Mourning the passing of a friend

Unfortunately, after the joy and fun of Rowany Festival, I returned home to be faced with the hard decision of putting down my faithful & loving cat Tanis.



He lost his fight of 15 months against a benign tumor growth on his hip (it had blistered & burst (and would continue to do so)).

It was the hardest thing I have ever done to leave him in the room with the Vet, but it was his time.
We had operated twice previously but the growth continued to return, and the next option would have involved major operation & removal of the right rear leg, still with no guarantee of getting it all.

His cute face & loving loud purr will be sorely missed.

Rest in Peace my friend

Curse of the New Helmet

Geez, who would have thunk that a new helmet could be such a pain in the ass.

Went to Pennsic, got a new helmet & haven't had peace with it yet.



Having had a well padded helmet for so many years I had forgotten how hard it can be to pad a helmet just right. On Sunday last It was proven that I hadn't got it quite right yet.

So this Sunday - With Rowany Festival not far off, I have to get it right.

And of course there is the Gorget problems - which I think Rodrigo will finally have fixed up for me - thanks Rodrigo - as needed.

Some of the problems were more openness around the neck (additions to the Gorget should cover this) and a very different type of helmet to pad (having a visor that opens).


Any suggestions for padding a helmet happily heard.

Regards

Hanbal

Movie Reviews - Atonement, Rambo, Jumper & Meet the Spartans

G'day

Have been out to the movies a few times recently & thought I'd just include some reviews for people.

Atonement (with Kiera Knightley)
Interesting storyline & character interaction. Some interesting footage (Dunkirk & wartime London). Worth seeing once (but won't be buying the DVD to add to my collection).

Rambo
Now I enjoyed the previous 3 Rambo movies, but this is very different. It is much darker & almost a bloodfest protest against the civil war occuring within Myanmar (Burma) rather than a movie per se. There are many horrific scenes (torture, human rights abuses & killings) by members of the military of Myanmar - in many cases more graphic than I thought warranted - adding to my thought that it was more a protest movie than anything else. The characterisation of the different mercenaries is quite eye-opening - I suspect they are probably close to the truth in some cases.
Despite his age Sylvester Stallone does seem to handle himself well & it is definately the same character from the previous movies (just older & wiser).
Ok but again probably not going to be adding to my DVD collection. This movie did make me hope the UN, USA or someone goes in soon to resolve the problem. From what I know beyond the movie it is a situation that needs external intervention.

Jumper
Movie was okay - story was good but really not developed enough. This probably would have worked better as a tv series (similar to StarGate) and would have been interesting for the history & organisation of the Paladins (those against Jumpers) to be explained in more depth. Effects made it worth seeing on the big screen - but again, not on my list of movies to add to the DVD collection. A big let-down from the hype.

Meet the Spartans
Of the four movies - this was the most enjoyable. I really enjoyed the original movie (300) so when this movie tracks close to the original, it made the spoof element more fun. We kept laughing through the whole movie - and unlike some spoof movies - you couldn't always guess which way the comedy would go next. If you do go to watch - stay through the credits - there are quite a number of extra bits interspersed throughout the credits - all the way to the end.
The inclusion of the guy who played Hercules as the Captain really added to it - especially as he seemed to enjoy the spoof aspects hugely.