Everyone at work is busying themselves at the moment. Years of documentation and school supplies are being unearthed from storage spaces and backroom cupboards as the senior part of the school makes a huge move to another learning area. The shifting of several classrooms, and all of that goes with it, is no small feat, and I am amazed at how swiftly and smartly this move has happened.
Thank goodness for the resilient and willing senior students and staff, who have all pitched in to make this transition run as smoothly as possible. I must say, that after only two days, the new area is shaping up to look mighty fine and completely workable. My generous team have even allocated me a terrific new 'nook' under the stairs, which may not sound that great, but it is far more spacious than the space that Harry Potter had, and a lot more private and cosy than the space that I previously had, so I am actually really pleased. The kids that I work with are super keen to get into that space and start working again, so the novelty of a new area could actually work in my favour. 
The proposed new learning areas will be amazing, and are certainly something to look forward to for next year. In the meantime, it's all in together - never mind the weather - for the next semester at least, and although this transition will ruffle a few feathers along the way, I am pretty sure that we can make it work. We have a good strong team that can rely on each other and I think that that is the magic formula that will see us all through this.
Only a couple of days until the end of another term and the halfway point of the school year. The final stretch leading up to a term break is always extremely hectic, so this is not new territory for any of us, but it is definitely a different way to end things. They say that change is as good as a holiday, and I am getting a good dose of both at the moment, so win-win.
I am really looking forward to this winter break, I have so many people to catch up with and things to get done, but I also just want a few sleep ins, some movie watching time and some curl up with a cuppa and a novel time. Zoe is celebrating her 20th birthday on Friday, (where did that 20 years go?) so that will be the kick off for these holidays. Can't wait to get the break started!

MOANA
Release Date: 2016
Rating: PG
Running Time: 113 mins
A sweeping CG animated adventure from Disney that boldly goes where no other Disney Princess movie has ever gone before by leaving out the love interest and giving the heroine total control over her own destiny. Yes, that's right, no prince character to be seen anywhere and a good dash of feminism that doesn't feel forced or heavy handed at all. 
A daring teenager named Moana is chosen by her ancestors and the sea to engage in a quest that will save the many islands of Oceania from wasting away. She must enlist the help of the mighty demigod Maui in order to fulfil her mission, but this demigod is not easy to wrangle. 
I was completely swept up in the exciting adventure and pace of this movie. The animation is incredible, the voice actors are perfectly cast, the soundtrack is fantastic and the character of Moana couldn't be more adorable. Disney have hit a bullseye here, Moana is right on the mark and very forward thinking. I far preferred this to Frozen, which I found intensely over-rated, and I was so relieved to see that the Disney Princess genre had fully redeemed itself in such a pleasant way. 
FINAL SAY: If you wear a dress and you have an animal sidekick, you're a princess.
4 Chilli Peppers ​

For three days from sunset on June 20th the Mid-Winter Solstice occurs. It is sometimes also called Yule or Alban Arthuan, and it's origins pre-date all organised religions. When early humans first saw the sun at its lowest point and all of the earth's vegetation was dead or dying, they feared that the light of the sun and life would not return to them. A tradition of lighting great bonfires began; lit torches would decorate evergreen trees that had been dragged into caves and homes (that's how the humble Christmas tree got its beginnings) and loved ones would gather in closely to shelter from the cold and gaze upon the light from those torches to remind themselves that light would return again one day soon and the earth would be green again.
These days it is clearly nothing nearly as dramatic as that, because science has taught us that the Mid-winter Solstice simply symbolizes the least amount of daylight hours, or the darkest days of the year. The sun never really gets very high in the sky at this time of the year, so the dawn occurs much later and the sunsets much earlier, making things seem very dreary indeed. On the upside, once we are past the darkest days we have much to look forward to. Days will now begin to get longer, the earth will start to awaken from it's Autumn and Winter slumbering and slowly, day by day we will move towards the warmer and brighter moments of Spring.
Every year Helen and I get together to celebrate this turning of the season, it has become somewhat of a tradition for us. This year we made a variety of homemade soups and a butterscotch pudding to enjoy by the light of many candles with a few generous libations of good wine. There is nothing like the comfort of home, a good friend, a loving family, some homemade comfort food, tasty wine and a cosy environment to push back the darkness and to keep you heading forward towards brighter days. For that I am truly blessed, because without these comforts in my life right now, this Mid-Winter Solstice would have swallowed me whole. 

