Movie review - Twice Upon A Time

For this year's French Film Festival, Lydia, Cam and I went to watch Désaccord parfait/Twice Upon A Time. At first we were going to watch My Best Friend/Mon Meilleur Ami with Daniel Auteuil but Lydia read the programme wrong and we ended up with this one instead.

French director Louis Ruinard (Jean Rochefort) and English actress Alice d'Abanville (the always beautiful Charlotte Rampling) were a celebrity power couple of the 70s...kind of like Roger Vadim and Brigette Bardot/Catherine Deneuve/Jane Fonda in the 50s/60s/70s...but everything came to a screeching halt when Alice walked out and married Lord Evelyn Gaylord (Ian Richardson, R.I.P.). The movie starts up 30 years later when some British film institute wishes to award Louis a lifetime achievement award and they want Alice to present it to him. Sparks and verbal barbs fly whenever the two meet and slowly Louis comes to understand why Alice left, while she begins to realise that maybe she never stopped loving him.

I can't think of a description for this movie other than pleasant. It didn't blow me away - the story is pretty predictable and almost everyone apart from Rochefort and Isabelle Nanty was an English person speaking French. That was great for me because it often meant that it was spoken slowly enough for me to pick out if the subtitles were wrong, but it made me feel kind of ripped off as if the movie wasn't really 'French'. However, there were enough humourous parts that made me laugh out loud - it was great seeing Rochefort and Rampling spark off each other! And of course, the romantic in me liked watching two old people fall in love again. There was a bit of fear that, this being a French movie, we'd have to see Old People Having Sex, which we did, but the whole thing was very well done.

Script, sets, casts...everything was fine as far as I cared. Rampling and Rochefort had great chemistry and Richardson was a kindly husband who knows he was married out of spite (but understands), although it did feature one of the oldest looking 30 year olds I have ever seen (James Thiérrée) as Alice and Gaylord's son, Paul. My greatest complaint is that when the time came for the happily ever after, things just kidn of came to an abrupt halt. Oh well, can't win them all.

6.5/10

As a side note, I also found it amusing that this famous shot of Rampling by Helmut Newton played such a prominent part in this movie. Just a reminder of what an awesome babe she was (and some may say, still is!).

The End....maybe

Today's calcium loading attempt didn't work. They pretty much haven't worked since this entry back in November. Four months worth of rats died.

Today, we decided to stop killing rats to do experiments that don't work. Instead I am going to kill rats to culture their cells and do the same experiment in culture rather than whole tissue preparations.

The Kill

Yesterday, Yetapee and I killed 26 rats and took their eyes. My summary of the experience?

I think I am better at dissections, but I'll be even better if someone pops the eyes out for me.
I am thankful we didn't have to cut off their heads to collect the blood.
I am glad I wore comfy shoes.
26 adult rats are really heavy.

Hopefully I'll write something more joyous soon!

*Updated Edit*
I got disrespected by a student in tute/prac today!
In answer to my picking him at random to write up the answer to a question on the board, he said:
"Sorry honey, I didn't do the homework."
WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

Back on the bike!

Literally!

After falling off it and then discovering the brakes were loose, due to my crappy ability in bike management, the thing had been sitting in the garage since then. Had the brilliant idea of getting Yetapee to take a look at how to fix it on Wednesday whereupon we found that the guy who helped put the bike back together had done it wrong and the brakes needed to be tightened.

I finally went out on another ride today but since it had been sitting around for two months, it made this horrid screeching sound when I was riding. Now I need to figure out how to oil it and get the tired pumped.

IT'S (ALMOST) OFFICIAL!!!

I'm heading to London for the European Glia Conference and then taking the next few weeks off to hang around Paris and Rome again :D.

I haven't booked tickets yet but I have an exit date! Yay!

Two days later...

I still have general soreness as if I were doing some hardcore weightlifting (and given I was on the bottom usually, I guess it is a form of that!). But here are some photos of the matching bruises on my arms.
They have been met with mixed emotions. There is one group who believe that BJJ is the perfect outlet for my violent tendencies, another who think that I should stop immediately, and yet another who want me to continue because they either like the idea of a couple of girls wrestling, or they want to poke the bruises (Hi Cam!).

I think I'll decide next class - if the bruises aren't sufficiently healed, I'll ask the others their opinion. I must say that I dont like the idea of one activity completely knocking out my ability to go to the gym :(

Good gourd, I hurt!

As part of my quest to stick to my resolutions (the drinking one is going strong, the being nice one...less so), I finally decided to start learning something new - Brazilian jujutsu.

In hindsight, I probably should have checked out that link first because I thought I was doing normal jujutsu! As a description if you can't be bothered clicking the links, normal jujutsu involves stuff like joint-locking and blocks. In today's class, we basically started off sitting on each other, trying to throw them off, and then rolling them to make them submit. As someone who weighs about 55kg, I was thrown around a lot. We then had a period of free-sparring where we had to attack each other.

I was matched against a girl, Lisa, who wasn't very large, but still topped me by about 6kg and had a year of judo experience. She stated that she didn't like attacking so there were periods where we were circling each other cos I knew she could take me. This was interspersed with periods of furious grappling and me erupting into laughter whenever I found myself pinned (which was often). I seriously cannot remember the last time (if ever) I had ever spent trying to fight someone while rolling on the ground. This is what I get for trying to be a lady for the last 15 years - someone sitting on top of me and me being unable to kick them off.

I was going to put some photos of my bruises up for this blog, but I spent the last hour lying in a bath of Epsom Salts trying to soothe my various aches and pains. They haven't come out yet, but when they do, they will be spectacular! Lisa said after the class she wished she bruised as easily as me. Other injuries include a knee to the head (but its ok now!), my left knee looks like it's swelling a bit, while my right elbow is skinned.

I have no idea how I'm supposed to do normal gym training tomorrow.

