| by Lou | 3.25pm UK time |

cunt

serendipity

onesie

literally

superfluous

| by Bel | 9.19am NZ time |

You guys, how gross are food courts? Ugggh! So gross!

The main thing that gives me the heebiejeebies about food courts is that there is never any natural light.

It is always super harsh overhead fluro and you get the feeling that quite possibly it never changes, like those casinos where they want to deceive you against the passing of time.

I did a Google Image search for "food court" and look at the horror that hit mine eyes:

Ugggggh!

There is a generic aesthetic to food courts which makes them both abhorrent and comforting. You can rest assured that the formica table will be a little sticky, that the spindly aluminum legs of the chairs will scrape ear-piercingly across the tiled floor, that there will be confusion over where you should stack your tray and dump cutlery.

There used to be one great food court in Wellington. (Sorry, BNZ Food Court, your weird combination of cavernous and rabbit warreny, and the fact that you are underground and therefore INCAPABLE of natural light, means you will never be great at anything other than helping me get to Lambton Quay in the rain.)

It was next to the Rialto, when there was a Rialto cinema, down one street back from the waterfront. It had big double doors on either side which were always open and funny murals painted up high on the walls. There was very little use of neon signage. Of course it has now been lost to the perpetual reconstruction of our central city.

| by Bel | 3.30pm NZ time |

Have you seen The Killing (Forbrydelsen)? You need to. This blog is a spoiler-free taster to the mystery of who killed Nanna Birk Larsen...

1. Initial Bemusement
   Why is it always raining? Why is it always nighttime? Does Sarah Lund only own one sweater? How does she manage to chew her nicotine gum in such an angry way? Is everyone in Denmark really this moody? Why is it always so dim in their police station? How come no one ever tries to turn on an overhead light at a crime scene and just uses their torchlight in a spooky way instead? Why do they all say 'Nanna Birk Larsen' in full every time? Nanna Birk Larsen. Nanna Birk Larsen. Nanna ... Birk Larsen.
   
   
2. Captivation
   There are 20 episodes in this series, each an hour long. You'll have to at least take a toilet break at some stage. But you won't want to. You will be awash with disproportionate anger when someone asks to pause it so they can put the kettle on or answer the phone or staunch the bleeding from the gaping wound on their leg. You have no time for such petty distractions! Lund is silently gazing into mid-air, face expressionless and yet conveying the thousand thoughts rushing through her mind. What if she blinks and you miss it!!
   
3. Brain-melting plot-twisting over-thinking
   Although this whole show is about one case, it is far from a simple story. It twists and turns and just as things become clear... it gets murky again. It's testament to the strong writing and impeccable acting performances that this is only frustrating in the sense that you're deeply involved in the solving of this case yourself and want a resolution to your own ruminations and theories. We want peace for Nanna's family, resolution for Lund - and a rest for our own frazzled minds!
   
   
4. SHOUTING!!
   HE LOOKS SUSPICIOUS! SO SUSPICIOUS! OR POSSIBLY JUST GRIEFSTRICKEN
   IT'S HIM! NO NO IT'S NOT! YES IT IS HIM! WAIT!
   DON'T GO IN THERE IT'S DARK!
   TURN ON A OVERHEAD LIGHT FOR PETE'S SAKE!
   TROELS! GO GET YOUR BROTHER HE'LL SORT IT OUT!*
   
5. The moment you realise you are actually on the edge of your seat.
   Like, physically, literally, actually uncomfortably perched on the edge of the couch where previously you were comfortably ensconced with multiple couch cushions, lurching forwards towards the screen and possibly even holding your breath as the music builds to a cresendo and then suddenly the closing credits for the episode appear.
   

Lou, you will love this because I know what a nerd you are for crime thrillers. Sonal, you will love this because the character development and pacing will make you swoon. Lotte, you will love this for the reason explained below at the asterisk.

*The role of Troels is played by Lars Mikkelsen. I hadn't noticed his name in the credits but watching I was like "Holy crapballs that guy looks like Cheekbones!" AKA Mads Mikkelsen AKA pretty much my favourite actor. And guess what, you guys, guess what. It's his BROTHER. I know!!

| by Bel | 12.30pm NZ time |

Favourite film from your favourite director

Mainly because it is going to incur the wrath of Lou, I'm going to say Dazed and Confused by Richard Linklater.

I think we can all agree, if nothing else, that it is one of Ben Affleck's greatest roles?

| by Lou | 8.30pm UK time |

Favourite film from your favourite director


Pulp Fiction, all the way.


Three fun facts about Pulp Fiction related to my Invercargill teenagerhood:


1. A school friend was given a VHS copy for her 14th birthday by our school's priest*. We started to watch it, but one of the girls there was the principal's daughter and her parents had come along. They conferred with the birthday girl's more liberal-minded parents in the kitchen, and before we'd gotten more than 2 minutes in they turned it off and forbade us from watching it. This of course made us even more desparate to see it.




2. My 5th form economics teacher was fresh out of uni and would willingly engage in a bit of a 'youth' chat**. One day he came over to help me and my friend, and somehow ending up telling us about how Morgan Freeman's character asks the robber to get his wallet out of the bag and the guy says "which one is yours?" and he says "the one that says bad mother fucker" and the guy pulls out his wallet and sure enough it said bad mother fucker. He thought that was the best thing ever. It probably actually is.



3. My mother decided that she was going to watch Pulp Fiction when it premiered on television, because people from her work liked it. I told her she was going to hate it***. She insisted on watching it nonetheless, but within 5 minutes had turned it off. I was watching it in the other room and so when they got to the adrenalin countdown evilly shouted out for her to change the channel, leading to her flicking over at this exact moment and being utterly mortified:




*Yes, he was a young and kind of weird priest. Later on the same school friend's mother stalked him and it's actually a really tragic story of psychiatric illness.

**Yes, this did go badly. Several of the girls in my class were precocious enough to entirely put him on edge by bringing him close to the line of inappropriate behaviour. I felt quite sorry for him.

***My mother doesn't swear. I once heard her say shit and was absolutely shocked. Luckily my siblings and I inherited our vocab from dad.