Incredible. Awake as a rooster, posing like a photomodel. This is just his wake up time, once you see him with eyes that wide open and that smile, you know there is no way to put him back to sleep. He wants to play, no matter how sleepy daddy still is.
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I had the pleasure today to be able to catch the very first screening of Steven Spielberg’s modernized version of War of the Worlds.
Besides an annoying audience and a constantly failing sound system, I managed to enjoy this movie a lot and this is one of the very few movies in a while that I would want to watch again right away… |
For lack of a better picture today, we have an artsy, blurry, photoshopped, 2-tone sepia shot .. which still is very cute 
Aftter the trouble I had with the hard drive in my main computer, my Apple Powerbook, I had made my mac mini (yes, the one I had waited 100 days for) my main work horse, while I am still in the process of re-installing all necessary software on my Powerbook …
Now, I just gave my mac mini a long deserved reboot .. and it only booted up giving me 3 nasty sounding beeps .. nothing else … I tried every trick i know (and i know some) and i just ended with taking the thing and driving straigh to the local apple reseller who sold it to me.
Now the waiting game begins and the fate of yet another 3 weeks of emails and pictures is not very clear … according to this forum, I am ‘only’ looking at some damaged RAM (which is worrying, in a 2 months old computer)
So, if I forgot your birthday (again) or replying to an email (dito) .. here is the reason …
update: Got the mac mini back, working. They said they just had to reset the RAM. Now I am worried if that is going to happen again, if I should ask for new RAM (still under warranty) .. and I was pretty upset to see how the housing was messed up. Yes, I know, it is not easy to open a mac mini. This is why I gave it to an apple specialist … I think Julius could have done a more subtle job using a stick of dynamite.
Houseman Julius took on the task of helping Vula with the laundry today. She was folding, he was unfolding, perfect example of shared work for a baby …
After shopping at cost-u-less we had the fun idea to go to our first hotel in Fiji, the Suva Motor Inn, where we stayed 6 weeks when we arrived in Fiji to have lunch. We felt like fish and chips, a dish that can easily stink up your whole house.
The weather was great today and we packed to be ready for some pool action too.
We had a great afternoon, nice food, friendly people we ended up chatting with at the bar, some kids banging their bones on the slide to watch. Julius enjoyed the pool and was especially curious about the spa which is built into some kind of grotto behind a waterfall. He kept wanting to catch that waterfall.
Other highlights of the day: chasing the cat:
checking out the camera:
Thanks to amazon.co.jp and grandma Keiko’s mail redirecting service, we received a box full of new clothes and books for Julius today. And tonight we started with the Baby Einstein book on Cats. He LOVES books!
(Ted, notice the t-shirt?)
Gladly it is still a LOOOONG time before he will ask if he can drive a motorcycle, but as our luck has it, cost-u-less just received a shipment of Little Tikes toys, and the only toy in his age bracket was the Go and Grow Rider
While reviews on amazon are mixed, it is not like we have much of a choice .. and he loves it … well, the first 2 days … for some weird reason today he refuses to be seated on it …
Tuesdays is playgroup day. Elian was missing this time due to extented nap, but Julius got to play with Ella and it seems both had a great time.
Last week I went on this great full day trip into the heart of Viti Levu (the big Fiji island, the one we also live on) but only now do I find the time to sift through all the pictures taken and write down what I think about it.
In short: fantastic trip, very recommended! Actually a ‘must’ when you are in Fiji.
In more detail: The day starts very early, 5 AM, when our driver Bobby picked us up. I could have driven, but the road to Pacific Harbor is pretty scary when it is dark (stray cows among other things) and I figured I will be too tired after a 12h+ active day to drive us back safely.
