January 2012

Hi!
hope you're all doing great. Wish I could say the same for myself, it's still hot and I'm battling a tummy bug which is always a fun topic of conversation. However this is not what I'm here for and it's not all bad because our air conditioning was replaced yesterday and I can see just how sad our old system had become. The cool in my home now is simply bliss and I have to confess that I have become very spoilt very quickly.

So January is a special month (to me) because it's my birthday month! I've always loved celebrating my birthday, big or small, party or not, it doesn't matter as long as I've got my boy and babies with me, I'm happy.

This year saw me turning 38, which I'm quite happy to admit. Hubby spoilt me with a netbook and all the bits and bobs to go with it. He took the day off work and we went out to lunch and then continued to celebrate over the weekend, spending a night in the city with another couple we're friends with. My friend's birthday is 3 days before mine so what better excuse to hit the town!?!

The plan was to go to Deville's Pad, a quirky over 25's theme club , Hubby had taken me there once before and I loved it. But then we discovered the hotel we were booked into had a little place underneath called The Hula Bula Bar which is a tiki themed bar and seemed to be owned by the same people as Deville's Pad so we checked out both.

Long story short and many, many cocktails later we had an awesome time. It's not often we get to do grown up things like this so we made the most of it :)

What else have I been up to? Well, not that this is a "fun" thing or "me" time but I resolved to start Miss 3 on the road to toilet training... before anyone judges me, yeah I know I started way, way, WAY later than many parents might. But I was determined to wait until I knew she was ready, I tried too early for Miss 7 (just before her 3rd birthday) and it was a long and arduous 12 months of mopping up messes. At one point I thought I'd be sending her to Kindergarten in a pull-up nappy (diaper for o/seas readers).

To my utter surprise and delight Miss 3 has clicked straight away and though we have the odd accident, for the most part she gets herself to the loo. PHEW!!!! is all I can say.

Other than that, nothing huge has been going on in January... the birthday fling was quite enough LOL.

I did my best to keep up my goal of indulging in reading and catching up on movies etc, didn't get to watch as much as I would have liked but I'm certain my eyes would be square if I had!

But this is what I did get to see...

Films

Glee 3D Concert Movie: while I got this with Miss 7 in mind (her being the singing & dancing kind of kid she is) I did want to see this myself because if I'm completely honest... I am a Gleek at heart. To begin with I was a tad disappointed with the sound quality of the live concert scenes but as we watched it over and over again, it became less of an issue. Part of the format was to follow 3 fans and hear their stories of how Glee has inspired them and that was interesting. I waited for Miss 7 to question me about what did being gay mean and geared myself with a few answers but it didn't happen and I noticed the more she played the dvd, the more she flicked through the talking bits to get to the songs. Ah well, we'll have that chat later I guess.

Ghost:  did I just admit to that out loud? yeah I did. it was on tv one night and I don't know... I just kinda sat down and then Hubby sat down and we had to see it through to the end. Gawd it's corny and the special effects are crap as is the acting for that matter but we watched it. No harm done ;)

Horrible Bosses: this wasn't a bad movie actually... slow to start, it got better as it went and by the end we were laughing out loud.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish 2009 version):
again it happened to be on tv one night and I'd always meant to watch it after reading the books and really wanted to see it before I went to see the English version, so it was good timing. I really thought it was quite good but perhaps a little disjointed. I found it hard work to be constantly reading the subtitles and was glad that I'd read the book. Hubby hadn't, so I was explaining bits here and there for him. And I would have liked them to develop the characters a bit more but all in all it was good.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil
if I were to have a movie pick of the month, this would have to be it. I had not heard of the Canadian metal band Anvil until this documentary was on tv one night and I didn't really intend to watch but it was a compelling story. These guys, who have inspired so many other bands who have gone onto become HUGE, never really "made it" in that sense themselves but the founding members kept their hope alive and did everything in their power to keep working towards their dream. By the end I had tears in my eyes and was on the edge of my seat with all my fingers and toes crossed in the hopes that the film came to the conclusion the band were hoping for... it's really worth seeing whether you're a metal fan or not.

TV

Sherlock Series 2: what is it about Benedict Cumberbatch!?! OMG those cheekbones!!! I seriously love this show and am sad that there's only 3 installments in each series but it is so cleverly written and entertaining that I'll forgive them... Can Not Wait for series 3!!!

doctor who+david+tennant pics on Sodahead

Doctor Who marathon: the ABC is running all the modern series (2005 to present) back to back 5 nights a week at the moment. It's been fun re-watching and we've made a discovery... Miss 3 is a "Whovian"... it all came about because she's devil for not going to bed the same time as Miss 7. We're wrestling with the "to nap in the day or not" dilemma; if she doesn't nap, she is a mean and spiteful little banshee come 3 pm, if she does then she won't want to go to bed at night until 8:30pm. It became easier to let her nap then stay up but then the dilemma was do we allow her to watch Doctor Who? I realise that it's not the most suitable thing for children to watch but the selfish side of me didn't want to miss out as well so I caved and let her sit up with me, at first she wasn't keen so I'd send her off to bed (or try to) and then one night she heard the theme music of the show and came scooting out all set to watch... a Whovian is born I guess.

I do remember as a child (though not quite as young as Miss 3) that I would sit with my brothers and be scared witless watching Doctor Who but not being able to look away. I guess that's how it is for my wee one too except she watches it with her Mum and holds her hand. Now she is demanding to watch it, I don't hear the end of it in the evenings until it is on... and the questions! OMG! try explaining regeneration to a 3 year old! But still, it's a bit cool that we have this in common :)

Alcatraz: the premise is quite intriguing so I'm keen to see more but I am desperately hoping it doesn't degenerate into a confusing mish mash like LOST did (seeing as the same people made it)

Kids TV: Horrible Histories & Big Babies
OK so being the summer school holidays, there's been a lot of the kids channel on and these 2 shows tickled me. Both are so very clever...

Horrible Histories World War II Girls Song


Uploaded by jamie932 on Jun 23, 2010

Big Babies...


Uploaded by bhkahului on Aug 30, 2010

Reading

I've kept on with Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb but then I got the amazing opportunity to read an eARC of
Devotion by Kristie Cook so swapped over for a bit.

I will be doing a separate post to review Devotion as part of Kristie's blog tour which is scheduled for Feb 15!

Getting back to Royal Assassin... I'm only a third of the way into it but last night I read the loveliest passage where the main character Fitz makes love for the first time to his long time love, Molly. It was so tender and beautiful without describing barely anything physical that it took my breath away. Oh to be able to write like that! Needless to say I am even more enamoured by the story.

So I guess that's about enough for one night... see you back here on Feb 15 if not before x o x o