The Usual Suspects

Last night we watched the Usual Suspects. I have never seen this movie before and when I originally heard about it I didn't think much of it.


I have to say that I thought it was a great movie. It was succicnt and very well written. There are a lot of killings, but the storyline gets you hooked and you can look past all that. The best part was so little swearing. If a movie like this was made now, they would be swearing the whole way through it. The twist at the end is well played. You don't entirely see it coming but it slowly dawns on you in the final interaction with the coppers.

I thought Kevin Spacey's performance was brillance. I have never been a huge fan of his, but after this I have to say that I am a lot more impressed by him.

If you haven't seen this movie I highly recommend it. I feel that movies these days seem to lack something. They are either remakes, sequels or childrens movies. If something is "original" it is still taking from other movies. It is a little disappointing to see movies go this way with only a hope that movies can get better without all the dribble.

Daytona Christmas

For everyone at Daytona Christmas is the busiest time for us becasue everyone else is having their Christmas parties. So we celebrate in the New Year.
Our Christmas party was held on the 5th, a couple of days ago. It was going to be held at the Milton Keynes site, but something happened so we ended up having it at Manchester. We were all looking forward to going somewhere else, but things happen.
All the staff raced and we added everyone's points together to determine which venue was the best. Turns out it is the Sandown Park venue, but Manchester kicked butt in the Pitstop challenge, so it wasn't all bad. The actual race was one by one of the Manchester marshalls so that waspretty good. There are a lot of funny stories and incidents that have come out of the day but there isn't much point in me telling you because you pretty much had to be there.
After the racing we all went back to the hotel to get ready to go out for dinner. We went to a place called Opus which is in the centre of town. It was a Christmas party so we did get crackers. There was Banrock Station wine on the table which I thought was fantastic, I got to continue my Banrock theme which was great.
To eat I had salmon to start, then lemon chicken and finished with apple and pear crumble. The food was amazing and I keep thinking about the salmon.
Once the feasting had finished we moved into a private room for dancing and singing. Thats right, there was karaoke. I managed to get up and sing Down Under. I had to rub it in about the cricket, though not so many cricket fans at Daytona. It was a great evening with lots of dancing and drinking. Everyone was pretty well behaved and there were no fights or embarrasing moments.
We got back to the hotel about 3 in the morning, some continued to party while the rest of us went to bed. Unfortunately for some of the Manchester staff, we had to work the next day, bummer.
Overall it was a great Christmas do. I look forward to the next one.

Christmas and New Year

We had a really nice Christmas. It was only the two of us so it was pretty quiet. We did have a full on Christmas meal though. We went all out. It started with prwan cocktails. For main we had a roast turkey and vegetables. We had a Banrock Station theme with our wines which was very nice, I highly recommed them for everyone. Dessert was Christmas pudding with cream.
Presents included perfume, aftershave, an Australian Rugby League Jersey (will come in very handy for Australia Day), jewellery, books, calendar and clothes. It was great to speak to my family and also hear my nephew for the first time. I got a little emotional when I heard him, but managed to keep it together. I haven't felt too homesick which has been good. I have been getting a dose of Home and Away as well as Neighbours.
Andrew found out he passed his uni subject for this semester as well so that was some extra great news for us.
New Years Eve was a quiet one for us as well. We started early but drank one bottle of beer an hour so we didn't really get very drunk. We did drink a bottle of Champagne at 12 though. At 12 fireworks started going off all over the place so we went outside to have a look and there were people all over the place yelling happy New Year. As people were driving passed they were beeping their horns and waving out the window. It was a nice way of celebrating. We are thinking that next New Year we might spend it in New York. We haven't completely decided but it would be pretty cool to do that.

Passed

I passed my uni subject this semester, YAY! It was a big relief yesterday when I checked my email to receive the one from the uni, slowly scrolling down with a big sigh of relief at the bottom. I was pretty confident I had passed, but it was good to have that confirmed. Lets hope the rest of my dgree goes as well.
I would like to pay tribute here to a lady by the name of Bea Te Raki. I worked with Bea the whole time I was with Mission Australia and she was the nicest person I worked with and she was incredible helpful when I needed it. Sadly she passed away a couple of weeks ago and she will be greatly missed by many people.

Carols by Candlelight

Last night we got into the Christmas spirit and went to a carols by candlelight service. It was held in a Catholic church near the university. It was a beautiful old church. It was also a Catholic service. TI was pretty moving, but the Catholics do really put a lot into their services. I wasn't too sure about what they do with the bible. They kneeled before it and held it up for everyone to admire and then waved incense over it before reading from it. I felt some of the servie was a little over the top. At the end of the service they put a spotlight on to the picture of Mary and everyone looked at it for awhile. Andrew wasn't too impressed, but I thought it was a beautiful service and I was very glad I went. It made it definite in my mind that I want to get into teaching and what I am doing now is not something I want to stay doing.
The carols were the traditional ones so I knew them. I thought they might have songs I didn't know. They even had a Bishop presiding over the service so that was pretty cool. I don't think I will be going to another Catholic service anytime soon. I will be going to church on Christmas day but it will be a Methodist service. It will be interesting to contrast the two services.
I miss the big outdoor carols services. Unfortunately it is too cold to have something like that here. It is funny, I didn't think I had any traditions that I upheld, but every year I watch the Carols in the Domain, or I am there and I always watch the Melbourne carols on Christmas Eve. I am hoping they might have something like that here so that I can have something to watch on Christmas Eve. Going to the carols last night has really put me in the mood for Christmas, I just have to get everyone else at work to get in the mood and have carols playing, so far it isn't working.
A couple of nights ago Andrew and I watched Carry on Christmas. For those of you who know about the Carry On series then you can just imagine what this was like. Not exactly hilarious, but a good laugh. They did one in 1969 and one in 1972, we have both,next week we will probably watch the next one, see if it just as good. The one in 1969 was filmed in front of an audience so there was a lot of playing to the audience, but it was not too bad.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!