10 people met at the RiversFiji office on the Pearl compound and paperwork was done quickly, friendly and professionaly. Then we were lead to our ‘bus’ …
Somehow I always thought I read on the website that the trip from the office to the put-in site would be by bus … i think now maybe some external website called it a bus (Actually, after double checking I find “You can leave your dry change of clothes and valuables with the bus” … clearly sells you the idea you are on some cozy bus). Beware .. it is no busride … it is not a chance to take a little nap … you are sitting on the back of a 4 WD truck with 2 benches on the sides, first you whizz unprotected through the fairly cold morning air and then you are being shaken through rugged terrain, up up up we go. Full adventure trip!
First stop is along the logging road up in the hills, probably to let people warm up a little. Snack is very good banana bread and juice. Another 30 mins and we are at the final bus stop.
Get changed and ready for a 20 minute hike. Though teva sandals might be applealing, for the hike I was very happy to have sacrificed some a pair of sneakers. The hike is fun, due to some bridge having been swept away by the last heavy flood, you get to use some interesting stairs and ladders and get your feet wet right away.
Once arriving at the put-in site the security briefing starts. Our guide Steven might struggle a bit with the english language, but he says so right away and all his paddle talk is right on the mark, before long we are in our rafts and move towards the first rapid.
A for rapids, do not expect too much. Some Level 2 and maybe a 3 … most are 1 or below (if that exsists) … but the focus is on the great scenery and the combination of paddles for the guests and oars for the guide results in plenty of time to look around and take pictures.
The whole ride can appear a bit lengthy in time and with the sun hiding behind the clouds, we got pretty cold. Lunch was at some sandy river bend: make your own sandwiches, which was a pretty neat solution, wholesome and yummy. After lunch we continued and the ride got a bit more mellow (or ‘boring’). People were obviously getting tired .. but the river went on and on .. another stop was at a picturesque water fall where everyone took pictures of each other … I had hoped that this is like the ending spot of the trip, but no, they said that we have another hour.
Don’t get me wrong, the trip is great. And for 150 USD they sure want to make this a long, big experience. But it is getting long toward the end. Plus the busride to and from the river. As with other rafting trips I had, it comes down to spending a whole day to get maybe one full hour of condensed rafting fun. We heard that Bill Gates had been with our rafting guide before, he kinda cheated, choppered in to where the most scenic part begins, paddled for 40 minutes, then choppered back … well, if you are a billionaire you can do that …
Once we arrived at take-out the rafts were quickly put together, everything was packed, people tried to get into dry clothing (one little shed in a village was the changing room for all, taking shifts, boys/girls) and finally there were bathrooms (before that, the whole river was your only bathroom).
The ‘bus’ ride back was another hour and everyone looked kinda beat. But what a great day!
I hope to hear from some of our co-rafters. There should be plenty more pictures!
Just one of those 30 seconds when Ritsu is clowning around and Julius is laughing his tiny ass off. Sorry for the bad lighting.
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This is a tricky review to begin to write. I have noticed that it has become harder and harder to please the iGeneration when it comes to movies … everyone is reading everything online, early script versions, trailer reviews, press screening reviews … and everyone has become a movie critic, me included. So, how to approach movies these days? Ideal is when a movie still manages to just sweep you away, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy .. that was one amazing ride. |
As for the whole Batman thing … this was a great movie series in the 90ies … being a Prince fan and liking Michael Keaton and Tim Burton, I was all over it and loved it … hey, I even loved the sequals .. yes, even the one with Arnold and Uma!
But here now we are presented with what I consider is the first adult / real world approach to a super hero movie.
Batman Begins is great, great entertainment, you can feel how much thought went into it, how to make things ‘real’: the suit, the bat mobile, the bat sign, the whole ‘why a bat’ thing … very nice.
The acting was top pretty much all across. Michael Caine has to be the best Alfred ever. Chris Bale is a supperb Batman. Gary Oldman can actually play a good guy? Who knew. Also Liam Neeson, Ken Watanabe, Rutger Hauer and Cillian Murphy make excellent shady characters. On the other end we have Katie Holmes … but even she could have been worse.
Other things that stick out is that the movie is neither based on overbearing hero-themed music nor super-fantastic production design … the latter just try to look pretty real.
