Video tasty
As Anne has said, I bought a VCR at the weekend. Having discovered DVDs a few years ago I didn’t think I’d ever be happy to watch a video again. The pictures are fuzzy and the sound poor. Compared to the TV reception we have here, however, the pictures and sound are fantastic. And there aren’t ads every 10-15 minutes as there are on the network TV films (grrr!)
I was therefore excited and happy to get a VCR, as you can imagine. It cost me about 65-70 quid (couldn’t find a second hand one) and I intend to sell it when I leave Sydney and get a fair proportion of that back. That’s how I justified my purchase to Anne. My excitement was increased when I joined the local video library and they said we get two films for the price of one for the first month of our membership. Yay!
Now, I don’t want you thinking we’re just going to sit in and watch films all the time. After long days walking around Sydney at the weekend though it’s the perfect way to unwind. We watched two videos at the weekend (for the price of one!) and here are the judgements:
Signs
I enjoyed this. A few people had told me that it was disappointing (including an Empire film critic!) so perhaps this managed my expectations. It’s a story of alien invasion, shown through the eyes of a disillusioned preacher (Mel Gibson) and his family.
It all ties up a bit neatly at the end I suppose, but I was entertained. At least I was once I’d got over the fact that videos are still made in a 4:3 ratio rather than widescreen – yuck! Four stars.
I read that Mel Gibson’s next film is about the last days of Christ’s life and is in Latin and Aramaic – without subtitles! Funny Mel Gibson.
Eight Legged Freaks
This is an affectionate parody of/homage to monster movies of the fifties. It makes little attempt to be taken seriously and doesn’t even really try to be scary. It’s about spiders which grow in size due to chemicals.
The cast have fun, and I’d say it’s worth watching for a laugh. Three stars.
We also watched a film on telly:
Enemy of the State
Being shown on channel seven, this 131 minute film (per the IMDB) was stretched out to two hours fifty minutes (170 minutes) thanks to the ads. That’s a 30% increase in length due to ads (ignoring any PAL speed-up issues). Also, there was some poor editing of naughty words (“Kiss my BOTTY“). I think you can sympathise with my VCR-buying now.
Anyway, this is a really fun film, with Will Smith and Gene Hackman. Will Smith is targeted by John Voight, a bad NSA man, and is reluctantly helped by ex-NSA man Gene Hackman. Anne was jumping up and down with excitement during the spy-satellite scenes, like a small child on tartrazine - bless. Four stars.
Auditors from the past in the present. In Sydney.
I went for drinks last night with three people I used to work with in KPMG. One of them was the guy who pounced on me as I left work the other week. We drank and put the world to rights and I caught up on gossip. They’ve all been here a couple of years or more, and were able to give me lots of tips on what to do in and around Sydney when we’re not watching videos.
Sydney’s such an international city – there are loads of Brits working over here. When you see the harbour, with the opera house, ferries and bridge it’s easy to see why people are attracted. Add to that the climate, and the weird animals wandering around the parks (I’m still enjoying seeing ibises, bats and cockatiels everywhere!) and you wonder why everyone doesn’t come here.
It hardly feels like we’re away when I keep meeting people I know from London, and I can be in email contact with people. Travelling isn’t what it used to be. Not that I know what it used to be, but it wasn’t like this I reckon.
It was St Patrick’s Day, but these weren’t St Patrick’s Day drinks since I don’t celebrate that day. I’m English, not Irish for crying out loud. I’m not going to dress up in green as an excuse to drink – it doesn’t suit my curmudgeonly manner.
Any of you without Irish blood who went for St Patrick’s Day drinks on Sunday or Monday is wrong. Thus I have spake, and ever it must be so.