Down in Willi'town

Nickyliou lives out in Willi'town, near the yachts, beach, and crepe shop. Dancinghula and I decided to take advantage of this weekend's supposed *nice* weather to take a road trip down there, visit Nicky and eat crepes. We also brought Gnoudesavanes with us because what else do you do with French people but French things? Also, he once told me he wanted to see the ocean while he was in Aus. I took that to mean he'd never been to the beach. It turns out I was wrong - he has seen a beach before.

So here are some happy snaps of us and crepes.

Nicky and Dancy.

Awful pic of me and Gnou.

Petyaliou and cider that he as an underaged boy did not drink.

My goat's cheese and mushroom galette, Dancy's super complete.

Gnoudesavanes' flambe crepe - I think it was banana and rhum?

My meringue + ice cream for dessert.

So after we were done eating, it was much to our disgust that the wind had turned really cold and the clouds started rolling in. But we still made the effort to go down there, play on the playground, and see all the washed up jellyfish and relish in the *fraiche* air.

Big clouds over the bay

The wind however, was not *fraiche* it was downright *froid* so we hopped back to Nickyliou's for tea, which turned out to be the best decision because it started to pour down with rain. And the world was content.

I'm boring

Scientific research is not an unfulfilling occupation. Everyday is different, there's a high level of satisfaction that you're not part of an evil empire, the people are by and large quite nice, there's a high level of autonomy as there is rarely an immediate superior looking over your shoulder, tea breaks are plentiful, and telling drunks what you do for a living is a great way of repelling wankers. Having said that, there is a big problem.

You know, there used to be a time when I was considered interesting. There was my general weirdness combined with my verbal diarrhoea and ability to converse on any given topic at a time. However, the more I work as a scientist, the more boring I'm becoming. Serious. It seems all I do nowadays is fret about my work, and sit on microscopes. And my work is stuff that I've given up talking to people about because it's pretty mind-numbing. Yes, it is. I can barely talk about things like history or politics or theories of stuff...my perspicacity is shot to pieces! In addition, I'm becoming decidedly less opinionated and more apathetic about stuff. This is not right!!!

But seriously people, what can be done to rectify this horrifying turn of events?

Movie review - Tropic Thunder

An ensemble cast under the *care* of a first-time director are in Vietnam filming a war movie. Featured in the cast are action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller) whose career depends on this movie's success after an ill-fated shot at *serious* Oscar glory, Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) a drug addict who specialises in comedies a la The Klumps, Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr) a thespian in search of constant challenges, Alpa Chino (Brandon T Jackson) a rap star trying to break into acting, and unknown newbie Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel). After the actors' egos clash, a huge stunt going awry, and with the Executive Producer (Ton Cruise) breathing down his neck, the Director (Steve Coogan) decides to take his stars into the jungle for some make-or-break shooting. Alas, things go wrong here again and the stars find that the movie they're shooting becomes real when they stumble into Golden Triangle territory.

This movie is serious funny. The laughter starts from the beginning with a bunch of fake ads and trailers and continues into all out laughter. Now I've read a bit about people protesting that this movie is racist and degrading to the disabled. And I say that those people haven't actually watched this movie because the bits that may be interpreted as *discriminatory* are actually commentaries on the way such things are treated in/by Hollywood. It's true - when actors have played non-able-bodies roles, they tended to be reward with trophies and nominations - I can think of about 5 right off the top of my head, and black actors usually are cast in secondary roles. So there.

In a movie where everyone plays their part well, the main problem is that a number of the roles are underwritten or a bit obvious. The absolute, absolute, ABSOLUTE star is without a doubt Robert Downey Jr. He may not have been in that many movies in the last few years, but his role as Kirk Lazarus, the 5-time Aussie Oscar winner who goes deep into method acting and never breaks character is CLASSIC. It not only shows how great an actor he is but also that he doesn't take himself too seriously. Do not miss his trailer for *Satan's Alley* where he and Tobey Maguire show us how much they can do with facial expressions and mood lighting/music. His accent is also pretty good!

