Although I may be in the B team there is some good news to come from our new team.

1. We have actually won a game (I scored in that one!)

2. I am now captain of the team.

To be honest I don’t have too much to say about that matter…just wanted to say that I am the captain! That’s ok though…and yes I am seeking praise

Izzy x

You probably know the basic plot set up – a man who has just lost his wife of, forever,  his kids want to sanitize him in an old people’s home and he is living next to people he detests and has to face his demons and theirs when he is confronted by a teenage boy and his sister.  This relationship drives the film forward.

The plot is clunky I suspect a bit like the gear shift in the Gran Torino [his prize possession - an off the assembly line model from the protagonist's glory days and kept in splendid moth balls ever since - a bit like the protagonist himself.]  There are places where you need time to see change happening in infintisimally tiny adjustments and these never appear, you just jump to the next major chapter so to speak, and this is a pity, becase Eastwood is well able to register that kind of change.

His performance is stunningly good.  The film is worth seeing just for that and that alone, and if you take him out of it the whole thing collapses, but don’t let me put you off.  He is I think just as good as he was in ‘The Unforgiven which when it came out was his greatest film of all.  He has gone on to make lots of other superb films since, but his acting in this simply sums up all his experience, it is minimalist in style and his gruff surly exterior only barely tolerable to other characters in the film is a delight.  It was enthralling to watch.

It is interesting that in his last film Eastwood should take on the subjects of Asian immigrants communities in America, not the likeliest of subjects for him to work on, but then I guess you go where the material takes you.  There is something almost like a Raymond Chandler novel in the way he shoots the film, yet these people Eastwood included would never in a million years fit into 1940′s Chandlerworld.  [Read him guys if  you havent already, he is a superb writer and so economical its insulting.]  The style of the film I think goes for the same kind of economy, and that is probably where the clunkiness in the plot comes from.  

Having said all this it was I found deeply moving, deeply engaging and a film that leaves you feeling that you have spent two hours in the hands of a master of his trade – sounds poncy that, but that was the way I felt when I came out – sad, and privileged to have been allowed to keep him company on this journey of the story he wanted to tell us.

Go and see it.  Judge for yourself

My new dress from the Charity Shop in New Town

And so the first term of school finishes. Went pretty fast to be honest

Underwater hockey seems to be going ok. I find myself in the B team again this year as my mouth operation clashed with our trails for the A team. But that’s ok. I have promised my friend, and coach of the A team, that we will beat them sooner or later. I have been asked whether I would be fine being the captain or vice captain of the team which I said would be fine. I have been told that because this year I am the goalie that I will most likely be the captain, this is because I am in the pool all the time. The year 9’s are a bit crappy but seem to be picking up the sport very quickly. We have yet to score a goal but when they learn to back up the other players then we should be in with a good chance of winning a game.

General school work is ok. I managed to excellence my last Science test about earthquakes and volcanoes which I am happy about, French is good too. My French teacher is adamant that I can get past NCEA with excellence and therefore get a scholarship or something along those lines, she also said I was the one that asks the awkward questions…every class needs some one to do that though! My other subjects are going fine…apart from English. My English teacher has a grudge against me. I’m not sure why but it means that she is being really harsh. I got a satisfactory for effort in our mid-term report and she basically thinks that I can’t read or write. I am rather annoyed at this and she knows it…because she has seen my work and she knows that it’s good just that some times it ‘varies’, for example we had to write a page about a friend and I decided that I would try a knew way of writing…it didn’t work and I got a rubbish mark for it but she seems to base everything upon that *grumbles some more*

I’ve started playing the Piano again. Well I am trying. I am currently teaching myself to play the scientist by Coldplay. It’s harder then it looks but easier then you would think! I have yet to ask the parents for a piano teacher…the time will come though.

The mouth operation went alright. I recovered well although I did bruise a little. I don’t recommend the soup diet though. You are always hungry and you pee like a maniac. It is a good way to loose weight though…lost 4kgs in 48hrs. That wasn’t important to me though as I lost over 1^stone over X-mas…hmmm yeah anyway. The stitches fell out when I was out with Jo. It was rather funny because she is complete wuss and therefore cringed every time I went ‘oh wait…yuk’

I am still doing debating. We have had one debate which we won by default. The other team pulled out last minute. The moot was ‘junk food should be banned in schools’ we were affirming. The current moot is ‘boy racers should be crushed’ we are negating. I am not in this debate but if anyone were to have any views on this we aren’t going to deny any help J we are debating against the local boys private school…ah yes it’s inter-school! We are the junior cert 1 team…the highest of our schools junior debaters.

