Amazing Race Monday

Monday 23 July 2012 - The Amazing Race is my current favourite show. I love seeing the places they travel to, and even though the most annoying team has been winning each leg for about 4 episodes now, I am still loving it - and still hoping they will be eventually beaten, by ANY of the other teams, I don't care which!
I have just finished watching the first 2 seasons of The Borgias and Season 5 of Mad Men. The Borgias is pretty good, lots of cliffhanger endings that ensured I watched it all within about 2 weeks... The most recent season of Mad Men is the best I have seen, and after 2 sick days last week, I had it all over within a week too. Now Amazing Race is off till 13 August, probably due to the Olympics, even though Channel 7 is not the "Olympics Station", so boo.

Some of my all-time favourite TV series that come to mind, would be Game Of Thrones, The Wire, This Life (a sparkling UK gem), The Secret Life Of Us, Arrested Development, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Entourage. The Young Ones, Modern Family and Friends...

And Pride & Prejudice...

So, as I don't have much to watch now, I guess it's lucky that Yoga starts again tomorrow night. That takes care of Tuesday nights. I also like the Everton Park Zumba classes, so maybe I could try to get back to doing that on Mondays and Thursdays... I went to the free/$2 class at New Farm Park on Saturday morning, and really enjoyed it. Especially since a lovely tall, lean dancer-boy showed up for the class - with his girlfirend - and the instructor liked his moves so much, she got him up the front with her, so we all got to check him out. Made it just a tad more interesting, and he just moved so beautifully, he really was lovely to watch!

I went to the doctor last week, as I wanted to start taking liver detox tablets to see if I can help my poor liver, that still works hard for me even though I treat it pretty badly.... anyway, the directions say to check with a doctor first, hence the visit. I love my doctor, he is so "kindly" and reassuring all the time, and knows what a worrier/hypochondriac I am and tries to set my mind at rest. This time he told me I need to decrease animal fats in my diet, get more active and try to lose weight, particularly around the abdomen, the "danger zone" for  women, as I was already aware... so, time to be good now, diet-wise and exercise-wise.

So on that note - on Sunday, five of us headed to Chocolate High Tea at the Stamford Plaza! I tried to be good, but it was a big buffet of lovely slices, cakes, scones, sandwiches, tea and coffee galore. A nice, civilised afternoon with the girls.

On Saturday, I went to my cousins' place to watch Collingwood cop an absolute hiding from Hawthorn (I also call them The Great Unwashed - seriously, at least half the team look like they need a shower and definitely a shave). Anyway, Hawthorn played like freaks, they just did nothing wrong, and deserved the win. Dammit. Still love my Magpies, but jeez I don't know what their problem was that day.

Pretty huh?!

The previous weekend, I headed home to Ballina on the rainy night of Friday 13th, to see Mum & Dad before they headed off to Sydney, then onto their luxury cruise ship for a ... luxury cruise. Soon I will start counting down to my trip with Kim to France and Spain. Only about 2 & 1/2 months to go now, but it's still a bit far away.

I am currently reading a fantastic book called The Happiness Trap - Stop Struggling, Start Living. It is about  dealing with negative thoughts and feelings, rather than trying to turn them around or avoiding them. A life of 100% happiness is impossible to achieve, so instead, the focus is on "creating a rich and meaningful life", including the full range of feelings and emotions. I find it fascinating, and completely different to the usual self-help and motivational books I've seen. Time will tell.

A few weeks later...

Monday 9 July 2012 - Yeah yeah, I've been slack. I actually think I've done fairly well with this blog thing - every other year, I've kept a diary till mid-February at the latest, so 6 months has been quite dedicated really!

So, a quick summary of the past 18 or so days, in between ads during Amazing Race Australia. Here goes:

Friday 22 June - Team Dinner at La Quinta Mexican, Bulimba. Best. Restaurant. In. Brisbane.

Saturday 23 June - My hairdresser had her new baby - Charlotte Hodges born today. Aw, bless. 

