Scrumping Saturday

Taph and I are continuing our scrumping expeditations.

We had heard of some top secret, unsprayed, blackberry bushes, so after a quick recce on Australia day we came up with a plan on how to get these blackberries and how to get them home.

You see the problem here is that they are on an island in the middle of the Murrumbidgee river.

We packed in a boggie board, a Tupperware cake dish, some ockie straps (to hold the tupperware dish in place on the boogie board), shoes we did not mind getting wet, and of course, some swimmers.

These were needed as we had to wade, swim and crocodile walk our way out to the island. We had to crocodile walk our way through the water as the water is too shallow, and the rocks t slimey to swim or walk.

It is early season so not many blackberries were ripe, but we were able to collect a enough to fill a litre container. We will be going back in a couple of weeks when hopefully more are ripe, and because of this, the location will remain Taph and my little secret.

But they were delicious on ice cream.

upcoming movies...

I was having a look the other day at the Movies coming out in 2010. There might be some good movies coming out, but there are some movies, that on paper, sound pretty average, or even worse, there are some absolutely terrible sounding movies coming out. Here are my top picks and terrible picks for 2010.

Firstly, We have run out of ideas, so lets do a remake a movie, modernise a classic or make a film of a classic TV show.

• A-Team A lot of people love the idea that they are making a film version of the classic TV show. I am not one of them. However as with all my terrible picks i am prepared to be surprised, if the studio can turn out a reasonable version.
• The Green Hornet This TV series made Bruce Lee famous playing Kato, and it may do the same for Jay Chou
• Karate Kid I am a big fan of Jackie Chan moviers, and this one i will go and see as it has him playing the Mr Miyagi role (but he is called Mr Han in this one).
• Edge of Darkness This movie is based on a 6 or 8 part British mini series made in the 80s. Stars and directed by Mel Gibson.
• Clash of the Titans
• Footloose "The updated story of a leper"
• The Wolfman
• Nightmare of Elm Street I have not seen this movie, and i will not be watching this remake.
• Gullivers Travels
• Alice in Wonderland This version is being made by Tim Burton who is promising a darker film, that is more akin to the book, rather then the sanitised "Disney" version that we have all grown up with. it may be an ok movie, or it may fizzle.

Lets make a Film version of a cartoon, Manga or video game: As a game or manga, these titles developed a fan base, now watch a movie studio ruin them by trying to compress a the plot into a 90 to 120 minute film, with a story line that has been dumbed down for a mass audience.

• The Last Airbender
• Marmaduke
• Prince Of Persia
• The Avengers This movie and the next two come from Marvel studios. They only do film versions of their graphic novels, (and in doing so keep the storyline and characters close to the story given in the novels.
• Thor
• Captain America

And finally when all else fails in showbiz, lets make a sequel. The films have already preformed, and made money for us. They have a fan base, so lets milk them for another movies.

• Transformers 3
• Kung Fu Panda
• Spider-man 4
• Cats and Dogs 2
• Little Fockers
• Preditors
• Toy Story 3
• Shrek Forever After
• Wall Street 2 After the Global Finical Crisis i fear this move may be a little preachy about how Greed is Bad.
• Nanny Mcphee and the Big Bang I am surprised this title is being released in the mainstream film. Usually a title like this is reserved for a DVD from Canberra.
• And of course, The last two Harry Pothead films.

I saw these in the list of upcoming films. They are also on my to see list as they have a great cast list.

• The Sorcerers Apprentice What can i say, i am a fan of Nick Cage. but will they be able to expand an animated, Mickey Mouse animated short at that, into a feature film? well we will have to go see it and find out.
• The Expendables Sly Stalone, Jet Li and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. TOGETHER. IN A FILM. I expect lots of action and explosions and not much dialogue. This is not Hamlet, this a couple hours of "put your brain in neutral and don't mention the gaps in the plot".
• The Fantastic Mr Fox An animated film with George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe and others.

And finally how many different Vampire / Zombie / End of the World movies can we take.

• 2 Twilght movies
• Daybreakers
• Book of Eli
• Cirque Du Freak:
• The Vampire's Assistant:
• Legion
• Priest

With all these quality movies coming out, i will definatly be avoiding most of these.

At the half-way mark

Six months into my free-range money challenge, and things are going well.

I have made over $100 from Free Range money.

And as a bonus, on the way home from a New Years Eve party, we found this by the side of the road, our first can of 2010.