From billboards to buses, you can’t avoid Zooey Deschanel’s pretty face staring at you with 10 foot wide eyes.

Channel 4 are desperate, desperate for you to know that they will be the UK network of choice for the latest US comedy about boys and girls living together. (Let’s face it, Channel 4 had kinda given up with the new American shows after Friends ended, then E4 turned up and nicked everything anyway.)

The show starts tonight at half 8 I believe, but has been airing for a few weeks on the 4OD that’s on your computer but not any of the ones on your iPhone, iPad, Virgin on demand, PS3 or any of the ways you would normally choose to watch something on 4OD.

The first episode opens on Jess, saying how when you’re watching a horror movie, you’re shouting at the screen because it’s so obvious what’s going to happen. Flashback to a week or so previous, where she’s in a cab, wearing hipster glasses and a mac, and whispering into her phone not very well. She’s talking to her best friend, who, of course, wouldn’t be an average looking girl but a model. Jess is saying how she is off to surprise her boyfriend and model friend says something like how that’s a great idea. Obviously, this is the shouting-at-the-screen part. You know it’s all going to fail horribly.

So Jess goes into her boyfriends apartment, he comes out of his bedroom in a skeevy pair of pants, and she drops the coat and starts doing a dance and singing about how she’s going to make lurve to a plant. (I feel like I’m mixing this bit up with Chef from South Park’s songs). Of course, the girl her boyfriend is obviously cheating on her with comes out and asks what’s going on. Cut back to the present day, where we see Jess is chatting to some blokes who are looking for someone to move in.

After a bit of “wah I don’t want a GIIIIIIRL to live with us”, she moves in and sits on the sofa watching Dirty Dancing 500 times and crying because of her breakup. So far I have put up with her random little singing, her overdone hipster look and the fact that Deputy Leo is in this (I was always more of a Logan fan) but this? I instantly started to dislike it.

The blokes all take Jess out to hook up at a bar, she says how pink wine makes her slutty (How cool! Pink wine makes me slutty too! Oh Jess, we could totes be BFF’s) and then…well, I watched this a month or so ago, along with a few other episodes, and couldn’t get into it then. I tried watching the pilot again last night and ended up switching it off about here. I just couldn’t do it anymore. (Also there was brand new Extreme Couponing to watch. Oh I love Extreme Couponing SO MUCH.)

Its a show that feels like its trying too hard to hit all the points of other successful sitcoms. “Move a girl in with a load of blokes!” “The blokes should be varying stereotypes – the player, the sadsack and the angry black man (who is then replaced by the second episode)” “She should wear those glasses all the kids are wearing!” “She should be photographed for all the promos with her arms in the air because SHES THAT CRAZY!”. I’ve been told that the series does get better, but I couldn’t even make it through the first episode on a second watching. Doesn’t bode well.

If, after this, you still want to watch it, its on Channel 4 tonight from 8.30pm, or can be watched here on 4OD. Here’s a trailer to warn you…

I like to do these year in review posts each year because it makes me look back properly at what I’ve done over the past 12 months and think about how they’ve improved things. It doesn’t look like I did one last year – apparently I didn’t do anything of note in 2010! – but here’s 2007, 2008 and 2009‘s if you’d like to see them.

I spent the first few months of the year out of work, with very little money to be able to do anything, and alone quite a bit because of Alex’s travelling. It was difficult being alone so much with nothing to fill my days – I couldn’t even get the bus into town some days because I just didn’t have the money. I know that some may mock, but Twitter and blogging were the two things that helped me from becoming a total hermit. (I’d never become that segregated from society to wear a onesie though ;))

I raised £410 when I did Race for Life this year (turns out people like the idea of an unfit girl attempting to run 10km in the rain. Cheers guys), and so far have raised £136 for Macmillan (that page is always open for donations, so…y’know…yeah). I’m so so proud of what I did for the two charities that are closest to my heart, and hope that I can encourage some of you to take part in things like Race for Life in 2012…hinty hint hint hint.