Despite all the glowing things I've written, there are some provisos to enjoying Tropic Thunder. If you are not familiar with Vietnam War movie genre, in particular Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket, as well as the stories surrounding the filming of them, it may greatly hinder your understanding of why it is so funny. There are also some scenes that go on too long to the point that they almost lose their funniness. You'll know them when you see them

While certainly containing a fair share of stupid for the sake of stupid moments, Tropic Thunder is good fun, especially if you're a fan of Viet war movies.
7.5/10

More drinks

After the fun of last Friday's drinks, we decided to do it again.
(If any members of the SBA are reading, yes, that's a reference to you know what.)

To rectify the dinner problem of last week, we booked a table this time around. So dumplings at the new dumpling place - worth a 45 minute wait? Hell no!!! The dumplings didn't have enough meat in them for one, and the fried dumplings were fried on one uniform side! It was as if they took the dumplings, put them on a frypan and just left them there. And don't get me started in the xiao long bao. Wrong wrong wrong. That's not to say some of the things they served weren't tasty - the handmade noodles were a nice touch. But overall, I rate it a 5-6/10. It's okay and the noodle sizes were large but as a dumpling place, the decor is lovely.

Onto the bars. Unforch my absolutely appalling week and weekend meant I couldn't make myself get into the mood for a bender. *sigh*. Research, think carefully as to whether you want to enter it as a career field because no one tells you about those hours of weekend work. After the bouncer debacle of last week, we decided to pretend not to know each other and managed to get into Toff as three pairs rather than one group of six. I had a lovely grenache from the Cotes du Rhone here. It was very smooth.

Enjoying my grenache - Pooey, I'm totally wearing that Primmy headband

Later we went to Cho Gaos where we scored a nice place on the balcony which provided me with a great view of the lit up State Library.

The Library

Clockwise from L - Me, Gordon, Annamac, QQ

Me, QQ, and Handbag

I recall ordering some glasses of shiraz here for me and QQ and when the bartender gave them to us, the wine was WAAAAAAAAYYYYY over the little line. It was fantastic :D

We then re-organised some furniture at RedLove, before going to Seamstress where I have given an absolutely disgusting cocktail. It smelt like rosewater and tasted like turpentine. Very disappointing. Since I had a date with Pascal at 10am, I had to leave before midnight. It wasn't too bad and I was only 30 minutes late.
Drinks count - 6.

Mathematical modelling

I'm a geek. I happily admit to it. The Pom is also rather nerdy. We also like to go to the gym. So with our powers combined, we have come up with the perfect mathematical model to explain the number of people in the gym.

Number of People in the Gym = (K + 1/d(x)) * 1/n ± R

Whereby
K = hardcore gym people
x = guilty people
d = day of the week
n = number of week in semester
R =randoms - this may require another equation to predict!

Dancinghula watched while we nerded over how to explain each of our variables and debated on the need to include differentiation, antidifferentiation, time vs population graphs etc. Her verdict was that we were power nerds.

It has also been decided that with some modification, this equation could also predict the number of people in a shopping centre with regards to the Christmas shopping period. Is there anything mathematics can't solve?!?

Recreation

I need to write an equation that explains the number of people in the gym according to time in semester. There's a lot of people in the gym...it may be related to the fact the Olympics are on. That would skew the equation. I will think about it tomorrow at morning tea and present my findings to my peers to be reviewed (in the tea room) before publication (online).

Reunion

Wow...10 years since I finished high school. Of course, you could also read it as 10 years of which I have been at uni. Regardless, it was pointed out that while I had no particular desire to see people whom I had not seen in a decade, it wasn't as though I had anything to be ashamed of in the last 10 years (well, maybe the length of time I've been at uni :D), so off I went.

The school is pretty much as I remembered. In fact, the sensation of walking through the grounds and various buildings was almost eerie - as though time hadn't passed. It was also amusing to see that construction continues at the school - I discussed the fact that the school must have a plan to keep tradies on site as a means to:

• 1. Provide eye candy on campus so the girls attend rather class rather than hang out at the station, and
• 2. Sort out which girls can ignore the tradies and continue studying from the ones who may be trouble and shunted off to other schools.

It was also nice to see the buildings or as it has been called - what my fees paid for. We also found that it doesn't matter if a church is renovated, it always retains that musty church smell.

