Goodbye dins at The Brasserie

A few months ago, Mischka and I attended a dinner at Lord Gordon's place which was cooked by his then-housemate and housemate's partner. They are both chefs at The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel. Dinner was awesome and I spent a bit of time waxing lyrical about how awesome it was to Ruilin and we both agreed that we should go to the actual restaurant to eat the French-style wares. Well that dinner finally occurred last night to celebrate Ruilin going to work at Shanghai Expo for 9 months. Booo :( but also Yay! :D for dinner!

Because I was half an hour early (kinda over-estimated how much traffic resistance I was going to meet), I decided to kick off the night with my usual fruity cocktail...

...a Bellini. But it was no ordinary peach and prosecco mix - it had strawberries and vanilla (that black stuff floating at the top).

Because our eyes are larger than our stomachs, we shared out entrees to maximise flavour potential. Both were amazing!

We are both lovers of fois gras so we had to have the chicken liver & foie gras terrine! Mmmmm...it was deliciously liverish and foie-gras-y.

We also had to have the escargots with garlic and tomato sauce. I know a lot of people have the *euw* thing about eating snails so I'd like to clear up some things. Firstly, theyre not the same snails as the garden variety - they're specially bred for our eating purposes. Secondly, they taste like garlic, not slime. And last of all, the texture is a bit like abalone. One billion asian wedding-goers can't be wrong!

I had a dilemma about what to order for dinner. I had a hankering for the milk-fed veal tenderloin (mmmm, baby cows), but also wanted some crispy fish with lentils. In the end,

the pan-seared king salmon with lentils and leek won out. And they were delicious!

All of the ordered sides were great but unfortunately not photographed. We ordered the french belgian fries (crispy on the outside, soft on the inside), the sauteed green beans (much better than those we got at Rockpool!), the provencale vegetables gratin (crispy on the cheese side, deliciously moist and thick cut otherwise), and the baby green peas a la Francaise. Now, at this point, I need to make a comment about the peas. Maybe I've just always ordered beans before but the peas rocked my socks off! Now, I'm aware that French-style peas involves putting the peas in a buttery, oniony-sauce...but who was the genius who decided to put pieces of bacon/panchetta into the mix?! It was awesome! I think I had as many peas as I did lentils!

Even though I was pretty damn full at this point, I couldn't go past the crepe with lemon and raspberry curd with lemon sorbet for dessert. Miam miam - the right combination of sweet and palate cleansing sour!

George had some strawberries macerated, beautifully presented in this glass bowl.

while Ruilin had the chocolate and caramel tart with passionfruit espouma.

And so with our bellies fit to bursting, all was excellent as we wished her good luck and good times over in the Shanghai for the next nine months! Don't forget to eat at all the restaurants so we know where to go when we visit!

Cheeeese! One course we didn't eat :(

Saturday night's alright for....comedy

I chased up Jersey Boys by going out to the Comedy Fest to go see Michael Chamberlin tee off on arseholes for an hour.

And believe it or not, he managed to keep that stream of talking up for an hour! He was quite amusing and I think DG nearly lost a lung laughing.

Go see something at the Comedy Fest, whether it be this guy ($18, not too shabby for an hour's entertainment) or someone else like Arj Barker (Dave from FOTC).

Crimes against fashion

Yesterday's lovely weather was perfect for weddings and sure enough, we came across some wedding parties taking photos in the lush gardens on the eastern side of the city. As a result, we also came across some real shockers of bridesmaid dresses, the *cough* 'best' of which was this one.

Believe it or not, as a family we actually stood watching and wondered what the bride was thinking when she decided to wrap her bridesmaids in gold foil. Even if the fabric wasn't such an eye-gouging colour and texture, the cut of the dress made us all decide it was a deliberate attempt to surround herself something people would look at. The cap sleeves making their arms look chunkier, the lack of structure giving the girls absolutely no shape, the drape resulting in the middle bridesmaid looking as through she's wearing Batman's utility belt. On the other hand, because there appears to be little tailoring they could cut the dress up and use the fabric for....something else! And the overall appearance leads a new meaning to the word 'Trophy Bride(smaid).'

We also saw some dresses that had leg o'mutton sleeves. But that's another story.

Joisey Boiys!