I started working for a huge company. I’ve been there since May, and its so refreshing to be able to say I love what I do, going to work is not so much of a chore and the people that I work with are pretty awesome too. I hope they will keep me for quite a while! I think you guys know (especially if you followed me on Twitter) that I really wasn’t happy in my last job, especially in the last few months so its just amazing that I am finally doing something that I have wanted to for a while. (Yes, accounts is what I’ve wanted to do for at least the past 10 years.) Its also pretty ace that its a company that produces something that I have grown up around, so I can let a bit of the inner nerd out.

Hmm…what else? Blog wise I guess, this has been the best year so far. I’ve been able to do things that I would never have been able to without the blog – going to London Fashion Week in September was a particular highlight. I’ve managed to meet lots of new people, and am always so happy when I get to see some of my older blogging friends. I started doing outfit posts – not because I think I’m the most fashionable person ever (as if!) but because I need to get over my hatred of being in photos. I’m especially pleased with the response to my bloggers map – there are just over 700 blogs listed on that map. I know that it has been of use to a few people who have been looking for bloggers in specific areas – I hope you guys have been contacted by some of those people! I’d love to get at least 1000 bloggers listed on the map, so please do pass the link on!

2011 was awesome, but I hope 2012 is even better for all of us!

After the craziness of the Aussie party last Saturday, a nice relaxing Sunday was much needed. Sarah and I headed into St Albans for some breakfast before my train back into London. Last year at the Take the Heat Aussie party, I won a champagne spa day for the Sancutary Spa in Covent Garden. It was almost due to run out, so I decided to use it to try and get back to normal after the party.

The spa is nice and easy to find – come out of Covent Garden tube station, and its a short walk around the corner. (Of course, there’s a battle to get through the tourists, but still) The entrance to the spa is actually at the back of the tiny shop front, then you head up some stairs and suddenly arrive in a huge reception leading through to the restaurant. Just from looking at the outside of the building, its difficult to realise just how huge the spa is, but there seems to be more and more rooms to discover.

After a little problem checking in (I didn’t have a debit card in my name with me, and no cash, so couldn’t set up an account if I wanted to buy more items – it would have been helpful if this had been mentioned when I called up to book!), I headed to the changing room to put my swim suit on, and the dressing gown that was waiting in my locker. I went into the lounge, a room full of plush purple velvet chairs and sofas everywhere, and had my glass of champagne and another plate full of eggs benedict – I had already had one with Sarah, not realising that was the only choice for brunch! There were a few groups in there already, lounging around in their dressing gowns and under blankets. I wasn’t the only person alone, but still felt a bit out of place sitting there reading an old Elle Decoration and trying to eat the runniest poached eggs from a low table.

After that, I sat by the atrium pool and read a copy of Red magazine – which was a little strange, because one of my tweets had been published in that issue! (I didn’t actually know, so I’m reading it and…oh, thats my name!) My first treatment was in the Infrared Sauna which was odd really. It has a row of seats, with back rests that have heaters in, and in front of the seats are more heaters. The session lasted for 25 minutes, and was oddly comfortable. Not many people who went in at the same time as me stayed for the full time, but I had read that it could help with back pain and can help burn calories – I think you would need more than one treatment to get any real benefit though!

After that, I lounged a bit more around the koi carp pool, before heading for my prescription facial. The facial was actually quite nice, I’m always a bit worried that I’m going to have a bad reaction to the products used, but my skin didn’t look too bad afterward.

While it was not what I would usually do the day after a crazy party, it was quite a nice and unusual experience. However, it would have been nice to have been told to bring a paper book (since I couldn’t take my iPad, apparently) and to have been told about the tab thing. Considering how long it took to book the treatments over the phone (not in a bad way, I was having a nice chat with the lady!), it wouldn’t have been difficult to add this info in to when you’re being told about bringing your own swim suit, etc. I think that I would have enjoyed the whole thing a lot more if I had been with a friend – the majority of people there were in large groups, and I felt a little awkward wandering around on my own!

I’d like to go to a spa again, but next time I would want to go with a group of friends! Anyone fancy it? (What spas are in Bristol? Would it be weird to go with the boyfriend?)

I have to be honest, before she collaborated with Topshop in 2006, I had never heard of Celia Birtwell. Even before receiving this book, I knew the name, and the general style, but not much more. This is the first time a book has been published about Celia, and its a fascinating story about how she has gotten to where she is now.

