move learn eat

I found these 3 delightful short 1 minute movies this weekend on Vimeo.   The background is....

"3 guys, 44 days, 11 countires, 18 flights, 38,000 miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food .... into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films... = a trip of a lifetime."

What a great experience.  I could think of worse ways to spend 44 days!!

Enjoy.

Do your recognise any places you may have travelled or lived in?

And how about learning something new?
Anything on your list you'd love to learn about?
(for me - learn to use my camera better, pastry making)

Wouldn't it be great to try all those wonderful foods.

Don't these make you want to get out there and try something new?

smile please

Pinterest

Any plans for the weekend?

The Huzz and Luca will be going to see the 'Avengers Assemble' movie - with a few other dad's and sons!  Boys night out!

Luca has his Saturday judo, and whilst he's practising I'm hoping we'll get to wander around the Portland Farmers' Market and pick up some fresh tasty treats.

We have a decorator coming to have a chat with us about some projects we'd like to get going on our new house.  Making our own stamp as soon as we can!

Rumour has it that the sun will be shining and that puts a smile on my face straight away.

I've put in a request to the Huzz to make Jamie Oliver's delicous chilli cheese corn bread for Sunday lunch, and hopefully we'll be sitting outside with a glass of crisp white wine enjoying the sunshine.

Wishing you a weekend that will make you smile.

my kind of movie

So looking foward to seeing this film with the talented and beautiful
French actress Audrey Tautou.


'Delicacy'

About true love found, (tragically) lost and (possibly) found again.

Looks funny, sad and just the kind of move I love.

this weekend we

watched two great movies.

'Beginners' with Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor and Melanie Laurent.  A 30 something man whose world is rocked by his widowed father announcing he has terminal cancer and that he also has a young male boyfriend. He meets the wonderful and unpredictable Anna just months after his father has died.  I enjoyed this movie so much.  It shows how funny life can be, even at the most despairing and saddening times.   Oh and there is a fantastic dog named Arthur too.

Congratulations to Christopher Plummer who just won a SAG award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for this movie.

'Sideways' is about two middle aged men adventuring on a weeklong road trip through the California wine region.  Disappointed with their lives, one depressed the other out for a wild time before his impending marriage.  Funny, sad and brilliantly acted. An excellent movie staring Paul Giamatti.

These are both so my kind of movies.   Any recommendations from you?

We also had another day trip to the coast on Saturday on yet another blue sky and sunshine day! So lucky in January. This time to Pacific City - with lunch at the great Pelican Brewery right at the beach.

Hope you had a relaxing weekend.

small packages are the best

Well, small packages wrapped in white paper with the inter-linking Cs discreetly printed on, and black Chanel ribbon.  Inside my fave No 5 perfume and with a little black wax seal on - parfum!   Just a teeny tiny dab needed.  Thanks Huzz.

And inside the Chanel gift bag were some very nice freebies from the Chanel Precision Sublimage range (all in a little travel case) together with perfume samples. Huzz must have put on the full charm to get such a bounty!

Don't you find that getting samples from the beauty counters is sometimes like pulling teeth?  There's a scene in one of my favourite movies 'Friends with Money' starring Jennifer Anniston, Catherine Keener, Francis McDormand and Joan Cusack - have you seen it?  Olivia (JA) is absolutely broke working as a maid. She visits a few department stores trying to get her hands on free samples of a new Lancome product. She's asking for one for herself and one for her 'friend', and oh how mean the sales stafff are with these precious little samples!   Is there some kind of rationing with these freebies do you know?!

Anyhow, another week has started which looks pretty full already.  Hope you had a great weekend.

the american

I watched 'The American' on the flight home from Singapore.  And I bought the dvd yesterday.  A great film, and not just because you can watch George Clooney (looking more gorgeous than ever I do believe) for 105 mins!

Direction is by the Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn (he has taken photographs of the bands U2 and REM and filmed music videos for Nirvana, Metallica, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, and very recently photographed the G-Star Raw campaign starring Liv Tyler - and much much more I'm sure). The filming, much of which is set in an Italian village, is wonderful.



The film has little dialogue (and some of that is Italian), but the excellent understated acting, non-action type thriller that it is, is filled with suspense and anticipation.  It's a little on the art-house movie style, and not to everyone's liking, but if you fancy trying something non-blockbuster style, I'd highly recommend it.  The close-ups of George (he who doesn't need a surname these days!) aren't bad either!

I won't spoil the plot for you if you haven't seen it (I've been told off for that before!).  But if you have seen it ... what did you think?

Not 2 much Sex in the City then

Finally, I got to see SATC2 yesterday evening.  I've tried to get to the movies a few times since its release, but it just hadn't worked out (sold out, no babysitter, too tired).

I've read the reviews and gossip going around in the blog world and I really wasn't expecting great things.... But I have to say I enjoyed it.  Yes, there was some awfully corny 'Carry On' kind of stuff going on in the desert and some of the one liners were so forced and emphasised that they felt wrong.

But....

I laughed out loud.  I cried (but not as much as in the first movie over Miranda and Steve and Carrie and Big.  This time it was with Charlotte  - what mother hasn't felt like locking herself in a room away from the kiddos when its all got too much, and Carrie (guilt after kissing Aidan).  I loved seeing Miranda "You are fun in Abu Dhabi" being so much more relaxed after quitting her job!  And I feasted my eyes on some gorgeous clothes.

