I'm feeling hungry now.

I had a bacon sandwich this morning. Has to be done from time to time...

I would have one for brekkie tomorrow now that you have put the notion into my head but we have no bread and no bacon. Oh woe! Perhaps this will be my Saturday morning treat.

I'm going out to a cocktail evening at a colleagues house on saturday .... actually it's 2 colleagues as both mum and daughter work there. Bearing in mind that I'm a lightweight when it comes to drinking these days I expect things might get a bit messy. I'm going to leave a note not to post, not after my last effort a few months ago

Batty you're a bit of a film buff .... although anyone can help me if they want .... YoungPlum and I have taken to watching DVDs together outside with DP in the evening but need some suggestions for movies to watch. I want some that are not kids ones as such but would be suitable for an 11 year old to see. I don't mind her seeing "M" ones as long as they are just rated M because of slightly scary,or mild language. We've done all the Harry Potters, Transformers, Percy Jackson, Clash of the Titans, Men in Black series, Lord of the Rings ... They don't need to be particularlly recent as I haven't watched many movies since I've been in Australia.

Ooo, it's been a while since I've had to think about age appropriate stuff Plummy. Have you guys seen the Star Trek films, the ones before this new crop with the younger cast? They might be a bit dated now, but dated can be enjoyable, can't it.

Then there's all the Indiana Jones stuff, with the first one being by far the best. Oh, and have you seen The Mummy? There's Batman films too of course. Then there's Babe, but it's quite daft (I still quite liked it ). Clueless might be good girly watching... Aardman's stuff can be brilliant - The Wrong Trousers is a classic. Oh, back to Star Trek - have you seen Galaxy Quest? It's a pretty decent spoof.

You've got me going now!

Gregory's Girl - it's been a while since I've seen it and it definitely is dated but all the better for it, if that makes sense. I bet Young Plum would think it was ancient history. But the themes are pretty universal. Kes - as above. My boy watched it a few years ago and loved it.

13 Going on 30 is predictable but again quite girl and good fun.

Then there's Grease, if you guys like that kind of thing. It was on a while back and I found myself watching it.

I've no idea what the age certificates are for the above but you probably know most of them anyway.

It's all been mostly grown up viewing for me of late, given that my little one is 21 this year. But I'll let you know if I remember anything that might be worth exploring for you guys.

@Plum:

Despicable Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXZY_XRjABs

I've got the first 6 on two disk DVD sets namely, i.e. the versions with all the extras.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition [DVD]
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan - Directors Edition (Two Disc Set) [DVD]
Star Trek 3: Search For Spock [1984] [DVD]
Star Trek 4: Voyage Home Special Edition Dvd [1986]
Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier [1989] [DVD]
Star Trek 6: Undiscovered Country [DVD] [1991]
(These are the films with the 'original' crew.)

Star Trek 7-10 have Patrick Stewart (Picard) as the main character, so I'll not buy those just yet.

My favourite is Star Trek 4 which I bought new at £6-99 from Amazon, which is not a bad price as I bought it in 2007.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/..._ya_os_product

I've found with buying DVDs, timing is crucial, as prices fluctuate literally from minute to minute and you can save a shed load of money in many cases by buying second hand (very good or good condition).

While we are on the subject of DVD, I'll share some tips.

(1) Before buying, check on sites like www.dvdcompare.net and www.movie-censorship.com to see whether you are getting the best version to suit your needs, in terms of extras etc. Also, check whether the DVD has been censored/cut, either by the BBFC or the film studio itself, for the UK market (R2 UK).
(2) If you buy the R1 version for example, check whether your DVD player will play them. If it doesn't, you can either use an application to strip the region controls etc. or on a PC use VLC Media Player, which ignores region coding.
(3) If ordering from abroad, check custom charges etc. See the HMRC website for example in order to check current limits.
(4) If ordering from the states, surface mail is the cheapest, but be prepared to wait 2-4 weeks for delivery.
(5) Look on Amazon Marketplace or possibly Play.com for a good deal.
(6) Look on a comparison site such www.dealpond.com .

If I think of any more, I'll post later.

