Movies - short and not necessarily sweet

Skipping all the non-memorable-average-mediocre stuff - here are my latest watched movies;

* All the king's men - almost everything Sean Penn does is great. Which goes to show that there's gold to be found in the most surprisingly places and people, I was far from impressed by him in his early acting days. And yes, he's good as always - what a repetoire he has! - in this movie too. And it is an interesting story about the corruption in politics. But somehow it's just too looong and it struggles, and I'm not really sure what I think. -3/5

* Paris je t'aime - I haven't been to Paris. Yet. And guess what, this movie sure don't make any Paris-itch getting so unbearable I just have to book a plane-ticket... Such a boring, boring movie and a complete waste of talented actors. And, what I suppose, a beautiful, fascinating city. +1/5

* Scoop - yes I'm a Woody Allen-fan, moviewise, there's just noone else who can do a grumpy old intellectual the witty way he does. There have been some mediocre WA-movies, and some really bad ones - Shadows and Fog being the absolute bottom-level. I shudder even at the thought... - but I enjoy the better ones the more! Anyway. Scoop was quite a nice one, and seeing Scarlett Johansson as a young female version WA was kind of surreal and really fun. +3/5

* Hidalgo - movies which includes man's cruelty and ignorance towards animals always gets to me. And so did this. And I do want a happy ending when that happens. And I did get that. Classic adventure movie with an underdog getting revenge. Quite ok. -3/5

* The Mother - british drama with Daniel Craig in a not-very-Bond-like role. But the main-character is a middleaged woman who becomes a widow - and frankly, good riddance... - and a life wasted. But hopefully not completely. Sad, gripping and yet hopeful. 4/5

* Veronica Guerin - a true story about an Irish journalist who was murdered by drug dealers in Dublin in the late 1990ies. It's scary with these parallell lives, probably in any city all over the world, perhaps just a subway-stop away. I had no idea drugs were such a huge problem in Ireland as recent as that, I'd never heard - as far as I remember - about Veronica Guerin until I saw this movie. What a brave woman! Chilling story, but I missed depth and coherence. -3/5

* The Weight of Water - I love Anita Shreve's writing, but I haven't read this book though. But I'm intrigued by the fact that she has re-used the characters and part of the plot in a later book, but changed it slightly. Or perhaps not. I'll write more about that later, since it's more of a book- than this movie-related thing. Sean Penn again, great achievement as usual. As the rest of the cast, apart from that horrible excuse of an actress Elizabeth Hurley. I have no idea what she does in movies except showing of her latest plastic surgery... Brrr. I would have wanted more depth, the movie sort of only scratched the surface in parts. I did like the two dimension outplay though. -4/5

* God is great, I'm not - and neither is this movie. Far from. And I can't help but thinking about what my Belgian friend once said, when I raved about French movies; Ha, that's just because you haven't seen all the crap in French we have to endure on TV here. You only get the very selected parts of the French movie-production. And seeing French movies like this one I totally understand that view. Some sort of pseudo-intellectual, family-drama, lovestory, comedy that's just annoying and a waste of time. Not even Audrey Tatou is enjoyable. Less than 1/5 = worthless

Some French movies, in different genres, I do enjoy in different ways - some I even adore - and really recommend are Jean de Florette and sequel, Le Grand Bleu, Subway, Betty Blue, La cité des enfants perdus, Amélie, A very long engagement, Léon, Les Visiteurs, The Crimson Rivers, Le Placard, Romuald et Juliette - go see those instead!

* American Splendor - American independent movie at its best, love it! Paul Giamatti rules! Memorable quote from main character while looking at himself in the bathroom mirror - Now there's a reliable disappointment. Witty, grumpy, real, 4/5 with an extra plus

* High Crimes - yes I admit, I am a legal/lawyer-movie/TV-series buff and yes, I'm a sucker for a great closing argument. Which of course has to have a certain finesse to it. I'm not sure if this movie has that. But still, it's quite the enjoyable thriller that keeps you guessing right until the end. Morgan Freeman is good as always, Ashley Judd has a great haircut and James Caviezel is his usual creepy self. -4/5

