Places I've been to recently...

So I've been a bit lazy about updating facebook etc, but since finishing uni, I've had the opportunity to catch up with old friends, relatives and revisit my favourite places, so here are some photos i've snapped along the way, with my awesome new camera (ended up getting the Canon 60D with 2 lenses for those who care about that sort of thing.... good enough for me anyway..) enjoy! x

These are on the way to Jindy, and Lake Jindabyne on a summers day- no snow in sight!

Bar Beach

Sammy ripping it up at One Mile :)



Laws degrees in Australia + Films you need to watch!

I would like to apologise for my extended absence from blogworld!! Although, for some strange reason, I seem to have had more hits while I've not been posting, so maybe I should take that as a sign? haha...

Anyway, as you might know from previous posts, I've recently completed a law degree, BUT in order to graduate I have to do a 4 month placement... Which has been a nightmare trying to organise... So how it works is, you have to approach a business/law firm/NGO whatever, and beg them to take you on full-time/part-time/for free so that you can be admitted into the NSW Supreme Court... so I guess that's all very well for people who know a solicitor, or who studied hard and got excellent marks, but for the rest of us plebs, you're basically slave labour.... Anyway, so I've been travelling back and forth from Newcastle to Sydney, volunteering at a refugee casework place, which has been really really interesting...but wait for it, I started a real, PAYING job this week at a local council, which has also been a learning experience... so WOOHOO, the end is in sight for this placement, and I will soon be an admitted solicitor!

Anyway, so enough with the life update and onto movies I recommend you see ASAP... It's funny I haven't watched films in a long time, I've been really really geeky and watched endless TV series,  (which i think i will make the subject of a future post....mmmm...) (geeky because after I watched all 4 seasons of Battlestar Gallactica, I've been trying out all other types of Sci Fi, so stay tuned!)... anyway, so I hadn't seen any movies in ages, and then suddenly all these awesome ones were out and I've been luck enough to watch them!

So last night I went to the Sydney Film Festival... Anyway, I went with 3 of my best friends in the world after we ate dinner at Spice I am in Surry Hills, to...wait for it...

Taken from Rotten Tomatoes

Even the Rain (Tambien La Lluvia) Admittedly the draw point initially for the girls night was that ahem Gael Garcia Bernal (*swoon*) happens to be in said movie, you know, the guy from Motorcycle Diaries (another AWESOME must see movie)...

But anyway, I digress as usual... Even the Rain, was a beautiful thought-provoking movie. I remember studying the IMF/World bank's privatization of water in Bolivia, and the riots and peasant protests against the 'structural adjustment policy', but as it happens, I had forgotten. I guess that's what happens, another riot or natural disaster supersedes whatever the last catastrophe was, and you just forget that the events are still important in the minds of those who were involved. Anyway, I don't want to give too much away, but suffice to say, the landscapes are lush, tropical and beautiful, and the city is dusty and dry at the beginning, then a gritty urban war zone by the end.

Image taken from Sydney Film Festival site

It is filmed more like a documentary than a movie, and I came away thinking how amazing the local guy Daniel (played by Carlos Aduviri) was. He was incredible, and heart-wrenching in the role, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a few tears at the end of it! Loved Loved Loved this movie, and you should see it NOW!

 

From Rotten Tomatoes website

Easy A: Ok, so it's not a deep movie by any means, but it was funny. and I officially have a girl crush on Emma Stone. She is hilarious. There's not really much to say about the content, it's your average hot girl in high school, rumours about sex spread like wildfire etc etc but it is laugh out loud funny, so definately worth 90 minutes of your time....I think my favourite scene was when she opens the birthday card from her grandma... it cracked me up because I do ridiculous things like that when I'm bored too haha... Click here to see a trailer... 

From Rotten Tomatoes

Monsters I hired this thinking it was a follow on movie District 9 that one where aliens land in South Africa as refugees. It wasn't a follow on per se, but basically it is 5 years after a NASA probe which was carrying alien samples crashed upon re-entry to the atmosphere, and there is a huge 'infected' zone between Mexico and the United States which has been quarantined off, as the aliens now live in the jungle there.

I know it sounds far fetched, but I think that it was  really realistic portrayal of how something like that would play out- you know how non-native species (weeds) take over the natural plants and animals as they have no predators to cull them, well this was a similar sort of thing, except that the non-native species happened to be from a different planet.  Anyway, so this rich girl is in Central America, and her father has asked his employee, a  seasoned photo-journalist to get her back to the States safely.
Anyway, events happen and they miss the ferry back to the USA and have to travel through the infected zone....

From Rotten Tomatoes

 It has beautiful scenery and landscapes, and it made me so keen to go on our trip to Central America, despite the aliens that live there.... haha.
So yeah definitely see this movie, it's not your usual aliens are attacking lets blow everything up movie, it is a much more realistic, and therefore scary portray of what could happen when science fucks up....

 

From Rotten Tomatoes

City Island Ok well i watched this a while back, but I just want to shout my praises, because it is so so funny, in a weird/black comedy/morbid way, which is exactly my humour. So if you are easily offended by non-conformist family roles, don't watch it. The basic run-down is something like this. Hot guy gets bailed from jail by the prison warden, who happens to be his dad but he doesn't realise this. The dad hasn't told anyone that he had a child before he married current wife. The paroled son moves into the boat shed at their house, then both the mum and daughter want to have their way with him (well. sort of.), the son has a fetish for larger ladies, and the dad is an aspiring actor...anyway, I thought i loved it, and would definitely recommend it.