R.I.P. Fishy I

About a year or so ago, Mum came home with a pair of goldfish. She couldn't explain her seemingly random act and we kids didn't question it too much. The fish lived in their little bowl in the lounge room and the world kept turning.

I sadly report that one of them died today. For a pair of fish whom we never even really bothered to name, I was quite horrified when Spuey informed me that one of the fish died. In an act Spuey described as being illustrative of the somewhat haphazard way we grew up, Mum couldn't remember the last time she changed their water and apparently Fishy I either died in the putrid water or died while it was being changed. Either way, Fishy II is now the only inhabitant of the bowl.


Rest in peace, Fishy I. Enjoy your time in the big pond in the sky!

At uni on a Sunday morning :(

I'm just procrastinating right now - I should be starting up an immuno, one to finish today, one to finish tomorrow...but after spending my first hour here looking after the ratties, I just want a rest.

As a rundown of what I've been up to these past few days; it has involved a lot of going out, being out, but not drinking much. Yay, I've managed to stick to my resolution (so far) :).

Thursday night, Jess is back in town for a fortnight and so a bunch of us girls met up at Madame Brussels for drinkies and then off to ajisen ramen for dins. I had *omurice* which looked intriguing on the menu - it turned out to be tomato fried rice rolled up in an omelette with more tomato sauce. It was actually quite tasty.

Friday, after making it to work drinks and then walking everyone down to PA's, it was off to Docklands for dinner with Nance, Marcus, Rachie and Clint at Berth. I had the marinara - also tasty! I had a chilling preview of my life to come as the conversation had a lot to do with marriage and children *brrrr*! Things then took a different turn as Jess had expressed her wish on Thurs that we go back to Lavish "for old time's sake". Seeing as I was in the general vicinity, I decided that honouring her wish wouldn't be too onerous...well...no more than usual to get into Lavish. It was as I have always remembered it - the crowd was young, the place was too full, police were present at some point in time, my feet started hurting, and we finished the night with kebabs!

I was meant to have my first Brazillian jujutsu lesson with James at uni the next morning, but he had a tire puncture so I got to sleep in! I later rocked up about an hour late for the BBQ to say goodbye to Marta who has finished her term with us and is flying back tonight :(. But seeing as it was her last night, we decided to have one last go, and so after a few hours for a refractory period, we ended up at CQ until the wee hours of the morning.

Hence, my need to procrastinate - I'm just worn out from the last few days.

Sydney - Part III

I was still crippled after waking up on Sunday morning, so I slipped on a pair of flats and stumbled out to meet Cousin Alix for lunch. We ended up going to Bill Granger's bills in Surry Hills. It was pretty good. In the spirit of Pooey, I took photos of what we ate.

Alix and his wagyu beef burger

My sweetcorn hotcakes with spinach, tomato, bacon, and avocado relish

Dessert - ricotta hotcakes! Yum yum!

As you can imagine we were pretty full by the end so we spent the next hour or two just wandering around the suburb. Then we got a bit lost. And then we found ourselves back at Central station so Alix took the bus back (it was pretty hot by then), while I stumbled over to Pooky's to pick up some stuff I left there teh night before.

Afterwards, I was supposed to meet Pooey's friend Paulie for drinks at Monkey bar in Chats. Since it was only going to be the two of us 'reformed drinkers', we both independently thought it was going to be a small night. That all changed when I got there earlier than expected and decided to try a drink recommended by Pooey, the Zubrowka Bison Grass with apple juice. She assured me it tastes like an apple pie - I just couldn't pass up that description. I was discussing it with the bartender just as Paulie came in - we all had a go of the drink, the bartender declared *Hey, it does taste like apple pie!*, I bought a round, and all plans for a quiet night went out the window.

In the end I think we did stop at our respective standard drinks limits...but we'd managed to reach the limit (4 drinks for me, 5-6 for him) in about two hours. Luckily Fei had come along for the last round and we decided she should drive his car back to her place while he sobered up. Alas, an awesome lightning storm started up while he was there. Then it started pouring. Here's a short vid of the storm.

It continued all the way into the night. The next evening, my flight home got delayed an hour because of the storm. But I wasn't bored - a very cute baby was playing with the ribbons on my suitcase and even called me *Mama*! But her mum wouldn't let me take a photo. Take my word for it - cute baby.

Sydney - Part IIA

Well after the Mardi Gras, I met up with Miss Pooky again - we were going to swing by a some James Bond-themed party that her lab friends wanted to attend...as we were about to leave we found out that the organisers had piked (pikers!), so we changed plans to going straight to Hotel Chambers and meeting up with Addy. We went to Sushi Train and had a quick supper, before walking to Martin Place.

Now, that bit might have been a tactical error because I was breaking in a new pair of shoes; here's what they look like in the NineWest catalogue. They look good. After about an hour, they felt like hell. Long story short, I had to leave around midnight, not only because my last train was at 1am, but also because if I stayed there much longer I wouldn't be able to have pulled off the 1 minute walk from the station to the apartment.

Sydney - Saturday MARDI GRAS

The morning was pretty uneventful other than agreeing to go clubbing with Addy, Pooey's friend from undergrad days, and then meeting up with Pooky for lunch and shopping for club-suitable clothes. The afternoon is when the show started!

While waiting to meet up with others, I spied a bunch of guys wearing some colonial miliary kit standing outside the Town Hall. I have no idea what was going on there, but took a pic for posterity.

We then followed a major procession of people moving from George St. to Hyde Park/Oxford St. Man there were a lot of people! Here's a few shot of the moving crowd!
We then parked ourselves at the corner of Hyde Park/Oxford/Liverpool streets. Cam's friend X bought some stools that were being hawked because being Asian, we were shorter than the majority of the crowd. While we didn't end up towering over everyone else (mostly because the others had the same idea), we did get a reasonable view.

Uh-oh, all this crowd in our way!

