Wednesday, May 18, 2005

ottawa is a city of extremes.
apparantly it is the second coldest capital city in the world (mongolia has the coldest...).
when i arrived in ottawa it was as cold as auckland ever gets in winter.
a week later it was as hot as auckland ever gets in summer.
currently we are back to the coldness.

on friday alex drove his sister, eric and i down to toronto where we spent the day before being picked up by erics parents and driven back to mount forest - erics hometown. friday was meghans (erics sister) birthday and on saturday his aunt and grandma arrived and we went to see meghans dance recital. watched the video "eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" which was brilliant (thanks to rachel for mentioning it) and exactly my kind of movie with bizarre time editing like memento, and real characters that showed that everyone has both good and bad sides with a real ending as opposed to a happily ever after ending.

have decided that groundhogs are most definitely cute.
have also decided that i prefer grey and red squirrels to the black ones but am not going to be picky.

have been watching macgyver season one on dvd. season two comes out in june.

Friday, May 06, 2005

reporting from canada:

yesterday i saw five groundhogs. i think it must have been their dinnertime and they were up out of the ground and running about in search of food. well, the bit about searching for food and it being their dinnertime is made up on my half. i just couldnt think of another reason why they were all milling about.

groundhogs are cute! they are sort of like a beaver but without that big flat tail. and are light brown and not black. and you dont see them swimming and carrying wood. i suppose they are not very like a beaver at all. but they are furry and have whiskers. and beavers are furry and have whiskers too.

may and june is the best time of year to see moose. it says so in the algonquin newspaper which i have been reading. this is because the moose come to the edge of the road to drink the salty water that has been left behind after the salt machines have been used all winter to help melt the snow on the roads. so when karin and jen arrive from america at the end of this month, we are going to go camping and looking for moose.

i went with eric and his parents to see the hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy at the movies. really, this deserves a separate entry all to itself, but im too lazy to do that. here are my thoughts on the matter:

if you have read the book, and you liked the book - then you will love the movie. it is hilarious and captures the whole spirit of the book perfectly. it captures the crazyiness, the bizareness, the uniqueness and weirdness and is the funniest movie i have seen in a long time!! i was laughing out loud from the very beginning.

if you have not read the book and are thinking about seeing the movie - i recommend that you read the book first... sometimes its better to see a movie first, and then read the book, but i dont think so in this situation. in order to really appreciate the humour and understand all the funny things happening in the background... read the book first. its not very long (the movie is only about the first book of the five (i think?) in the set) and will make the movie way better!

very funny movie. opens with dolphins leaping through the air and singing a song called "so long, and thanks for all the fish".