“Ron Burgundy was the balls.”

So I watched “Anchorman – The Legend of Ron Burgundy” again on DVD the other night. Actually it was on an Aussie TV channel at the same time. You might think that’s strange, but strewth (I catch on pretty fast) have you tried to watch a film on Aussie TV? It’s frickin’ grim, here’s why: we started the DVD the same time as the TV and when it finished, there’s was still around 40+ mins to go! It’s full of ad breaks – roughly every 6-7 mins.

Can you imagine what watching one of the “Lord of the Rings” flicks would be like? A 3 hour film about walking, turned into a 5 hour film about walking. That would hurt.

I digress.

I like this film. It’s kinda silly in bits but the dialogue is funny:

Ron Burgundy: I wanna say something. I’m gonna put it out there; if you like it, you can take it, if you don’t, send it right back. I want to be on you. Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I… I wanna be on you.

This is one of Will Ferrell’s best flicks so far, and Steve Carell – The 40 Year Virgin, is great as weatherman Brick Tamland. The scene where the News team are discussing the introduction of the co-anchorwoman to the team is hilarious. You can see this bit in trailer below.

I like Will Ferrell’s films although they do tend to share the same plot – act 1: top of his game; act 2: in comes some competition and the fall from grace; and act 3: return to glory. Just look at “Anchorman”, “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” and “Blades of Glory” – they are, basically the same film, just different characters. And I’m pretty sure the script is littered with stuff like:

“Scene 30 – *Improv by Will Ferrell for 50 seconds*”

Take this scene from “Anchorman” for example:

Ron Burgundy: I don’t know how to put this but I’m kind of a big deal.
Veronica Corningstone: Really.
Ron Burgundy: People know me.
Veronica Corningstone: Well, I’m very happy for you.
Ron Burgundy: I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.

You can’t script stuff like that. Of course it is one of those films where I snigger all the way through and Vikki just doesn’t get it. And I get that look that reads, “To think I married that”. You should check it out though. Let me know what you think.

“Do you love me? Yes I love you.”

The Blue Nile.

On ‘Later with Jools Holland’ 1996. I must have missed this bit as I only remember them playing a track from “Peace at last”.

“Tinseltown on the rain”. This is probably one of the greatest songs ever written (IMHO). I’ll fight you if you disagree.

The future’s bright. The future’s Skype.

Howdy. I finally ordered a Skype phone and it’s on it’s way.

If you don’t know what Skype is then you should. The days of landlines and BT and other telephone services are numbered. Skype allows you to make phone calls over the internet for free – that is, to other Skype users. Although the cost of a Skype to a landline number is supposed to be relatively cheaper than the normal call.

All you need to do is buy a Skype enabled headset/microphone or VoIP phone – go to Comet; Curry’s; PC World etc. You can even hook up a webcam for streaming video.

I haven’t used it much, but the clarity is pretty good and I was really impressed with the quality of the webcam. Obviously, this depends on the equipment and broadband speed.

If you want to stay in touch via Skype let me know and I will send you my user id. Just bear in mind that there’s a 9 hour difference between the UK and Melbourne.

G

A visit to the Karin Catt Portraits Exhibition

Don’t you love the words “FREE EXHIBITION”?

While sitting on the grass yesterday eating my lunch – a rather delicious Nando’s Chicken Pitta, I noticed I was outside the State Library of Victoria (on Swanson Street) and I also noticed some banners displaying faces of such personalities such as Russell Crowe and Heath Ledger.

Then I saw the words “free exhibition”. Why the hell not? I thought, I’m not doing anything else.

According to the exhibition leaflet, Karin Catt is a high-profile Australian photographer whose work has appeared in Vogue and Rolling Stone. Her subjects range from world leaders such as Bill Clinton to musicians such as AC/DC, Elton John and Eminem and personalities such as Yoko Ono.

