Zorro

To avoid remaining a recluse all week, I have agreed to head out to the cinema despite my cold. Moldova wanted to see Zorro before the rest of her countrymen. I know for a fact that Obi Wan loved the first film, so we make a night of it and have, The Kiwi, The Bulgarian Bride, Obi Wan, Moldova and me.

Since everyone except me works in the Bijlmer, we decide to go to Pathe Arena:



Don't let the photo fool you folks. If Amsterdam ever need an enema, they will stick the tube in the Bijlmer. I'm not often this far out of Amsterdam. I've been plenty times before, but you always forget how horrible scaffolding and concrete can look. I don't often use Amsterdam's metro system so it's a bit of an adventure to get there. Anytime I've been on the metro I've not been on the underground bit, so bizarrely makes me feel like I'm travelling.

People arrive in dribs and drabs, coming from thier various large concrete buildings. Obi Wan is very surprised to see us. He hadn't realised we were going to the cinema as well. He's just back from a week in Bulgaria. I ask how it was. It was amazing aparently, he bought some star wars lego. So much for Shopska Salata, Rakia and spekaing your mother tongue - maybe when he's a little older. So, popcorn in hand, we head to see Zorro:



From the onset, the film is pure cheese. It's wonderfully tongue in cheek. Somersaults for no reason during sword fighting. Fighing while holding a baby - all the rest. Any close ups of Catherine Zeta Jones feature fuzzy filter's which make it look like something out of gone with the wind(Either that or she write this requirment into her contract).

There's some good lines, great fights, great comedy moments. Everyone enjoys it, including Obi Wan, which is the real test. On coming out of the cinema, The Kiwi asks:

"You gonna trade in your light saber for a sword, bro. "
Immediatly Obi Wan has already thought of the answer:
"NO!!"

Zorro's good, but the light saber still wins.

We head back by Metro and call in on a bar I used to drink in for a few bedtime beers:



It´s a great old place for a good beer, and it´s wooden cosiness and candlelight is perfect for the mingingly drizzley weather outside. We are all pretty ill or tired and we don´t stay for long. I take Moldova home while The Kiwi heads off for his bike. As we leave the bar, I can´t help likeing the small of the fresh rain as we are huddled under the umbrella. It reminds me of Scotland. Good honest rain.

I get the tram home trundling along to my iPod and reading a book. I´m sure we all fall asleep to dreams of sword fighting and latino beauties.....

Deadline met and DVD

So finally after about 12 days of working non-stop we meet our deadline.
Instead of hitting the bars, I´m due for dinenr and a DVD in Diemen again. We´re planning to see the rest of the Commitments.

There is a Taiwanese/American coupel coming roudn too. They were at the house warming party, so I´ve met them before. Obi Wan is as usual bouncing off the ceiling. I´m a little worse for ware and looking forward to my bed, but I accepted the invite to keep me out of the pub, and it worked.

We have a Bulgarian dish which seems to be a cross between mince and Tatties and Lasagne, it´s kind of stacked mince meat and potatoes. It really fills a hole, and I feel much better afterwards.

By now Obi Wan is showered and in bed,and we settle down to watch the Commitments. We stay awake past the first half hour this time and everyone agress that it´s a pretty good film. I head off early to look foward to my first long lie in weeks.

Boysitting

The blog has been seriously neglected of late. I didn't take my computer to Bulgaruia, which meant I had that backlog, and then there was dublin. I have a huge deadline at work, so I've basically been working every hour that I'm not asleep. It's been a long while since I've done that, and at first it feels good. A real comraderia and team work, but by Saturday(Today) I'm quite glad when the Bulgarian Newly wed asks me to baby sit. It avoids me going out for a drink with some other mates, as I know that this tired, stressed and over worked, it will be a very suick trip to drunken oblivion, and a less than fresh head for work on sunday.

I take a quick trip to the public library roudn the corner from my work and pick up a few DVD's for entertainment.

One time a while ago I was baby sitting Obi Wan Kenobov when he was a little younger. Somemone phoned me and I said I was baby sitting. He was very angry when I got off the phone:

"I no baby. You tell people you boy sitting. Okay??"

Anyway. Now he's pretty chuffed when I come round as it usually means he gets to play Lord of The Rings on my powerbook:



I'm not much one for computer games. I don't think I;ve been past level 1 of Mario Bros, because the first tiem I get killed, I decide I've lost interest. Lord of the Rings however is a differrent kettle of taters.(Boil em, mash em, put em in a pot.) Not only has it always been a fantasy of mine to pretend I'm aragorn, Legolas, gandalf or one of the boys, it's on my beloved apple, so It's even more fun. I bought the game to get through a round of boring conerences ages back and I completed it not long after. Obi Wan, however, still loves playing it, so I usually take it round when I'm visiting. But we keep that till later when I go round.

I decided that I could just veg in front of some DVD's. I always like to take round good kids DVD's. I remember vividly enjoying certain films when I was a kid, so I'm pretty good at picking out DVD's that a Star wars, and Lord of the Rings loving 7 yr old will appreciatte. He loved the Goonies, and once he's a wee bit older I hope he'll appreciatte the lost boys. So today from the Library, I have the Princess Bride:



In the library I wanted to get willow, but I couldn't find it. I had phoned Nine Inch Nina as an escape from work and she had been over the moon at the prospect of watching willow and I thought it would be a good option, but it'll have to wait till next time.

I remember watching the Princess Bride when I was a kid. Me and my sister were getting Babysat, and the man babysitting us brought round this video. We'd never heard of it, and basically thoought "What's this crap??(In 7 yr old thoughts of course).

The film starts with the boy from the wonder years(Fred Savage) moaning cos he's sick and his Grandpa has decided that he's going to read a book. The koid, being a thouroughly modern boy prefers to play his nintendo entertainment system and thinks that books don't have the same excitment. He interupts all the way through the introduction about how it's a love story and he doesn't want to hear about kissing. Then of course by the ene he's compeltely won over and thinks that love is an important part of the tale provoiding you have major elements of Jim Henson style monsters and swashbuckling and fights and stuff.

It's a great movie for kids and the script has enough adult and clever humour in it to keep things alive. That and the cameo of Peter Cook as a priest with a speech impedement makes it a cracking film. Obi Wan agrrees and by the end is shouting:

"I am Inio Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die!!!"

So another success in the DVD choice.

After DVD, it's dinner. His mum has made some good Bulgarian soup and her attempt at a scottish dish called "Mince and Tatties"It tastes magnificant, but this may be cos it's my first real meal since I was in Ireland.

After dinner, it´s the inevitable 2 hours of Lord of the Rings playing, where Obi Wan´s eyes get so wide he looks like he´s on something. I have to admit, that I quite enjoy it to. Eventually it´s time for his bed, and I instantly crash out on the couch until his mum gets home.

She´s had a good night at a party and we sit down to watch the Commitments:



I´ve loved the Commitments, sonce I first saw it. I love any film that shows the rise and fall of a band. But this one has the added value that it´s funny too.

It´s about 2am and we last 30 minutes into the film til I decide it would be better left for another night. I head off and enjoy the long cycle home in the refreshing chill of the almost autumn night.

Queens Day

IMG_1731
Originally uploaded by furbyx4.

Ah. Queen's Day in Amsterdam. People selling crap on the streets, people buying crap on the streets, everybody partying everybody drunk, canal boats all over the prinsengracht, compulsory wearing of orange, something to do with the queen mother's birthday.

The photo is Vondelpark which was absolutely packed. A friend's kid was selling old toys, so I became the lucky owner of a burst tennis ball.