Top Gear or…nothing in particular to write about :)
Posted on | September 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
You see, I am in L O V E with all the British culture. I love their films, their books, their actors, their writers and playwrights, I love everything about the UK. If it weren’t for the weather, I’d probably be living there by now, hoping to meet Hugh Grant and Colin Firth and have tea with them someday. However, as I now live in an equally spectacular country, though not in the same domains, I am pleased with what I have and not complain about it. Anyway, as you can see from the title of this post, I have absolutely nothing to write about. Yes, there are a few films I want to review, also a book and some other goodies to tell you about. But I am in no mood for something serious, much less for taking adequate pics of the whole Amazon order I just got (with 6 new movies…to see!) or of the magnificent chamomile – honey – vanilla tea/ yummy scrumptious Ovomaltine spread i bought (thanks for the tip, Eliane!).
By the way, if you were wondering if I hadn’t cooked at all lately, let me clear that out: yes, I have been cooking, yummy things too, but I haven’t been in the mood to take pics of what I made, since that is usually not my job. So you have to wait for my better half to come back and take pics because I am the chef/ amateur blogger, not the photographer.
What I was going to say though is that I have recently started to watch another of Britain’s great productions, Top Gear that is, a car show. Although it is definitely not a car show. Yes, there are cars in it and people who drive them, but that is about it. Jeremy Clarkson, the host, along with Richard Hammond (whom I’ve always liked, from Brainiac!) and James May drive and talk about all different types of cars. But their “trying” is well… different from anything you’ve ever seen. For them, regular cars are a terrible waste of time, so what you get to see mostly on the show are big, powerful, with immense horsepower cars. Beautiful, too. And strange tests, of course. Like driving a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche through the narrow streets of Paris (I may be terribly wrong, but I don’t remember the episode that well). Or trying to test which of three cars keeps a dog happier. Or playing football with Aygo cars. You get the point.
Being elected one of the most un-attractive show hosts in the UK (or was it the World?!) Jeremy Clarkson is also one of the funniest men ever. So it’s safe to say his show is also one of the funniest, too. Just watch it once, you’ll get addicted. I know I did 
All Top Gear seasons (I think they’re 13 of them) and specials can be found on amazon.co.uk (widget time!) and you can also catch them every once in a while directly on BBC (reruns or new season).
Too Lost in You…
Posted on | September 18, 2009 | No Comments
All alone in a hotel room in Basel…and this is how I feel, exactly. And a Love Actually video never hurt anyone…
Love Actually DVD and soundtrack available on amazon.co.uk ————->
About A Boy
Posted on | September 17, 2009 | 2 Comments
It’s like that thing Jon Bon Jovi said: ‘No man is an island.’
Being all alone at home with pay per view television, I decided to improve my culture, movie-wise. And as I have a ‘crush’ on everything that is British and is called Hugh Grant, I decided to watch a nice, light romantic comedy I never got around to seeing.
As you may have guessed, I am talking “About a Boy”. Unsurprisingly, Hugh has yet another role as a shallow, quite rich and extremely charming playboy who only thinks about present time and himself. I would assume that it’s the way men usually think, but I don’t really mean to be that harsh. Anyway, as Will is going through his ‘doing nothing’ life, trying to get smoothly from one woman to another and discovering how attractive single mothers seem to be. In his quest for the next *shag*, he enters the rather picturesque world of SPAT (yes, pun intended) – a single parents organization, consisting mostly of depressed, unattractive women who are crying over stupid fathers who left them and their children alone. Will manages to make up an imaginary chld, gets to meet Susie (the only cute woman in the club) and eventually, through a series of events, meets Marcus, the boy that is going to change his life.
Marcus is a 12 year old boy, with a lunatic mother and somewhat interesting ideas about life. He meets Will in one of the toughest moments of his life: his mother tries to commit suicide, for no apparent reason at all. This makes Marcus uneasy, permanently frightened that this would happen again. And so, he tries to find comfort and help in this strange, shallow man that is Will.
An uncommon friendship is set between the two, especially when they both get crushes on two girls and start helping eachother out. Will is trying to get Marcus out of his cocoon and make him more sociable, and Marcus, well, he is making Will grow up in ways he wouldn’t have imagined.
Needless to say, I liked the movie. I find that Hugh Grant is maybe not the most versatile actor in the world, but delivers such charming, lovable characters that are always pretty hard to forget. The kid is cute, funny, although quite cheeky and annoying at first. Will’s crush, Rachel, is actually Rachel Weisz, a great actress herself, and it is a shame we do not get to see more of her during the movie.
All in all, I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who would like a nice afternoon/evening in front of the tv, with a hot cup of tea and preferably someone you love by your side. I found that the latter is optional, and that the movie is so good you will laugh most of the time, forgetting you are alone. At least I did.
Enjoy!