This is very much a coffee table kind of book – as you can see from my pictures, theres quite a lot of pictures and graphics in here, but how could you write this sort of book otherwise?!

I knew of the Topshop collections, but it was interesting to see that the patterns used in those collections were ones originally created in the 60′s.

I loved the interior design section of the book, explaining how she made the move over to home fabrics, and giving glimpses into her own home (above)

This book is available from Amazon* (of course)

I arrived to find a few people on the terrace upstairs. I hadn’t been out there before, only having been in the loft part of the restaurant once before. The terrace is gorgeous, with a great view of central Bristol, and so quiet up there! Its hard to remember that its on one of the busiest streets, Park Street. There was someone who looked quite familiar, who then said to be that I looked very familiar – turned out to be Emily from Bristol Bites who I’d been tweeting at earlier that afternoon! I sat next to her and her friend Sarah, on a long line of tables.

(Before I start, please remember I am not a foody blogger. Pretty much everything will involve the words amazing, yummy, delicious or NOM. For an actual review, you should definitely check out Emily’s post about it.)

The chef Matt Peryer (left) explained about each course and as I looked down at the menu, I wondered if I would be able to eat everything! (Spoiler: course I bloody well ate everything. Mostly.)

The menu consisted of:

Sticky Ribs – these were one of my favourite items on the menu, I love ribs (theres a story involving Gauchos in Utrecht, a big group of bikers, unlimited racks of ribs and bottomless plates. Oh. Yeah, thats pretty much the whole story) and Matt explained how easy these were to prepare – so easy I might even have to try myself. Maybe.

Next up was overnight spiced roast breast of lamb – I only had a small amount of this but it was again, amazing.

I don’t think I’ve ever had mussels before, so the mussels en papillote were a interesting experience. That sort of phrase usually means they were horrible, but they were actually really delicious.

Chargrilled plaice was next – I have to admit that I couldn’t eat very much of this because of the teeny bones. Still very yum.

The best food things will involve meat, sweetness and/or be a mini version of themselves. So the mini venison burgers in brioche buns ticked off all the required items and were yummy.

Finally (with an awful photo – the light was fading fast by this point) on the meat front, were some open onglet steak sandwiches. The one thing I think I can say I learnt from the evening is that onglet is known as a butchers cut in the UK (and a hanger steak in the US – we had a great demonstration from Matt how the steaks hang as well!)

To finish up, we had bananas stuffed with dark chocolate with caramel sauce. It was a really struggle to eat this but I managed at least two thirds. I’m a trouper.

I had a fantastic evening, and felt extremely full afterwards – its a wonder that I didn’t just roll down Park Street to the bus! Thanks to Matt, Ben and everyone else at Goldbrick House  - I always have such a great time there whether its food, drinks or events. The next night like this is on 25th August, and is all about steak. If I thought this was a meat overdose (there is no such thing) then the steak evening promises to be meat coma inducing!

Emily from Ministry of Sound got in contact with me after reading about my failure of a run, and offered me a new pair of earphones to try out. Ministry of Sound have recently brought out a new range and combined with their Running Trax album, it seems like the perfect combination for anyone who runs (I was going to say who enjoy running, but does anyone actually enjoy running? )

I chose the MOS003 pair, because I didn’t think that running in an overhead style would be very practical! The packaging is quite nice, they come in a Ministry of Sound branded box, and aren’t just sealed in impossible-to-open blister packs.

I can’t normally wear in-ear earphones usually, I obviously have very odd shaped ear canals (eugh, what a phrase) but with the right tips on, these are seriously comfortable. The only pair I’ve had with the removable tips before would keep falling out of my ears even when I was sitting on the bus, but these stay put.

I even went on a run to test these out. They performed great, only falling out when I caught the wire with my hand and yanked them out. The run on the other hand…well thats a story for another blog post.

The other big test of how well a pair of earphones work are “Do they block out the noise of the other people on the buses I have to catch every day?” Yes. Yes they do. In fact, they work so well, I have worn them to block out the bloke who was singing along to his iPod (to Glee songs…) and not even listened to any music. As far as I know, they don’t let any music leak out either, unlike the cheap ones that come with an iPod. (Seriously, why do people still use those?)

