Milla sent me this today. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“Apple does it again…
Apple Computer announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play high fidelity music in women’s’ breast implants.
The iT will cost between $499.00 and $699.00 depending on speaker size.
This is considered to be a major breakthrough because women have always complained about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.”
Enjoy the sunshine!
Alex.
I know. What is the world coming to? Nothing for weeks on end, and then twice in a day? Well. I felt like it.
Firstly I would like to give a *HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE* shout out to the friendly traffic warden who decided that my two minutes (literally) of unpaid parking didn’t warrant a fine. Thanks a bunch!
Secondly Copenhagen is just a marvel of beauty in summer. Cruising through town with the windows down and the music playing is just bliss. I doubt there are many better places in the world…
Which leads me to my third revelation. I love “Mysteriet i Finderup Plade” om P3. It is the coolest radio show since “De Sorte Spejdere“. Thanks for making me remember all the wonderful hits of years gone by.
Alex.
I feel guilty for not writing something, but I’ve been so caught up in my thesis, that nothing really exciting or reportable has happened. It is sad. I go to work on Mondays (or as last week all days but Wednesday) and then spend the rest of the week writing, reading and correcting.
A quick summation:
Last weekend Lorna and I went to Præstø to celebrate Dorte and George’s wedding. It was a grand party at a grand place. If you’re ever around and fancy a weekend of luxury I can recommend Hotel Frederiksminde, only fly in the ointment was the rather lacklustre brunch. It was all very romantic and pretty and lovely. On the way home we drove followed a scenic route and ended up at Stevns Klint which I’ve never seen. It was lovely and we saw wild Mink!
Next week will be Philip and Trine’s wedding, which will also mark the end of “wedding season” for this year. Which reminds me, I need to get my suit drycleaned, got a bit hot and sweaty as the weather has been stellar for more than a week now. So amazing to finally have summer!
I only hope that Birmingham will provide similar weatherly joy, as I will be heading in that direction soon.
I just noticed that I had not updated the “Now Reading” and it appeared as if I hadn’t been reading a book for the last month! *GASP*. But fear not, the mistake is corrected and “Ilium” is nearing the end, soon to be replaced by something else. I can recommend the book. The reading can be a bit tough at times, but the plot is amazing and he mixes Greek mythology with sci-fi with Shakespearean commentary in a masterful way.
There. I feel less guilty, now to deal with the pesky thesis (well. Go to the shops, as I am out of food and didn’t get home from work until 10 last night).
Ta,
Alex.
I was just getting excited. I saw the trailer for the new movie starring Robert Downey Jr. and thought for a second, that it might be good. And then came disappointment. It appears to be action movies. Sherlock Holmes is not about action. Yes, there are murders, mayhem and whatnot, but it is not an action movie in my opinion. Where is the thinking, the reflection, the quiet braininess?! The action shouldn’t be the driving force behind it. Sherlock Holmes is British and shouldn’t be translated into an american action movie.
They should have kept it local.
Alex.
Yesterday I turned 32. It didn’t really come as much of a surprise and I don’t feel hugely different, but then not sure I’m meant to.
The day started at 6.50 when mum and dad rang and sang. Not unexpected, but I had hoped for perhaps another half hours worth of sleep, alas, no such luck. Lorna got up and gave me my first silly present, a car. It was a chunky looking rear-wheel drive poison green thing, made from Lego. Comes with its own ramp to do some jumps off! I immediately tore the packaging and assembled it in bed. I also got a nice shortsleeve shirt (Lorna has noticed that quite a substantial part of my wardrobe consists of various shades of blue) in white with a green, brown and yellow check pattern, it didn’t fit unfortunately.
From there we went to Bannatyne’s in town for an hours worth of massage, where I was administered to by the very strong Jo, who pummeled my body to pieces - it was lovely! After a quick trip back for a deoiling shower, we drove to Harborne for a very impressive Michelin-starred (my first!) lunch at Turner’s. It was a drawn out two hour two course affair (three if you count the complimentary foie grais with crunchy garlic crisp bread and apple sauce amuse bouche). The food was amazing! Before anything else we got a small basket of freshly, straight from the oven, still ouchy hot, bread and a selection of butter. We decided on the seaweed version which had a very tangy and salty taste. Very different, but definitely worth a try if you happen by it. My starter was a tartar of Scallops with slightly soft boiled quail eggs, avocado oil, some snippets of salad and Oscietre Caviar. It was incredibly tasty and delicious. Lorna had a ravioli of lobster on a falling-apart-it-was-so-tender piece of ham hock with a very full flavoured tomato sauce on top. It too was something amazing.
For mains I had best end of lamb with some greens a roasted potato-square and a sauce so full of flavour it was almost a meal unto itself. Lorna had pigeon with a whole foie gras liver and puy lentils and a fragrant jus that made you drool from the smell alone. Also completely amazing.