SPIRITED AWAY 
Release Date: 2001
Rating: PG
Running Time: 125 mins
Hayao Miyazaki brings to life all of magic and intrigue of another world in this visually pleasing animation movie. If you are looking for PIXAR then don't look here, this is a delicate body of work with a whimsical soundtrack that enhances the refined animation style.
The film follows the adventures of 10 year old Chihiro as she delves into a fantasy world full of spirits, she's on a quest to save her parents who have been turned into pigs by the evil witch Yubaba. She encounters many weird and wonderful characters through her employment at the spirit bath house and must call on her inner courage and bravery, to overcome the many challenges that stand between her reunification with her parents. 
It is an intelligent piece of children's cinema and perplexing even to some adults,  a worthy watch. 
FINAL SAY: You'll be spirited away.
4.5 Chilli Peppers ​

It is so hard to be demonstrative of love when you are an emotional cripple. As I said a few posts ago, everyone has their own specific love language, but regardless of what your love language is, you still need to be able to demonstrate it so that it can be given and taken in equal measure. 
Loving and being able to be loved is a true art form. It is something that one needs to feel to be able to reciprocate, and that is quite a difficult thing to do for many of us. Speaking for myself, I love to love and I love to be loved, but it has taken me years to master the art of loving.
No, I am not talking about The Kama Sutra, that's the art of love-making, a skill which I also happen to be very fond of, but what I am referring to is the emotional aspect of love. That feeling of connectedness, fondness and belonging that comes from a mutual, meaningful, loving relationship. It's the stuff that makes the world seem brighter, the difficulties more tolerable and when it is at it's grandest,  it shines with more light than a thousand suns. 
Lately I have been getting a lot of love from people that were picking up on my 'stuck' vibe from my last post, and it has certainly helped me to find a pathway out of the forest. Friends and family have been very supportive, and if you are one of those people reading this right now, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is your love, kindness and time that has helped me and restored my faith in humanity. Ahh, love. If we could buy it bottled, I would drink it everyday.
I was online earlier and was looking up the actual meaning of 'love' as defined by the dictionary because I thought that it might make a good discussion point when I stumbled on this terrific little piece from the urban dictionary. It is written by some love struck dude called Sabes and I just had to share it with you all.
​
Love is the greatest gift God ever gave man. Love is not wanting to go anywhere without her. Love is not caring what other people think about the two of you. Love is when you feel depressed and sickly when you're not with her. You feel like your life has no meaning or purpose without her. And that if she wasn't holding your hand you would float away to heaven from where she came. Love is caring for her physically and emotionally. It's telling her everyday, anytime, anywhere, anyhow, for no just reason that you love her. Love is telling her u want to spend the rest of your life with her. Love is wanting to marry her even tho ya'll haven't been dating that long. That you would do anything and everything for her. It's the feeling that you would give up everything just to see her smile or look into her beautiful eyes or hear her soft, soothing voice. Love is pure happiness. Love is the feeling you get when all you have to do is think of her and it brings a smile to your face and a yearning to your heart. Love is not being able to think about nothing but her. Love is having the sweetest dreams about her and waking up with a smile on ur face. Love is an overwhelming feeling of pure bliss when the 2 of u kiss. Love is wanting to hold her in ur arms till the end of time. Love is wishing ur time with her never ends, that your lips would be locked together forever, that she'd be in ur arms till the end of time, that u could cuddle with her for all of eternity. Love is being helplessly and deeply in love with her and knowing your love for her and your feelings for her will never change/end. Love is the world, the world is love, and she is the world to me.

And what more can I say Sabes? You nailed it man, you really nailed it. 

