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.

Kristy gave me Watching the English at Christmas time, and I’m yet to read it. I thought to myself, “Hey I should take this with me to Amsterdam to read on the plane!”; unfortunately this thought only popped into my head a few seconds after Kristy asked me, “hey, do you mind if I borrow Watching the English to read on the plane?”.

Yes, I was beaten to the punch, but I wasn’t defeated: I had seen John Grisham’s latest book – The Associate – advertised, and being quite the fan of many of Grisham’s other books, I wanted to give it a whirl. Kristy was kind enough to grab it for me at the airport, even though she had to pay the WH Smith airport tax (read: “recommended retail price”). What a lovely wife!

It turns out that airport tax was only £3.00 extra, and it was totally worth it. In fact, if I’d have been able to forecast how much I would love the book, I would have paid loads more; probably even £4.00, or £4.25 extra. It was so good! So good! In fact, I’ve decided that I’m going to give it the illustrious title of “best John Grisham book that I’ve ever read”.

I was so addicted that I finished it before our three day weekend was over (though admittedly it was on the closing moments of our flight back to London). I’ve never read an entire book in a single weekend before! Highly recommended! gerrod.com rating: 10/10.

40 hours of flying gives you plenty of time to catch up on films! Here’s what I thought of the ones that I saw:

• Slumdog Millionaire: My only regret with this film was that I saw it on a tiny TV showing both English and Singaporean subtitles. Otherwise, it was absolutely spectacular, and worthy of every single good thing that was said about it. I’ll definitely be catching it again on our shiny big flatscreen. gerrod.com rating 10/10.
• Burn After Reading: Fantastic, light hearted entertainment, with lots of genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Brad Pitt is as good an actor as he is a looker! gerrod.com rating: 9/10.
• Changeling: Definitely the surprise movie of the trip; I only watched this one because I was pretty much out of other options, yet I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it. Has some fairly wrenching scenes but overall is a fantastic package. gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.
• Quantum of Solace: Maybe I was tired when I watched this, but to me it didn’t make much sense. Seemingly it was just an endless action movie, with lots (and lots!) of different characters all trying to kill each other, and not much plot to sew it all together. Definitely a step down from Casino Royale. gerrod.com rating: 5/10.
• W: A fairly long drama about Big George’s rise to president, which does a great job of analysing his character, his alcoholism, and his sketchy relationship with his father. You’ll genuinely feel sorry for the man by the end of the film. gerrod.com rating: 7.5/10.
• Monsters vs. Aliens: I’ll admit we saw this one after our flights, and that I was drawn to it because the main character is a giant girl named Susan. Still, the preview looked a lot funnier than the movie turned out to be; not all together unenjoyable, but I wasn’t too sad when it ended. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

We’ve watched some films lately. Here’s what I thought of them.

Kung-fu hustle: Overhyped and weird. It was interesting from the point of view that it wasn’t a hollywood blockbuster, and I had to read the subtitles. And it had a few twists on humour that made me laugh. But everyone – everyone – that I know absolutely raved about this movie. I was expecting a real experience, instead I got light entertainment. gerrod.com rating: 6/10.

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest: This movie is strange. But good! Actually, it’s very good! I can see why it won so many awards. Julian pointed out that the ending is blatantly ripped off by The Simpsons, which makes me thinks that the writers of The Simpsons are big fans of Jack Nichlaus Nicholson, as they seem to rip off quite a few of his movies – Chinatown, A Few Good Men, and The Shining spring to mind. gerrod.com rating: 9/10.

Last year I read in a local ‘time out’ style guide that there was a chocolate factory down the road from my work. Within walking distance. I got very excited. Then I kept reading.

Turns out it was built in 1870 and doesn’t in fact produce chocolate any more. BUT, now there’s a cosy little theatre in its place! So last night Shannon and I visited the Menier Chocolate Factory theatre to see Stephen Sondheim’s musical, A Little Night Music. The theatre is so tiny teeny that when the characters waltzed around the stage during the opening number I had to pull my feet in under my chair.

I saw a Sondheim musical years ago (Into the Woods) and loved it, so happily went to see this one having no idea what it was. Shannon was just as clueless asking me, “is it a play? is it a comedy?” to which I had no satisfactory answers. “I think it’s a musical, and it’s probably funny.” Everyone else in the audience was about 60, probably making Shannon doubt me on that last point.

But it was hilarious and poignant and so captivating that we didn’t realise three hours had passed. Some of the actors were so convincing that we felt like a fly on the wall in their bedroom, watching their lives unfold. It’s a must see play – I think this run has sold out, but I’m told that popular shows from Menier sometimes get upgraded to larger Covent Garden theatres.

g.com rating: 10/10. One of the best productions I’ve ever seen.

If you hadn’t noticed (or alternatively, don’t live in London), it’s been freezing of late. It’s the coldest winter ever recorded in London*, and as such we’ve been getting better value from our LoveFilm membership by ploughing through the movies.

Definitely, maybe: It’s a chick flick, so you can bet that it wasn’t me that picked it; but I’ll be honest and say it was far better than I had dared imagine. A charming tale where a Dad recounts his dating life to his curious daughter, but all the while changing the character names to make her try to guess which one was her Mom. A perfect background movie for the ladies to enjoy while you lads are beavering away on your laptop. gerrod.com rating: 7/10.

The Mad Detective: This one was Shelley’s pick, and she had much trouble selling it to us. Things weren’t looking up when the mad detective cut off his ear and handed it to his retiring boss as a present – and this was only about three minutes into the film! But, credit where credit’s due, it definitely picked up from there, and in the end I had to admit it was at the very least, “different”. Warning for those with low reading skills: it’s Cantonese, with English subtitles. gerrod.com rating: 6.5/10.

Little Fish: gerrod’s pick! I first wanted to see this film after Ben gave it an off the charts rating, but kind of forgot about it until recently (goodness knows what jogged my memory). Check out Michelle’s review for an excellent plot breakdown, and an article so well written I wish I’d have just cut-and-pasted it here to begin with. gerrod.com rating: 10/10.

* Facts may not be accurate.

It’s rare that a movie contains a single line which does a perfect job of describing itself; in fact, 300 might be the only movie ever made which has a line that does precisely that. Unfortunately, when the line is delivered, they’re not trying to describe the movie; it’s actually said by the evil councilor to the queen of Sparta, regarding her “payment” to get him to persuade the council to go to war:

This will not be over quickly, and you will not enjoy it.

No, we did not enjoy the movie. We should have clued up when Xerxes made his first appearance as pretty much the most camp king that ever existed; but what really pushed it from “scraping by” to “one of those regrettable life decisions” was when they brought out a donkey who could play a recorder. Yes, really.

Credit where credit’s due; some of the action sequences were ok. But overall, this movie was such a letdown! gerrod.com rating: 2/10 – only because of how much the recorder playing donkey made Julian and me laugh.