I’ve spoken about the style, fit and comfort – but not mentioned anything about the actual sound. Thankfully, these perform as well soundwise as they have done in my other criteria. The real test for me regarding sound was listening to Take That – Never Forget. You know that first BOOM at the start? If the earphones couldn’t make me get teary at that bit, I probably would have sent them back. They made me get teary. I was on a bus. It was a bit embarrassing. (I can’t be the only one who gets a bit weepy at Never Forget. I am? Oh.)

You’ve probably worked this out by now, but I love these earphones. Not only do they look good and work well, but they’re reasonably priced. The last pair I had which worked well, but not great, have an RRP of £80. (Like hell I paid that. Hi eBay.) These have an RRP of £30.

If you’d like your own pair, they’re available from the Ministry of Sound shop, or good old Amazon*

* I really like cheerleading music to run to. No idea why. Loud and bouncy, its awesome.

I know that the more popular system to use to collate images for most people is Tumblr, but personally I prefer Pinterest. Why? I like that there is only one layout available, and that you can only post images (not text or videos) – its less about another version of a blog and more about collecting images from around the web. Pinterest describes itself as “a virtual pinboard” which makes sense!

You can separate items into different “boards” or collections – as you can see in the above image, mine vary quite a bit, so its easy to find something I liked previously. I “pin” any clothes that I want to wear, bits of stationary that I need (I have such an unhealthy obsession with stationary and organisation!) and things I want to eat. Yum.

Pinterest seems a bit more grown up than Tumblr to me – its difficult to explain why though! Perhaps its because of the “Rules To Pin By” – pretty much rules to keep to for anything you do online. Be nice, don’t spam and give credit.

Theres now an iPhone app available (of course!) which should make pinning less about items found online and more about snapping “real world” items that you love.

My boards can be found at /hayles – let me know your usernames if you have an account. If you’d like one, let me know, I think I have some invites left!

I, like most girls my age, pretty much grew up with the Wakefield twins (just in an oddly parallel universe kinda way where they were 12 one moment and 16 the next but always, always, remaining perfect) When I heard that a new book, Sweet Valley Confidential was to be released in 2011, I was seriously excited. I downloaded the sample chapter in July last year, and while I wasn’t totally in love, I still placed my preorder for the paperback 5 months before the release date.
Thankfully, the Internet saved me from a long wait, and I managed to get the eBook version from an American store. I devoured the book in a few hours – I couldn’t put my iPad down (and didn’t – I was reading while washing up and making dinner! Hows that for multi tasking!)

Since the UK release is on the 14th April, I don’t want to be too spoilery with this sort of review, but there are some things that have to be mentioned. So, apologies in advance, but I’ll try to keep the spoilers to a minimum! I’ll assume you’ve read the sample chapter anyway.

Elizabeth lives in New York now as a writer for a theatre review magazine, and doesn’t speak to Jessica. Jess is still back in Sweet Valley, and something has happened in their recent history for them not to speak. Thats…well, thats about it really.

I enjoyed the book for what it was, but there were quite a few things that just stuck out badly, especially if you were a massive fan of the originals (and who wasn’t?)

The book is definitely being aimed at the girls who used to read Sweet Valley High back in the day, theres no recaps in the beginning of the book, but because we’re missing a gap of 10 years (apparently Francine forgot about that whole SVU series?), there are flashbacks sprinkled throughout. First problem. The book fluctuates between third person present day, Elizabeths point of view of the past and Jessicas point of view of the past, but doesn’t really show a difference when jumping about. Remember how in the Babysitters Club, there was a page of someones “handwriting” and you knew instantly who was talking? Nothing so helpful here. You just have to puzzle that out yourself. Fun! (Or not.)

The original books were set in the vague late 80′s, but because they didn’t mention real bands or brands, it could have been happening at any time. I think this was one of the things that I enjoyed about the books, I could imagine it was all happening right now. Sadly, Sweet Valley Confidential has gone the route of Gossip Girl, and has brands, products and social media mentions everywhere. Elizabeth wont even be Jessicas friend on Facebook you guyzzzz! Really? It just felt a bit contrived, like someones gone “Hey, how can we show this is happening in 2011? FACEBOOK! IPHONES! STARBUCKS!”

