Tag: Pick n Mix

Johnny Depp and Love Eggs. A Normal Weekend.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

One of the side effects of Louise studying to become a nurse is that when she isn’t on placement and working silly shifts, she is at home locked in the bedroom, tip tapping away at a keyboard for hours, and days on end. She is, as I type, wrestling with an assignment, this time being a case study of the care of a lady with breast cancer.

Before last night, we had last bumped into each other at some point during last week when I was getting ready for work and Louise turned over to go back to sleep. So with that in mind, last night we resolved to go out, without any kids and see if we recognised each other. Emily was working, and Rebecca was out with her boyfriend’s family for his birthday meal.

I had spent almost all of yesterday watching all of Homeland, but despite this, we decided to go to the cinema. Not being huge fans of super hero films the Spider Man and Captain America films were not options we wanted to take. Beyond that, unless we wanted to go and watch a Bollywood film, we were really only left with a new Johnny Depp film called Transcendence. Yes, I know it sounds like an energy drink you might buy from Aldi, but knowing little about it, we took a chance based on Mr Depp’s presence in it.

After a swift drinky in the bar, we took our seats and overly priced confectionery and settled in.

It was shite.

I won’t spoil the plot in case you see it in the future, but it just seemed to totally lose its way as a film. It started off as a half decent premise about Artificial Intelligence (like the cast of TOWIE), but then sort of wandered off into a semi-war film, with a very silly battle scene where random men in khaki fired shells at solar panels….really.

Depp himself was OK, although he seemed to be going through the motions, and overall, the film resembled one of those motions you have after eating the nachos with jalapeno peppers, as Louise did, during the film. The lead woman appeared to have been cast because they couldn’t get Scarlett Johanssen and there was also that bloke who was in the film Wimbledon a few years ago and that woman who played a reporter in House of Cards and got her norks out a bit. She didn’t even do that in this film, so her performance was marked down immediately. Morgan Freeman also appeared, but I think he has made them remove him from all promotional material.

Despite our whelm being not very overed, the pick n mix and actually having a night out made the evening worthwhile. Thankfully, I had laid my hands on some freeby vouchers for the cinema in question, so aside from the £100 for sweets, we didn’t actually pay to watch this nonsense.

In less than twelve months now, Louise should be qualified, and employed which should mean we can once again afford to eat and see each other for multiple hours per week.

The Easter break brought with it several hours of actual sunshine on Friday, and I undertook my first dog walk of the year with fewer than seven layers. It was glorious. The fields through which Oli and I usually battle the elements were strangely firm and unmoist, and we posed for what I believe the youngsters of the day may call a selfie.

sunny oli 22014

The future looked so bright I had to wear those glasses that go dark in the sun and make me look “special”. Of course, since Friday, we have been back to the brutal biting winds and several layers, but summer was nice whilst it lasted.

I hope your eggs are lovely. I have no eggs, of either the chocolate or love variety, which is a disgrace. I shall have to rely on stealing Emily’s, as she often has Easter eggs left at Christmas. Well she would if I didn’t go and release them from her storage/hiding place in her wardrobe. It has become a tradition.

Send eggs….and money….and flight tickets to Florida!

Till the next time…..

Pick n Mix Pirates

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

One week into the exam marathon, and it seems to have gone pretty well.  As parents of teens will know, you only have around seven syllables per day to find out everything you need, so I can’t be too sure, but from the responses provided, Emily is fairly pleased with the first batch.

After what seems like around 14 English papers and one RE exam, positive vibes have been the order of the day.  So that’s good.  Now, my job is to resume head pecking so we can avoid complacency, and a downhill trek to disappointment.  Emily is grateful for that of course.

Emily
She be a pirate aarrrgh, in high heels.

She doesn’t have things too bad, as of course Monday saw her being allowed to go and see Panic! At the Disco, but to be honest there was no stopping her, and Friday saw Emily at a Pirates party at the local boozer.  Don’t worry I have not lost my mind and moral compass, she went with her friend and her parents, so I know she was on soft drinks and not Aftershock, a greasy kebab and a chat with the big white telephone.  That completes the recommended allocation of fun and socialising and she should now be attached to her books for every hour God sends.