Sunday 24 June - Discovered $10 movie tickets on the Optus website, thanks to Shikha at work. Met up today with Sam at Chermside for lunch at Shingle Inn, and another (for me) viewing of Rock of Ages - lurrve this movie. Enjoyed it just as much as the first time I saw it. 

Wednesday 27 June - Went to see Snow White & the Huntsman at the Myer Centre with Debbie. $10 Optus tickets, yeah! It was pretty good. Charlize Theron was an insane and evil, Evil Queen; her character's brother was very unattractive and an overactor; Chris Hemsworth was good as the huntsman, but not too sure of what accent he was going for - maybe Irish? And little Kristen Stewart did a fair English accent and played the pure and good Snow White better than I thought she would. The dwarves were not really dwarves, but average-sized men like Bob Hoskins and Nick Frost, shrunken down somehow - the effects and makeup (particularly Charlize's) were fantastic. I liked the movie, and gave it an 8 out of 10. 

As Debbie said, Kristen is good at playing dead in films - as Bella in Breaking Dawn, and as Snow White!

Thursday 28 June - I had lunch with Danielle and found out that she is pregnant and the baby is due in December. It will be lovely to have some more babies around.

Friday 29 June - Drove to Kingscliff with Dani and Zoe. Jo-Leah had to work late, and arrived later that night. We all worked together at FCGP, and have stayed friends even though I don't see them too often anymore. It is always good to see these girls. We stayed at Peppers Kingscliff for 2 nights, a nice Girls' Weekend away. 

Saturday 30June - we all went to a local day spa, called Sambara for pampering. I had a lovely hot stone massage, a bad manicure and then a slightly rushed facial, but it was so much cheaper than going to the Golden Door Spa at the resort, so I was okay with the manicure that started flaking the next day... I watched Collingwood beat Fremantle on the telly while the others went down to the pool for some lounging in the sun with cocktails. That night we had quite a nice dinner at Salt Bar - the local pub. 

Probably not the cast from our show, but - very nice!

Sunday 1 July – after I dropped Zoe and Dani back home, I rested up, then went to QPac with Nat and Kim to see Rock the Ballet. This was a company of 6 well-built young fellows, dancing to music by (mainly) Queen, Michael Jackson, U2, Coldplay, Prince etc. They were beautiful dancers (see above picture), and the 2nd half was much better than the first. When the shirts started to come off, so much girly screaming - NOT from me - ensued, I thought we were at a taping of The Voice or Australian Idol! Really enjoyed the show.


Monday 2 July - today I bought this:  

Was a little affronted when I played it back at work, and Brett said it had a touch of "Glee" about it. I disagree! Just because both casts sing Don't Stop Believing by Journey, there is nothing else similar...

Friday 5 July – Wests lost to Bulldogs, Collingwood lost to Carlton. Not a great night for my teams. I missed seeing them anyway, as Kim & I went to see TED at Bulimba, following a yummy dinner at Thai Pochana - next door to La Quinta, which was waaay too busy for us to get a table. TED is a foul-mouthed, badly behaved teddy bear that came to life when Mark Wahlberg's character was 8, and they have grown up together to be pot-smoking slackers. It is so wrong in places, and totally hilarious. I loved it and gave it a 9 out of 10. Lots of laughs. 

Saturday 7 July - Flight of the Conchords at Entertainment Centre with Sean. Love these guys, and they were fantastic live. They were so much more confident and animated than the characters they played in their show, which I also loved, and watched the first season all the previous week so I could remember some of the material. Best songs were an extended version of Business Time, also I'm Not Crying, and a new classy one called Let's F*#k On The Ceiling. 

And they started out with excellent, expensive costumes

Sunday 8 July – Kylie Lannan’s 40th Birthday – she had a High Tea at her place at 1:30. My Uncle Pat and Auntie Marilyn were there, as well as Kylie's Mum and uncle, and some of Kylie & Ben's friends. I spent most of my time catching up with Pat & Mal. I always like catching up with the extended Lannans, and enjoy my time with them. Kylie has become a good friend, and I'm sure she had a good time celebrating with her family and friends. 

Time for an Update

Thursday 21 June 2012 - On Sunday I saw Rock of Ages with my friend Kim. I had seen the crappy reviews, but had also seen the stage show, so I was still looking forward to seeing the movie.

