Can't believe we have been successful at getting an episode out every Sunday for 10 weeks... Go us!!!
In this episode BJ and I celebrate 6 years of our lives together with an adventure of sorts and we took the camera along to get some footage for you all.
Check it out:
Fork This - 010 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.
xx
Smorgy
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Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
The Gold Class Experience
Yesterday was BJ and my anniversary... 6 years... Wow!
I won't go into detail about that in this blog though as it's going to be about Village Gold Class.
I recently was given two gold class tickets and food vouchers and decided to use them on our anniversary to see Captain America.
I have never been to Gold Class before. I don't see the point of spending soo much money to go to the movies. Normal cinemas are expensive enough. But hey, I'm not going to say no to a freebie.
We rocked up to Village Knox and got in the 'Gold Class' tickets line... Didn't make any difference as the staff still served 6 other people before we got served. It was early afternoon so they only had the grandma's working the counter and boy are they sloooooooooooooooow.
We finally got our tickets and went to kill some time.
Once it was closer to our movie session we headed up to Gold Class and was greeted by an overly happy gentleman. He gave us menus to look over.
We decided to spend all of our food vouchers and this was probably the only time I would ever got to Gold Class so we went a little crazy. Popcorn, drinks, Malteesers, mm's, snakes PLUS Wedges mid-movie and a sticky date pudding to share towards the end of the film.
They opened the doors and invited us into the cinema.
We sat down and naturally adjusted the seat so we were reclined and comfortable. Then just before the previews started our popcorn and drink were served... Followed up our confectionary... Elegantly displayed in martini glasses.
The looked fancy but all i could think was 'Im not planning to eat ALL of this... How the hell do i take it home?!'
This is my 'Look excited to be in Gold Class' face.
We got ourselves comfy, the lights dimmed and the trailers began.
Unfornately one of those trailers was for Green Lantern - Man that does NOT look good.
BUT fortunately one was for The Dark Knight Rises which were are very excited about.
Captain Amercia was very enjoyable. The affects were great. I loved how they made him bigger.
Stan Lee's cameo was funny as. We weren't expecting it to be such a long film and it certainly didn't feel like it was that long.
At the half way mark in came our wedges... They were extremely salty, to the point that after 4 they just tasted terrible and i couldn't eat any more. They came with some kind of relish which wasn't nice at all.
I went back to munching on my candy and popcorn but had to slow down on my drink as i was desperate for the bathroom and couldn't bring myself to run out during the movie because i didn't want to miss anything.
Then out came the sticky date pudding... The sauce was tasty but the pudding itself... Well, i've had better.
The base of the pudding was very chewy and the middle was like it wasn't entirely cooked through.
You'd think a $15 bowl of wedges which be the BEST wedges in the world and a $15 sticky date pudding would be orgazmic.... Food Fail by Village.
But the food wasn't going to ruin my experience because Captain A was going great.
The two things that i didn't like in the movie were
1/ Before Hugo Weaving took off his face, all i could picture was him saying 'Mr Anderson'
2/ When he did take off his face... I didn't know Voldermort was in Captain America!!
The movie finished up and i ran to the toilet, know i'd have time to get there any back before the credits ended.
There were maybe 10 of us in the cinema for the movie but when i came back it was just BJ and one guy cleaning.. They all LEFT!!
Don't these idiots know what comes after a Marvel film... WHY would you pay to go to Gold Class and see this movie if you weren't going to wait till the end of the credits for The Avengers teaser?!!?!
A teaser which was AWESOME!!!!
Sooo excited for that movie.
Once we finished viewing that we gathered our stuff and i headed out with my glasses of candy. 'Could i please have a small popcorn box to take my leftovers home?' I asked the guy behind the counter. 'Oh no... I can't give you a popcorn box' - WHAT THE FUCK!??!?!! Why Not????
Instead i was handed some freezer bags to put my candy in... Outraged I was!
We would have done our lazy man exit down the escalator but it was out of order... So we had to tackle the stairs.
So my Gold Class experience was complete. The seats were great, the food, not so much.
The movie was awesome but still would have been in a normal cinema or VMax so Gold Class doesn't get points for that.
One other thing i would like to mention is that the toilets in Gold Class suck... The door to the cubicle opens and literally scraps along the toilet seat is sooo small. You have to walk in and squeeze yourself down the side of the toilet next to the toilet roll holder to get the door closed... Would hate to be a large person trying to go pee that's for sure.
Captain America 3.5/5
Gold Class - 2/5 (hahahaha)
xx
Smorgy Pin It
I won't go into detail about that in this blog though as it's going to be about Village Gold Class.
I recently was given two gold class tickets and food vouchers and decided to use them on our anniversary to see Captain America.
(How awesome is that poster!!)
I have never been to Gold Class before. I don't see the point of spending soo much money to go to the movies. Normal cinemas are expensive enough. But hey, I'm not going to say no to a freebie.