The crowd going all the way up Oxford St.

But it's ok, we got an excellent view of the Big Screen!

The parade kicked off as usual with the Dykes on Bikes.

There was one who was riding with a sign that said *Rooters on Scooters* but I didn't get a photo of that.

I did manage to get a little bit of the Parade King, Rupert Everett, but not a single good photo.

Its only the last five seconds that you see him - the car was moving pretty slowly.

Here's some of the floats from that night

Clockwise: the police band, A drag group, Melbourne Gays, And their proper float

Mature Age Gays

I dunno who these guys are, but I like their style and effort!

But the best video I took that night was definitely of the Asian Marching Boys.

I ended up having to leave after about an hour to get ready for clubbing so I was disappointed to hear from Alix on Sunday that I missed the two ppl who were held together by a giant P33N. Ah well. Always next year!

Sydney Part I

This was (in hindsight) quite amusing. I told Cam I'd be happy to go to Syd and celebrate my confirmation, but it was on the condition that I could not pay more than $300 for tickets. Unforch, the lateness of plans meant that I couldn't get them for that price, so he very kindly sacrificed some of his freq. flyer points and *boom!* I had tickets to fly up at 7:15pm Friday, arriving in Syd at 8:45pm. There was a frantic call around for accom when I discovered that Pooky's mum was in town for CNY and I therefore could not stay with her as usual. To my eternal gratitude, a lot of ppl came through with offers that I could sleep on their floors/couches, and with great thanks to Miss Roxy, I ended up staying with Miss Fei in Chatswood.

A suitably large number of people were informed of my impending arrival and I rocked up to the airport at 5:45pm and went straight to the gate as Cam had done the online check-in thing. So imagine my puzzlement when the gate on the boarding pass did not have our flight listed. Nor was it listed on the Departures monitor. From here, imagine my horror when, after enquiring *What gives?* from the desk attendant, I was informed that the flight booked was for 7:15AM!!!! While phoning Cam in horror, the attendant managed to find us tickets for an earlier flight (wooh!) and we arrived in Syd about an hour earlier than expected.

I had planned to meet up with Miss Pooky and My Childe for drinks, I discovered that Pooky was having dinner with her mum, whilst my son was on Oxford St - somewhere I didn't really want to venture with my suitcase *shudder*. So my little suitcase and I met up again with Cam, Lily and Jane for dinner at Chinta Ria in Cockle Bay. I didn't take a pic of the food (which was quite tasty), but I did manage to get a shot of the Big Buddha you meet when you enter. He is a happy fellow indeed.

After dinner I stumbled to Town Hall and made my way to Chatswood and slept in preparation for a big Saturday.

An explanation about Candidature to Student

I'll just have a summary of why I decided to go to Sydney seemingly on the spur of the moment.
My one year review (a.k.a. Confirmation) was on Friday. The Confirmation is when a PhD *candidate* must submit a report summarising why they're doing a PhD. The report has to contain stuff like

• Hypothesis and Aims,
• Background justifying how you formulated the above and why your project is important,
• The Methods you'll use to solve the problem/s, and
• Your progress to date i.e. What have you been doing for the last year?

You then go in front of a panel of Academics and again justify why you're doing what you're doing and why they should let you continue with your study. They get to do things like question your aims, methods, whatever. Should they decide that everything is sound, they *Confirm* your position as a PhD from *candidate* to *student*. Should they decide it's not good enough, they can change your enrolment to Masters, or if they decide you're really crap, discontinue your study. Although I had been assured that it is almost unheard of to completely reject a student and that demotion to Masters would be unlikely given the work I had done, my lack of brilliantly concrete results did worry me (and did the many other fresh PhD candis).

As you can imagine, the last few weeks were not fun as I read and re-read many papers, stayed up late writing my report and Lit Rev, and agonised over my data and public speaking flaws. Eventually at 2:15pm on Friday, I was told the magic words "YOU ARE CONFIRMED!" and I happily had a weight off my shoulder that they can't kick me out anymore. MUHAHAHAHA!!!! So based on the above, I decided to go to Sydney for the weekend, sans le travail, sans les inquiétudes, and celebrate. I was originally just going to get drunk in Melbourne, but Cam pointed out it was Mardi Gras weekend and I should get out of the city instead. And that brings me to my Sydney blogs :-)

Back Home!

My celebrations in Sydney are over! I'll post about them when I can get to uni and exploit the badwidth there!

CONFIRMED!

No longer shall I be referred to as a PhD *candidate*. I am now a PhD *student*.

Huzzah!

Confirmation isnt over...

but I've already got my post-confirmation celebration semi-planned!

Now all I need is somewhere to stay in Sydney...

right.....

What I'm about to say, I must confess I stole it from a review on IMDB.com

If The Departed is the Movie Of The Year, then Infernal Affairs must be THE BEST MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Check out my review for why the academy is wrong.

Also, no disrespect to Forest Whitaker, but I really would have liked Peter O'Toole to win. Image what the thank-you speech would have been like! Maybe something like this!

The new and *cough* 'improved' Atrium Cafe?

One of the great pleasures of a late night is the taking of a pot of tea midway through the night. Usually I go to the Westin due to its proximity and the giant pots of tea they have. However, sometimes you really want to see the great view from the 35th floor toilets at the Sofitel so you go to the Atrium Cafe. The view really is fantastic (and free!) but it was also backed up by a nice old-fashioned decor, free nibblies which may not always be eaten, but certainly appreciated, these awesome pots of hot chocolate, and $11 pots of loose-leaf tea that came in a silver service, although naturally without the kettle.

Lately, the cafe has been undergoing renovations and, as I discovered last night, a complete change in service and quality. The decor...its quite *cool and modern* looking - the colour scheme has changed from a reddish-brown and yellow colour scheme to black and silver. It looks quite nice but it makes the place look more like a cocktail bar than a place for relaxation before more partying. Or as Cam described it "It looks like Sydney".