I can see why people didn't or wouldn't like it, if they don't like (a) musicals or (b) the music in this particular musical. It is specifically '80's hair band rock, and not for everyone. I wasn't a big fan of this kind of music when it was new, so I think one of the main reasons I like this movie and show, is the nostalgia aspect, taking me back to my best decade ever (so far, of course). The dialogue is mainly to fill in time before they burst into song yet again, so the storyline is not the strong feature. The young lovers - gorgeous, big Britney Spears voice (her), nice guy great voice (him) - were fine, but their story was the usual, angsty, young love, break up, get back together etc. The music is the real star, and the big stars in the cast really bring it to life.

I loved Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand, who brought most of the 'comic relief''; Mary J Blige just blew them all out of the water whenever she sang - I especially liked her "Anyway You Want It"; Catherine Zeta-Jones was fantastic as always, I liked her "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" and "We're Not Gonna Take It" vs Russell Brand's "We Built This City". Tom Cruise was freaking brilliant as Stacee Jaxx, which was to be expected - he was never going to make a fool of himself, so I'm sure he researched, buffed up and learned his moves till they were spot on. Just a really great performance, as was the music and singing. 8 out of 10.

On Wednesday, we had a planning day away from work, at Bronny's house. It was such pleasant weather, and we had a nice time out 'in the country", just outside Ipswich (I believe?). Anyway, we had morning & afternoon tea, a yummy BBQ for lunch, a game of pool in the afternoon, and squeezed a bit of work in between. Bron's dog Coco was a bit shy, but lovely, pottering around and not getting in our way, but accepting pats and lying in the sun - nice life.

Action - Lorraine taking a shot, Shikha more interested in her chocolate cake, Brett seemingly the only one aware of the  photo being taken, Andy giving tips to Lorraine maybe? and Gemma helping Bronny to clean up

Sunshiney Saturday

Saturday 16 June 2012 - Today Kylie & her mum arrived back from Hong Kong. My housesitting stint over, I headed home to unpack, do some washing, check my PO Box and get some groceries at Lutwyche. Then at 12, I headed to The Fox & The Hair, in Spring Hill to get my hair coloured, cut etc.

Today was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day in Brisbane - a great day to sit in a hairdresser's for 3 hours or so. The things we do for [cough] 'beauty'. I could have been trudging around inside Chermside shopping centre, or sitting watching a few hours of telly, so much to do inside on a gorgeous winter's day. SARCASM.

I find it a slightly daunting event, going to a new hairdresser for the first time. My lovely regular, Courtney is about to have a baby, so 8 weeks after the last time I saw her, I went to a girl who is the niece of a lady at my work. Jasmine was great, I am happy with my colour; the cutter was Tami/Thelma from Ireland. Her real name is Thelma (but pronounced 'Tel-ma', said with a lovely lilting Irish accent) - but the way she pronounces it is apparently too hard for Aussies so she had to change it to Tami. She was great too, full of suggestions which I rejected, but did a good job, I reckon.

One of my luxuries in life is for someone else to do my hair. There is so much of it (which they always let me know, in case I wasn't aware), and they do a much better job of it than I do. Then I love running my hand over it when it is straight and soft - as it usually isn't either of those qualities... So - potentially traumatic visit to new hairdresser did not turn out that way, yay.

What an interesting post this has been. Rock of Ages tomorrow, so I will post a fabulously entertaining review of that - something to look forward to!

Amazing Race Thursday

Thursday 14 June 2012 - The Amazing Race Episode 3 was on Thursday this week, so as not to compete with State of Origin on Wednesday night. Hopefully Channel 7 won't do the swapping nights thing they like to do when shows aren't rating or for whatever reason they do it.
Tonight they started by doing a driving test in Jaipur, India. Heh. 


