4 Years

Four years ago we got married. As if by magic, today I have four massive spots on my face!

We decided to celebrate (our anniversary - not the spots) by going out for dinner at an old haunt of ours, The Raj in Edinburgh. It was quite a long time since we had been there and they have done the place up a bit, as well as changing the menu. Still, we had a couple of really good curries before heading to Favorit in the city centre for coffee. It has also been done up since the last time we were there, but they still have coffee and they still have chocolate brownies so we were happy.

Next, we went to catch up with an old friend at the cinema, this time using free tickets courtesy of Coca Cola. That friend was none other than Mr Will Ferrell and it was great to see him again! We went to see his new film Step Brothers and I have never laughed so much in the cinema in my life. I think this is his funniest film so far, but please, do not rush out to see the film on that recommendation alone. Unless of course you want to see a bit more Ferrell for your money than you’re used to, because lets just say it’s a bit ruder than his other films and probably has more swearing too. Anyway below is a trailer which is rated as ’suitable for everyone’ if you want a little taster:

Once we stopped laughing we made our way home via Corstorphine and guess what we saw by the side of the road? … A badger! He was just foraging away, looked straight at us when we slowed down the car to look at him, and then he shuffled off into the bushes. It was pretty cool.

Catherine

Weekend Film Review

Last night we watched this:

I quite enjoyed it. Anything fast paced and ridiculous with a Jerry Bruckheimer type feel always makes a good film as far as I’m concerned! Andy didn’t enjoy it quite as much. In fact I don’t think he enjoyed it at all, having practically worked out the entire plot within the first 10 minutes.

On Saturday night we watched this:

(Oooops - I forgot to warn you about the bare bottoms.) I think we recommended it on here before and if you still haven’t watched it then you really should. It’s in French, but luckily there are subtitles.

And finally … on Friday night we watched this:

It’s another one we’d seen before and really enjoyed. It’s quite brutal so if you can’t stomach blood and guts then it’s not for you. It’s dialogue is done entirely in the Yucatec Maya language - but luckily there are subtitles in this one too!

Catherine

Freebies

We’re just back from a cheap night out, courtesy of The Times, Cafe Nero and Mars Incorporated. Let me explain …

On Saturday there was a “buy one get one free” voucher in The Times for Pizza Express. As we still haven’t really been to Tesco since we got back from holiday, and because we are still in holiday mode, tonight seemed like a good night to use it. We paid a visit to the Holyrood branch where we each ordered our favourite pizzas (Andy = American Hot. Me = Pollo ad Astra). We had originally planned to head next door to Beanscene for coffee afterwards but we were starting to really question whether we had parked legally so decided to move the car and find somewhere else for coffee instead. We ended up in Stockbridge where there is a Cafe Nero branch, and it suddenly occurred to me that I had a loyalty card which only required one more stamp before a free drink could be claimed - bonus!

Following our lattes (and ok, I’ll admit that I spent the money saved by the loyalty card on a muffin) we headed to Cineworld at Fountainbridge where we used two free cinema tickets that I had managed to collect after munching through 8 big bags of Maltesers, Revels, M&Ms and Minstrels. We went to see the new Batman film, The Dark Knight. I quite enjoyed it because having watched all the original films numerous times throughout my life, it was interesting to see an alternative take on the characters, and also get some more of their backgrounds (although I was slightly disappointed not to learn much more about Batman/Bruce Wayne who almost seems like a minor character this time round). And I’m going to come out and say it … I definitely don’t think all the Oscar talk surrounding Heath Ledger’s “Joker” is justified.

I think that was all the freebies we got tonight. Oh wait a minute - I almost forgot about the free parking at Cineworld (definitely legal that time).

Catherine

Tell No One

Catherine and I watch loads of films. We watch at least three films a week, and to be honest most of them are crap. It’s very rare that we find one that we both love and would happily sit and watch all over again. This happened last week. The movie in question is a french film called ‘Tell No One’. It’s a thriller with quite a complex storyline, but it’s worth handling the subtitles and plot twists. Here’s a taster…..(with some bumcheeks!)

Andy

What’s your favourite?

What’s your favourite film?

Andy asked me this question a few weeks ago and rather than thinking about it for ages like I normally do, only to end up listing poor excuses for a favourite like The Bodyguard, Vanilla Sky and Day After Tomorrow, I decided not to think about it at all with the result being The Preacher’s Wife - a film I have never actually seen.