The service - after initially being denied entry because one of the males in the group was wearing open sandals, we found the quality of service has decreased. Not only did it take a waiter a while to give us our menus, we did not receive the nibbles (not that we would have eaten them anyway), and things just seemed to have lost their sheen of quality. For one, Cam's Chilli Martini (which was really hot) was forgotten, and we had to remind the waiter for it. The cool little pouring pot of hot chocolate has turned into just a normal cup and saucer. I'll complain mostly about the tea since that's where most of my expertise lies.

You all probably had a heart attack at the thought that I have paid $11 for a pot of tea. Well, that pot of tea was usually pretty great. Not as gimmicky as the Westin with their tea-light keeping it warm, but the silver service set is a nice touch and they're pretty generous with the refill pot (although not as generous as the Windsor). I don't recall who supplied their brand of tea but I can say for certain that they are now using Lipton tea bags. And no hot water jug. I was a bit surprised that their new menu did not include which teas they had and I was downright fuming at the thought that I may have had to pay $11 for tea bag tea! The other tea-drinkers (peppermint tea) were not as incensed as me, although they too baulked at the idea of an $11 tea bag tea.

Well tea has now been downgraded to $5.50 so it wasn't so terrible but I'm still much displeased. Hopefully they'll pick up their game and my next visit won't be so full of horror. Lucky for them the view is awesome - that probably guarantees another visit.

Oldie, but Goodie

The uni staff servers are down so instead of procrastinating from writing my report by firing off emails, I've been surfing youtube.

I rediscovered this BBC One ad from 2002 where traceur David Belle (such an apt name!) races home from the office to watch tv. Enjoy ;)

Too busy working on PhD to post

Yer, sorry for the lack of updates.
But just to let you know that I am still alive, my French cuz Alix is in town and despite our confusion as to whether he drank or not (he's French so he probably does, but he's asian so he might not!), me and Spu took him out for a mega bar crawl. Now before you all die from the sheer number of bars, some were hit and run jobs where we came in, sat down and then decided if we should drink or not. Or theme bars that we thought he'd like.

So here's the list:
Baroq
St. Jeromes
M.O.O
Section 8 Container Bar
Manchuria
Eurotrash
Croft Institute
Double Happiness
Big Golden Mountain
Bellavista Social Club
Lily Blacks
Gin Palace

Makes me tired looking at that list.

And just in case you're wondering, I did stick to four alcoholic drinks the entire night ;)

It's that time of the year again!!!!

My favourite time of the year!

CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Happy Year of the Pig!!!Mmmmmm....tasty......

Still not much happening

But I have clocked up 12 hours on the decon microscope this week and it's only Thursday!

More Data!

There's not really much to say, I've been working quite a bit to the point of being in the lab on Sunday! And then I came back on Monday and put in SIX HOURS on the decon microscope! *sob sob* And it's not particularly glam stuff either - just cell counting and testing methods. *sigh* The one year review is coming up so we're trying to churn out some awesome results.

The only really good stuff has been us trying to show that astrocytes have vesicles by injecting dye into their eyes. Its not as gruesome as it sounds! The data produced has been...striking...I'm not sure if I'm convinced though.
This photos is a retina thats been injected. We think the cells next to the blood vessels (pink arrows) might be astrocytes. The layer that we've taken the photo in normally contains ganglion cells which are shaped like those big cells (G). To be more convincing, I'd have to label the injected tissue with various cell markers. I'll do that tomorrow.

In other news, I washed my hair and blowdried it straight - it still looked ok in my opinion!

Stories from the Salon

After the last few times of getting my haircut and ending up with something I didn't want, I decided to give the place yet another go and this time, ask for the guy who does Pooey's hair. I'm not sure if the guy I got WAS her guy, but he could (kinda) speak english and he automatically detected that I periodically curl my hair for volume. While I did kind of end up with a mushroom-y cut, I did like the way he blow-dried and curled it...or at least I did until the wind had it's way with it and I started thinking it looked a bit mullet-y.

Here are the (post-wind) photos using my new Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX:

Lots of top volume with side layering

And from the side/back:

The layers start from just above the nape of my neck so I don't look as hairless this time.

While I see difficulty in replicating the blowdry (again), I will probably go back (again). I've got to give the guy props for suggesting highlights as a way of getting the illusion of volume over blowdrying. Or to get a perm and then seeing if highlights should be put in. We'll see

The Run Test

Among one of my many theories about attraction (The Window, anyone?), I have a theory about how to determine if you are truly attracted to someone (if you are a girl).

It is known as The Run Test. Basically, when you meet a guy and you think he's good, at some point in time you should make him run around the block or do some kind of exercise. This is not just to see him in little clothing so you can check out the hot bod (if applicable). It was mostly to see you could detect a certain *je ne sais quoi* - something that makes a true honey smell nice after exercise.

Well, it seems a research group based at UC Berkeley have proved me right! A publication in J. Neurosci has found that male sweat can alter hormonal levels in women! This is their abstract:

• Rodents use chemosignals to alter endocrine balance in conspecifics. Although responses to human sweat suggest a similar mechanism in humans, no particular component of human sweat capable of altering endocrine balance in conspecifics has yet been isolated and identified. Here, we measured salivary levels of the hormone cortisol in women after smelling pure androstadienone (4,16-androstadien-3-one), a molecule present in the sweat of men that has been suggested as a chemosignal in humans. We found that merely smelling androstadienone maintained significantly higher levels of the hormone cortisol in women. These results suggest that, like rodents, humans can influence the hormonal balance of conspecifics through chemosignals. Critically, this study identified a single component of sweat, androstadienone, as capable of exerting such influence. This result points to a potential role for synthetic human chemosignalsin clinical applications.

