Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Well I have finally seen the film that I have been dying to see since I first heard distant whispers of its being made. I have to put this blog post up because I am determined to defend this new interpretation of Indiana Jones. Being a HUGE fan of Indiana Jones from the original trilogy, my opinion could have swayed easily either way. I could have watched the new film and thought that it was rubbish and just couldn't compare to the originals. Or I could have come out thinking that it fits in well with the originals or is a good film in its own right. Happily for me I thought that the latter was true. I was gripped through the whole film and I praise it highly for sticking to the same style of filming. It was a lot of the little things that gave me a smile like the cobwebs floating around everywhere, which features so much in the originals. Or the way Indiana is still precious over his hat, or the way there were a lot of comedy references to the original trilogy, or the way the new film didnt't take itself too seriously. I felt a bit sad that Harrison Ford is much older now because it means watching his character Indiana be older, although they joke about that in the film too. I'm so glad they have made this fourth film and I thought it worked really well having a younger character to balance out the older Indy. I was also happy to see the character of Marion back too because she is my favourite of the women in all the films. I'm very tired now as it's past my bedtime as I have smelly work tomorrow so in all honesty I can't write my little film review properly but after reading people saying that they thought the Crystal Skull lacked plot blah blah blah I had to rush to its defense!!! :-) Overall, I thought it was very watchable and yes, while I could pick a few flaws, it was for the majority a lot of fun.

Belated birthday present for Vraie Fiction

I decided to make Vraie Fiction a garden gnome for his birthday as he is quite a fan of little ornaments. On a recent group holiday to France he seemed quite taken with small model witches (they were rather scary looking and ugly!), fairies and gnomes. A fair few shops in France sold tourist trinkets and ornaments of such creatures and I have to admit I was intrigued by them myself, they had a certain charm, and I nearly bought a fairy figurine. However, they all had two flaws in my opinion. Flaw number 1: they were ugly! Flaw number 2: They were poorly crafted in the same tourist shop style. Well...I thought to myself, I could do a better job than that. I could build a prettier fairy or a craftily constructed gnome or a mesmerising witch. Ok, so I may not have all the materials and tools to make an art piece to perfection and my artistic talent may not be fully developed, but I still had the confidence that I could do better than the tourist shops. After all, if you had seen the fairytale efforts in the shops you may have agreed. So, from the materials I had around the house and with the help of a plant pot from a local garden centre, I constructed the happy-looking garden gnome below.

Last weekend's chocolate cake...wish it was still here

I haven't found the motivation to write any long blogs lately, particularly ones that at least come close to sounding half way intelligent or philosophical. I can't quite figure out why that is but maybe it's a combination of tiredness from working and sometimes feeling like blogging is pointless. However, when ever I do get stuck into writing a 'proper' blog I do enjoy it and find I have a lot to say. Right now though, I am again feeling like I have mush for brains and I'm also very sleepy...well it is 2.03am! So I'm afraid it is another relatively short blog involving no wit or charm and in this case, it's about my chocolate cake that I baked from scratch last weekend. The cake turned out to be massive because it rose so much. I was worried it was going to sink because I hadn't baked in so long! It was rather tasty if I do say so myself, even though I used a runny icing in the middle which made it resemble slightly Vraie Fiction's catastrophe cake :p hehe

Animal Watch

My pet gerbils, Horace and Hemes, love their new toy. We bought them a plant pot which they curl up in and peek over the top of. They also like to chew and naw through string but we only let them do it while we are watching to makesure it is safe. I love them to bits they are just so cute and funny to watch.

A gaggle of geese chased me across a field when I was out walking the other day. They scare me a bit because they can really pick up some waddle speed! I think they might have had baby geese nearby so they were protective.

Can you see the squirrel hiding in the tree?

My blog is having technical problems

SORRY MY MY BLOG IS HAVING SOME TECHNICAL PROBLEMS. I CHANGED THE BACKGROUND TEMPLATE TO PINK AND NOW NEARLY ALL MY IMAGES SEEM TO HAVE BEEN LOST..... I'M HOPING IT WILL FIX ITSELF OTHERWISE I WILL HAVE TO SLOWLY SLOWLY SLOWLY PUT ALL THE PICTURES BACK IN AGAIN FROM SCRATCH!!!!! HOPEFULLY BY THE TIME ANY OF YOU READ THIS MY BLOG WILL BE FEELING BETTER :-)

ANTS!!!

We have an infestation of ants in our kitchen. It started with a few and now there are hundreds...literally. They have been running around the food cupboards, window sill, kitchen tiles, floor and they cluster a lot around the window frame and washing machine. Just look how many ants are on the upside down Tesco card! I think the ants got in through the gaps in the window because as you can see from the photo, it hasn't been cared for by the landlord! I feel sad and mean killing the ants but it had to be done as there is too many and I'm getting that feeling all the time like they are crawling all over me because there are so many...yuk! I have cleaned the kitchen so many times and have left no food around but the ants are relentless. I hate sharing my home with them :-(

Horace and Hermes news

We made them a maze out of toilet rolls and kitchen rolls...

<----- Horace and Hermes love to naw and shred pieces of cardboard

<------ We discovered that Hermes loves to be sung to! His favourite are whistling tunes but he likes anything with a tune. When he hears singing he stops whatever he's doing and stands on his hind legs to listen. We know he likes it because he is the more nervous of the two brothers and normally he runs around being a bit jumpy and scared....but when he hears singing he calms down.

Three different walks

Ady and I went on three different walks recently and I really appreciated all of them. Fresh air and pretty countryside (there's not much to be found where I live) was just what I needed. Sometimes I desperately need to get out of the house and explore and be active!