‘Why is it your favourite?’ Andy asked.

‘Because it’s got Denzel in it, and Whitney Houston so it can’t be anything but amazing.’ I replied.

Today a mysterious package arrived for Andy from Play.com. And what was inside? A present for me - The Preacher’s Wife on DVD! I will let you know how it’s placed in my Top 5 once I have actually seen it but with a plot like this I just know it’s going to be ranking pretty high:

“Houston stars as the choir-singing wife of a small-town reverend who’s doubting his ablity to make a difference in their troubled community and in their troubled marriage. That’s when a fun-loving angel named Dudley (Washington) arrives to help and unite the couple but soon he becomes the source of, rather than the solution to, their problems. Boasting the sensational singing talents of Whitney Houston, THE PREACHER’S WIFE possesses a rare charm that delights audiences everywhere.’

Catherine

A Musical Shopping Spree

This afternoon we decided to head into Edinburgh and do some shopping. It’s been ages since we wandered round some music shops, so after we’d munched two massive burgers at ‘Wannaburger’ we went down to Rose Street and spent ages in Fopp. They had some excellent offers on CD’s, so we made the most of that and ended up buying far more than we had meant to. The problem we’re left with now is what to listen to first?

Here’s what we bought….

Some Books

Some DVD’s

And some CD’s!

Andy

Jay and Silent Bob

Silent Bob and Jay

Catherine came in tonight with her new beanie on. It struck me that she looked vaguely familiar. Then it struck me that we’re both changing….changing into other people…..changing into weird indie-film characters………somehow we’ve become……….

JAY AND SILENT BOB!!!!

Andy

American Gangster

Catherine, Phillip and I went to see American Gangster last night in Dunfermline. My wife worships the ground that Denzel Washington walks on (she pronounes it with the emphasis on the ‘zel’ too!) and so a trip to the cinema to see this was inevitable. I imagine that Catherine will post about the film, so all I’ll say is that I enjoyed it on the whole. It took a while to get going, but when it did it was a good watch.

I am, however, slightly worried by the fact that Catherine claimed to be disappointed by the lack of violence in the film. I now live in fear.

Andy

Snow Weisz

I seem to have offended a Rachel Weisz fan in my previous post. For the record I don’t always think she’s annoying. Just in The Constant Gardener.

In fact, last week I was very impressed with the photograph below which features her as Snow White. It’s part of a collection of new Disney promos by Annie Liebowitz. I thought all the photos were pretty cool (although at the risk of offending any David Beckham fans out there, I thought he made an unconvincing Disney Prince!)

I was going to put a link here to some of the other photos but I can’t find a suitable one so if you are that interested in seeing them you’re just going to have to do a Google search.

Catherine

Round Up of the Week

It’s been a while since I wrote something on here so I thought I would just briefly sum up the past week. To be honest I can’t actually remember what we did on Monday or Tuesday but it probably involved a DVD or two. Oh yes, now I remember! We made the terrible mistake of watching Spiderman 3 which I do believe should be awarded the title of Worst Film Ever Made. Do not watch it!!

On Tuesday we watched The Constant Gardener. We had seen this at the cinema when it first came out and quite enjoyed it although we had both forgotten how annoying Rachel Weisz is. The one thing I did remember was that we had been to see it with our friend Charlotte and when we walked out of the cinema she tried to pretend she hadn’t been crying - but the large clump of tissue paper in the corner of her moist, red eye kind of gave it away!

Thursday brought with it a trip to the cinema. Yes, I know we have boxes to pack and paperwork that should be more organised (see MOT post below) but I’d had a pretty busy day at work and just wanted the night off (again!) So we went to see Rendition. I absolutely LOVED it but opinion is split in our household so don’t rush out to see it on my recommendation. Saying that, it does seem to have gathered fairly strong reviews of late.

I’m pleased to say that I don’t think we have watched a film since then. Yesterday we had a really nice day catching up with folk. We went to visit Jonny, Kirsty and little Lauren in Broxburn only to find Mikey and Charlotte were there too. It was the first time we had seen them since their wedding day so that was cool. Then we headed through to Kirkcaldy in time to catch the football and a Chinese at Phillip’s. Yep … I said football. I’ve decided that I might try and learn to love this sport. However it was yet another deathly dull nil nil draw so the love may have to be developed another time.

Catherine