Sophie's Slimming World and Cinema critiques!

Yesterday I was low on my morning fruit supply so popped to the market and bought about 8 huge very ripe mangos for £1.50! I completely devoured one while at the cinema (seeing Monsters Inc in 3D - I really dislike the whole 3D lark, but any excuse to see a much loved Disney/Pixar film from my childhood on the big screen suits me! This first came out when I was 11 and my sister was 1, by the time it was on dvd she was old enough to watch it a looot! But not as much as The Incredibles or Finding Nemo!) I literally peeled the mango, it was so ripe that that skin just peeled off like an orange and, grateful that I'd just been to poundland and bought 3 huge kitchen rolls, I bit into it and gnawed the succulent flesh off of it to the stone. Mmm!

I only discovered that market near the Cineworld we frequent (the BF and I have unlimited passes so go aaaall the time!) and it's so awesome- can't believe we used to walk past it to the Sainsbury's and spend ten times more on fruit and veg. The market stall sells a huge bowl of bananas (maybe 15 bananas or so) for £1, and all sorts of juicy fruit and veg. Some of it isn't great though- when I got home I was preparing a fruit salad for us and had to chuck two of the mangos away as they were brown inside, but that still beats the supermarket ones by oodles, price wise, and most of them are so perfectly ripe. Can't BELIEVE I'd been missing out on cheap mangos until a few weeks ago. We always come back with almost more than we can carry and it usually comes to around £10. I especially like their well prices red and yellow peppers, 5 for £1 or so- the cheeks at sainsbury's trying to charge 80p per pepper, ugh! Rant over

So, yesterday's EE menu:

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Brunch: Slept in until 1pm! I'm quite a night owl at the moment. Had a feast starting with nat ff yog topped with banana and sweetner. Low fruit supply so instead of a proper portion of that had a small one and made german potato pancakes/lutka's, a savoury version, by grating a medium potato, red onion and small carrot (carrot isn't in the recipe but I add it for extra superfree as it doesn't affect the taste) squeeze (with hands) all of the juices out of the potato/ingredients so that it fries better then mix it into one whisked egg with various seasonings (I added some Aromat and Worchester sauce) then flatten in a pan and fry for a few minutes each side. I topped it with my HexA, 30g of cheddar while it was in the pan, so the cheese got toasted a little too, then added a serving of ketchup to it after (1 syn). Often I have a sweet version of this though seasoning with cinnamon/Mixed spice and cooking with honey, topping it with FF nat yogurt and fruit!

Snack: At the cinema I ate a whole mango, 3 satsumas and a Special K Chewy Delight milk choc bar (HexB) - I adore these and recently stocked up on them as they were half price! £1 a box- yes!

Dinner: (around 6pm) found Uncle Ben's express pouches at poundland- 3 for £2, much better than store prices! I like the Mexican Bean one best but they didn't have it so I got spicy Mexican ones instead (2.5 syns) and topped it with 3 rashers of bacon (fat removed, my cat and boyfriend enjoy that I remove the fat as they get the scraps!) and a big salad of diced cucumber and cherry tomatoes from the market, lightly salted and mixed with balsamic. I mixed these in as I like the textures with the warm rice. Snack: The OH and I spent about 5 hours playing ipad board games! We love playing Risk (against CPU bots as well as each other) but gave monopoly a turn yesterday. I have always loved board games and finally have someone to play them with- but playing family games with just two players usually sucks as you're constantly against each other and end up wanting to rip each other's hair out, so it's great that we can add CPU bots! Monopoly was fun but I nearly killed him when he chanted "Roll an 8! 8! 8!" and then I frigging did and landed on his hotel on Strand! ARGH! :cry: There went all my money and houses, then the next turn the CPU landed on my property which I'd just removed the 4 houses from ;( SAD TIMES. I ended up out pretty fast after that so we played as a team against CPU and he won was fun!
Ahem, back to the whole SNACK part: As I'd missed a meal today (brunch doesn't reaaaally satisfy me for two meals) I was quite hungry in the evening so had a packet of Salt and Vinegar Velvet Crunch (4 syns) (really yummy! Had never tried this variety before but poundland sell the multi packs of them!), a fruit salad (mooore mango, and a kiwi) shared with the BF, a mugshot (spicy sweet and sour flavour - free) and a highlights (I think) hot chocolate, chocolate orange flavour (2 syns) topped with low fat whipped cream (It's around 140 calories per whole cannister, so per portion the syn count is tiny- I always put it down as 1 syn though! I actually prefer it to the full fat stuff weirdly! Because it's sweeter )

Total Syns today: 9.5

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Cinema critique of the day: Gangster Squad - 6/10
I saw this at the start of the week and found it pretty OK actually! Emma Stone was absolutely smouldering in it and Ryan Gosling was nice on the eyes too! It's not really a genre I usually go for, but since I pay £15 a month to see as many films as I want- I go to as many as possible! The cast drew me into this, and I thought they did pretty good, actually. Sean Penn as the baddie was great, too. Leaving it at that because, in all fairness, I don't remember a huge amount about the film, it didn't really leave an impact but it was entertaining enough!

