Earlier today I had a hankering to watch a chick flick. I have them every so often and I could quite easily end up spending a whole weekend re-watching the usual films for the 100th time. Today though, I fancied a change, something new but was unsure what to choose. So I did, what I imagine every person does when they don’t know the solution to one of life’s many questions. I Googled it.

I found various lists that more or less just reeled off every single film that I am not at all embarrassed to say I love and have enjoyed. However, I did manage to find a few quite recent ones that I haven’t seen and settled on Julie & Julia. And am I glad I did even if there is some discussion on the net about whether Julie and Julia is a true chick flick. A lot of people say it’s not. I don’t know if it is or isn’t but that hardly matters. A lot of films aren’t taken seriously or given the time of day (by some) when they get given the chick flick or RomCom status. Which is a shame, as it means they miss out on little gems like this.

Now, if you haven’t seen the film, want to and don’t want to be spoiled then I suggest you stop reading now. Although you will be missing out on my first blog post in ages. But whatever, I don’t mind… much

I laughed out loud at  Meryl Streeps endearing and engaging portrayal of Julia Child. Every time she appeared on the screen I smiled. At first I have to admit that I thought I wouldn’t like the Julia portions of the film, I have no idea why I just did. However, not long into the film I was looking forward to seeing more of her and Stanley Tucci.

The Julie scenes were also good and Amy Adams portrayal of the character was engaging in a lot of different ways. It was her blogging effort that pushed me to write this entry. I would love to come up with an angle to take this blog forward such as cooking all the recipes in a cook book. If only I could think of something that I think I could stick at.

I was expecting the usual Hollywood ending to be honest. I thought it would end with the two women meeting… it just seemed like a very Hollywood thing to do. However, I am more than happy that they didn’t take this route.

At first, I was a bit sad that the woman that inspired Julia to cook and blog didn’t like the idea. I was more than sure that the woman that Streep had shown us would really like Julies passion. After all, she taught Americans how to cook. All Julie was doing was learning what she taught, but documenting her experiences in a blog. We don’t know how true to life this portion of the film was though, but for Hollywood to take it rather than give us the expected ending was good work in my opinion.

Considering the ending afterwards, I was satisfied with the way both women worked hard to achieve their goal. And both succeeded. Julia finished her book and it was published which lead to numerous further books and TV shows and her career. While Julie completed her mission,  finally got noticed and her own book was published and thus began her career.

The film no doubt will not be for everyone, which film is? But it made me smile and laugh which was very welcome. And It made me blog. Which hopefully will only be a good thing.

On the blogging front, I am really trying to get back into it. I am actually working on another design, which and I don’t want to jinx…but so far I am LOVING IT! The design is half done and I know where I want to take the rest of it, I just have to work out some annoying kinks that are making certain images not show up or text not appear as it should. So just the usual CSS annoyances, or is it just me that gets them?

Here I was, bored at work (well it is half term, not much to do) when one of the guys I work with told me to go and look out the window into a little court yard in the middle of the college. So i did and I was confronted with the cutest site ever!

(sorry about the quality of the pictures, I had to take them through a dirty window on my phone)The mother must have flown into the courtyard and then laid the eggs as it is completely enclosed so there is no way they could have walked in. We called the RSPB and someone has came and rescued them who says they will be monitored for a few days and then released back into the wild once the chicks are a bit older.

So that brightened up my day a bit. And while I am uploading the cute photos here is a couple of Poppy, one of our nutty cats: Read the rest of this entry »

Is it just me or has tailoring not what it used to be (Dear me, I sound old)? In the past two weeks I have had 3 buttons fall off of one of my coats.  I managed to save 2 but one fell off in the middle of the street and not wanting to look like an idiot searching for something on the pavement I left it.

So then, I have to spend the rest of the day either not buttoning up all the buttons, resulting in looking like a wino that can’t do up buttons properly or walking round with my coat open and freezing.

No no, not that Eliza, but this one and her brother Lester:

Any Simpson’s fan will no doubt have seen the episode “The Day The Violence Died” where Bart helps Chester J Lampwick claim his fortune from being the original creator of Itchy, leaving the current producers of the cartoon broke. Once Bart realises this means the end of his favourite cartoon he and Lisa set about trying to figure out a way to get it back on air, only to be piped at the post by the oddly familiar pair.