* Old School - yup, this movie reminds me of the American Pie-movies, I admit I find them hilarious in parts, quite enjoyable in all their crudeness. And Will Ferrell is the very essence of comedy. It doesn't hold all the way, but still those moments with roaring laughters was just what I needed. +2/5

* Elina - Som om jag inte fanns (Like if I wasn't there) - a moving Swedish drama set in the Northern Sweden in the 1950ies tells the story about a little, brave girl and her questioning the authority of her petty queen of a teacher. -4/5

* Octane - a bizarre thriller about a mother who has a tense relationship with her daughter and while arguing with her at a gas-station the daughter gets lured away by a cult. Aspire the Twin Peaks-feeling, but ends up completely without its subtlety and originality. And whatever has happened to lovely Madeleine Stowe, she sort of looks like a Michael Jackson-wannabe... Or perhaps it's just the natural ageing-process for people born in August 1958... Movie: less than 1/5 = worthless

* Ocean's Thirteen - I do like gentlementhieves and a good plot. This movie is stylish, swishy, witty - and houses eyecandy extraordinaire George Clooney - still the namedropping gets a bit much and the plot feels sort of strained. But yes, I want to be as cool as Ellen Barkin. 3/5 perhaps with a slight minus

Over and out.

Bed & breakfast

Holidays are coming - I offer accomodation to very small holidaymakers.

And no, the big, scary, lethal, red thing won't come out to play while having guests.

A hearty welcome!

Sharpies speculate

* Why is it so difficult, for some, to keep it civilized when replying on spontaneous job-applications? I have absolutely no idea why it's obviously much easier to reply in a rather rude and patronising manner than just a simple "thanks for your interest, but not right now"-thing.

And am I glad that they don't have any jobs to offer - or so they say - when it's the CEO who's replying in that hectorly way. Especially when his lack of manners are accompanied by an equally embarassing lack of knowledge in the Swedish language ie he can't spell... Oh my, wouldn't want to work in a company with the top boss not being able to express himself in a civilized way. Since the company-climate always has a tendency to be how the top man/woman acts...

And when pondering the above, I can't help but think about if it can be true, the thing one has thought about now and then over the years, that it's mostly the mediocre minds that get the top/well paid jobs? Some reasons perhaps being that the management really don't want the "topnotch" person to have an original idea, think for her/himself, question things and sort of outshine the management? A sort of twisted "the best person for the right position"...

Ok, fine, you don't have anything suitable for me right now, but I much rather get an agreeable template than an unpleasant spelling error extravaganza.

Getting that kind of reply I immediately realise that there apparently IS a vacancy in that company. Namely to teach them that first impressions do last, that it's pretty vital to use a spell-checker now and then, what a difference a choice of word, a comma, a capital do...

* I have absolutely no idea why I have recieved two imbecile job-enquiries as lately. They both have to do with wellness involving a concoction of the Disney company, the Nobel Prize and an amazing electronic invention no-one has ever heard of. Why on earth would I be interested in that?? Obviously they haven't read my CV - just the opposite I should say. I have three words for this - irksome, pokey, tiresome. Baha humbug!

* And then we have a bit of an actual cherry on the sundae, really, no pun intended, and that's that I did persevered in the case of wrongful claim regarding waste disposal fee - I got this second halfwit letter from that debt collection agency stating that my reasons for refusing to pay didn't acquit me from the obligation to pay. Which is completely untrue, and even if it wasn't it is most certainly not their place to decide, it's a matter for the court. I got so mad I was close to eruption. Boy, did they mess with the wrong gal!

Of course I had to continue to repudiate the claim. And sure enough - even if one can hardly ever be sure when it comes to law. The alpha and omega-bit of it... - a few days later I got a letter saying they withdraw the claim. Ha. Yes it was a measly sum of money, but sometimes you just have to take a stand even for the measly things in life. They're also a part of the puzzle.