P.S. The movie is based on a novel by Nick Hornby, one of my favourite British authors. Perfect match
You can find the movie and the book on amazon.co.uk. Check out my widget
Eat, Pray, Love
Posted on | September 16, 2009 | No Comments
Image source: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm
No, that is not what I’ve been doing lately, although you might think so from the post title. No, this is actually a novel I recently read but never got around to writing about it. Its author, Elizabeth Gilbert is, as she says so herself, a woman searching for “everything”. What everything is, well, we’ll find out in the book, of course.
After an unhappy marriage ended in an even unhappier divorce, Liz decided to take a year off. Yes, a whole year to do the whole searching for everything I was telling you about. And after that, she wrote about it, obviously. This is not a ‘recipe’ for finding yourself. I strongly believe that you can find “everything” at home, with a nice cup of tea, a good book and your cat curled in your lap. Or in a walk by this beautiful lake of Neuchatel holding the hand of the one you love. Or in whatever else you might imagine. But this is her way, and, to be honest, it is a bit more interesting than tea and cats (God, I do miss mine 
).
She starts her journey in Italy, learning Italian and eating the most exquisite Italian food ever. If I ever go to Naples (I do hope I will) I need to get myself that double Mozzarella pizza that made me drool just by thinking of it. She finds new friends and yummy dishes, she puts on “the happiest weight of her life” and just takes life as it is, one day at a time.
India is next, and to be fair and square, this is my least favourite part of the book. Not that I wouldn’t believe in praying for what it’s worth, but I don’t see myself locked in an ashram waking up at 4 am to sing and meditate. Just not so like me. So like her though, because apparently inner peace comes to you a little bit more easier in this kind of paces. I do like the way Liz wrote this part, as a normal human being, who has issues focusing at first, who does not like reciting 100 and something hymn verses at 6 in the morning and who has trouble staying quiet in such a quiet place.
Last, but not least, is Indonesia. A place where I don’t see myself going to without 3 or 4 bodyguards and a nice big gun, but she had the guts to go there by herself. Of course, there are friends there too, there are people who make her life easier, who make her dream and, most important of all, they make her fall in love (actually, I’d say that’s just one of the people, if you get my point). It is also interesting to find yourself in a new civilization, to see how people act and react in certain situations when they’ve had a whole other way of growing up. Bali is really a dream place – paradise sort of destination so maybe I’ll take over my fear and go for a romantic week or two there. Or heck, a few months maybe. A very noticeable thing Liz did while being there (except falling in love, of course) is the fact that she helped a local ‘healer’, Wayan, to buy herself and her daughter a home. This may be one of the times when people from all over the world gathering together money through internet messages actually worked.
I know this is not necessarily a coherent review of the book, as I find that I don’t really have a strong opinion about it. I did like it, but I can’t really go on and on about it as I am actually a bit out of ideas. However, I do believe that it is a great book for people who feel a little lost, who would like to find their way but are a bit confused, who need to know that no matter how, you will always be able to get through whatever life has in store for you. And maybe that’s the best lesson Liz Gilbert can offer us. Easy to read and funny, it’s probably going to be on anyone’s ‘to read’ list.
Enjoy!
You can get the book from amazon.co.uk. Link in my widget
Give in to me…
Posted on | September 15, 2009 | No Comments
One of my favourite Michael Jackson songs…so powerful and wonderful…and Slash is really a great addition to it 
You can order any Michael Jackson album on amazon.co.uk. Check them out by clicking on my widget 
Johnny’s Mambo…
Posted on | September 15, 2009 | No Comments
We will miss terribly Patrick…at least I know I will. This scene in Dirty Dancing is the one that made me take dance lessons in the first place. And it is the reason I love dancing so much these days. He will be terribly missed. RIP.
Ice Age 3 – 3D
Posted on | September 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
Image source: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30501342&id=1403223798&subject=95880483260&ref=mf
Everybody walk the dinosaur
I’ve actually seen this movie a while ago and never got around to writing about it. Don’t know exactly why, because I enjoyed it a lot. It’s funny, witty, makes you wanna dance and sing and…oh well, it really is a good movie. After re-watching Ice Age 1 the other day I dare say this one it’s better, since graphics have evolved…a lot.
Manny and Ellie are preparing to have a baby, Diego is going through his middle age bachelor crisis, Sid is well…Sid. No surprise here. When he realizes that the three little mammoths are to have a family of which maybe he won’t be able to be a part, he goes on to build a new one. Er, that is, by stealing three dinosaur eggs (Eggbert, Shelly and Yolko;)) and ‘adopting them’. As you can imagine, mommy-dinosaur is not that pleased, and so the animals in the Ice Age find out dinosaurs are not extinct, at least not totally extinct, and that they have been living underneath their world for God knows how long.
Sid is kidnaped by mommy dinosaur along with her 3 babies (although it’s not really her fault, he just wouldn’t let go) and Manny, Diego and pregnant Ellie along with her weird-possum brothers come to the rescue. That oughta be fun! It actually was
We meet Buck, a Crocodile Dundee style weasel with a beautiful British accent, a loner in dinosaur world who’s ready to help. As I was saying, it really is a funny movie. I laughed so, so hard. Ellie had, of course, her baby, the prettiest mammoth I’ve ever seen, Diego and Sid realize that they are part of the family and they…ummm…I guess live happily ever after. Or until Sid gets in trouble again.
