A picnic, a knitted bed bug, and more movies

Picnicking on democracy

The weather has been pretty lovely in Wellington for the past week or so. Every fortnight Ed, Adrianne, and I have our payday lunch (aka Government Workers Who Lunch) and last week the weather was so nice we had a picnic on the grass outside parliament.

Bed bug (photo courtesy of Katherine)

My knitting protege seems to be well on the way to surpassing my rudimentary knitting skills. A week after learning to knit she made this little bed bug, from the book Knitting Mochimochi. In other knitting news, I have started the toe of my sock!


After a short classic movie Sunday hiatus due to busy lives, Alex, Ed, and I watched To Kill A Mockingbird last night. I read the book about nine years ago so I vaguely remembered the story and that there were some scary bits. There were definitely some scary bits in the movie. I really enjoyed it, it's definitely not fast paced - it has to have the longest court room scene in the history of film (okay that's an exaggeration, I'm sure there are longer) - but Gregory Peck who plays the Dad, Atticus Finch, has an amazing voice so I could happily have listened to him all night. And the girl who plays Scout is very grounded and believable. Apparently in real life she is now an art restorer and 'college testing coordinator'.

I have seen too many movies lately to report on them all (Made in Dagenham - a very cliched and stereotyped portrayal of an underdog triumphing story but great 1960s hair and costumes, and Jules et Jim - very strange French movie from 1962) but I highly recommend Animal Kingdom. I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea because it's an Australian movie about a Melbourne crime family, but it was so well done. There is nothing gratuitous about the murders or violence, in fact you actually see relatively little of that. It is more about the relationships in the family and the characters - who are all very complex and well-drawn/realised. I loved how some parts were handled in unexpected ways - when the armed police burst into the house and arrest everyone it's not the usual high-energy, loud, face-paced scene, it's in slow motion with a love ballad playing. See it!