May 11 - More Trekkie Time

  I awoke on Saturday morning, to the ramifications of a lack of planning the night before.  I still had my period but owing to a complete lack of luggage, I was unprepared for the realities of the new day.  Luckily, stepping into serious boyfriend territory was the ever supportive Mr Smart, who went down to the shops and bought a supply of the required items that I could keep at his place.  When he got back, he also suggested a few more items I might like to have there to save carting them back and forth since I'm staying there a bit more regularly these days.
  Mr Smart's plan for the day saw a lot of study getting done but when I indicated that I could just catch the train home again, he made a suggestion that I could work on my blogs on his laptop while he studied and then we'd be able to do something together in the evening.  I had nothing else on the agenda beyond boring old housework, but that can always wait.  So that was that.  Mr Smart flicked on the first of the Star Trek reboot movies, which I hadn't yet seen, and I pretended to blog while watching it intently.  It was a rather good story and I was impressed with the casting.
  We paused our various activities at lunch for a very yummy home cooked meal.  Mr Smart is a big fan of pork spare ribs, and armed with the knowledge that no matter what happens he is not capable of making the worst ribs in Australia, he has been experimenting with cooking them himself.  Today's experiment, I'm pleased to say, was really delicious.  He still wasn't completely happy though, he won't be until the meat is so tender it falls from the bone.  All I can do of course is be supportive and offer to taste every batch he makes to assist in the development process!
  After lunch we returned to blogging and study, Pizza Cat joining on and off in search of pats and scratches.  Mr Smart put on Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, one of the original movies that I also hadn't seen. As the day went on we wondered about what we might do in the evening, Mr Smart mooted the idea of going to see Star Trek: Into Darkness at the movies.  I can't help but think that perhaps that was his plan all along!  At any rate, it sounded like a fun idea to me and I started looking online for where and when.
  Coincidentally, I mentioned our plans to TwoWrongs while playing a game of Words With Friends and it turned out he was thinking of seeing it as well, so we invited him along to enjoy it with us.  We all agreed to meet at Victoria Gardens and I organised the tickets online so that we would be sure of getting the best possible seats (middle row of the back section of seating, middle of the aisle).

  We headed off at about 6pm to grab some dinner before the movie.  On the way down I saw a sight I'd not seen in years, the friendly neon of the Skipping Girl Vinegar sign.  Mr Smart told me that it used to be a very regular feature in his life when he had lived in the area.  Being from the other side of town, the regular neon icon in my life was the Nylex clock which seems to have been broken for an age now, or maybe I'm just never facing it at night.
  We got to Victoria Gardens in plenty of time and headed in to see what the dining options were.  What they were, was limited.  McDonalds and KFC - nope and nope, and the only other option was a place called Cafe Krifi and TwoWrongs was waiting out the front.
  I introduced the boys and we went inside and got seated at a nice comfy table under low fired heat lamps.  Sometimes you get stung by eateries that have a captive customer base, but this place was actually pretty nice.  A little on the pricier side maybe, but good food served pretty promptly.  I definitely enjoyed my burger and eggplant chips!  It normally comes with potato chips, but as I've said in the last few days, chips are just becoming a problem again, so I switched them out for the eggplant chips instead.  Yummy!
  There was good conversation and laughs throughout dinner, though I felt a bit out of it at times.  The trouble with putting two techies in a small space is that they have a tendency to speak an entirely different language at times.  It's the price I pay for free tech support I suppose (teeheehee, they will no doubt find ways of punishing me for that comment).
  After dinner we headed up to the cinema where a giant minion statue heralded the coming of Despicable Me 2 in July this year.  I'm really looking forward to that one!  Having just eaten Mr Smart and I didn't grab any snacks, but TwoWrongs had to go and grab a choc top.  Then we were in and seated and off the movie went!
  I don't want to give too much of a critique as it seems that Star Trek has become very popular this incarnation and I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but needless to say, people who've seen the original movies will experience the movie slightly differently from people who haven't.  I definitely enjoyed myself but I did like the first of the reboots better.  I'll leave it at that.
  After the movie Mr Smart left to head home, ready for more study and essay writing in the morning, and TwoWrongs drove me home and we decided to watch another movie from my list.  I have owned Withnail & I on DVD for about ten years, but had never watched it.  I love Richard E Grant, I think he's a brilliant actor, which is why I bought it originally, but it's definitely a film for a particular audience.  Luckily for me TwoWrongs was already a huge fan of the movie so we grabbed cups of tea and the remainder of a block of chocolate and enjoyed the film.

  Saturday's food was:

• Delicious home-made slow-cooked pork spare ribs with barbecue sauce and salad.
• The Cafe Krifi original deli burger: A prime meat pattie, tasty cheese, beetroot, tomato, lettuce, caramelised onions and tomato relish, served with eggplant chips and minted yoghurt.
• Dessert was a cup of black tea, Ceylon orange pekoe, with five squares of Haigh's dark chocolate with cardamom.

  It was a good day all up, relaxing and I crossed four new movies off my list!  That's definitely an achievement of some sort.
  Jess