Well, that’s all folks, I’ll leave you with the utterly entertaining video clip of ‘Walk the Dinosaur’. Enjoy!
Love in the Time of Cholera
Posted on | September 8, 2009 | 10 Comments
I was actually planning to read this book and see the movie after, as I usually do. However, after reading the book, I decided it was enough, and the few glimpses from the movie that I caught on HBO one night told me I was right to stop before I saw it. Why? Don’t know, maybe Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not my kind of writer, maybe i expected too much (as I usually do),maybe the chemistry wasn’t right…
The setting? Many, many years ago (around the 1900’s) in ripped – apart – politically – disorganised – overtook – by- cholera – Columbia (if I am not mistaken) two people find each other and fall in love. Nothing new to that, right? Even in the hardest of times, people have found time for love, and I find that natural. Unfortunately for them, the woman is meant to marry someone else and eventually does so. However, Florentino Ariza, the man who loved her, decided to wait until she would be free for him again. That being about 50 years and about 500 pages for the reader. For Florentino waited alright, but he waited and waited…on my nerves!
The whole book is actually about how he is waiting for her. Because the first part about how they meet and fall in love is merely insignificant. Cholera passes them by, wars, the first flight of man and every imaginable event. Florentino waits. Of course, not by himself. He finds mistresses in the most unthinkable places: widows, 14 year old girls, housewives, whores, poets…the whole lot. There probably wouldn’t be a living female whom he did not try to conquer. All in the wait, of course. Basically, we are forced (actually, I am beginning to think I am a masoquist, since no one was pointing a gun at my head obliging me to keep reading. I realised though that with books like these I tend to wait for amazing, breathtaking endings. Which usually fail to appear.) to wait along with Florentino, witnessing at the same time his many, often disgusting adventures with women. We see the changes in his body, from around 20 years old, when he was young and virile, to the sad age of 70 and something, when, well, his love making is not so…passionate anymore. I could call this a bildungsroman, since he actually evolves in a very strange way during it, growing up, but yet remaining the same boy who wished that a certain girl was his.
Fermina Daza is, on the other hand, a pragmatic. She is cold and decided when it comes to love, she accepts marriage as a friendship rather than a lustful relationship, she is shocked to find Florentino has been waiting and waiting…
I would like to tell you how it ends, to make you skip 400 pages and just find out if they end up tpgether or not. But, as I was saying, apparently this is not the point. The point is to find out how they turn out to be, after 50 years of waiting for each other (mostly on Florentino’s side, with the spicing it up and everything). I know there are people who see more in this book than I do, but I definitely wouldn’t reread it. Or see the movie. I think the book was enough, I don’t need another 2 hours on the same subject. Maybe others enjoyed this book. Maybe there’s something in it that I don’t see.
All in all, for the fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, it is probably a masterpiece. For me it was a ‘must read’ that I would only recommend to people who see more to it than I do.
Enjoy
Life in Suchard country…
Posted on | September 6, 2009 | 1 Comment
Not that Suchard would have a factory here anymore…but the chocolate here is sooooo great. I just hope i don’t gain (too much) weight while here, because they truly have amazing chocolate goodies. Like truffles, and pralnes, and fruits and chocolate, and biscuits and syrup and hot chocolate and aaaah. I bought some truffles from Walder’s and I really, really wanted to take a picture of them so I could show it to you. Tough luck, I ate them. Not by myself, but still. I was thinking of taking a pic of the empty box, but it really looked sad.
On a different topic, i am amazed on how on time these people are. Like buses are always on time. For example, I know the bus I take to the centre of the city is always there at “something and 9″ like 8:19, 8:29,…16:49… and so forth. Never late. I get in Place Pury in like 8 minutes. And then just 2 bus stops away, the Uni. Really close. And I am supposed to live “far” from the city center.
Had a rough time with Microsoft Office for Mac. Ordered it by mistake in German. And I couldn’t believe it was ONLY in German. Nope. Can’t change the language. So I either learn German or…anybody has a good idea for language changing? Help?
Great people here. Nice, warm, friendly. All nice and blonde with blue eyes. Still amazes me how people around me all have beautiful blue eyes and blonde hair ). And they speak great French and English too, so we understand each other just fine (I hope).
All in all? Beautiful mountains, beautiful lake, not so great weather (it’s been raining for the last few days) great people and great, great chocolate. I’ll say I’m good. Hope everyone at home is good too.
Hugs!
I’m alive!
Posted on | September 3, 2009 | 4 Comments
Although you wouldn’t say…I moved to Switzerland, as i was threatening to, and also decided to go for writing in English, so that more people can “read” me. 2000 kms from home, I’m starting a new life that looks quite promising, and I do hope I’ll be fine. I miss home, I miss friends, but I’m sure they’ll be ready to visit soon. Stay tuned, for automn is cool and windy and rainy in Switzerland so I’ll have plenty of blogging time . And I’ve already seen/read enough movies/books for months of writing.
Enjoy!
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