So much for having a quiet holiday break, today is the first day that I haven't had anything on. Not that I want to complain because it's not like I'm doing it hard, shopping and family time is hardly a chore!
I spent a good part of the weekend in the kitchen prepping for Zoe's seventeenth birthday. It is a tradition in our home that on your birthday you get to have whatever you want for dinner. Usually I opt to go out since I generally do most of the cooking, which I clearly must be pretty good at since everyone else chooses a three course extravaganza that I get lumbered with cooking. It can be an adventure for me, often I am cooking things for the first time, which can be very risky, but I am always up for the challenge.
So, Saturday and Sunday I shopped and prepped what I could. Zoe had asked for a pecan pie instead of a cake, which was a different choice, but pie is the best comfort food in Winter and I do make a mean pie. Pil Pil prawns for starters and an assortment of beef and chicken tacos in hard and soft shells for the main course. Quite possibly the weirdest combination of foods in history, but that's what you get with teens - weirdness.
The big day was Monday and after opening an assortment of beautiful and insanely generous gifts, my parents came over to celebrate with Zoe. We had a homemade soup for lunch and a giant cream filled chocolate sponge which my mum purchased from Rosehart's bakery, I can't claim that one. By the time they left, Zoe was so cashed up with birthday money that it had started to make her edgy, the shops were calling! So she spent the arvo shopping with her boyfriend and we all spent the evening eating too much food and all hanging out together. I am so lucky to have Zoe, she is a constant source of pride for me, smart and lovely.....and 17! I can hardly believe that she sits on the brink of adulthood now, where did that time go?
Off to Geelong for the day on Tuesday, I had a date with my nemesis the Periodontist and Zoe still had shopping fever so the day was a mixture of agony and ecstasy. But I do the love the sea and the salty air, even on the coldest of days, which we have bad plenty of.
Yesterday we cleaned out all of our clothes cupboards and headed to the Salvos for donating and perusing the second hand goodies. I am a sucker for other peoples trash, I adore markets, second hand shops and Op shops. I can look at clothes, books, dishes, ornaments and any assortment of crap for hours, happily. Poor Seth finds this process most boring, and after being dragged around to various shops for two days he was getting the shits. There was much foot tapping and eye rolling, he had his own shopping agenda, he was in search of the Lego Movie PS3 game. He had saved up for weeks to get it and all of this other shopping stuff was just standing in his way. So the hunt began. Turns out that 99% of the population in Ballarat also had saved to buy this game on the holidays because it was hard to find. After many dramatic departures from various stores - I thought I was going have to resus him on the street; we finally found it at JB Hi-Fi for a price higher than expected, of course! Anyway, we got it. Trouble and strife averted!
I thought that I would settle in last night to watch some catch up TV, only to discover that all of my series have now ended! In the last two months I have lost Mad Men, Game of Thrones, American Horror Story: Coven, Vikings, the Walking Dead and Girls! Leaving me with nothing to watch, what can be done? Go to the movies, there was nothing else for it, so off I went to a 9.30pm horror movie with Zoe. Only 4 other people had the guts ( or sense?) to join us!
I spent a good part of the weekend in the kitchen prepping for Zoe's seventeenth birthday. It is a tradition in our home that on your birthday you get to have whatever you want for dinner. Usually I opt to go out since I generally do most of the cooking, which I clearly must be pretty good at since everyone else chooses a three course extravaganza that I get lumbered with cooking. It can be an adventure for me, often I am cooking things for the first time, which can be very risky, but I am always up for the challenge.
So, Saturday and Sunday I shopped and prepped what I could. Zoe had asked for a pecan pie instead of a cake, which was a different choice, but pie is the best comfort food in Winter and I do make a mean pie. Pil Pil prawns for starters and an assortment of beef and chicken tacos in hard and soft shells for the main course. Quite possibly the weirdest combination of foods in history, but that's what you get with teens - weirdness.
The big day was Monday and after opening an assortment of beautiful and insanely generous gifts, my parents came over to celebrate with Zoe. We had a homemade soup for lunch and a giant cream filled chocolate sponge which my mum purchased from Rosehart's bakery, I can't claim that one. By the time they left, Zoe was so cashed up with birthday money that it had started to make her edgy, the shops were calling! So she spent the arvo shopping with her boyfriend and we all spent the evening eating too much food and all hanging out together. I am so lucky to have Zoe, she is a constant source of pride for me, smart and lovely.....and 17! I can hardly believe that she sits on the brink of adulthood now, where did that time go?