We rocked up to Village Knox and got in the 'Gold Class' tickets line... Didn't make any difference as the staff still served 6 other people before we got served. It was early afternoon so they only had the grandma's working the counter and boy are they sloooooooooooooooow.
We finally got our tickets and went to kill some time.
Once it was closer to our movie session we headed up to Gold Class and was greeted by an overly happy gentleman. He gave us menus to look over.
We decided to spend all of our food vouchers and this was probably the only time I would ever got to Gold Class so we went a little crazy. Popcorn, drinks, Malteesers, mm's, snakes PLUS Wedges mid-movie and a sticky date pudding to share towards the end of the film.
They opened the doors and invited us into the cinema.
We sat down and naturally adjusted the seat so we were reclined and comfortable. Then just before the previews started our popcorn and drink were served... Followed up our confectionary... Elegantly displayed in martini glasses.
The looked fancy but all i could think was 'Im not planning to eat ALL of this... How the hell do i take it home?!'
This is my 'Look excited to be in Gold Class' face.We got ourselves comfy, the lights dimmed and the trailers began.
Unfornately one of those trailers was for Green Lantern - Man that does NOT look good.
BUT fortunately one was for The Dark Knight Rises which were are very excited about.
Captain Amercia was very enjoyable. The affects were great. I loved how they made him bigger.
Stan Lee's cameo was funny as. We weren't expecting it to be such a long film and it certainly didn't feel like it was that long.
At the half way mark in came our wedges... They were extremely salty, to the point that after 4 they just tasted terrible and i couldn't eat any more. They came with some kind of relish which wasn't nice at all.
I went back to munching on my candy and popcorn but had to slow down on my drink as i was desperate for the bathroom and couldn't bring myself to run out during the movie because i didn't want to miss anything.
Then out came the sticky date pudding... The sauce was tasty but the pudding itself... Well, i've had better.
The base of the pudding was very chewy and the middle was like it wasn't entirely cooked through.
You'd think a $15 bowl of wedges which be the BEST wedges in the world and a $15 sticky date pudding would be orgazmic.... Food Fail by Village.
But the food wasn't going to ruin my experience because Captain A was going great.
The two things that i didn't like in the movie were
1/ Before Hugo Weaving took off his face, all i could picture was him saying 'Mr Anderson'
2/ When he did take off his face... I didn't know Voldermort was in Captain America!!
The movie finished up and i ran to the toilet, know i'd have time to get there any back before the credits ended.
There were maybe 10 of us in the cinema for the movie but when i came back it was just BJ and one guy cleaning.. They all LEFT!!
Don't these idiots know what comes after a Marvel film... WHY would you pay to go to Gold Class and see this movie if you weren't going to wait till the end of the credits for The Avengers teaser?!!?!
A teaser which was AWESOME!!!!
Sooo excited for that movie.
Once we finished viewing that we gathered our stuff and i headed out with my glasses of candy. 'Could i please have a small popcorn box to take my leftovers home?' I asked the guy behind the counter. 'Oh no... I can't give you a popcorn box' - WHAT THE FUCK!??!?!! Why Not????
Instead i was handed some freezer bags to put my candy in... Outraged I was!
We would have done our lazy man exit down the escalator but it was out of order... So we had to tackle the stairs.
So my Gold Class experience was complete. The seats were great, the food, not so much.
The movie was awesome but still would have been in a normal cinema or VMax so Gold Class doesn't get points for that.
One other thing i would like to mention is that the toilets in Gold Class suck... The door to the cubicle opens and literally scraps along the toilet seat is sooo small. You have to walk in and squeeze yourself down the side of the toilet next to the toilet roll holder to get the door closed... Would hate to be a large person trying to go pee that's for sure.
Captain America 3.5/5
Gold Class - 2/5 (hahahaha)
xx
Smorgy Pin It
Monday, August 1, 2011
Fork This - Episode 9
NEW Fork This... BJ and I make Chicken and Almonds and Sweet potato fries for the family.
FTI TV - 009 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.
The fries didn't turn out the best... Trial and error. We will try them again soon though.
Chicken and Almonds was as delicious as always. I'm excited to get to eat the leftovers for lunch today at work.
xx
Smorgy Pin It
FTI TV - 009 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.
The fries didn't turn out the best... Trial and error. We will try them again soon though.
Chicken and Almonds was as delicious as always. I'm excited to get to eat the leftovers for lunch today at work.
xx
Smorgy Pin It
Sunday, July 31, 2011
When 10 years still only feels like a day
I've tried to make my blogging, tweeting and facebooking more positive lately. And I will try to make this blog as positive as i can.
For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.
10 years ago my 18 month old niece Beanca was murdered by her mother. Beanca and her brother Chris were taken by there mother one day while my brother was at work and 6 months went without us know where they were until we recieved a call with terrible news.