(7) Reliable on line stores from abroad.
DVD Pacific (USA) R1
http://dvdpacific.directtoustore.com
Free Record Shop (The Netherlands) R2
http://www.freerecordshop.nl (Unfortunately only written in Dutch.)
EzyDVD (Australia) R4
http://www.ezydvd.com.au
(8) Most DVDs from any region have at least one English language track, but do check. R4 DVDs are often also encoded region R2, but not always. R2 France DVDs often have forced subtitles (subtitles which you cannot turn off), but not always. Some DVDs have multiple regional coding or none at all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtitle_%28captioning%29
(9) It's easy to tell a R2 UK DVD apart from many non R2 UK region DVDs, as it has age ratings stamped all over it. R1 DVDs for example do not.
(10) Be extra careful if buying a DVD from Asia, as this area is notorious for fakes. If the dye on the back of a DVD isn't white, it is probably a fake. Other tell tale signs are a poorly fitting DVD cover, lack of a hologram on the DVD disk and a low quality DVD disk label.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
(11) The above does not apply to Blu-ray or HD DVD (the latter now discontinued).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

My turn!

Back to the Future 1, 2 and 3 (they rock!)
Ice Age 1, 2, 3 and 4
Monsters Inc
The superhero movies - Toby McGuire Spidermans, Original Superman 1, 2 and 3, Captain America, Thor, Avengers Assemble, X-Men (a bit more adult but nothing inappropriate)
The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists
Curse of the Were Rabbit

Also, you can get Dr Who, Star Trek et al as DVD sets which might not be too pricey now; would have thought it's worth having a look.
Classic Series Who (Hartnell through to McCoy) is pretty kiddie-friendly and New Who as well.
Original Star Trek is a camp classic, of course, but Next Gen (with Patrick Stewart) is really good and often quite thought provoking in its own geeky way.

Will post more when I think of them - I'm enjoying this!

(Oh, and KJ is right, Despicable Me is brilliant!)

Awesome! Thanks for all the suggestions!

We've had the cartoon type ones pretty much covered and YoungPlum has seen the more recent ones at the movies during vacation care. Having said that though we did just get Despicable Me on DVD last week but have yet to watch it!

Dr Who series is an excellent suggestion as we both like that but missed the last couple of series. I did have a couple of series on DVD but left them behind accidentally.

We have the Aardman films. Grease and Gregorys Girl are great ideas as they will be totally new to YoungPlum - Didn't the school that was used in the film Gregorys Girl recently close down? I seem to recall reading something about that recently. I'll have to look up 13 going on 30 as I have no idea what that is.

I'll put the x-men films on my list as although we've seen them, we haven't got copies any more and they are eminently re-watchable.

It's good to have a list because then I can keep my eye open for bargains ... every time they have sales on here my mind goes a complete blank as to what I would like to watch so bargains pass me by.

I had an unexpected financial windfall this week, and that's without even taking into account hopefully getting some tax back.... so after umm-ing and ahhh-ing about good sense versus frivolity .... I'm going to let frivolity win and I'm going to get a digital piano, quite a good one actually. My friend whose house I share convinced me in the end that it's probably the one chance I'm going to get to do something like this for the forseeable future and it was money I wasn't expecting so do something just for me. All I need to do now is work out how I can fit it into my room.... I need to create wall space, I think I can do it, it won't be the most practical room arrangement but meh ... I'll have a digital piano my next problem will be having no music to play but I'll cross that bridge another time

I'm happy

Love the BTTF films.

I've got the 3 DVD box set, but these days you can get 4 disks in the set.

This one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Future-...future+box+set

instead of this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Back-Future-...future+box+set

In UK there are 3 box sets of ST:TOS, one per season, I have 1 & 2, both good value.

It's geeky fun for an 11 year old and it would be watched avidly about three years later were she a boy (the mini dresses)

We have one. They can be bought with proper piano action keys so are far from being a gadget. Our decent one has a huge speaker in the wooden cabinet and the sound is very realistic. Practice can be done via headphones.

woo hoo...two weeks off

Go snowy!

Plum, I use a website called musicnotes.com to download sheet music - you have to pay for most of it, but not much.

I've never looked, but I bet you can buy sheet music from e-bay or Amazon, too.

My dad used to have one and it was just like playing the piano... the one I want to get is very similar but fortunately prices have come down and quality has gone up. It's also cool that you can split the keyboard for the purposes of teaching as YoungPlum wants to learn so I'm going to teach her a bit and see how she likes it and if she looks like she's going to maintain an interest then I'll have to fork out for proper lessons.