Sometimes we all need to take a good hard look at ourselves. Physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually; and we need to be really honest about what we see when we do that. Questions that none of us really like to address about ourselves arise when we do this, and they are usually the best guides to initiating positive change and movement when we find ourselves in those tricky 'stuck' moments of our lives. 
I have been feeling 'stuck' a lot this year. More 'stuck' than I have been in other years. And by stuck I mean treading over the same old ground and allowing myself to fall into a negative mindset about myself. Suddenly incidental and fleeting things seem like big things, my life feels meaningless, I overthink everything and I start to sap all of the joy out of my own life. That's right, I sap all of the joy out, no-one else does it, it's me that does all of the over-thinking, no-one else. Which is super stupid and mostly annoying because I cannot blame anyone else for it either. This is a self made condition, a state of mind that is mine and mine alone. 
The thing that bothers me the most about this, is that I cannot pinpoint exactly what it was that made me feel this way. In truth I don't think that it was just one thing that got the ball rolling for me, but more a series of little things over a period of time that built up like twigs on a pile and before I knew it, I had a dam across my river and I wasn't  going with the flow anymore.
In short, I am stuck, stagnated and full of self doubt. I have done this many times before, but never for as long and I have never felt quite so stuck as I do now. I know that when I do get like this for too long it is anything but positive, and the only way to get out of it is to have a complete reboot of the system; a cleansing of the river, if you will. 
So that is where I am now, realising that I am stuck and thinking about the best way to remove my dam and re-establish my flow, for want of a better word. Probably need to set myself some new goals, reassess my life choices and prioritise what is important and what is not. It has been a really big year for me, because a lot of things have changed around me, and I haven't been going with the flow of change, I have been fighting against the current like a salmon desperately swimming upstream. This is always the worst thing to do when change arrives, but it is my nature to resist change, so naturally like the salmon, I go to my default menu and select the 'go the other way' button. Clearly unwise, but what can I say, I am a creature of habit and I do stupid things sometimes. 
Recognising that I am stuck is always the first step to becoming unstuck, but it's not like a light switch that I can just flick off and boom, all is good and right in the world again. And for some reason, every time that I get stuck, I get stuck for longer and much deeper as well; it's like all of the other times don't really go away, they just lie there dormant until the next time I get stuck and then rise up again to add some more fuel to the fire. 
Wow, that really sounds crazy doesn't it? But I know that it is not crazy, because everyone gets stuck from time to time in their lives, and it is okay to admit that you are from time to time also. Nobody wants to admit that they have got their crazy thinking engaged, locked and loaded, but it is totally okay to admit it. One thing that I have learnt from being stuck as many times as I have been is that it is not crazy, and it is okay to feel out of balance, out of the rhythm of life and stuck. Pretending that you are not stuck is so damn hard and generally it is also really abusive to the self as well because if people don't realise that you are feeling like that (and most people have no idea unless you actually have a full blown nervous breakdown) then they just keep adding sticks to your dam without meaning to and then suddenly you are more stuck than ever.  
I am just really stuck at the moment, but I am aware, as I always am, that it too will pass, just like all of my other moments of self doubt and insecurity, they are transient. It's just time to reboot, restock and re-align myself, which is exactly what I am going to do. 

