A brief encounter

The Chumscrubber is such a good film! It deals with communication issues between parents and teenagers, America's reliance on prescription drugs to solve problems, and a video game. This probably sounds rather bleak and harrowing, but it's not. I'd describe it as a cross between American Pie and Donnie Darko. Jamie Bell is a stonking good actor, I'm going to watch some of his other films, he really blew me away. And that's about as much as I can say without giving too much away. What I can say, is that the soundtrack is also pretty good. There's not a huge amount of music in there, but what is in there is nifty stuff. Except for Placebo. I really don't like Placebo.

I also watched A Very Long Engagement today, which I also enjoyed. Initially I thought it was some kind of romantic comedy, so I put it off, but it aint! It's about a girl who's convinced her fiance didn't die in WWI, and her quest to find him based on some information told to her by an ex-soldier in hospital. She spends the film trying to unravel the mystery of him and the four other soldiers he was with at the time (they were all sentenced to death for self-mutilation). I'm sorry I put off watching it for so long. That'll teach me.

The kitchen is all done! Well, the units are, the worktop is due on the 13th June, and I can't wait! We've been using the espresso machine today though, which was super! It makes wickedace coffee, it's bean to cup, less hassle and mess all round! The froth wand is good too, often a challenge on home models. Yay for Siemens!! :0)

I'm just on me tod, Hefty on night 2 of his funny shifts. Need to practice some songs for the next band rehearsal though really so I think I'll do that! Am dying my hair back dark again next week and I can't wait!

Have a good weekend folks!

Holy freakin' moly!

So my kitchen is coming along brilliantly! I can't believe it! Check it out!






Hefty's doing shifts of 3pm til 1am for the next week, starting from today, so it's just me and Ozmond. I'm just watching 'The Chumscrubber', which is pretty good so far. I did a massive clean of the house earlier then watched Transformers. I must have seen that film 20 times, but I really love it. So there.

Watch this space for film review....

A substantial list

One of my friends asked me what we'd bought in America. I had to think about it, and then decided to compile a list on here, so if I get asked again (there's a distinct possibility, I still haven't seen a couple of my friends), I can print out the list, or, cut and paste it into an email, which is obviously very lazy, but there are some people who I speak to more via email. Also, it might be interesting to someone, and it'll be a nice reminder so that when we go back next year, I'll remember to pack less initially, so that we don't have to buy two extra cases again (oh yes, we had to buy two, and bearing in mind we went with two, that's 92kgs of stuff!). So here we go, in no particular order:

CDs

Korn - Untitled ~ how I love this album! It's a lot better than I thought, and tres cheap!
Paramore - Riot ~ not as good as the first one, but for £3.00 it seemed a bargain.
Adema - Kill the Headlights ~ my current favourite album, always on in my car, it rules!
Flight of the Conchords ~ this was Hefty's purchase, he seems to like it.

DVDs

Bender's Big Score ~ it's common knowledge that I love Futurama more than a lot of things. Well, I STILL do! It's super!
Death Proof ~ brilliant!
Grindhouse ~ haven't watched it yet, but am confident it will be as good as Death Proof.
Flight of the Conchords ~ another of Hefty's purchases. He loves it, I'm not quite sure. Some bits are funny, but I find it kind of depressing. Hmm....

Games

Grand Theft Auto Special Edition Boxed Set ~ Hefty's, I don't know much about GTA, other than it has a rockin' soundtrack, but I was very impressed with this. It came in a safety deposit box! And had some other cool stuff in it, but the best thing was, it cost £40.00! It did cost £150.00 over here, but has dropped to £69.99 - either way, a saving!!

Clothes

Well, I bought the following t-shirt from Virgin (the best Virgin in the world!) in Downtown Disney:



And I also bought another one by the same people, but I can't find a picture. But, imagine a cartoony blue mobile phone saying 'I'll text u later" to a cartoony blue old bakelite style phone with little pointy teeth, who responds with '?'. Amusement all round!

Having discovered the company's website whilst searching for the above pics, I discovered this, which I must have!



Anyway, I digress. I also bought a vintage looking Iron Man t-shirt (Iron Man being my favourite film of the year so far, we saw it on the day it came out and it ruled! Though I haven't seen I-J yet) and a ton of Roxy ones, varying styles.

Hefty bought out an Abercrombie & Fitch store, he now has t-shirts, polo shirts, jeans, thundercrackers, flip flops, aftershave, all kinds of gubbins!

I bought a couple of bags too, a Harajuku Girls one and a Juicy Couture number.

