Road to World Cup 2010

Another great football night and Portugal is qualified for the final stage for next year's FIFA World Cup.

But tonight I decided to watch another game, France vs Ireland, on an irish bar! The ambiance as great, everyone glued to the giant screens, Guiness beer for almost everyone (the french supporters were more into Cokes and french beers)... but unfortunately Ireland didn't qualify! Thanks to an "illegal" goal, scored with the help... of a hand! :-P

Anyway, the important is Portugal will be in South Africa next year! We are going to have many soccer nights... and afternoons! A good excuse to gather people around a table... a full table ;-)

Great entertainment with "2012"

In case you don't know, according to the Mayas, the end of the world is expected to be on December 21st 2012... but Hollywood couldn't wait that long to make the movie.

After all kinds of disaster movies with volcanos, tornados, tsunamis, earthquakes and snow storms, now we have the ultimate disaster movie, a cocktail of disasters, served with a roller coaster of special effects.

I enjoyed this movie. Of course it's another popcorn movie, but this is one appealing. I was very curious about the end of this movie, because the world is supposed to be "the end of the end".

After the latest doomsday movies like "Knowing" (with Nicolas Cage) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (with Keanu Reaves), I must vote for John Cusack in "2012". Not that his performance is that great, but the movie is really entertaining.

After destroying the planet (or the USA) with "The Day After Tomorrow", "Godzilla" or "Independence Day", director Roland Emmerich delivers the ultimate destruction movie. What can he destroy after "2012"? The galaxy? :-P

Even the special effects are great. The teams behind this extravaganza scored really high. A good example how you can still have a great action movie without using this new 3D trend! ;-)

I recommend you to watch this one on the big screen, with or without popcorns. It's almost a 3h movie but it's worth it. This movie serves what it promises: great entertainment! ;-)

A good movie for a Friday 13th like today! eheheh

Get ready for the end!

Up, up and away!

Do you remember your first baby footsteps? Me neither, but I surely remember my first Robocop footsteps! eheheh
You know how I like to try different things, so recently I decided to try bocking... powerbocking... spring stilts... whatever you want to call it! :-)

For some this is an extreme sport, others consider it a form of exercise. For me it's both, plus a new away to break yourself! eheh
I enjoyed my first experience with these futuristic stilts, but I didn't try to run or jump like crazy... yet! ;-) Technically you're able to jump between 1 to 1.5 meters off the ground and run up to 32 km/h, and the name comes from its inventor, the german Alexander Böck (no, it's not related with the "Super Bock" beer, guys!) eheheh

I felt like Robocop while walking and like Superman while jumping (able to leap tall buildings! eheh). I survived this first experience, but for sure is something I want to repeat! ;-)

Who's better than U2?

What else? I don't want to start a fight, but yes I prefer the real rock from real deal ;-)

I know that some of my readers prefer the irish group, but come on... which one plays rock: Bon Jovi or U2? eheh

OOOOOOOOh, living on a prayer!


And happy halloween everyone ;-)

Cooking with "Julie & Julia"

There are movies like "Sideways" that makes you want to taste wine (taste has more class than drink like crazy), other movies like "Fast and Furious" that makes you want drive like crazy, "Shall We Dance" makes you want.... ok, ok ... you got the picture.

With "Julie & Julia" you may leave the cinema with the wild desire of ... cooking! Yes, it's crazy but it's true (how many times did I write the word "crazy"? eheh).
I've seen this movie recently and I must say that I was positively surprised.
This movie is based, not on one, but on two real stories in two different times... which are connected somehow.
One story tells us about Julia Child (Meryl Streep), one american woman who moves to Paris in 1948 following her husband (who works at the Ambassy). To pass the time and boredom she decides to take cooking lessons at the famous Cordon Bleu School and she ends, after some years, to write a famous cooking book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".
The other story, in the present day, turns around Julie Powell (Amy Adams), another american woman who has a sad and boring job and decides to cook through Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" - all 524 recipes in 365 days! And she creates a blog to tell all about her experiences and frustrations.
It seems a simple movie, but the final result is very good. Both actresses are great, but Meryl Streep steals the show! She plays her caracter like no one. If you were surprised with "Mamma Mia!", then you will enjoy to see Meryl Streep in another great role!

