Author: Carleen Dekarski

Resulting Christmas party aftermath…

Think Bridget Jones’ diary thankfully without the karaoke! What a hoot. Thankfully Mel remembered to bring a camera to catch all the antics as they happened.

Levels of dress ranged from casual to cocktail with enough makeup, hairspray and perfume to successfully deplete what remains of the ozone layer over New Zealand. I think I inhaled enough of it pickle my insides.

Great night with lots of laughs. A bit of dancing, although not too sure that Steps is on my list of most memorable bands in history.

My fellow team mates are a right laugh and had a ball with them. We kicked on afterwards to a couple of bars in Clifton before finally giving up as my feet were killing me!

Here’s a wee taster (courtesy of Mel’s pics!).

Cheers – C

Bit of champers for the ladies
Bit of champers for the ladies

Fine looking hats you have there boys?
Fine looking hats you have there boys?

Where's it gone to?
The Kiwi, Scot and Welshman

Sure you couldn't get a few more in?
Sure you couldn't get a few more in?

Where did they come from?
Where did they come from?

Hang on lady!
Hang on lady!

Let the parties commence

Friday is our work Christmas party. We get picked up from work at 11.30am in a coach and taken to the venue. It is an Arabian themed dinner (which no one appears to be dressing to?). Once having eaten we have a disco (seriously, they called it this!) then, as the curtains get drawn back to reveal daylight, we disappear off in our coach to a bar up in Clifton. All very bizarre and I am sure it will be full of mayhem and madness. Thankfully I work with a great bunch so hopefully it will be an afternoon of laughs and good times. Cheers – C

Coastal Trail Series – Gower

Yesterday was the second of seven half marathons that Steve is attempting to do. This time it was held in Gower, Wales. The race base was out of the small Welsh village of Llangennith.

It was only 2 hours away so we left at 6.30am, picked up a friend on the way and got there in plenty of time for a coffee and general browse before the race started.

The weather was magic, blue skies from here to forever. Not quite the Sydney blue that we know and miss but blue enough for us. Wales is a magic country and in particular down on the coast the scenery is stunning.

Steve has been sick (first time in ages) and hadn’t managed to get any training in since the last run. Even given this I don’t think he did that badly. Mind you I’m impressed that these people get through it without keeling over. This time it was not only hills but beach running as well.

While he was off running, I went for a walk to the beach with my mate where we set up the burner for a nice hot cuppa, rugged up in all our winter woolies watching the surfers in their thick neoprene suits. Nut cases!






Bath Christmas Markets

Held from the 27th November to the 7th December in Bath the idea is to replicate the atmosphere and wintery appeal of the European Christmas markets. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to go to the proper European ones yet (something always conspires against us so we never get the time to go). If the European ones are anything like Bath was then I really won’t bother. It was a rather big let down. For all the atmosphere that Bath has during the day with the golden Bath stone buildings etc the markets at night really lacked any atmosphere.
You would expect a cosy feel, colourfully lit, wonderfully decorated stalls, lots of mulled wine, roasting chestnuts, carols or at least Christmassy music. Well there was some of that but mostly lots of stalls selling stuff you just don’t need.
Glad I’ve done it so I know that I needn’t bother in future.

Movie: Max Payne

Steve has been going on for ages about seeing this. Having played the game many years ago I figured it could wait until DVD however the delicious Mark Wahlberg was in it so I decided to tag along as well.

Wahlberg does the brooding, kick the door down, pissy guy rolls really well. I think its the “serious frown” that he has going on.

To be honest this was actually pretty good. I would probably even watch it again (on DVD). The computer graphics are great and if you enjoyed the computer game there is plenty of falling snow, a little bit of the heavy breathing, “bullet time” a rather nifty effect in the Max Payne game even gets a look in (be it a small part).

Rather enjoyable for a bit of mindless, un-thought provoking entertainment. 4 out of 5.

Movie: Body of Lies

Not being much of a Leonardo DiCaprio fan I did go in to this one with some trepidation. I haven’t seen Blood Diamond yet but Steve assures me that DiCaprio is fabulous in that. Possibly his talent as an actor has been slightly stifled by the Titanic stigma.

Directed by Ridley Scott and again also featuring Russell Crowe, Body of Lies was I believe an incredible, thought provoking, disturbing and graphic look at the fight against extremist groups. It poses the question as to whether a given result is justified if the means to get there ignores the ethical values and ideology being fought for in the first place. That’s what I got from it anyway.

I think at the end of the day it is supposed to be a great boy flick with lots of action. It delivers that, most of which I found rather disturbing and uncomfortable. The material matter of the movie seemed even more relevant as the Mumbai incident had started the day before we saw Body of Lies.

3 out of 5.

Observation 4: False economy

I’ll be darned if I can find it but quite a while back I wrote about my thoughts regarding the economy here. It was along the lines of believing that there is a definite false economy at work in this country. People living off credit cards to meet their monthly bills, while still using them heavily to buy a whole heap of junk they don’t need, in turn racking up more debt.

This morning I was watching an AM show that was talking just about this. Basically with the economic slow down happening here they are starting to look further past the housing prices (which just weren’t realistic). They seem to realise now that the average Brit has been struggling for a long time to keep their head above water. Doh, seriously where do these economists have their heads? I can tell you it is somewhere between their knees and their belly.

Another thought – I was listening to Star FM and they are doing a “greatest hits from the Thatcher years” day. Occasionally they put in memorable Thatcher quotes. Now I can’t say a lot about this lady’s politics but she had it going on when she said “It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.”

Cold toes

I am looking at the weather widget I have on my desktop. It currently reads 0 degrees, with the wind chill factored in it is -6. I suppose this is not unlikely as it is nearly midnight. I am inside sitting next to the radiator and my toes are still frozen. You know its cold when you contemplate how long you can hold for before bursting in order to avoid leaving the radiator for the bathroom. I am looking at the weather for the next 5 days, rain and lows of 0. Now, I don’t mind the cold so much as you can always rug up and get warm (obviously this point has past me by seeing as my toes could do with some more socks), but I do have an issue with rain AND cold. That’s just plain mean. Cold is one thing, miserably wet and cold just really sucks. What’s the pay off? There is none. Bring on the snow and stop mucking around!

Magical Ambleside

We woke up this morning to a blanket of white snow covering everything. It was up quickly, washed, dressed and out the door for some “photoling” (Kerryn M will remember our discover of the word photoling while holidaying in Provence).

As I look outside now it is already starting to melt away but it was incredibly magical first thing this morning. Hopefully the roads will be OK by the time we head back to Bristol. Cheerio pip pip for now.