Weekend report back
Well, I haven't done one of these updates in a while, what with all the travel posts to write and get up here. Speaking of extracts from my travel diaries, there is one more to type and upload - focusing on our time in Paris - but that's still coming, and is something for you to look forward to.
Anyway, I don't want to bore anyone with the intricate details of what I've been up to these last few weeks, but it can roughly be divided into the following categories: cooking, get-togethers, gym, gaming, DVDs and reading.
Cooking:
This always seems to happen - as soon as we get back from a holiday we set about duplicating our favourite food and drinks from overseas. Of course the weekend is the best time for testing Internet- and recipe book-found recipes. And this weekend we recreated mojitos and proper German pretzels.
Earlier on in the month our culinary experiments involved an English cream tea, Italian bread and spaghetti and meatballs. The only attempt that was a bit of a dud was the spaghetti. Upon mixing the meatballs into the pasta and sauce, most of them disintegrated, turning the meal into the still tasty but otherwise standard spaghetti and mince.
Get-togethers:
Ah, you can just feel the end-of-year party season starting to kick in, with various get-togethers, dinners, celebrations and Christmas functions starting to clog my calendar all the way into December. This weekend alone was a dinner-and-DVD evening to celebrate Halloween, and a birthday/end-of-cancer-treatment party. I really think I need to start training my stomach to better handle all the good food and drink heading its way.
Gym:
Speaking of training, this weekend marked my return to gym after a few weeks of physical under-exertion brought on by my battle against the dreaded Contiki bug. Two courses of antibiotics later and I'm ready to go. Tonight I'm returning to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class after a month and a half's absence, so I'm bracing myself for some serious physical punishment. Plus there's a no-gi submission wrestling tournament coming up in 3 weeks. So no personal pressure to be kinda ready in time... Gulp.
Gaming:
I've finally got my hands on the massive 1.6GB patch for World of WarCraft, in preparation for the expansion, which is released next week, on 13 November. So I've got a week and a bit to earn some easy money doing repeatable quests, and clock up some honour in the PVP areas.
I've also, ahem, started playing Oblivion (only 2 years late!). Mostly it's because I want to recreate my D&D character, get him some cool-looking gear and then take some screenshots for my character flip-file. I haven't got far in the game at all, but let me just say my first impression is that in terms of gameplay, Oblivion is not at all intuitive for a RPG noob. Even with the use of hot keys, continually having to pause to check out your inventory, equip things, change spells etc., is quite tiresome. But damn, it's pretty...
DVDs:
I've been revisiting a number of films and TV box sets lately. The plan was to watch Spanish horror film REC this Halloween, but after struggling for 15 minutes trying to open the box - HMV hadn't removed the in-store security feature - we eventually settled on Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I'd actually forgotten how hyper-stylised, artificial and all round trippy Francis Ford Coppola's film is, as if the director decided to go completely overboard with every filter, transition and funky cinematography effect known to man. The bf had never seen the film before, and utterly hated it. Throughout the weekend he was ranting about skanky redheads with a tendency to expose their nipples while having orgasms and writhing around in bed... And that wasn't ranting in a good way.
I was expecting Conan the Destroyer to feel very kiddie-fied, but I actually found it to be pretty much on a par with the original Conan the Barbarian. In keeping with 1980s movie fantasy conventions, the effects are super cheesy, character development is non-existent, and the whole thing plays out like a ridiculous D&D campaign - where everyone in the party has their designated role (barbarian, rogue, amazon, mage, innocent on quest). All this said, it's still a lot of brain-dead, hack and slash fun. Grace Jones is such a striking, scary presence it's strange to think that pretty much this film and A View to a Kill are her 2 most high profile roles.
The only recent DVD release I've seen in the past few weeks has been the animated Horton Hears a Who!, based on the Doctor Seuss story. This CGI-animated film is certainly beautiful to look at, and it's probably the best of the Seuss movie adaptations so far. However adult viewers will probably start rolling their eyes as the film starts falling back on tired themes - like standing up for what you believe in, even if it's not a popular view - and introducing a father-son pair with a strained relationship. Personally I also felt Jim Carrey, who voices eccentric elephant, Horton, should have been roped in more. His usual onscreen personality overpowers the Horton character and the film's storyline at times.
Reading:
I spent a good portion of yesterday out in the sun, trying to bring a bit of colour to my pasty skin. In the process I started and finished the graphic novel Superman: Red Son, where Wanted writer Mark Millar theorises what things would have been like if Superman had crash landed in the Soviet Union instead of the USA. You can expect a review here soon. I'm now moving onto one of the most celebrated Batman stories ever told, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke.