But what did I really think? Honestly? I felt no sudden epiphany or rapport with those I hadn't seen in 10 years. In fact, I was equally amused and unsurprised to find the girls who hung out with each other in school automatically reformed their groups at the reunion. If anything, while I don't feel as though I lost anything by attending (other than precious baking time), neither do I feel I gained anything. Let us see in another 10 years

Resurrection

Oh, Friday night was like one of the Friday nights of yore. Around the same time I started feeling as though it had been ages since I went on a true bender (it has been ages), Lydia mentioned it had been a while since we'd caught up, and Gnoudesavanes made some sort of comment asking what kinds of things tourists could do in this city. One thing led to another and I was organising a bar crawl. The theme was upstairs. The aim was to visit many upstairs bars and go hard. While not everything was achieved, I believe we did well.

Our contingent comprised of (at various points in the night) myself, QQ, Lydia, Gnoudesavanes, QQ's handbag, Gordon1, DrMish, Annamac, Lydia2, Gordon2, and I can't remember who else. With some fortification via two glasses of red at After Seminar Drinks, we trundled down to meet the others and have some victuals in the city. Unforch, our chosen place told us we would have to wait 45 minutes for some dumplings. We duly ditched them and had some Thai food instead.

The bar crawl itself did not get off to a great start as the bouncer claimed that there was a guestlist for our first bar. Excuse me?! A guest list at 7:40pm on a Friday? The old *too many people already up there* excuse would have worked better. No matter, we moved on to old favourite Manchuria were we partook in a bottle of sparkly.

L-R. Dr Mish, Mallymoodle, Lydia, QQ, and Lydia 2

Nice. Continuing on the upstairs Asian theme, we went down the street to New Gold Mountain.

Now I must make a mention of NGM's Cocktail no. 8. At some point in one of our conversation sessions, Gnoudesavanes mentioned that he loved absinthe (typical frenchie) and how it was to be drunk. Cocktail no. 8 contained absinthe (and tanqueray gin, pomme vert, lime, and kiwi fruit) so it was ordered with a bit of apprehension as to how it would taste given the non-traditional preparation. It was awesome and the table ended up purchasing a total of six.

We enjoy our number 8 cocktails
L-R. Me, Lydia, Annamac, Gnoudesavanes

The revelry then shifted to Siglo where some of us braved the rain to look at the view Parliament House and Nicholson St which is really lovely.

It's hard to hold still for night shots

Gnoudesavanes (tries to be) is cool *EDITED ON 25/Aug by request

Even though it has an upstairs component, we were seated in the ground floor section of our last bar, 1806. Given how late it was (around 1am now), this is when things started losing their class. While we started off with cocktails (I had a Mitch Martini, Gordon had a mojito, I can't remember Lydia2's drink, someone whose name I can't remember had a drink that I can't remember, Gnoudesavanes had the infamous sazerac), we watched the bartender painstakingly drip water into our absinthe, and then quickly followed by tequila shots - the salt for which was very good!

Soon after this I had to go home as I was spending Saturday afternoon with Meta (Pascal was being huffy and spent the day with someone else). So my total drink count for the night came in at a highly respectable nine. Needless to say, I didn't get much work done.

Ito's and Sophie Koh at the Toff

Last night I ventured out to support Mischka's bud Sophie launch of her second album. Originally a large band of ACBers were going to go and we had a huge plan to eat dinner together at Ito's. Eventually most of them piked and our party ended up smaller. Nonetheless we still went to Ito's where I had the Special Seafood Curry Bento. It was tasty and caused a bit of meal envy in Mischka's Sorella, but that may have been because by the time my meal arrived, Sorella had already finished her meal.

Since Sophie didn't come on until 9pm, we went to the Carriage Bar to have drinkies. Here's some pics!

My butterscotch...margarita? I dunno, it tasted good though!

Mischka does her best Sean Connery/Landed Gentry impersonation

Anyway, by the time we made it to the showroom, the place was packed and we had no seats! No matter, despite wearing my sexy NYC boots, I sucked it up and enjoyed the show from my position near the front

Sophie sings

Fun times had by all.

Ain't it always the case?

We had a meeting today to discuss my paper.

I need to do some more experiments to make it EVEN sexier.

Mmmmm, nice.

