Toe to Toe
Rocky returned to the big screen this weekend and Ian and I managed to get to see it today. It’s a really good film, it draws you in emotionally and it’s not really about the fight at the end of the day but the characters. Sylvester Stallone wrote this installment of the Rocky franchise as he did the first one and I think it adds to the depth of the film. For a sixty year old he pulls off the action sequences and he must have worked out for the film as he is big, I don’t mean big here I mean you can see muscles popping out all over his body.
The Rocky series has never been a favourite of mine but this film really brought the characters to life for me in a way that the others never really did, perhaps it’s the fact that I can relate easier to this one but perhaps it’s just a better film?
“Whats wrong with standing toe to toe, and saying, I am?”
Good Hunting
Congratulations Vicky!
Well done to Vicky for getting an Unconditional Offer for her Ph.D.!
Good Hunting
Lunch with a starling and the wandering Cafe Vert sign
After Vicky and me had lunch today we sat outside Cafe Vert on Campus (For all those who know), as we were sitting there discussing amongst other things the wind and how campus had been specifically designed to create wind tunnels a starling decided to drop by! He sat on the free chair at our table and then hopped about for abit before deciding the weather had improved and flying away.
We also watched as the Cafe Vert sign gradually wandered across square 3, we were then distracted by our conversation and when we looked it had dissapeared! Vicky sent me a text later to tell me that it had made it to the LTB, no mean feat for a three foot high inanimate sign.
It’s been windy all day so I guess it’s no suprise that it was windy on Campus but I think that the weirdest things happen there. I also saw a guy leaning into the wind at about an angle of about 30-40 degrees, impressive, until the wind stopped and he almost fell over…
Good Hunting
The weeks roundup
As I haven’t really posted about the last few things I’ve done, mainly because of being busy I thought that do a quick round up.
The Weekend
JB came up/down/well a bit right all the way from Watford to come and see us and Vicky & Jon on Saturday. We went out to the noodle bar and had a very tasty meal along with a few drinks and a lot of conversation. JB seems fine, he did mention moving again but apart from that he seemed about the happiest I’ve seen him since he moved up to Watford, Vicky did try to persuade him back but he was having none of it.
After the resturant we went back to Jon & Vicky’s in the KA which was an interesting experience for everyone ensuring that there really isn’t secrets amongst friends! I’ll try and find the pictures I took of the other four squeezed into Charlottes little KA [Found them - Ed.]. When we got back we managed to play JB operation and watch the start of Rambo with no sound which made for an surreal viewing…
Monday
I had the latest of my Uni’s supervisory board meeting and it did not go so well. I think that I’ll leave it at that.
Tuesday
I spent the morning at work trying to get an applet to use RMI from the server - this is not as easy as it sounds. RMI underwent a major face lift in Java 5.0 and so it’s different from every other time I’ve done it. Add that to the security constraints of applets and you have curses in the making. The project also involves JNI so and JDBC so I’m trying to imagine which Java technology we can’t incorperate…
The afternoon was spent finishing up some bits until Ian and Tom arrived, we had so many things that we wnated to try and do that there was no way to fit them in. Squash turned out to be a non-starter as all the courts were booked and the Cinema although attractive is expensive so we dropped that idea too. That left us with fencing and renting a film. The film we got was Tallega (sp?) Nights and it was just the type of throw away comedy that we needed while conversation was continuing. Not the best film in the world but it did have some really funny moments and Sacha Baron Cohen shows that he’s not that much of a one trick pony.
Fencing was also fun, I haven’t been since before Christmas and Tom had apparently not been for coming on two years, so after a few practice hits at foil, we had a quick bout and thankfully I won! The story was reversed in Epee though with Tom taking the win, at 10-9. It was fun with Charlie and Ian watching, I think the score went 5-5, 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, 7-7, 7-8, 8-8, 9-9, 10-9, so it was close! After we got back and whilst watching the film we had a very good take away Thai which was quite reasonably priced too.
Once Tom and Ian had gone B&Q decided that they would have reversing races all night with any vehicle that beeps as it goes backwards, that and some other stuff meant that I’ve only had four hours sleep - yay!
Tonight
It’s my Grandad’s birthday today so we’re off to Rayleigh for a meal.
I’ll put some pictures in when I’m at home!
Good Hunting
Finding Happyness
Went to see The Pursuit of Happyness today at lunchtime, which I’ll talk about in a different post! The film is an emotional rollercoaster and it doesn’t let up for the whole two hours. Will Smith proves again that he’s a great actor and that he can do most types of film. His son is also brilliant as his son in the film. Apparently the real Chris Gardener had a lot to do with the film (from Charlotte) and I think that it really comes across with the film focusing on piviotal and highly emotional episodes in six months of his life.
I can see why the film has picked up the Golden Globe nominations as the film really grabs hold of you and makes you want him to make good. Definately worth watching!
Good Hunting