So that's me for yesterday! Aaaanyone reading this?

Oops, no update for a while!

Well, this weekend felt really naughty- I felt quite demotivated on Monday to think about it, but after working out estimations of syns consumed, it turned out I was still a few syns under my weekly tally! I was still hesitant though- naughty dinner 3 days in a row- but when I got on the wii scales on Monday I'd lost 2 pounds since Thursday! I usually only weigh in on a Thursday but I wanted to see the damage before a day of wii fit plus, so that was a huge surprise and motviation- I managed 2 and a half hours of wii fit (cycling, super hula hoop, jogging, etc) and burnt off 1000 calories- woohoo! My weigh in today (for the whole week) was a 4 pound loss, so I'm chuffed!

So, my naughty meals included a trip to the Harvester where I used 20 syns on JD glaze (5- SO worth it), ice-cream (7 for half a basic sundae) and salad dressing, it was a planned treat so felt OK about that. However, the next day we went to see the Tim Walker photography exhibition at Somerset house (really awesome!) and ended up at Southbank where we shared a take away sized plate of Raclette (melted cheese, couldn't resist a Swiss traditional plate, being 1/4 Swiss myself!) on sausage (amazing) with caramelised onions that melted on my tongue (can't imagine how much butter!) and all of this on a creamy potato thing which had white wine in it. Gosh! It sounds horrifically synful, I know, but half of the portion was actually quite small, so I named it as 25 syns, which I think is probably an overestimation considering the portion size. It was incredible though, from the world food market, will definitely be having that again- so memorably epic!

FINALLY though, on Sunday while I was filming at a Jewish event I was kinda stuck to eating what was available- turkey schnitzel and some sort of maple syrup carrot dish- eek! I did take the breadcrumbs off the turkey but... I ate them after! It was a shoddy sized portion and I was hungry! But despite all that, a 4 pound lost is awesome, I'm so thrilled! Weekly syns is clearly working for me as for the past month on it I've lost a stone! I was extra good on Monday and Tuesday- I made soup (onions, tomato, peppers, carrots) and had lots of that with my HexA + B (Cheese on Rivita) both days.


Food diary today, I'm having a green day as I wanted more healthy extras again:

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Breakfast: Nat FF fromage frais yoghurt with a small apple and banana chopped in and a handful of blueberries, topped with a level desert spoon of honey (1 syn)

Lunch: A large salad of rocket, spinach, beef tomato, cherry tomatoes and some strips of chicken (1st HexB) served with pasta (cooked in stock cubes for flavour) covered in 60g cheddar (1st Hex A + 2nd Hex B) and dusted with some Aromat- really nice!

Dinner: Uncle Ben's express Mexican rice (2 syns and 3 for £2 @ Poundland!) with about ten chopped cherry tomatoes and a few small pickled onions chopped in, with a handful of rocket and spinach and a handful of sugar snap peas.

Desert: Muller light and a satsuma.

Snacks: 200ml Kara Chocolate coconut milk (Hex A) which is a first for me but was interesting- a bit thin and a bit artificially sweet, but is nice for the odd sip- probably will stick to measuring a glass of it and sipping throughout the day for a nice taste, as when I drank it in one sitting it wasn't so great and made me feel a bit sick!

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Today's weigh in marks that I've lost 20lbs so far in the past 2 months and am into the 18's now (I started at 20st 4lbs)- which considering one of those months was xmas and I was away for half of December working in Dubai, is pretty fab if you ask me! I'm loving SW so far, it's so easy and it's opening my eyes to new foods and a new way of looking at food and cooking. I can't believe that I've been putting so much oil and sugar in my dinners when frylight and a touch of sweetner or honey make it just lovely for 1% of the calories!

