I'm back

Hi everyone, in the next couple of days ill be filling you in on everything that i have been up to in the past month.

It will be a long post!!

So long everyone

By the way, i'm now writing this on my gorgeous Dell Inspiron 6400 PC laptop :)

That's right, the Apple is no more :)

Malaysian Adventures and other stuff

I'm still here everyone :)

Sorry for the delay between messages. Honestly i couldn't be bothered sitting down and writing about the rest of our trip. It was a fantastic week and to sum it up in a couple of sentences, the island of Penang was very nice. We stayed in a hostel in Georgetown and we were the only people staying there!

Actually writing this i can't be bothered writing it. I just don't have the blog vibe today.

If you want to read about our holiday head over to Sabs Blog at spaces.msn.com/sabszone30

KL comes alive!!

There are objects of natural beauty like Mt Everest or Heidi Klum.

There are objects that are man made that are awe-inspiring such as the Great Wall of China or Pamela Anderson.

Then there are objects that just rise above anything you could imagine..

I'm talking about the Petronas Towers.

When i first laid eyes on them i couldn't believe how big these towers were. I've seen them in books, tv and even in film ('Entrapment' with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones) and here i was looking at these two 452 m high steel and glass giants dominate the Kuala Lumpar skyline. I couldn't take enough pictures.

Following our adventure getting here, the towers were the first thing (and the reason for coming here) that we wanted to see in KL. The sky was a beautiful blue which you cannot get in Hong Kong anymore and the weather though slightly warm, was perfect for exploring the city. After making our way down to the concourse we found out that the limited number of tickets to gain access to the Skybridge (the bridge that connects the towers) were all sold out.

Luckily in the gift shop Sab found a guy who had two spare tickets for the upcoming tour and he was nice enough to give them to us. So we made our way up to the bridge and the view was amazing. This whole building is amazing. Not only are there 2 towers over 450 tall connected by the worlds only skybridge, there is also a 6 level shopping centre at the base of the tower and an 850 concert hall. Sab and i had a little peek inside the hall and wer enjoying a free afternoon organ recital but our hunger pains were calling us to get food.

So we headed to the shopping centre food court whereby we ate the best kebab i have had in a very long time followed by 6 donuts from Dunkin' Donuts (there are no donut shops in Honkers so we had to take advantage of the situation)and followed that up with a quick visit to the PC fair being staged across the park. I'm looking at buying a PC in the next couple of months so there was a little browsing that was being done by i fully knowing i won't be going back to a mac ever again!

We spent most of the afternoon around the Petronas Towers whereby we enjoyed something all to common but all to rare in Hong Kong; sitting under a tree lying on the grass. I had found copies of Wheels and Motor magazines so i purchased all the bookstores copies and started reading in the shade the delights of the new Toyota Aurion V6..oh the bliss of it all! :)

Our journey took us back to the hostel and then onto Little India whereby it started to rain..actually i take that back. It pissed down like no tomorrow and Sab was doing her best not to look like an entrant in a wet t-shirt competition. At Little India we found goods galore ranging from silks to scarves and all things Indian..even Bollywood Films (we picked up a couple). We also had some gorgeous Indian street food ranging from Roti to a very nice vegetable curry.

With the rain still pouring down it was time to go back to the hostel and end what was a very long yet enjoyable first up day in KL. We spent the night watching 'Crash' and then fell into bed.

It was a great day yesterday..everything went right for us.

Forget Good..try Great Friday!!

"Why do it the right way when you can do it the fun way"

This is our new moto in life these days. It came about after we got lost on a walk and the philosophy still rings true today. Though it did get tense at times.

Yesterday Sab and I had the bigest travel nightmare we had ever come across. Yes even bigger than Tiger Leaping Gorge! Yesterday was the bigest comedy of errors and rather than throwing you more cliche's let me get to the story.

Yesterday morning we left Tin Shui Wai about 10am on our way to Macau to catch a 2.45pm flight from Macau. This time around we took the Macau option as the prices for the ticket were a lot more competitve then flying straight from Hong Kong. We have been looking forward to this trip for a few months now and our spirits were high as we rode the 969 into Central.