When you are as cinema obsessed as I am, you tend to not only be interested in your own viewing pleasures, but also in the pleasures of other people's viewings. I find myself regularly engaging in conversations with people about what they have seen lately and what they have enjoyed. I am always on the lookout for something good to watch, so I genuinely like it when people offer me their recommendations.
Do I always concur with their choices? No! Of course not! And I know for a fact that they don't always agree with mine either. To be fair, I have already seen around 150 films this year and only 40 of them rated 3 Chili Peppers or higher and landed on my blog, so it could be said that a lot of what I see, I don't actually like that much. 
Is that because I am a tough critic? I don't really think that I am, I just think that there are a lot of really lousy movies and TV programs out there to wade through to get to the really good stuff. Aren't ya lucky that you've got me to do all the dirty work for you? 
Obviously, you can click on any genre list on Spicywatch.com to get a look at my latest movie recommendations, but TV is a different story. I don't have a TV tab, so I do feel that it is my duty to keep you all updated on the good stuff that I have been watching on the small screen from time to time. 
My top picks for 2017 small screen (so far) are:
Atlanta (SBS)
Big Little Lies (Foxtel) 
Twin Peaks (Stan) 
Feud: Bette and Joan (Foxtel) 
The Strange Calls (Stan)
Pramface (Stan) 
Getting On (Netflix) 
The Night Manager (SBS) 
Uncle (Stan)
​Vikings (SBS) 
Angie Tribeca (Stan) 
Workaholics (Foxtel and Stan) 
Sherlock (Stan) 
​Better Call Saul (Stan) 
No activity (Stan) 
Girls - Final Season (Foxtel) 
Orange is the New Black (Netflix and Foxtel)
Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix)
Please note: many of these programs are not in their first season, but many can be viewed from their first season on most platforms if you do need a catch up.
Hard to believe that I can fit so many TV shows in when I watch as many movies as I do, but hey, where there's a will, there's a way!  And mostly that will is a lot of late nights.

This long weekend couldn't have come at a more opportune moment because this term has just about squeezed out all of my 'nice and kind' resources right out of me. I have breached that point when I am feeling exceptionally frayed around the edges and moved into the realms of mayhem and madness. And it's not just me either, it's everyone. Everyone that I speak to is feeling fed up at the moment; and it appears that even the most hearty and reliable individuals and relationships are being put to the test this year.
Everyone that I speak to at work is completely over the daily grind, and a few things have been said to me in passing over the last few weeks that have left me feeling a bit battle sore. Even the kids are beyond ridiculous at the moment, some of them douching it up to epic proportions and to top it all off, the weather is getting colder by the day as we make our descend to the darkest night of the year, the mid-winter solstice. 
To say that I have been having a bit of a 'dark night of the soul' episode lately would be an understatement. I have most definitely not been on my A game, on any front in my life that I can think of, and it has left me feeling as flat as a busted tyre. At every turn I feel like I am facing adversity and despair, so yeah, I was really glad to relish in three days of self indulgence for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.
God Bless the Queen I say, because if this long break hadn't happened when it did I may have gone and booked myself into the nearest mental asylum for a good hard cuddle in a very tight jacket. Yeah, I was really getting that desperate for some quality respite and blurry eyed oblivion. It is amazing how quickly the little things can really build up to create a type of all consuming monster. I read a quote the other day that summed it up perfectly for me - 
Time is a funny thing, nothing seemed to change, but suddenly, everything was different.
I have no idea who said it, but that's how things quite often feel for me. It's like suddenly I have entered a new phase of myself, but I have no idea how I got there, or what I did that got me there, but boom - I'm there!  That probably makes no sense whatsoever, but I am out of my mind, so there is that.
​Anyway, clearly this long weekend is a god send right now and hopefully I will be able to recharge my stupidly broken and flat battery enough to see me through until the end of this semester. 

