Friday Five

1. Have you ever been to the emergency room?

Yes for my Dad twice this year. For myself, i was in a minor car accident years ago, and once i think when i badly twisted my ankle as a teen.

2. What's the worst pain you've ever had?

Probalby when my back goes out on me.

3. If you could choose your doctor, do you prefer someone of the same or opposite sex?

I"m not bothered if it's a good doctor.

4. Do you take vitamins?

Iron pills when i remember.

5. Would you prefer to go to the doctor, the dentist or go sky diving?
Dentist, because the doctor means something is probably wrong and i wouldn't jump out of a plane. "Can't dance; too fat to fly" ;)

What am i doing today? I've got the day off but i have a lot of errands to do. And it's raining (or if it isn't right now, it was and probably will again).
The main order of business is to put my passport application in. Bloody Canadian government, they call it "renewal" but it's no different than starting a brand new application. In addition to a new picture (don't smile, please), i still need to provide my birth certificate and get a guarantor sign it. They also want you to provide two other references now that is a new addition to the form. They provide online form filling out (in?) now though which is what i did so it's all nicely typed. But the type came out quite small. I hope they accept that. It's not my fault, ossifer! The cost is the same as a new passport too, $87 which includes a fee for consulate maintenance!!! I guess i'm paying the heating bill for the Canadian High Commission in the Philipines or something. Anyway, that's one thing on the agenda today.

Also need to go to Blue Cross to get a cheque, deposit that, change some rolled coin for real money which is going to pay for the passport, go to the passport office, go to the post office.

I also thought i'd take in a movie if i'm out of the passport office in plenty of time to get up the road for the 12:50 show of the new Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Wererabbit. (check out the intro on that site, one of the scenes has Grommit graduating from "Dogwarts University"! Lots of clips and video on that site too. Wonderful stuff! There is some controversy in that it's being advertised as "From the Makers of Chicken Run" when everyone knows Chicken Run is from the makers of Wallace and Grommit in the first place :) Anyway the movie looks marvellous and judging from the featurettes, not only is it all stop animation, but the sets were built and backdrops painted. Doesn't look like there was any cgi at all. One feature even states that the sound effects were all done by hand. It took five years to do it.

Let it rain. I'm going to see Wallace and Grommit. :)

Checklist and a movie review

Insurance cheque, obtained and in the bank... Check
Coins changed to paper money... Check
Passport application sent in.... Check
Hastily eaten lunch... Check
Post office, get stamps and pick up parcel...Check
Wallace and Grommit...Check!

All tasks present and accounted for. Actually i had to go up to Atlantic Photo to have my passport picture redone!! The clerk said that the top of my glasses was just over the edge of my eye and they wouldn't accept it. They are doing digital stuff now, and there will be processing and digital facial recognition at some point coming up and they need all of your face visible. No smiling. Even if a tooth shows, it's rejected. Sheesh. Anyway they gave me a note to take to the place i had the (second set of) photos done which is only a few blocks away from the Passport office. Up i go, back to the office i go, drop off the photos. They don't keep the birth cert. anymore either so i could bring that back home along with the old voided passport. I can't go anywhere out of the country now until i get the new one so don't ask me :)

I stopped to get a barbequed sausage from a vendor at the library but a few minutes' relaxing to eat was not in the books. Too fucking many wasps floating around. One little bastard i swear followed me down the entire length of the library wall so i kept walking and ate my snack standing up by the church near the building where the passport office is. grrrrrrr...Anyway, i went up to Park Lane to go to the new Wallace and Grommit movie.

They've renovated the cinemas. They have a lot of stadium seating and the arm lifts on the seats!!! Woo! They also raised their prices :S No matter.

The Curse of the Wererabbit was wonderful! Classic W&G, if you go see it, watch the background and take in as many of the little details as you can, things like the brand on the refrigerator 'SMUG' and on the car radio buttons, it spells out 'MUTT'. Watch for signs and newspaper headlines, listen for the terrible puns ("Arson around!") Helena Bonham Carter and Ralf Fiennes played the two other main characters and they didn't sound at all like themselves. I bet they had great fun doing it though. Very pompous, over the top and entirely silly. A few parodies of a couple of classic horror movies, look for em! Very little cgi and what there was was suitable. And maybe it wasn't cgi, maybe it was regular animation but i suppose they do that all by computer these days don't they. Anyway, i loved it and it's definitely on my dvd list. With Nick Park in the writer's chair and the director's hat, it's not gone "Hollywood" at all, i thought.

The little northern town is a-buzz. The annual giant veg competition and fair is nearly here. Eager gardeners nurture their veg and protect their gardens from pest with the help of humane pest controllers, Anti Pesto, owned and operated by our heros, Wallace and Grommit. They are ever on the alert for garden pests, mainly rabbits, and capture them without harm to animal or legume, which urges Lady Tottington "Call me Totty!" to call on them to rid her estate of rabbits. Her intended, or at least he intends to be so, Victor Quartermaine, will brook no quarter, and his methods of pest control are far more violent. After an experiment gone wrong, a giant wererabbit cuts a swathe through the gardens of the town folk, threatening the centuries old fair. Wallace and Grommit seem unable to trap the beast and Victor may be the last resort must to Lady Tottington's regret, having found that she has formed a bit of an attachment to Wallace but has been let down by his inability to be successful in his quest.

Grommit, as always, is silent but his doggy body language speaks volumes. Wallace is stalwart and true and a little bumbling as always and voiced by the same man that always did him. There are silly jokes, bad puns, parodies and candy floss. There are inventions that work and some that go horribly wrong. There is cheese, of course, and there are hordes of giant veg and hordes of angry gardeners. The full moon shines and the Wererabbit terrorizes the town and there is a happy ending.

Thoroughtly enjoyable. Lots of chuckles and i highly recommend it!

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Happy Happy Birthday to the lovely midnight_echo