I seem to be able to do nothing but watch comic…comedian stuff. Anything and everything I seem to watch it. I’m not sure why. Well I do in the fact that I find comedy really interesting and love it. In fact I was thinking of doing a stand-up performance at the comedy festival this Easter but missed the meeting so couldn’t do it. I recommend Tim Minchin J Australian comic genius!

That is life really. Just in case you wanted to know!

Izzy x

As ‘stuff’ said “It was a win from the ends of the earth.” This week however there wasn’t just the rugby to watch, oh no, the Hurricanes obviously bored from the tour decided on all growing facial hair! I have to say I think Jason Eaton deserves to win whatever competition they were doing and failing that Cory Jane.

The Hurricanes trailed 20-13 at halftime with Force wings Nick Cummins, twice, and Scott Staniforth on the scoreboard as they ‘rocketed’ towards the try line. The canes had one tri to Zac Guildford, which was set up by Nonu and two penalties converted by Willie Ripia. There was one tri which wasn’t allowed for the force, even though we were all certain that it was going to be given. It didn’t really matter as 5mins later they did get it but it was good that the video people were really looking. Also in the first half the hurricanes were denied a tri after a ‘forward pass’ which wasn’t really a forward pass stopped play. At the end of the first half Tialata managed to get himself a yellow card…so we were one man down ten mins into the second half.

[Statement] Western Force is a one man team…who is that one? Ah yes Matt Giteau.

Anyway the second half we… well it all came back J it was very late in the second half but still.  Centre Cameron Cross brushed aside a few canes players straight after the break to make it 27-13 by the time Tialata returned. The Auckland pocket-rocket David Smiths effort, and Willie Ripia’s conversion had brought the Hurricanes back to 27-23 with the clock against them. Only 4 mins to win the game, yet what do we manage!

The Canes finally managed to get the ball, without fault, down the line to Cory Jane, who in the 81^st minute, stretched his arm and planted the winning tri! Snatched from under their noses!

The force were gutted. After the match they showed the interviews and you could see the Force players sitting or lying on the field. Their 2009 season may be up!   

Well Done Canes!

Iz x

(Not sure how well that was explained or how much I missed out but you got the main bits! If it helps the link will give an over view of the match!)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/2328696/Late-twist-sees-Hurricanes-storm-the-west

It is only on for four months, so I urge all of you that are in the London area, or visit the London area, to go and see it for yourself.

It’s a Stephen Sondheim musical and is practically all sung with the sparse dialogue in it being very funny indeed. The basic premise of A Little Night Music is two ex-lovers meeting up again when they are in their late 40s, having been lovers when they were in their 20s. Both the man and the woman have moved on in terms of new relationships but when they meet up again they realise they still have feelings for each other.

I don’t really want to say too much more, as don’t want to ruin the plot but will say that the set and costumes are beautiful, that Maureen Lipman, playing the mother of the 40-something woman, is hilarious and the songs really catchy. You will probably know “Send in the Clowns” which is a song which I have never liked before but it really works in the show and I now love the song.

If anyone really fancies going to see this and has a partner who is not so keen, I would love to see this play again and would go with you. If you do go make sure you clap extra hard when the musicians come on the stage for their bow – Jess is the cellist and was the woman in red and white at mine and Ciaran’s wedding.

Painted during my first year in france, light and nature surrounding- a source of inspiration. Warm shades of brown & reds on the fading sunset express the gentle evening heat giving an end to a long sweaty day in the sunlight.

Painted when i was 11

-Kenza

(me and Izzy are gonna share this account for awhile)

The play was put on at the Pleasance theatre in Islington, as a part of a series  based on ideas to do with myth. In fairness this is a subject that can go one of two ways – extreme pretentiousness or properly interesting. This play leapt squarely into the deep end of pretentiousness. It was chosen on the premise that the Enlightenment is a myth – I could tell you what they mean by this, but quite frankly it’s not really worth the effort. If you’re wondering why I haven’t told you about the story, characters etc because there were none. These things were eschewed in order to create a sort of dramatic construct with the actors representing “the self” constricted by “the state” and subject to their own secret desires.  In other words hard work.

