Maroon5 concert or how Adam Levine made sexy eye contact with me...

... and then admitted it was part of the act but that it was weird to do it here because there were a lot of guys in the audience.

Bloody hell, what have I been doing for the last week? There was a lot of eating and working and not much time for blogging :( The weekend was pretty full-on too, kicking off with (longer than I expected) drinks on Friday with the PhDs and then Pooey and Spuey while they were still in town, before kicking onto the Raymanda Wedding on Saturday and then the Maroon5 concert with Dr. Nance.

Anyway, she managed to get us tickets that allowed us to be present at the sound check. We believe something went very wrong here because it was held up by almost an hour and the reps admitted things were a little NQR. This showed because when we met the band they did seem a little cranky, with Adam at one point even decribing the sound as *brittle*. But they were still gracious enough to take their photos with us. While I went through and shook hands with all of them, Dr. N was engaged in convo with Mickey and Jesse (who are really nice) for a while to the point that when their rep said it was time to take the photo, she just grabbed me even though I was trying to insinuate myself into their hug line.

Us blocking Matt

Anyway, there were two official supporting acts, Brandi Carlisle (who I've never heard of but did a nice rendition of Radiohead's Creep) and OneRepublic (who we have all heard of now). Oh, Dr. N managed to get us front row centre seats so they really were that close in our pictures

Adam doing his thing.

Dr. N's new favourite, Mickey.

Jesse at the keys

The audience putting their mobile phones up for *Won't go home without you*

Video of most of *She will be loved* (sound quality not great)

If I had to complain, I'd say the show was a little short, about 1.25 - 1.5 hours? Where was *Sweetest Goodbye* or *Must Get Out*? Ah well. I still had hella fun and we sang our way back to her place to crash!

SETLIST

Little Of Your Time
Makes Me Wonder
Harder To Breathe
The Sun
Can't Stop
Secret / In The Air Tonight
Shiver
Wake Up Call
Sunday Morning
Won't Go Home Without You
This Love

-Encore
If I Never See Your Face Again
She Will Be Loved

Nobu, do I rate it?

In short, no. Quite frankly, given what we paid ($90/each) and had been led to expect from an international chain from a celebrity chef, it was sorely lacking. Here's the breakdown.

1. Food. I know Nobu is a fusion between Japanese and Peruvian in an attempt to please the Western palate, but out of the six dishes (+ dessert) we had, we all agreed that we could have gotten the sashimi, salad, vegetarian tempura, and dessert at any old jap cafe at similar quality and much cheaper. I do rate the creamy chili snow crab, the beef special and the cod but it has been pointed out that they weren't exactly ground-breaking. I felt particularly ripped off with my dessert which was described as a chocolate bento. A bento has compartments which are filled with different things. My *bento* had only a chocolate pudding and green tea ice cream. I found it amusing when I just looked up Nobu on wiki and found that the Iron Chef judge rated it a 10/100 for food. This then brings me to....

2. Service. That same judge rated it 90/100 for service. I disagree. I don't know if it was simply different restaurants give different levels of service or the staff took one look at us and thought we wouldn't notice, but for someplace that is supposed to have a bit of cachet, I did not walk out feeling like a princess. No siree, it was no Le Gavroche. Staff had to be waved down, they questioned our ability to order, hell, we even saw them just standing around talking to each other. While no one was flat out rude, sometimes we did get the impression that they questioned our intelligence. Not a good way to treat one doctor, three soon to be doctors, one optom and someone who's job is hush-hush.

3. Decor. Okay, maybe I'm starting to get petty but I would have thought that a high-end jap restaurant would use lacquered chopsticks instead of the disposable bamboo ones in paper wrapper. And the table seemed a bit high. That also brings me back to my bento. I talked to a japanese collegue at work and he said while one compartment boxes are still technically *bento*, he would say that if someone was describing something to him as 'bento', he'd expect five different compartments. Yeah.

So as you can probably tell, I don't rate Nobu. I'd rather spend that $90 to fly to Sydney and eat Menya.

Movie review - Horton Hears A Who!

Strange. I was (and still am) a pretty nerdy kid. I read a lot of books and went through a whole Dr. Seuss period...but I don't recall ever reading this one. *shrug* Regardless, I don't you need to be a nerdy kiddie book reader at all to enjoy Horton!