I've also been really loving my home exercising, but now that I've unlocked everything on the Wii fit and am getting a bit bored (also, don't find it very challenging!) I've ordered LOADS of other wii fitness games second hand- Biggest Loser Challenge (have been LOVING watching the show, really motivating!), Just Dance 1, Samba de Amigo (looks a bit silly but for a fiver- might be fun!), Exerbeat (looks really cool!) and EA Sports Active. Really looking forward to changing up my routine and getting fit at home (definitely not ready to be going for a jog outside yet!) so will be reporting on these as they arrive!

x Sophie

Still waiting for my Wii fit games to arrive have been looking forward to them for ages, thought at least one would be here by today! Ah well, guess I'll have to wait until Monday now.

Today I realised I haven't been eating many syns this week at all, so decided to use some of my weekly syns and had about 20 in total (have about 55 weekly syns left to use tomorrow- that won't happen though, of course!)

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Breakfast: Nat FF fromage frais with blueberries, banana, apple and honey (1 syn - desert spoon)

Lunch: Ham salad sandwich (home made)! This is the first time I've had bread in the past two months now that I've realised it's just 3 syns per slice of a 400g white loaf! Was so yummy, will be having more sarnie's now that I know the bread for them is just 6 syns in total!
I had it with caramelised red onion relish (pickle = 1 syn), sliced ham, rocket and spinach leaves and a bit of light salad cream on them (probably a teaspoon) plus a thin smear of phili light on the bread instead of butter- will count that and the salad cream light as a syn, but am certain it would be much less than that. I call it 8 syns for the whole sandwich- worth it!

Dinner: Cooked up a huge tray of roast veg (peppers, carrots, onion, potato, cherry tomatoes) seasoned with peri peri flakes and various other spices, threw in some diced chicken that I'd marinaded in Peri Peri (about 4 syns worth, split between two of us though = 2) and some rashers of bacon (fat removed beforehand) then coated it with 60g of cheese (for the two of us). I piled this onto pasta cooked in stock cubes, with another 30g of cheese (5 syns) - really yummy! Boyfriend loved it too, which was great as he usually hates veg!

Snacks: Salt and Vinegar Velvet Crunch crisps (4 syns)

Total for the day: 20 syns (45/105 weekly syns)

Cinema Critique of the day: Les Miserables 3/10

I saw this last week and, having never seen the musical, found it quite a snore fest. I really don't know what the hype for it is all about I think the problem was they were trying to include TOO MUCH for a film- it was 2.5 hours long but they were trying to cram everything from the stage production in... There were too many characters, not enough time to invest in each of them- Anne Hathaway was so beautifully introduced and then after half an hour of investing in her she was no longer in the movie- then I wanted to be invested in the daughter and the main guy, but they kept introducing new characters as leads: the love interest, someone crushing on the love interest, Russell Crowe, Helena Bonham Carter and Ali G. It was too confusing, not enough emotional attachment in the characters so I didn't feel enough for them when they were suffering like I should have.

However, the acting was pretty great! I hope Anne Hathaway wins best supporting actress in the Oscars, she deserved the Globe she got for it! The director did a technique never used before in film- he recorded all of the singing live as they acted, rather than in the studio. This meant they didn't have to focus on lip syncing and could go at their own pace, the music being fed to them through an ear piece which was being played live and adjusting to their tempo- how awesome! So they were free to focus on the emotions to be conveyed, and this really paid off! Kudos to that. Shame about the script writing, is all! It was slow but rushed at the same time.

Has anyone else seen it and the stage production? What were your thoughts? x

Hi Tetris,

First of all welcome! And second of all, well done on your amazing losses! You must be so thrilled. Unfortunately I don't watch a lot of TV, so I probably won't see the movies you're talking about (I'm not a complete screen-a-phobe, though, I DO watch movies sometimes lol).
Your food looks lovely, and you seem to have your head well and truly wrapped around the plan, fair play! I'm at 3.5st down right now. I was at 4st, but Christmas happened. And before that, a holiday, and blah-dee-blah. I basically just figged about for a month and put on over a stone (it's so easy done, isn't it?!) so now my plan is to get that gain OFF and keep going lower. I have 6 weeks until my daughter's Confirmation, and I want to be back where I was, and possibly lower, by then.

Good luck with your journey!

