing another story over in my head- a vigilante type tale based around a superheroine I created several years ago, but it is nowhere near as well conceived and planned as my original tale (It took a few years but I finally came up with a complete outline of events, including an ending that I was stuck with for ages).

Anyway, Sunday evening didn’t quite end the weekend on a high note. Apart from some stunning battle sequences, authentically imposing sets and costumes, and good acting, Oliver Stone’s Alexander was bitty and down right mediocre.

And chatting to Paul on MSN Messenger, he was upset with me over my forgetting to buy massage oils on Saturday when I was at the Pavillion. He even produced the ‘You don’t go out of your way for anyone’ line… Now forget that I’ve actually just undergone body modification, as well as spent 2 full Saturdays looking unsuccessfully for flattering, figure-hugging clothes…

The ‘You don’t care’ claim is a cannonball that crushes my chest every time, producing anger, and especially tears. I’m very sensitive to being guilt-tripped, especially since I generally don’t make demands of people. At 24, I hate the pressure of other people’s expectations and the guilt when I fail them. It makes my life miserable.

Anyway, I was very upset, very hurt, but at least instead of brooding over it, I told Paul so. It took some SMSing and emails across the 12 000km distance but things have come right again. I think I got him to feel guilty too about equating my love for him with something as silly as a bottle of oil.

Paul’s back on Thursday and I’m taking Friday off so we can spend some quality time together. After a month’s absence, I needs me some loving…


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The week so far

A lot if us had the Monday blues at work yesterday. At our creative director’s suggestion, we ordered out for more delicious bacon and egg sandwiches (twice in 2 days for me!) and that certainly improved the exceptionally busy day. I even did some voice recording for a DVD presentation… on sanitary pads. Oh, the glamorous world of advertising.



On a totally unrelated note, Michelle Pfeiffer is FINALLY getting her star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007. Although I don’t agree with the choice of some of the other star recipients, it’s about bloody time for Michelle. I have little doubt it will coincide with the release of Stardust, which will remind the world how great, beautiful, and sometimes quite sinister Michelle is.

Comments

Dante said…
Why would you walk 10 km's? Did your car Brake? :p

Sounds like a nice weekend
Bronwyn said…
Hey Noelle,

Well done for doing the Spar Ladies run/walk! How big is your collection of T-shirts now? :-)

And say a big Happy Birthday to Paul from me...

Cheers,
Bron

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