There are certain events throughout the book that felt like Francine was checking off a list of things to include. “OK, theres got to be a death, someones going to cheat on their partner, lets chuck a bit of homosexuality and some sex in there as well” (By the way, sex scenes with characters you’ve “known” since you were 9? Disturbing to say the least). There was also a lot of pairing off the original characters with each other – suspicious readers might think the writer couldn’t be bothered to think of many new people.

Finally, it might have been because I was such a huge fan (I think at the last count, I had about 300 books, mostly SVH and SVT), but there were some serious continuity errors. Jessica “never liked” Aaron Dallas? Yeah, thats why she was so crazy over him in middle school. SVC couldn’t even get Lila’s dads name right!

For a book that I’ve been seriously excited about for the past year or so, it was a bit of a letdown to be honest. That said, it was interesting to see where the residents of Sweet Valley had all ended up since leaving them all those years ago. Its definitely not a book for someone who’s never heard of the Wakefield twins, only fans will really enjoy it. I think I’d rather go back to book one and read about Jessica tricking Elizabeth out of a date with Todd.

If after this review you’re still interested in buying the book, heres the link on Amazon*

Last night, Alex and I went to a preview showing of “The Social Network” at our local cinema. If you’ve not heard about this movie, its based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires”, which is the story about how Facebook was started. Normally when reviewing a film, I wouldn’t give away anything, just to say how much I enjoyed it, but with this one, you know the story already. What made it so interesting was the way that it was done.

The film starts with a breakup. Not the most usual start for a film, but it does set the scene to explain some of the later choices of Mark Zuckerberg makes. He goes back to his dorm room, and creates a sort of “hot or not” to compare the photos of other students, while blogging (on his LJ) about what he’s doing, and why he’s drunk at 10pm on a Tuesday. The site “Facemash” became a sucess, crashing the University network.

Three guys, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their friend Divya Narendra noticed this prank, and recruited Zuckerberg into “helping” them create a website called HarvardConnect (later ConnectU) Zuckerberg then created TheFacebook, and it spread across Harvard to other big universities in the US, and later on in Europe.

In between scenes of how things happened back in 2003/2004, we are given shots from inside attorneys offices a few years later. The ConnectU team had a lawsuit against Zuckerberg claiming that he stole the idea for Facebook from them. From the film, it seems like he took their idea and built on it a bit more. But it could be argued that ConnectU was building on the ideas that led to MySpace and Friendster. The quote in the trailer sums it up.

“If [ConnectU] were the inventors of Facebook, [they]‘d have invented Facebook.”

In a separate lawsuit, Zuckerbergs best friend Eduardo Saverin is suing him for losing shares, something that we don’t really find out until towards the end of the film. When more venture capitalists were brought in for funding, Saverin’s shares were diluted, but the other shareholders ones were not.

I really enjoyed the film. However, its not an action packed movie. I’m a bit of a business and company history geek, so it was interesting to see how this was brought to “the big screen”. Theres no eye candy (besides Justin Timberlake, zomg, girly fan squeal here. Couldn’t stop thinking about the parody of him from this episode of Star Stories, especially around the 7:28 mark) and its not really a comedy (although there are a few bits I laughed at) Even so, I would still recommend this film to non-business geeks. I think most people have heard some of this story before, and its interesting to see it reenacted.

So when I heard about “The Carrie Diaries“, it made me thing that maybe I’d be able to enjoy and possibly relate to Miss Bradshaw. OK, so its based in the 80′s, but I was a huge fan of the various “Sweet Valley” series back in the day and I quite enjoyed the flashback episode of Gossip Girlback to Serenas mums teenage years (although the amount of actors from Veronica Marsconfused me a little. Did Kristen Bell get them all minor roles? Whatev. I still love Dick, even more so when he is a Billy Idol wannabe). I wanted to like this book.

But, no. I just couldn’t get into it at all. This was my second time of reading it, and I find it just as hard relating to 17 year old Carrie in Connecticut, as I do to late 30′s Carrie in New York.