Interesting moments:

• Sticky with half an arm missing does his team's test - the driving instructor's face was funny, changing from shocked and a bit scared, to respect at his ability. 
• The hippie ladies - Teresa spraying the aura cleanser while Sue tries to drive, getting annoyed
• Paul the conceited idiot, getting ready to drag race Kym & Donna - and stalls his car. Funny.
• Botox Sarah doesn't seem like a very nice person, and is kind of scary to look at. Of course princess has only driven an automatic previously. James her boyfriend: "She doesn't have the best driving skills, according to her insurance company". When she was stressing while driving, she said botox made her look "quite thrilled and happy and..." James: “Surprised” – I'm liking James the boyfriend’s dry humour. It's obviously how he copes with her. 
• Grace & Joseph - she is a bit irritating, I think she tries the dumb act on a bit: "How good do I look, driving a manual?" A random thing to say to your brother. Also: "I don't really like to use my brain". Urgh.

Then they had to load up clay pots on a trailer thingy and get a big bull to tow it without losing/breaking more than 15 pots. 
Donna & Kym thought Paul backed into their pots and knocked some off with his backpack - I actually don't think he did back into their pots, I think they drove a bit too close to him. Anyway, now there's animosity, Kym said he & Donna are the worst team to cross - grudgeholders for sure. Keeps it interesting. 


Poor old Sticky & Sam, did so well all the way through and then got to the pit stop, and the tuktuk driver wanted more money paid than what they had. They had to beg from other people, then were so relieved when they got the extra money, they hugged the driver - even after he ripped them off! They are nice guys and deserved to come first.
2 - Ross & Tarryn Father/daughter team
3 - Michelle & Jo - twins
4 - Kym & Donna who narrowly beat
5 - Paul & Steve - sucked in Paul - "I'm an accountant for a living so I should be good with numbers"... finished the stair counting challenge first go "but that's got to be expected of me" - gracious guy. Urgh again.
6 - Shane & Andrew the cops
7 - Joseph & Grace
8 - James & Sarah
9 - Lucy & Amelia the Italian sisters
10 - Sue & Teresa the hippies - goneski. Teresa said they were now "bonded for life" - I don't think Sue agreed; she seemed to be getting a bit irritated by the other chicky a few times. 

Housesitting Adventures

Wednesday 13 June 2012 - As I type, with a contented puppy sleeping on the lounge nearby, and muted neighbours shouting at their TVs as the 2nd State of Origin plays out (care factor zero on my part), I am sitting in my friend Kylie's lounge chair in front of her massive flat screen TV.

Margaret & David (At The Movies) are currently reviewing Rock of Ages, and I already have chills, seeing Russell Brand & crowd singing We Built This City vs Catherine Zeta-Jones & friends singing We're Not Gonna Take It. Great stuff! I am soooo looking forward to this movie, having loved the stageshow I saw in the past year. Yes, still looking forward to it, even though Marg thinks it has a "hokey screenplay" and David only gives it 3.5 out of 5, and Marg 3 out of 5 stars. Obviously not the kind of musical they really like, I concede.

I am housesitting for Kylie while she is in Hong Kong for a week with her Mum. The weekend went okay, it rained almost non-stop and so I played with Rama, the puppy, and watched a lot of TV. Got through the 2nd season of Offspring, finished the first season of Justified and watched the first episode of The Borgias, which Brett kindly got for me. I am having a bath each night, a total indulgence since I don't have a tub at my place, only a shower... it doesn't take much to please me!

Anyway, on Monday (long weekend), I went to see The Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb, an Egyptian exhibition at the Museum with Sean, Sam & Katie. It was a nice day - until I got back to the house to find Rama had completely destroyed her tennis ball, leaving pieces all over the lounge room rug.... after vacuuming it up and wondering if by chance she had swallowed any pieces, my answer came when she vomited 3 times ON THE SHAGPILE RUG and then about 10 more times around the house. Gross, disgusting and disturbing.

I remembered Cooper, Sean's dog, doing a similar thing a while back, getting a chunk of rubber blocking something and having an operation to remove it. Great. So I rang the 24 hour vet who told me to keep an eye on her and see if she would stop spewing and become her old self before I went to bed. Long story short, about 3 hours and a sleep later, she was jumping around and playing like nothing had even happened. Far out. SO much responsibility that I am not prepared for, looking after another living being! She's been a good little dog for the other days I've been here, doing her own thing, playing, running around and being cute.