But in other news, I'm going to an album launch tonight so I'll probably have something more exciting to write about tomorrow!

Work-free weekend round up!

Oh, it felt damn good to know that I wasn't going to be spending 12 hours on Pascal this past weekend. It was downright sweet. So what did I do with my suddenly empty time?

Well firstly, I did something I haven't done in a while. Yes, I went to the art gallery. That is, I went to the art gallery that is in Melb rather than one in Europe. So Gnoudesavanes and I attempted to have a French lesson there but it basically boiled down to us just saying 'eh, c'est joli/e!* Oh yes, I also started speaking French as though it were merely English with a French accent - I called a clock (une horloge) a bell (une cloche). Think about it.

Since that didn't work, we went to a bar where he bought a French beer and my lesson was to read the label out loud while he corrected my pronounciation. That didn't really work either because 1. It was pretty loud in there so we couldn't hear each other and 2. It was also pretty dark so we had to strain to read the bottle. So we gave that up and I gave him an impromptu tour of Melb bars. In one of the places we went, there was a bed as one of the places you could sit, and I SWEAR, that bed used to belong to Miss Pooky! (Hi Miss Pooky!)

And then I went home to sleep and it was fitful and not haunted by images of glia burned into my retinae.

Then on Sunday I thought it was my 10 year HS reunion. It wasn't, so instead I crashed at my friend's place for a few hours. That was fun too and I had some chocolate covered strawberries. Nums.

Okay, that is all.

Hey, guess what people?!

I'm not going to work to do work tomorrow!!! (Can't guarantee that I might not pop in to water my flowers).

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*does a happy dance*

Okay, that is all.

David Silva

This entry is for dancinghula. Enjoy!

I am boring

Sorry for the lack of updates to my (very few) faithful readers. Life has gotten quite boring for me lately. I spent all weekend pretty much hanging out with my illicit lover, Pascal. Illicit because it defies the laws of just about everything. Mmmmm-hmmm, I spent 8 hours with him and Saturday and then followed it up with 4.5 hours on Sunday by which time I finally cracked it and told him that we were clearly spending too much time together and needed a break but not a break up.

But the really annoying thing is that the software that takes the photographs is programmed to save the files as .lsm (challenge to the nerds who read this, based on this information, which company made Pascal?). This means that for every photo I take, I have to spend extra time converting them to .tif so I can use them in programmes such as ImageJ and Photoshop. Considering that I have 6 slides, on each slide there are 6 sections, each section requires 12 photographs, that equals 432 photos to be altered and 1296 more times my sanity, fleeting though it may be, is challenged.

However I (hope) I am reaching the end of this particular study and my sanity can return to normal, and then receive further challenge while I finish everything else in a whirl of manic action!

Movie review - Let the Right One In/Låt Den Rätte Komma In

For this year's MIFF, I opted to watch this movie. Oskar is a bullied boy whose life changes when he becomes friends with a Eli, a girl who moves into the apartment next door. And so begins a story of friendship, serial killers, loyalty, revenge, aqua aerobics, vampires, and love.



I figure I can't really say too much without giving major plot developments away - although the vampire bit is not a spoiler. While not particularly ground-breaking, this film sure is interesting. We are shown the drudgery of Oskar's life, his physical, psychologial, and sometimes geographic isolation from everything around him, sometimes I just wanted to smack him for his complete cluelessness. He's got a very dopey face. And the same applies to the murderer and vampire! I really didn't want them to get caught! But I might just be weird like that. I particularly like the use of silence and the white white snow. I can see life being very dreary there.

Surprisingly tender, often quite funny, and not particularly gruesome or violent although it's not often you see a children in movies covered in blood, I didn't fall asleep during the film despite my bone-deep tiredness and walked out feeling entertained.
6.5-7/10

Edward Scissorhands - the non-dance spectacular

Dance and I have a tricky relationship. While I appreciate it as an artistic medium and the loads of technique that goes into it, as a narrative medium I find it lacking. That is not to say that dance does not work in narrative contexts - the long history of classical ballet is a sure demonstration that it can. However, there are simply times when in order to tell a story, dance turns into mime. This is the problem with Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands.