These portraits are stunning. There’s one of the Aussie actress Rose Byrne (Star Wars: Attack of the Clones; Sunshine) which is just amazing. There’s something about her eyes – sad, moving, like there’s a story behind that pose / look. Beautiful. I’m biased anyway, she’s very pretty.

I was amazed to see a portrait of the boys from Travis, a wee band from Scotland. I’d be interested to find out what that photo was taken for. It’s strange to see a photo of these guys on the wall with a portrait of the Dalai Lama just around the corner.

Go to slv.vic.gov.au/famous to read more about the exhibition.

I feel quite cultured now. I think I’ll do a bit more gallery viewing in the future.

Then again I’ll probably say “f*ck it” and go see a film instead.

Nice way to save money at the petrol station

LOL, I like this story.

The Melbourne Leader – Wednesday, August 15th reports that a South Melbourne brothel is offering their clients’ 30c a litre off their next visit to the petrol station. Get this, the offer is being promoted as …

“Pump And Save”.

Ingenious.

Apparently the promotion has been popular with the visits to the brothel increased in the past two months – with husbands telling their wives that it would be a good way to save money on petrol. Somehow I don’t think that would ‘go down’ well, if you pardon the pun.

New life. New city. Same ginna.

This post marks the first entry into my new blog. What, new blog? Yeah that’s right, http://theginna.co.uk was my first attempt at this blogging lark, but just like going out with someone with ginger hair, that was a bit of an experiment. In my last job (good lord that was a bad move) I wanted to get out and what better way to do this was to learn some new web languages. I always wanted to learn PHP so I did and built a blog site. Updated it for about one month and got this job and gave up, the blog that is.

I digress. This blog like anyone else’s is to make a journal of my life – write about music, films, feelings and, erm… other stuff and Star Wars.

So here we go.

I’m in Australia now. I’m in my second week and this is the first chance I’ve had to write this blog. Last week I was on a training course and drinking the rest of the time. Plus I was feeling like shit. What is it with long haul flights and me, I always get a flu/cold when I fly? Of course the idiot at the check-in desk at Edinburgh Airport didn’t exactly help things by sneezing in my general direction – I felt it hit the back of my head.

Shitebag.

Keeping the Australian economy going though with all the drugs (prescription ones I must add) I bought last week which didn’t really do much apart from make me sleepy during the day. Or was that the course? Don’t get me started on that. Let’s just say, glad I wasn’t paying for that course…

Nice way to spend my first week in Melbourne though, got to see the city. The office and apartment are on the outskirts of the city so not where it’s all happening – there’s nothing in Abbotsford, really the closest thing is the train station that will take you to somewhere better.

Saturday I went to a footy game – Aussie Rules Football: St Kilda Vs Freemantle at the Telstra Stadium, it’s a huge stadium, nothing like I’ve been at before. I’ve never been a sporting person and never really been into football back home, so this was a new experience for me. Plus it was strange to see whole families go to the game and no trouble either. No sign of Bovril being pissed in or shoes being shat in.

The ticket I got was free, but I believe you can walk up to the ticket office on the day and pick them up from $14.00 – about GBP6.00! Something unheard of back home (if comparing it to a regular event like football). It was good fun – had a few beers and a couple of “meat” pies. It wasn’t until the second pie that I looked at the ingredients on the wrapper: “25% meat, beef, mutton ..”

Now, hopefully you’ve noticed how beef and mutton are NOT encased in brackets in relation to “25% meat”, meaning that as well as the beef and mutton, there’s a generous helping of 25% of other meat. I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to what that “25% meat” consists of.

coughlipsandarseholescough.

This week is going well so far, finally getting into some work.

I think I’m going to enjoy my new life in Oz. Even better when my better half gets here to share it with me. Only 8 weeks away.

That’s all for today, more about my adventures soon. I probably lost you all at “PHP”. Feel free to add a comment below.

G

PS. Mum/dad if you are reading this, sorry about the swearing. Please take this as a disclaimer for all future posts also, I might even use the ‘F’ word.