Don’t get me wrong, this sort of stuff can work – Waiting for Godot for example, Sarah Kane’s Blasted – but this was just rubbish. To even have had a chance of working it needed its audience to be completelyau fait with Diderot and Rousseau. Even then it just didn’t work on any level. It openly insulted its audience at the outset by basically stating that we wouldn’t understand the play because we’re too decadant, soft, unengaged or whatever. To my mind though I thought this was the mother of all cop-outs from the writer. She might as well have just put into the mouths of the performers something along the lines of: “I’m not actually good enough a writer to express what I want to say dramatically, so I’m going to have the actors rant dialectics at you for an hour and half”. In a word: petulant.

Mirch Masala is quite a contrast. It’s an expanding chain, and new branches appear to be popping up all over the place. The branch I went to was in Croydon.

Mirch is unashamedly cheap and chearful. It’s a bring a bottle place, which always keeps costs down and most of the dishes come in at under £7.

The concept appears to get a large, barn-like place, chuck some tables in (though to their credit, you are far enough from other diners that you never feel crowded).  The kitchen is open and at the side of the main space, which is always a good sign. An added plus for the sports fans around is that they put the footy on. The overall impression is of a bustling dining hall. It seems like a way of bringing the dining aesthetic of a roadside cafe on the sub-content somewhere to Croydon.

I have to say, I liked the place. It’s no frills, but as far as I recall (I was moderately inebriated) the food was pretty good. If it’s made with a bought-in paste, then it’s a different brand from the usual one. The service was somewhat amazing. There didn’t appear to be enough staff for all the people in the restaurant, but they did seem to manage to cheerfully appear at the right moment with whatever was needed, which was quite an achievement. The way they did this way by (for instance) just bringing all the plates and cutlery to the table and plonking it down, letting us distribute it, but since this was entirely within the character of the place it seemed a sensible way of going about things. I would definitely go there again.

My only worry is that as this brand rolls out it might get worse. For so many restaurants the roll out spells a dreadful drop in the quality of the food. Victims of this blight to date include: Wagamama, Girraffe, and  Cafe Nero (though not a restaurant), even brands that seem always to have been intended as chains, such as Nandos seem to have a drop in quality once they are established on the highstreet.

The question is– how many Mirch Masala’s will there be before whoever is in charge of the quality control can’t find the staff to make the food and we see the quality drop?

So I’ve spent quite a lot of time in galleries, always the thing to go and see when I was in a new city (don’t bother with the Hungarian National Gallery, I didn’t think much of it).  I generaly love art, whether it be old or new, however sometimes I am at a loss to understand what it is I’m looking at.

This exhibition helped me for once in my life truly appreciate some aspects of Picasso I had always felt were beyond me. I reckon I get the bottle, lemon, wineglass abstract thing. Becoming so abstract it is difficult to make them out, but the other stuff with figures and weird motifs like an open door in the background has always befuddled me.

This exhibition focusses on those whom influenced Picasso. You find out that he had spent his youth in the great galleries of Europe and knew all the masters so well that he could reference them, whilst still creating something unique.

So he takes the mick out of Van Gogh, Manet and creates upmteem pictures all influenced from the same Velazque in this case Las Meninas. Seeing that painting by Picasso took me back to a befuddling trip to the Picasso gallery in Barcelona when I was fifteen, where I walked around trying to appreciate what I was seeing -  just about understanding that Guernica was about war, looking at lots of pictures with a figure in an open door in the background. That memory was of the very same picture I was standing in front of.

In short I loved this show – but only because , being older I have seen many of the pictures that Picasso was referring to and for some of them knew why they were so influential or important.

I’m not saying that those without the experience will not still be able to enjoy this, the show does go through the different stages of his life and the women he shared that life with, but in having the experience you gain a much better appreciation of where Picasso was coming from (and how much fun he was having).

Its a crowded space in the gallery, so I would recommend the head set again so that you can step back and take pictures in without having to push to the front. The descriptions on the wall are good though, although the headset gives you a little extra with a snazzy interface showing you photos of his girlfriends and other works of art that may have influenced his work.

Worthwhile if you have a bit of experience of gallery going.