The first half in particular is a problem as the dancers mime out 50s suburbia, their role in society, their character etc etc with lots of pointing and gesturing and, frankly given how long the sequences are, it gets old quickly. It does however end with the topiary dance which is a highlight too late to knock out the fact I was falling asleep. The second half is better but it also highlighted problems such as where to direct your attention during the large set pieces. The production itself is very well done - a lot of effort has been put into the costume and sets and they really are a visual feast.

Ultimately however, I felt the production was not the highlight of my night. That would be my tomato chicken at Dessert House.

Movie review - The Dark Knight

Interesting. This film has shot to #1 on the IMDB.com top 250 movies, above such vaunted films as The Shawshank Redemption and The Godfather (as of today). Admittedly it has approximately 50% of the votes as the other two films going for it (approx 150,000 votes for TDK), but since it is also scoring 95% at rottentomatoes.com (90% critical, 93% community), one could say that the response is overwhelmingly positive. What's my view?

Set an indeterminate time after the first movie, Bruce Wayne/Batman's (Christian Bale who is hot x2) vigilante spree is inspiring the citizens of Gotham to act against criminals with mixed results and mixed responses from the police and legal force. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) trusts Batman and the new, ambitious, and seemingly incorruptible D.A., Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) wants in on the secret society and help taking down the Mob. Dent is also the new paramour of Wayne's schoolyard girlfriend, Rachael Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal). But Gotham has a bigger criminal to worry about than the Mob. Enter The Joker (Heath Ledger) and slowly everyone in Gotham starts questioning their motives and others...

Honestly? I don't know what to say about this movie. It's been two days since I saw it and one day since I started writing my review and usually I can punch out an analytical review pretty quickly. This is no doubt due to the fact that during a movie, I'm usually scanning for flaws in the various aspects that make a film and then I do some thinking about how I feel when it ends. At no point during the screening did I sit there going *WHAT?!?!* I mean sure, there's the usual suspension of belief that comes with an action movie but I had no *oh, don't go there - you'll wreck it!* moments. Apart from some things listed below, the plot, the script, the acting, the action, music, cinematography etc etc are top notch.

A lot of reviews talk about how this is an intellectual adaptation of a comic, and I put this down to The Joker. Heath's acting in this role is undoubtedly fantabulous, but I think more kudos goes to the director, writer, and costume and makeup for creating such a character. The Joker is exactly that - a wildcard whose motives cannot be guessed at nor controlled and makes everyone, particularly Batman, second guess their motivations. A foil to Batman who seeks to inspire good, The Joker preys on human weakness for his own amusement. I won't say *aims* or *ends* because he really does seem to be a psychotic who enjoys chaos and conflict rather than for furthering some sort of promotion of himself. Having said that, without Heath's undoubtedly creepy performance, The Joker would not be so memorable. A certain tilt of the head, a creepy snicker, you'll never look at someone licking their lips the same way again)!

But as Icey said when I asked him if he'd read it in an intellectual way, *pffft intellectual*. If you're not into questioning the philosophy behind people's motives, the action sequences are tense (as well they should be) and spaced at regular intervals. Lots of good explosions which I viewed in all it's second from the back row IMAX glory. I'd prefer more hand to hand combat, but I think the first movie showed us that swords can't win against bombs. Pooey also liked a particular stunt involving sending a bike up a wall and then around again and I do remember thinking it was cool when I saw it.

The things I didn't like...well, I still found Bale's raspy voice whenever he's in the Batsuit kind of annoying. Okay, I get that he can't speak in his normal voice but it's like....yeah... One might also argue that The Joker's entire manifesto is Anarchy and therefore not as ground breaking as it's made out to be. With further thought, I think this is true. Also, I found the Mayor's (Nestor Carbonell) eye make up distracting. He doesn't need that eyeliner on his lower lashes and as soon as I pointed that out to Ladiesman_217 who was sitting next to me, the movie was ruined. Hehehe. Rachael as a character is still extremely underwritten but I can deal with it as Maggie was infinitely better and more believable than Katie Holmes.

