Jennifer Fallon's Blog

And so my little jaunt to NZ is over...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:30:00 --0800

Back to the real world tomorrow. No more gorgeous views for a while, and I'll have to bond with my sheep via Skype.

I've been a naughty girl, too, about writing, and now I have a word count to catch up on and many other things to organise before Christmas.

Oh well... the Hilton has room service. I'll make the most of that before I have to tackle the MS again.

Time to book the 4 am wakeup call....

I've been shopping...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:54:00 --0800

You know how it goes...

You're on holidays, wandering through a hardware store and you see a really sexy lawnmover that you just have to have, even though you're in a foreign country and you don't actually have any lawn at home...

So naturally, you buy it...

And then you get it home and discover this is New Zealand and they have these really cute lawn mowers, even though you're still in a foreign country and you don't actually have any lawn at home...

So you buy that one and call it Maudette...

And then you decide Maudette is going to be lonely out there eating the grass you don't have, so you buy her a friend and call her Arlene...

And then you decide they'd probably like a boyfriend, so you buy another lawn mower, with balls.

Introducing Rameses the First...

Good thing Sonny doesn't mind babysitting:) Good thing I'm going home tomorrow, too, because I saw a pony I liked this morning:)

When I got up this morning....

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:41:00 --0800

I looked out the loungeroom window....

And then sat down for breakast...

What's even funnier is that I downloaded the voice of Darth Vader for my GPS, who announced as we arrived here:

"Your journey to the dark side is complete."

LOL

I'm in NZ....

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:30:00 --0800

This place is insanely pretty...

I may have to move here. Sheep are cute.

This is the view from Sonny Whitelaw's dining room window... she has her own lake!

Oh, and a ram called Dexter:)

Quote of the day...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 06:29:00 --0800

You must have chaos within you to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher

Today I am in Melbourne...

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:54:00 --0800

I am staying at my son's house.

He has his own cinema.

We've just watched the new Star Trek movie in it.

It rocks.

I'm going to have to sell my house and buy another one now, so I can have a cinema at home, too...

T-shirt of the day....

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:53:00 --0800

Thursday's Movie Review - Balibo

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:02:00 --0800

In 1975, amid deafening international silence, Indonesia invaded East Timor when the Portuguese withdrew from their former colony. A team of Australian journalists rushed to cover the invasion, in the hopes of drumming up some international outrage — Channel Seven's Greg Shackleton (Damon Gameau), Gary Cunningham (Gyton Grantley) and Tony Stewart (Mark Leonard Winter), along with Channel Nine’s Brian Peters (Thomas Wright) and Malcolm Rennie (Nathan Phillips). In October 1975, they disappeared in the town of Balibo and where never seen again.

In November 1975, four weeks after the five Australian journalists were reported missing, veteran foreign correspondent Roger East (Anthony LaPaglia) was approached by a young Timorese man — José Ramos-Horta (Oscar Isaac) — trying to recruit him to run the East Timor News Agency. Roger reluctantly agrees when Horta offers to help him discover the fate of the missing journos. Once in East Timor, he discovers the journalists had gone to Balibo determined to film the Indonesian invasion and that all five men had been executed by the invading Indonesian troops, their bodies (and their film of the invasion) burnt beyond recognition.

For many Australians, the incident in Balibo in November 1975, will remain forever a scar on our relations with both Indonesia and East Timor. That five young men lost their lives covering something that went almost unnoticed internationally and in Australia until later events forced their fate to light, continues to aggravate many who feel the massacre was covered up for the sake of not offending the Indonesians. That is clearly not the intention of this film. The Indonesians do not come out of this treatment well at all.

The film centres around Roger East’s search for some clue about the fate of the journalists, but the tension of the search is watered down by the confusing editing which cuts back and forth between the events of four weeks earlier with Roger’s search, in scenes often featuring the same people wearing the same clothes. Even more confusing is the fact that the film is book-ended by the testimony of an Timorese woman, Juliana, who merely met Roger East in passing as a small child, giving the impression that it’s her story, when in fact she had little or nothing to do with any of it.

The film feels authentic, as well it should, given it was shot in East Timor for the most part, but the choppy editing leaves a lot to be desired. I think the film would have been better served by having us follow the journalists first and then the man who sets out to look for them, rather than having the two happen simultaneously. I suppose, when you have a star of the calibre of La Paglia, you need to make the film about his character, which is a pity, because although he does an excellent job as the jaded Roger East, he is the catalyst for telling the story, not really the focus of it.