Jersey Boys (or Joisey Boiys when pronounced with a New Jersey accent) is a musical based on the life stories of the original line up of The Four Seasons (Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito, and Nick Massi) and features their original songs plus others from that era (late 50s-early 60s - through disco etc). Pooey has been raaaaaaaaaaaaving about this musical for about...oh, at least since 2007 because I attempted to go see it while I was in NYC - it was sold out :(.

We finally managed to see it together (Pooey saw it twice in London) with Spuey and Ma & Pa to boot - family outing! Our outing kicked off with a drive into town, during which Pooey primed her iPhone to play the soundtrack to the musical to get us into the mood - it worked for me! Then to Chinatown for lunch at New Kum Dem (mmm, chicken ribs), and then walking around because Ma&Pa hadn't been around there in years. We then slowly walked up the hill to the eastern end of town to the theatre and settled in...

AND IT WAS AWESOME!!! For a plot summary and example of the music, watch this vid of a medly performance the original Broadway cast did on Letterman.

Fun yeah? Me and Pooey sang along with the numbers (Spuey laughed at us) -but we weren't the only ones! Oh no! Sitting in the theatre, it was MASS KARAOKE!!! Here are some more songs from a medly performance by the London cast!

(If you go to the comments, williamsethparker has written 'The BackStreet Boys ain't got shit on them! :P')

Heheheh. I figure I need to be more critical about the things I watch. Hmmmm....my main criticism I think would be the tall guy in front of me blocking the view and who kept moving his head around. Otherwise I was quite happy with the performers even though we didn't get the main lead Frankie - the use of falsetto must be quite vocally draining so they rotate it. But he was still good! Oh, the guy playing Nick's Joisey accent slipped a few times but that's negligible. Oh! I did want to know how they controlled the drum sets as they moved around the set! Probably remote controlled.

Anyway, I think Jersey Boys was worthy of all the kudos it's garnered (2006 Tony Award for Best Musical among the awards!) and if you're in a city where it's showing go out and see this show!

Sculpture of the week - Bust of Constanza Bonarelli by Bernini

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Constanza Bonarelli, 1635

Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence
(Source)

Today while recovering from the picnic, I was flipping channels and came across Simon Schama's The Power of Art, with the episode covering Bernini. I've written before about my appreciation for Bernini's work and this portrait bust was covered by Schama in being demonstrative of Berninis' artistic brilliance but incredible assholey aspects of his personality.

The wife of one of his collaborators, Costanza Bonarelli was Bernini's lover. This wonderfully intimate portrait shows Bonarelli in a moment of deshabille - her hair is loosely tied her the undone shirt exposes her breast. But everything turned to hell. Bernini suspected Costanza was also having an affair with his younger brother, Luigi, again a sculptor. In an act of incredible jealousy and violence, Bernini nearly beat his brother to death (in St. Peter's, according to Schama) and had one of his servants go to Bonarelli's house and slash her face with a razor. As the favourite of Pope Urban VIII, Bernini's 'punishment' was a fine and ordered to marry another woman. Luigi was banished to Bologna while Costanza was sent to prison for fornication.

Seeing this in real life, the piece is so alive it is almost like a photograph that has captured her in an unguarded moment as she is about to speak. He clearly felt quite a bit for her as this private piece was apparently kept in his home. After the fallout, he apparently couldn't look at it again and his wife unsurprisingly didn't want it. It was sold to the Medici Family which is how this work ended up in Florence, away from Bernini's city, Rome.

Letters to God

...so THAT'S the meaning of life!

Wow, just....wow :D

I don't profess to be an expert in politics and/or economics. To be honest, my youthful interest in both topics pretty much faded after spending a mere two weeks in the office of an accountant and the realisation that no matter how much I could agitate for change, the fact is that I live in a seat that safely always votes towards a certain political party and would require a swing of over 6% to change. That's not going to happen.

But healthcare reform has been pushed through the US House of Reps. As someone who's had a few health issues here and there (admittedly, not in a country where sixty two percent of all personal bankruptcy cases cite medical debt as a factor) and having read that John Grisham book about evil Medical Insurance companies that refuse to pay up when someone gets diagnosed with some sort of condition, I can't help thinking "That's great! Maybe something similar can be achieved here!"

