Shrek...Forever & Ever & Ever & Ever....

It’s got to be said - boys are fun but girl friends are mind blowing fun!

You can discuss the world with girl friends - from shoes to bags to clothes to the current hottest lip color to your ever expanding waistline to your love life to George Clooney & Brad Pitt to the dreamboat vegetarian vampire who can make any woman of any shape & size go week in the knees to other friends' girlfriends/boyfriends to the latest gossip - without them rolling their eyes or chiding you for indulging in gossip.

You can never discuss such things with boys without feeling like swatting them with whatever you can lay your hands on because they would either be rolling their eyes faster than a yoyo or worse still, gagging, totally disrespecting your need to honor the estrogen in your body. Lots of it if you're PMSing.

Over coffee on Friday evening, one of my girl friends & I made plans to spend Saturday together doing “girly stuff” which involved shopping (surprise!), movie & dinner.

We met up after lunch on Saturday and headed out to shop. I needed to buy a pair of sunglasses, she a pair of shoes for everyday wear that she wouldn’t mind ruining in the rains.

I ended up with: 2 pairs of sunglasses (one from Idee, a Guess house brand, and another from Van Heusen that criss cross in front like an elongated 8 and is a design I’ve been in loooooooooove with for the longest time), 2 party tops, 2 casual tops, 2 nude lip glosses from L’Oreal & Maybelline (I now have 3 nude lip glosses, someone please explain to me why!), an Aqua Blue shimmer eye pencil from Chambor, a Maybelline smoky eyes eye shadow, and a whole bunch of lingerie that you don't need to know the number or price of!

Well, lingerie is an investment, right? RIGHT?

Here’s what my friend bought: A pair of stilettos she didn’t need, a handbag she didn’t need, a perfume, two casual tops and a pair of jeans she wasn’t planning on buying! Of course, she couldn't find the one thing she needed to buy. Don't you know that always happens? Don't you?

See how much fun hanging out with girlfriends can be! Never mind it usually ends up burning a hole in your pocket. We look at it as an "investment", and we're not cribbing about our boyfriends most of the time that we spend shopping, so it's good for our relationship too!!

Armed with our shopping bags, we went to watch ‘Shrek Forever After’. The security at the multiplex obviously thought it would be too much trouble going through so many shopping bags (rare breed of sensible people working at the mall, I tell ya) and didn’t bother to frisk us. Did I tell you I loved the movie? Seriously, how could critics give it such bad reviews?

They either didn't understand the movie (I swear that's possible. A friend of mine thought the movie was about Shrek day dreaming!) or aren't Shrek fans to begin with!

The story goes something like this: Shrek is bored of the whole feeding-burping-the-baby-and-nappy-changing routine his life has become and yearns for the time when he was a “real” ogre that could scare villagers and that people were afraid of. Rumplestiltskin, the evil guy who wants to seize the kingdom of Far Far Away, tricks him into believing that he can give Shrek one such day again and makes him sign a contract. Shrek falls for the trick, only to realize that Rumple has sent him into a world where ogres are hunted, none of his real-life friends like Donkey & Puss-In-Boots know him, and where Fiona is not his wife but a warrior princess leading the rebellion of the ogres against Rumple. Shrek's only way out is to make Fiona fall in love with him and share a “true love's kiss” with him. And he has one night to do it! Unfortunately for him, she is completely focussed on her mission and does not entertain any distractions.

Isn’t this a cute story? It kept me engrossed and rooting for Shrek throughout.

The 3D factor doesn’t really add much to the movie experience but 'Shrek Forever After' is just as cute as the previous installments, has plenty of ‘awwwwww’ moments and is totally watchable, if only for the fact that this is the last of the adorable Shrek movies. And I'm a HUGE Shrek Fan (not in size, only in degree :)

Sunday was spent at home sifting through my previous day’s shopping, passing out repeatedly looking at the bills, undergoing a massive guilt trip for splurging on totally unnecessary things, watching ‘Love Actually’ for like the 100th time to get me over the depression resulting from the guilt, watching ‘Twilight’ on Star Movies just 'coz it's an overly gooey, trashy, chick flick that's sure to get your hormones in overdrive, devouring cheese & pepperoni pizza, and reading a thriller that I’m currently reading.

The highlight of my Sunday: I got the pizza absolutely free! Here’s how my conversation with the pizza guy went when I called them after an hour of ordering:

Time of calling: 10.30pm

Me: You guys are supposed to deliver in 30 mins right? It’s been 1 hour and my pizza is still not here. And your shop is 5 minutes from my house!
Pizza Guy: M'am, the delivery boy must have got caught in the traffic.
Me: At 10.30 in the night? In a residential area?
Pizza Guy: Uh…erm…m'am, it’s election day today!
Me: Please tell me which part of town people are voting in, at this time? You’re giving me the pizza for free.
Pizza Guy: No m'am, I can't.
Me: Excuse me? Your policy is 30 mins or free! Is it not? IS IT NOT?
Pizza Guy: Uh....okay m'am, we’ll settle it between the two of us.
Me: Oh, I’m not settling anything mister. It’s free or I complain to your headquarters.

And that’s how I got my free pizza!

And no, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it because these are the same guys who had refused to deliver to my place once when I had called them 5 mins after the time of their last order, saying they won’t deliver because I’m not their regular customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So much for customer service.

What about you? Did you like 'Shrek'? And how was your weekend?