Kiddy Movies to Watch on a Rainy Day

I am a big lover of kids movies.

Having children was brilliant because it meant I could buy the movies under the guise that they were for my kids, when in actual fact...

It's a rain, gloomy sort of day here in Pucka, so I decided the girls and I should have a movie day. Pull out the blankets and snuggle up for some quality viewing.

While we only managed to get through one movie before ABC Kids got switched on (a channel that saves my life some moments but that I really despise for some of it's absurdly uneducational and nonsensical shows) I thought I would put my list of kids movies that I would

have LIKED to have watched on this rainy day.

Finding Nemo (2003)

One of my favourite movies (kiddy or no) of all time.

The breathtaking animation of the coral reefs, the storyline that just warms your heart and makes you laugh, and the characters! Wow, did they get some names

in on this one. My favourite is Barry Humphries as Bruce the shark. Brilliant.

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

This movie is just fun to watch. The humour is great - I always appreciate a movie that appeals to kids and adults - and David Spade as Emperor Kuzco... well I don't think they could have picked a better guy to do the voice.

Up (2009)

I did not expect to like this movie, as I don't think the preview

really did it justice. However, I took my daughter to see it for lack of any other options, and I think I was the one laughing loudest in the cinema. And probably crying loudest too. It is such a heartwarming and heartBREAKING story.

The Little Mermaid (1989)

This movie came out the year I started school and my mother tells me that I watched it almost every day until she snapped and had to hide it. Now as an adult I have it on DVD and thankfully my eldest daughter loves it almost as much as I do.

There are more (many more) than I could add to this small list, but the 'owners' of these movies are trying to climb into my lap, so I will leave it here. Until another time...

Songs for my Dance Class

In two weeks time I will begin teaching an adult jazz/funk/hip-hop dance class once a week. I did this back in Darwin and thankfully the interest was high here in my new town. Much looking forward to starting up again. I NEED the movement!

Anyway, the way I run it for the first few weeks (or the first term, depending on the ability/interest of my dancers) is in the style of a 'dance aerobics' class. We do seven routines for the hour, work up a hell of a sweat, and the ladies get a feel for the movement and an idea of what they like.

A few simple counts of eight for each song is all I teach them and they repeat those steps throughout the song. Feel the rhythm. Hopefully have some fun.

Songs for weeks 1 - 3 are:

1. Telephone: Lady Gaga

2. Out of My Head: Blackeyed Peas

3. Starstrukk: 3OH!3 (ft Katy Perry)

4. Work: Ciara (ft Missy Elliot)

5. Can't Shake It: Kate Miller-Heidke

6. Do Your Thing: Basement Jaxx

7. Rock Star: N.E.R.D

Warm up is to Supermassive Black Hole: Muse

Cool down is to Hey, Soul Sister: Train.

Bring it on!

2012: End of the world? No, just the end of good movies.

Firstly, I did not have extremely high hopes for this movie as it is not really my style to begin with. BUT, having heard so many good things (and my mother's claim that it was 'the best movie she has ever seen' - something she says about approximately every second movie she sees), I figured 'what the hey', it can't be THAT bad. I was WRONG. So wrong.

I think it is the responsibility of film makers to do some research before making a movie, but it seemed quite clear to me that little to none was done for this film. Or maybe they just did some 'Wiki' research.

From the very beginning it showed it's complete lack of research and a pathetic plot, not so cleverly disguising both with 'whiz bang' special effects. And speaking of the special effects - for the MOST part they were pretty cool! But, in some scenes I could almost see the green screen, the characters looked so out of place. Just way too overdone.

I love John Cusack. In fact, he was the only reason I kept watching. But even John could not save 2012 for me.

Fail. 1/5.

Oh, sidenote: anyone who actually thinks the world is going to end in 2012? Please stop telling people: you sound like a nutcase.

Let's Give This A Go

There is always so much running through my mind that

I thought it might be time to get it all out of my head and... out 'there'. Where ever 'there' may be.

So what does a girl do to get her (potentially dull) thoughts out into the cosmos?

She starts a blog, of course!

I can't promise that I will always be interesting. I can't promise that I will be regular with updates (though if my addictive personality kicks in you may hear TOO much of me) and I can't even guarantee that anyone will want to read this at all.

But here I am. Me. Krystle.

Mum of two, wife of one, teacher, dancer, student. Me.