Away again

Since Monday, I have been house sitting.  I'll be away for about a month.  And won't have internet.  So yet again, I must bid you adieu.  But I will be home every once in a while and I plan on writing blog posts to queue up in the mean time.  That's the grand plan anyway :)

I am looking after little Ted.  This is him a few months ago, last time I looked after him.

Now a few months on, he is six months old.  In that last picture, he was up to my knees.  Now he is up to my hip.  This is a particularly cute picture of him that I took today.  And he is still growing!!

He is still very much a puppy and trips over his feet when he chases the ball.  And slobbers ALL over me.  Every time I go outside to see him, I have to wash- not just my hands- but all the way up my arms too!  Being a puppy, he gets over excited and jumps up on me.  Which is a nightmare!!  He's nearly bowled me over a couple of times.  Taking him for walks is quite a mission.  But luckily there is a small park nearby and I can let him off the lead.  Even though he's still learning, he is a real people pleaser and always comes back when I call him.  I think he's such a goodnatured doofus.  And only I get to call him a 'doofus', if anyone else called him that I'd be offended!  From what I've seen of these big dogs at work, all of them seem to have that 'friendly giant' in their personality.  I can see why people are taken with those breeds.  I just wish they didn't slobber so much!

I have been getting TONS of house sitting offers.  On the one hand, it's great because it's money and people have super nice houses that I get to live in and I get to look after some of the sweetest sweeties.  But on the other hand... I miss my house and my Roomies!!

Blu Ray Thursday #4

The movie: Like Crazy


Girl Roomie and I have been dying to see this movie.  It’s a story about an American guy and an English girl who fall in love when she is studying in America and their trials during a long distance relationship.
It was SUCH a hipster movie.  Sorry if it is your favourite movie but it wasn’t for me.  The leads were really good and genuinely likable   And Alex Kingston and Jennifer Lawrence were in it (two of my fave ladies!) but it just didn’t GO anywhere.  And I guess that was the whole point of it.  Love isn’t like what we see in the movies, you have to work to make it work.  The dialogue was as banal as conversations in every day life, which again I think was a conscious effort on the movie’s behalf but I have to live with stuff like that everyday.  I want my characters to be witty and insightful, coz I use movies as escapism.  I feel bad ragging on an indie movie, especially because I’m sure a movie like that must have some hardcore fans.

Recommended?: “Like Crazy”?  Like crazy boring.

Boom.

Blu Ray Thursday #3

Well this is most definitely late.  It is Sunday night here and I should be getting ready for bed but this has plagued me since Thursday that I haven’t posted this.  So in interest of my sanity and getting a good night's sleep, I will scribble down a few words.

The movie:


I love this poster, I’d not seen it before.  I think it’s much better than the one that they seem to have mainly used. 

Well, this is a horror/thriller/kinda comedy, according to Boy Roomie.  This is a movie I’d seen before but I have been dying to see it again and knew Boy Roomie would love it because he is a giant horror fan.  Me, not so much.  I don’t get too grossed out by gore but I’m really not a fan of horror.  So why do I like this movie so much?  Probably because it’s a meta horror movie (that’s a thing, right?), so it doesn’t take itself seriously, but in a different way to the Scream movies.  And it’s written by my good pal, Joss Whedon.  In my head, he is part of common pop culture fodder.  Apparently not.

Actual conversation during the movie:

Boy Roomie: This movie is weird.
Me: I guess.  It *is* Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: ???
Me: It’s Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: It’s… just… what?
Me: It’s written by Joss Whedon.
Boy Roomie: Who?

And then my brain exploded and everyone in the room died with me too.

So I write this review from the afterlife.  I think the less you know about this movie going on, the better.  Sit and watch it.  Listen to the dialogue.  Enjoy the journey.

Recommended?  I know it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.  If you are a Joss fan and you don’t mind gore, go for it.

So… the real reason I haven’t been blogging…

I’ve wanted to tell you all this for some time but I just wasn’t sure how you’d react to this news.  I didn’t want this to change anything between us or the way you think of me.

Pause for dramatic effect…



The reason I’ve been away is because I’ve been busy starring in the movie ‘Looper’ and being married to John Krasinski.



But never fear- movie promoting is over and it’s lovely being back with John (*sigh* I wish!) and normal blogging should resume.

Sidenote- it was SO distracting that in the movie, Emily Blunt had the same bed linen as me.  Maybe forty years in the future, Ikea reproduces some of their old range?  And she had the matching lamp in her living room.  Even dirt poor movie-verse Emily Blunt has the matching lamp that I couldn’t justify buying.  Just another reason to be jealous of her :)

Last weekend…

my friend Anna and her husband came and stayed.  Anna and her hubby are from the UK but I originally met them when Anna did a year abroad studying at my uni in Australia.  We met through church and have been friends ever since (although I’m not very good at keeping in touch!!).