After getting to the Macau Ferry Terminal we found a massive line of people. Now this is where the "fun" starts. I thought being a Catholic holday there would be no real need to book tickets beforehand for the ferry, boy was i wrong. There was a bloody big line of people waiting to get to Macau to gamble their lives away and it seemed every minute that went by another ferry was sold out.

By the time we got to the ticket window the next avaliable ferry was at 12.30 and it takes about an hour to get to Macau and it was cutting it too fine, then we came across Heli Express.

Being the spontaneous (well not really) kids we are, we thought lets spend 1800 dollars on a 15 minute helicopter ride rather than prebook a 150 dollar ferry ride. Sure the price was steep but the views over Hong Kong were the best we had ever seen plus it was Sabs first time in ahelicopter and she had a big big smile on her face. The trip was put in the "you only live once" category.

We got to Macau 15 minutes later and headed straight to the airport. It's about 10-15 drive from the city so we got there with time to spare. We walked straight up to the check in window ready to start our adventure......"You have missed your flight."

"Excuse me?"
"You have missed it. It was at 2.45AM this morning"
"Shit"

Yeah we stuffed up big time. We managed to miss out flight bu about 10 hours and even though we both triple triple checked all the details, even the night before, somehow we missed the fact that 0245 is not 2.45PM. Even typing this i still cant figure out how we stuffed this up but we did. Even still who uses 24 hour time in daily life? I sure as hell don't and if i asked for the time i don't expect a reply of "Yeah, it's quarter past twenty one."

So six hours we spent at Macau Airport before we checked in and of all the airports to be stuck in, we had to pick the airport that had nothing..nothing!! at all to do. At least if we got stuck at Singapore or Hong Kong you can do things to pass the time. Macau had only a buffet restaurant open so we sat there for about 5 hours.

This Good Friday was turning into Very Very Very Bad Friday.

After check in we had to wait another 2 hours for our flight which was not only delayed but th aiport changed our departure gate without any announcement, we were lucky enough to see it on the departures screen an hour before we left. Macau airport is by far the worst airport i have come across and our gate was actually right next door to another gate so there were two flights full of passengers waiting in the same area. It was packed and tensions were getting high.

After Air Asia finally decided to arrive in Macau we had to wait even further for the plane to be cleaned. During this time passengers for flights that were supposed to leave 30 minutes earlier were still checking in and walking right past us. One kid said "This is the worst airport in the world" and Sab agreed with me.

Finally we got into the air about 8pm. About 16 hours late but after our flight we got to the hostel in KL about 2am this morning. We had a fantastic day out at the Petronas Towers and tonight we are off to Little India for some great street food.

So as i said earlier, if we did it the right way..then we wouldn't have had another little adventure.

Why can't things just go right for us once in a while?

Easter in Malaysia

It's a very good Friday indeed.

Sab and I are about to leave the house for a weeks sightseeing in Malaysia. We are actually flying through Macau this time around as its a lot cheaper then flying through Hong Kong.

We are spending Friday to Tuesday in Kuala Lumpar and then we are going up north for three days to the island of Penang.

I'll update Peps Place while we are there and we'll be taking plenty of pictures.

Take care everyone and have a fantastic easter.

Time to Walk the Walk

For a long time now Sabrina and myself have been a bit lazy when it comes to seeing the sights of Hong Kong. The reason? We have been here so long that rather than thinking of this place as a pitstop on our journey of life, it became home.

The winter months made me feel very lazy in terms of being fit and getting motivated. So last Wednesday Sab, myself and our friend Kate decided to take advantage of the public holiday we had and decided to go out into nature and discover some of the natural beauty of Hong Kong.