This was one of my fav dresses, together with the green maxi dress Carrie wore in the last scene in the apartment with Big (but can't find a photograph anywhere)

Big and Carrie's apartment was gorgous.  Loved that sofa and armchairs, and the kitchen tiles.  Particulary loved the coffee table with high sides.

 

And of course I noticed that the Fabulous Four were looking a little older these days (which was quite comforting) and there wasn't actually much sex in the city going on at all really!

To Infinity and Beyond

We are so looking forward to the release of Toy Story 3 this summer.  It'll be great to see the return of Woody, Buzz, Mr Potato Head, Zurg, Jessie, Slinky, Ham and of course the little aliens again.

Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were Luca's favourite films from about 3 to 5 years old.  We are on our 2nd DVD as the first just about gave up through too much use and abuse!  He absolutely loved the characters, in particular Buzz Lightyear.  We'd know exactly where he was as "To Infinity and Beyond" could be heard loud and clear.  Springing through the air onto his bed, at the swimming pool, on the trampoline, jumping naked between two beds in a San Francisco hotel room (a great little movie clip I can tell ya!).  Yep, he had the full Buzz costume too which he wore to death.  A great costume for his first Halloween, excitedly running up and down the street with the world's supply of candy in his hands .  It is so worn through now, but one of those things I just can't throw out as it has so many great memories.

We have such a great collection of the toys.  Some were brand new like Woody and Buzz and Zurg (the first toys Luca actually asked to have), but others were picked up at a Goodwill store in the US for a couple of dollars each - Rex the dinosaur, Jessie the cowgirl, and Mr Potato head with a whole load of accessories (how could anyone give these away?).  We also have a bucket of soldiers and a barrel of monkeys that link together.  Our little aliens were found via ebay.  You could say we are fans!

We visited Walt Disney World a couple of years back and stayed at the 'All Star Movies' hotel.  Luca was overwhelmed before we'd even set foot in the Magic Kingdom.   In amongst the hotel accommodation are the most enormous statues of Toy Story characters - as tall as the 3 storey hotel.  For a 5 year old Buzz crazy boy, this was heaven.  Actually, for us adults it was pretty fantastic too.  Here's a few of our photos.

Now I see there are a whole range of new toy characters lined up for Toy Story 3.  Ken is there as a little love interest for Barbie, a hedgehog named Mr Pricklepants, Trixie the Triceratops, a cuddly unicorn named Buttercup and a cuddly bear and Dolly.   I can see more toys will be making their way into our toybox this summer. 

I have no doubt Toy Story 3 will be a huge hit in our house.  Maybe even Ruby will take an interest and all the toys will come out of their storage box for the 2nd time round.  I'm pretty sure these toys will never be left behind or passed on - they are with us for life.

Do you or your children have a favourite children's movie? 

Children's movies coming up

There's are some really great children's movies (for grown-up children as well) coming out over the next year. Normally here in the Netherlands, movies are released later than in the US (or UK) so many of you will get to see them before us, but we shall wait patiently! Our first hits the movie theatre next week.... UP! - I can so imagine my son Luca roaring with laughter at this movie. (They went on Sunday. They really enjoyed this movie (a little sad at the beginning which they weren't expecting). They ate too much popcorn and Maltesers and Coke - as usual. Now they keep pointing and saying "squirrel" and laughing).

A Christmas Carol - I'm not a big Jim Carey fan I have to say, but this looks like a great Christmas movie, and especially as it's directed by Robert Zemeckis who also did The Polar Express (one of my very favourite Christmas movies). A little bit scary for children maybe (PG rating), but hopefully this classic Charles Dickens story - first published on 19th December 1843 - will become another great Disney movie.

Where the Wild Things Are - A lovely book by Maurice Sendak first published in 1963, with just ten sentences in the whole book! This movie is directed by Spike Jonze and the colours look gorgeous and the monsters just perfect. In the Netherlands (where I think this book is less well known) the title is "Max and the Maximonsters"! I have just seen in the current issue of Cookie magazine an idea for a Max costume for Halloween that looks so simple and quite cute.

The Fantastic Mr Fox - Roald Dahl's stories are Luca's favourites right now and the Fantastic Mr Fox is next on the list and should probably be read before we see the movie. Looking forward to hearing the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray et al, in Wes Andersen's first animated movie.

Toy Story 3 - Toy Story and Toy Story 2 have been HUGE favourties for Luca since he was about 2 years old. We have a home movie of him on a trip to San Francisco, at our hotel, jumping (naked) from one bed to another shouting out "To infinity and beyond" !! He has all the toy characters and only last week they were all played with again, after being stored away for a good year or so. We will all be so excited to see Woody and Buzz on the big screen again - although still 1 year to go!

I can see plenty of popcorn and Maltesers being eaten with all the above to see!

Parcel in the post

This evening my latest order from Amazon arrived. I know that it was me who placed the order, but I still find it exciting to open the parcel and look and feel the lovely new purchases. This time they are:

• Jamie's America - the newest cookbook by Jamie Oliver on his travels in the US.
• Downtown Chic - designing your dream home book by Robert & Cortney Novogratz.
• Volume One by She & Him - CD
• Lullaby - CD (for Ruby)
• The Fantastic Mr Fox, Danny Champion of the World and the Twits - by Roald Dahl (Luca's favourite author - and what a great website Mr Dahl has)
• The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child (for Ruby when she's a bit older)
• E.T. the movie (for family film time)

I will post some reviews soon. Now I'm off to start reading......