A visit from Uncle Vandepoon

I was visited for the second time in a year by Uncle Vandepoon who brought gifts from the Vandepoons themselves - thanks guys! After recovering from jet lag, it was suggested that we go out to celebrate my getting a year older and that we should go somewhere nice.


Nice?! Usually when I go out to dinner in Munich, it's to a biergarten, bierhall, or somewhere that has large servings (hi Trung!). In the end, Blackie recommended going to Schuhbeck's Orlando, saying that he went there with his mother and sister and that it was surprisingly cheap! 


 Located in the same square as the Hofbrauhaus (heh), it was pretty good, and it was cheaper than expected! We shared a bottle of wine and a bottle of water (that cost about the same as a litre of bier) a salad with calamari, and each had a place of truffled linguine. 

The linguine. Seriously good - that foam tasted like truffles! It was exactly my type of comfort food - I might actually consider coming back to eat it whenever I'm having a crappy day!

Cheers/Prost!

Thanks to Uncle Vandepoon for dinner, and a recommendation for visitors that if they're looking for a not too expensive gourmet dish, this is it!

Movie review - The Dictator

Located in North Africa, Wadiya is governed by the eponymous dictator, Admiral General Hafez Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen). He rules his country with an iron fist, executes anyone who slightly displeases him, sleeps which any celebrity he wants, and does whatever he wants. But revolution is brewing - his uncle and right hand man, Tamir (Ben Kinglsey  - master of the paycheque movie role), is plotting to replace Aladeen with a lookalike to bring democracy to Wadiya and sell the Wadiyan oil reserves. 

Apparently based on a story written by Saddam Hussein, like many other Baron Cohen movies, the laughs are politically incorrect, very cheap, and come flying thick and fast. Unlike his other movies, this seems pretty scripted and has actors in defined roles. This is good because the humour is less-cringe inducing and less reliant on ambushing as seen in his other movies (e.g. Borat). However the use of a script is also a slight negative because some of it gets a bit heavy-handed, particularly the speech at the UN which has been clearly scripted to show that the US acts more like a dictatorship than democracy.  

I don't know, on one hand I really enjoyed this but on the other, I did feel kind of disappointed. Not because of the heavy reliance on non-pc humour - I like to poke fun at people who only eat organic as much as the next person! - but, I don't know! I think it's partly because the movie definitely shows how Baron Cohen understands politics and the way people like to think various political and social things in a *good* vs. *bad* way, but showing that message is heavily reliant on saying and showing things in the cheapest way possible. 

Dedicated in loving memory to Kim Jong Il, The Dictator is funny, possibly not as funny as Borat, still good for laugh out loud moments.
5-6/10

Status symbol

Ruben got me a (really nice) fountain pen for my birthday with the cheeky comment that since my title is *Dr.*, I must have some pretty important documents to sign. He was right (I'm expecting a call to extend my contract any day now) but it was also quite amusing given that this article about the apparent comeback of the fountain pen was published on my birthday. Fountain pens are apparently a sign of taking things seriously, a solid link to the past, and a niche luxury item.  

 Like a boss.

Testing it out. 

So how is it? Does it feel like a step into the past? Is it an affectation or a reconnect with a more personal time? One thing is for sure, I need to improve my handwriting and be careful with smearing! (I'm left handed.) But now I have something I can use to write those thank-you notes!

Movie review - Dark Shadows

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is cursed by his servant and witch, Angelique (Eva Green), after he spurs her love and instead falls for Josette (Bella Heathcote). Imprisoned by a raging mob, Collins is awakened 200 years later in 1972 just as the Collins family fortunes are waning and they are joined by a new governess who looks like Josette reincarnated. But Angelique is still hanging around...


DS is based on a daytime soap of which I've never heard of. To be honest, I'm not sure if my lack of knowledge means I didn't enjoy the movie completely (if anything, reading the reviews on imdb indicates that being a fan of the series would have made me hate the film), but I walked out feeling underwhelmed. After a promising start explaining Barnabas' backstory, once it moves to the 70s, I felt the movie got a bit confused as to whether it was meant to be a horror, a comedy, a fish-out-of-water, a romance, or a nostalgia piece, and end up being none. Time is devoted to all these different storylines of various characters' interactions with Banabas that it ends up concentrating really on none. Ele, Ruben, and I all walked out feeling unsatisfied and noted that despite a running time of 112 minutes, the movie felt long and that it was going nowhere. 