So basically you follow the Julia's cooking lessons in Paris in the past and Julie's cooking experiences in the present day. Cooking and more cooking... from simple recipes to an exquisite lobster ;-)
I like to cook as some of you may know, and after watching the movie I wanted to try some of those recipes ;-)
That reminds me of posting here some of mine cooking experiences ;-)

Yes, and there are movies like "Indiana Jones" that makes me want to be a real adventurer! ;-)

Oktoberfest is wunderbar!

Finally I had the opportunity to go to the Oktoberfest! In case you don't know, Oktoberfest is a famous festival and fair held in Munich, Germany, although is best known as "beer festival".
It's true that beer plays an important role in this festival, where you find big tents with live music and many, many, many 1 litre glass mugs.

There's people from all over the world coming to this festival, but the bavarians (the germans born in this region) are very very proud of their city and festival.
Do you know that men and women wear their typical clothes during the festival? Even young people! It's curious to see men in leather trousers (lederhosen) and women in their typical dresses (dirndl). Day and night! (but I suppose they don't wear the same clothes everyday) eheheh

For someone like me, who likes to try the typical gastronomy from each location, it was a real festival. At the end I was saying it was the "cholesterol festival"!! eheh Roast pork (schweinsbraten), knuckle of pork (haxn) or the famous bratwurst sausages! Of course there were other things to eat like chicken, grilled fish on a stick (steckerlfisch ), potatoes, red cabbage and also the famous pretzels (bread pastry).
What about drinking? Well... you have beer, beer or beer! No, there's also wine, sparkling wine and water. ;-)
You can also have beer with cola or with soda... but that's for girls! eheh

But the festival is not just about the beer and the food, you also have lots of rides to enjoy from roller-coasters to the giant wheel, water rides, horror rides, magic shows... the all set! ;-)

Besides the festival I also took the opportunity to visit Munich. It's a very interesting german town, without noise, where people are nice, respectful and stressless.
If you ever visit Munich, you have to visit the great Neuschwanstein castle! It's so wonderful that it was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Park!

Well, here are some more pictures and, as germans say when having a toast, ... prost! :-)

Any volunteers to join me next year? ;-)

Pictures: Fun at the Oktoberfest, Munich and Neuschwanstein

 

3D is here!

Movies and the 3D have a relationship for a long time. This new 3 dimensions trend is nothing new... what's new is the great experience you now enjoy.

These last few months we've seen many 3D movies being released and most of them were computer animated movies like "Bolt", "Monsters vs Aliens", "Ice Age 3", "Up!" or "Coraline" (this one used the stop-motion technique). The experience lived with these movies were let say... cute, funny and amusing. Nothing extraordinary.
Do you know that show at Disney Parks "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience"? Well, it's a good 3D show, but they use more than just images to tease you. But I like this show.
The animated movies are just nice in 3D, where the most common effect is the depth of field.

But then, when it comes for life-action movies .... oh boy, it's insane! Forget about your fluffy dogs, the cute squirrel or the "dangerous" monsters.
If you want to see what 3D can do for movies check these two: "My Bloody Valentine 3D" and "Final Destination 4: Death Trip".
Nevermind the scripts because you've already seen these type of movies before: a group of teenagers trying to survive a serial killer or to escape death.

What I really enjoyed is how you really live these movies: objects being thrown at you, explosions so close to us, being ran over by a car... it gives you the chills and thrills. They aren't movies for kids! ;-)

One of the drawbacks of a 3D movie is that you have always to pay the 3D glasses. Basically you don't buy them, you pay to use them during the movie and at the end we must give them back. So, for a movie ticket which is already expensive you still have to pay extra for the glasses. Plus, they give us a small cleaning tissue in order to clean the glasses from the previous user!
Another problem are the headaches, because not everyone is capable of watching a whole movie in 3D.

More movies will come with a special 3D version, but some of them I'll skip. But I believe this time 3D has come for good! :-)