I think the few nitpicks I have with the movie are: the love interest, sure, just to please the female crowd. The car chase: the new batmobile is cool, teh race is great, but left me somewhat ‘huh?’. The bad guys: Both brilliantly acted .. but somehow not threatening enough .. the whole big thread was .. hmm .. not sure .. maybe it never looked like it was really that bad as it happened.
What I really liked was that the movie had some fairly scary moments .. it is actually close to a horror movie .. even batman appears as a real monster at times. Regular people get zombie-esque.
I need to sort out my feelings yet how much I would want to rewatch this movie … but it sure has some thumbs up from me.
Baby interaction can be fascinating:
For those wanting to see the pictures badly (yes, you, Tammy) I created a large photoalbum (104 photos) right here. But on with the report …
We had scheduled the trip some time ahead, as June 17th is our anniversary (yes, Ritsu survived 3 wonderful years with me). Things changed around a bit when we heard that our friend from our NYC times, Ryan, would be coming to Australia on a business trip and planned to add a week of vacation time to visit us. Thus we did a 2 night stay from Thursday – Saturday.
We left at Nakelo landing at 4 PM with some other local visitors and were greeted as usual with music and open arms.
I was pretty bad this time writing down what fantastic food we had. We somehow ended up selecting the fish option every time. I have to admit that the food offer this time around was less spectacular. No lobster, steak and only once some tiny prawns showed up in an appetizer … but the fish dishes that we got (in coconut milk, beer battered with caper sauce, potato crumbed with black olives and tomatoes, smoked marlin salad with anchovie dressing) were top notch in quality! Other items on the menu as far as I remember: Lamb Ragout, stuffed chicken breast, Hawaii pizza … and don’t get me started on the deserts. Evil and scrumptious.
Ryan took advantage of the offered activities, kayaking and I think 3 snorkel trips. He was very interested in a village visit, but that was not on the schedule in our short time. We just enjoyed some lazy time with Julius, napped, read, pigged out on great food.
The island was somewhat baby-infested. After Julius, another couple arrived in the middle of the night with a sleep deprived 19 months old boy. Much to Ryan’s dismay in the bure right next to him. And Friday evening our friends Bill, Veronica arrived with Ben, who is 6 months older than Julius. I have some great pictures of Julius and Ben interacting, which I will post later.
As mentioned before, I was told that some guests now actually mentioned this website when booking. The couple that came at night got the link from another couple visiting Toberua 4 weeks ago. Brandon and Tracey, the managers, both told me about this and thanked me. (seems those 2 couples got the trip via some auction site … seems like a good deal !)
After the last dinner, when we were already full to the rim, a cake with 3 candles came our way and the staff sang “Happy Anniversary” … which was very sweet. The bigger surprise was when another cake showed up 5 minutes later, and this time the staff sang the goodbye song. Someone must have told them that this is probably our last trip to Toberua for a long time. (If you have actually read this far and now wonder ‘why?’, the answer will be posted in the weeks to come.)
I really hope that the new, revampted Toberua Website will include a staff gallery some day. I always wanted to go around and take a picture of all, but never managed to do so.
I am looking forward to returning to ‘our’ island some day. Julius just has to get married there.
Today he crawled into the closet and found the socks. And had a lot of fun with them.
… yes, Toberua … once again, trip #16. For the first time we brought a guest and also for the first time we met people who had booked their island trip partially based on having found this very website.
So many great pictures, I just need to find the time to put that together. (at least I have done the Daily Julius posts for the last days already)
Needless to say, we had our bure #9 again, we had a fantastic time, but I will tell all later.
This was an amazing first today, a major milestone. While standing, keeping one hand firmly attached for support, it seemed that he suddenly thought of something else and removed the hand, and just stood there for a couple of seconds. Firm, balanced, not noticing that he was standing on his own. And instead of sitting down, he just used the hand again and held on.
Big coincidence that I had the camera on him in that moment.
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