Perhaps you have to be a die hard SatC fan to enjoy this book. Personally, I think thats a real shame though. There was potential in the book to attract a new, younger audience into the franchise – and isn’t that every persons aim who is selling something? New customers?

It could have been so much more, it could even have become a series of books – why try and cram a whole year into one book? To copy Sweet Valley High would have been a bit much (how many times did the twins get in life threatening danger? Still love it though) but something more along the lines of the Georgia Nicholson series (if you’ve not read that series, do. Its so funny, even though it’s, again, a YA series)

The Carrie Diaries felt rushed through with cramming the year into one book, and certain parts of the book felt as if they had been added in at the last minute to sort of fore shadow the TV series.

If this book had been thought about a bit more, then it could have been brilliant. Sadly, this is a book that is going to stay on my bookshelf most of the time, not one to read and re-read

It all started with Sarah saying she was going to watch crappy movies, so I suggested Josie and the Pussycats (a modern classic you know). Somehow that turned into discussing sleepovers and totally amazing but crap movies from the late 90′s/early 00′s that everyone has probably seen*

* except me, but I’m a weird movie person.

So here, for use as a checklist, is the list of movies people suggested on Twitter as the teen movies to watch.

Josie And The Pussycats
I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned this film before. Its one of my favourite movies EVER. So the basic story is that this band suddenly becomes super popular and famous and that, but of course theres a big dark secret – the record company is putting hidden messages in their music. Boo! Its such a fun movie, with cheery catchy songs and Alan Cumming is in it. What else do you need?

Clueless
No teen movie list can be started without the one that set it all off, Clueless. I still can’t believe this was made in 1995. Its apparently a variation of the Jane Austin classic “Emma”, but lets face it, you mainly remember it for the fashions. Honestly, how many people had heard of Azzedine Alaia before this movie? (Also, can you believe Cher’s little white dress is being remade by Calvin Klein and sold for $916?!)

Cruel Intentions
Most blokes will only remember Cruel Intentions for the girl snog between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair. Most girls will only remember it for Ryan Phillipe. Whatever, its a good movie, and is a retelling of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. I loved this film so much, I replaced my VHS copy with a DVD. Bless.

Bring It On
I always wanted to be a cheerleader. Sadly, in the UK, we don’t really do the cheerleader thing like they do over in America, but watching this film made me want to move. I still know all the words to the first cheer in the begining of the movie. I use the music that the teams do their routines to do exercise to (they’re so high energy type stuff, fab for jogging to!). And I don’t put the whore in horrifying.

American Pie
When you think of American Pie, what do you think of? Flutes, apple pies or webcams?

Legally Blonde
Oh Legally Blonde. You irritated me because you kept up the blonde bimbo stereotype, but I love you because you say a blonde can be clever and beautiful (you can obviously tell where they got their inspiration from. No?)

Others that were suggested include:

• Election
• Coyote Ugly
• She’s All That
• 10 Things I Hate About You

(but I can’t really write about those because I’ve never seen them. Like my reviews above are so in depth?!)

You know whats even better about these DVD’s? They’re so old, they’re incredibly cheap now. Yay!

The screening in one of the smaller screens at the Vue was pretty packed by the time we got there 10 mins before the start time. We were subjected to the usual trailers, including one from the company that arranged the viewing. The reason why these companies have advanced showings is that they want people to give their opinions, and hopefully that gets other people to go see the movie when it comes out.

Well, here I am, telling you that you *have* to see this movie. In fact, I’m willing to go see it again with Alex because it is that awesome.  As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m not your typical reviewer. So, because he has to earn his ticket somehow, I’ll let @nickbrompton tell his version

I’m not sure when I first became aware of Kick Ass, probably one of the upcoming film previews in Empire Magazine, of which I have been an avid reader for years & a subscriber for a while. I usually take quite a lot of notice of things when they get excited as I tend to find their taste similar to mine – they like art house but sometimes a crap 80′s action movie is just what you need, but Kick Ass didn’t really stick in my head.

Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen director Matthew Vaughan & screenwriter Jane Goldman’s other collaboration (Stardust, though it’s now recorded to watch at home), maybe it was because it stars Nic Cage, & all Nic Cage films for the last 5 years have been utter bobbins. Whatever it was I wasn’t excited, there were big movies like Avatar & Clash of the Titans to look forward to.

This all changed over the winter when I clicked on a link from a twitter feed, not sure who’s it was, maybe Kevin Smith or Edgar Wright but it took me to a trailer featuring Nic Cage & a young girl who uses very very bad language. I watched it at work & nearly fell of my chair, half with laughter, half with shock.  The trailer was surprising, funny, violent & utterly brilliant.  It went round the office like wild fire, everyone was excited.  I took it home & showed my girlfriend & housemate, who both instantly became excited.

Fast forward, spring is in the air, birds are singing & @hayles tweets that she might have a spare ticket to a preview of Kick Ass – I got excited & replied I’d go if there was one spare. This is Thursday night, apparently the Boy might not be able to make it, I cross my fingers & try offering bribery. Then it turns out the Boy can go on Monday night & all my hopes & dreams are dashed (not really but you get point).

Now avid followers of this blog will by now know that Hayley got the days wrong – the preview wasn’t until Tuesday night & by Tuesday afternoon it was confirmed once more that the Boy can’t go – hooray for our hero I hear you all not shouting! I get there, we buy treats, the cinema is packed & we don’t have the greatest seats but soon the trailers are done & the film begins.

2 hours later we emerge, smiling, laughing, wanting to buy jet packs & wet suits. The film is by turns, funny, violent, very sweary, visually inventive and has a great soundtrack.

It runs a fine line between quite touching realism of the life of a teenage boy & fantastical sequences of beautifully choreographed ultra violence. Each set piece is inventive & unique, all the characters get their turn at being funny, there are endless brilliant comic book references (I think repeat viewings will only find more) & Nic Cage does his best work since Con Air (& nearly redeems Adam West from Family Guy joke).

I loved the film, I want to write & share each funny line with you, to describe in detail the action & to swear as only a purple haired pre teen can. But I won’t. It wouldn’t be fair. You should go see this film yourself, you should take your mates & have the most fun you will have had in the cinema for ages, then you should go see it again so it makes loads of money & Hollywood takes notice & starts making more films like this.

If you liked Zombieland, or Spaced, or you just want a great couple of hours then you won’t get much better than this.

So you’re probably a bit confused at this point. I’m talking about Kick Ass, but the title of this post is about the Bounty Hunter. Yeah. About that.
So we arrange to meet at the cinema after I’d finished work. I’d printed off the ticket I’d received 2 hours before the start time and headed into the Vue.
“Hi, I’m here to see Kick Ass?”
“Er, thats tomorrow”
Yes, despite the original email offering the tickets saying that the Bristol showing would be on Monday, the ticket date was for Tuesday. Oops.
So Alex arrived, and we had a look at the other offerings that the Vue had on. It was all pretty dull if I’m honest, kids movies and boy films (and after Alex’s last two choices of films of “From Paris With Love” and “Brooklyns Finest” turned out to be complete crap boy movies, I’m not trusting his choice of films anymore)
We decided to head back towards the centre, to Cinema de Lux in Cabot Circus to take another attempt at their “The “Lot” desert. (Its £11, but it is every desert on their menu on one plate. Nom nom nom.)
The choices were Green Zone in a normal screen, or the Bounty Hunter in the Directors Lounge.
We like the Directors Lounge. Its just that little bit more awesome than watching a film at home. For one thing, there are no reclining leather love seats with little tables on the sides at home.
We had a World platter to nom, followed by The Lot desert, which once again beat us. Damn you tasty uneaten treats!
The movie itself, well, that was kinda dull. There, I said it. The plot idea is reasonable, bloke is a bounty hunter, journalist ex-wife has he?r bail revoked because she’s chasing after a news story, he tries to drag her back to the police station, they remember why they were in love, news story is resolved, happy ending. (Sorry, I think I’ve just given it all away. No big loss.)
The plot was built up nicely, but the ending felt, I don’t know, a bit rushed? To me, it seemed like “here’s the bad guys, gun time, the end” Ok, so I’m no screen writer, but why build up all that tension only for it to end in five minutes?
Overall, it was a movie that whilst enjoyable to watch, isn’t one I’ll be buying on DVD to watch again and again.