Ah well, at least Collingwood won the AFL against Melbourne that day, and Wests had beaten Melbourne Storm on the previous Friday night!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have thought of more songs to add to my favourite songs compilation, so here are the latest additions, in no particular order:

• Melt With You - Modern English (from Valley Girl movie - another classic '80s song)
• In Your Eyes - Peter Gabriel (from Say Anything - fabulous John Cusack/'80s movie)
• Run To The Water - Live (beautiful lyrics)
• The Middle - Jimmy Eat World (great for just feeling better instead of sorry for myself)
• Wake Up - Arcade Fire (ultimate big arena crowd singalong song - my aim is to see them live)
• Jesus Of Suburbia - Green Day (epic, amazing song)
• Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits (gorgeous, and I love anything to do with R & J)
• Unguarded Moment - The Church (just love this song for no particular reason)

And here are the previous favourites that I listed back in April:

• Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello
• Town Called Malice - The Jam
• Walls Come Tumbling Down - Style Council
• Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
• Burn Your Name - Powderfinger
• New Born - Muse
• I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
• If You Leave - OMD

Hmm, so much for a Top 10. Maybe a Top 20 or maybe I could do a [Triple J] Hottest 100 rip off effort?

Amazing Race Australia Episode 2

Wednesday 6 June 2012 - India.
Reasons I just don't like Adam & Steve (but mainly Adam) - quotes from Adam:

• "I think that I'm the intellectual powerhouse of the team, but Steve complements me very well... I'm the mastermind of the operation"
• "We know we can beat them (Sticky & Steve, and the sisters team) because they are physically weaker than us"
• "I wouldn't say I dance, I flex in rhythm to music" 

Also, they are both a-holes for not letting the cops team follow them after the cops got so lost

I don't like Joseph of the brother & sister team much either. He said about Grace, his sister:

"Any of her weaknesses will be covered by my strengths" 

Nor Botox Sarah, of On/Off Couple Sarah & James, because:

• firstly, she sulked at Manila airport (understandable) because James didn't want to buy her a drink when she was thirsty - but then when he did buy her some water, she refused to drink it AND kept the sulkiness going once they had arrived in Delhi! International travel-sulking, quite a talent.
• Then she spent 5 minutes arguing about an Indian rickshaw (?) driver overcharging them, and not letting James have any input into decisions or discussions, just cutting him off when he tried to reason with her

James was funny, when she had trouble with the Bollywood script - "For someone you can never get to shut up, she really struggled with speaking". BURN! 

Teams and people I do like - this week? 

• Tarryn and Ross, the father/daughter team, who saved the sisters from elimination last week, shone again when they tried to help the cousins with no money, Adam & Dane. They offered to buy them train tickets to get to the pit stop. Unlucky that there were no trains, only rickshaws. Also made me laugh when she said (about the Bollywood script) "As long as we get the proNOUNciation" and her dad said "proNUNciation". Ha. Not a great start!
• Sticky & Sam, after making 50 "bricks" out of cow dung and hay, and being given the next clue by an Indian woman - both of them raised their poo-covered hands to "High 5?" her. She didn't want to. 
• Sue & Teresa, the hippies, for getting out the aura cleansing spray whenever things go wrong

Anyway, the results:

1. Go Sam & Sticky! Well-played
2. Cheerleader Twins, thanks to the Bollywood dancing, they jumped a few places
3. Hippies 
4. Tarryn & Ross [...Then they showed the poor director of the Bollywood movie that had to judge them all - by the time Joseph & Grace hugged him for letting them through, he just looked exhausted and wishing he'd never agreed to signing up for this caper in the first place!]
5. Paul & Steve - bugger
6. Kym & Donna the Brissy couple [... Next came Adam & Dane - they had to sell a pair of their shoes to get some rickshaw money, apparently breaching the race conditions by selling their clothing, so they got a 30 minute penalty]
7. Andrew & Shane the cops
8. Joseph & Grace
9. James & Botox Sarah
10. The sisters - which meant Adam & Dane are out, and the sisters are safe again - another close call for them