And doing this, I really remember why I once upon a time did love the law, and still do I guess. It's not always, perhaps even more seldom than often, a question of right and wrong, black and white, it's almost always a case of interpretation. And getting the argumentation right is essential - oh I do love that kind of wordly quill-driving! What a buzz!

intressant.se

Somewhere over the rainbow

A brief shower some moments ago and this rainbow appeared over the rooftops. It faded away about as quickly as it appeared. Are you like me, wondering what lies at the end of the rainbow? Is it a pot full of gold or not, I wonder...

Details

So much in life can be appreciated in details, like I've mentioned a few times before and probably never will stop returning to again and again...

Like the amazing pink colour of the morning smoothie (vanilla yoghurt, banana, kiwi, raspberries and berries from the forrest).

Or the choice of tender pansies in wonderful colours on a grave of a loved one. The picture just don't do them justice. I was in awe, both by that stunning colour and the careful consideration I'm sure was behind that choice...

Or the sun and daylight affecting the treebranches with tender green leaves hence creating a fantastic effect against the deep blue sky.

Or a beautiful facade on a backstreet in the middle of the city.

...or some lovely bicycle saddles that just scream "buy me! buy me! buy ME!"

Perhaps a part of a iron rose lettice on a park bench, so sweet!

The discovery that there are actually large statues guarding on top of one of the Kungstornen (The King's Towers) in the middle of the city - I had no idea, why haven't I seen those before? And even if they're larger than a mere detail irl, they sure are tiny details in a pic.

That handmade button from Skye on the cutest Harris tweed handbag size zero - a handbag that really is difficult to actually use but that fills me with sheer joy everytime I look at it.

A bolt on a door - who knows what secrets and treasures that might hide behind such a beautiful carved gateway and its bolt?

I suppose that list of wonderful, intricate details can go on and on and on, if you just open your eyes to them. What about your favourite details, where might one find them? And is there any particular story behind them? Feel free to share!

Road trip - Sigtuna

Sigtuna is a charming small town situated about 40 kilometres northeast of Stockholm city. For me it takes about 20 minutes by car, a bit longer by bus but still there's a bus-line that actually goes from my place of living "directly" - if you don't mind the changing of bus in the middle of nowhere, on a pretty desterted country road, a minor detail perhaps - to Sigtuna. So I don't have to bother about taking the c-train to the city and change for another c-train and then a bus.

I bet I can hear the Club of Interest taking notes once again, since my doings and non-doings with the Stockholm public-transportation is of the uttermost interest - or not.

Anyway. Sigtuna is the perfect place for a lovely little day trip. The town was founded in the late 1000 century AD and is actually the oldest town Sweden. It played a significant role in Sweden's history for some centuries. Now it's mostly a popular place to visit during the summers with a laid back atmosphere and a posh address for living.

Some noteable things about Sigtuna are for example;
* the first coin of Sweden was made there
* since Sigtuna is considered to be the first Christian town in Sweden it had seven large churches erected in the Middle Ages, of them only three ruins remain now.
* there are several nicely situated castles in the area - my favourite being Skokloster which is more than well worth a visit and a guided tour

* there are several runstones erected in the town centre - Elvira took a particular shine to the one in the pic, from 11th century AD
* also many other places where you can hear the wingbeats of history can be found in the Sigtuna vicinity - read more here

There are also many small shops of interest, handicrafts, flowers, clothes, books, toys, ceramics, antiques, interior decorations etc etc to be found in Sigtuna. Most of them situated along the main street in a very compact, easy to reach kind of way.

And of course, several places to eat and have coffee and a cake. In every pricerange, from gourmet to pizzeria. One of my favourites being Tant Brun - Auntie Brown - which is a small tearoom with the most gorgeous outdoor area in the summers. The name derives from the old children's book of "Tant Brun, Tant Grön och Tant Gredelin" (Auntie Brown, Auntie Green and Auntie Mauve) by lovely Swedish author and illustrator ElsaBeskow

Just so old-style typically Swedish and I just love it! Such an idyllic place, the staff all wear old dresses and aprons when they in a very friendly way serve delicious bread, sandwiches, cakes and coffee in those old, gibbous brass kettles. Just sit back, relax and enjoy!

And after having finished there's mostly a little fellow or two who are keen to get some leftovers.

