Marvel's The Avengers

Tee & I went to the watch The Avengers last night and I cannot even adequately describe how much I enjoyed this movie!

Throughout the movie I kept finding myself with a huge grin on my face and thinking how much I was loving it.

This movie really gets the adrenaline going. The humour was so well executed that we were laughing out loud in some parts… & often clapping too!

I don’t know the storyline about The Black Widow or Hawk and I didn’t watch Hulk (although if I had known sooner than Mark Ruffalo was the hulk I would’ve watched it as I think he is an awesome actor.) but having watched Iron Man, Thor & Captain America, I knew we were in for a treat when they were all together in The Avengers - and I was not disappointed at all.

As so often happens when you have a movie with so many strong characters (or actors, think Valentine's Day for example), you tend to have to squeeze so much in that you lose a sense of each character's main purpose & you end up feeling that you were missing that little extra punch.

Excellent direction helped each character to maintain their identity & still complement each others' abilities & make for an excellent movie.

Everytime I thought I had my favourite character, then someone else went and did something kick-ass and I just couldn’t decide!

I love how the characters fight each other in the beginning, trying to show each other who is boss. It’s the action-movie-goers ultimate wet-dream, watch all your characters fight it out and see who truimphs.

Thor & Captain America looked deliciously buff and I kept finding myself wondering who would win in an arm-wrestle.

After trawling Google images for topless pics of these 2 actors (yes, it was hard work, but all in the name of good blogging) I cannot decide.

Obviously with Thor being a demi-god, he is an imposing character, but I think with clever costumes and camera angles they made him appear a lot bigger. From the looks of them, they seem to be pretty well matched.

Let us for a moment enjoy the male-godness of these 2....

You can wrap those arms around me anyday...

Man... I'm BUFF!

Hard to choose... yes I told you it would be! Who would your money be on?

Moving slightly off-track...

Here is a cute picture of Chris Evans before he bulked up and looked all "good-boy-soldier" for Captain America:

I love the messy dark hair on him.

The Aussie brothers Liam and Chris Hemsworth are both cute, looking at this pic though, I must say that Chris is the more sexy, rugged of the 2.

So in summary - I highly recommend that you watch The Avengers and come back and tell me you did not enjoy this movie immensely.

What they now need to do is come out with a box-set of all the movies together. I would make the box an awesome-looking metal case with the markings of Thor's axe and the high-techness (yes I just made a new word) that is Tony Stark with some Stars from Captain America's costume.

 

Coffee: Did you know?

Making my colleagues some coffee the other day & I noticed that I am really anal about stirring.
I over-stir my coffee because I hate to get a mouthful of sugar at the bottom of the cup. They all laughed at me because I am so anal, but they don't get a mouthful of sugar in their last sip now do they?

So the new girl asks for tea & this is where our conversation goes:

New Girl: But only put the sugar in once you have taken the tea-bag out please
Dude 1: What difference does it make?
New Girl: The teabag absorbs some of the sugar and my tea isn't as sweet
Me: Makes sense to me
Dude 2: I've heard you should pour milk in your coffee cup and then pour in the hot water
Me: My grandmother always did that and she made the best coffee!
Dude 1: How can it taste different?
Dude 2: Apparently it stops the hot water from burning the coffee.

Moment of silence, then suddenly all our faces light up.

Makes sense when you think about it.

So in an effort to see if that is true, I do a quick Google search (because I really don't have much time to investigate as would Nancy Drew)
They say if it isn't on the 1st page of the results it isn't important enough anyway.
I did find the answer & Dude 2 was right! So remember that the next time you are making a cup.

Here are some more interesting facts about coffee:

1. Caffeine content goes up as the water spends more time in contact with the grounds, so regular coffee often has more of it than espresso or cappuccino. 
2. Coffee can seriously help the growth of healthy plants. Just pour cold coffee onto plants or mix the grounds into soil and watch it totally wash the droop away. 
3. Coffee was originally regarded more as a medicine than as a drink. It was thought to cure a number of ailments, including drunkenness and asthma. Robert Burton, in the Anatomy of Melancholy (1632) listed coffee as an intoxicant, a euphoric, a social and physical stimulant, and a digestive aid. 
4. Coffee is grown between the Tropics of Cancer & Capricorn. Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee
5. Coffee is the 2nd most traded commodity on earth (Oil is first)
6. Drinking instant coffee produces less carbon emissions than drip-filtered coffee

On that note, look what arrived yesterday:

One Direction Mug

My One Direction mug! The picture is slightly blurred because I was so happy I was shaking.