Anyway, I don't want to bore anyone with the intricate details of what I've been up to these last few weeks, but it can roughly be divided into the following categories: cooking, get-togethers, gym, gaming, DVDs and reading.
Cooking:
This always seems to happen - as soon as we get back from a holiday we set about duplicating our favourite food and drinks from overseas. Of course the weekend is the best time for testing Internet- and recipe book-found recipes. And this weekend we recreated mojitos and proper German pretzels.
Earlier on in the month our culinary experiments involved an English cream tea, Italian bread and spaghetti and meatballs. The only attempt that was a bit of a dud was the spaghetti. Upon mixing the meatballs into the pasta and sauce, most of them disintegrated, turning the meal into the still tasty but otherwise standard spaghetti and mince.
Get-togethers:
Ah, you can just feel the end-of-year party season starting to kick in, with various get-togethers, dinners, celebrations and Christmas functions starting to clog my calendar all the way into December. This weekend alone was a dinner-and-DVD evening to celebrate Halloween, and a birthday/end-of-cancer-treatment party. I really think I need to start training my stomach to better handle all the good food and drink heading its way.
Gym:
Speaking of training, this weekend marked my return to gym after a few weeks of physical under-exertion brought on by my battle against the dreaded Contiki bug. Two courses of antibiotics later and I'm ready to go. Tonight I'm returning to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class after a month and a half's absence, so I'm bracing myself for some serious physical punishment. Plus there's a no-gi submission wrestling tournament coming up in 3 weeks. So no personal pressure to be kinda ready in time... Gulp.
Gaming:
I've finally got my hands on the massive 1.6GB patch for World of WarCraft, in preparation for the expansion, which is released next week, on 13 November. So I've got a week and a bit to earn some easy money doing repeatable quests, and clock up some honour in the PVP areas.
I've also, ahem, started playing Oblivion (only 2 years late!). Mostly it's because I want to recreate my D&D character, get him some cool-looking gear and then take some screenshots for my character flip-file. I haven't got far in the game at all, but let me just say my first impression is that in terms of gameplay, Oblivion is not at all intuitive for a RPG noob. Even with the use of hot keys, continually having to pause to check out your inventory, equip things, change spells etc., is quite tiresome. But damn, it's pretty...
DVDs:
I've been revisiting a number of films and TV box sets lately. The plan was to watch Spanish horror film REC this Halloween, but after struggling for 15 minutes trying to open the box - HMV hadn't removed the in-store security feature - we eventually settled on Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I'd actually forgotten how hyper-stylised, artificial and all round trippy Francis Ford Coppola's film is, as if the director decided to go completely overboard with every filter, transition and funky cinematography effect known to man. The bf had never seen the film before, and utterly hated it. Throughout the weekend he was ranting about skanky redheads with a tendency to expose their nipples while having orgasms and writhing around in bed... And that wasn't ranting in a good way.
I was expecting Conan the Destroyer to feel very kiddie-fied, but I actually found it to be pretty much on a par with the original Conan the Barbarian. In keeping with 1980s movie fantasy conventions, the effects are super cheesy, character development is non-existent, and the whole thing plays out like a ridiculous D&D campaign - where everyone in the party has their designated role (barbarian, rogue, amazon, mage, innocent on quest). All this said, it's still a lot of brain-dead, hack and slash fun. Grace Jones is such a striking, scary presence it's strange to think that pretty much this film and A View to a Kill are her 2 most high profile roles.
The only recent DVD release I've seen in the past few weeks has been the animated Horton Hears a Who!, based on the Doctor Seuss story. This CGI-animated film is certainly beautiful to look at, and it's probably the best of the Seuss movie adaptations so far. However adult viewers will probably start rolling their eyes as the film starts falling back on tired themes - like standing up for what you believe in, even if it's not a popular view - and introducing a father-son pair with a strained relationship. Personally I also felt Jim Carrey, who voices eccentric elephant, Horton, should have been roped in more. His usual onscreen personality overpowers the Horton character and the film's storyline at times.
Reading:
I spent a good portion of yesterday out in the sun, trying to bring a bit of colour to my pasty skin. In the process I started and finished the graphic novel Superman: Red Son, where Wanted writer Mark Millar theorises what things would have been like if Superman had crash landed in the Soviet Union instead of the USA. You can expect a review here soon. I'm now moving onto one of the most celebrated Batman stories ever told, Alan Moore's The Killing Joke.
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