This is not a happy film. It tells of a terrible period in history and reflects well on very few living people, the exception being incumbent East Timorese President, José Ramos-Horta, who won the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to free his homeland from Indonesian occupation. That nobody has ever been brought to justice for the death of these five young men only serves to make the audience angry, which perhaps, if justice is ever to be sought for the killers of the Balibo Five, could well have been the Director, Robert Connelly’s, intention.

Pirate rules!

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:11:00 --0800

We have another cat. This one is named Pirate, named because she has a black patch over one eye.

Now, Pirate, who belongs to Firstborn, has something of a past. We got her from the RSPCA as a present for FB a few years ago, along with a voucher to have her desexed (this was back before Secondborn was a qualified Vet). So, FB takes Pirate to the clinic, they anaesthetize her, and open her up, and go... "Whoops, we've done this before..."

That's right, Pirate was already de-sexed but they'd forgotten to tattoo her ear.

Needless to say, FB decided to take Pirate to the other vet clinic (where her sister works) when she was due for her shots. Except on the way into the clinic Dace dropped the cat cage, it sprung open and Pirate bolted, never to be seen again.

Or so we thought...

A year later, one of FB's friends rang and told her she'd seen Pirate hanging around the nurses quarters at the hospital. She'd called her over, picked her up, put her in a box and turned her back for two seconds and the little bugger escaped...

For the next 6 months, the entire hospital maintenance staff (where FB's father worked) set out to catch Pirate. Except by now she'd been adopted by the nurses living on campus who kept feeding her and letting her out of the trap the maintenance guys rigged to catch her. It ended up taking a decree from the hospital's General Manager and the involvement of the Health and Safety officer and the Union Rep to negotiate Pirate's return.

So... after 18 months on the lam, Pirate comes home, acting like nothing has happened.

Until she moved into my place...

First thing she did was tame Declan the Psycho Pussy. It's the most bizzare thing I have ever seen. All she did was look at him, which was obviously accompanied by a telepathic message along the lines of "Fuck with me and you die". Now, when Pirate comes into the room Declan sits quietly in the corner with not so much as a hiss or bite or look in her general direction. He just waits until she leaves before he does anything.

Unfortunately, last night, Pirate met Bruce.

It wasn't pretty. There was so much blood on the floor we were slipping in. It took three of us to break them apart.

The good news... Bruce, the mastiff will be fine. He should recover nicely from his injuries.

As for Pirate, I hear you wonder?

Well... after she was done, she jumped into the laundry sink, calmly licked Bruce's blood off her claws and then strolled upstairs to eat.

She hasn't got a mark on her.

This is one cat you don't wanna mess with... :)

Reprint news...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:46:00 --0800

Reprints from the UK always make me smile...

I have learned a new word...

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:43:00 --0800

I think I might suffer from this....

Don't blame the dog...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:48:00 --0800

They've just released the list of the most dangerous dogs in NSW, based on the number of bites treated in hospitals around the state.

Guess what came in at number 19 after being involved in 12 attacks between July and September this year?

The Maltese!

It is the first time the breed has made the top 20 list of attacking breeds (according to news.com.au) since the register was set up at the start of the year. The cutest dog on Earth now joins breeds such as the staffordshire bull terrier, which topped the list with 116 attacks and the Australian cattle dog with 56.

Others to make the top 20 included the German Shepherd with 55 attacks, the American staffordshire terrier (45) and the ever popular Rottweiler (43). The only other small dog to make the list was the Jack Russell.

They should have polled the Alice Springs Vet Clinic. I think the leading contender there is the Chihuahua. LOL

Seriously, though. what sucks about this list is there is no context to how these animals bit people. No way of telling if the dog bit someone because the dog had an issue or the owners were just irresponsible.

In a perfect world - i.e. a world where I was in charge - irresponsible, brianless, f**kwit dog owners who walk their dogs off a lead in public areas where there are other dogs they have no control over (like suburban streets and parks) and think it's cute, would be locked up and their dogs confiscated.

Dogs can bite. Dogs do bite. Dogs attack other dogs, too. And no matter how well behaved you think your dog is, you have no way of knowing what another dog will do or cause your dog to do. If you saw what my daughter and her workmates at the vet clinic have to contend with on a daily basis, from dog fight wounds to major injuries from being hit by cars, you would never let your dog off a lead unless in your yard or a proper, fenced dog park.

We would never walk Bruce off a lead, out of respect for all small furry things that run. But so many times we've had to contend with little yappy things running up to him, getting him excited and wanting to play. Which is all well and fine until Bruce starts to play...

Sorry, but I own a Maltese too, and I'm saddened they're on this list, particularly as they are the best little dogs in the world, when they are treated like dogs and not spoiled, surrogate children.