One day, a little speck is blown off a flower, flying through the jungle of Noob. As it goes flying past Horton the Elephant (Jim Carrey), he can hear a little cry come from it. Turns out the speck is really the entire world - where the Whos of Whoville live. The Mayor of Whoville (Steve Carell) realises the implications of what this would mean for his civilisation (and his 96 daughters and one son) and convinces Horton that he needs to place the speck somewhere safe. Being the all-round nice guy that he is, Horton takes this task on with alacrity. However, Sour Kangaroo (Carol Burnett) does not appreciate Horton's belief in *imaginative* worlds, and conspires to stop him.
This film is a lot better than the last Dr. Seuss adaptation and it's all down to the writing and animation. I know those books aren't long enough to make a two minute movie, much less a two hour one, but at no point did I sit there and think *padding!* The humour is spot-on with no real jokes that will only appeal to certain members of the audience, but it's also very touching with a particularly scene of Horton in a cloverfield that Pooey admitted afterwards made her feel really sad!

However, the real star of the show is the animation. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The attention to detail, the colours, the characters' facial expressions, and particularly the FUR are just gorgeous. And everything about it just screams *Seuss*. You can usually spot an artist's particular style and Seuss is very distinctive. The CGI (and one traditional segment) faithfully replicates Seuss in a way that live action NEVER can. And there's also an anime-segment to represent Horton's imagination that is bloody hilarious.

I'll admit, I wasn't too keen on seeing this movie because the trailer that had Horton dancing around to Sir Mixx-a-lot's *I like big butts* did not appeal. I was soooooo wrong. It's goofy, it's funny, it's lovely. Go see this movie. You'd have to be a Sour Kangaroo to not like it too.
(Ooh, Seuss-ian line!)
8/10
(Photos from rottentomatoes.com)

Hangin' with the skanks and Kanye

Woah-ho ho!!! Well I predicted that last night's activities would provide one heckuva blogging topic, and boy howdy, it delivered! Me and various members of the Circle (Grand Empress + T, Kahunes, Jessabella + Leighbee, Moans, Jade, Peishapan, and Pooey) headed down the Southbank to hang with kids.

First things first, Pooey pokkai'd on Fri night so there was a big question mark as to whether she was going to skank up, but she pulled through and was therefore able to see these shockers in person....

The slutty Easter Bunny (I had to photoshop the shadows out of this but I assure you, I'm not good enough to photoshop her pants out)

The walking mirrorball

For some reason, there were also a lot of hens around - I don't know, I doubt that I'd celebrate my last few days of freedom from indentured servitude by hanging out with kids but hey, however you get your kicks.

But the real prizewinner of the night was some guy who we nicknamed Kanye because he was wearing those 'sunglasses' Kanye West has been wearing for his performances and also in his clip for *Stronger*.

(I originally thought they were from D&G - because they're the crazy kind of things I'd expect Domenico and Stefano to make - but I was wrong, they're from Jeremy Scott. Photo source)

Now, I won't say Kanye looks good in them but he manages to pull them off because he's got the right attitude to look so-so in something so ridiculous. KANYE LAST NIGHT JUST LOOKED STUPID. It brought us many laughs.

The night was rounded out with a trip to PPs where me and Moans proceded to eat Canadian Pancakes - 2 pancakes (with butter), two fried eggs, bacon, banana, and pineapple. I'm not sure where the banana and pineapple and *Canadian* come together, but it was enough to feed a lumberjack!And here's Pooey with her Swiss Mountain Malt. Nums all round!

General update

There hasn't been much to write about this past week. I mean, it is a loooooooooooong weekend for Easter. The only really significant thing that's happened is the influx of The Circle back into Melbourne. This has meant I've ingested a larger than normal quantity of alcohol compared to what has become my normal.

Right now the Grand Empress is trying to convince me to go asian night clubbing with her....hopefully this will result in a highly amusing entry within the next few days!

Movie review - The Other Boleyn Girl

Two sisters, once best friends, compete for the love and affection of one man. Power, money, sex politics and...err....religion....all come together in the movie based on the *historical fiction* book of the same name by Phillipa Gregory (I don't care what you say, Lydia, it still sounds like a romance to me!). Another retelling of how Henry VIII changed the face of England to get his fat hands on Anne Boleyn. Great historical saga or an opportunity for heaving bosoms in low cut dresses?

I won't go into the real historical events...the story presented to us are that the Boleyn family are a poor-ish relation branch associated with the Duke of Norfolk. Now that Queen Katherine (of Aragon) can no longer bear King Henry (Eric Bana) a male heir, the Duke schemes to pimp out a female relation as Henry's mistress, acquiring riches and power for his family. They settle upon the ambitious Anne (Natalie Portman) but it is her more unassuming sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson) who catches the King's eye. Details, details, details, Anne ends up catching the King's eye but will stop at nothing to become queen, not even if it means hurting her sister!

