The Panda and a Penguin Provide Perfect Pleasure

With a title like that for a blogpost you would think that we have visited the zoo, but no... This is yet another movie review - This time it is for the newly released Kung Fu Panda (4) and for the emotional Aussie film Penguin Bloom. What else do you do on a day about remembering fallen soldiers? Go to the movies of course... My love of my life, Miss H decided that ANZAC Day was going to be the day for shopping (grocery) and an opportunity for a family movie session... Our youngest decided that a sleep over with her friend trumped this offer, and our eldest had already seen Kung-Fu Panda 4 so it was middle child and mum and dad that hit the local cinema. Embaressingly we met our neighbours there who had just come from watching the new epic war flick Final Hour. When asked what we were planning to see we had to admit it was nothing so harrowing. From the looks on their faces I don't know if we would have been able to handle such a film. So did we enjoy seeing Po up to his antics again? Well I would have to say YES!!! All three of us enjoyed this movie, suprisingly not bad being the fourth one in the series. Humour, action, a new character to get to know, and a pretty cool villian. A solid three, maybe even four stars for this effort from Dreamworks... Of course it is set up ready for a fifth installment. Let us hope the magic and mayhem continues... And then, in the evening, we were joined again by Miss Nen for a great Austrlian film about the Bloom family and their magpie named Penguin. This one has been out for a while, so long in fact that we found it on a streaming service. I'd heard it was emotional and so had been putting off watching it. Now we have given it a go I'm so glad that we did. Definitely a tear jerker in places, but ultimately this is a film about putting pieces back together. A really good movie about familiy, and what it means to be a mother, a father, a child, a support... I continue to forget that Aussie films are so good... Definately four stars, a must watch if you have not seen it.

Harlan Coben has the right formula for us

Thank you once more Netflix... After Nine Perfect Strangers and other short series based on novels we have discovered the those based on the novels by American writer Harlan Coben. Safe caught our attention first, so interesting and so engaging. We then moved on to The Stranger, and its twists and turns it did not disappoint. With so many books published by this author it seems there will be just as many more mini series for us to watch as there seem to be murders in Midsomer... Thank you Harlan and thank you Netflix...

Magic Abounds as the Summer Holidays Draw to an End

We have farewelled 2023 and said with great relief a warm and hopeful "Hello" to 2024. Christmas was a delayed afair for this Law household, and the New Year celebrations were fun, but far from previously more lavish affairs. Thank you to the wonderful Crook family for again joining us and teaching us the fun that can be had with a box of matches and what seemed like a thousand sparklers. Nothing burned down, and nobody got injured (I think) so 2024 has started off well. On the writing front I have had a few pieces already accepted, some online publications scheduled for as late as September 2024, and a few stories/poems accepted in 2023 will be appearing in 2024 anthologies. On the family front we now have two learner drivers in the house, hoping that one will very soon be on P plates. Two kids are schooling while our eldest takes a gap year to work and travel (not both at the same time though like I did... Shhhhhh...) Workwise we are coming to the end of one of our busiest times for families, the Summer holidays, and we have ended our holiday programme with a roaring success. Firstly my Wonderland themed escape room proved quite challenging and popular (for most of the groups anyway... As usual my family (Laws and Crooks with some added helpers) creamed the competition taking almost half the time of every other group to escape), but the true star was our magician Dane Certificate (https://danecertificatemagic.com.au/) an absolute wizard who blew all of us away with his wonderful show. Dane even had the Library Team (myself included) bamboozled with how he did some of his tricks. We cannot recommend him highly enough. Finally I just wanted to mention a great show my wife and I have been watching with Miss Nen our daughter, a great little piece of aussie TV we found on Netflix called "Boy Swallows Universe". I have seen this book borrowed a lot, and have heard it is a great read so it did not surprise me it has been turned into a movie or television series. Having not heard much about the story it did surprise me though what it was actually about... Dark... Real dark... Occasionally a comedy... Very aussie and very eighties... I, like a few people I've spoken to, enjoyed the first half compared with the last few episodes. It has me very curious about the book now... So, please excuse me while I just go and pop Boy Swallows Universe on reserve from my local library...