And before you return back home, if you haven't done that already, I recommend you have yourself a walk among the old church ruins, it's quite the atmospheric thing to do. Close your eyes and just slowly let those wingbeats of history take you back in time...

WCB # 106 - My Little Ray of Sunshine Sweet as Sugar

My dearest little flying squirrel of a cat - a behaviour inherited from her father Clemens -, creamier than cream, sweeter than sweet, cuter than cute, cuddlesome Eulalia, is actually turning 9 years old today!

Once again, how time flies, in a pretty scary non-pleasant way, it feels like only a few years since this little darling of a kitty saw the daylight in my study. Along with her four brothers and sisters. All cream. Quite the litter. She was then the third linear descendent from my own breeding. The first all crème de la crème-litter - and I was soo very happy!

Her paternal grandmother is Aurora, and just like her, she was a charmer and a poser from a very early age. Just as sweet as a sugar crumb and if not sweet enough to eat, sweet enough to cuddle to outright exhaustion…

She’s been one of the apples of my eye and a real showstopper through many a cat-shows over the years. She was one of the main reasons I became Second Best Shorthair breeder in Sweden 1998 and Best British Shorthair Breeder in Sweden in 1999. Lots of water under the bridge since then, after that things have sort of spiralled downwards - or rather I’d become *a bit* tired of the not-very-sportsman-like sport of cat showing…

Some months ago Eulalia was well and truly retired from the show-ring getting her neuter title of GIP - the second highest neuter-title in FIFe/Sweden - added to her title EC - the highest title in FIFe/Sweden - and a bit of icing on the cake.

Now she’s completely enjoying her well earned leisure as my very personal hairstylist - she nibbles very well indeed - and showing her racy flying catsquirrel-extraordinaire-qualities better than ever. Being the cuddly, cobby Tudor-cat - ie always having her little, short tail in an erect, and in her case, happy position - only she can be…

And yes, today she’s celebrating her birthday with getting new food-bowls plus summer-coaster (see pic on top), later we’ll have an intimate dinner just the two of us and then she’ll get some nice gourmet-kitty delight that she doesn’t have to share with anybody but her fantastic self.

She's of course also one of the gift-recievers of this amazing water bowl for garden use. Even if today's is a rather gloomy, rainy day and both humans and felines are much more inclined to snuggle up in the sofa than enjoying the garden-life. Eulalia though, being a little ray of sunshine as always!

Her new toy she happened to get the other day, by chance, when the handyman forget a little bag with screws. She was just so excited over that silly little thing and rolled around with that like a little hairball on speed, ears all back and a crazy, eager look on her furface. The best gifts are for free! Even though she won't be able to play with this particular toy under any other circumstances than supervisioned of course...

She is actually far too busy with getting her fur in the right festive condition, being cuddled and uttering little expectant, bleating meows to have the time posing for pictures on this special day. So unfortunately these are the best I could get. Anyway -

Happy 9th birthday, darling, and many more to come!!

If you head over to the hosts Kate & Puddy at A Byotaful Life you'll get the whole round-up of this week's WCB

Having a Plupp of a day

My favourite cosmetic product is probably the blusher - even though the older I get, the less cosmetic I tend to use. Perhaps it should be the other way around, or perhaps I've just become older and significantly wiser hence realising there is such a thing as inner beauty. And I really don't want anything to come between the world and my inner beauty. One can also explain it with the words becoming lazier with age.

But nevertheless, inner beauty can be in badly need of a boost now and then, and the blusher is a fun little thing with which you can conjure away paleness and weariness. Used wisely it can truly make miracles. During the most time of the time of the year.

But now is fortunately the time of natural blusher. Love it! Summer, sun, outdoor, wind, Toy Car, who needs artificial blushers?! Not the older and considerably wiser yours truly anyway.

Twice in my life, so far, I've actually sort of burnt myself in the sun, ages ago in Crete and some years ago while in Barcelona not wearing head covering. And perhaps a slight bit in ZA, where I was meticulous with sunblocker, but my poor back still got a bit too much the first couple of days. Other than that, I get easily tanned and know my own limits of sun-exposure. Ordinarily.