As I said, I know this book is based on fiction so I won't go into the historical inaccuracies of which there are many. Even taking this into consideration, the word that kept rolling through my mind while I was watching this was *clumsy*. There was absolutely no subtlety in explaining or even showing how or why the players were trying to get what they wanted.I couldn't decide whether it was the script which has some pretty bad clunkers in it, or the acting that made me wonder how much longer the movie was going to go for when Anne returns to court from France. The characters were so one-dimensional (Mary is an innocent simpleton! Anne is a bitch! Henry is a horny-toad!) that maybe actors were so over the top to try and compensate?

Acting...I like Natalie Portman. She was excellent in Leon/The Professional and Closer, but as Anne Boleyn, she's a shocker. Again, this may be due to the script, but she was portrayed as a petulant child determined for revenge after having her initial ambitions thwarted. There's none of the intelligence and sexual allure that the real Anne used to get Henry's attention - apparently she did it by using a well-timed double entendre here and there. ScarJo as Mary? Meh there wasn't much for her to do except look tragic here and there. And Eric Bana seemed to be overwhelmed by his costumes.

Speaking of costuming, I'll admit that the movie looked nice. The editing was a bit clumsy but the colours were nice and bright. I also liked the attention to detail that gave Anne the pearl necklace with the initial B - something that can be seen in her official portrait.

If you're not fussed by stuff like script and whatever, you may like The Other Boleyn Girl. If you want something better about the same stuff, either go watch The Tudors (featuring the really hot Henry Cavill) or Anne of a Thousand Days because in my opinion, heaving bosoms won again here!
4/10

Pritti pritti shoes :)

Okay, to recover from the shock that was my last entry, I'm posting a pic of the pritti pritti shoes Pooey brought back from Londres for me.

*sigh* They may not be real Chanel (thank-you, Zara!) but they're darn comfy and, again, really really pritti.

Fanks Pooey!!!

Crimes against fashion

Number.....oh god, this crime is so heinous I can't give it a number.(this entry refers to the girl on the left, the one wearing a hanky as a shirt)

Trinny and Susannah are right - DRESS FOR YOUR SHAPE, YOUR AGE, AND BE BLOODY APPROPRIATE. Me, Nance, Dr Kelly, Silly Natty and Kenny were having a pleasant walk around the city last night when we came across this shocker. We were heading up the Paris End of Collins which isn't exactly known for being a hotbed of strip joints. If I could have bottled the looks we gave each other in response to this, priceless.

And to add insult to injury, the front did not compensate for the shocker of the back, although Kenny did note that at least we couldn't see a Whale Tail. That bit was solved later when we saw the girl walking towards us wearing a completely see-through dress and black underwear.

SHOWDOWN!!!!

Nickyliou and I were having a discussion as we were walking down to the city to get gelati: Who is hotter out of my favourite eye candies? I mean, sure, Dean absolutely smashed Sam. That's a no-brainer. But how does he stack up against one of the world's most beautiful people? I've also decided to include my *turner* for guys who can't make themselves assess the male appearance.

So vote!

more at twiigs.com...

In case you guys have forgotten....

Monica Bellucci

Dean Winchester/Jensen Ackles

Marat Safin (I was in the audience for this one!)

Liz & Chris' Wedding

Congrats to Liz (my chum from skool) and Chris (her bf from FIRST YEAR) on their happy wedding on Saturday! I unforch didn't take many pics because my camera wasn't charged but here's some that I managed to get and more that I scammed off Anisha's facebook profile.

Waiting (im)patiently

Proceeding down the aisle

Exchanging vows

The happy couple with their HUGE smiles!

The impressive wedding banquet. Nummy nummy nums!

Yes, we had half a lobster each.

ITS A REUNION!!!!

Liz looked sooooooooooooooooooo beautiful - like a princess in her big dress! And Chris looked like Chris. Ah well. A lovely wedding and a good time was had by all!

Happy (early) Bday, QQ!!!

QQ is being sent to India for the week so she had to throw and early bday party. It was held at Baroq so naturally I had to get dolled up. Naturally.

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics from the night because I didn't bring a camera. Take my word for it. On another level, I've since discovered that I need business cards because when random businessmen are buying you drinks and they ask for a card and I tell them I'm a student....seems kinda unequal. On the other hand, free drinks with no repercussions! Other recollections include telling someone to *not bother*, asking the bartender then and there to make me a cocktail and include Zubrowka - he did well!, and hanging out with the Glamour Boys.

I then ended the night around 11pm, walking 1km in my polka dot shoes and scaring the crap out of QQ by taking the bus and then forgetting to ring her to confirmed I hadn't been kidnapped and got home safely.

Oh Hai!

Well peeps, how y'all doing? I've been down on the distinct drop-off in the regularity of my postings. Truly. It makes me wonder whether I'm becoming what I never ever wanted to be - a mindless, colourless drone. Noooooooooooooooooooooooo I must retain my opinions on everything and anything!!!!