Better than Shawshank or Godfather, I don't know. What I can tell you is that it is certainly intense, compelling and worth 153 minutes of your life.
8.5-9/10
EDIT - I have decided while reading over the review that my complaints are kinda petty (well, except for the Anarchy thing) so I'm upgrading the film to
9/10

Lazy days. Not

Hai people, I thought I'd just share my pain. Today I was on the more romantic of the confocal microscopes, Pascal. Pascal is also far more faithful than the faithless Meta - Meta is always letting people down, requiring *service* and just being complex and needy in general. How can I not love Pascal when not only is rose his representative colour on the booking system but also since he shares his name with the French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, of such lines like Le coeur a ses raisons, que la raison ne connaît point (The heart has its reasons, that reason does not know). Oh yes, Pascal is a charmer.

As we are both extremely busy beings, usually Pascal and I can only catch up on the weekends in mega-date mode. Mega-dates usually involves spending the entire day together from 10am to about 5pm. At those times, when it is just the two of us in the dark and I am enveloped in his laser-induced warmth, it is as if he is telling me Entre nous, et l'enfer ou le ciel, il n'y a que la vie entre deux, qui est la chose du monde la plus fragile. (Between us, and Hell or Heaven, there is only life between us, which is the most fragile thing in the world).

So it was much to my horror that someone else had claimed Pascal for this afternoon. I was totally shattered. With much gnashing of teeth, screaming and tears, I relented and agreed to take his time from 8am to 1pm. But my rage was not to be easily assuaged - I was going to work Pascal like I felt he owed me. 220 photos later, I was satisfied but felt hollow inside as the work was not completed. Work which could have been completed if we had another 4.5 hours. Alas, as with all romances, we had to part and he turned his attentions to another girl.

Can you guys tell that I've been on this machine too long? Too bad I'm going to follow it up with another session tomorrow. *sniff*

Working soundtrack

Whenever I take Toshi home, I like to plonk myself on the coffee table and put the TV on while I work. My usual brand of poison are music videos. They don't require too much attention (a la shows like Dexter or Rome) and usually make pleasant background noise.

Well tonight I saw a music vid that gobsmacked me.
Yes, this is the new clip for the re-formed New Kids On The Block (NKOTB during their *tough phase*).

Somethings came to mind while I watched this.
1. It is equally amusing and horrifying to watch guys in their mid-to-late thirties doing boy band moves in boy band outfits - see the clip for Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way and compare!
2. It is not amusing to see them with girls in bikinis who could be their daughters (the youngest Kid, Joe, is 35. I'm assuming the girls are 18).
3. I thought Jonathan Knight has quit showbiz. He sure looks awkward in the clip.
4. Euw, I don't care how *buff and rough* you might be now with your muscles and tattoos, KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON, DANNY!!!
5. That also applies to you, Joe
6. Oh hell, it applies to you all!
7. Lay off the botox, Jordan! Your face doesn't move properly!
8. The song is nothing special. I would rate Jesse McCartney's Leavin' over it.

I also see that Jason Mraz's I'm Yours is being released after how many years?

I still love it and I'll still date or marry any guy (err...within reason) who can sing this while holding a bunch of roses.
Is it wrong to stay I still prefer this version of the clip though?

Midweek drinks and how alcohol no longer makes me speak French

Well, despite it being a Tuesday, Dancinghula and Kt decided to go out to drinks to celebrate the return of one of their friends from overseas and catch up with Vinh. I decided to bring along my new French teacher, Gnoudesavanes (self-requested pseudonym, don't ask me to explain it) for the funs, to practice, and to show him the multi-drinking world that his this city. Well we had a lot of fun out drinking mulled wine and then some on the Rooftop bar followed by dinner in Chinatown where I came to a conclusion.

You know, there was a time when I used to think I could speak French relatively well. I mean, not perfectly fluently but passable enough that you could probably drop me in France and I'd be cool with it. Alcohol is also something I affectionately associate with my various times in Paris and there was period where drinking would make me speak French. It is apparent that those times have passed.

Je suis une traductrice merdique. Poor Gnoudesavanes (who speaks better English than I speak French) sat there while Vinh talked about squirting and....er...cats., things that I could in no way translate!!! And even when the conversation moved to more sedate conversation, I still couldn't explain whatever everyone wanted me to say into either French or English. *sob sob*.

But it's okay. Gnoudesavanes will be here until Oct, and I have until 2010 to perfect everything. It's achievable. But maybe with less alcohol.