Category: General

Pre-Christmas Dinner, Drinks.

Morgan Avery

The other night we had our most successful pre-Christmas/Mammonmas dinner so far, with a few people over for a wonderful meal — and some wonderful drinks made with 42 Below vodka (given to me by one of my clients), apparently one of the best in the world — made in New Zealand, whats more. Wellington, sadly. Oh, we had some bubbles as well as the voddy, of course.


David enjoys ravioli, and pulling faces.

Started with breads & dips (from David and Laura), with the cunning addition by Claire of some of the wonderful, delicious, rosemary & feta dip from a Mt Eden deli, it is, quite simply, perfect.

Main of a couple of variants of ravioli, with a couple of kinds of sauce, salad (from Loo-loo & Karl), and some sort of chili bread thing (which was also wonderful).


Claire, being hot.

Then dessert: various fruits and berries, served in a biscuity wafer bowl with cream & ice cream, followed by coffee with espresso biscuits (as made by Claire, starshaped and dipped in melted chocolate), and a cheese board for anyone not already stuffed.


Karl, sitting down to be less of a tall’un.

We feel horribly mean, in some ways, now anyone inviting us for dinner has an almost insurmountable effort in order to top us. Welcome to try, as many times as you like.

Lord of the Rings : Return of the King — (Spurious Review.)

Morgan Avery

Enter today’s entry in he ‘I had AIDS before it was cool’ category*:

I saw an advance screening of Return of the King last night, was given 4 tickets, but Claire didn’t want to go see such a long movie on a weeknight, so the 3 seats to my right were the only empty ones in the whole theatre.

It’s long.

It’s not that good – really. The CG is shit, it’s a flickery jerky mess, if anything it’s actually worse than Two Towers. And that Andy Serkis needs to stop being so utterly shit at voice work. Lastly, if they’re going to cut out Saruman, at least they can also NOT have the fucking ring talking!

The spider was so bad it was laughable, might as well have been a little plastic toy bouncing along on a piece of elastic.

Oh, and if it’s not crying little bitches, it’s brave hearted fighters who virtually have blue painted faces and cries of FREEEEEEDDOOOMM!!! roaring from their collective throats. (I’ve seen this movie before, I think, now what was it called?)

The one good thing was… There were no Asian’s translating for each other at full conversational speech volume for me to bash in the heads of.

Revolutions was about 7.4 times better.

What a steaming pile of shit. And I have to sit through it again tomorrow. Gah.

—

* Also, put it in the complete fabrication category, I didn’t really see it last night, just wanted to make young James squirm in frustration that I (a non-fanboy) saw it first, and didn’t take him, even though I had too many seats. Lame joke, I know. And it probably didn’t even work. Pssht.

The Matrix : Revolutions

Morgan Avery

We went out to see The Matrix Revolutions this morning (first session started at 3 AM, you see). The megascreen was definitely the place for it, it’s been interesting to see the "reviews" posted by a lot of armchair critics, basically panning it, but with so much hyperbole, so much venom, that it’s clear they had their eyes shut for much of the time for fear of it being good.

It’s quite funny that some people think that to critique something you have to be negative, but only when it’s not being sad.

The truth is that Revolutions pretty much hits the mark, ties up all the loose ends it needs to, and, importantly, picks up the pace greatly from where much of Reloaded languished.

It must be clear that it exceeded my expectations, which is always a good thing. Whether it exceeded your expectations, I care not a whit.

Lastly (you hope) I think the movies are fully cohesive only when viewed as a whole, so for example, if you don’t immediately recognise (The) Kid, and know his unique origins, you don’t have a high quality perspective on any part of Reloaded or Revolutions, IMHO.

Casa del Pino

Morgan Avery

Which would make this the first post from the new place. Though technically we don’t move in tomorrow, must say SmartGrrl did a great job arranging for DSL etc to be switched on over here, last time the whole thing was horrible, that’s what happens when you make the mistake of taking Telecom’s advice, rather than telling them how you want it done, I guess.

We’ll probably be having a BBQ next weekend (if not Monday night), people we like will be contacted.

The end of The Monkey.

Morgan Avery

It is with a heart heavy with sorrow that I inform you that the-monkey.net is no longer going to be updated.

… From Mt Eden. It will now be updated from Balmoral instead.

This is the last Mt Eden update.

Booyyaaaaa.

All these things.

Morgan Avery

So many things have happened. I’ll keep it short, and start at the beginning, except for the beer, which is well out of order, in a manner of speaking.

Okay, first, I’ve just had a beer. It was okay.

Second, we got a new scooter: a Suzuki StreetMagic, just like one Hotgirl had stolen a couple of years ago.

Third, we got a new scooter: a Bajaj Chetak, which is one of the Indian made Vespa clones.

Then, we got a new digital camera, a Fujifilm s304, we’re very happy with it, takes awesome crisp photos, makes movies, has a good zoom, etc etc.

Lastly, we’re moving house, not very far, but we hate moving, so we’re hiring a couple of burly men with a big truck to do all the lifting and driving. We have video of the new house, but not many photos yet. I might put some up once we’ve moved. Maybe.

Don’t ask how much this has all cost (except the beer, I’m happy to tell you that was free).

Castle Milk Stout

Morgan Avery

Another day, another beer. South African, no less. But don’t hold that against it, this is a cheeky little darkie of a stout.

The picture to the right is nothing to do with the beer, just my lovely little baby boy. Oh, my hand is cocked so jauntily due to the not very visible Thinkpad I’m using. I’m not a homo-fag or anything.

Loquats and small ‘homes’.

Morgan Avery

Today I had my first loquat of the season, it was half green, all sour, and all good. Sweet and juicy would be even better, give it a couple of weeks and it’ll be there.

It rules to have an actual garden, with fruit trees and stuff, again.

I don’t understand why people are willing to subject themselves to city apartment dwelling, the time we spent in our Eden Terrace townhouse is about as close as I’d like to get.

The benefit, I’m told, is to be close to everything in the inner city, the problem is there just isn’t anything in the city for me. I go to the movies at St Lukes, where there is ample free parking. And when I’m not shopping in St Lukes, I’m shopping in New Market, where, once again, there is free parking provided.

I don’t understand why people go for litle two room places, let alone the crazies in the one room ‘studio’ apartments.

I’ll just keep my 10 room house in the burbs.

All aboard!

Morgan Avery

Today, for the first time in my life, I took the train into the city. Good fun too, it’s strange seeing so many buildings that I recognise from such an entirely different perspective, and I had no idea there was so much graffiti around.

We were heading into the city to check out the festival, good fun, they blocked off Queen St to traffic and set up a huge stage and a bunch of stalls, including one for Satya, where we grabbed a couple of wonderful samosas, and Danish Delight, where I got a Devon Cream ice cream with raspberry sauce. Very good. Reminded me of being in the city with my father when I was a little boy (around 7 or 8). Danish Delight has really been around a long time in the city, but I don’t often patronize them (hur hur).

We wandered around and watched fun people dancing in the middle of the street, while kids tried to learn handstands, and my good little girl browsed through the racks of clothes on offer from some of Auckland’s hip young designers.

On the way back to the station to head back out to Mt Eden, we stopped for a glass of milk and a melon juice, and I tried to touch base with a friend, ended up cancelling our trip to the station in favour of dropping in on them for another glass of milk, and a couple of hours worth of conversation, before dragging them back to the estate to prepare us a meal, while we drank wine and ate cheeses.

It’s nice having a quiet day with the flatmates out of here.

By the way, mum, I came over while you were out and borrowed the mower. Let me know if/when you need it back.