Sunny Saskatoon...

First of all, thanks to those who've left comments - it's cool to know we have some friends, so keep it up.

We're sitting here in saskatoon - 10 degrees and wet outside, and they call this summer. Rowenas bad back meant that we've met the funniest doctor i've ever seen. Weighing over 150kg and trained in England, he showed us a certificate from the queen and told us he'd treated Sean Connery and Roger Moore, and if it's good enough for Bond, it's good enough for R (Rowenas new nick name, apparently - you saw it here first).

So, we're resting up in saskatoon for another week - i've just been out running in the drizzle - and learning some of the lesser known facts about canada. For instance, did you know that many of Saskatoons taxi drivers are Romanian? Turns out a whole heap turned up here 5 years ago and are driving the towns taxis. One we met actually wanted to go to Oz, but was probably turned away by a photo of Amanda Vanstone - or would it have bee Ruddock back then? Hmm, neither give the homeland a particularly welcoming face, do they?

More interesting saskatoon facts to come - i know you just cant wait.

To tide you over until then, here's my review of the final (?) star wars, which I was lucky enough to view with wal in Jasper, amongst the glorious rockies (and i promise photos just as soon as we manage to get our machine online rather than always borrowing other peoples).

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith was a pretty underwhelming experience. I mean, i was brought up on star wars (no fault of my parents, just a fact of timing) and really wanted these prequels to work, but lucas seems to have shot himself in the foot by insisting that everything in ep4 should be predicated in some way in ep3. In the movie world, there are supposedly around 20years between ep3 and 4, so why on earth do you need to have the very same spaceship captained by Antilles heading for Aalderan?? I mean, come on. This ep has some staggering character changes - good to bad in only 6 seconds - but then presumes that the intervening 20 years will foster absolutely no action whatsoever?? duh. Apart from the painfully poor acting and dialogue (although palpatine does stand out early on) the other nag i have is the overuse of effects - is there a scene without backing music and a flying robot?? enough - 4/10.

till next time.
dan