Life in bullet points.

• Its been a while since the last bullet points post. 

Doing dishes in PJS

• Schools back! These holidays went way too fast. Now the older two are at a nice age where they can mostly entertain themselves...it doesn't seem so stressful. I just added a smattering of fun stuff...intermingled with "if you haven't tidied your room and done your chores...then we cant do tomorrows fun stuff", the house stayed fairly orderly. There was however twice as much laundry!

• Last Saturday after I slept off my super busy night shift, my darling hubster came home and announced we were going out for a surprise dinner. All of the kids were away with both sets of grand parents and it was just the two of us. Eek! He did not give away where we were going at all! This control freak is not a big fan of surprises...but this one was kind of fun. We ended up at a newly opened restaurant 20 minutes out of town called Outboards Resturant. The menu sounded quite delicious... and I really wanted to try about three of the entrees. I opted for one, a poached salmon Tian. Whats a Tian you ask? I didn't know either so I googled it at the table on my smart phone...and then decided it looked yum. Yay for technology. A nice little place, would definitely recommend it. 

Salmon and Shrimp "Tian" with avacodo and micro greens

• I'm doing a new challenge,  a movie challenge. I am trying to make my way through the greatest movies of all time, as rated on IMDB. I like movies...but I'm trying to get out of the usual ROMCOM, comedy and action/genres. Hubster doesn't see how this is a "challenge", but it is for me. I don't generally enjoy fantasy...made up worlds with new creatures and place names. It all gets a bit much for my little brain, so I am trying to get out of my comfort zone and try new stuff. I also as a rule hate watching anything made before 1990! So the first movie I watched was a black and white movie called "Casablanca"...I finally watched the classic line "here's looking at you kid".  So for the last month I haven't even been near the new release section of the DVD store...and these movies are $1 on a Monday. Good cheap entertainment. 

• Here's the list of the top twenty of all time. Have you seen many of them? I'm avoiding the R18s and if my local DVD stores don't have them I wont see some of the older ones. Turns out I have seen most of them. I got to the Star Wars one and decided to watch it all from Episode 1.  

IMDb Charts

Rank	Rating	Title	Votes
1.	9.2	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	1,009,339
2.	9.2	The Godfather (1972)	712,529
3.	9.0	The Godfather: Part II (1974)	461,084
4.	8.9	Pulp Fiction (1994)	783,229
5.	8.9	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)	304,307
6.	8.9	The Dark Knight (2008)	984,506
7.	8.9	12 Angry Men (1957)	247,823
8.	8.9	Schindler's List (1993)	514,363
9.	8.8	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003)	717,958
10.	8.8	Fight Club (1999)	766,939
11.	8.8	Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back(1980)	491,032
12.	8.8	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)	742,130
13.	8.8	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	420,244
14.	8.7	Inception (2010)	794,869
15.	8.7	Goodfellas (1990)	438,220
16.	8.7	Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)	552,242
17.	8.7	Seven Samurai (1954)	153,738
18.	8.7	Forrest Gump (1994)	666,713
19.	8.7	The Matrix (1999)	725,450
20.	8.7	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)	644,289

• I hung out with these lovely bloggers in the holidays. Good times.  

• My kids are all germ free for the first time in MONTHS. It been a long while of snot noses...especially the little guy. I was starting to call him the runt of the litter.

• After a lazy last term of no after school activities I have re-started swimming lessons. They cost a fortune..but I have a pipe dream of one of my kids being a triathlete...I'm thinking maybe Joe could. That boy can run... And the littlest fella master Zak is going to start kiddie Gymnastics....surely one of my kids could make me proud by representing NZ in something!

• MY lovely MIL celebrated her birthday last weekend. We went out for pizza and champagne...

• How exciting is the whole royal baby thing!? I know some people are over it already...but this is big. The boy will be the future KING. I was hoping for it to be a girl. The Queen had recently changed the law so that gender was not a factor when deciding who was in line for the throne which was a great movement towards gender equality. Obviously the Queen decided...being a lady never stopped her from being a great head of the Monarch. Very cool Queen indeed. 

• READING:  "the Happiness Project" My first bought i-book Im reading on my phone. I'm a little bored with it..but I'm going to finish reading because I paid for it. 

• LISTENING TO: Kim Walker-Smith and Skyla Smiths new CD "HOME". Very folksy.

• FRETTING about the new home insurance changes. 

• I was thinking of starting a new regular feature on my blog called FOOD FRIDAY. So watch this space on Friday...if I could work out a linky party...I would...

• EEEK Spring is around the corner!