Weekly Update!

Mazes, Dancing & lots of Food!

The first week back at work after a holiday is always a drag, although it could have been much worse in my case, as Aum is on school holidays at the moment, so we get to do lots of fun stuff.

On Monday we didn't do very much, just ran a few errands and then went to look at the animals at the pet shop, and then I worked at the pub. On Tuesday the weather appeared quite fine, so we went to Red House Farm with my two cousins and my auntie to do the Maize Maze there. This year it was Jubilee themed, so was shaped like a giant crown, and the nine stamps you had to collect around it were all quintessentially British, including a postage stamp, a union jack flag and a sceptre. It was more difficult than I remembered, and didn't help that it started raining half way around, so we cheated slightly to get all the stamps and find our way out (shh!).

On Wednesday we went to see Brave at the cinema (see previous post), and on Thursday I took Aum and his friend to the Blue Planet Aquarium which was really fun (see previous post). In the evening once I had finished work I very quickly got my nails done, and then went round to Hana's for some pre-drinks before going out to Sakura on Deansgate Locks in Manchester. It was a really fun night, we all had a good dance, and got rather more drunk than we had intended; so on Friday I was a little tender at work! Luckily Aum had a tennis lesson in the morning so I got to have a little nap, and then we went for lunch at Hale Spa & County Club, where I had a sunblush tomato, mozzerella and pesto risotto which sorted me right out!

That evening Lydia was back from uni so I went out with her in the Northern Quarter in Manchester. It was really nice just for the two of us to chill out and have a few cocktails in Bluu and Trof, and we ended up in this club called Mint, dancing to 90s pop music and having a laugh before getting the last met home. I was at work the following day, and afterwards I had the girls round to mine for a few drinks as I had a free house. We went out into Altrincham at around 11pm, starting in Bloom and then moving on to Heart and Soul which was a laugh. Lydia and Tasha had ordered a sharing Zombie cocktail in Bloom, and Emily and I had been doing shots of rum, so we were all nicely merry, and stayed out until the club shut at 2.30am.

Today Tasha and Lydia came round to chill out for a while this morning, and then I have just got back from Hana's house, where Lydia and I were treated to a hangover feast of lemon tart, clotted cream, After Eights, strawberries and chocolate. Not that I haven't eaten enough this week... and lack of gymming due to work is not boding well - it's a good job my scales at home have broken!

Summer Views...

Brave - 3 stars ***

I thought this looked quite good when I saw an advert for it, so when Aum and I were at a loose end for something to do yesterday, I thought I'd take him to see it. We went to the Trafford Centre: as it was the summer holidays it was packed, and we ended up with pretty naff seats, but at least we weren't on the front row.

The film tells the story of Merida, a young Scottish girl (I can only presume she is a young teenager) who is due to be found a suitor for marriage determined by the result of a challenge that she must set the eldest son of each of the three neighbouring clans. Fond of shooting arrows, riding her horse, and generally defying being a 'proper princess', she is horrified at the idea of getting married, and tries to persuade her mother to change her mind. As could be expected, her mother is having none of it, and wants her to stick to tradition and become a lady to uphold the family name.

At a loss for what to do, Merida follows a trail of willo-the-wisps (supposed to determine your fate) and stumbles across a cottage belonging to a witch, who she asks for a spell to change her mother. Little does she realise quite how literal the spell is though, as her mother turns into a bear, that she will be stuck as permanently after two sunrises, unless the troubled pair can 'mend their broken bond'. This seems like quite a random transformation, if it wasn't for the fact that a rogue bear named Muldoon mauled Merida's father when she was younger, and so she knows he will do anything to kill her! So ensues the chaos of having to hide a huge bear inside a castle, whilst trying to solve the puzzle to break the spell. 

There were lots of laughs for both young and old and, as with most animated films nowadays - a host of famous voices to try to guess before the credits rolled. It was nice to have a children's film based in the UK for once, and also good that it made use of traditional Scottish folklore and music, which I think will be informative to younger viewers.The only stipulation I had with this was the clichéd dialogue between mother and daughter (it was all very 'it's not fair!'/ 'life isn't fair, you have responsibilities') and also that the fearsome Muldoon was indeed that - pretty bloody scary! The film was a PG though, so I guess that was the reasoning behind the rating. Worth a cheeky watch though.