A Motherly Weekend
It was cloudy, cool and frequently wet this weekend in Durban. So it was great for lazing around, but also pretty terrible if you had an outdoor activity planned for Mother's Day - such as a picnic in the Botanical Gardens while the local KZN Philharmonic Orchestra played.
Anyway, Friday evening was consumed with our rescheduled weekly Dungeons & Dragons session. If you remember my last post on our posse's adventures, we had just located a secret underground tunnel beneath the temple of a war-ravaged city. Well on Friday although we didn't find the evil "bosses" who are supposedly hiding in the tunnel system, we did still do a LOT of fighting. My paladin was in full tank mode, sucking up a lot of damage dished out by the large insectoid creatures who kept ambushing us. The frequent combat did give me enough XP to level though, and I've just hit Level 14.
Saturday involved an incredibly slow start to the day. We just had enough time to force down some brunch before scurrying off to the Pavilion for the midday screening of Coraline 3D. You can expect my full review up sometime this week (in fact I still owe you book reviews on Neil Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book!) but honestly, if you are an animation fan, Coraline is a MUST-SEE. It's definitely a little different from conventional family films, and quite freaky at times, but it's the most imaginative animated film I've seen in years, particularly in terms of production design. And when you realise that the film is frame-by-frame stop-motion animation, and not CGI, it blows your mind even further.
Out of interest, if you are in the Durban area and want to see Coraline, whether in 3D or traditional 2D, the only places to do it are the Pavilion, Sun Coast and Gateway. Oh, and if you have kids, please bear their scare tolerance in mind. Coraline is screening in South Africa with a No Under 10 age restriction, which feels pretty accurate to me given the intensity of certain scenes. This said I do think tough 6-8 year olds would also have a great time without being too tormented.
After the movie, the rest of Saturday was passed playing Battlefield 1942, dozing and watching the first X-men movie again. After watching Wolverine last week I was very keen to compare Logan's portrayal and pick up on any plotholes that may have opened up as a result of this year's Origins film. Mostly it's Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship that has been problematised, although watching the original film again its biggest problem remains how terrible Halle Berry is as Storm. Thank God they made her drop her appalling attempt at an accent in the later films. *Shudders*
As for Sunday, it was mostly consumed with family gatherings. Seeing as it was Mother's Day, and seeing as my ordered Mother's Day gift had yet to be dispatched by the online retailer, I had to make amends. That meant cooking up a big sit-down Mother's Day brunch. So there was cereal and croissants laid out, along with toast, eggs, bacon, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, and fruit juice and tea to wash it all down. Needless to say we didn't eat anything again until supper time.
And that really was the weekend. My only productive accomplishment was completing the file/scrapbook that chronicles my 2008 European vacation. It only took me 7 months:) And making space for it on my bookshelf involved a ruthless clean up. I ended up chucking all of my old NAG magazines, donating them to a high school computer department instead.
Anyway, Friday evening was consumed with our rescheduled weekly Dungeons & Dragons session. If you remember my last post on our posse's adventures, we had just located a secret underground tunnel beneath the temple of a war-ravaged city. Well on Friday although we didn't find the evil "bosses" who are supposedly hiding in the tunnel system, we did still do a LOT of fighting. My paladin was in full tank mode, sucking up a lot of damage dished out by the large insectoid creatures who kept ambushing us. The frequent combat did give me enough XP to level though, and I've just hit Level 14.
Saturday involved an incredibly slow start to the day. We just had enough time to force down some brunch before scurrying off to the Pavilion for the midday screening of Coraline 3D. You can expect my full review up sometime this week (in fact I still owe you book reviews on Neil Gaiman's Coraline and The Graveyard Book!) but honestly, if you are an animation fan, Coraline is a MUST-SEE. It's definitely a little different from conventional family films, and quite freaky at times, but it's the most imaginative animated film I've seen in years, particularly in terms of production design. And when you realise that the film is frame-by-frame stop-motion animation, and not CGI, it blows your mind even further.
Out of interest, if you are in the Durban area and want to see Coraline, whether in 3D or traditional 2D, the only places to do it are the Pavilion, Sun Coast and Gateway. Oh, and if you have kids, please bear their scare tolerance in mind. Coraline is screening in South Africa with a No Under 10 age restriction, which feels pretty accurate to me given the intensity of certain scenes. This said I do think tough 6-8 year olds would also have a great time without being too tormented.
After the movie, the rest of Saturday was passed playing Battlefield 1942, dozing and watching the first X-men movie again. After watching Wolverine last week I was very keen to compare Logan's portrayal and pick up on any plotholes that may have opened up as a result of this year's Origins film. Mostly it's Wolverine and Sabretooth's relationship that has been problematised, although watching the original film again its biggest problem remains how terrible Halle Berry is as Storm. Thank God they made her drop her appalling attempt at an accent in the later films. *Shudders*
As for Sunday, it was mostly consumed with family gatherings. Seeing as it was Mother's Day, and seeing as my ordered Mother's Day gift had yet to be dispatched by the online retailer, I had to make amends. That meant cooking up a big sit-down Mother's Day brunch. So there was cereal and croissants laid out, along with toast, eggs, bacon, fried tomatoes and mushrooms, and fruit juice and tea to wash it all down. Needless to say we didn't eat anything again until supper time.
And that really was the weekend. My only productive accomplishment was completing the file/scrapbook that chronicles my 2008 European vacation. It only took me 7 months:) And making space for it on my bookshelf involved a ruthless clean up. I ended up chucking all of my old NAG magazines, donating them to a high school computer department instead.
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