It is during these difficult times of unrest in the world, that people start seeking out someone to blame for the atrocities, they do it without really thinking and they do it  in an attempt to alleviate their concerns. With the string of recent terrorist attacks in the western world, we have all suddenly been forced to pay attention to a problem that we had yet again, allowed to be pushed to the back of our minds.
Even though extremist and terrorist movements are ongoingly killing hundreds of civilians across the globe, we don't hear about it on a daily basis. The media isn't publicizing the ongoing horrors of the middle east, and that has given us the luxury to not consider all of deaths in places like Syria or Afghanistan from the ongoing battles. However, it is ongoing, whether we think about it or not.
​To put it into perspective, so far this year there have been 544 terrorist attacks across the globe, resulting in 3704 fatalities. Because we don't really hear about these daily bombings and deaths, we don't really think about them either; it's out of sight and out of mind for us and we are generally pretty comfortable with that scenario because, let's be honest,  it is easier to just not know. That is until the threat starts to move a little closer to home, that's when we pay attention. When people from our own country are dying, then suddenly our heads are turned and our concerns of a possible threat becomes very real and very personal and our thoughts start to ponder our own safety, and for many the question is raised - who should be held responsible for these acts of terror?
​It has become increasing difficult to ignore the threat of insurgencies like Al Qaeda and Isis and their extremist terrorism tactics, but we cannot allow their behaviours to dictate our common sense and our decency. We must not only remain vigilant to stamping out these oppressive regimes, but we must also remain sensitive to the pressures that these types of tactics place on muslim communities in general; and the difficulties that arise for muslims on a day to day basis as a direct result of these extremist attacks. 
Just the other day I was being taken by taxi to collect a rental car, my driver was a muslim gentleman from Pakistan. He had opted to wear a beanie instead of his turban on that morning because it was the day following the Ariana Grande concert attack in Manchester. He said that he, his friends and his family were all concerned about the backlash that they may be facing in light of recent events. He said that the pressure and prejudices are always very intense for them after these types of things happen, and now that the public are aware that most of these western attacks are being undertaken by western muslim extremists, then that pressure on them is even higher again. 
It is most certainly a time to present a united front against these terrorist groups, but our fight must not be misguided or misdirected, we cannot let our fear become our undoing, we cannot let hate in, and on that front I do worry. I worry because fear makes people irrational and desperate for someone to blame, but we must remember that this recent rise in westernised terrorist attacks is not  just a western problem, it is a global problem, it always has been, and we must find a way through it on a global level.
Now more than ever, it is the time to open our doors to the oppressed and the beaten down people of this world and to say that we will together fight this tyranny. It is the time to share in compassion and empathy, to build bridges not walls, to share our resources and to not let the hate of these terrorist minorities spread any further than it already has. It is time to hold true to our humanity, stay strong in our dignities and determinedly reinforce our common ground. That is the only way that we can truly defeat the extremists that we are all facing in the world today - without the fear that they so desperately want to strike upon us, but by standing tall- side by side -together - as one. 

Spicywatch.com had it's 3rd birthday celebration last night. With almost 650 movie reviews and over 300 blog entries, my guilty couchsurfing pleasures are slowly turning into an almanac of 'what to watch before you die.' To commemorate the evening, a terrific group of individuals gathered together, in spite of the bitterly cold evening, to share their favourite movie montages. There is really nothing better than a good movie montage, and we had some rippers in the mix to enjoy. 
Comedy classics like Zoolander, Easy A, School of Rock and of course the brilliantly hilarious "gonna need a montage" montage from Team America made the cut. As did Donnie Darko, The Watchmen, American Beauty, Marie Antoinette, Dirty Dancing, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Moonrise Kingdom, Rocky and the extremely sad montage from Pixar's Up, which was actually chosen by four people as their favourite movie montage. I even managed to toss in a little horror with the boredom montage from Dawn of the Dead. Overall it was a great celebration of all great montages and spectacular cinema, which was a very fitting way to salute spicywatch's third year of existence. 
​Again, I cannot thank my readers enough for their continued readership and willingness to repeatedly click on and happily read the rantings of a mad woman from time to time. I hope that over the last three years I have managed to assist you with finding enjoyable new movies to experience though my own cinematic endeavours and I do hope that you will continue to visit spicywatch.com for your viewing needs for many days to come. 
A million thanks to my wonderful friends and family for supporting me with my blog through their continued reading efforts, their regular comments on my  blog posts and for helping me to celebrate my small and yet deeply meaningful spicywatch events with good humour and loads of light hearted fun. May the years ahead be paved in many more shared cinematic experiences and many more laughs as I forge ahead with my web page in an aim to get to 1001 reviews (and possibly beyond?)  in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
And finally to all spicywatch supporters, whoever you are and wherever you may be, I thank you and I adore you. Like me, you obviously love movies and that puts us on the same page from the get go. Anyone that is watching great cinema and wants to talk about it, is a friend of mine! Please keep on watching; and from the bottom of my heart, thank you all for validating spicywatch.com and supporting me as well as you do, it really means the world to me xxxxx.