Terminatin'

We caught the new Terminator film last night. I must say I was mightily impressed. After 2 of the strongest science fiction films to come out of Hollywood, the third one was pretty poor, so I wasn't expecting much of the new one. Also, the way in which Auckland Sky City was promoting the film inside the cinema - a few old car tyres with bits of grass sticking out of them, to symbolise the apocolypse - left me with the feeling that I was about to see some college theatre.

Aside from a few dodgy special effects, and a few "jump the shark" moments, it was top notch. The dystopian future was perfectly realised - even though it was all a bit A-Team in that most of the action took place in the Californian desert - and all the performances were spot-on. Well, everyone except Bryce Dallas Wishy Washy Howard, who should have just stayed at home.

Unlike most effects-driven movies, where the action is too visible, it was neatly trimmed down to short, episodic set-pieces. For example, an early encounter with a primitive T-600 was awesome and ran under 3 minutes, whilst a later encounter with a huge machine (and a couple of nice nods to War Of The Worlds) was only marginally longer. Don't get me wrong - the film is full of special-effects and CGI, but the action leaves you wanting more rather than less. Which is nice for once.

If it's made with the same respect for the story, then I'm looking forward to the fifth film, but please please please can we not have the finale take place in a foundry - it's wearing a little thin.

The other thing is that they totally missed the chance to have Christian Bale's well-publicised rant playing over the closing credits, in a Cannonball Run-style gag reel. They could have even shoe-horned in a nice cameo with Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin. Dressed as priests.

Spending time in Stockholm when really I should have been in Cheshire

When I introduced Sally and Ben to each other a few years ago, I really had no idea what was going to happen. Maybe I should have realised really but there you go - I can only hold my hands up and say sorry. I don't really mind that Ben got Sally pregnant, even when you take into account what he must have been doing with her at the time it happened. But I draw the line at Ben joining the family. Luckily, I don't recognise the office of Brother in Law so I can ignore him at family functions.

In truth, I'm really happy that Ben and Sally are married of course. I was really dissapointed not to have been able to go and see it happen myself. I have since seen a video of it, so I accept that it really did happen. But somehow it doesn't seem all that real if I wasn't there to witness it myself.

The reason I wasn't there was because I couldn't afford to be there. So instead I was spending Sally and Ben's wedding day in... er... Stockholm. If that doesn't sound like the actions of a man who can't afford to travel abroad, I can only say in my defence that Stockholm is a lot closer to Tampere. And not for us the jetsetter lifestyle; Ulriikka and I gave a masterclass in cut-price city break holidays. We are a cut above the 20 minute express train from the airport to the centre. Instead we went on a small bus tour of the Arlanda industrial estates before catching a commuter train to the centre. I tell myself that this is a better way to the see the city, but deep down I know that with a little bit of extra cash I'd be on the express train every time. But honestly, the railway cuttings of Stockholm really do deserve to be savoured and not whizzed past.

Stockholm itself is a pretty wonderful city. It's like a fairytale - or is that Bruges? Either way, it was one of those cities that are nice to just walk around admiring the buildings - as opposed to Hull for example, where standing next to a man with a bayonetted rifle is a lot more dangerous.



Back here in Finland, Ulriikka and I decided that organising our own wedding wasn't giving us enough stress and have launched ourselves onto the property ladder. This means that our June will be filled with decorating our new home. I can't really say very much about the place yet as we haven't got the keys. But it is still in the city centre, just a little bit away from the main shopping streets. It's also right next to the main market square which means that I will be able to have blood sausage for breakfast every morning.

I realise that it isn't a very helpful picture, but here is our new house.

A Private Party in Trenton

Trenton is the capitol of NJ and is also possibly the worst city in the US, a friend of mine recently moved there, he has a job rehousing refugees which he feels bad that he has to re-house them in Trenton because it's just not very nice. Previously I have only been thru the city, on the train or driving, the first time I was amazed by their giant city slogan that doesn't really enhance the what could otherwise constitute a nice view. There is just something about "TRENTON MAKE THE WORLD TAKE" that puts people off, I'm not sure why, surely this slogan was decided upon by a panel of intelligent minds at some point. It's not nearly as good as the currently NJ state slogan: Come See for Yourself, if that can't bring in the tourist I don't know what will.

Driving in downtown Trenton is relatively easy; no one actually wants to go there. There is no traffic and I was able to find my friends place without any problems. We walked down the road to to get some pizza and I managed to run into a man I used to work with about 10 years ago at another pizza place. He asked me if I remembered the drug addict we used to work with named "Heroin Bill", and of course I didn't although I prefer to use the name "Methadone Bill". After that run in we decided to get a drink at a place my friend described as the only nice bar in Trenton. Unfortunately when we tried to go in they wouldn't let us. A very happy insane man who was outside dancing alone informed us there was a private party going on inside and they wouldn't let him in so he was going to have his own private party outside. A bouncer opened the door to also tell us we were not allowed in just like the crazy guy. After a few more moments watching the crazy guys hip shaking moves we decided to leave.

We went on a nice walking tour of some abandon building scenery and then hit the arena where there was going to be some kind of Rodeo. The rodeo basically subjected me to one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever witnessed when a man was trampled, stomped and head butted by a pissed off bull for about 60 seconds. What was somewhat more disturbing were the people around us who insisted that the bull should be killed on the spot, geez it wasn't his idea to be ridden. Would I go again? Yes.

After several hours of rodeo excitement we left and were instantly approached by a man: "Excuse me! I just need to tell you something! My mom just died like 30 minutes ago!"

Moving on we went driving in search of an open shop, which took us around some finer parts of the city. I was informed as we passed several abandon factories that Trenton doesn't really make anything that the world takes anymore, which was just kind of sad considering just few years ago the city spent millions fixing that slogan sign.