Review: The Adjustment Bureau

From the film's official website:

Do we control our destiny, or do unseen forces manipulate us? Matt Damon stars in the thriller The Adjustment Bureau as a man who glimpses the future Fate has planned for him and realizes he wants something else. To get it, he must pursue the only woman he's ever loved across, under and through the streets of modern-day New York.

David (Matt Damon) and Elise (Emily Blunt) look at the notebook that chronicles their fate.

WARNING: Possible spoilers...

YoYos review

Did this review for my online project and was rather proud of it. Here you go! A review.

One Chinese buffet is much like the rest, don’t you think? You go in, you eat too much and then you feel a little sick when you collect your second helping from the chocolate fountain. Then after all that you can’t move and you feel like that third plateful took with it your soul. (Though you do smile with pride because you know how to use chopsticks)

But no. Yoyos isn’t like this. With the cheap price of £5.95 for lunch you don’t feel the need to “get your money’s worth”. You can even turn the Chinese buffet event into a quick lunch or a birthday celebration with Yoyos’ smorgasbord of cocktails.

In my opinion (Chinese food being my favourite food) the Yoyos buffet is one of the best I’ve been to. There is a wide selection on the buffet and in the evening you can request different varieties of noodles from the Noodle Bar. Unlike a few buffets I’ve been to the food is always hot and is frequently replenished by one of Yoyo’s army of waiters. And the food itself is delicious, miles above your standard takeaway. There is a strange and delicious beef rice which I’ve never seen anywhere else and is frankly fantastic. It has a rich flavour, nice chunks of beef and the rice is cooked to perfection. I also recommend the dumplings, though if you eat more than about three, you may not be able to move for the rest of the day. Tiny bundles of ridiculously filling yumminess.

One issue I have is when ordering drinks. Ignoring the rather pricey drinks menu the waiters seem to take forever to finally bring your (rather small) drink to the table. And of course it takes a good while longer if you order the free tap water. Not that I’m saying the staff are rude. The staff are all very friendly and willing to help, just not the quickest at bringing you refreshments.

Another uniqueness that Yoyos has is the takeaway option. If you feel like Chinese food but you can’t afford to buy a good range of dishes from a takeaway and sitting on your own amidst families and groups of friends doesn’t appeal to you then you can just get a takeaway box. At £3.80 in the day and just a pound more in the evening the takeaway box is the cheapest way to get a such a tasty range of Chinese food.

All in all I think Yoyos is great. An all-you-can-eat buffet will never be a classy affair, and most of the time you’ll find that you’ve eaten far too much. However Yoyos is a cheap, easy and thoroughly enjoyable place to eat.

The Octonauts: Explore, Rescue, Protect.

I'm sleepy, in need of a nap, but my body disagrees. In this state of mind there's only one thing to do... watch children's television. TV shows bore me, I don't care about the news and finding something to listen to involves far to much effort.

And so I found myself watching a delightful show called The Octonauts.



The show follows Captain Barnacles (according to the website, a "polarbear extrordinaire"), Lieutenant Kwazii (a kitten with an inexplicable eyepatch... he still has both eyes!) and Peso the penguin (who's apparently a nurse) along with the rest of the crew of the Octopod.

To be quite honest I was genuinely surprised about how much the pretty colours, and cute animation pleased me. I genuinely laughed out loud when Dr Shelllington (a seaotter) had his foot trodden on by Peso. Though that may have been out of fatigue because the adult inside of me was well and truly awake enough to be concerned by why an Octopus had ears.

My sleepiness had subsided by the time a narwhal appeared (Russian, of course) and I was suddenly bombarded with facts about narwhals. Damn children's television; I was enjoying the story about the Octopod freezing in the Arctic waters when it wasn't moving quickly enough and having to be saved like a passing narwhal. Why did it have to ruin itself by teaching me about narwhals?!

I know all I need to know about narwhals from this song, thank you very much, Aunty Beeb!

What’s it called? That thingy. The one they’ve all been talking about. Thingymagigle.

After visiting the Apple Store in Leicester there is now no longer a hole in my beloved Macbook. And finally finally I got my hands on an iPad.




Now, I knew from the start that the iPad is no real revolution, it's not a must have for everyone and it (like all Apple products) is utterly overpriced. But that didn't stop me from pawing over the damn thing, giggling and doing a little dance when I first picked it up. Then the Apple mist cleared.
Oh. "It's a bit heavier than I expected."

Anthony Horowitz, my hero.

“A commercial break! Quick! Kill someone!”

Anthony Horowitz, the creator of Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, Alex Rider and most importantly a scene in which two people have sex in a ball pit in (my personal favourite of his books) The Killing Joke. This evening I attended a talk by him (about his work and general awesomeness) at the Lincoln Drill Hall and somewhat drove my friends mad with my fangirlish nonsense. (Though all “nonsense” aside I would happy marry that handsome devil and his smooth tones and wonderful authorish skills.)

He started out talking about good old Alex Rider, the 14 year old spy who got him where he is now. Horowitz told us how he partially owes the success of the children’s series to J K Rowling. Without the Harry Potter franchise publishers would have never realised how popular children’s books could be.

In a Lincoln exclusive (that somewhat made my belly fizz) Horowitz read out the first page of the next and final book in the Alex Rider series. We follow the head of criminal organisation SCORPIA through the British Museum on his way to meet “the third richest man in the world”. Horowitz also told us how an old enemy was set to return. Now personally I was hoping that my darling wonderful (fictional) Russian assassin Yassen Gregorovich would miraculously return from the dead after being shot at the end of the fourth book. But a) Horowitz has now promised a sort of prequel in which we see Yassen at Alex’s age and b) the series isn’t suited to random resurrecting a beloved character. I intend to re-read the entire series over the summer in order to dejuce the mysterious returning foe. Because I’m just that much of a dork. smiles proudly

Good old (yet still remarkably dashing) Anthony went on to talk about his work in television, notably Foyle’s War and Collision. Now I’ve never seen either of these as I’m cough cough allergic to ITV though I may contemplate purchasing the DVDs. Horowitz’s take on the murder mystery genre and the curse of commercial breaks was somewhat amusing (if it wasn’t obvious please see the title of this post).

In the end this talk filled me not only with fangirlish glee but also with a few nifty facts about my favourte author. But mainly fangirlish glee… and a signed copy of my favourite Horowitz which is now my most prized possession.

Thank you Mr Horowitz, for such a delightful evening.

WOO HOO NEW WHO!!

I'd hate to say "I told you so" but...

I told ya so! I told ya so! I told ya so!






*ahem*

It's been some time since that long long night months ago that I spent waiting, not on the edge of my seat, staring at my tv, laptop balanced keenly at my side, but waiting tables at the pub where I worked on a busy Saturday night hoping that someone anyone would text me and let me know just who the new Who was. When the Who!nerd inside me just wanted to watch the announcement show, the waitress I was paid to be was rushed and checking her phone constantly.