Last week I saw the movie A Mighty Heart. It's the sort of movie that it's hard to know whether to take the trouble to see it at the local down the road, or to wait until it comes out on DVD. This is because we know the story. Danny Pearl is abducted by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan and he is killed. What is there to hold our attention? Some how the movie does grab us and the tension builds and we are caught up and held to the end.
I assumed the Mighty Heart was Danny but we learn very little about him from the movie. He is, in a sense, a bit player who is the catalyst for the action. Marianne Pearl, his wife, played by stunningly by Angelina Jolie showed her love, strength and a mighty heart. She never gave up hope and kept it alive in others. It's a movie worth seeing - perhaps on DVD.
I'm off the Wellington at dawn tomorrow. As I said a couple of posts back I will try to add to my blog when I'm there. Impressions are often best jotted down immediately.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Screw top wine bottles
On my way home from work last Saturday I bought a bottle of wine to have with my next meal. There is no word, I know of, for a meal that combines a very late lunch and an early dinner. That is what I had – a very late lunch or an early dinner or a combination of the two.
As I began to assemble the food I craved a glass of red. I grabbed the bottle by the neck and twisted. Nothing happened! I studied the top. A cork! It’s a long time since I saw one of those. I felt a surge of pleasure. I’ve missed that unmistakable pop of a cork being withdrawn from a wine bottle.
I searched the top kitchen drawer for my old and trusty cork screw. No luck. I went through the second drawer. It wasn’t there either. The third drawer down is full of odds and ends and it gave up an ancient bottle opener I hadn’t used or seen in years. It is a fearsome object with handles and arms and screws. I went through the drawers again. Old and trusty was missing. My desire to drink a glass of red increased in proportion to the problem of removing the cork. I struggled with the fearsome object I had found and while I struggled I remember why it had been chucked in the bottom drawer.
The cork did eventually come out but in pieces and the pop was very subdued. I got to thinking about the new screw top bottles and how long it will be until none of us are able to pull a cork. I’m off to buy a new cork screw just incase I come across another cork but it wouldn’t surprise me if I had difficulty finding one. The new feature of wine drinking is grab and twist. So easy.
The wine was pretty ordinary when I finally got to it. Was that to do with the cork? It was a Kingston Estate Merlot bottled in 2006 and on special at out local bottle store. You may like it but it tasted sour to me and not worth the struggle.
As I began to assemble the food I craved a glass of red. I grabbed the bottle by the neck and twisted. Nothing happened! I studied the top. A cork! It’s a long time since I saw one of those. I felt a surge of pleasure. I’ve missed that unmistakable pop of a cork being withdrawn from a wine bottle.
I searched the top kitchen drawer for my old and trusty cork screw. No luck. I went through the second drawer. It wasn’t there either. The third drawer down is full of odds and ends and it gave up an ancient bottle opener I hadn’t used or seen in years. It is a fearsome object with handles and arms and screws. I went through the drawers again. Old and trusty was missing. My desire to drink a glass of red increased in proportion to the problem of removing the cork. I struggled with the fearsome object I had found and while I struggled I remember why it had been chucked in the bottom drawer.
The cork did eventually come out but in pieces and the pop was very subdued. I got to thinking about the new screw top bottles and how long it will be until none of us are able to pull a cork. I’m off to buy a new cork screw just incase I come across another cork but it wouldn’t surprise me if I had difficulty finding one. The new feature of wine drinking is grab and twist. So easy.
The wine was pretty ordinary when I finally got to it. Was that to do with the cork? It was a Kingston Estate Merlot bottled in 2006 and on special at out local bottle store. You may like it but it tasted sour to me and not worth the struggle.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Cat -S
My cat S and I have been having a tranquil and mutually enjoyable relationship over the last few months. I give her two tablets a day, she swallows them, I open a can of cat food and she eats it.
Back in May (see my blog dated May 26th 2007. and blogs in June) she almost died then rallied and began to eat again. She slept and ate her way through the remaining days of winter and into spring.
Summer is now upon us and she is sliding backwards and looks to have given up eating once again.
This weekend she has turned down the special ‘heart-smart mince’ I go out of my way to buy for her because she once considered it a treat.
