Introducing our new kitten - Bruce Willis

What the All Blacks needed against France

New Tui ads - Hot Off The Press

Movies Referenced In Simpsons' Scenes

ha ha! here's an example:



check them all out here:

Rest In Peace Luciano Pavarotti

World renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti lost his long-running battle with pancreatic cancer on Thursday.

After reportedly losing consciousness and suffering kidney failure yesterday, the 71-year-old global superstar passed away today at his home in Modena, Italy.


This is my all-time favourite classical piece.


Loved your work dude, loved your work. :-(

enjoy:

Do The Bartman!

classic Simpsons.

this song was released on 20 November 1990, it's 17 years old! crazy.

man that makes me feel old!!!!

Well Done Matty-Bro!

Here's a write up on Matt from the WINTEC Media Arts and Design e-flyer!
awesomeness!

Waikato Win the Ranfurly Shield!

What an awesome game of rugby from the boys!

52-7!

The precious is coming home!!!

spot the celebrity!!

Johnny Cash - God's gonna Cut You Down 2006

Classic! Gregorius: NMKY (Finnish YMCA cover)

More Raro Pics

Photobucket Album

Scootering in Raro Videos

Rarotonga Travel Photos - 1st lot

A couple of interesting points about Rarotonga:

2 litres of milk costs NZD $12 in Raro

Cook Island Marae are quite different from NZ . no walls or rooves, just some stones laid out in the grass to mark out who sits where.

We saw a "bashing-rock" where the daughter's heads were crushed by their fathers if they were caught cheating on their husbands or stealing. the men were sent to the front line of the battles as their punishment.

It took just 7 years to convert the Cook Islands from Cannibalism to Christianity, and it's only been 6 generations since that change.

The test for a motorcycle licence consists of going around the block, four left turns and you've passed. :-)

Photobucket Album

Eleven More Sleeps...

till we go to Rarotonga!!!



oh yes! the holiday is getting nearer and nearer-er. I can almost feel the sand between my toes, the cool beer going down my throat as I laze in the sea-side pool. It's going to be out of this world!!!

also, I do hope we meet these people :-)

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Ending.

After doing a Google search it's clear that many, many people are obsessed with the ending of the 7th and last book in the Harry Potter series. People are camping outside bookstores, various musings online state "I know the ending" "I know that Harry dies", "I Know that Harry gets Married" etc.

The security is so tight I find it hard to believe the ending has been leaked. security systems have been placed in every crate in the States and I'm sure employees of Barnes and Noble etc are tempted beyond belief to reveal the ending... but nothing they say will be beleived.

The big question is: when these thousands of people get there books at midnight saturday (US time) how long will it take for the ending to come out?
Would you turn to the back and read the last page and ruin the book? or find a secluded spot, avoiding TV, internet, radio, and cave drawings, and studiously read from the beginning to the end??

Personally, i've never read any of the books, so i guess i'll assuage my curiosity by checking the net sometime about 10 minutes past midnight to see the first answers being posted :-)

enjoy the book, those of you who will read it, and i guess i'm just happy to see that novels won't die off anytime soon thanks to these books.

The 79 Best Pictures Project....

Eitan and Shira are two people I admire.
I've never met them, and I likely won't, but through the wonders of the internet, I ran into them and their blog.

Eitan and Shira are both college students at the University of Maryland, and are undertaking the labourious, yet rewarding task of watching every one of the 79 films that have won the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy awards, starting with this gem from 1927

and working their way through to the most recent:


Such a great idea, and something a) I wish I'd thought of and b) had the time to do.

I'm gonna keep checking in to see how they're going and you can too here:

30 Second Bunnies

These are crack-up! Popular movies done in thirty seconds with animated bunnies. ha ha

Titanic Bunnies

Add to My Profile | More Videos

check them all out here:



Including: Napoleon Dynamite, Jaws, Pulp Fiction, Borat, Spiderman, Casablanca, Fight Club, and many, many more

and My Favourite: Office Space

enjoy:-)

Boston Legal Classic Moments

I don't watch every episode, but I think I might from now on.

Anyway, these are some of the great TV moments that i have seen!!!!