So I decided that it was my job to play tour guide.  Anna is a super organised person and already had the itinerary mapped out so I was more like the tour bus driver and she was the tour guide!  I LOVED being a tourist in my home town.  We went to the local water park that I have scandalously never been to and had an absolute blast!!  I am a little wary of water slides but I think I got over my fear.  The big ride there was the Aqua Loop.

(Pic found here with this article)

You get into a compartment and then there’s a countdown and the floor drops away and you do a massive vertical drop into a loop.  I was terrified waiting for the countdown but the ride itself was so quick that I didn’t even have time to be too scared!  If you don’t get enough momentum, then you don’t make it all the way through the loop.  I was worried that I’d get stuck!!

Then we went to Seaworld (we have one here too!) and Boy Roomie joined us.  I was very excited that we were going because… we were going to go swimming with sealions!!  We started off the day with the sealion show.  This is such a cheesy show but I absolutely adore it.


Then we fed stingrays (which was scary because they were so excited for the food that they seemingly kept trying to flop out of the tank) and we looked at sharks.



Then it was time to swim with the sealions!  We swam with two sealions and one seal.  The water was SO cold.  I couldn’t stop shivering but once I met Wendall, I instantly forgot about being cold.  I gotta admit, I was a little afraid when he got into the water and “stood” up in front of us.  He was just so huge.  330kg or 730lbs for those Americans amongst us, which Wendall technically is being a Californian sealion and all.


Not the greatest picture of me but Wendall looks a babe so I love this picture!!  I’m standing up in the water, so you definitely get an idea of how huge he is!  You’d put your arm around him and he put his flipper around you.  Then once the picture had been taken, he’d use his flipper to push you out of the shot so that the next person could take your place.  Cheeky boy!  We got to play ‘catch’ with him and pet him. 

Then there was an Australian sealion called BJ.  He was super cheeky and adorable.  He seemed about half the size of Wendall but was still a big fella.  We were able to fit a harness to him and I got to tag along beside him while he swam.  It was amazing.  Except for like I said, he was cheeky and decided to do some “dolphin style” diving.  I was so busy enjoying the experience and smiling that I got a mouthful of water.

Then there was a New Zealand seal whose name escapes me.  He was not in the mood to follow instructions and kept darting about in the water, which was breathtaking to watch.  We got out of the water and were able to pet him.  Because he normally lives in a cooler climate, he had fur on him.  I thought he felt like a wet daschund!  He did a few tricks to mimic his natural behaviour in the wild, like washing his face which was completely adorable.

Anna took a ton of photos and hopefully she’ll post them soon so I’ll probably talk about me and sealions again :)  It was such a magical experience.  I am desperate to do it again!!!

Blu Ray Thursday #2

What I watched:

… or if you’re American, “Pirate Radio”.

What I thought:  I really enjoyed this movie.  I’m a huge Richard Curtis fan, I love his style of writing so I was relatively sure I’d like the movie, despite it being not a very big commercial success.  Sure, it’s long and a little bit muddled but darn it, I watched it with a big smile on my face the whole way through.  And I even cried at the end.  And then laughed again.

It’s jam packed with fantastic music and some even better actors.  All those funny guys that you recognise from English movies, the ones whose face you know but might not know their name?  They’re all in it.  Oh and my beloved Kenneth Branagh.

Recommended? Yes.  Fun movie about silly people on a boat.  With bonus good music.

Hello again…

I just can’t seem to get a hang on this blogging business again.  I feel like every blog post starts with me saying “sorry I’ve been away again”.

I have been a bit busy these past few weeks with pet sitting.  It means odd hours and a slim to none chance of using the internet but it does boost my bank balance a little.

Because I have been so busy with work, I haven’t actually had Thursdays off.  So no new BRT for you.  Although the last Thursday I had off, I watched ‘Public Enemies’.  Don’t bother. 

I have been falling in love with my little pets that I’ve been looking after.  This is Jeffrey.  I just finished house sitting with him and two other dogs.  He is the cutest.  And the snuggliest!  This is how we go to sleep :)


This is Fudge.  I was house sitting for him and his bro Cino.  Just popping in twice a day to feed them.

Fudge disappeared for five days.  He needed insulin injections twice a day.  I called the council to register him as missing.  I put up an online poster for him with the RSPCA.  I phoned around local vets, animal shelters and pet emergency centres- all to no avail.  The owners weren’t worried that he was gone, stating that sometimes he would go into hiding.  Then they came home… and he still didn’t appear.  They came to me at work, saying that now… now they were more than a little concerned.  And then the next day, the little toerag just saunters up to his owners as if he hadn’t been missing.

So that was really stressful.  I spent a lot of time alternating between crying and walking around the neighbourhood, calling for the cat.

And so because I have been so busy, my mum suggested that maybe Millie might be happier at her place.  Somewhere where Millie wouldn’t have to worry about dogs or what time I came home at- if I even came home at all.  And so my antisocial little angel has gone to live with my mother… and has never been so happy!!  She LOVES my mum!  They keep each other company and she gets to lounge around my mum’s house and basically be the boss.