Trying New Things: January

Trying new things is truly the spice of life, so this year I set some goals with this in mind.  These are the things I will endeavor to do each month:

• Watch one new movie at the cinema
  
• Read one new book
  
• Try one new recipe
• Write one poem
  
• Make one painting
  
• Plant something
  
  

This list looks simple.  I know prolific artists and writers who create something most days - bookworms who read an entire book in one day.  I know film fanatics who binge multiple movies every week.  And while I aspire to be more like these people, this is just not feasible for me right now.  It's been a crazy few years and I'm worn out.  I know it's not just me - there's a real sense of collective tiredness in the world right now.  We're exhausted from simply co-existing with a pandemic during an environmental crisis.  Setting small, achievable goals is good.

I'm the kind of person who needs some form of external motivation.  Putting this out there, and documenting these goals helps me feel a need to continue doing and documenting.  So as a start, here are some new things I did in January*.

I watched Babylon

I mostly decided to watch this after discovering it homed a beautiful queer character based on Anna May Wong.  As someone who has read a lot about 'Old Hollywood' I was excited about the aesthetic, but also a little excited to see how they would capture this turning point in film history.

It did ok.  But it was long.  Far longer than necessary.  And I'm not just saying that because I find it hard to sit through most movies longer than three hours, but because in this case it was gratuitous.  The entire last ten minutes of the film were completely unnecessary.  I had to go to the bathroom at the halfway point, and when I came back, the same scene (about them trying to shoot a scene on a new soundstage) was still playing.  They showed all seven takes.  They could have saved that money - and everyone's time - and just not done that. And if they didn't - someone should have left it on the cutting room floor.

It wasn't just me.  People walked out of the cinema and did not return.  Young people.  And this was a very sexy movie.  Young people avoided potentially seeing very sexy sex.  That's how bad it was.

I however, stayed.  I wish I'd left before those last ten minutes, but the rest was pretty enough to hold my attention.  Li Jun Li was amazing.  Brad Pitt's acting was believable.  Margot Robbie was Margot Robbie and the sets and costumes were perfection.  It captured the excess of 'Old Hollywood' and the hubris.  Had the production team managed their own hubris it could potentially have been a great film.

Li Jun Li as Lady Fay Zhu was absolutely brilliant

I also watched M3GAN

M3GAN was a better film than Babylon.  It was a much more palatable length, and I loved spotting the Kiwis among the cast.  These factors may lead you to think me slightly biased.  But Rotten Tomatoes agrees.  With a 94% critic score it in considered much more highly than Babylon which registered a mere 56% on the Tomatometer.

It's hard to explain why it was so good.  The acting was average.  The script was average.  The Kiwi actors American accents were only vaguely believable.  The CGI was good, but nothing to write home about.  But it was one of the best modern sci-fi horror films I've seen recently.  The storyline was believable.  The tech and its failings - very believable.  It was very well paced, did not overinvest in jump scares, and unlike Babylon, every second on screen counted.  Every line was considered.  Whoever edited this needs to school Babylon's editors.  They had 15% of Babylon's budget, but they made every cent count.

Yus queen!  Walk that runway.  You left Babylon in your DUST!

I read The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

I don't read a lot of fiction.  It's not because I don't love fiction - it's because I hate bad fiction - and there's a lot of bad fiction out there.  And sometimes I don't even like the 'good' fiction - I'm extremely fussy with my fiction.  I need it to read like eloquently written poetry.  Or straight to the point death metal.  Basically, it needs good flow.

And The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida has all the flow.  Not only is it beautifully written but it is extremely dark.  That works for me.  I like dark.  At the same time, it's very, very funny.  It's socially heavy, dark and funny which is totally my jam.  The characters are believable.  I can hear the dialogue in my head even though I don't speak Sinhala nor Tamil which feature frequently.

I hadn't read anything by or about Shehan Karunatilaka until I read this book.  I bought it because I had a book voucher, I liked the cover and figured if it won a recent Booker Prize it was probably not awful.  A chapter in I had to find out more about the author and on learning he had done his tertiary study here in NZ a few things twigged. Even though this book is set on the backdrop of the Sri Lankan civil war, it has a Kiwi tang.  It's like seeing films directed or written by Taika Waititi - there's a particular sense of humour and cadence of conversation.  Reading it feels like being home.

I am so grateful I chose this book based on its cover.  I now have a new favorite author.

I Created A Recipe

I actually created this in December but I love it so much I want to share it anyway.  And I did make it again in January.  As I will this month.  It's delicious.

Like your Grandma, Nona, Nai Nai or Dadi I don't have a specific recipe - it's more of a food idea.  There are no measurements - make as much as you want to eat.  Unlike some recipes, this one is not fussy - there's no special spice blend - it is a very flexible dish.  I call it:

Hannah's Medi Vege Pockets.

First you choose some good, Mediterranean style veges to grill.  I use courgette, eggplant, capsicum and red onion and sometimes mushrooms.  The one vege I think is integral to the texture/flavour is the eggplant** - but if you don't like it - don't use it.  Grill these veges.  Peel the capsicum skin.  Rough chop the veges and set aside.

Make a basic tomato sauce.  I use garlic, some fresh (or tinned) tomatoes, a little finely chopped white onion or shallots, fresh basil, pepper and use salt and brown sugar to balance the sauce.  Cook until good and saucy.

Mix your grilled veges through your tomato sauce.  Then get some taco pockets***.  Heat slightly so they are more malleable (I just use the microwave for about 10 seconds so they don't crack when you open them).  You need these three cheeses - mozzarella, feta and parmesan.  Change it if you want, but these are best.  Put the tomato sauce/vege mix in the pockets along with however much of the cheese you like (I think it's good to put some cheese in right down the bottom before you add the veg so it's like a happy surprise at the end).  When full, add a little mozarella to the top then pop under the grill until the cheese melts.

There you go!  Delicious pocket of bliss for you and your whanau to eat.  No cutlery necessary.  If you have made more sauce/veg than you can eat/fit in pockets, save it for later and toss some pasta through it.  Also delicious!

I sprouted something magical

I take a weird sense of pride in picking up random plant life wherever I go.  I never know what will come of it. 

I visited Scandrett Regional Park on one of my alone time holidays and was beyond surprised to find a cherimoya tree in an historic garden over 100 years old - let alone an actual cherimoya!  An orchard where I grew up had one and I have fond memories of eating this unusual, South American fruit.  The fruit I found on the ground was small and likely too old to be good to eat, but me being me I popped it in my pocket nonetheless.

Once home, I extracted the seeds and left them to dry on the kitchen windowsill.  Many, many months later I found them when cleaning up for Christmas and decided to plant them.  I did not look up how to germinate the seed - I just put them in some dirt and hoped for the best.

And low and beyond that ancient cherimoya tree is still procreating!  After a month(ish) of watering this pot of dirt and hoping something would come of it, something did.  Three baby cherimoya trees have sprouted!  I have no idea where I will put them when they are big enough to leave the pot - I certainly don't have room for them.  Right now I'm just excited about the idea that there will be more of these delicious fruit trees in this world.

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I'm super excited to see what new things February will bring!

* Not the whole list obviously - I just set the list now and it's February.

** I do salt, leave then drain mine to remove bitterness before grilling with the other veges.

*** If you don't already know, taco pockets are freaking amazing.  Put whatever you like in them.  It'll taste good.