Then we have the Toy Car-outings, well, the sun exposure is a bit much sometimes. And only on certain parts, not always very even. A bit of a Janus-face really. Or more of a Janus-torso perhaps.

And having had a really lovely day out and about with the Toy C - just so my fresh-from-the-study-of-Pia-hearty-necklace finally could get a proper welcoming to a Swedish summer, of course - my face, chest and arms are all naturally blushed. I prefer to call the nuance sweet wild strawberry, evil tongues would probably call it a grumpy red tomatoe.

Or perhaps that I look like Plupp - that dear old book many of us used to love when children - come to think of it, the hair, my hair, looks quite a bit like Plupp's at the moment... Toy Car-hair, minus the blue colour.

By the way, you totally know the hair is Toy Car Plupp-like when M - one who usually can't tell the difference between detergent and shampoo - utters the magic words of "I think your hair really needs a hair-pack..."

So now I'm treating the hair wisps and their friends tufts to a deeply repairative one. Before that I was a really good - once again in a very short period of time! - gardener and planted a whole bunch of bright red poppies, blue cornflowers and white daisies - see, in the spirit of Plupp! - in the flowerbeds of my garden.

I didn't buy the plants. I didn't get them as a gift. And I don't think one could call it stealing. I just got them from a *very* secret, sort of public place. I wasn't the only one toddling about collecting those red-blue-whites though. But I'm pretty sure I was the only one showing off my underwear - as close as my inner beauty goes - to a beglamoured audience of fellow pickers.

When I heard a chuckle from the proud carrier of Elvira I knew something was up, and up it sure was, the pink catch had been caught by the wind and sort of did a little Seven Year Itch-impersonation all by her little self.

And no it wasn't very Monroe-like, more Plupp-like glowing with inner beauty. But I both got my flowers - to hopefully create a garden that my grandpa' would be proud of - and lightened up the fellow-pickers day with showing off my close-to-inner-beauty. Not too bad for a day's work I think.

intressant.se

A social gathering

A gathering of swans and ducks at the waterfront in Stockholm. Only male ones - not sure about the gender part of the swans though, didn't really feel like finding out... - I guess it was sort of a laddies day by the shore. *Quack*

My day so far

It's rather tiresome to just sit and wait for the arrival of handymen - whose time apparently and always is much more important than mine or anyone else, since they can't actually make a more specific appointment like a normal non-handy person...

I can't help but wonder how they act when they need to make an appointment with the dentist, the doctor, the lawyer, the accountant - let's say sometime between 8 am - 4 pm on Friday. Shouldn't think so. It really beats and bugs me why this is such an acceptable behaviour for handymen, anybody got a clue??

I could have had a nice sleep in, I could have had a nice breakfast watching a movie, yes I could even had time to do some errands on the town. Instead I sat here waiting and waiting and waiting... They didn't show up until 2 pm.

I did manage to get some neat jewellery made while waiting though, it's been such a long time since last. Jewellerymaking is very much that kind of thing I get mentally paralyzed by. All the ideas, all the pearls, stones and materials, so much to do, so little time... And so, nothing gets done.

Also I would so much like to go a bit overboard, crazy, flip out when making the stuff. I've always loved colours, so I'm no Bashful when it comes to mixing and matching in that area, neither different materials and shapes. But I'm just so filled with admiration of all these - mainly American - jewellerymakers that really stretches the limits and the materials. Oh, I wish I could go all flippin' and get my ideas turned into muckin' afazing stuff, instead of getting gorgonized by pearls and stones.

Anyhow, while waiting and making something out of those stones I also enjoyed one of the most lovely fruit syrups I've ever had. Just like homemade, no preserves, rhubarb squash from Grangärde Musteri/cider factory. I gulped the last half of the bottle down and it was just delicious. Not very easy to find in the stores I'm afraid, but I'll have my eyes open.

The other bottle in the pic is a great cardamom fruit syrup from Nibble Gård/Farm. A farm which doesn't just sell their own food-products but also other nice products from small farms and most often organic. And they have a really charming café open all summer, which makes the perfect little outing! Map to Nibble

This cardamom syrup can be mixed with water or white wine or vodka, depending on the occasion. *Slurp*