Not that the state of health care here could be considered as parlous as it is/was in the US but I find it amazing that this one bill should provide health coverage for 32 million people - more than the entire population of Australia...and still doesn't cover everyone. While I understand the idea of healthcare as a universal right vs. a personal responsibility (why should my taxes pay for the fat person who eats crap and never exercises to have lap band surgery?!), the fact is anyone can get sick - even outwardly perfectly healthy, productive, and attractive young lawyers, optoms, scientists, and medical students get cancer or cancer scares. And the public system kicked in to look after us, which it may not have done in the US.

Well done on bringing in the Change.

Pique-nique sur l'herbe!

Thanks to everyone who rocked up to drink all that grenache and eat all that pasta, pate, cheese, and cupcakes in the sun with me! I hope you all had fun and don't have too much sunburn to prove it!

Now, because I was too retarded to bring a camera we didn't get that many photos. No matter here's some from Pooey!

I enjoy myself on the swings

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Pooey enjoys herself muchly

Song of the week - Bailala by Juanes

Second home

I tried to open my office this morning with my home key.

The really stupid thing is that my house key is a lot larger than my office key so it wasn't even entering the office door lock.

And I stood there for a few seconds trying to shove it in the hole while thinking *Stupid lock! What's wrong with you?!*

Ouchies?

For the last few months while I was furiously trying to finish the Phud, I did something I'm not particularly proud of....I let myself go. I can see people like Rachie-Poo rolling their eyes in disgust at my proclamation, I do. But the truth is, I essentially stopped all formal exercise for at least 3 months, while increasing my intake of chocolate and other things I could eat at my desk while trying to write. Not to mention the Christmas lunches, CNY dinners, and celebratory bowls of pasta, plates of cheese, and bottles of wine. This has all combined to produce on squishy Mallymoodle.

But now! I am hitting the gym again with a vengeance! Except one of the staples of my former fitness regime, Pilates with Glen, is no longer possible because they shifted the class to 12pm instead of 1pm
~*(>_<)*~ <-----Not happy! I have instead started going to the class that has replaced the timeslot - Fitball. This basically involves doing a bunch of cardio and strength workouts while using a Swiss Ball. I have attended two classes so far and this is what I've found out...

• Dribbling a Swiss Ball is not too difficult although it does run away from me at times.
• I have little rhythm. And I have even less when I'm trying to swivel a 55cm diameter ball to Michael Jackson's Beat It.
• My wrists don't have the strength for me to do push ups.
• My knees don't have the strength for me to do squats.
• My ankles are shot.
• But I can balance on the ball on my knees (like a seal) just fine!

I always walk out of class slightly shaking from the exercise (possibly because my joints are crying) and right now I've got slightly sore traps from various bench pressing, flies and I can't remember what else all while balanced on a ball. Lets see how this goes and whether it becomes a weekly regular as well!

Dumplings en famille

Before we went to go see the Mueck exhibition, me, Poo, Spu, and our Ma went to have lunch together. Hanging out with my family? Nuffin' wrong with that!

We had lunch at Hutong Dumpling. Where we had dumplings.

Me and Ma

Poo and Spu think hard...

Ma is happy to see the food while something distracts me on my phone.

Boiled pork dumplings

Chili wontons! Eat them!!!

The Zhajiang mian (or as Pooey calls them, Chinese spag bol).

Ohai, xiaolong bao!

Not so distracted now!!!

All happy after eating!

Unforch, since I have gained 3kgs over the time I spent writing the Phud, this may be my last pig out for a while :(. Well...we'll see if I can hold the diet during the week so weekends will be free for more of this kind of eating *thumbs up*!

To cap off lunch, we decided to buy Spu a red bean and ice-cream fish.

He enjoyed it very much.

*BONUS* As we made it down to the gallery, I finally got to recreate that pic of me sitting on Warin the Wombat!

Sculpture of the week - Youth by Ron Mueck

Ron Mueck, Youth, 2009

Anthony d'Offay, London
(Source)

Today, Pooey, Spuey, and I went to the NGV for the Ron Mueck exhibition. Youth is a new work that has not been publicly displayed before. This miniature work shows a young man's examination of a stabbing wound and his moment of disbelief at the realisation that he has been stabbed.

The work highlights two main things. Firstly, how amazing Mueck's work is through his attention detail and modelling. From the texture of Youth's hair (all the sculptures had amazing hair!) to his low-riding Levi jeans, we all have a moment of *WOW!* when we look at the work.

