18 posts tagged “linda's watching....”
....Twisties. Ah how I missed these delightful fluorescent orange corn maize based snacks. I could never find an snack to equal it during my last 9 years in the UK (the recently introduced Tangy Cheese flavoured Doritos came pretty damn close though!)
Every chance I can get I buy a packet from the vending machines when I am going through Flinders Street station (apparently Australia's most famous train station). I've also latched on to sushi as one of the few reasonably priced healthy eating options in Melbourne - sushi bars are everywhere - malls, railway stations. You can get 2 filling decently sized rolls for just under $5 Australian.
Was taken today to Melbourne's version of Chinatown by a fellow Voxer who lives in my newly adopted city. Couldn't believe that for the equivalent of a fiver (about $15 Australian) we got a meal for 2 and a drink - amazing. The lovely sweet and sour pork dish was 20 zillion nicer than the gluey deep fried sugary muck I have eaten in the past. Plus I had great company - you certainly get to connect with some quality people on this blogging platform! I talked the poor woman's ear off due to the fact that I am mostly locked up in the house all week looking for work online and don't really get out much due to the fact that I am trying to save what remains of my precious British pounds. Currently I'm like someone let out of an institution for their weekly visit into the real world with normal folk who have jobs and lives.
I'm looking forward to further culinary adventures....where I will no doubt put on the 4 kilos I just lost in the last 2 weeks.
Tonight I managed to watch finish watching a drama on ABC that I started watching the beginning of as a repeat about 6 months ago in Britain. In spite of the terrible reception I continued watching it until 1am. It was a very good drama - but there was really only one reason why I was glued to the telly - mainly a certain Mr John Simm. I know - it's so deeply sad and pathetic....
Still suffering from jet lag, even though it 6 days since I arrived in Australia.
Since I can't watch ABC due to terrible reception on our television I watch Channel 7 news for an hour in the evenings. Sadly, I'm addicted to their Sunrise show - as delightfully saccharine as the Bundaberg sugar on my morning Weetbix - then SBS World News for the moderately intelligent international stuff.
Also been catching up on Days of Our Lives - a trashy US soap not available on UK telly which I last watched about 20 years ago. I can't believe the same characters are still on there.
Another thing I can't believe the amount of stuff there is on British soccer player David Beckham's current visits to Australia and New Zealand with his team LA Galaxy. Apparently there's non stop coverage in the Kiwi media as well.
I have nothing against the man myself - in fact he's enjoyably pleasant on the eye - but the sycophantic media hype coming from Antipodean press just makes us seem like fawning provincials.
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What movie did you expect would be terrible, but was actually really good?
I don't know if I could say this was really good - but I was surprised how much I enjoyed this Ashton Kutcher vehicle. Part of the reason I expected not to enjoy it was because the last thing I remember seeing him in was so bad I can't even recall the title. Unintentionally ended up watching the bad Ashton Kutcher vehicle twice because the teenage daughter of a friend did so and I was baby sitting her or something. It was about disasterous honeymoon where embarassing things kept happening to the groom and the bride's parents hated him or something - it was like a Z grade Meet The Parents, but it was incredibly popular for some bizarre reason. Anyway this is what I said about The Butterfly Effect on a facebook entry:
Difficult issues like child abuse dealt with in an interesting way. What would happen if many of us could remember certain incidents in our lives and then we had the power to go back and change them? Ashton Kutcher is surprisingly good and sympathetic as the time travelling lead. A bit silly and the cover makes it clear it's trying to be Donny Darko-ish - but it's good.
This showed on the UK's Channel 4 and was basically about 5 tribesmen from Solomon Islands or Vanuatu in the South Pacific - they genuinely believe that the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, is some kind of god. As well as trying to get an audience with him at Windsor Castle - they also spend their time living with working, middle and upper class families in the UK
Apart from their rather odd idea about the deity of the Queen's hubby they were the most sound, delightful, joyous, friendly, open bunch of people I've ever seen on a 'reality TV' programme. Let's see more of these kind of people on our screens, thanks. Rather than the joyless, attention seeking celeb wannabes that currently inhabit our screens.
Have to say I'm not a huge fan of ITV or most of their television product - but I really enjoyed 'The man who lost his head' - which was a cute little comedy drama set in New Zealand. Being a Kiwi who's lived in England for almost 9 years I could understand both perspectives. No doubt there will be more Brits thinking of emigrating after seeing it on Sunday night.
Talking of moving - I have somewhere to live in north London for the next 5 weeks. It's subletting really but didn't have much alternative and it's pretty cheap for this city. A kind colleague of mine is helping me out with the move as she has a car.
Me and the lazy feminist culture vulture (as she describes herself) went to see the very interesting Sacred exhibition at the world class British Library. It's a really lovely setting, design and surprisingly modern architecture - not at all stuffy as it sounds.
Very worth seeing the scholarly exhibition (I must go back and take a second look) - but we hadn't seen each other for a while so ended up chat, chat, chatting about things (which was rather girly and fun).
Decided to give up on trying to talk in hushed reverent tones and headed off for a coffee. As the theme of the exhibition was looking at common streams between Judaism, Christianity and Islam it made for some rather interesting dialogue mixed in with discussions about Nicole Kidman's acting ability and whether the characters in the American version of The Office are believable as the ones in the original British version. We did agree that Jim is pretty dishy though....
What movie cliché would you most like to live out in real life?
Submitted by Wes.I'm such a cliche myself - of course my choice is the romantic comedy - with me as the cute and slightly eccentric female bumping into the hunk (preferably someone Luke Wilson-ish in the looks department) who ends up falling for her wacky ways. Oh - that really sounds like the plot of Legally Blonde...
How many TVs do you have in your house?
One little teeny weeny one. Our larger one with my beloved Freeview disappeared in February when our housemate Ed moved out. The little teeny weeny one will be leaving in July with our housemate Lizzie who is getting married that month. I'm not that upset about it really.