Hi!
I have to admit that you reviewing films brought me to your diary. And you have such a cool job!!! I always write very small reviews of the films I see lol. I'm a bit of a film-a-holic! I'm keeping a list this year and I'm over 30 already. That's tv, dvd, and cinema! But only stuff I properly watch and all the way thru
I have to say that I really enjoyed Les Mis and have seen it twice! I get what you mean about it being too busy and not enough time to invest in the characters. although my Mum cried ALL the way through it I managed to hold out till the last bit. Gangster Squad was a bit odd, amazing cast and an ok storyline, worth the visit anyway. I'm really easily pleased with films and it takes a lot for me to not enjoy one lol. I usually write about them in my diary over in the food diary section. I ramble about all sorts of crap on there

Also, congrats on the weightloss. 20lbs in such a short space of time is amazing And the Wii stuff is very cool!!
Hope you're having a good weekend.x

Hi Sophie,

just had a read through your diary - well done on your brilliant loss so far! I haven't posted enough yet to see your profile, but I will soon! Hope you had a good weekend xx

xMandyDx said:

Hi Tetris,

First of all welcome! And second of all, well done on your amazing losses! You must be so thrilled. Unfortunately I don't watch a lot of TV, so I probably won't see the movies you're talking about (I'm not a complete screen-a-phobe, though, I DO watch movies sometimes lol).
Your food looks lovely, and you seem to have your head well and truly wrapped around the plan, fair play! I'm at 3.5st down right now. I was at 4st, but Christmas happened. And before that, a holiday, and blah-dee-blah. I basically just figged about for a month and put on over a stone (it's so easy done, isn't it?!) so now my plan is to get that gain OFF and keep going lower. I have 6 weeks until my daughter's Confirmation, and I want to be back where I was, and possibly lower, by then.

Good luck with your journey!

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Thanks Mandy! This is the first time I've ever tried to lose weight so it's almost shocking to see it actually working. I don't feel any different yet but I have so much to lose that I guess I probably won't notice difference for a while maybe when I hit the 2 stone mark and thus my club 10 award!

4st is a fantastic loss! Wow! Inspirational... I'm sure you'll have the xmas weight off in no time. I thought I'd definitely have packed on over xmas- I did TRY to limit myself but I had two xmas days (with the BF's family and with mine) and was away either side of xmas for short work trips filming in Dubai where I didn't have much control of what I was eating. I was dreading the scales and that I'd have put on all of the 6 pounds I'd lost but I SOMEHOW managed to LOSE 2 pounds over that period of two weeks?! Whaaa-?! So that was a great start to the new year! :O

cheekychinchilla said:

Hi!
I have to admit that you reviewing films brought me to your diary. And you have such a cool job!!!

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Thanks for popping over here I know a looot of people loved Les Mis, I think I had really high expectations and it just wasn't for me. I did shed a tear for the little boy though! Have you seen Django yet? I think I've seen about a dozen films at the cinema so far this year, Oscars coming up so there's a lot of the 'best' stuff being released about now.

Re: job- ta I do enjoy it, though am still quite new to the film industry so often working the crummy low paid shoots which are often pretty intense hours, but building up a portfolio and whatnot! I went to film school in 2010 after going to art school.

Clare7dd said:

Hi Sophie,

just had a read through your diary - well done on your brilliant loss so far! I haven't posted enough yet to see your profile, but I will soon! Hope you had a good weekend xx

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Thanks hun I only just unlocked being able to see profiles- nothing exciting on mine though! x

Really nice to see some comments yay! So here's my diary for the day... Film review at the bottom!

FINALLY some of my wii fit games arrived- OH and I spent the morning playing the boxing game (can't remember what it's called) which is all set in the ring and you have to take out crazy opponents. It's fun! A challenge mentally but not so much physically, but it's still getting me moving and sweating a bit! The coach is funny, he comes out with some really awesomely silly quotes, our fave was: "What's your favourite flower, son? Mine's chocolate! Hahaha...!" pretty surreal makes us laugh though.

The other game we didn't get into so much yet- Samba de Amigo where you shake maracas in time to the music- a bit like a maraca version of guitar hero. Was quite frustrating as it kept not reading our moves! But the music was great and at the harder levels I think it'll give my arms a work out looking forward to EA sports active and Exerbeat arriving hopefully tomorrow. Just Dance also arrived but I managed to fall flat on my face yesterday and twist my ankle a bit in the process. It's not too bad but I'm hobbling a bit, so thought I'd wait to try the dance one for another day!

Food for the day, EE plan:

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Breakfast: FF Nat Fromage Frais with blueberries (bought a big pack and trying to eat lots as they're a speed food!) banana and honey (1 syn for desert spoon)

Lunch: Spaghetti Bolognese made with extra lean mince meat, left over from yesterday so was really nice as the juices had congealed over night in the fridge. Had a big handful of uncooked spinach leaves mixed in and some sugar snap peas. HEX A of cheddar on top.