Secondly, his expression invites us to think about narrative. Although he's a lone figure, you've got to wonder (as he clearly does) exactly what has happened for him to have actually acquired the wound...and if you have one of your own.

Or maybe that's just us.

I have a type...

Muchos, muchos gracias et merci beaucoup to Sarebear for finding this hottie, Alexander Lundqvist. I do agree, he is a hottie! Dark hair, looks good in glasses - exactly my type!

(All photos stolen from Sarebear's blog)

I think he's got a bit of a Montgomery Clift thing going on. According to Wikipedia, he's also a professional paintballer - that just makes him hotter!

Movie review - Alice in Wonderland

First things first...Tim Burton's Alice is not a re-telling of Lewis Carrol's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or even Through the Looking Glass. It combines elements of both, but is instead a expansion of the two stories whereby a 19 year old Alice (rather than the 7 year old child) runs away from the *real* world where she is expected to marry a horrid aristocrat, instead returning to Underland (Wonderland) where she is supposed to fulfill her destiny in ending the reign of the Red Queen (of Hearts).

First things first, I don't think Alice is as bad as some reviews appear to be making out. The visuals of this movie are great and the short running time of 108 minutes meant that I didn't develop Avatar-esque impatience when the *gee whizz!* feeling of the 3D visuals wore off. The acting is a bit patchy - the voice acting from Alan Rickman (the Caterpillar) and Stephen Fry (the Cheshire Cat) is particularly good while Helena Bonham-Carter is highly amusing as the bratty Red Queen. Not so good is Anne Hathaway whose floaty gestures and pouting worried face annoyed me no end, while I don't understand why Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter slipped in and out of a Scottish accent. *shrug*

The plot I found to be both overly simplisted and convoluted at the same time. Alice is supposed to depose the Red Queen by killing Jabberwocky, but there are other challenges in the form of figuring out if she is the right Alice and then self-belief issues. I suppose this may be partly due to books being a sequence of events rather than plot-driven so they need to put a plot in to explain what's going on to fit with *reimaging.* The loss of certain elements that people would expect (expanding and shrinking, run ins with the Caterpillar, Cat, Tweedles, and Tea Party etc) would probably irritate audiences. There was one thing that made me particularly go a bit *er......* The movie concludes with Alice regaining her independence and maturity by deciding to be one of the first people to open trade between Britain and China...but that had been happening since the 18th century, far earlier than the late Victorian Era shown here.

Anyway, overall, it's okay. Probably helped that I'd read a lot of bad reviews before watching so perhaps try not to expect too much and all will be enjoyable!
7/10

Lining up for the gallery in C-town.

Lydia and I ventured off to C-town to catch up with some friends but principally to see the Post-Impressionist exhibition at the NGA. For some reason, a lot of people considered this an amazing extravagance and asked me whether it was worth it. My immediate answer when asked this post-viewing was an unequivocal *No*. Now before you think the exhibition was a load of crap, let me explain why.

Firstly, I was a bit hesitant about going to the exhibition given that I've been to the Musee d'Orsay 3 times (in 2004, 2007, and 2008). I also went to the Impressionist exhibition that hit Melb in 2004. These recent viewings meant that I was pretty sure I was going to see things I'd already seen 4 times. I did. That's not to say it's not a good exhibition - merely that I was quite familiar with them already and unfortunately few of them make me say *Wow!* every time.

Sargent's La Carmencita is a clear exception to the rule.

This however brings me to the second point. Even if I was not so familiar with the Musee d'Orsay, I may have felt what dancinghula believed - specifically that while there were paintings from 'Name' artists (Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat etc), but that they were primarily 'secondary' works. She pointed out that while there were many studies for major works, the major works themselves were missing. I'm not so fussed about that, but I guess if you're expecting Seurat's The Circus, and the reality is you get a preliminary study, that might be upsetting.

Finally, the thing that really annoyed me. To get into the exhibition, we had to line up for two hours. This was despite pre-booking our tickets. Hell, I don't even wait that long to get into the real gallery! This waiting time is akin to getting into something like the Uffizi - and that's a 400 year old building that has to restrict the number of people inside.

Our position in the queue

We've moved further up and here are some people behind us

The queue doubling back along the block.