Thanks for that - I'll have a look on musicnotes tomorrow and see what I can see! Another good reason for getting a printer if I go with that option. I was going to say I'll look tonight, but I'm just about to head off out for my boozy night so I might not be in a fit state to look

Actually my day has been generally odd .... I was woken up this morning by work calling to get me to come in, so I worked for 5 hours then had to dash round the shops with YoungPlum who wanted to spend some money I'd given her earlier in the week. Home for a quick shower and beautify myself and now we're off out! A friend is picking me up and hopefully dropping me home but I don't think I'll drink much as I have too much to do now what with working today.

I'm babbling ....

Just bought this for £7. It's not a particularly good film, but it will complete my collection of Alien and Predator films pretty well.
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B001...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=12841

So far in my collection.
Alien Legacy 20th Anniversary Edition R2 UK (5 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=15

Alien Quadrilogy R1 (9 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=4361
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_%28franchise%29

Alien vs Predator Unrated Edition R1 (2 disks)
Alien vs Predator Definitive Edition (steel book) R2 UK (2 disks)
Alien vs Predator Extreme Edition R2 UK (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=6593

Predator Special Edition R2 UK (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=850

Predator 2 Special Edition R1 (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=851

We're big Alien fans in the batcave jra. Every few years we do a weekend of watching something like that back to back. Well, almost.

snOwy - have a fab break!

Plummy - how's the head?

Not much going on here. Hot. Humid. We're trying to get some energy for a long walk in the woods... Late lunch out would do me if I'm honest.

greetings all

morning grumpies

am off to a pal's 60th birthday celebrations today
its a vintage tea party with a rather belated 50's dress code( optional)
cropped trousers were suggested ..so I bought some in M&S sale, and a pastel blue jacket which I think is sort of 50's looking...belatedly thought of what should I wear on my torso and have dug out last year's (Next) T shirt which has a sparkly corgi (JUBILEE) on it ....and spent last night watching u tube masterclasses on how to do scarves and funny roll things in my barnet with scarves.

my rationale for the above was 60=DIAMOND JUBILEE=working class trollope aiming to be Sophia Loren look



just know that when I get there peeps will be mystified

gave himindoors a laugh though

Do you like the Terminator and Die Hard films?

I got of the on 2 disks versions, but not Terminator Salvation or Die Hard 5.

So far.

Die Hard 1-3 box set R1 (6 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=698
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=699
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=700
Die Hard 4 R2 UK
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...hp?fid=11852#8
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...hp?fid=11852#9

Terminator 1-3 box set R2 (6 disks)
Contains
Terminator 1 Special Edition (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...php?fid=982#17
Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...php?fid=160#16
Terminator 3 (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...hp?fid=4178#11

Terminator 1 Ultimate Edition R2 UK (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...php?fid=982#18
Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition R1 (2 disks)
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=160#3

Sometimes I think I'm a DVD collector .

snowy, that sounds magnificent
Hope you had a good time!

Sounds like Plums did, cos she's not here...

jra - I live with a DVD squirrel. Mr M is ridiculous. But he doesn't smoke or drink or buy gadgts, so I can live with a sitting-room-full of DVDs and CDs. And I love films, so I benefit.

At the moment we're working our was through Season 2 of The Walking Dead - I love it but it winds me up SO MUCH!!!
Last night I actually jumped up out of my chair to yell at the telly I was so desperate to mitigate the events occurring on-screen
Takes me ages to get to sleep afterwards as well.

Good job there's only 13 episodes in the series!

In the Rewind forums there are people that claim to have thousands of DVDs. I'm not at that stage yet.

Someone sold me a limited edition (50,000 copies) version of Evil Dead II for less than a fiver (by mistake presumably), when it is worth IMO at least 10-20 times that amount, as it's very rare and difficult to find. And the icing on the cake is that it plays in R2 only players, even though it is a R1 release.

I ordered this
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=657#2
http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison...php?fid=657#14
but got the tin box version instead.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_...nor+chronicles

1st season £4 !!!

If I bought it, I think I would go for the the R1 version.

http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparison....php?fid=13388
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terminator-C...hronicles+ntsc