Its good to have my theories validated ;)

For geeks who want to find the article and read it, the full reference is:
The Journal of Neuroscience, February 7, 2007, 27(6):1261-1265

This also happened today. Cute.

KERMIT THE GORF!!!

In the continuing theme of childhood memories, Spuey found this online and said I had to post it, if just for Pooey.

So here it is. Kermit is not a GORF!

Glory of the Morning

This blog is dedicated to my contemporaries who loved the television of the 80s and who mourn the dross that is on tv now, and to the inventors and posters on youtube who make life so glorious.

After reading this blog which brought made us remember the glory that was late 70s/early 80s Sesame St :http://blogs.theage.com.au/music/archives/2007/02/everythings_aok.html
Spuey and I were inspired to look up as many of the obscure shows we used to watch as children.

After so many years of thinking that we watched far too much televison or were flat out insane when we tried to explain shows to others and get them to remember only to be rebuffed, youtube came to our rescue when we found among others.

Quaqquao:


Dr Snuggles:


Bananaman:


And omg, the man who I have spent almost all my entire adult life hunting down....
LA LINEA!!!


I think my main problem was that I was a kid who didn't speak English watching a cartoon that was italian gibberish.

But what I would dearly love to see....and perhaps even pay for in human blood, would be to see clips of A.E.I.O.U.
C'mon, there must be SOMEONE out there who has a video of this!!! Be my hero and post it online!

There are so many other *classics* that I could have posted like HeMan, Thundercats, Muppet Babies, Captain Planet, TMNT....but I'll let you all rediscover them on your own ;) But if you want some help, this forum has a whole list of memories!

Delayed blog - Lunch at Cafe La

To continue the Foodie tradition, Sharon organised lunch at Cafe La. One of the great things about the restaurants in the Sofitel are the free views from the loos. But since we'd decided to actually pay for food, we got an even better view!Unforch, none of us are Pooey so there are not pics of the food. But that food was excellent and well presented! Instead, here are various shots of us doing stuff when we're not eating.

Foodies. Not to be confused with Feeders

The chicks sans Pooey

The guys

Khoon gets into the spirit!

Trying to hide from the camera

After lunch, Pete went to meet other people for more food while the rest of us went to exercise off lunch at Khoons - Guitar Hero and DDR style!

Martina has a go

Khoon shows us how it's done

The Guitar hero!...

...who then sits back, relaxed that the challenge for the crown will not succeed

All in all, a good was had. Bring on the next batch of food!

Xmas photos update

It has been pointed out to me that I have been very lax in getting the photos from the xmas party online. Here is the link just for you, Pooey!

http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com
(p/word = 12345)

(Gee, there seems to be a lot of babies, not much xmas)

Crapmeister

Today we had to inject some rats and despite wearing a mask and taking an antihistamine, I had to stop at 11 animals because it was becoming too hard to breathe.

That's it. After a year of terrorising them, I have become allergic and since they've chosen to attack a system that could result in my death vs. me doing something that does actually kill them...I guess its a stalemate.

I'm gonna investigate better methods of protection!

Something to make the trains run on time

When I was in Europe, I did marvel at the rail buskers there. I must say that when someone sent me this youtube clip, I thought it was fake until I googled it and found it confirmed by The Times.



That's right, some gal was poledancing her way around Milan's subway in December. I don't know how well this will go down here but if it decreases the amount of traffic on the road, I'm cool with it!

This summer of tennis

As I type, Roger Federer and Fernando Gonzalez are duking it out for the Men's Title. As much as I like Gonzo, I want Federer to win.

But I can't watch (right now) - it's too tense!

*UPDATE*
ok, I watched the last two sets...and Federer won 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
How could I doubt?!

Its a Friday

but damn me if it doesnt feel like a Sunday! Gotta love public holidays.

I'll make a proper blog about what I and the Foodies did today when I get the pics off Shaz.

Hard Week

I know it's only Thursday, but I feel as though I've been trampled by elephants. Maybe it's because I've re-started my gym programme after 4 weeks of relative inactivity. Maybe its cos my experimental load has gone to another level. I don't know, but I do feel like breaking resolution 4 - the no drinking one.

I am really smart

One of the hazards of working with animals is developing allergies to them. I know that I have an allergy to mouse fur. Today I had to handle a number of animals today but for some reason I didn't take any antihistamines with me to uni or wear a mask when handling those squirmy little critters.

So naturally by 12pm my nose and eyes were going haywire. At 12:30, I started wheezing as if I were asthmatic (as described by someone who asked if I were alright). That was a little bit scary and people were saying *geez woman, are you gonna die?*

But at 5:45, I can say that I'm almost back to normal! Time to stock more drugs in my desk, I think!

I am smart

I cut my finger on a rosebush trying to retrieve the newspaper earlier this week. Very small.

But then I made it worse by squeezing lemons several times since then.

Ouch.

Movie review - Click

Think Adam Sandler, think stupid movies like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore. I'm beginning to think that as Adam Sandler grows up, so too Adam Sandler movies are becoming more mature. Kinda.

Click tells the story of architect Michael Newman (Sandler), who attempts to balance the needs of his family - wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale), parents Ted and Trudy (Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner - yes, the Fonz and Marge Simpson!) and his young children Ben and Samantha - and his boss, Ammer (David Hasselhoff). As that the finances of his family are somewhat precarious, when his boss dangles the promise of a partnership in exchange for landing a large account, Michael's ability to cope with all the demands finally breaks when he can't change the channels on the tv. He goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase a universal remote, but instead purchases a mystical remote control from Christopher Walken that has the ability to do things like fast-forward past arguments to promotions and decrease dog barks. However, the remote control learns to programme itself and Michael loses control of his life when it learns to fast-forward during various events. Unlike other Sandler movies, except perhaps 50 First Dates, the second half of the movie *spoiler* takes a dramatic turn as it is shown that by fast-forwarding and putting work ahead of family, Michael loses out on being able to watch his kids grow up, being able to spend time parents before they die, and maintaining his relationship with his wife *end spoiler*.