End of rant...

Pattinson v Efron

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:12:00 --0800

Sonny Whitelaw and I are working a joint project at present that required us to discuss exactly what the definition is, of a "cute teenage boy". Mind you, this doesn't mean they're teenagers necessarily, just young enough for teen girls to worship them without it being icky.

Now, given we are both of an age that would have us defined as "cougars" if we were out clubbing, and that this was a literary discussion, not a plan of action, it got down to the two most likely suspects at present... Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron. (We didn't include Taylor Lautner... he's too new on the scene - not to mention impossible to take seriously if you've seen Shark Boy and Lava Girl - whereas the obession for the other two has had enough longevity now to class them as teen idols).

We were both of the opinion that Zac Efron is by far the cuter (not to mention talented) of the two, and if we were sixteen again, his poster would adorn our walls. Sonny even goes so far as to describe Robert Pattinson as "profoundly ulgy".

I have a different problem with him. He looks like the dorky old photos taken of my father in the 1930s. I think there is some sort of deep psychological barrier in all of us that prevents us from lusting after people who look like our own parents. Just sayin'...

So here's a question for all you young things out there...

Who is cuter? Robert Pattinson or Zac Efron? And please, I'm not asking if you love their characters from Twilight or High School Musical. Just that if you met the two of them walking side by side down the street, which one would get the"phwaorrr" from you?

Don't worry about global warming... we have air-conditioning

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:25:00 --0800

Your worries about Global Warming are over.

This reassurance comes from the US Chamber of Commerce:

"Humans have become less susceptible to the effects of heat due to a combination of adaptations, particularly air conditioning. The availability of air conditioning is expected to continue to increase. Overall, there is strong evidence that populations can acclimatize to warmer climates via a range of behavioral, physiological, and technological adaptations." "Detailed Review of EPA’s Health and Welfare Scientific Evidence," submitted to EPA on June 23, 2009

Oh. My. God.

Thursday's Movie Review - Astro Boy

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:42:00 --0800

Since he first appeared in a Japanese Manga comic book in 1953, Astro Boy has been whizzing about, trying to bring peace and harmony to human/android relations, aided by a really irritating voice and some heavy-duty maudlin sentiment, laid on with a trowel.

The remake for the big screen, voiced by, well, everybody in Hollywood — Nicholas Cage, Freddie Highmore, Kristen Bell, Samuel L Jackson, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland and Charlize Theron, just to name a few—attempts to breathe some life back into the franchise.

The story is essentially Astro’s origin story. Set in the futuristic Metro City (not Tokyo! gasp the purists), floating high above the wasteland of a badly polluted Earth, Professor Tenma (Nicholas Cage) attempts to recreate his lost son (Freddie Highmore) by building an android replica and giving him his son’s memories (along with jet powered feet, heat rays in his arms and machine guns in his butt — as you do). The experiment fails, however. Tenma can’t bond with Astro and to make matters worse, he used the last of a precious experimental power source to drive the boy android, which evil incumbent president, General Stone (Donald Sutherland) wants to use to start a war between humans in Metro City and the rogue robots on Earth, to enhance his re-election chances.

Wounded by Tenma’s rejection, Astro escapes to Earth, where he meets runaway Cora (Kristen Bell) and the RRF — the Robot Revolutionary Front — a trio of wannabe terrorist robots somewhat hampered in their ambitions by the three laws of robotics which prevents them from harming humans.

After many adventures on Earth and the obligatory lessons learned about life, love, family and destiny, Astro is caught by the President and returns to Metro City to be deactivated. At the last minute, Tenma refuses to remove Astro’s power source and saves the android, leaving him free to fight the evil robot who has absorbed the President and is on his way to destroying everything.

I have a soft spot for Astro Boy and was quite looking forward to this remake, in the hopes they’d made him less irritating to listen to (at the very least), and no quite so heavy handed on the treacly sentiment and the morals to be learned from every episode. I am happy to report writer/director David Bowers succeeded. The story is straightforward enough for kids to follow and sticks reasonably well to the spirit of the canon, if not the specifics. There are lots jokes likely to go straight over the heads of the target kiddie audience that will have their parents chuckling — the president’s banner at an election rally “No, it’s not time for a change” had me laughing out loud. The geek in me loved the RRF, too, and the practicalities of trying to be a terrorist when you’re specifically programmed not to terrorize.

This turned out to be a fun way to kill a couple of hours. My nine-year-old test audience loved it and I laughed a lot, although not at the same things the nine-year-old thought were funny.

And that’s the trick with a good family film, isn’t it? Everyone comes away happy, even if it’s for entirely different reasons.