I also got some awesome new Vans! They sort of look like this, but there's not any paisley stuff on 'em!



Let's see, what else? Um.....ooh, I bought a stand for my DS Lite, so that if I'm playing something like Scrabble (which is pretty much all I play, despite having so many games), I can sit and look at it, rather than having the bother of holding it. God I really am lazy!

Hefty bought a new camera too, a Panasonic Lumix TZ5, which he says is awesome!



We bought a fair amount of gifts too, including a large Ariel doll for the Biz (Ariel from The Little Mermaid), and a ton of American chocolate and sweets. Hershey chocolate is rank apparently, but one of Hefty's friends loves it so we got him a fair amount.

We also bought some coffee, Mickey's Real Swell Coffee, which we've yet to try, but we liked the packaging and thought it'd look good in the new kitchen. Ours is blue, cos it's not decaff, but I couldn't find a pic.



And that's about all I can remember at the moment. Though I'm sure there's more than that. Well, if it comes to me, I'll be sure to note it down.

Le kitchen

So here is the kitchen, before (entirely inadequate for a 4 bed house on 3 floors), and during. Can't wait for the after! I did rotate the last ones, but for some reason, Blogger will only put them up sideways. Meh. The last shot is the new stuff, it might look the same as the other, but it's not! One's crappy veneer, one's solid oak.

Time flies

Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned, it's 25 days since my last confession.

Well, actually, it's 25 days since I should have last confessed, but it's been a manic few weeks.

Firstly, Florida was excellent!! We really did have the best time ever! The weather was hot, the food was outstanding, and we shopped til we dropped! It was so good, and we miss it so much, that we're going back again next year for three weeks! Only 10 months and 20 days to go! According to my countdown timer widget anyway!

Since we returned, a number of things have kept me from my trusty blog:


- Ozzy's behaviour was horrendous whilst we were away, and he was so naughty when we got him back, we had to call a dog whisperer!

- We're currently having a new kitchen fitted and had to clear the house to make room for the units prior to fitting, and the contents of the old kitchen now that the new one is being fitted.

- I had to look after my niece a couple of times as my sister had to work unexpectedly.

- My singing lessons have been more challenging of late, and it's taken a lot of time to learn new songs (especially the Italian operatic numbers!) and practice them, as well as going to the lessons which takes nearly three hours including travelling.

- I've had my usual bouts of illness, which never helps.

- Our internet connection went all cockaskewy, and on the couple of occasions I was going to write something, I couldn't get on the flipping net!

- I had band rehearsals, fabulously exciting, but take up a whole day!

- Have been nipping back and forth to shops trying to get finishing touches for the house, nightmare!


So you see, it's all been rather chaotic, and I'm not really sure where the last month has gone!

So, the current news is that Ozzy is now a reformed character thanks to Janet from Barkbusters, and the kitchen is nearly in situ. The units will all be done by Friday, which is when the resin worktop people are coming to check their measurements are correct, and then we should get the actual worktops on 13th June. So, by the 15th June (my rough estimate), our kitchen should hopefully be all finished!! Hoorah!! I've taken some pictures, a sort of before and during (after pics coming soon!)
which I shall put up after this.

In other news, today I went for yet another appointment for my ongoing ear/sickness/dizziness problem, and as per usual, it was an utter waste of time. Apparently, because I've been ill for the past 4 years, I'm anxious, and this is what's making me ill, because there's nothing wrong with me, it's all in my head because I've been seeing so many doctors for the past 4 years. If I ignore it all and gain more confidence it'll all go away. Interesting theory, the concept of the chicken and the egg comes to mind, but as the doctor was clearly in no way sympathetic to my cause, I didn't bother arguing. I did try to point out that I HAD been ill initially, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to the doctors in the first place, and that I still AM ill, whether in my head or not, so she palmed me off with a leaflet on Acid Reflux, and told me to follow the advice contained within. Based upon said leaflet, I shall be abstaining from the following:

- Heavy smoking.

- Heavy drinking.

- Eating chocolate, pastry, fried food, Indian food, and drinking fizzy drinks.

- Wearing tight clothes like corsets.

- Lying on my back to go to sleep.

Oh hang on, I don't actually do/eat/drink/wear any of these things anyway. Interesting......maybe that's why I'm lacking any of the main symptoms; a hoarse voice, a cough, heartburn, a mucus-ridden throat....hmmmm.....

Maybe the doctor I saw is a specialist in the wrong area. As far as I can tell, she'd be far better suited to another part of the anatomy, one she can clearly talk a lot about.