We decided to do the Dragons Back Walk, which was voted the best walk in Asia in Time Magazine (2004). It was a fine and humid day in town yet the three of us went ahead with our walk and well before we even started we were in trouble. We actually started our walk at the finishing point and after about 30 mins, lost the trail that we were supposed to be on. We found ourselves on the side of a mountain high above the city walking in dense vegetation up the side of a mountain following a dirt trail.

Sabrina purchased herself a video camera for her birthday and we took it its test run and it was fast developing into a “Blair Witch Project’ situation. The humidity made my t-shirt stick to my skin and the hike was fast developing into a comedy of errors. After climbing half and hour up the side of a mountain we came across a path which we found out later was the path we should have taken if we actually started at the start and not the end…confused? So were we.

After another hour we made it to our starting point only to find out that the walk we though we were doing (the Dragons Back) wasn’t that walk at all! We had spent three hours on a walk, getting lost and going the wrong way around only to find out that we weren’t even on the right walk. All of this was captured on Sabrina’s camera too.

After an afternoon down at Stanley Market, it was just the day I needed to feel good again and with our newfound enthusiasm, Sab and I went for another walk yesterday armed with her trusty camera. This time around we stayed in town and decided to do the Hong Kong Heritage trail, which took us to all the older, meaningful buildings that this vibrant city’s past was built on.

Our three hour tour took about four and a half as we decided to amble around the streets and take a quick trip up to Victoria Peak. If you haven’t been to Hong Kong you just have to go to the peak as it is the best view of a city anywhere in the world. The great thing about this the tour is that you really get a sense of the history of this place and we didn’t get lost and also we had another great walk. I picked up an authentic Bruce Lee movie poster from a little back street antique shop as well! With two big walks in half a week Sab and I are determined to walk as much of Hong Kong as possible before we leave.

By the way, Sab and I are off to Malaysia for a week on Friday. Yeppo, we are off to Kuala Lumpur and Penang which is at the north of the country. We are both really looking forward to this trip and if this new found enthusiasm I have continues past Malaysia, its going to be a hectic three months in Hong Kong. It’s nice to get back the feeling that at the end of the day I’m here to take part in new experiences and learn from them.

Sometimes you really do have to stop and smell the roses.

You Tube Classics : Volume One

Here is a classic from our friends at YouTube.com

Enjoy the modern classic "Brokeback to the Future"

Sabrina's 27th Birthday Celebration

She had a bloody ripper.

Hong Kong turned out a humid night and combined with the hysteria of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament being played the city was awash with colourful costumes and a party atmosphere.

The night started at Gary's house whereby Candace, Gary, Sabrina, Kate and yours truely shared numerous mudshakes and laughs. Sabrina was a bit toey during the week as i reminded her that she had to complete her birthday dares. During the week she said "so stripping and no kissing women" which takes the fun out of it considering i got my boosies out on the dancefloor at my celebration.

We then ventured down to a lovely "Australian Fusion" restaurant called Jaspas which is one of the city's favourite eateries. My rack of lamb was cooked to perfection and considering the prices i ate every last thing on my plate (including the broccoli which to anyone who knows me , thats a fair effort) and then managed to destroy a delightful blueberry and apple crumble.

The party atmosphere took us to Lan Kwai Fong which was packed with rugby revellers and anyone else who embraced the party spirit of the weekend. Sabrinas dares were complete which included "doing the brokeback" with a guy dressed as a penguin and dancing like a homosexual Mexican. For anyone who has seen the show 'arrested development' well seeing Sab dance like a chicken was very funny stuff. When the DJ plastered her face across the screens of the pub her reaction was to clock me in the jaw and scream. In fact she did a lot of screaming and dancing which is great to see.

The party continued into the night where once again i caught up with the two Irish girls Fiona and Nicola. They are on their way to taking over the partying title from Cassidy and Amy. It great to see those girls out and they had their little group of friends there as well so we all blended into one big group whilst Sab was dancing away and living up the evening to the max.

It all ended up about 3am with that lovely hour bus ride back to Tin Shui Wai and all in all Sab had a fantastic birthday and i had a great night out as well.

Happy Birthday Sab

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

You like me! You really really like me!!

