Blockbuster have a deal – four movies, four nights, for £10 – so when we watch one move, we end up watching four. Here’s a short review of the other three from our latest batch:

9: Very interesting! This is a computer animated film, which follows the journey of a little hessian sack doll who wakes up in a world where humans have been wiped out by machines. It’s a bit dark and mysterious at times – its one of those films where discovering the past leads to an understanding of the future. It was also very short, so even if you do end up watching it and hating it, you’re not going to be there for long. Sensational on bluray. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

Seven Pounds: I had never heard of this film before, but was trying to pick out something in the RomCom genre for Kristy’s viewing pleasure. The photo of Will Smith on the case looked like it was straight out of Hitch, so I figured it was a probably winner. I also didn’t bother to read the box too closely – something about changing the lives of seven people – so we watched it in ignorant bliss.

Turns out that the film is very gripping; it definitely has a bit of romance in it, but it’s by far more of a drama. The less you know about it, the better – but it’s good. Very good. There were tears by the end. gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.

The Invention of Lying: Fail! This movie turned out to be the RomCom, yet I had thought it was purely a comedy. It’s a Ricky Gervais film, so I had expected it to be of the calibre of Ghost Town. Sadly though, it wasn’t – it was slow, and it didn’t hold my interest. I think it held Kristy’s interset even less! Sure, there’s a few laughs to be had, but overall, its definitely missable. gerrod.com rating: 5/10.

Where did the week go? Not a lot happened, and yet I feel like we haven’t really been home at all!

On Tuesday night, we met up with cousin Louise, and her sister (hence also cousin) Kylie. Kylie is fresh off the boat from Queensland, having only landed in London on Thursday the week before. It’s way cool having more family over here now!

On Wednesday night, both Kristy and I had “after work drinks” to go to, and in both cases, catching up with old colleagues. It’s been ages since I had a night on the turps, and boy did I feel it the next day! It was nice seeing my old workmates again however, so all worth it in the end.

Thursday was a total write off. I feel like I spent the whole day in the wrong place, at the wrong times. I was glad to be home on Thursday night; but more on this later.

Nick and Giovanni arranged a Friday night get together at one of my favourite bars in London – Bar Kick. Unfortunately, since the French were playing the Welsh in the rugby, and since it’s a French bar, the place was absolutely packed out. I left around 10:30 PM, feeling very hot and exhausted. It was too crowded to take any photos inside, but this is the tube that I caught home:

Julian and Shelley stayed over on Saturday night, and amongst a boatload of food, and a game of hearts, we also watched the movie Surrogates. It was ok; perhaps one for the Bruce Willis fans out there, and fairly harmless entertainment for said fans’ wives. gerrod.com rating: 6.5/10.

And that brings us to Sunday, in which our highlights have been gym, salmon fishcakes, and a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother. See? Not a lot happening at the moment, but I guess that’s how things roll in winter in London. Oh, blue skies and sunshine, where for art thou?

Kristy having bronchitis at the moment has given us the perfect excuse to stay in and catch up on some films. We took advantage of Blockbuster’s “4 films for £10″ deal and got out four different films… though you probably had guessed that by the title of their deal.

Year One: I saw a preview for this one somewhere along the lines, and had thought that the combination of Jack Black and Michael Cera would be a sure hit. Wrong! I’d be lying if I said that there’s no laughs at all, but they’re definitely few and far between. Background entertainment, at best – or perhaps a film to put on if you’re someone who appreciates that a movie with lots of low points provides you with frequent opportunities for a trip to the gents. gerrod.com rating: 5/10.

The Ugly Truth: Have you seen that “unforgettable” classic, How to lose a guy in 10 days? Then you’ve pretty much seen this movie. On the up side, I’d take Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler over Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson any day. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

Revolutionary Road: Unbelievably good. Ben’s review of this movie is what piqued our interest in it, and it was very well recommended. I liked that the characters and the storyline were so relatable – like when they argued about one thing, it inevitably snowballed into something else. The only thing I didn’t like about this movie was Kate Winslet’s hair – something about the washed out blond didn’t match her uber-dark eyebrows. I found it all very distracting. gerrod.com rating: 9/10.