Now I can look at my boys while I drink my coffee... ahhhhhh!

An engagement that makes you go AWWWW!!

I stole this from ----->>> indieBerries: HEY WORLD!!:  

Read about her amazing engagement!

HEY WORLD!!

 

Not to be confused with "war" as in fighting and machine guns and definitely not to be confused with "WAR-ATAHS" (Sorry for mentioning WARATAHS, WARR.) Before we begin.... 

Just to catch you up to speed....
right, all up to speed. 

The Warr and his current location:


And indieBerries and her current location.

The only way one may solve the long-distance problem is succumbing oneself to a very extreme phone-bill. And, when living at home - we don't MIND! Right, dad? right. About 3 weeks ago I asked The Warr what he was doing for Easter in London town all by himself without me (sob) and he told me he was stopping by his sister's house in Wimbledon - he'd already bought his nieces some delicious Easter choccies and he had a housemate's birthday bash on Thursday night - so even though I wasn't there with him on Easter - he still had a festive weekend planned. When he asked what I was doing I told him that our family had planned to go away to the Drakensberg... somewhere.... in the Drakensberg... called "Drakensbergsomething". Cause i'm awesome with details and all. He did try several times to get the exact name out of me, and dropped many hints to get me to be more specific, but he failed. 

The Wednesday before our Good Friday trip, The Warr's mom gave me a call to find out how I was and how the prac teaching was going and to ask what I was doing for Easter... I tried the same "Drakensberg something" approach, which didn't work as well and Mrs Warren's mom told me to go to my dad right away and find out where we were going and if we could stop by for tea on the way. So i went right away to my dad to find out - because mom's are like that.

The next day The Warr was off for after-work Easter drinks and his housemate Chezza's birthday drinks.

 Then he lost his sneaky phone in the couch and I spent the WHOLE morning trying to wake-up his hungover-self from across the world, which is impossible to do when his phone is dead.



Anyway...... After the dad had dropped off his car at the panel-beaters to have the bumper fixed - we jumped into the moms car and were off to the Drakensberg something for a chilled Easter break - with a compulsory stop over for tea at the house of Mr and Mrs Warra - which my own mom kept protesting since "i've only met them like twice" but the tea (and wine) was delicious and the company grand even though The Warr wasn't there (sob again). Eventually we made our way to the Drakensberg-something and checked in. We decided to go for some drinks at the bar and my dad remarked that I seemed a little un-spritely as my usual self:


My lovely family made me feel very lame very quickly so I put that thought to bed immediately. (Not without a very extended period of chirping from the brother). The dad then disappeared to ask the receptionist for things to do in the area and she suggested that we go up to the top of the golf clubhouse and have a look at the view of the resort and do a bit of star-gazing. So off we trekked, mini snack pack and drinks in hand and there we were, with our wine, chilling at the top of the golf clubhouse
  
We had a few drinks at the "very popular star-gazing venue" which the receptionist had told us about (there was no one else there) and I was in the middle of a very intense conversation with the little brother about how he should wear his hair...


"you see, if you grow the front a bit longer and then you just use a tiny bit of gel, but not too much cause that's super trashy - then i think you should cut the sides a little shorter - like here... let me just show you...."

When all of a sudden out in the darkness....



"so... if the sides are shorter like i suggested, then at least you will be able to style up the top - but not too long because then it gets a bit too floppy...."

Che feels big man-hug from behind and giant red-something in her face...



(this is a true story, i really very nearly did fall off the balcony. The falling-off-the-balcony was also accompanied with a lot of screaming, inappropriate words, wild  yelping and  erractic-cave-man-like "dance-moves") I'm very cool when I'm  in fright. (particularly awesome when both his family and my family are watching me like I'm a wild-thing).

