Last night, Christina and I watched the last episode of Home Economics.
It’s a TV show which aired from 2021 to 2023 over three seasons. It’s about three siblings, Tom (Topher Grace), Sarah (Caitlin McGee) and Connor (Jimmy Tatro), having to spend time together (a lot) despite having different personalities, different live perspectives and, most importantly, very different levels of financial security. And, of course, this creates a lot of comedic situations.
Marina (Karla Souza), Tom’s wife, is out of this world with her franc-parler, her directness. Denise (Sasheer Zamata), Sarah’s wifes, is good too and provides some much needed calmness and stability.
The kids, Shamiah (Jordyn Curet), Kelvin (Jecobi Swain), Camila (Chloe Jo Rountree) and Gretchen (Shiloh Bearman) (as well as the two little twins) contribute a lot to the show. They have cool personalities which develop over the three seasons.
And Lupe (Lidia Porto) is probably the best (worst?) housekeeper in the whole world!
All the characters, even the secondary ones like Marshall (Phil Reeves) and Muriel (Nora Dunn) (the parents), Emily (Justine Lupe) (Connor’s divorced wife), JoJo (Tetona Jackson) (Denise’s sister), Santiago (Eddie Cibrian) (the contractor), Harmony (Casey Wilson) (the half-sister), Nikki (Daniella Pineda) (Connor’s girlfriend), etc. were nice and funny.
The show was cancelled after three seasons but it should have been renewed. That’s a pity.
]]>Christina and I have just finished watching the last episode of Jessica Jones and we love it. We have rated it 9/10.
Jessica Jones is a Marvel superhero but she is different. She is a private investigator who is a formidable Scotch and Bourbon drinker but she also has super strength, is super intelligent, really cares about others (despite her not acknowledging this) and is resolutely on the side of law.
During the three seasons, she deals with major villains but the best is definitely Kilgrave who can control minds. The dynamics of Jessica with her sister Trish Walker (“Patsy”) changes over the three seasons but it’s a pity that people have so much difficulty resisting the dark side…
PS: We watched the TV show on Disney+ and, immediately after the last episode, we cancelled our subscription. We have too many streaming subscriptions and we need to be more reasonable…
]]>Christina and I watched Le Règne Animal (The Animal Kingdom) with my cousin, Suneelah, yesterday at the movies.
Truly, it was quite an experience for the three of us and, one day later, I am still thinking about what I saw and trying to make sense of it all.
On IMDB, the movie is summarised as
“An adventure between a father and his son, in a world where some humans have started mutating into other animal species.”
On Allociné, the synopsis is:
“Dans un monde en proie à une vague de mutations qui transforment peu à peu certains humains en animaux, François fait tout pour sauver sa femme, touchée par ce phénomène mystérieux. Alors que la région se peuple de créatures d’un nouveau genre, il embarque Émile, leur fils de 16 ans, dans une quête qui bouleversera à jamais leur existence.”
For me, the movie is a bit more than that…
Sure, it’s about the relationship between the dad (Romain Duris) and Émile, the 16 years old son (Paul Kircher). But it is also about how it is important to be surrounded by “good” people: Julia (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Nina (Billie Blain). I always like to remember that one is the average of the five people he/she sees most…
What I also like is that there are not (very) bad people in the movie. Everyone is just trying to understand / cope / adapt. And it’s quite difficult.
One undertone of the film is that things might be happening because of global warming / climate change but no one truly knows. And it does not look like that a remedy will ever be found.
This is one true post-COVID movie. And you should watch it! Highly rated 8/10 by Christina and I.
]]>Dear Avinash,
Anya, Kyan and I wish you an amazing birthday today! Half a century on earth and you’ve already touched the lives of so many people, inspiring all of us to be better at what we do. This is your strength and we can only wish that you keep doing so for many more decades.
To enn dimounn extraordiner. To koz boukou kiksoz serye ek boukou badinaz ousi. To met lazwa dan nou leker. To fer nou danse, sante, riye. Ek sirtou to fer nou reflesi boukou. Pena boukou dimounn kouma twa! Vremem to enn dimounn spesial!
Nou kontan twa boukou boukou boukou!
Joyeux demi-siècle!
Gros bisous de toute la famille!
PS: To celebrate, we had a formidable birthday party (modelled on a chowtari as per Avinash’s wish) with family members. And, one day after, we had dinner in a fine dining restaurant.
]]>For the first time in his life, Kyan is celebrating his birthday without us. He has started his first year of university in the beautiful town of Aix-en-Provence.
We did speak (together with Anya too) and Kyan told us that his friends from Mauritius have planned a group call / birthday celebration with him later today. And he has also told us that his new flatmates will also have something for him.
Christina and I are delighted that Kyan has settled beautifully and that his course in linguistics has started well. Sure, it is not easy to start being independent but, at 19, this is something which all kids should experience. It’s both difficult and exhilarating.
Manz ar li Kyan and have a great time
]]>Today, Christina and I celebrate 29 years of being together (and a little more than 23 years being married). We met in Réunion Island while we were studying and, since then, we’ve always been having fun together.
This morning, we realised that we met when I was barely 21 and she was 19, the exact age our kids are today! This brought back a lot of memories but we also were happy that Anya and Kyan were probably having similar moments without us being helicopter parents and giving them advice (directives?) all day long.
It’s really a wonderful milestone for us and I have to say that Christina has not changed a bit: she is as beautiful (and cool and intelligent) as ever!!!
Looking forward to the next 29 years (at least)!