Season 3 Episode 22 Opening - Jerry Singing



Season 3 Episode 2 Opening - Classic Denny Crane


Alan Shore's Greatest Trial (Scientology).


and...

Nothing is Sacred in hollywood!

Apparently, if it was famous in the eighties, it'll be a movie in the naughties!!!

First Transformers, now...... this......

Yes Alvin and the Chipmunks come to the big screen :-)
what next?

this? :-)

Team New Zealand lose the America's Cup 5-2 to Alinghi.

This great cartoon sums up my feelings: we need to admit that it's a rich man's game and let the rich men finance it, not the nation!

They Won!!!!

well done to the whanau and the rest of the team!
awesome stuff!!!!
check out their winning short below!

Lease By Lense Flare - NZ 48 Hours 2007 Film Fest Grand National Winner



and now the blooper reel :-)

VOTE LEASE!!!!! Sunday Night, 8.30pm on C4.

Superhero Costume Party

So there we are, Lauren and I, dressed in our finest costumes for the super hero party.

It was a fun night, good venue (thanks to Megan and Sarah), good music (thanks to me), good company (thanks to everyone who made the effort to come dressed up, and thanks to those who where super anyway).

Well done to all the peeps brave enough to continue into town still in costume, The Bank has never looked that Super!!

here's some more pics:











p.s.

Your Rapper Name Is...

Ice Money

What's Your Rapper Name?

AFI Top 100 films Of All Time

here:


The Top 10:

1 CITIZEN KANE
2 THE GODFATHER
3 CASABLANCA
4 RAGING BULL
5 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
6 GONE WITH THE WIND
7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
8 SCHINDLER'S LIST
9 VERTIGO
10 THE WIZARD OF OZ


Laurens Top 10:

1. Borat
2. Pretty Woman
3. Dirty Dancing
4. Labyrinth
5. Pan's Labyrinth
6. The Simpson's Movie (in anticipation)
7. One Night In Paris
8. Herbie
9. Finding Nemo
10. The Shawshank Redemption

Steve's Top 10:
1. Braveheart
2. Shawshank Redemption
3. The Departed
4. Goonies
5. Band Of Brothers
6. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
7. Casablanca/Godfather
8. Almost Famous/Jerry Maguire
9. I Am Sam/Good Will Hunting
10. Star Wars (Original Trilogy)

10 is NEVER enough!

David Bain Retrial Decision:

The Solicitor General held a media conference at 4.30pm today(June 21st 2007),
where he announced Bain will face a retrial for the murder of his family in Dunedin in 1994.

This is an experiment:

Question:

Will this list increase the hits my blog gets?
Answer to follow....

celeb gossip!!! Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Nicole Richie, Katie Holmes, Jessica alba, Jessica Simpson, Brad Pitt, George Clooney,Tom Cruise etc etc

This week's top songs
Free Download MP3

1 What I've Done Linkin Park
2 Say It Right Nelly Furtado
3 Don't Matter AKON
4 Girlfriend Avril Lavigne
5 Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Green Day
6 In The End Linkin Park
7 How To Save A Life The Fray
8 Numb Linkin Park
9 Bleed It Out Linkin Park
10 Leave Out All The Rest - Web Search Linkin Park
11 Chasing Cars Snow Patrol
12 Hands Held High Linkin Park
13 You're Beautiful James Blunt
14 The Reason Hoobastank
15 Jhoom SHANKAR MAHADEVAN --
16 Tell Her Tonight Franz Ferdinand
17 The Almighty Dollar Ozzy Osbourne
18 You've Got To Hide Your Love Away Eddie Vedder
19 The View From The Afternoon Arctic Monkeys
20 valentine's day Linkin Park


All Genres alternative alternative & punk blues classic rock country dance electronic electronica/dance genre gospel & religious hard rock hip hop/rap hip-hop indie jazz latin metal other pop punk r&b rap reggae rock rock/pop soundtrack world All Countries Australia Brazil Canada India Mexico Singapore South Africa Turkey United Kingdom United States

My name is Inigo Montoya....

Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti


and another online quiz:

Your Theme Song is Soak Up The Sun by Sheryl Crow

"I've got no one to blame For every time I feel lame I'm looking up" You're laid back, optimistic, and very together Like the sun, people feel warm and comfortable around you

What's Your Theme Song?

The Times They Are A-changin'!!!

It is with saddness that I must report the passing of a dear friend - the spaceman candy stick.


First Georgie Pie, now this!!!!

Technically this bastion of 80's life for nz children, alongside k-bars and tangy fuits has not passed away, but it has been re-moddelled, re-branded, re-shaped and re-packaged.

Nothing was quite as cool as pretending to smoke on these. I decided to handle the jandle when they stopped colouring one end red to make them not look like ciggies,(bloody P.C. bandits!!)but this is the final straw!

I have purchased the last packet i could find with the old design, as a keep-sake. perhaps I should donate it to the Museum as a momento of my g-g-generation....

here is a link to a site that i commend for doing their bit to preserve the memory of this confectionery.

please register your disgust to

Carousel Confectionery Limited
53 Railway Road
Palmerston North

I'll try to find a pic of the new space GIRL on the packets, otherwise, head along to your local dairy to see this abhoration for yourself!!

Five Things About Me:

so after being "tagged" by Crystal to continue this blog-chain thing, here they are: 5 things you didn't (or may not) know about me.

1) I procrastinate. I've been told that i seem 'unflappable' and that "i always seem to have things under control". But, contrary to this belief there are times when i get so overwhelmed by what needs to be done that i stop dead and do ANYTHING to avoid what needs to be done.(like blogging)

2) I think that the music i feel most relaxed and happy when listening to is actually Fleetwood Mac. I don't know why, and maybe that's part of the appeal.

3) I have worked at an Oyster Farm. Driving a barge up the mighty Mahurangi River, harvesting the oysters off their wooden grow-stick-thingees, then standing next to a conveyor-belt sorting the oysters for selling. seems like a different world really.

4)I like old comics. kinda. not in a geeky way. but i recently bought the first Tin Tin comic and Lauren bought me Asterix the Gaul for my B'day. I guess it reminds me of a simpler time in Primary school etc.

5)I wish i could time travel.I reckon it would be THE COOLEST THING to pop back in time for the weekend.

okay and a random Top 5 to (nearly) end with:

Top five weirdest things I've worn:

1) a Pumpkin Suit. in the Rockquest. at the regional finals.
2) a Can-Can dress. at a variety show.
3) a bread-bag. over my leg in a cast. at Mt Ruapehu.Age 4.
4) my new-new T-shirt and my new-new shorts (sorry, family in-joke)
5) a Spice Girls T-shirt. to a school Mufti Day.

Random Photos to end with:









k.thanx.bye.

Melbourne: Great one day, Perfect the next...

... which is lucky really, coz we were only there for two days :-)

wow! what a whirlwind weekend! i'll try and cover everything, but basically if you ever wondered what you can do in Melbourne in 33 hours heres a few ideas:

Catch a skybus from the airport and see all the weird a wacky bridge designs and public art.

check in to the Mercure Welcome on Little Bourke Street. great central location, right next to Davy Jones's, unfortunately for Lauren, not THIS Davy Jones, but close enough.

head up Swanston street, checking out the shops, to the Queen Vic Markets. wow what an amazing place so many stalls, so weird to hear all the people shouting about their fruit and veges!!

stop in for a quick bite at the food court next to the market:


hold a snake:

which was really weird. the texture was not like i expected. kinda like a non-slippery eel. you can feel the muscles/scales contracting and expanding as it moves, but a lot colder and well, basically weirder.

after lunch, which was really our third breakfast (after on in NZ and one on the plane), we walked around the streets some more through all the mall/s etc down to flinders street and the amazing railway station. i was really impressed by all the buildings in Melbourne,. the old buildings were in good states, it was good to see older styles of architectire than Hamilton (i know you're thinking - wait till i get to Europe), but i was mostly impressed by the modern architecture. the new buildings were odd shapes, odd designs, heaps of variation and none of the hideous concrete sameness of Auckland.