Having said that, the performances are pretty good but the real standout is, as with Burton's other films, the production design. The sets, the costumes, the colours, everything looks gorgeous, and even as a blonde Eva Green, member of my female box of hotties, would not be kicked out for changing her hair colour. 

Yep. (Source)

Also, Michelle Pfeiffer - still lookin' good!


I just wish they'd put the same amount of attention that they paid into how it looked was given to writing the story.


Good to look at but otherwise...meh.
4-5/10

omgomgomgomgomgomg!!!!

The trailer for Skyfall, the next James Bond movie is out....

AND IT LOOKS #@$!%ing AWESOME!!!

After I saw this, I immediately emailed The Pom and we spent a few moments synchronising our squeals across continents!

Champions League 2012

To be honest, despite my enjoyment of football/soccer, I never really paid much attention to the Bundesliga. Probably because it didn't receive a great deal of coverage in Australia compared to the Premier League or Serie A. This of course has changed since I moved to Munich. Now, it's really hard not to get swept into the fervour of Bayern Muenchen - especially since they made the UEFA Champions League Final - TO BE PLAYED AT THEIR HOME GROUND OF THE ALLIANZ ARENA!!! There was a feeling of fait accompli in the days leading up to the match and even I was going around saying MIA SAN MIA!!! which is Bavarian for *We are we/us* - basically the team motto. I've been indoctrinated. I'm one of them now. 

The massive presence of the various fans in the Chinesischer Turm biergarten. Longest queue I've ever seen! Also, there was a wedding going on which everyone cheered. What kind of people schedule their wedding on the day of the final in their home city?!?!



The Chelsea supporters' Tiny quarter

Of course, FCBayern lost in the most horrible way imaginable after thoroughly dominating the match. And truly, I have never felt a city just....deflate...it was pretty horrible to be a part of and even worse to watch. I nearly started to cry! And I have never seen so many people crying on the u-bahn before and hopefully never will again! 

Crying like these guys. Maybe they were tired and emotional though, people had been drinking since 9am even though kickoff was nearly 12 hours later.

So having lost all three trophies they were up for this year, it was depressing times all around. Ah well, there's always next year.


Also, happy birthday to my husband Iker who posted a pic on facebook of him swimming with dolphins to celebrate instead of commiserating with me. He was probably glad that the team which knocked him out didn't win.

Movie review - American Reunion (American Pie 4)

13 years after the movie that heralded a new age of the teen-gross out/sex comedy, pretty much all of the original cast of American Pie have reunited for their 10 year high school reunion in American Reunion. (Amusingly enough, one of the characters does comment on the fact that it is 13 years since school, as opposed to 10.) And with this juxtapositioning of teen nostalgia with the reality of adult life, we see the characters struggling with their identities within their relationship (Jim & Michelle - Jason Biggs & Alyson Hannigan), angst about past relationships - Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) for Vicky (Tara Reid)  Oz (Chris Klein) regarding Heather (Mena Suvari), and wondering about how life didn't turn out the way they thought it would - Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Stifler (Seann William Scott). 


So then, what does this mean? Is it still a gross-out comedy or a (semi-serious) look at growing up? To be honest, it's both - but you'll probably only care if you enjoyed the first movie to understand what's going on. Much of the humour stems from situations are in the act of being responsible when a situation spirals out of control (e.g. Jim and the girl he used to babysit), trying to come to terms with their lives since school, or Stifler trying to show that he's still cool. Luckily, the writers do show that Stifler's attempts to retain his perception of cool is pathetic and he does eventually exhibit growth. 


With Biggs and Scott as the executive producers, I think everyone who had a speaking part in the first movie is back - from the MILF guys to the Sherminator. This was pretty amusing for me because I recognise that much of the cast hasn't been in anything of note for a while (*cough Natasha Lyonne, Shannon Elizabeth), but it really felt nice - like a reunion! Certainly it felt better than my own high school reunion!


Anyway, I enjoyed it but it is probably for fans of the original only.
6/10

FATALITY!!!

I wish I could do this!

St. Gallen & Lindau

Bodensee, also known by its English name of Lake Constance, is bordered by three different countries - Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A bunch of friends and I decided to visit two towns on the lake, St. Gallen on the Swiss side and Lindau on the Bavarian side.

I had actually gone to a party the night before our (very) early train to Lindau and therefore spent most of the ride konked out. But I did manage to wake up long enough to see this sight of the lake. 