Anyway, I have identified possible reasons why I'm becoming less interesting. Top is what I do. Seriously, the research world is not that interesting. People at work comment from time to time on my continued enthusiasm for finding papers in my pigeon hole and receiving packages. I say to them that finding joy in everyday things can stop the spirit from being crushed. They say that they await the eventual crushing of my spirit. Cynical, so cynical. In addition to this is the change my project. I was formerly spending hours on microscopes what were hooked up to computers that allowed me to blog while the mic/comp did it's funky thing. I'm now mostly doing cultured cells which are imaged on a mic not hooked up to the net. It is a long and boring process that doesn't produce the pritty pritty data I used to churn out and post from time to time. *sigh*

Secondly is the change in what I do. I've gone back to drinking again and that pretty much describes my weekends. When was the last time I saw a movie?! I was conversing with one of Spuey's friends and he asked me what was the last movie I saw when I mentioned I had not seen ANY of this year's Best Picture Nominees (seriously, I don't think this has happened for at least the last 10 years). I think I was slightly embarrassed to say that the last movie I saw was 27 Dresses - I know he was slightly horrified! But the French Film Fest is here and I'll try to see something. ANYTHING!!!

Exercise...everything is pretty much the same. I still go to Pilates. Glen doesn't pick on me as much anymore, although he did mention to me that while I may not be the best practitioner in the class and my abs are not made of steel, he has noted an improvement and I have been attending for two years now and should therefore move to a different (higher class). I haven't taken up indoor rock climbing properly yet so there are no new sports (and interesting bruises) to comment on.

Hmm, this has been a really boring and pointless blog. The next entry will be about Liz & Chris' wedding.

Lolcats and loldogs

As a PhD student, I have access to very fast intersmet when I plug into the uni wall. And as a PhD student, I have naturally already acquired my Masters degree in Procrastination (wif hons). Here are two of my fave sites ;)

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

http://ihasahotdog.com/

Cheezburger is cats, hot dogs is dogs (natch). The have been added to the links list!

Solitaire

Computer games? Meh, I can take them or leave them. My personal favourites are the ones where you have to solve problems to progress - preferably funny ones like the ol' Monkey Island/Sam n Max games. IMO, the simpler the game, the better.

Lately I've been obsessively playing solitaire. Not just spidey solitaire (which I have previously played obsessively) but the old classic type. Admittedly I used to play it heaps when I was a kid too - parents tried hard to discourage it as they thought it would lead to gambling problems when I reached maturity. To that I say, who's the one to spends more time in the cashino, eh?!

Well today I played solitaire so much that I got a new negative high score.

(-$1038 if you can't see it properly)

Maybe I shouldn't go to the cashino and play :P

When to stop

You know, I was rather proud of my achievement in staying semi-dry last year. Okay, okay, some people argue that there were so many provisos on my drinking conditions that I may as well have been drinking full time. (To them I argue that it's hard not to drink when ppl get offended if you're not drinking at their birthday etc.) Regardless, there were a few notable side effects.

1. I think I got fitter
2. I'm definite I saved a lot of money
3. I barely saw any of my non-work friends because I wasn't meeting with them for late night drinks.

Regardless of the positives, I happily reverted back to *normal* setting and have been drinking up a storm this year. After last night I think I'm going to have to push the reset button and go back to the four drinks/night quota.

The night started innocuously enough by meeting up with Lydia and having a glass of champagne. Okay, it was on an empty stomach but we went off soon after for dinner and I think it didn't have too much of an effect on our behaviour.

We decided to check out a newish bar, 1806, which celebrates the history of the cocktail. Being the great scholar of history that I am, I decided to try something classic, something with a bit of teeth. I ended up choosing the Sazerac, which was described in the cocktail menu as being half bourbon, half cognac, bitters, absinthe, and a bit of sugar syrup. That's right, absolutely not mixer in there at all. When the bartenders saw the little Asian girl ordering one (actually, it was Lydia, not me), they expressed their concern but we shrugged it off.

KER-RIST that drink is not for the faint hearted!!!

While Lydia calmly downed her drink (I can't remember what it was), I was breathing fire trying to down that monster. It wasn't that bad that I was willing to forgo the money I paid for it and not drink it, but I'll list it as one of the liquors to strip the lining of your mouth.

Later we met up with QQ where we drank some of her (warm) champagne before Lydia headed home while the rest of us went to jwow. At jwow I skolled a glass of grenache because the fire alarm went off. Needless to say I don't really remember much after that but upon resurfacing, I found myself in the hole that is CQ. All that place does is reinforce to me how much I hate the bodypress meatmarket.

Yes indeed, I think it's time to stop drinking. Again.