My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.
Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.
Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.
This women got to leave prison, then straight away, got pregnant and god only knows what's happening to that poor child.
Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.
And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.
At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.
Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.
Yesterday my family had to stay strong and get through the hardest day we've ever had to live, and continue to be reminded about on the 30th of July every year.
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.
The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.
We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.
I don't know why but I felt I needed to go back that and it's a place I wanted to share with BJ. He's been there for me the past 7 years. Holding my hand and supporting me through it all.
I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.
I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.
The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.
I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.
I'm happy to talk about it with anyone who wants to, or answer questions if you have them.
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.
So there is an insight to my world.
xx
Smorgy
For a lot of people who know me, many of you don't know what I've been though and had to live with. Even though it was in the papers, on the news etc there are still people out there who aren't aware of my story.
Today i'm going to share it with you all as I feel it's the right thing to do.
 |
| Beanca's 1st Birthday |
My mum and brother flew up to Queensland which is where she'd taken the kids and brought Chris back home with them.
Their mother was hog tying them at night so they wouldn't get up and bother her. The night that Beanca died, she had been tied up for 16 hours and during this time she'd rolled over and suffocated in her bed.
Mother and boyfriend were sentenced to 6 years for manslaughter and she was out in 3. Free to live her life as if nothing had happened.
I don't believe 6 years was a fair sentence at all. 10 years have passed and my family are still trying to put our lives back together.
 |
| Chris - Back in Melbourne with us |
Since that day my mum has been full time guardian to my nephew Chris who is severely autistic and due to the trauma he suffered he does not speak. Not only does she care for him but she's put everything she's got into protecting him and making sure he is surrounded by love and support.
And she has achieved that 10 fold. I hate to think what Chris' life would be like had she not saved him for the hell he was in.
At 15 my world was turned up side down. I can't begin to explain what it was like to live with something like this. I didn't have a childhood like the other kids my age did. I was a full time Aunty and my nights and weekends were spent looking after Chris.
Now, I'm nearly 25. I still live with and look after Chris daily and enjoy every second of it. He is the most amazing boy and I love to watch him achieve the things he has. He is living his life for two and making the most of every second of every day.
 |
| Warrandyte Cemetery |
We all had our own little way of remembering her, did our own special little thing.
The weather was nice in Warrandyte this Saturday. It always seems to be a nice day when I go to visit her. BJ and I planned to spend the day out together in Warrandyte and do whatever we wanted.
We went to visit Beanca's grave with some trinkets and flowers and then went and wondered the shops and had a nice quiet lunch together. After that I took BJ somewhere special.. Somewhere that i haven't been for 10 and 1/2 years. The place we took Beanca the last time we saw her. Pound Bend.
 |
| My rock - BJ |
I would never wish a tragedy like this on anyone ever.
I will never be able to move past this as it's changed my life in so many ways.
I'm thankful for all our family and friends who have stuck by us and supported us through days like this. It means so much to us to have so many who care about Chris and are looking out for his future.
The things I've remembered coming up to the 10th anniversary of Beanca's death amaze me. I can remember every little thing about her funeral, What i was planning to wear and what i ended up wearing. I remember who was there. I remember the tv show i was watching that night before mum sat us down to tell us what had happened. It's all soo clear like it was only yesterday.
I could go on for hours going into detail about the trails, hearings, appeals, newspaper articles, news reports, our experience with The Australian Story, and a million other things that came from this but I don't want to overload you all. I'm sure in the future i will probably do some others on this but for now... This is enough.
 | |
| Chris and I - 2011 |
I learnt very young that I needed to just be open about it all. If people couldn't handle it, that was there problem. But if we didn't speak out about it, we would never have gotten sooo much support from people.
So there is an insight to my world.
xx
Smorgy
Pin It
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Fork This - Episode 8
In this episode of Fork This, BJ and I show you a strange and amazing places we visited in Madison, Wisconsin last year.
Fork This - 008 from BJ Carter on Vimeo.
It was called Dead Pals of Sam Sanfillippo (We have a little bit of trouble remembering the correct name on the video.)
You can read a bit about this interesting place here.
It didn't have any set open hours. You would have to call each day to find out if there were any 'surprise' funeral's and if they had nothing booked you could just show up and a weird guy will direct you to the basement.
It was a strange place. Having these rooms downstairs filled with dead, taxidermy animals propped and posed all over the place. But it was amazing.
The best part about this place was that most of it was out in the open, Not behind glass... So you could really get up close and see the detail.
xx
Smorgy Pin It
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Fork This - Episode 7
In this episode BJ and I get matching tattoos on our fingers.
Fork This - 007 from BJ Carter on Vimeo. Pin It
Fork This - 007 from BJ Carter on Vimeo. Pin It
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