Massage… oh yes please!
On Sat 18th March, we celebrated Cheryl’s birthday in style… 5 months late, but who’s counting? A trip out to the prestigious Heritage Golf Course for luxurious and lusciously relaxing day spa treatments followed by lunch at Tarrawarra Estate (www.tarrwarra.com.au), a winery & modern art museum in the Yarra Valley. By the end of the day, we were sooooo relaxed.
Here are some pics from the day. Plus a few reviews at the bottom.
Love g XOX
Bring on the wine.
Amy, Cheryl, Katherine, Monica & Gayle @ Tarrawarra
The Mr Darcy Lake @ Tarrawarra
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Badminton @ Comm Games
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Commonwealth Games – Teams Badminton - Gold Medal Match
20th March 2006
For this English born Malaysian Australian it was a win-win situation. However, before entering the stadium my loyalties were with
Going into this, like many, I was not that hyped up about the Comm Games, but I was blown away by the skills of these players.
On the night there were cocks flying everywhere… shuttlecocks that is (I know, lame joke). I’ve never been to a badminton match before, and found it strange that after almost every 3-4 points, especially in the Men’s doubles, the shuttlecock gets damaged and has to be replaced with a new one. They hit the shuttles with such power that you could see dust and bits of shuttle flying off as the racquets made contact - an awesome sight to behold. Another thing I enjoyed was that because of the way the shuttle falls, unlike tennis, the skill of the players, rather than the serve, plays a much bigger part.
Surprisingly the majority of the crowd were there to support
The team event meant that it was the best of 5 matches and the Malaysians won 4-1, losing only the first game – the Mixed doubles. The most exciting game of the night was the Women’s singles. Close to the very last point, it lasted three times as long as the men’s singles with a score of 27-25; 20-22; 21-18. The most awesome display of skill was definitely the Men’s Doubles: 21-14; 21-14. An explosive combination of power and finesse, the shuttle reached a speed of 284kph during the game, there was a 52 shot rally and 21 shuttles were used. Wow.
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Sole Cinema Review:
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Matchpoint: 2/5
Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers (
In a nutshell: Some good ideas, but overall not well executed and quite boring in the middle.
Synopsis: Troubles begin when Chris Wilton falls in lust with his fiancée’s brother’s fiancée. Did you get all of that?
Good things about this movie: Rhys Meyers and Johansson. Woody Allen does not act in his own movie for a change. The acting is not neurotic as WAllen moves tend to be. Originality of ending.
Bad things about this movie: A WAllen movie not set in
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Finally on DVD
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Pride & Prejudice: 4/5
Cast: Keira Knightly (Pirates of the
In a nutshell: Just as good as the highly revered BBC version.
Synopsis: Jane Austen’s story set in Georgian England about a family with 5 daughters who need to be married off. Things start to get interesting when the handsome Mr Bingley and his austere friend Mr Darcy move in next door for the summer.
I have to admit to being obsessed with the BBC version… Colin Firth *sigh*. So the benchmark for this one was pretty high. Surprisingly, it managed to reach it, and almost exceed it. Because it is 3-4 hours shorter, it gets to the point much faster, and you don’t even notice large chunks of storyline are missing. I have to admit to liking the set much more in this version, it is much warmer and welcoming and the score is quite beautiful. The ages of the younger actors are much more appropriate to the story, and bring a vibrancy to the movie missing from the series. Having said that, while quite good in his own vunerable way, MacFayden’s Darcy isn’t quite as sexy as our Mr Firth. Some of the older cast, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn and Judi Dench are perhaps not as convincing as they could have been. Kiera Knightly takes a pleasant turn as Elizabeth Darcy, not at all irritating as she can be sometimes.
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4 comments:
Although I agree that Match Point was a little slow in the middle I really liked the film; especially the ending!
But then I had seen Underground Evolution and UltraViolet a couple of days before so maybe my movie expectations were set pretty low... ;)
I bet your expectations were low! How would you rate those movies? Have you checked out flixster.com yet?
Matchpoint wasn't a bad movie.. had some good ideas... but generally a movie that allows me to fall asleep doesn't rate so high on my list! But didn't you think the ending was incongruous with the rest of the movie?
Underground Evolutions wasn't totally awful. I mean it had an overly complex plot and, despite the action, was dull in places. On the plus side it was a good "no-brainer" with some good fx and - of course - Kate Beckinsdale. Go see it if you want a bit of action-escapism and aren't expecting too much. 5/10.
UltraViolet had an interesting look to it, obviously inspired by comic books. Milla Jovovich is as cool as ever. But no more good will I say of the film. Don't bother. 2/10.
Hadn't checked out flixster, looks good! Just joined: "matttrentini".
Match Point forced me to put myself in the lead characters position and consider what I would do in such a bizarre circumstance - I felt totally drawn in. I also thought it was very well acted (terrific performances from Rhys-Meyers and Johansson in particular) and generally oozed class.
I think the end was deliberately crafted to catch you off guard after the rest of the film spent the time developing the plot and characters...in some ways I think the whole film was crafted around the end.
Incongruous? Yes. But so cool, unexpected and fun! 7.5/10.
ahhh... the trick to flixster is to link up with your friends in a community...
my e-mail is mint_slice@hotmail.com, i think if you do a search on that, you may be able to link up with me... i can't figure out how else to do it.. I can't find a way to link to your tag (matttrentini)..might need your e-mail address. I'm Rainbowg by the way. Alternatively, you can follow the link I put on one of my blog postings.
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