I had just finished reading Belle de Jours third book, “Playing the Game” when I saw Kate’s review of “Petite Anglaise“, by Catherine Sanderson. It reminded me that particular book was sitting on my bookshelf and had only been read once, so I picked it up and read.

If you didn’t already know, both books began life as blogs, “Petite Anglaise” being written by an English woman living in Paris about her daily life, and attracted a large amount of visitors quickly. “Belle de Jour” was also about her daily life, but whilst “Petite” was an office worker, “Belle” was a call girl who was very open about what she did.

The book version of “Petite Anglaise” is the story of how Catherine started her blog, met a bloke via her comments section and started having an affair with him, and dealt with the aftermath of leaving her long term partner and coping with becoming a single parent.

“Playing the Game” is, in Belles own words, “a parallel universe for Belle and her mates”. Its what would have happened if she had decided to give up being a call girl and become a typical office worker. Except, well, its Belle, so theres no such thing as a typical office worker.

I had not read “Petite Anglaise”‘s blog before reading the book, but this did not affect my enjoyment of the book. I had read “Belle’s” blog since the very start, and this probably helped in my understanding of the charectors, but on the other hand, since I had read her other books as well, it may not have been needed.

In their own way, both books are very well written. They are in different styles (PA is more of a story, whilst PtG is written in a diary style) and both are enjoyable reads. The only negative part to Belle’s book is that it seemed far too familiar – I couldn’t work out if I had read this book before (unlikely, but possible) or had read sections of it before either in her other books or on the blog.

* Yes, I know that Belle de Jour has a real name, but it feels more suitable to refer to her as her pseudonym in this context.

Friday was Alex’s (sorry, aka The Boy) birthday, so as part of his celebrations, I took him to Goldbrick House for a meal.

We ate in the restaurant, which was pretty full at half 7. We ordered some wine, and nibbled at the bread while trying to choose from the yum menu. I’d had a head start (I’d been gazing at the menu at work while my colleagues disappeared downstairs to Cosmo for lunch. I may have been sulking slightly that I was missing out on deep fried mushrooms. Still, looking at the menu helped me forget about the MSG overload they were getting)

Eventually, Alex chose one of the starters from the specials menu, which was some sort of pasta parcel (Ha, pass the parcel. Oh shh.) and I did the traditional girl thing of forgoing the starter in preference of a desert. I’d been eyeing up the jelly and ice cream on the menu from their website all day – I was far too excited about having jelly and ice cream for pud pud (Ahem. Pudding.)

For mains, Alex had the rabbit (Rabbit leg stuffed with tapenade, with an olive and potato cake, rocket salad and a light dressing), and I had the chicken (Corn fed chicken breast served with garlic gratin potatoes, honey-roasted parsnips and buttered kale) which was so yum.

It came to pudding time, and I was upset to see that jelly and ice cream wasn’t on that night. Disaster! I chose the vanilla cheesecake with strawberry coulis (mmm, awesome) and Alex chose the chocolate torte, served with blood orange sorbet. The cheesecake was awesome, but Alex found the torte just a little bit too rich. (Hence the discussion about ordering the same desert. He thought it was smug. I thought it was sensible.)

After all that delicious food (and I suppose great company and good conversation ;) ), it was time to pay. For a starter, two mains, two deserts and two glasses of wine (he was driving, I feel guilty if I drink lots when he is sober!), it came to just under £60. (In their latest newsletter, there is a promotion offering 50% off main meals, which is what reminded me to book (with that offer) but for some reason it wasn’t taken off.)

Still, if you’re looking for a different, but elegant meal out, why not give Goldbrick House a try? I’m already looking forward to my next visit!

Website: www.goldbrickhouse.co.uk
Address: 69 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5PB
Phone: 0117 945 1950
Opening Hours:
Cafe/bar Mon – Sat: 9am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Restaurant Mon – Fri:Noon – 11pm , Sat 11am – 11pm, Sun: Closed
Champagne/cocktail bar Mon – Thur: Noon – Midnight, Fri & Sat: Noon – 1am, Sun: Closed