I have always quite liked this episode which was just shown again on channel 4. I never understood why the writers never decided to bring the characters of Lester and Eliza back in a later episode, it was definitely left open for a return so I can only assume they have since decided against the idea. I always thought they could have been a very promising story line. It would have been good to see Bart and Lisa pitted against the two rivals on more than one occasion.

With episodes of The Simpson’s (and possibly more films) still being made I will continue to hope that they will appear on our screens once more.

So, when I moved into my new place I noticed that there was a Co-Op just down the road. I have never really shopped at Co-Op before so it didn’t really fill me with joy (hmmm… I am only talking about a shop here).

I have quickly changed me mind though and now I love the Co-op!

The other day I brought some chicken that was reduced but also on multi save, the assistant rang it up and both discounts were applied to my bill… I just assumed the assistant had forgotten to adjust the price to accommodate both discounts as we did in Asda but I wasn’t going to say anything. I went in this afternoon to get stuff to make my lunch with for tomorrow. I had a look in the fridges and spotted a very packed reduced section. I like reduced goodies as much as the next person so dived in.

I found:

6 Cumberland sausages Reduced to 94p from £1.84/2 for £3. Bargain… 2 went in my basket.
2 chicken kievs reduced to 54p from £2.19/2 for £3. Again, bargainous so 4 packs went in my basket (I have loads of room in the freezer so all is good)
Chinese chicken wings reduced to 99p fron £2.29/2 for £3.50. Bargain! Again 2 went in my now pretty full basket.

I finished up my shopping and went to the till. The assistant rang the goods up and I handed over a £20 not really paying attention… then as I was walking down the street clutching my bags with change and receipt still in my hand I noticed that I had quite a lot of change and assumed I had been given the wrong amount. Then I looked at my receipt… all of the reduced bargains had come off AS WELL as the multi save amounts. Ending up that I have just paid £4.64 for almost £20 worth of goodies… woo!

I know this is a silly thing to be happy over, but I am easily pleased

For once the weather is how it should be for July. Hopefully summer is now here. To mark the occasion I went out in the garden to do some wildlife spotting…

(click for full sized versions)

Everyone loves a good bag of Doritos, including Seagulls.

A seagull has turned shoplifter by wandering into a shop and helping itself to crisps.

The bird walks into the RS McColl newsagents in Aberdeen when the door is open and makes off with cheese Doritos.

The seagull, nicknamed Sam, has now become so popular that locals have started paying for his crisps.

Do you know what the problems are with trying to get everyone blogging again? That there is no one to encourage you to blog and/or encourage people to blog. I know, I am crap! It’s been… ages since my last post. I won’t bore you with the usual busy life nonsense, yeah it’s been busy but I could easily spare 10 minutes a day to blog. I am just crap.

 I am still placement hunting but the frequency of getting further than a letter of rejection is increasing so that’s a good sign. I will of course let you all know when I get somewhere and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later. Don’t worry about not finding out, I plan on announcing it to the whole world once I get one. So if I have you in a phone book, email, or however I usually communicate with you I will let you know.

 The end of term is fast approaching, only 1 week left and only 1 assignment left to be handed in this side of Easter. Then I have 2 assignments in for after the holidays and 3 exams to look forward to.

Oddly enough our exams are being held at Aintree racecourse this year. JMU always have trouble finding the space for all the exams that need to take place so this year they decided to hire out the race course instead. Should be… interesting!

Happy New Year

Yes, I am plannning on returning to the old land of blogging… I don’t know if I have any readers left but I only had 3 before so its not much to win back.

I have a re-design in mind. My creativity is returning thankfully. I was beginging to think I had burnt out already! I have little to no uni work to do at the moment (I love the lull in between exams and getting more coursework) so will try and get it out soon and I will try to update you all with my happenings on the past month or so. Its been quite busy and exciting here but I will no doubt bore the socks of you, you know me.

If you are a Harry Potter fan you will no doubt already be aware of the fact that the title of book seven has been announced. 

I won’t put the title on here, if you want to find out either go to the above article or to JK Rowling’s site, click on the rubber and figure it out yourself. 

If you are a Richard Hammond fan you will no doubt be interested in this, be sure to check out the video and also put Rossy in your diaries for tomorrow night – 10.35pm BBC 1! It’s going to be good! 

And don’t forget the other essential Christmas viewing… no not the queen’s speech! No, Christmas Day, BBC 1, 7PM. I don’t need to say what it is, if you don’t already know then you will never understand. 

Just in case I don’t get round to coming back on here before the big day can i please wish all my friends and visitors to this site a very merry Christmas. Have a mince pie on me xxx