Off to Geelong for the day on Tuesday, I had a date with my nemesis the Periodontist and Zoe still had shopping fever so the day was a mixture of agony and ecstasy. But I do the love the sea and the salty air, even on the coldest of days, which we have bad plenty of.
Yesterday we cleaned out all of our clothes cupboards and headed to the Salvos for donating and perusing the second hand goodies. I am a sucker for other peoples trash, I adore markets, second hand shops and Op shops. I can look at clothes, books, dishes, ornaments and any assortment of crap for hours, happily. Poor Seth finds this process most boring, and after being dragged around to various shops for two days he was getting the shits. There was much foot tapping and eye rolling, he had his own shopping agenda, he was in search of the Lego Movie PS3 game. He had saved up for weeks to get it and all of this other shopping stuff was just standing in his way. So the hunt began. Turns out that 99% of the population in Ballarat also had saved to buy this game on the holidays because it was hard to find. After many dramatic departures from various stores - I thought I was going have to resus him on the street; we finally found it at JB Hi-Fi for a price higher than expected, of course! Anyway, we got it. Trouble and strife averted!
I thought that I would settle in last night to watch some catch up TV, only to discover that all of my series have now ended! In the last two months I have lost Mad Men, Game of Thrones, American Horror Story: Coven, Vikings, the Walking Dead and Girls! Leaving me with nothing to watch, what can be done? Go to the movies, there was nothing else for it, so off I went to a 9.30pm horror movie with Zoe. Only 4 other people had the guts ( or sense?) to join us!
THE BABADOOK
Release Date: 2014
Rating: M
Running Time: 92 mins
This is a low-budget Australian movie; filmed in Adelaide and a debut offering from director Jennifer Kent. The Babadook cleverly encompasses all of the confusion and edge of your seat discomfort that quality psychological horror should offer. It is not reliant on blood n' gore to tells its story but instead takes us deeply into the disturbed and paranoid minds of its damaged characters.
Amelia (Essie Davies) is a grieving widow that is struggling to control her eccentric and insomniac six year old son Samuel. Plagued with insecurities, Samuel believes a demonic presence called The Babadook is going to kill them, and begins to make life increasingly difficult when he starts acting irrationally in public; forcing them to stay at home and comfront their demons head on.
This movie has all of the obligatory horror themes; the spooky and grim house, the scary cellar, the squeaky stairs and even the bad flickering lighting. But beyond that there is a sophistication in this story that is reminiscent of early Kubrick and Polanski horror movies that leave you wondering if the nightmares are just external manifestations of the delusional characters.
Noah Wiseman is an amazing young talent, embodying the cute and the creepy elements of Samuel perfectly and Essie Davies is at her best as the pale and exhausted Amelia. This is a really terrifying movie and a feather in Australian cinema's cap for sure, prepare to be disturbed.
FINAL SAY: You can't get rid of the Babadook
4 Chili Peppers
Release Date: 2014
Rating: M
Running Time: 92 mins
This is a low-budget Australian movie; filmed in Adelaide and a debut offering from director Jennifer Kent. The Babadook cleverly encompasses all of the confusion and edge of your seat discomfort that quality psychological horror should offer. It is not reliant on blood n' gore to tells its story but instead takes us deeply into the disturbed and paranoid minds of its damaged characters.
Amelia (Essie Davies) is a grieving widow that is struggling to control her eccentric and insomniac six year old son Samuel. Plagued with insecurities, Samuel believes a demonic presence called The Babadook is going to kill them, and begins to make life increasingly difficult when he starts acting irrationally in public; forcing them to stay at home and comfront their demons head on.
This movie has all of the obligatory horror themes; the spooky and grim house, the scary cellar, the squeaky stairs and even the bad flickering lighting. But beyond that there is a sophistication in this story that is reminiscent of early Kubrick and Polanski horror movies that leave you wondering if the nightmares are just external manifestations of the delusional characters.
Noah Wiseman is an amazing young talent, embodying the cute and the creepy elements of Samuel perfectly and Essie Davies is at her best as the pale and exhausted Amelia. This is a really terrifying movie and a feather in Australian cinema's cap for sure, prepare to be disturbed.
FINAL SAY: You can't get rid of the Babadook
4 Chili Peppers
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