Believe it or not, Adam Sandler gives a pretty good dramatic performance here, helped along by the Fonz and Selene the Vampire. It's pretty clean for a Happy Madison production although there is the obligatory gross bit as the family owns a dog who has found it's soulmate in the form of a stuffed toy duck. While viewers may complain that the movie can't decide if it's a comedy or drama, and the message may be a bit cliched, overall its enjoyable.

6.5/10

I've got one more movie review (Nacho Libre to do) but I'm all reviewed out at the moment, so that probably won't come for another week or so, if at all.

Congratulations!!!

This is a shout-out to my former train buddy and now PhD advice kinda guy (I'm working, ok?!), Dr. Schrodinger, who is gonna be a daddy in about 6 months. Congratulations to you and Yani.

Another generation of duck-men to come ;)

Movie review - The Lake House

Who likes movies that mess with your mind a bit? And when I say mess with your mind, I don't mean something as dumbass as *oh, it was all a dream!* like Vanilla Sky. I mean something that produces a *whoa! That's freaky!* kind of reaction like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The Lake House is one that MAJORLY messes with your mind.

The Lake House is based on the 2000 Korean movie Il Mare (original Korean = Siworae). Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is a doctor who is moving out of a house built on a lake, hence the title Lake House. She decides to leave a letter for the next tenant. Architect Alex Wyler (my future husband, Keanu Reeves) moves in, finds the letter and points out somethings wrong in his reply.

1. It's obvious no one has lived in the house in years, and
2. The year is 2004, Kate has dated her letter as 2006.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with letters, they realise that the letterbox is some kind of conduit that exists in two different timelines. Is that screwing enough with your head? Despite the seemingly impossible barrier, the two fall in love...but how to join the time-separated lovers?

I won't talk about plot of acting or writing because, put simply, whether or not you enjoy Lake House will depend on whether or not you're willing to just accept it as it is. Or you can try and work out how the time-space continuum thing works. Or you can feel like you've been punched in the head several times, like Pooky did! Jiggs had not seen Lake House but he had seen Il Mare and as I said in the Sydney Rundown, we had a massive argument about whether the time paradox works or not. I said that it did because while their conscious awareness of each other exists at different points in time, they themselves exist in the same time as each other. Jiggs said it was impossible for them ever to meet because they exist in two different timeframes. Jia hadn't seen either movie and couldn't add anything. In any case, I hear the endings are different - this may be where our problem stems from.

In any case, I found I enjoyed it and didn't feel as though I'd been punched too hard.
7/10
(Poster from www.thecinemasource.com)

Movie review - Just Friends

Rarely have I actively disliked the lead characters of a movie as much as I did in Just Friends. They just got on my nerves sooooooo much that I just could not feel sympathy for them (although I did sympathise with a character who was obviously meant to be a foil), and the end message was kinda screwed up too.

Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) is a fat teen whose best friend and secret crush is the hot cheerleader Jamie Palomino (Amy Smart). The night they graduate, Chris decides to declare his feelings for her by writing in her yearbook, but the small party he intended turns into a whole school blowout. Daunted, he nonetheless proceeds to try and make her read his message but is interrupted by Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein) a pimply, stuttering singer who also has a crush on Jamie, and her quaterback ex-bf Tim. In the course of things, Tim's yearbook and Chris' are swapped and Tim read the love declaration to the entire party, further ridicule ensues when Jamie reiterates that they remain best friends. Humiliated, Chris declares that he'll show them all and runs away to LA. A decade later, Chris has lost all the weight and turned into a womanising record company exec. In the course of trying to sign the Paris Hilton-esque Samantha James (Anna Faris) to his company, he and Samantha end up stranded in his home town and the new Chris attempts to show the town what he has become and win Jamie's heart.

Now that may sound like a pretty unoffensive movie. Pretty common, in fact. But here is a list of some of my grievances.
1. Chris is obviously picked on at school by Jamie's other *friends* and yet while she makes some token protests, she keeps the people who have obviously spent their entire lives bullying him around her. Some best friend!

2. While Samantha is pretty clingly and stupid, but Chris at times is almost downright abusive towards her and seemingly has no interest in her well-being. For example, she falls off a balcony at the Mall and sustains a concussion, yet he keeps putting her in the care of his younger brother who obviously can't handle her.

3. None of the townspeople can comprehend that Chris has changed in the decade he has been away, and insult him when he attempts to show that he has changed. Key scene - when the waitress gives him pancakes covered in chocolate and cream and he goes to refuse it due to his adult diet, then Jamie acts as if he is majorly insulting the waitress by turning it down.

4. The characters' immaturity in general. Chris allows himself to be goaded by children when playing ice hockey, and instead of trying to minimising the damage, takes the children out. I can understand pride but that is ridiculous.

5. Dusty as the villlian is shown to be acting in a particular way to get Jamie to fall in love with him as *revenge* for her relegating him as just a friend. But that's pretty much the same as what Chris is doing.

6. The pair sleep together in Chris' old bed but don't have sex because Chris realises that perhaps Jamie will only ever want to be friends. Jamie however thinks she's been humiliated because he didn't make a move on her. Hello?! She spent the entire time prior to that reiterating that they are just friends, treating him accordingly and then being pissed that he didn't act!?

7.We are shown that the new Chris is a shallow asshole but when he reverts to his prior self, they get together. But he acted like that all through high school when he was fat and scored nothing. So Jamie is also shown to be a shallow asshole who only dates Chris now that he's rich and built.

In the end, I ended up feeling sorry for Samantha of all people, because despite being a deluded talentless hack, she seemed to genuinely like Chris, although whether it's just to forward her career is in question, but she as a person stays true to who she is and is never painted in a different light to what she is. Who would have thought I'd like the bimbo out of all the characters, eh?

