A Fruity Obsession

I just woke up one day and wanted some fruit…

Lately I’ve been buying quite a bit of fruit every time I do my grocery shopping. And it keeps getting worse (or better, either way you like it). Earlier this year I attempted to become healthier by buying less chocolate, chips, and so on, but I soon went back to buying it (in larger quantities), mainly because I didn’t buy any substitutes to nibble on every time I felt peckish. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I went completely overboard and bought so much chocolate I won’t say just how much it was, and subsequently ate it all over a period of 4 days. So I felt bad about it. And started buying fruit instead. Now I have a constant supply of apples, pears, mandarins, oranges, bananas; last week I even came home with two eggplants (squash), an onion, a lemon, capsicum, salad – to use in cooking/lunches. I mean, come on – onions?! Since when did I start eating onions? I’ve hated them all my life! But I used it in a meal, and it tasted delicious.

I also keep making epic (and healthy) lunches:

This looked so good it was almost a shame to eat it, but I couldn’t not eat it, because it looked so good. And it was.

It’s been a very rainy day here today, and I feel all moist, but in a good way. I think it’s finally easing now, and it’s supposedly going to be sunny and warm for the next week or so.

Also, a quick newsflash: I don’t know how much the rest of the world is actually hearing about the Hobbit and PJ vs. actors drama currently unfolding here in NZ, but down here it’s on the front page basically every day now (today’s headline reads: ‘Nats [Nationals, ed.] take up arms for [Peter] Jackson’). A fantastic blog entry by up-and-coming Wellington film maker Chaz Harris sums up the main points of the dispute so far, and thankfully he shares my exact view on the situation, so please have a read of it if you like. PJ is not the villain in this scenario.

That is all. (For now.)

Open spot!

So, for those of you that haven’t heard: Guillermo Del Toro, the guy who was supposed to direct the two upcoming ‘Hobbit’ films, has abandoned the project. Jumped ship. Fled the country. Left the director’s chair. Unlike most people who have commented on the news article at stuff.co.nz, I couldn’t be happier. For years now, I have been angry with Sir Peter Jackson for deciding to make ‘The Hobbit’ into a movie. Not that I object against that book being made into a movie. No, the problem was that it was too soon. Because ever since I first read ‘The Hobbit’, I’ve been wanting to make a movie out of it. I love that book so much, and leaving the responsibility of making it into a movie in somebody else’s hands is to me like leaving your children with a homeless guy, and trust him to know how to look after them. Unthinkable. Even if Sir PJ was the producer, and would have final say about the look and feel of the film, and although I loved the look in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ - ‘The Hobbit’ was my movie.

When I first heard that PJ wasn’t going to direct ‘The Hobbit’ himself, after he had said that they were planning on filming it, I was beside myself with fury, at least up until they said who the director was going to be: Guillermo Del Toro. When they said that, I basically gave up all hope. But two or three years later, here we are – the movies (oh, and I despise the fact that they are making it into two films) are yet to be greenlit, the pre-pre-production has been going on forever, however no actors have been cast yet, and now the director has just left the show. And I’m cheering on the inside. Give me another couple of years, and I’ll be sitting in that director’s chair. If another director shows up in Wellington before that to direct the movies, I’ll start an underground guerrilla war to sabotage them.

I almost choked on my coffee when I checked my Twitter account this morning and saw that two people had linked to news articles about Guillermo Del Toro departing ‘The Hobbit’. These things almost never happen. The alleged reason was that he had committed to a movie project that was supposed to last for three years – and now we’re looking at six years in total (considering the fact that he’s been living in NZ for two years or so already, working on the script and doing pre-production, and the movies haven’t even been given the green light yet). He missed his family and needed to get on with other projects, so he packed his suitcase and was out of here.

I think I might have some lobbying to do at Weta these next few months…

Mad World

”I was so free. The world was my playground, the soil my arena.”

- Cameron Duncan, ‘DFK 6498’

Tonight, Wellington will be my playground. You’ve got to make the most of the time you’ve got when you’re young. Sooner or later it’ll be over.

”If there is one thing that I’ve learned from all I’ve been through, it’s that you only regret the things you didn’t do. No regrets, guys. Not tonight.”

- Cameron Duncan, ‘Strike Zone’