next stop: Melbourne Aquarium. again: awesome. really cool and not too expensive, we had a great time looking at giant crabs, jelly fish, sharks, evil stingrays(I'm sure Lauren wanted to beat some up to get them back for Steve Irwin!) they had a cool tank that had the cast of Finding Nemo in it:


after the aquarium, we caught the free city circle tram around the city, past the Docklands,with it's cool sculpture, the Testra Domeand up tio La Trobe St again.

after a quick nap and a chance to put the feet up we caught a tram to Southbank and headed aklong the riverbank looking at menus trying to find food that i could manage. we found World restaurant, and after a really nice entree we settled down to a great main. Lauren had butter chicken, i had a steak sandwich and fries :-)

next stop Crown Casino, where we spent a good hour at the roulette wheel with our funds going up and down, and managed to walk out only $10 down. which is a pretty cheap hours entertainment really :-)


Sunday morning, bright and early we headed out for some Brekkie and i met some new friends:


we had breakfast at a cool diner, which had ferrari flags and uniforms etc. Lauren had the pancakes, i had the 2 eggs combo breakfast. the we headed down to flinders st Station and caught a tram to the beautiful St Kilda. We wandered along the art and craft market, that's been running since 1970, popped down to the beach, then went to Luna Park and had a great time riding (among other things) merry-go-rounds, bumpercars, crazy upside-down rides, ghost trains and even a pirate boat like rainbows end. a splendid time was had by all!



So after a tram ride back to the hotel to pick up our bags we caught the skybus back to the airport (through Carlton)and departed Melbourne. back to Auckland by 12:00 am, and hamilton just after two am.

Best Aeroplane moment: Either -Listening to Pink Floyd's "Great Gig In The Sky" at 35,000 feet (if you haven't heard this song - LISTEN TO IT!), or - Listening to Lauren crack up while watching Borat :-D
Best Shop Buy: Radiohead's OK Computer on Vinyl.
Best Market Buy: Laughin' Larry Mug
Best Food: Lauren really enjoyed her much-awaited Dim sims from the foodcourt next to the Queen Vic Markets.
Best Transport: The trams. so cool.
Best Building:





what a trip! Now it's time to recover, and get ready for the trip to Rarotonga in August :-)

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse

So I've been on leave this week and I've managed to tick off an item on my life "to-do list".
I watched the entire Godfather trilogy. pretty awesome stuff. I can see why they've become such classics! the first one was definately the best. De Niro was great in the second one too.the third one was not as good. i can see why people were dissapointed when it came out.


well its off to Melbourne tomorrow morning for the weekend. I'll post a pic or three when i get back :-)

the continuing story of the cat whisperer....

so, i followed sh!tty last night again. i managed to keep up with him as he went down a right-of-way to a rather large house. he then proceeded to run accros their lawn and down a bush and tree covered bank. upon almost slipping down the bank and realising that it was quite steep and the river was rushing by quite closely. i retreated. Lauren and I then took our tiny mag-light and went along the riverside-walk trying to work out where the property was that i had last seen him, again to no avail. more updates to follow.

Sorry I've been Carp!

hey hey, sorry about the e-silence. I've moved houses and the net doesn't get set up till tomorrow (Tues). rest assured, eager readers, i will return in force as soon as the Xtraordinaries have done their thing.

brief news for the last ten days:
1) Yes, still going to Raro
2) Work is going well. perhaps it's the new salary? i dunno?? :-)
3) Nemo (Sh!tty)is settling in well to the new place, although he started making weird noises and asking me to follow him outside last night. yes. i'm also a cat whisperer. i chucked on some shoes and followed him into the night and then.... lost him. following a black cat at night turns out to be harder than expected!!!. i shall persist though, an perhaps try again before sundown tonight. i'm pretty curious as to what i will be lead to. he was making his "i've killed a mouse/bird for you" noise, so the mind boggles....

that's about all i can get away with on work time, so i'll catch you all later

I'm Going to Raro!!!!!

thats right. Lauren (wonderful beautiful chick that she is) has won us a seven-days-all-flights-and-accom-paid trip to the Cook Islands!!! 4 nights on Rarotonga and 3 on Atiu Island alright! we're thinking of going in early August fr our Anniversary. wont that be nice! i cant freakin wait!!!! more details to come later!