Christmas cake

Well the Christmas cake is in the oven and I have a four hour wait until it is ready! When I popped to the supermarket to get some of the ingredients the shelves had been mobbed of flour and dried fruit. I think everyone is making Christmas cake this weekend.

countdown

In the countdown to Christmas, 6 weeks, I'm told, I thought I ought to check how much time I have left to complete my 101 things to do in 1001 days. I had a slight panic that I might be fast running out of time.

I started this challenge on 9 Jan 2009 and it is due to finish on 8 October 2011, which happens to be my mum's 66th birthday. So that means I have already had 673 days and have only 329 days left. That means 47 weeks or 10 months and 25 days. Or 7396 hours.

Now 10 months sounds alright, but consider this. I am likely to spend 4 months of that time sleeping (more if I get a chance!), 2 1/2 months at work and probably 2 1/2 months wasting time on my laptop. So that only leaves me just over a one month to finish off my challenge.

As I review this challenge, I notice how much my priorities have changed over the past 673 days. There are some things on the list, that I am quite unlikely to do now, although at the time, I thought would be feasible. I am unlikely to go to Tai Chi or Pilates, much as I would like to - I just can't afford it. I am still working on getting Andy to join me in salsa dancing lessons. I'd love to do this dance, it is so sexy and means you get up close to your partner. Maybe in January? We'll see.

Well I think I have cracked number 73 on my list -watching all those films, so I had better take another look at my list of things to do and see what else I can do within the deadline.

list of films

Right, Sev and I have just gone through the alphabet and compared notes with regards to listing films we have watched from a to z.

He keeps strange hours and watches late night films and watches chick flicks with his girlfriend.

So here are both our lists. I will go into mine in a bit more detail over the next day or two.

Mine---Sev's
Angels and Demons --- Adventure Land
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas --- Batman Returns
Coraline --- Click
The Day the Earth stood still --- Dirty Dancing
Evan Almighty --- Epic movie
The Final Destination --- The Final Destination
Great Escape --- GI Joe
The Hangover --- Happyness
Iron man 2 --- I am Legend
Julie and Julia --- Jarhead
Kill Bill --- Kick Ass
League of gentlemen --- Love Actually
Mama mia --- Marley and Me
Night at the museum 2 --- The Notebook
One hour photo --- Oceans 11
Panic room --- Pirates of the Caribbean
Quantum of Solace --- Quantum of Solace
Rock school --- Road Trip
Star Trek --- Star Trek
Time traveller's wife --- Terminal
United 93 --- United 93
Van Helsing --- Van Helsing
Wall-E --- Waterworld
X-men origins - Wolverine --- xXx
You, Me and Dupree --- Yes Man
Zulu --- Zombieland

I've cheated a bit with G and Z, I couldn't think of anything that I have watched in the past 18 months beginning with these 2 letters, so have included a film that I have seen, but not for a while. Everything else I have seen recently.

films

Number 73 of my 101 list of things to do in 1001 days.

I have neglected to keep a log of all the films I have been watching over the past year or so. I must check my deadline too!

Number 73 of my list is to watch 26 films beginning with each letter of the alphabet. Strangely enough I have managed to tick off some of those I thought might be difficult, like x and i. I have even managed to watch a film that was a number! How's that! LOL I usually watch films on SKY or normal channels, rarely going to the cinema - it is just too expensive.

So here is a quick rundown of my list so far. As mentioned above I have neglected to keep a log of films I have watched, so this list is retrospective.

2012

Starring John Cusack the storyline is that Dr Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns the US President that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fracton of the world's opulation, the entire race is doomed. The world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the imending catclysm whilst volcanic eruptions and earthquakes wreak havoc around the world.

In my humble opinion it was okay - your average American apocolyptic film with the usual good effects. Not something I would be in a hurry to watch again, unless there is nothing else!

Angels and Demons

Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor are two of my favourite actors and they were great in this film. I have read all the Dan Brown books, so was very excited when this film came out. We did go and see it at the cinema and I have seen it again on the television.

Storyline - When a murder of a physicist, Leonardo Vetro, finds a symbolist, Robert Langdon, and Mr Vetra's daughter, on an adventure for a secret brotherhood, The Illuminati. Clues lead them all around the Vatican, including the four altars of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. An assassin, working for the Illuminati, has captured four cardinals and murders each of them painfully. Robert and Vittoria also are searing for a very destructive weapon that could kill millions.

It has everything I like in a film - my favourite actors, mystery and suspense and some gory deaths with a twist at the end. Great. Definitely would watch this again.

Aliens in the attic

This was hilarious, we watched this about a month ago on Sky, I think.

Storyline - An extended family go on summer vacation. When they have problem with the television image the kids go up to the attic/roof to find the antenna dish destroyed. They find out that there are four alien invaders preparing to invade Earth using amind control weapon that only affects adults. The group of children lock the four aliens in the attic and try to force the adults to leave the house so they can deal with the aliens. One of the aliens doesn't want to harm the people on Earth and helps the children to fend off the baddy aliens. Because they are small and their vulnerability is depictedin the film, it is really quite funny. The children have fun with the mind control weapon on an annoying older sister's boyfriend who is quite obnoxious, that was hilarious too.

I will do the rest of the list another day.

Photography ATCs

Here is my favourite of the six photography ATCs that I received this week.





and here are the ones I sent out:

Am itching to get out and start to take more photos ready for this month's swap.

What to do this weekend? Too many things to choose from! Geocaching, geneology or photo-taking. Andy and I are going to help Sarah move into her new flat. Lo and behold there is a cache not 500 feet from her front door! heehee. Also if the weather stays dry tomorrow, and I'm in the mood for it, I might take Millie for a walk with me - and perhaps pick up a few caches.

I have been researching Andy's family history for a while now and have done all that i can on the internet. So now it is down to the parish records. Luckily his family have all lived in the same county for generations, so that makes it easier to research! YAY. So I might go to the County Records office tomorrow to do some more searching of births, deaths and marriages in the parish records. First of all though i gotta get up early and take Alice to work for 8am. GROAN. Well I can have a lie in on Sunday. Monday morning we are up very early to go to Sarah's. (Hi Sarah!!)

The photo-taking comes from my recent recipt of some photography ATCs. There is a newish group on facebook where people can swap their photography on ATC sized cards. I got a nice collection this week. Will upload them over the weekend. Add that to my list! LOL. So I got to looking on the web for photography themes. One person has photos of takeaway containers. On their own, each individual photo would be a bit odd, but a collection of them looks okay. Like a set. Some ideas i got from looking on another site http://www.danielgallant.com/Photo-Theme-Series are windows, door knockers, texture in nature and texture in architecture, water images, clouds and trees. I don't want to do boring or cutsey photos, like of the dogs or scenery. I want to do more artsy type photos. So we'll see what comes out of this wekend.

Diesel

After getting back from walking Millie last Saturday, my mum called to say that someone had a 2yr old boxer who needed a good home. So that night we drove up to meet Diesel. He is very excitable, about the same size as Millie. They seemed to get on, and both Andy and I liked him. So we brought him home that night. He has been absolutely brilliant and has settled nicely into our routine. I think he likes being with Millie and Andy all day, as previously his owners were out at work all day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imBjcjI1Nhw

They love to playfight together, above is a video of the two of them playing in the living room. At first we walked Diesel off lead in a secure park as we were not too sure if he would come back easily. Thankfully he seems to realise we are his "pack" now and follows Millie everywhere. So when we call them, they both come back.Yesterday and today we have walked them both off lead in the woods and open park. He has been very good and has come back, albeit not as well as Millie does when he is distracted, but we have not struggled as yet.