The stock of tins I have in the cupboard no longer contains any thing that she wants to eat. Even a long time favourite, Jellimeat, has been turned down. I put it on the plate and went outside to lounge in the summer warmth. She followed me out, sat down on the step, narrowed her eyes, fixed the slits on me and gave a demanding “Wow”.
Jellimeat is no longer something to be swallowed. Eventually I got up and checked the cupboard. Flaked trout, another long time favourite was available. I put some of that on her plate. She nibble a little and then went back to bed.
When I rang my mother on Sunday I mentioned this and she reminded me that her mother, a farmer’s wife who always had a house cat, said that her cats always lost condition during the heat of the summer. I hope my Grandmother’s words are true for S too because it has been very hot here over the last week or so.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Catching up with my Blog
I’ve neglected my blog for the last couple of weeks. This is because I have been in a state of anxiety about my job. I could have posted all my conflicting thoughts that swirled around and around in my head. Occasionally they settled down but the slightest thing set them whirling again and they whirled at great speed. They were neither particularly interesting nor very lucid thoughts. But they did serve their purpose by getting me to re-evaluate my job. I leave the job on Friday. When I made this decision I felt a huge weight lift off me - a sense of lightness filled me. I will unemployed from Friday and I plan to stay that way until the New Year.
I have booked to spend two weeks in New Zealand with my mother. It will be almost a year since I was in New Zealand and six years since I moved away. I will try to up-date my blog from there.
I have noticed that while I posted less frequently I had fewer hits to my blog. I hope all you people who have been flicking in for a quick read and felt cheated or let down by finding nothing new will excuse me and come back in your droves.
I have booked to spend two weeks in New Zealand with my mother. It will be almost a year since I was in New Zealand and six years since I moved away. I will try to up-date my blog from there.
I have noticed that while I posted less frequently I had fewer hits to my blog. I hope all you people who have been flicking in for a quick read and felt cheated or let down by finding nothing new will excuse me and come back in your droves.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Michael Clayton
I have just seen the movie Michael Clayton. A great thriller. Slowish but it is still the edge of the seat stuff. How could it be otherwise with George Clooney and some superb support acting?
George plays an in-house “fixer” in a big New York law firm. He is said to be great at his job but his own life has fallen apart and there is no one to fix that. This gives his character a vulnerable dimension.
I hate people giving me the plot of a thriller so suffice is to say it revolves around a legal battle with a huge agrochemical company that has endangered the health of a rural community. Shades of Erin Brockovich there.
The casting and the production is all great.
Strangely there is no love interest and at the end I missed this. Of course it would have made it a different film and Michael Clayton a different person. Probably a lesser film. The only woman of any consequence is Karen Crowder played by Tilda Swinton. She gives an amazing performance as the slick, ruthless company executive and behind the scenes the insecure person who anxiously practices her speeches in front of a mirror.
George Clooney has a beautiful voice. It is such a pleasure to listen him. This may strike me so forcefully because I live in Australia.
I have read that Cleopatra was not particularly beautiful but she too had a beautiful voice - a voice that brought Caesar and Mark Anthony to their knees.
Check out ‘Michael Clayton’. It is one of the best films I’ve seen in a while. Go and listen to George’s voice.
George plays an in-house “fixer” in a big New York law firm. He is said to be great at his job but his own life has fallen apart and there is no one to fix that. This gives his character a vulnerable dimension.
I hate people giving me the plot of a thriller so suffice is to say it revolves around a legal battle with a huge agrochemical company that has endangered the health of a rural community. Shades of Erin Brockovich there.
The casting and the production is all great.
Strangely there is no love interest and at the end I missed this. Of course it would have made it a different film and Michael Clayton a different person. Probably a lesser film. The only woman of any consequence is Karen Crowder played by Tilda Swinton. She gives an amazing performance as the slick, ruthless company executive and behind the scenes the insecure person who anxiously practices her speeches in front of a mirror.
George Clooney has a beautiful voice. It is such a pleasure to listen him. This may strike me so forcefully because I live in Australia.
I have read that Cleopatra was not particularly beautiful but she too had a beautiful voice - a voice that brought Caesar and Mark Anthony to their knees.