2/10

Movie review - The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness is a difficult film for me to review because while I genuinely enjoyed it in the cinema, my curiousity about the story upon which it was *inspired* made me dig around about it and makes me think a bit more about film's manipulation of facts to manipulate the audience.

Set in San Francisco in 1981, the film stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner, Smith's own son Jaden plays Chris' 5 yo son, Christopher. Due to not knowing his own father until the age of 28, Chris swears that his son will have a good relationship with him, but this is put to the test when he comes into financial difficulty after investing in portable bone density scanners that he later finds are considered a luxury by medical people/establishments and therefore difficult to sell. After meeting a stockbroker, he applies for and is accepted into the traineeship programme at Dean Whitter Reynolds (now known as Morgan Stanley), but this makes things even more difficult when his wife abandons the family to move to NYC and he discovers the internship is unpaid. While periodically selling a scanner to make money, a variety of events result in Chris and Christopher becoming destitute and the pair end up homeless - sleeping in the toilets of a subway station for a night and eventually ending up in homeless shelters. The movie shows Chris struggling to do his work while being a good father to Christopher at the same time, leaving work early to pick up his son from daycare in order to make it to the shelter which works on a first come, first served basis. Eventually the story ends up nicely when Chris' perseverence pays off and he is accepted into Dean Whitter as a permanent employee.

First the bits that work - the acting and writing are great. The trials that Chris goes through, his jubilation and despair at the breakthroughs that turn out to be setbacks and his overwhelming concern for his son is totally convincing and absolutely sucks you in. This is no doubt aided by the fact that Smith is acting with his son - their interactions are naturally convincing and well done. A particular standout the scene where they end up in the subway station. Christopher having thrown a tantrum after they were evicted from a motel, is refusing to speak to his father and you can see the stubborness in his little self as they sit on a subway bench. Chris meanwhile is frustrated at his inability to be able to explain what is going on, does the real fatherly thing in convincing his son he should treat the entire thing as a caveman adventure. It's really great.

But the bad things - there are times when the treacle is laid on REALLY thick, and given that Chris states that he arrives at work late and leaves early for the sake of Christopher, the fact that he gets accepted into the company because he made the most sells due to his awesome people skills seems a little far-fetched. While I knew that I was being manipulated with regards to the story, this didn't bother during the film. What does bother me is the extent of the liberties taken when I looked it up later. While the pair really did end up in homeless shelters, key parts in hindsight which bother me are when Chris finds out the traineeship is unpaid - in reality he was getting $1000/month (ok, not enough for rent/food etc but still not as destitute as made out), and when a homeless shelter for women and children turn the pair away despite Chris' pleading and instructs them to a male shelter across town. In reality, the shelter actually let them stay. The wiki entry on the story of the real Chris Gardner is here.

In all though the movie is ok and even if liberties were taken, it is a good story made more incedible by the knowledge that it is essentially based on a true story.
6.5/10

The Sydney Rundown

Well I’m newly returned home from a holiday in other city. I won’t say it was a total break from work because I did bring some things up with me, but I hope you all gather much satisfaction that I didn’t do anywhere near as much work as I thought I would. Aside from that, I do feel quite refreshed even though Miss Pooky packed my days full of activities she’s wanted to do but couldn’t (mostly due to the malicious fun-decreasing elements of her lab), and we also did a lot of lazing around in her wonderfully appointed apartment watching DVDs. Also, since I am stupid, I forgot to take a camera so there are no photos.

After visiting her lab on Friday, we went to some of her favourite undergrad haunts in Glebe, a café called Badde Manors and a The Gleebookshop. The café was a semi-vegan place where I made her eat a Tofu burger that was quite delicious, much to her surprise. And they had really awesome gelati and sorbet. At the bookshop I picked up a copy of More Mere Mortals – a book that contemplates the various medical maladies of historical figures and how that may have affected history. That night we met up with Pooky’s sister, Fluff, and after gorging ourselves at Sushi Train, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness (review coming soon).

Having discovered that Jia One Plus was in town, we met up with her and Jiggles for lunch, Starbucks (I refuse to call that coffee), and shopping. One heartwarming story, Jigs left his umbrella in the Myer foodcourt, a fact he only realized once we were in Starbucks. We didn’t think his chances of finding it again would be high, but despite being away for maybe 20-30 min., it was found in the same place where he left it! That night, we met up with Fluff and her bf, You Won!, for dinner at Pancakes on the Rocks, to get more DVDs, and to buy ingredients to fulfill my sudden urge to bake shortbread. I did and they were delicious! That night we watched Little Man (review NOT coming soon – that’s a shocking movie!) and The Lake House (review coming soon).

Sunday, we met up again with Jiggs and Jia for yumcha, which was actually quite interesting because none of us could speak enough Cantonese to order what we wanted to eat and because Jiggs and I nearly came to blows about whether the Time Paradox was plausible in Lake House. Later I purchased myself a fetching new purse and we purchased some more DVDs to watch. Jia departed to meet up with family, we other three returned to the apartment to watch The Curse of the Golden Flower, Just Friends, and after dinner and So You Think You Can Dance, Click (reviews coming soon).

Seeing as Monday was my last day, we decided to do something educational and spent the morning at the Powerhouse Museum, looking at the history of The Great Wall of China and amusing ourselves in the Science section. Hey, we’re geeks!!! We then went to a Korean restaurant for bulgogi and a way too much food. We didn’t stick to the formula of n dishes + rice – whereby n is defined as the number of people - the two of us ordered four dishes + rice! And then we went back to the apartment for me to pack…and then we bought ice cream and bubble tea to boot!

Despite being internet-free, alcohol-free, exercise-free, and (almost) work-free, I had a really good time! I had such fun bumming around with Pooky and Co. that I’m dreading going back to the lab tomorrow morning. *sigh* This is why I shouldn’t be allowed to take holidays.