It is quite possible that if we didn't have to wait that long to enter, I would be more forgiving. However, as it stands, we spent more time in the queue than in the exhibition, and having been on our feet in a crowd for approximately 3.5 hours (without toilet breaks), we were in no condition to actually look at the other works in the NGA other than the Ned Kelly series. The odd thing is, having visited on other occasions, it's usually quite empty! I guess they must make their budget back somehow.

I was assured that the waiting time is an anomaly due to the lateness at which we were able to organise our trip. This is quite likely. However this may be considered a caveat for future visitors. Or maybe not. Oh well. It was still good to catch up with dancinghula, Lymbo (but I didn't get to meet sleep Pan-danny), the Bedouin, H, and Punz. Sorry to all the C-towners that I wasn't able to squeeze in!

And so to end, here's a tourist pic of Lydia outside Parliament House!

Painting of the week - Starry night over the Rhone by Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone, 1888-9

Musee d'Orsay, Paris
(Source)

This week's painting is one that I'll be seeing in C-town at the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition. The Musee d'Orsay is currently undergoing renovations and so they've sent out some of their works to various museums while they slap some paint around.

Van Gogh as an artist is much like Botticelli to me. The bright colours and bold lines appealed to my youthful appreciation of art. As I got older and became more interested in the socio-political themes that underlie the creation of work, they appealed less. When I got to uni and the discussion of reading the artist's personality through their output and the artist as a misunderstood genius - the idea that it is necessary and acceptable for 'true' artists to be dysfunctional, I was repelled. (No it is not okay to act weird and then just wave your hand and say it's because you philistines don't understand my 'work' - this is what's wrong with post-modern/conceptual crap.)

It is very widely documented that Van Gogh was somewhat psychologically disturbed and misunderstood by his contemporaries and peers. I may be wrong, but I think he only ever sold one painting while alive and constantly begged his brother Theo for money. He attempted to start an artists colony in Arles but ended up having an argument with Paul Gauguin, famously cutting off his ear afterwards. He had himself admitted to an asylum, and then committed suicide. All his fractured psyche is allegedly portrayed in his works, via the multiple self-portraits and the the broken stroke technique.

OR IS IT?!

Van Gogh admired the 17th century master and another Dutch artist, Rembrandt, the Rembrandt who painted multiple self-portraits and had a technique which involved piling the paint on thickly (impasto). Van Gogh had little formal training as an artist and the thick wet-on-wet impasto technique is very forgiving of mistakes. Also, his technique has been proposed by some as a possible reason why he was so poor - he ran through his paints quickly. The relatively recent production of ready-made oil paints in tubes liberated artists from their studios, allowing artists to paint outdoors (en plein air). However, by painting outdoors, artists were not able to let their paints dry as thoroughly before applying a different colour, meaning that they often had to apply paint through quick broad brushstrokes and do the finer work inside. While he undoubtedly had psychiatric problems, it probably didn't help that the cadmium yellow colour that Van Gogh was so fond of was produced with mercuric chloride. Mercuric chloride is a toxic compound with both acute and chronic effects on the central nervous system (bless those MSDS forms!).

Anyway, having said all of that, Starry Night is quite a pretty picture which I do not believe to be demonstrative of the oppressive burdens of his mind and persecution from society.

Huh.

Late last night, I decided I needed some casual runner shoes. Well that's not entirely true, I had decided I needed them earlier in the week when I was looking for some slip on shoes that would adequately support my right leg (cramped from all that sectioning on Tuesday) and missed my old Le Coqs and the Golas. I decided to get some Lacoste flats but Pooey told me to wait because she's going back to Meldon and suggested that I instead visit her place of work and get some Dunlop Volleys because they're on special.

SOLD!

Because I'm flying to C-town later today and figure they might be handy there, I decided the best course of action would be to get up early and go with Pooey to her work. By 9:30, I had the shoes plus some other things . I was now stuck in the quandary of how to get home. I decided the best way was to take a bus that I'd hadn't taken since my early university years (as opposed to my more recent ones). The route has been amalgamated into a circle route across the city so I asked the driver whether it was possible to buy a ticket for the short leg I wanted to travel. "No, the ticket for that is the Zone 2 ticket valid for two hours." As my only choice, I purchased the ticket, got my change, and sat on down. Then I actually looked at the ticket and realised he'd given me a concession fare. :O A fare which is only valid for people showing appropriate ID which I was not asked for, or people under the age of 15.