I won an award!

I won an award for a video i made with my Upper Kindergarten Class which in all honesty was pathetic to say the least.

How this all came about was just before Chirstmas our supervisior Anna told Sab and I that our classes were entered into another competition. This time around the competition was based on a book that the class had to dramatise. The book was called "Oink Oink" and the story was based on a dirty pig who ran around the farm being chased by the frustrated famer and other animals. I had 9 boys to work with and these boys i can tell you aren't the best behaved bunch.

After practising for a few weeks we came to the day of the shoot. Well the day of the shoot was actually just under an hour and Anna in all honesty had no idea how to shoot. There was a little bit of dialouge (as i found out later, too little compared to Sab's Middle Level kids) I wanted to have the camera closer to the kids as you could hear them better but she filmed them from the other side of the room so two weekeds ago, Sab and I had to edit our films and hand them in Monday.

I thought great, i can jump on iMovie and get some special effects, subtitles and music together and make a fun little film. That didn't work out as it took 6 hours to move about 30 minutes of film from the camera to the computer so i bit the bullet and jumped on Sabs laptop. Her program is totally different to mine so it took a while to get the feel right which caused Sab to huff and puff a little watching me take my time.

So eventually i did a piss take on Star Wars called "Farm Wars" and it turned out as best as i could get it. The footage of the kids was terrible. They were too quiet, too loud, laughing too much or talking in the background. So i cobbled together a film and was happy to see the back of it.

Late last week Anna told Sab and I that Sabrinas Class had won through to the Final Four and they will have to perform on stage in mid March and i have to go and pick up an award for my crappy film as well.

What dissapointed me the most was that the best movie of the three from my Lower Kindergarten Class didn't get an award. I'll upload that film here in the next couple of days as it was far more deserving of an award.

Keep you all posted on the awards celebration.

What's the Story?

How did i end up at an Oasis concert in Hong Kong?

Whilst celebrating my birthday at a lovely Chicago-esque Bar and Grille the topic of the upcoming Oasis concert was mentioned. Gary, Candace's boyfriend mentioned that he wanted to go and i thought i might as well tag along.

Now anyone who knows me knows that Oasis isn't exactly being repeated on my iPod. In fact up until the time i got home last night, i had no Oasis songs on my iPod. They are a band whose music i have only sung on occasions where alcohol has lowered my inhibitions and find myself mumbling my way through the verses of "Wonderwall" or "Champagne Supernova" but i know most of the chorus.

After an hour and a half travelling on the ultra efficient trnasport system, i met up with Gary and his dad Lee who was in town on business. We met up just outside the arena whereby i ate the worst hamburger i have ever tasted. The meat was this light grey colour and it wasnt even cooked. Whoever cooked the burger somehow forgot to cook the main ingredient but that was ok as the burger, cheese and bread were fused together in a way that it looked like it just survived a nuclear blast.

As the countdown to the concert was heating up the brand spanking new arena was half empty. Our seats were on the lower deck facing the stage but just before the start of the concert there was a mass rush to the vacant seats that were stage left and right. So all the people that paid 750 HK found themselves sitting next to people that paid 400 bucks whose seats were next to ours. The three of us decided to move to the walkway which allowed us to stand about 20 meters from the side of the stage.

I didn't know what to make of it and i was very very surprised that the 13000 arena wasn't packed to the rafters with Brits deperate to hear the world's biggest pub rock band. Was it a case of bad promoting or the downhill slide of a once graet Brit rock band? Regardless the concert started and i had no idea of any of the songs though the rest of the crowd did. The band were playing very very tight and the Gallagher brothers were on song with their behaviour in terms of the crowd especially when lead singer Liam asked the crowd "Is there anyone from England here?" Pockets of the crowd scream..."Why are you still here?"

The band soon enough let loose "Wonderwall" , "What's the story morning glory" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" and i found myself singing to these songs as well as i could possibly remember them. The crowd was fantastic especially the Pommy guy who screamed "sing Champagne Supernova you Manc bastard!"