Back in Sin City

Hey y'all. Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who congratulated me for getting the schol. You guys rawk! And to Rox, I fully intend to marry rich, just not now and preferably someone closer to my age. And I want to hear that *smart girls* proverb!

But anyway, after a year of labwork and never taking five consecutive days away from the lab (shocking I know), I decided to fly up to Sydney to visit Miss Pooky. The flight was uneventful, the train ride to the city was uneventful, the walk to her building was uneventful. Waiting for her to realise that her phone was dead and I'd been trying to call her for over an hour to say I had arrived was a bit troubling! After calling everyone I knew in Syd and having them laugh at my predicament (which is funny), problems were solved and we headed off to a Thai restaurant for dinner.

Today I'm at her lab, doing some of my work (:S) while Pooky perfuses animals but we'll be heading out to do more of the usual fun stuff in the next few days. Cheerio!

Good news!

All that furious writing in the middle of the year finally paid off cos I was awarded one of the scholarships I applied for! YAY!!!

It's not an end to my financial woes (I dont think anything other than winning the lottery or marrying some kind of sugar daddy - yuk- is gonna solve them), but its a start!

I'm not sure if I should be pleased here

Which Goddess Owns You?

The Goddess Death: Dark, morbid, appropriately represented by the color black and the element water. Death is reserved, intellectual, introspective. Rarely does she do anything requiring a lot of energy or display of emotion -- but when she does, anyone within a few planes would do well to duck and cover.
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Battle Scars

Ooh, something exciting happened!

Due to my decreased portions diet and being in the lab for 4 hours, my stomach was pretty sore so I skipped gym thinking that I'd just hop on the bike for a ride post-dinner. Little did I know that I would come to grief after such a short ride. Going downhill towards the parks, I went to brake and turn a corner when all of a sudden I was flying through the air over the handlebars! Ok, it wasn't that dramatic but I did find myself on the ground with the bike on it's side.

After getting up and assessing the damage (sore hip, sore hand, grazed knee) I assured the people who witnessed my fall that I was fine and they helped me pick up and bike and attempt to discern why I fell. It was all a mystery as there were no large rocks present until someone who had righted the bike noted that the front wheel had come off the axle. The axle itself was not broken which made someone else say that it probably had been loose. This then leads me to two conclusions. Either someone is trying to kill me or Pooey didn't assemble the thing properly. In anycase, I now have an ugly scabby graze on my knee in the middle of short skirt season. CRAP!!!

Not much going on

As result of my resolution to lose weight and work harder, there wasn't really anything to write about over the weekend. I sense that I may become increasingly boring if the last three days are anything to go by. OH NO!!!

But as an update, I had a relatively alcohol-free Friday (what?!?). The night started with dins with dirty roy and Hat in Chinatown before mucking around the city to meet up with Teena, Shaz, etc for karaoke at Khoon's place. Such a good hostess, always making sure her guests have an alcoholic drink. I ended up having to take one from her to avoid upsetting her. Unforch, karaoke dragged on for so long that at 2am I declined the invite to stay over night and took a taxi home. This actually may have been the smarter option for I hear that the singing didn't end until 5am.

Saturday I hunted for a webcame and when the store I selected turned out to be closed, I ended up driving randomly in the eastern suburbs, then went home to a night of the classic 80s movie, Ghostbusters.

I did some cycling on Sunday and the new piece of wildlife viewed was a homeless person sleeping on the bike trail, and that evening I met up with Akina and many other Japanese people to watch Zoolander at rooftop cinema. It was quite cold but the many hilarious lines kept us warm with their jollity.

hell

As part of my resolution to work harder on my phd, I've spent 5 hours on this microscope.

1.5 left to go!!!

Resolutions

Just so I remember what they are and people can bitch at me if I don't hold myself to them.

1. Be nicer to people I don't like. Or at least get better at hiding my animosity.
2. Work harder at my PhD. This one is a bit of a necessity.
3. Learn a new skill. I've narrowed it down to either ballroom dancing, kendo or jujitsu.
4. Limit myself to a maximum of four alcoholic drinks per outing.
And of course,
5. Lose 5kg. Heh, this one never happens.

One Good Turn...

Today on the bus we all did the usual skip and dance around the seats to allow people to get on and off but when I sat down in a (new) seat, I jumped up when something hard hit my ass. Imagine my surprise when there was a phone there as if freshly laid, egg style. After picking it up, I tried to figure out how to access the phonebook to see if I could find a number labelled *Home*, *Mum*, *Dad* or possibly even *Work* to contact the rightful owner as I hopped off at my stop. After revealing the true extent of my technology-retardedness, *Dad* rang to claim himself as the rightful owner. As I was already at my place of work, and his was located a fair distance away, we agreed to meet up later for the handover. Imagine my surprise when he handed over a pile of chocolate as a gesture of thanks.

I do like ferrero rocher.

Happy New Year, y'all!!!

I rang in the new year at Lexington, a bar I have maligned as being full of tossers. But you know, experience in bars is always affected by the people you're with as well as the crowd's general demeanour. Well last night's crowd just wanted to kick some 2006 ass and we all partied on with good feelings and minimal tossing! I went with Akina, Alain, and Robert and we met up with some more of Akina's buds, Shirley and her friends, and Eva & John and their friends. Unforch, I have no photos cos I cloaked my bag which had my phone in it.

What can I say? It was a lot of fun, even when some ppl decided to start the count early and then splashed us all with their (free) champagne. And although Akina et al. crashed and went home soon after midnight, I rocked on with Eva & co. and took their invite to go back to their apt so we could dance with shoes off! I eventually crawled out home at 6:30 cos although the invite to crash there was mighty tempting, I really wanted to take out my contacts, wash off my makeup and brush my teeth to feel more human.

2006 ended on a bright note, let 2007 shine on!