Inglorious Bastards: This film is an absolute masterpiece. I haven’t liked a Quentin Tarantino film this much since Pulp Fiction! Definitely not one for the feint hearted – there’s a few rather gory scenes – but it’s a film about World War II, so I guess it’s not entirely unexpected. Definitely worth your while seeing, even if you have to avert your eyes during some bits. gerrod.com rating: 9.5/10.

Back in November, Ariella invited us to see a David Sedaris radio show being recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre near Oxford Circus. I’d never heard of Sedaris, but the idea of seeing a radio show recorded sounded like fun. Plus, it was free and so were we.

It was brilliant! Having no idea what to expect, I was blown away by how laugh out loud funny this guy is. He retells stories from his life, capturing the absurdity of moments that a less observant person may not even stop to take in. His delivery is beautifully understated, so you feel as though you’re laughing voluntarily instead of being forced into it.

There are a few quirks about the filming of a radio show though. You feel self conscious about your laughter. Is it loud enough that the overhead microphones will pick up just how much we’re all enjoying this? Oops, was that particular laugh of mine too loud or out of step with everyone elses so that I’ll actually recognise it if I hear this played back on the radio one day?

On the rare occasions that David stumbled over a word, he’d pause for a split second then resume delivery at the last comma or full stop before his error – a bit like listening to a record that keeps jumping back and repeating itself. Then at the end of the night, a dude emerged from the sound booth and handed David a list of sections to reread because they hand’t come through clearly the first time. It’s weird listening to those portions read back, devoid of context, and hearing him deliver it as though perfectly he’s the moment and emotion of that point in the story. And being told to laugh as you did the first time around was a challenge: how did I laugh at that particular line? I think I got it wrong, so hopefully the others covered for me.

Gerrod then cleverly bought me one of Sedaris’ books for Christmas, titled Me talk pretty one day. It’s named after one of the short stories within, about how students of a second language completely fail to grasp grammar and throw their newfound vocabulary all togeher in a jumble.

I’ve now finished it, after lots of bursts of laughter on the tube, and intend to share it around. It’s too funny to leave on the shelf for long. Check our his work at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ which features podcasts from Sedaris along with other segments of good old fashioned story telling.

He’s playing at the Tivoli this Friday night if anybody in Brisbane is interested, then Sydney on Saturday and Melbourne on Monday.

Heads up: Pearl Jam are playing at Hard Rock Calling in London next year! Buy yourself a ticket then let me know that you’re coming so we can meet up!

In my opinion, 2009 was a fantastic year for music. Here’s my top five albums of the year, in no particular order – note that the album may not have been released this year, but perhaps I only discovered it (or at least really listened to it) this year.

As an aside: with most of these albums, I wasn’t particularly impressed with them on the first listen. But usually, that’s a good thing – as long as I don’t completely hate it, I’ll always give it a second go! But, albums that I like on the first listen are often just full of cheap hooks that I grow sick of after three months (can anyone say, “Nickelback”?). With the good ones, it’s only the second or third listen through – when the tunes become a bit familiar, and the lyrics start making sense – that things really start to pick up.

Pearl Jam – Backspacer (Grunge)
This one is a no-brainer – it says “Pearl Jam” on it so it was pretty likely to make the top five, even if I’d never heard it . This is their ninth studio album (!), and it’s unsurprisingly fantastic. It’s only short, but it’s clear that they’ve gone for quality over quantity.

Every song is great, but my personal favourites are Amongst The Waves, Unthought Known, and Force of Nature.

Karnivool – Sound Awake (Progressive Rock)
Hands down, Karnivool have to be one of the most talented bands in Australia. This album is much more progressive than their first, and includes some rather epic tracks, my favourite of which are Deadman (12min 4sec) and Change (10min 47sec).