And soon enough they did.

Just under two hours later and with a brilliant cover of The Who's "My Generation" to send the crowd on its way home, i came home with the mission of downloading as many Oasis songs as possible. I may be 10 years late to the party but i'm looking forward to listening to what they have to offer.

Peps Place Movie Review: 'Gone with the Wind

Finally i now know why Scarlett O'Hara is such a bitch and why a womans scorn is compared to hers.

Last night from 6.30pm to 10.30pm Sabrina and I parked our asses on the couch and finally sat down to watch what has been described as one of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

No it wasn't Weekend at Bernies but the classic ...Gone with the Wind.

It was the first time that either of us had seen it and boy what an experience we had. First if all the pirated DVD we paid a dollar for kept stuffing up every 15 minutes so Sab and i in turns had to crouch down to the DVD player, eject the disc and just blow inside the player to get the disc working again.

Boy this film was fantastic! The time actually flew and with the numerous amounts of chocolate and biscuits to keep our stomachs happy we were on the edge of our seats especially in the final minutes of the film where Scarlett realises her feelings for Rhett after screwing him around for years. She is so mean and horrible and will do anything to get her way. She's amazing!

The basic story revolves around Scarlett O'Hara (played to perfection by Viven Leigh) who loves the dapper but quite frankly wanky Ashley. Scarlett though has captured the attention of the devislish Rhett (Clarke Gable) even though Scarlett just wants to be with the wanky softy Ash. With the American Civil War heating up and the old ways of the South coming to an end there is all sorts of confusio goin' on in lil' ol' Gerorgia.

This movie was the original soap opera. Fires, Births and even a dodgy horseriding accident couldn't stop this juggernaut from taking its place amoung the best films i've ever seen. The sweeping vistas of the Ol' South and the accompaning music were just perfect. It was so good that we sat though the film freezing up about 12 times. Is it too much to ask these days that your pirated DVD's have optimum audio and video? I think not.

This film gets my first 5 out of 5 even though Sab and I were screaming "Nooooo" at the TV when it froze just before the immortal line "Frankly my dear, i don't give a damn"

Ouite frankly, i'm glad i sat through it even if my ass was going into a coma.

I

Shoot Him! Shoot Him Now!!

If there is one thing in life that i believe in its this.

It doesn't matter where you come from, how old you are or what you do nothing is as funny as Daffy Duck getting his blown off by Elmer Fudd.

So tonight Sab and I decided to suscribe to the aptly named "Boomerang Channel" which has all the classic Looney Tunes, Jetsons, Flinstones and Wacky Races you can muster.

So with that i'd better get back to Pepe Le Pew acting like the stud that he is. He is the real Love Machine.

Peps Place Movie Review: 'Munich'

This is my first movie review for the blog so i hope you like it. To kick off preceedings its time to review 'Munich'

Steven Spielberg has been slowly making the transition from blockbusters to brainbuster films over the past 10 years. Sure his early work tinkered at the subject of human emotions but up until "The Colour Purple" all we saw from Steve was sharks, aliens and a sober Drew Barrymore (granted she was 5 years old at the time).

So earlier this afternoon Sabrina and i decided to head into town to watch Steve's latest film. Now from what i have read of the reviews so far there has been a lot of emphasis on the politics of the film rather than judging the film on its merits. It has been a sensitive topic for over 30 years (so sensitive that the International Olympic Committee has made no official memorial or statement about the matter) so with all the history behind this film has Steve finally made the transition from shorts to the big boys pants for good?

He certainly has.

'Munich' succeeds because not only of the usual Speilberg magic but of one element rarely seen in movies today...emotion.

For the three hours you are watching this film the screen pulls you into a world where a terrorists cause and a nations suffering are intersected by a group of five men determined to extract revenge. The leader of the group Avner (played brillantly by Melbourne boy Eric Bana) slowly self destructs when the machine of revenge starts to take over his thinking. It is a classic interpretation of a man thrust into a position out of loyalty to his country yet at odds with the loyalty to his young family. His 4 other team members each bring strength and strong character to the screen.