Gruess Gott!

It was decided that since it's more difficult to get back to Munich from another country, we went first to St. Gallen. The city is quite small and cute, the main attraction being the UNESCO heritage listed baroque Abbey of St. Gall, located in what I was told is a highly impressive old town. 

Having said that, one of the first things we saw after leaving the Hauptbahnhof was this super modern red square. 

There's also this super-cute bear!

But a few streets later, we were pretty much in what seemed like the main square of the old town.

Buildings of various ages side by side

A lot of the buildings had some nice architectural touches, such as the carvings around this window.

There's a sculpture of a guy holding up that turret!

St. Gallen was founded by the Irish monk Gallus, about whom I'd never heard of before coming here. He built a hermitage in the area and his main legend is about how he taught a bear to fetch wood for him! That's a pretty cool skill in my opinon! The abbey was founded about a century after his death.

But they've rebuilt the hermitage in the abbey courtyard just in case you were wondering what it might have looked like!

Although I'm going to guess that it wasn't as comfy as this.

Seriously, I think this looks like a pretty cool cubby!

Things that are not allowed in the courtyard include drug users and homeless people - not very charitable!

Doing some Asian poses in the courtyard

And the jetstar jump.

 We also witnessed some sort of procession, complete with mediaeval garb

Which Thiago decided to join

The main attractions of St. Gallen are the cathedral and the abbey library. The library itself is particularly nice to look and in such precious condition that not only is photography not allowed, but you have to wear special felt slippers over your own shoes when entering! I'm sure that's a good thing to protect the antique floor but it made shuffling and sliding around the library a bit precarious at times! It could have done some damage to the books and shelves!

The baroque interior of the cathedral - lovely!

Great troemp l'oeil ceiling

As a side story, I'd just like to have a word about our lunch in St. Gallen. Being in the German part of the Switzerland and quite Catholic to boot, pretty much everything was closed. We decided that we should eat somewhere that was open and fast, meaning that we ended up in McDonalds. Although I can now add a seventh country in which I've eaten Maccas, Switzerland is without a doubt THE MOST EXPENSIVE. I believe I paid the equivalent of €10 for a small meal! 

Anyway, after lunch we made it back to Lindau. The weather had also slightly cleared up and it was pretty sunny!

Which made looking out over the lake harbour pretty nice! The harbour is guarded by a lighthouse and a statue of the Bavarian lion

And I was a normal tourist for once

There were quite a few people out on the lake side...

Listening to the oompa band...

Including this sproggie!

I think his owner was telling me his name was Wolfgang. He certainly looked like a little wolf!

I also decided it was time to go to a cafe and get some real spaghetti eis!

(Hi Mischka! It was awesome!)

Looking back towards the harbour from the lion

It was a pretty pleasant Spring day and the flowers and blossoms were out in force

Lindau also has an impressively cute old town which which we explored.

The Altes Rathaus of Lindau. Schoen!

A Chagall exhibition was going on in the Stadtmuseum

An evil witch has a princess imprisoned in this tower

Hey, that slide looks like an elephant!

Anyway, it was a pretty nice (if somewhat tiring) day. Trips to Lindau are on the Bayern Ticket (Best. Deal. Ever) and take about 3.5 hours, St. Gallen is about another 45 mins from Lindau and is part of the Schengen (non-passport) zone. 

Awww....

From http://www.snotm.com/2010/06/blog-post.html
Best comment from the original post? "Where the hell is my Prince Charming who will treat me like a whore?" by Delphine!

Movie review - The Avengers

Following the events of Thor, when it became apparent that there were other beings who might harm Earth, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been secretly assembling a team of superheroes who might defend our planet - aka, The Avengers Project!!! The team is hastily assembled when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steals the Tesseract, a source of power - which can be PURE EVIL in the wrong hands! In order of appearance, the Avengers consists of  Hawkeye/Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johanssen), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), and Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who are then joined by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who feels bad that his adopted brother is now trying to destroy the World....


When I got to work the day after watching this, I was asked for my thoughts. I replied, "ES WAR SUPER ECHT TOLL, JA!!! (It was super really great, yeah!)" Now, I haven't seen all the other Marvel movies related to these characters but director/writer Joss Whedon (yes, the guy who brought us Buffy and Toy Story) gives enough background and star-time to each character that you get enough of their backstory that watching the others (as far as I can tell) is not necessary. Whether it be friendly or antagonistic, every character interacts naturally, no doubt due to the great performances from each of the actors. Even though the absolute star with the best lines is without a doubt RDJ, the others display great timing and comic ability. I was particularly amused when a character who is potentially as humourless as Thor, when told of his brother's destructive rampage through Stuttgart, can come back with the witty rejoinder, "He's adopted." Gold. 