We were lucky enough to see Karnivool perform in October this year – their songs sound just as good live as they do out of the studio.

Circa Survive – On Letting Go (Indie Rock)
This one falls into the “not released this year” category. It’s definitely not for everyone, and it definitely needs at least three listens; and it’s definitely amazing. There are so many subtleties in the songs that you pick up something new on every play-through.

This album really shines if you listen to it with a pair of decent quality headphones. Kristy got me a set of Denon C751‘s for my Birthday (holy crap, how expensive are they in Oz?!) and they’re perfect.

Rise Against – The Sufferer & The Witness (Post Hardcore)
Again, another album that wasn’t released this year, but I only came across it very recently, thanks to the wonders of Spotify and Amazon’s “Post Hardcore bestsellers list”. No, I’m not making this stuff up.

The closest thing I can compare these guys to is The Empire Strikes First by Bad Religion; fans of Blink 182, Yellowcard, or Finch will find something here to like. Rise Against’s more recent Appeal to Reason album was a very close contender here!

Billy Talent – III (Punk)
Ah, the only Canadian band that never fails to bring a smile to my face. I’ve always loved Billy Talent’s music, and especially their creative, poetic lyrics.

This album has a very similar sound to their previous album (titled II, and yes, their first album is titled I), so it was easy for me to get into. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s very, very good.

Honourable mentions have to go to One Day Remains by Alter Bridge, Golden Rule by Powderfinger, and Brand New Eyes by Paramore. Each of these albums is well worth listening to, but didn’t quite captivate me like the albums above.

How about you – what were your favourite songs/albums from 2009?

The moment I saw the preview for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (= HP6), I knew that I’d be watching that bad boy at IMAX, which they so proudly boast as “the biggest screen in Europe”. (Or perhaps “biggest screen in the UK”, but that doesn’t sound as good.) So, yonkies ago I booked us in to see it, and last night our numbers came up… unfortuantely it was a 9 PM session which is a bit late for a school night, but that was all that I could get. Jules and Shelley, and Nick and Suzie crashed our party too.

No folks, they are not Kristy and Shelley’s ordinary, everyday glasses – the first 12 minutes or so of the movie was in 3D. Whether this added anything to the movie or not is up for debate; it certainly added to the fun factor, though throughout the rest of the movie I felt a compelling urge to spin the glasses around in my hand, to pass the time.

On reflection, the reason I felt this way is probably because the movie is far slower than what I had imagined it would be. I mean, when you watch the previews, it makes it out to be non-stop action from beginning to end; but in reality, there’s a lot of emphasis placed on the awkward love interests between Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermionie. (Seperately, that is; there’s not some weird four-way love square thing going on there.)

Suffice to say, the movie did not do the justice to the book that my imagination did. I know they have a limited time window to work with, but I feel like they chose to portray all the boring slower paced elements of the book, rather than the big action scenes. Maybe my memory of the book is wrong, but I’ve never been wrong on anything before, so it’s doubtful.

I still enjoyed myself – it’s easy to get carried away into their world of magic – but overall it doesn’t hold a candle to HP5. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

Kristy and I ate at Valentina at East Putney last night. It’s a rustic Italian restaurant, and Julian had told us that it “looked like a place where we would eat”. Well, we didin’t want to let him down!

My immediate impression of the place was that it was Carluccio’s, just going by a different name. Kristy disagrees, but:

• They have the same blue and white coloured banner out the front of the shop;
• They have various foods for sale as soon as you walk in, including a fresh food deli;
• Just beyond the food section is the restaurant section; and
• They serve illy coffee.

Sound familiar? I’ll admit that I’m not sure which brand of coffee they sell at Carluccio’s, but I’m willing to make a (small) bet that it’s illy!

Anyway, on to the food. Neither of us could decipher the wine menu, as everything was listed by region, and none of the bottles were described. Fail! We had to ask one of the waitresses for a recommendation, and ended up with a bottle of one of the house whites. It was actually really nice – not too sweet or dry, fresh, fruity – really easy to drink. Should have got the name of it!

