Mini Film Review: Transformers

+ The robots were pretty cool to look at.
+ Shia LaBeouf was great, but totally wasted. This guy has lots of talent, and a strong presence on-screen. He could be the next big thing if he can find the right movies (like not this one :) ).
+ Lots of bangs to keep you awake.

- Too many inappropriate comedy moments
- Too long - learn to edit, film-makers!
- Not sure if I was just sitting too close to the screen, but all the blurred motion and fast cuts made me dizzy at times.

OVERALL: Entertainment for a few hours, but quite forgettable. This film satisfied, but probably isn't going to make anybody's Top Ten.

Celebration of Light

This year, Spain, Canada and China held firework displays to music. Steph and I watched Spain and China from the beach at English Bay, and it was great - very loud. It seemed busier this year than last year too, especially for China's display. We saw Canada from our friend Jon's place - he had a barbecue with some other friends too. Jon has a pretty good view of English Bay from his flat in Kitsilano. We thought that China was by far the best fireworks display this year, but in the end Canada won the competition. There are more photos from the fireworks here.

A few photos from Steph's parents visit

These are pretty old now too - I haven't updated the blog in a while. Anyway, here are the photos.

More Tug-Of-War

Very belated, but I've uploaded a bunch more photos of the Radical summer barbecue, and in particular my double tug-of-war victory.

Tug-Of-War

This was sort of ages ago now - on Friday 13th July in fact. We had our company barbecue at Trout Lake Park, which included lots of food. No drink though - it's a family affair and also it is illegal to consume alcohol in public here. Always feels strange for an English person to be outside in the summer time without booze :)

Anyway, after food there was a tug-of-war, or two in fact. The first was Europeans vs. Canadians, and the second was ATG (the tools and tech group that I work in) vs. Game Teams. I took part in both, and we won both times! This is a clear indication that I was the best at tug-of-war. See the attached photo which proves this beyond any doubt. I'm the angry-looking one.

(Not So) Mini Film Review: Live Free Or Die Hard

Yes, I made Steph go see it too! I was in the mood for some mindless action. The plot certainly plucks a lot of comtemporary elements from today's headlines, and then mixes them together into something a little ridiculous. Don't even start looking for the holes either: it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Just sit back and let it wash over you. There are some excellent action sequences (gawd bless computer graphics), and Willis does his wise-cracking cop bit once again and quite adequately while he gets the crap beaten out of him. Surprise takeaways for me from this movie were:

• The geeky sidekick character (played by Justin Long) who stayed just on the right side of irritating with his sharp dialogue - I thought he would quickly irritate but he was a great addition to the film. Kudos to the scriptwriter(s).
• Mindless violence. Something didn't sit right with me while watching this movie, and afterwards Steph hit the nail right on the head - the killing in this movie is frequent and extremely casual. Life is cheap, and people get wasted left and right by the "good guys" without pause for thought. Even for an action movie, this seems to lack some sort of moral backbone. I must be getting old :)

Warm weekends :)

Summer is back - woohoo! I am delighted to report that the weather forecasts were wrong for last weekend. We had sunshine and only a little cloud, and lovely warm temperatures. It was awesome. We got in several hours of walking over two days, and some good food. We even watched part of an exciting bmx championship. A very good weekend. You can see some photos of it here.

Since that weekend, the good weather has stayed. It has been a great week with really warm, summer weather and this weekend has been the same. Steph's parents visited the Okanagan this week while we were at work, and had an excellent time I think. Yesterday, we did some kayaking again at Deep Cove. We hired two double kayaks for three hours in the afternoon. It was pretty hairy at first as there was a lot of boat traffic. Fast-moving boats create big wakes that can really upset a kayak, though they don't seem to appreciate that - damn them!

Once we had gotten away from all the boats, things were much more pleasant. We stopped off at Belcarra Park and relaxed on the grass for a little while. Steph and her mum took a quick dip in the water but it is cold so they didn't last long. The paddle back was much better as a lot of the boats had disappeared. It was fun afternoon, and John and Ursula really enjoyed the experience I think, though it was hard work. We took some photos, but they are on a waterproof disposable camera. I think there are about 7 photos left, so at some point fairly soon we can develop the film and upload them.

Today, we've taken it much easier. We went out for coffee and lunch, and then popped over to Granville Island to buy some food for this evening. We have some lovely fresh tuna steaks to accompany another nice bottle of BC wine. Superb! My gum graft is pretty much recovered completely now, and I am really enjoying my food again.

Next week, Steph's parents are away again: Vancouver Island this time. They will be back on Thursday evening for their last few days, and we'll probably have a nice posh meal next Saturday before they leave - possibly at Bistro Pastis. Yes, definitely enjoying my food again!

Canada Day weekend

Steph's Mum and Dad arrived on Thursday. This Sunday is Canada Day and Monday is a bank holiday, so we are taking advantage of the long weekend to take a trip to Whistler together. We are hoping to do a bit of sightseeing and perhaps some walking. The weather forecasts are in disagreement, but sadly don't look good. It is still pretty wet here - very disappointing for the end of June. We are taking rain gear, and preparing to get wet while we walk :) Doubtless there will be photos next week to upload.

Hope all our friends and family have a good weekend too!

Mini Film Review: Paprika

This is as unusual Japanese anime about dreams. It is pretty crazy, but quite inventive and with some fantastic imagery. Lots of imagination on display. The story treads a fine line but barely remains comprehensible, which was a relief. It's one of those movies that leaves you feeling pretty good at the end too. If you like Miyazaki movies and that kind of whimsical Japanese fantasy, you'll probably like this movie too. Thoroughly pleasant!

Life stuff

It's raining again. Where's the nice summer weather we had last year? It actually thundered a little this afternoon which is very rare for Vancouver - it might only be the second or third time we've seen that.

Last week was pretty uneventful, and slightly miserable for me as I'm recovering from my gum graft. We did go out on the Friday evening for an Indian. The food wasn't bad, but not fantastic either. We met Tom and Amy, who are visiting some of our other friends. They were very nice.

Yesterday, Lauren and Woody had a housewarming barbeque. They've bought an awesome house in Kitsilano that Steph and I thought was ace. We arrived a little late at 3pm, and finally left around 1am when we were all kicked out :) The food and drink never stopped. All credit to Lauren and Woody for putting on a damn good do. There was plenty of inane drunken conversation later in the evening too which is always nice. We took a few photos which I uploaded here.

This week Steph's parents arrive for about two and a half weeks holiday. We are going to Whistler next weekend with them. I hope the weather improves! And tonight we are going to see Paprika at the cinema with Laurie and Bob. I'm hoping it will be good - it looks completely mental.