Dinner & Arj

Father's Day was back in September, but Kara decided that she'd take me to dinner and a show as a present. At the time, first choice was the Abridged Works of Shakespeare (3 comedy actors performing the key parts of all 37 plays in a couple hours), but work schedules got in the way. A little later, we found out that one of the stops on Arj Barker's next national standup tour would be at the Logan Entertainment Centre, just down the road from us. So Kara decided we'd have dinner at the RSL first, followed by comedy.

I went straight from work to the club... a nice cold beer to start the post-work afternoon.

Sixth Anniversary, Monsters University, Man Of Steel

Saturday was our sixth wedding anniversary.

Six years ago, dancing to The Whitlams' "Make The World Safe" at our reception.

Saturday night anniversary dinner at the Hyperdome.

We hadn't got each other any gifts yet, so I looked up a list of traditional gifts for each anniversary year. After finding iron, sugar and wood listed as the appropriate gifts for a sixth anniversary, I had a little idea which I let Kara in on yesterday.

Star Trek Into Darkness

We went and saw "Star Trek Into Darkness" on opening night (9 May). I've just come back from seeing it my second time (20 May).

There are two reasons why I delayed posting this review. I had some notes written after my first viewing, but didn't really want to spoil it for American readers (the movie wasn't released till 17 May over there). I also really really wanted to see it again, and figured I'd take more notes that time and end up with a decent review. There may still be spoilers in the following review, but I will keep them hidden like this. (Just be careful where you move your mouse.)

TV spoilers

The TV show we've been making our way through on DVD for the past few weeks is "24". I watched most of the earlier seasons when they first aired, but there are a few gaps in my memory. Kara, on the other hand, hasn't really seen any of them.

The pace of this particular show makes watching episode after episode a lot of fun, and we've had a few late nights staying up for "just one more episode". None of this wait-around-for-next-week stuff.

However, it does lead to spoilers. Not of the terrible, "Thanks you just wrecked Star Wars for me" kind, but along the lines of the following. Which I will outline in some sort of screenplay format.

A Day at the Movies

On a hot (not even summer yet) day off, there's nothing quite like going to your local shopping centre and having a double-movie day (using discount cards to full advantage!) with the Mrs.

Being members at our local RSL gets us movie tickets for $9.50 ($14.50 full price), and Star Cinema for $13 ($22 full price). After a quick breakfast, it was time for the first movie of the day.

Looper (MA)

"Time travel hasn't been invented yet. But 30 years from now, it will have been..."

End of the season

I'm a relative newcomer to rugby league. I started watching State Of Origin games in about 1997/1998, and have watched that competition every year since. But it was only in about 2010 that I really started to watch any regular season NRL games on TV, and in 2011 I went to my first live game at Suncorp Stadium.

Over the course of 2011, Kara would watch the Friday night footy with me as well. Earlier this year, as a Valentine's Day outing, she bought tickets to the first Broncos home game of the 2012 season. The Broncos lost to the Cowboys, but it was a good night out, and Kara enjoyed her first live experience of rugby league.

The deal we got for the first game led to a discounted offer on season tickets for the rest of the home games - which we jumped at. This is the first time either of us have had season tickets to a sport of any kind. With free shuttle buses, and free travel on Brisbane Transport buses and all the trains, it's easy to get to the games, and even easier to get home. The choices of food at the stadium are reasonable considering, and sometimes we take our own food, like sandwiches, or cheese and crackers. All in all, it's a cheap date night.

My wife, the rugby league convert - note the cap and scarf in Broncos colours!