Check out ‘Michael Clayton’. It is one of the best films I’ve seen in a while. Go and listen to George’s voice.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Melbourne Places - Carlisle Street, St Kilda East
MELBOURNE PLACESThe railway bridge across Carlisle Street Shopping strip – recently refurbished. Cafes are multiplying, the place is buzzing and there are great delicatessens.
Horoscopes - October
Susan Miller http://www.astrologyzone.com/…. is the horoscope I read every month.
A friend describe is as "the horoscope of my choice”. She's wrong in that. I didn’t select it from others. It is the only one I found a year or so ago that gave a monthly forecast. I am happy to be introduced to another free one if anyone knows one.
When I first read Susan Miller I felt her predictions were reasonably accurate. This year it has been different. I am a Capricorn and I find that she has been considerably off beam. A friend who is trained in this field tells me that Susan is premature with her predictions as far as my life is concerned – it will happen but not when Susan says. With this in mind I decided to read October’s horoscope at the end to the month and then review it in light of what has happened.
An interesting exercise!
It didn’t appear to be about me and October 2007. A large part of it covered progress at work and my career. Someone would offer me a job (out of the blue). “Watch for an intriguing phone call”. It also suggested I could make considerable “career progress” and that there would be a big change in my financial fortunes – a bright financial future – “lucrative new professional developments”.
I started a new job in mid September that I had high hopes for it but two months into it the hopes haven’t been realized. The innovations the firm was going to put in place have not happened and the current situation is somewhat stagnant. It is possible the company could be struggling with cash flow. Odd considering the Real Estate world is booming - record sales, record prices. But then you have to make a sale to hook into the avalanche of dollars.
Now is the time for some one to come out of the woodwork and offer me that job I can’t resist.
If my friend is to be believed and I have no reason not to believe her, this should happen to me this month.
When things are going really well we don’t look for signs and reasons why this is so. We get on with it and think it is to do with us. We are a success. When we are at cross-roads or the road appears to be struggling with the gradient, we search for meaning and hope.
A while ago I went to a ‘fortune teller” clairvoyant and a card reader. I was looking for direction and positive signs for the future. She spent her time discussing the past. An area I’m only too familiar with! I won't got there again. I'll spend the money on a good bottle of red wine.
I will read my November Horoscope at the end of this week.!! But should it be my October one?
Are all Capricorns waiting for their "career progress" to happen??? And don't forget the money - the bright financial future.
A friend describe is as "the horoscope of my choice”. She's wrong in that. I didn’t select it from others. It is the only one I found a year or so ago that gave a monthly forecast. I am happy to be introduced to another free one if anyone knows one.
When I first read Susan Miller I felt her predictions were reasonably accurate. This year it has been different. I am a Capricorn and I find that she has been considerably off beam. A friend who is trained in this field tells me that Susan is premature with her predictions as far as my life is concerned – it will happen but not when Susan says. With this in mind I decided to read October’s horoscope at the end to the month and then review it in light of what has happened.
An interesting exercise!
It didn’t appear to be about me and October 2007. A large part of it covered progress at work and my career. Someone would offer me a job (out of the blue). “Watch for an intriguing phone call”. It also suggested I could make considerable “career progress” and that there would be a big change in my financial fortunes – a bright financial future – “lucrative new professional developments”.
I started a new job in mid September that I had high hopes for it but two months into it the hopes haven’t been realized. The innovations the firm was going to put in place have not happened and the current situation is somewhat stagnant. It is possible the company could be struggling with cash flow. Odd considering the Real Estate world is booming - record sales, record prices. But then you have to make a sale to hook into the avalanche of dollars.
Now is the time for some one to come out of the woodwork and offer me that job I can’t resist.
If my friend is to be believed and I have no reason not to believe her, this should happen to me this month.
When things are going really well we don’t look for signs and reasons why this is so. We get on with it and think it is to do with us. We are a success. When we are at cross-roads or the road appears to be struggling with the gradient, we search for meaning and hope.
A while ago I went to a ‘fortune teller” clairvoyant and a card reader. I was looking for direction and positive signs for the future. She spent her time discussing the past. An area I’m only too familiar with! I won't got there again. I'll spend the money on a good bottle of red wine.
I will read my November Horoscope at the end of this week.!! But should it be my October one?
Are all Capricorns waiting for their "career progress" to happen??? And don't forget the money - the bright financial future.
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