]]>We wish you a wonderful 21st birthday, dear Anya. The world is yours to discover and we are really happy for you, young woman.
As parents, Christina and I have done what we felt was important for Anya by providing her with a good environment for her to grow. But now it is important for her to discover her true personality and, in some ways, tests some limits without parents being near.
We have all been through that and, sincerely, it’s was an enjoyable process for us. So, Anya, we tell you:
Enjoy
]]>We celebrated Christina’s birthday, without any of our two kids for the first time, by having a nice paella with Christina’s brothers and sisters and my mum. Here are some photos we took.
During the dinner, we called Anya and Kyan to share the nice atmosphere with them. They would have liked to be present but Christina and I are delighted that they are in France studying and, probably more importantly, discovering their true selves…
I have to say that Christina has not changed a bit. She is still as beautiful and intelligent as ever.
While both of us are becoming older (that’s a fact!), we still love spending time together and have fun.
Life is really cool.
“Keep calm and eat Paella” :-)
]]>Kyan, Anya, Christina and I started watching Club de Cuervos a few years ago.
Over the four seasons, Club de Cuervos, which is a Mexican TV show in Spanish, has become one of my favourite shows ever. Unfortunately, Anya stopped watching the show when she left Mauritius for university. And, for some reason, Kyan also stopped watching the show with us after some time.
Last night, Christina and I watched the final episode of the series.
The premises are simple: “When the patriarch of a prominent family dies, his heirs battle to determine who will gain control of his beloved soccer team: The Cuervos of Nuevo Toledo.”
The first heir is the formidable Isabel Iglesias, played by Mariana Treviño. She is atypical. She does not have many social skills but knows everything about being the president of a football club except that she isn’t because, well, she is a woman (as explained during a flashback in one of the last episodes).
Instead, the board appoints the little brother, Chava Iglesias, played by Luis Gerardo Méndez, who does not know anything about football and who loves partying, taking drugs and womanising. And mayhem ensues.
Fortunately, Chava has a formidable assistant (the best in Mexico!), Hugo Sánchez, played by Jesús Zavala, and a bunch of great football players (who also happen to be comically moronic): examples include Potro (Joaquín Ferreira), Cuau (Said Sandoval) and Rafa (Antonio de la Vega).
Another formidable football player is Aitor Cardoné (Alosian Vivancos) who is simply out of this world. I’ve never seen someone as, ahem, controversial as Aitor. In fact, controversial is not the right word. He is basically the one who is always the worst… except that, in reality, he is not.
Mary Luz, played by Stephanie Cayo, is the “outsider”. She does not know football, is not an Iglesias (despite being one) but, little by little, becomes a key component in the intrigue. She is the one who provides the glue… Without her, the mayhem would be without limit. (PS: She is definitely one of the most beautiful actresses I’ve seen and is from Peru.)
Will the Club de Cuervos of Nuevo Toledo win the final at the end? You will know by watching the TV show from beginning to end. The show is on Netflix.
You will not regret it. You’ll most probably love it too!
Disclaimer: it’s not for kids.
]]>I am seriously considering purchasing the Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-Ray player. It is a five years old device and is one of the last 4K Blu-Ray players still being sold.
It supports Ultra UD 4K Blu-Ray, normal Full HD Blu-Ray, DVD and CD media. It also supports all modern immersive audio formats (such as Dolby Atmos) and high dynamic range video formats (HDR, HDR10, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision).
It’s not easily available in Mauritius and, maybe, I’ll have to ask someone from abroad to get one for me but I am keen because I do have a few Blu-Rays, loads of DVDs and many CDs (dating from my university days) and, currently, I do not have any device with a HDMI output to play them.
People have moved to streaming on platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ or Showmax and Blu-Ray players will soon stop being made.
My previous DVD players
I didn’t have a DVD player initially. When my parents left Mauritius, they gave me theirs: a cheap device from China, a Dual DVD-118. Everything about it was bad but it worked and I used it for a few years. This was around year 2000.
In 2004, we purchased a Philips DVD-727K DVD player. By that time, I had started creating my own CDs and DVDs (with videos of Anya and Kyan) and I needed a device which could read different types of media (CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R and DVD+RW). Interestingly, I would give the player to my sister-in-law a few years later but would get it back when I needed a CD transport for my bedroom…
Around 2006, I purchased the LG RH7823W DVD and HDD player and writer. It was an interesting device as it could be used to record live TV programmes on its 80Gb hard disk and, later, burn the (edited) programmes to a DVD. From that time, I have many DVD-R of programmes and movies I got from MBC, Canal Satellite and Parabole Maurice. I don’t really care about the movies anymore as I can easily get them online now but I do care about some of the programmes I have recorded. Some of them feature the four of us or are of historical importance. I still have the LG at home and it still works. I don’t use it anymore as it lacks a HDMI out and it has a very noisy fan.
In 2009, we purchased a Sony Playstation 3 and our first LCD TV, a Sony KLV-40S550A. We wanted to play games, we wanted to discover the joys of Full HD Blu-Ray and I personally wanted to run Linux on it. We really loved the PS3 as it was way better than anything else we had had before.
The PS3 broke down in 2017 and we immediately replaced it with a second-hand super slim PS3. I didn’t want to purchase a PS4 (and, later, a PS5) because we are far from being power gamers and the investment (especially when purchasing games) was too high.
Recently, this PS3 has just stopped working. I suspect a power supply issue. Writing this blog post has made me realise that it might still be possible to repair it and solve my Blu-Ray, DVD and CD issues without having to buy anything new.
We’ll see.
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