Anyway, enough of other people, how was my week?  Pretty crap to be honest.  It started OK, with some pretty drastic changes at work announced which on the face of it all looked good.  No details here of course, but a “senior reshuffle” removed a couple of blockers that were legendary for making life difficult.

The next day, and a couple of chats with the MD later, where I suggested what he might now do when restructuring, saw me handed a whole new team to look after!!  That’ll teach me to keep my bloody mouth shut.  So from that moment on the week was hectic, rushed, panic-stricken and rife with planning, researching and discussing this new world.  My use of the phrase “hospital pass” was increasing as the week went by.

Now you will of course appreciate that normally I am infallible, unflappable and pretty much the dream employee, but this new stuff took over my week, and seemed to have affected my capacity to deal with the regular stuff.  This led to a stressful end to the week, with a few things going awry.

Doing a bit of work over the weekend to rectify said situations has thrown a more positive light on things, and hopefully, next week will see me back in my stride of uncompromising perfection.  Ahem!

Oh and Steve, if you read this before I see or speak to you, keep quiet and I will explain all.  This new team business is not common knowledge yet!!

pirates_of_the_caribbean_4_
Penelope Cruz

On Saturday evening I had decreed that we shall all go to the pictures to take in the latest Pirates film.  Having this all saying, all-seeing power, meant that Rebecca chose not to come with us as she’d rather see her boyfriend.  A sign of the times.  So, three of us made our way to the local Cineworld.

I’ll come on to the film shortly, but the most important part of any cinema trip is the snack choice.  I say choice, but I think choice is for fools.  Why choose?  Simply have everything you want.  Some idiot within Cineworld chose to put the Pick n Mix stuff next to the Ben n Jerrys counter.  Faced with this double whammy of n’s, with Pick N Mix n Ben n Jerrys, I was powerless to resist.

A regular Hot Fudge Sundae (I resisted the large, I am not an animal), and a small selection of sweets that I Picked and then Mixed seemed the only way to go.  It took so long to get all the food sorted (I blame Emily’s bloody Slushy thing) that by the time we got into the theatre, we only had the front row left to us.  Rats.

The trailers flashed by me in a blur of Phish food and Cookie Dough, and by the time the Orange ad appeared I was wiping chocolate fudge from my cheeks, and taking in my first fried egg.  The combination of sitting at the front, and overdosing on sugar meant that the first twenty minutes of the film didn’t make too much sense, and by the time the second wave of nausea hit, I couldn’t tell which one was Johnny Depp and which one Penelope Cruz.  I was so out of it, it appeared the latter had facial hair at one point!!

The crushing humiliation of having to leave some Pick n Mix uneaten, was tempered by my ability to understand the second half of the film, and the fact that it took care of breakfast, so all was not lost.  I enjoyed the film though.  I’m not sure if the earlier parts were a little slow, or if that was me concentrating on eating, but it certainly picked up and turned out to be better than expected to be honest.  Geoffrey Rush was great!

Sunday has trundled past filled with a little ironing (yes, I know, dream husband), some tidying, and then a solid six hours or so of football and xbox (as I said, dream husband).  Louise insisted on a “Sunday lunch” for tea, if that makes any sense, and she went out this morning to buy all the stuff for it that I forgot doing the BIG SHOP yesterday.  I made the tea though.  As it was made up of Marks & Spencers pull it out of a box and put it in the oven, I shall not be troubling MasterChef anytime soon.  It tasted nice though.

So I’ve had better weekends in terms of calorie intake!!

Look at me all back to normal in terms of getting this posting done of a Sunday.  I made an extra special effort as I just know once the week starts I won’t get any time to do anything but work.

As for our next trip to the cinema, I think Pick n Mix will feature again, with a reprise of the cold delight from those two chaps called Ben n Jerry.  Oh, and we’ll probably watch the Hangover 2.

Till the next time…..