The look of the film is beautiful as there is a slight grainly 1970's feel to most of the picture which allows the audience to step back in time and be surrounded by the plight that stopped the world one september day in 1972. Before seeing this film i had purchased a copy of the Academy Award winning documentary 'One Day in September' to get myself pumped up to see this film. After watching the documentary, seeing the film and reading about the Munich massacre at various times during my life i can honestly say that i appreciate a hell of a lot more that im Australian. That may sound slighty selfish but in all honesty 'Munich' made me realise that here are no winners when it comes to ideology, religion or revenge.

During the film there are flashbacks to the actual kidnapping and holding of the hostages which Spielberg has tweaked to get your emotional pulses racing. I'm not a big fan of the words "Based on a True Story" or "Based on Real Events" as it gives directors the chance to flex too much artistic creativity rather than stick to the boundaries of the story but in 'Munich' Spielberg has delicately thread the needle of story telling again and ended up with a film though slighty drawn out makes you walk out of the theatre thinking about the world you live in.

That's a feeling that is rare in movies these days.

So on my scale i give 'Munich' 4 out of 5

Celebrate good times C'Mon!

Yeah i'm 27 now and i with this i have gained a new found sense of maturity...not.

My 27th birthday was a celebatory weekend filled with quiet moments and also crazy dares. Well considering i have never had dares to accomplish on my birthday i thought it was a crazy thing to do. The above picture was part of a series of dares that i had to accomplish but more on that later.

My birthday (which was last Friday) started out with a call from my Aunty Rhonda at 6.15am. Now my family is known for their early early morning phone calls so i was quite lucky that i got to sleep in till 6.15!

After a morning of phone calls which included mum and dad, i made my way to school where my morning kids wished me a happy birthday. Well it wasn't much a of a surprise as i reminded them all week that my birthday was on Friday. Anyways in the afternoon Sabrina and th afternoon kids surprised me with a birthday card and a cake which was really sweet. It was the best birthday i have celebrated ever!* (* = in a workplace situation)

Friday night Sab and i sat on the couch and destroyed all the chocolates sent to me as a present by Aunty Rhonda. I would also like to say a big thank you to Gran, Aunty Di & Aunty Loz for their presents (and they all fit thank you very much!) Also i would like to thank Louise for your lovely birthday card.

So Saturday rolls around and after a lovely lunch with some of my Chinese teachers it was out to dinner in the city with Sab and a few friends. After a lovely meal it was time to go out for a few drinks and also it was time to complete my birthday dares. Its a tradition in Hong Kong in our little group of friends to do some dares on your birthday. The dares that i had to accomplish were:

1. Get a condom off a woman - This took half an hour as it seemed that all the woman in Lan Kwai Fong suddenly became quiet. I finally got one off a drunk English girl.

2. Get three telephone numbers off women - Luckily the three Philipino ladies near the bar were nice enough to give me theirs.

3. Expose my chest (boobs and all) on the dancefloor. The above photo says it all

4. Walk out of the toilet with 2ft of toilet paper out of my jeans and go up to a woman and say "I had a good sh*t"

5. Go up to the largest guy i the room and ask him "Where can i meet men around here?" The guy was nice enough to tell me to "Propaganda. Up the hill and on the left" I was lucky to come out of that with my teeth and testicles.

6. Get to a bar and say "Who is the birthday Ho? I am! I am the birthday Ho!"

7. Go up to an attractive woman (yeah i know) and say "Whats up Doc? Hows your cock? Nothing wrong. Long and strong."

Needless to say i completed all these tasks and the night ended up at a Karaoke bar singing away till about 4am.

It was a lovely birthday and i'm thinking that next year i'd like to keep my shirt on.

And yes Dad, i remember what happened otherwise this blog wouldn't have been possible. I appreciate the sentiment though.

Have a great Valentines Day everyone or as it is known here at school "Friendship Day"