Thursday, March 30, 2006

Feeling a little under the weather

Honestly i'm feeling seedy this morning.

Right now my stomach feels like a volcano about to erupt and my eyes are hanging out of their sockets due to lack of sleep.

Last night i started out in Causeway Bay catching up with Gary and Candace at quiz night. I hadn't been for a couple of months and it was nice to be back eating proper pub food and enjoying the surrounds. The quiz finished up at about 11 and then i was off to Wan Chai to catch up with the two new Irish girls who are working here, Fiona and Nicola.

Needless to say the night just flew by and before i knew it it was 5am.

I got up at 7.30 this morning and i am not one of those people who can survive on less than 7 hours sleep.

I'm just waiting for lunch to get a Filet O' Fish and a coffee.

Tick tock..tick...tock

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Peps Place Movie Review: 'V for Vendetta'

Not since a punchup during the screening of "Kindergarten Cop" has the cinema experience equalled the action on screen.

Last Saturday, Sab and I ventured 2 hours to Festival Walk to catch up with Kate to see the new Wachowsk Brothers film. You know the Wachowsk's, those crazy brothers who stayed inside watching cartoons and grew up to make the groundbreaking "Matrix' films. Who says watching TV is bad for you huh?

So Sab and I made it to Festival Walk where the film was being played. After meeting up with Kate and a couple of her freinds from her workplace, the group of us settled into the theatre. In short 'V for Vendetta' is an enjoyable action-adventure movie starring Hugo Weaving as the mysterious 'V' and Natalie Portman who plays the damsal in distress 'Evey'. By the way her English accent is pretty darn good. The movie is set in the near future in England where a 'Big Brother' style of government has made jolly old England a pretty stale place to live.

Enter 'V' who is so bitter about the way England is that he decides to blow up Parliament House. Crazy idea? Not really as it was attempted by Guy Fawkes in 1605. What made 'V for Vendetta' enjoyable is the first hour whereby you are trying to figure out what this film is all about. Then the off screen drama started...

Around this time Kate decided that she had to go to the toilet. So she made her way to the end of the aisle and towards the front exits of the cinema which by design are usually used in emergencies. A few minutes later there was a knocking coming from the door somewhere. It was figured that the knocking was coming from the emergency exit and Kate couldn't get back into the cinema. The knocking continued which started to drown out the picture and was heard all around the cinema. Sab and I were embarrased so much we sunk in our seats and thanks to another member of the audience Kate was let back into the cinema.

Towards the end of the movie which was turning out to be a pretty run of the mill flick for me. There was a banging sound from the side of the cinema. The cleaner was starting his working during the end of the film and the bloody nerve too. Sab got a bit concerned. I knew she felt that way after she said "Is there a bomb in there?" There being a big green garbage bin at the front left of the cinema. To top it off as soon as the movie finished and the credits rolled, the cinema lights went up and the cleaner was barking at the crowd to get out!

After another 2 hours to get back home Sab and I were stuffed and in shock. For one the action off screen action matched the on screen action. The movie was pretty good even though we missed the major plot point as Kate was banging on the emergency doors at the time. So all in Hugo Weaving played a great leading character and the movie had an edge to it little seen in cinema these days. even though it was fictional it could easily be mistaken for the real world.

So 'V for Vendetta' gets 3 out of 5.

AMC cinemas gets 0 out of 5 for a poor cinema experience.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I'm still standing! Yeah yeah Yeah!

Don't worry everyone... i'm back!

My Apple died again. The logic board packed up again and thanks to Apple, there is only one repair shop in town and i've pretty much got my own seat waiting for me...well i should have one for me considering the amount of time i have spent there.

Rather than going through everything that i have been up to the past three weeks here is a point by point rundown.

- Works the same. The kids are still alright
- I have no respect for the administraion of the school anymore due to a very disgraceful piece of firing by the school
- Saw Brokeback Mountain with Sab and liked it 4.5 out of 5.
- Saw Capote with Sab and Kate 3.5 out of 5.
- Back on a health kick and back at the gym.
- Celebrated Candace's birthday with a tram ride around Hong Kong which was very cool.
- Two new Irish girls, Nicola and Fiona started at the school. They are both quite lovely.
- Followed the Demons progress in the Football up until we got creamed by the Crows.
-Collected my video award i won a few weeks ago
- Sabs class won best drama in their year level so the school won $1500 worth of books which are sorely needed.
- Watched a lot of 'Frasier' episodes with Sab.
- Installed FIFA 2004 on the schools computers so i can play it at lunchtime.


That's about it really.

Well now that i'm back with a new logic board and wireless card, i'll be back to update you all more often. I'm just waiting for the logic board to pack up again. By all estimates it should be late May or early June.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

56 Minutes of Fun!

Last night we were in bed by 10.15.

Last night we stayed at the Outback Grill for 56 minutes.

Last night we were completely stuffed.

Talk about celebrating in style. Last night Sabrina and i dressed up to celebrate our 2nd anniversary of being away from Australia. Last year we celebrated by going to the Outback Steakhouse so this year we decided to visit its little cousin in Wan Chai. Earlier in the day we both ventured into Shenzhen for another DVD Run.

These flying visits to China remind us all that is horrible about the world's largest nation. It's ugly, smelly and dirty and thats just the people! Seriously these DVD runs are an adventure in themselves. We usually end up going through a restaurant following a shady character whereby we are led into a small room accessed only by a steel garage door. This is the 5th time i have been to shenzhen and everytime i come back to Tin Shui Wai i appreciate what the Brits did in HongKong.

After the door is slammed shut, the dodgy characters give us old tatty folders full of the latest realeases. This time around i packed a book called "1001 Films you must see before you die" which as it turned out to be a waste of time as the older movies that i wanted to get weren't there. So after picking up new movies such as "Munich" "Syriana" and "Brokeback Mountain" and the 8th season of Frasier we made our way back home to a Special Administrative Reigion .

Later in the day we made our way into town where our planned evening of a nice dinner and a few laughs was acutally compacted into less that an hour. The bus ride into town was the coldest i've ever been on and for anyone who has been on buses in Hong Kong, it was bloody freezing. By the time we arrived at 7.55 pm we had arrived in just enough time to order a couple of drinks at happy hour. We sat down on the table and we both felt stuffed. We didn't want to be there as we had both started to fall ill during the day.

The night sunk faster than the Titanic due to the fact that all we wanted to do was get into bed and try and shake off this little flu that started to go around the school. So here i am, on the couch watching "Frasier" and its where i want to be.

Needless to say, it was a great night out, all 56 minutes of it.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Happy 2nd Anniversary!



How time flies. Have a look at these two crazy kids!

It was 2 years ago today that Sab and I boarded Flight OF179 to Tokyo on our way to teach in a city we had never heard of in a country we knew only little bits about. Just after this photo was taken we were off on an adventure that so far has been abolutely amazing and eye opening.

So we are going to celebrate by going to the Outback Steakhouse on Saturday night and have a few laughs and reflect on the great times we've had.