Okay, my hair was down, I was wearing no makeup and was wearing a cotton dress...but I'm pretty sure I've passed that stage given that bottleshops and some bars and clubs have stopped asking me for ID. Or he just assumed I had a student concession. Or I have found the fountain of youth!!!

Post-PhD life

I have spent almost the entire week without having to worry about getting my thesis in. So what is life like without the thesis hanging over my head like a sword of Damocles?

On the first day (Thursday), I felt tired as hell. This might have been related to the drinking I did throughout the day.

I was feeling much more energised on Friday to Sunday but that may have been due to the exponentially higher number of hours sleep I was getting - no more stress-induced insomnia!!! Yay!!!

On Monday I had to wake up at as normal again to get to work. It was okay - mindless tech-work in Zoology, going through the lab maintenance and reagent ordering. Then I went home and asked Pooey what day it was because I was already losing track of what day it was.

Tuesday I was required to cut 8 frozen lungs in less than 7 hours. Then I went home and asked Pooey what day it was again.

Back to Zoology where I practiced sectioning and staining embryos. At one point during my time in the lab, one of the students came in and said, "What are you still doing here? Stop working so hard! The last tech here didn't work that hard - be like him!" I was so absorbed in my work that I realised I was working more than my allocated time!!! Shocker. In fact, I was working myself so hard, I turned up late to a FREE barbecue!!!

Today, I was in Zoology again writing them a Standard Operating Manual from scratch now that I'd revised how to used the machines and their staining protocol the day before. I was googling various recipes but reached the end of my allocated time in the lab. I thought to myself as I was packing up, *No worries, I'll just write it when I'm at home.* And then I stopped myself short and realised that, no, although they are paying me to do this, they don't pay me THAT much and I'm not obliged to continue doing my work work as home work!

And then I was slightly appalled that I was so used to working so hard that I was voluntarily making myself work hard. I need to re-learn how to relax!

Movie review - Ponyo

I've been trying to write this review for a few days now but I've really been struggling with it.The latest release from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli is a modern riff on the Little Mermaid fairytale.

A daughter of some sort of....fish king and goddess of the sea, Ponyo is a little goldfish who while watching her dad do...something...she decides to go up to look at the surface. While in the regions of the continental shelf, Ponyo gets initially trapped by a fishing trawler net and then more seriously, in a jar. Unable to swim, she washes up on a beach and nearly dies until Sosuke, a 5 year old boy, finds and saves her. He decides he keep her - a feeling mutually shared by Ponyo. He takes her to kindergarten and also shows her to some women at an old folks home where his mother works. In the process of hiding Ponyo from his classmates, Ponyo's father sends a giant wave that sweeps her back to sea and Sosuke is devastated. However, Ponyo has decided she wants to be human and will do anything to get back to him.

The cel animation is amazing - the underwater scenes are particularly incredible when you realise that all the thousands of sea creatures and light effects were hand drawn! No CGI manipulation going on here! The story is quite a sweet albeit incredibly simple - another amor vincit omnia (love conquers all) with cute kids who simply gel together and can't be kept apart. In fact most of the characters are nice people although there is the odd cranky old woman and bratty kid. And it all comes together with the lesson that we should all learn and accept.

So why have I had such a difficult time writing this? Well part of me thinks I should really love this film. It's a Miyazaki film and he has done some stuff that I love (Totoro, Spirited Away) and Ponyo has got all the elements of a Studio Ghibli movie - gorgeous looking, childhood heroes, it's also part riff on environmentalism. But on the other hand, he's done stuff that I hated, specifically Howl's Moving Castle - the story felt somewhat superficial, probably due to the little character development (okay, difficult to do when your lead characters are only 5), and an extremely abrupt ending. In fact, I thought the thing that interested me the most was going to be the conclusion for the film - Ponyo's dad says he used to be human and turned his back on the world...but it was never addressed again!

Not bad enough that I would tell people not to watch it, but I had difficulty maintaining my attention for the scant 101 minutes of its running time. In fact, I did at times find myself pausing the movie to see what else was going on in my house. This is not a good thing. However too many people have said they loved it so maybe I'm missing some integral element to make me rave about it more.
5-6/10