Before going further, I would like to mention A Beautiful Mess - if you follow indieBerries you will know that Elsie's blog is one of my absolute favourites and The Warr has taken to glancing over Elsie's blog from time to time - just to show that he cares :) A while back Elsie posted about making a DIY heart sweater. The Warr sent me the link to that post ages ago and told me "i'm gonna make that for you" ..... me: yeah..... sure....
and the next thing he was standing on the top of a mountain at a golf clubhouse overlooking The Drakensberg resort and handing over a gorgeous hand-made heart sweater.



He even sent me the video to prove that he did it all on his own. Bearing in mind that this is not a girly-man type. This is a rugby playing, fly-fishing, beer-drinking, iron-pumping one-of-the-boys stepping out of his comfort zone for the woman he loves.

 

(sweet) <3

Following the sweater-session and the calming down of my frayed-shocked nerves - he took my hand and led me away from our giddy folks and to a golf-tee overlooking the Drakensberg Resort. Then he pulled out a leather-bound book (which he made) and began paging through it - (pics were taken day after)

HELLO YOU!

HOW ARE YOU?

I'M GLAD.

SURPRISED?!

ME TOO!

MY LITTLE HEART SKIPPED A BEAT WHEN I SAW YOU

HOW AM I DOING?

[smiley face]

FOREVER

WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?

THOUGHT SO

WOULD YOU LOVE TO DO ALL THAT FOR ME TOO?

I CAN'T WAIT!

PS. YOU DO ALREADY

(me definitely crying)

I KNOW I'LL MAKE YOU AS AMAZINGLY HAPPY AS YOU MAKE ME

I HAVE THE PERFECT IDEA

LET'S GROW OLD AND FORGETFUL HAPPILY TOGETHER

DO YOU LIKE THAT IDEA TOO?

And then Mr Warren Dyer got onto one knee and asked me to marry him.

i said yes.


There was a lof of hugging and crying and hand-holding and kissing before we made our way back to the parents...

this is me.

(so very very very very happy)

Showing the dads the leather book.

And then my parents (who had been in on the whole surprise for months) - presented Warr with an engagement gift - 1 x giant canvas picture of Che -

hahaha
(me trying to hide canvas. it is not possible)

but really mom, dad... why? lol :) :)

* Veuve Clicquot for all! *

This weekend I....

We were lucky enough to have a long weekend in South Africa - Friday being Freedom Day and Tuesday is Workers Day & I think I am the only silly one who didn't take leave tomorrow (I don't want to waste my leave when I do not have anywhere specific to go)

This is what I have been getting up to:
I contemplated cutting a fringe - but decided to let my mom do it instead
I cut my nails short and painted them a nice dark blue - unusual colour choice for me
I watched Mirror Mirror - absolutely loved Julia Roberts, she stole the show. Hated the Bollywood type ending. It was so out of place & "Snow White" did it no justice
I started reading The Hunger Games and I cannot tear myself away
I copied all my cds onto my hard drive and have now donated them to the SPCA - and I have also freed up alot of much-needed space
I have seriously scrutinised my finances and made a few money-saving choices - not easy, but necessary since the cost of living is getting more and more expensive
I am being realistic and have thrown out all the clothes that do not fit me as I am just making myself feel worse when I look at them
I cleaned out my entire apartment and ruthlessly thrown things away that I don't absolutely need or use. It is amazing how much accumulates. I am now super organised.
I cried over old memories while de-cluttering. Old letters from my grandmother, special notes from school mates telling me how much I meant to them and wishing me luck out here in the big bad world.
I looked through old photo albums - these take up so much space but these are the memories that will continue into a future that my family will always be a part of.
I spent time in the sun with my kitty cats - just loving them.
I hardly picked up my cellphone - to tweet, BBM or sms. It was a welcome break
I began watching Season 4 of Fringe and remember why I like Joshua Jackson so much
I cooked for myself, breakfast, lunch and dinner, from scratch.  I know, I am still waiting for it to snow.
I browsed a bookstore for over an hour & loved every minute of it
I went for my 4th Laser hair removal treatment and I am loving the results so far, cannot wait for the end so I can begin my next section.
I decided that I will be going on holiday this year - suggestions on the destination?