We shared an entrée of scallops wrapped in bacon, served on a salad. I’m sure it was described more nicely than that, but that’s effectively what it was. It was tasty enough, however we were a little disappointed to only find two scallops on the plate – at £7.50 for the dish, it seemed a little pricey.

My main was a whole sea bass with olives, capers and potatoes. The sauce was nice enough but the fish had so many tiny little bones in it that it really ruined the experience.
Kristy had a pasta dish of sorts – a giant parcel containing pork meatballs and tagliatelle, wrapped up in ham, and served with a tomato sauce. It was delicious! I had definite food envy!

Overall the bill was about £50 including tip – not exactly the cheapest night out, and having been disappointed by the size of the entree, and all the bones in my fish, I don’t think I’d rush back. Though if I did, I’d definitely be getting the meatball thing, it was really quite good. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

We managed to squeeze in two DVDs this week!

The Bank Job – Based (loosely, I think) on a true story, this is a film about a bunch of crooks that broke into the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank by tunneling under the floor, and coming up in the safety deposit box room. It was quite an enjoyable flick, sort-of in the style of Snatch, or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, though with a few less subplots. It even had that guy in it who always plays the organised crook in an otherwise unorganised bunch – he was playing the organised crook, in an otherwise unorganised bunch. gerrod.com rating: 7.5/10.

Wall-E – There’s only one way to describe this movie: adorable! I really, really enjoyed it. Best of all, it has a message for the whole family – that memory really can be restored by the love that exists between two robots. gerrod.com rating: 9.5/10. Waaaaalllll-eeeeee!

If there’s only one thing that Kristy and I learnt from the latest Star Trek film (which we saw at IMAX on Monday), it’s that the iPhone is clearly the phone of choice for trekkies. I’d guess that at least one in two people in the sold-out cinema had one! We were way up in the second back row, and it was funny to look down and watch all the trekkies writing tweets throughout the film.

Anyway – the film itself was great! JJ Abrams – of Lost fame – did an awesome job with the directing. The special effects are just amazing, especially when seen on such a massive screen! I must admit that I didn’t know much about the film going in, so I was shocked when Kristy pointed out that Eric Bana was playing the captain of the Romulan ship. I didn’t recognize him at all!

Overall – a very enjoyable experience, even though we could only get into the 9 PM session, which meant we didn’t get home until almost midnight. gerrod.com rating: 8/10.

Everyone always feels like weekends are too short, but for once, I feel justified in saying that the weekend just gone was definitely too short.

By now, pretty much everyone would have felt some effects of the credit crunch, and our workplace has been no exception. Friday brought with it the rather unwelcome event of our third round of redundancies, and the IT department was once again the biggest to suffer. For the moment I still have my job, but many of my friends don’t. The layoffs were so severe this time that I really don’t know how we’re going to cope – we lost a lot of people who I believed were “key players”, and I think a lot of knowledge will be lost with them. It’s honestly hard to tell who the lucky ones are now – those that still remain, or those that have walked.

Not surprisingly, most people spent at least a portion of their Friday night at the pub, commiserating with our colleagues. It had been a long day, and it turned into quite a long night, so by Saturday morning I was thoroughly exhausted.

We’ve chilled out for the rest of the weekend, enjoying some sleep-ins, and the general comforts of spending time at home. Ariella – Kristy’s friend from TfL – and her boyfriend Paul came around for dinner and boardgames on Saturday night. We introduced Paul to The Settlers of Catan, and he must be one of the fastest learners yet, as he managed to beat us all!

The only thing that Kristy and I had planned for Sunday was to try our hand at tennis, down at the courts at Wandsworth Park. Unfortunately, it turns out we weren’t the only ones with this genius idea – there was a queue for the court by the time we got there. We decided to postpone our match and played frisbee, instead.

After enjoying a BBQ for dinner and watching Man on Wire (gerrod.com rating: 8/10), we turned in for an early night, not at all looking forward to the week before us.