Snacks: had a half sandwich (one piece of white bread, 400g loaf: 3 syns) with ham, pickle (1 syn) and salad in, then ate a load more ham, wrapping it around some pickle (3 more syns worth!) also had a brownie flavoured options hot choc (3 syns) with mini marshmallows (1 syn) and some light whipped cream (so low synned that I'm just adding the whole 6 syns for the cannister to my weekly syns as I finish them, and boy am I getting through them fast- so yummy )

Dinner: Veg with Japanese sticky rice. I'd filled up on the ham/pickle at around 6pm as OH wasn't hungry, but had set the rice to soak (needs 8 hours) in the morning and had also defrosted salmon! So I cooked it all and left my salmon to have cold on a salad tomorrow, as I much prefer it cold anyway (not so keen on the fishy taste of fish, so like to mask it with salad cream yum) so yeah, I steamed the rice which was lovely with the authentic soy sauce I picked up from China town last week, and had steamed some red pepper, tomatoes, asparagus and onion with the salmon, so had the veg with it. Mmm.

Desert: Made banana splits for OH and I with a sliced banana, Total 0% yog (sooo creamy!) mixed with sweetener, whipped cream on top and a drizzle of toffee sauce (2 syns worth) wiiiith more blueberries!

Total: 14 syns today

(am trying to save them up less as last week my weekly syns tally only hit 55 :S saved them up and didn't use them, hmph! More treats for me this week!)

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One thing that felt really cool today is that I realised I'm only cooking with quarter of a 500g pack of pasta for two of us (so 125g each) where previously I ALWAYS used to just cook half the packet and we'd have half of the 400g mince meat in the bolognese each too! The portions were huge and we'd both be stuffed after- today we had half the amount of pasta AND half the amount of bolognase and we were still full but not stuffed- but much better! Feels good to be having this realisation- since my boyfriend moved in I've always overestimated how much was needed to feed two!
Film critique to follow, thanks everyone for the comments- really motivating sorry for the long posts I'm a writer at heart and get a bit carried away! (You should see the boxes full of diaries I've kept since I was 7!)

x

Film review of the day: Django Unchained 7/10

I had low expectations of this because I find Quentin such a cocky douche bag most of the time! Recently watched Kill Bill 2 and thought lowly of it (loved number 1 though) though enjoyed his recent Inglorious Basterds. Anyway, I've seen him in too many interviews recently and it's rubbed off on me! He's a top notch jerk! But this film was pretty cool! I just LOVED the main two characters, a German bounty hunter and Django himself- their relationship was fantastic, I loved how the German was defying the slave trade by treating him as an equal, it was quite difficult to watch all of the inhumanity towards black people- I live in such a bubble where I just forget how inhumane the whole thing was.

Anyway, it was a really frigging long film, clocking it at 2 hours 45 minutes, and typical of Tarentino it had very fast paced gore scenes and very slow, slow conversational scenes, with not much in between. It was entertaining though- shocking, witty at parts, interesting and of course nice and gory. I do recommend it as I loved the characters- they were developed perfectly and I think this is something vital to a successful film! If you're unsure about wanting to see it- go and see it because Tarentino himself is in it and (I don't want to spoil it!) has an awesome fate

I give it 7/10 as it was really worth watching, but a bit too long for me. I always feel like Tarentino over indulges with the quieter scenes. It's not something I'll be rushing to buy on DVD (guess those are which I score 8.5/10 and above!) but I'm glad I saw it! What did y'all think of it if you saw it? Rating out of 10?

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On a side note- has anyone been watching My Mad Fat Diary? I was really looking forward to it from the trailers as I was that 16 year old weighing 16 stone with mental issues and no friends- but it's been a bit bland! I don't like how they've made the lead girl quite thick and dull :/

Hi Sophie,

hope you had a good weekend! Just wanted to say how jealous I am that you get to the cinema so often - it's one of the things I miss the most since having the ladies!

Clare7dd said:

Hi Sophie,

hope you had a good weekend! Just wanted to say how jealous I am that you get to the cinema so often - it's one of the things I miss the most since having the ladies!

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Aw, I hope you get some time to watch films at home though?

I consider cinema research ;D haha. But really, I'm just terrible at sitting through films at home- I'm such a fidget and always end up on my laptop and hardly watching. The cinema is somewhere I can really focus!