But the best thing about this movie? It is pure fun. A hefty running time of 143 minutes didn't feel that long to me with great pacing between exposition, action, and humour. It's got enough service for the fanboys with various character match ups (which is stronger? Thor's  hammer or Capt. America's shield?!), funny moments that seem to come out of nowhere (you'll know them when you see them), and a high perve factor. Sure, ScarJo is there for the guys, but I was amazed the size of the chests from the males while a comment from a male co-audience member indicated that he was thinking the same thing about their arms!


Anyway, go watch this. I'm eagerly hanging out for the sequel!
It's a solid...
8-9/10

So true

This looks somewhat photoshopped but still...

Euro 2012 is Coming...

Cue the nationality-themed yoghurt tubs!

I think my favourite of the three was the German flavour - a sign of the tournament to come?!

Movie review - La délicatesse/Delicacy/Nathalie kuesst

Ele and I decided to have a date night and for this, we decided to watch the French movie  La délicatesse/Delicacy/Nathalie kuesst in French with deutsch untertiteln. Described in reviews as a romantic comedy...there are romantic elements and comical elements but if you think of romantic comedies as gross-outs or something like Crazy, Stupid, Love, you're going to be disappointed. 


François (Pio Marmai) is sitting in a cafe one day when Nathalie (Audrey Tautou) walks in and he immediately recognises from her order that they are soulmates (awwwww!!!!). They quickly get married and build a beautiful and fun life together, which comes crashing down when François is hit by a car while out jogging (this is not a spoiler!). From here, Nathalie goes through the motions of life until one day, three years or so later, she impulsively kisses co-worker Markus (François Damiens). Overweight, balding, badly dressed, socially awkward, and her subordinate at work, Markus is essentially the complete opposite of Nathalie and François. The movie follows as Nathalie not only struggles with moving on, but with Markus' insecurity who is perceived as so far her inferior by both himself and her friends. 


Quietly affecting, we see how moving on from grief is an individual thing. No one around Nathalie really understands why she shuts down - even her parents and in-laws encourage to move on, and worse, most people around her don't accept whom she has chosen to move on with. She could have moved on with someone as physically attractive as herself (we see her boss constantly hitting on her throughout the film), when what she really wants and needs is someone who was as kind and thoughtful as François.  

And because Markus is such a physical schlumpf in comparison to François, this is what makes the movie work. Pretty much all of the laugh-out-loud moments are at his expense - from his reaction during and immediately after the kiss, to the incredibly awkward things he says and does for Nathalie. He knows people look at him and don't understand why she's with him, but he shows through his actions (e.g. the gift following a conversation), that he is the right guy for her. 


Sweet in a sad way, La délicatesse/Nathalie kuesst, is a whimsical look at love and how it doesn't always pan out the way we (and the people watching us) think.
6/10

I hate the new blogger interface

For a while, google/blogger has been threatening me with saying I should switch to the new interface. I didn't switch, mostly out of laziness (same thing with facebook timeline). But this week, I was switched over to the new interface to my great distaste. But before I say why I hate the new interface, lets have a look at the old one.

So what's good about it (in my opinion)? Giant tabs for navigation, huge clear fonts, large contrasting buttons, and everything close together. Many people, such as myself, are very lazy. Make it obvious, make it clear, and we're happy. I start at the top by writing my title, write my text, put in the labels, adjust the publishing date if necessary, and then publish.

The new interface looks like this: 

My first thought when seeing this was *wtf, I can't see anything*. My next thought was *where do I find my labels/date adjustment/look at my other drafts?!?!* I'm guessing this was an attempt to make everything look centred and streamlined but instead I'm often trying to remember which drop-down menu I'm supposed to click in order to see the other drafts I have going. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!

S-bahn schatzi....

I saw this total hottie on the S-bahn and had to photograph him to share with everyone!!!

Mmmm, you can't see his eyes but he had a bit of a Paul Walker vibe going on.

Unfortunately, I think he knew I was taking a photo because the flash went off. Whoops ¬¬. Bless you hottie for brightening up my life here!!!

Where has the year gone?!?!

Crap, I can't believe it's already May!!!