I always have to arm myself with healthy snacks as the BF is always equipped with crisps, chocolate and coca cola *gulp* It's a challenge to watch him eat it (though he is very sneaky with the chocolate so I hardly notice!) and I'm so used to having things to munch throughout films- I do enjoy my Chewy Delight Special K HexB and usually some exciting fruit from the nearby market like lychees, satsumas or grapes though !

Hey!
Oh I'm so glad about your review of Django lol. I'm getting a bit fed up of defending my dislike of Tarantino I went to a screening of Reservoir Dogs a few days before Django as me and my Sister had never seen it, but we both have Unlimited cards. I erm, yeah.... Some of it was good and witty and I really like Steve Buscemi. But it was too long, and not much happened except Tim Roth bleeding out on the floor....One of my best friends was incredibly put out that I didn't really like it. But *shrug*
Anyway, I went to see Django and expected not to really like it, but said friend was visiting and I had liked the trailers. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was way too long, but overall I did like it. It did have some excellent funny moments and I too loved the relationship between Django and the Dr

But yeah, I'm really glad you don't like Tarantino It seems to be a pretty major sin among filmy people lol!

Hoping to go see Warm Bodies on Friday. I love zombies and I found the book really funny and very entertaining. A bit of zombie 'fluff'

It really looks like you've got the hang of SW. How do you make sticky rice?? I love getting that at the likes of Wagamama, but no idea how to make it.xx

I'm exactly the same at home! Even if its a film I've wanted to see for ages nd am really excited about I can't focus 100% and end up messing about on the iPad! Drives my husband mad! So what is your absolute fav film and/or genre? X

cheekychinchilla said:

Hey!
Oh I'm so glad about your review of Django lol. I'm getting a bit fed up of defending my dislike of Tarantino I went to a screening of Reservoir Dogs a few days before Django as me and my Sister had never seen it, but we both have Unlimited cards. I erm, yeah.... Some of it was good and witty and I really like Steve Buscemi. But it was too long, and not much happened except Tim Roth bleeding out on the floor....One of my best friends was incredibly put out that I didn't really like it. But *shrug*
Anyway, I went to see Django and expected not to really like it, but said friend was visiting and I had liked the trailers. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was way too long, but overall I did like it. It did have some excellent funny moments and I too loved the relationship between Django and the Dr

But yeah, I'm really glad you don't like Tarantino It seems to be a pretty major sin among filmy people lol!

Hoping to go see Warm Bodies on Friday. I love zombies and I found the book really funny and very entertaining. A bit of zombie 'fluff'

It really looks like you've got the hang of SW. How do you make sticky rice?? I love getting that at the likes of Wagamama, but no idea how to make it.xx

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TOTALLY agree with you! Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are both SO overrated! Everyone talks about them as if they are so epic but Reservoir Dogs in particular is a snore rest in my eyes. Nice to hear someone else say it- all my filmmaker friends tut at me for shunning such a 'classic', bleh!
I loved zombie films! I had a cat called Zombie even I'm looking forward to warm bodies too, I'll be seeing it with my friend who is writing a novel about a zombie romance and is so pissed that Warm Bodies has stolen her idea
I love the 28 Days Later films and Zombieland, etc. Nothing beats a bit of brain lusting zombies ;D

Sticky rice- I bought this special rice from China town (London) which wasn't too expensive really, £7 for a huge bag. I think you can probably get it in the world food aisle of a big supermarket, but it will probably be more expensive. You need to get short grain rice, I can't remember the name but will let you know later (I tried pudding rice yesterday but just not as good!) then wash it thoroughly until the water isn't murky and leave it to soak overnight/8 hours. I then use a vegetable steaming rack (they suggest cheesecloth) and steam it at a medium heat for 55 mins, topping up the water and stirring the rice about half way through. Sounds long winded but it's all easy prep and then you just leave it to do it's own thing! Really nice every time! Sometimes we have it with just some slowly caramelised onions and soy sauce it always upstages the meat I put with it, lol.

Clare7dd said:

I'm exactly the same at home! Even if its a film I've wanted to see for ages nd am really excited about I can't focus 100% and end up messing about on the iPad! Drives my husband mad! So what is your absolute fav film and/or genre? X

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Haha, drives my boyfriend nuts too, he's always like "do you not want to watch it?!?" we've lived together for over a year, you think he'd just accept that I like to listen to films rather than watch? bit wacky for a cinematographer to not WATCH though, I know! There are very few films I'll watch without fidgeting on the iPad/phone/laptop!

Love your posts. Im the very same with watching films at home. Can't do it. Always end up on the laptop. Drives my fiance mad.