From there we quickly drove in to town, exchanged the shirt for something in my size and headed home to prepare for the arrival of the guests.
When they arrived, the house was covered in flags, there was a tangy cheddar nestling up to two oozing bries and some blackcurrant preserve, four cakes, three danish layer cakes and a chocolate and stout cake that Lorna baked. Huge amounts of cream, custard, bananas and frozen and fresh berries were employed to create some very lovely (and calorie heavy) cakes. To my surprise they liked them! Which is good, I would have had a heart attack trying to eat them by myself.
We served tea, rolls and biscuits to go with the cheese, cake to go with cake and a good time was had by all. And that was pretty much it. After doing the dishes we curled up in bed and soon fell asleep.
Many thanks to everyone for texting, ringing, singing, FaceBooking, sending cards, giving me presents and showing up to make the day a wonderful one.
Alex.
I have previously lamented the pain that is Eurovision. Last night it was time for this years final. I won’t bore you to death with analysis and commentary, but simply relate the text conversations I had with Sal and Rex (and Miam for a brief interlude) as the horror show progressed, feel free to lean back and let the memories flow.
R: It’s not as much fun as last year
Me: My ears bleed…
R: True!
R: … I’m dying!
M: Go Denmark!
Me: First time I hear the song.
S: Who is your Ronan-lookalike?
Me: Dunno. Never heard the song until now. It was written by Ronan though and it shows. Generic boyband if ever I heard.
R: Ditto
S: Those guys in his band pretending to be all rock and roll should be ashamed. This German one is really embarassing. The dancers are hot tho.
Me: Eurovision is always something to be ashamed of. It is scarely bad.
S: This Turkish one is hot!
Me: What is up with the blue gimp?
S: He’s escaped from a Kylie video.
Me: WTF is Norway on?
S: Whatever it is, I want some! That’s some good drugs!
Me: I hear ya. Guess all their money isn’t just from oil.
S: I want an anti-crisis girl to be my Valentine
Me: She is so losing her flat. What a disaster. But good to see that you can get an English rhyming dictionary in the Ukraine.
S: Yeah man. We counted 16 rhymes in a row. That’s quite impressive.
Me: Romania has them too!
S: They also have someone singing for them in the back. Tres dodgy. Is Balkan girls like to party a euphemism for they’re all wh*res?
Me: Well. Given the amount of offers for east bloc mail order brides I get email, it might be viewed as advertising.
S: I just get penis enlargement ones. Let’s swap!
S: It’s the Finnish Eminem! Genius.
Me: More like Vanilla Ice.
S: Ice ice baby.
S: Why is Israel allowed in Eurovision? They’re not in Europe.
Me: Politics. Why is Russia?
R: Can you vote someone out?
Me: Unfortunately I don’t think so. They should up the ante a bit. Shoot them with paintballs. Distance and number in reverse proportion to final position. See how many make it…
S: Well they’re kind of eastern europe. And they provide oil for pretty much all of Europe. Is it because of the war?
Me: Because most of the Jewish population are from Europe?
S: I voted for Moldova. They were ace.
Me: Only problem with them is that the song title in Swedish roughly translates as “your whore Moldova”.
S: And the problem is?!
S: Norway was so bad. Why oh why?
Me: they must’ve bribed all the judges with some of all their billions.
S: Why do they have billions? It’s just f*cking snow!
Me: North sea oil, baby. The Norwegian state is sitting on a nest egg worth around £50K pr. capita. There are roughly five million of them. Do the math.
S: That’s not that much! Not enough to explain this, it was dire.
Me: Maybe they were promised unlimited supplies of reindeer meat and picked herring?
S: Maybe. That’s all they’ll be left with in 50 years when the north sea fields dry up. They’re already in decline.
Me: Maybe. Meanwhile I drew Spain in the sweep.
S: Gutted!
Me: Bad taste won yet again. Just proves the old saying about flies and sh*t
S: Well yeah but what were the politics this time? It was obvious why they voted for Russia last year, they’ve turn off the gas if not!
And thus ended the evening. Meanwhile I am quite sore from Miam’s birthday paintball-bash earlier in the day. My left knee was sore all day and when I woke this morning I noticed why. I’ve skinned it quite badly. Lorna has some nice welts and bruises coming up too. All in a days celebration.
Alex.
Can someone point me towards the movie-style-research-and-writing button? You know the one. I get an assignment and start working on it, cue instrumental music with just the right gravitas to emphasize that “this is serious” and the minute long series of montages showing me writing, carrying books, highlighting stuff on papers and whiteboards, picking books from shelves, waiting for the printer to finish spitting out hardcopy, more writing, drinking cold coffee and making a face, having a Eureka moment (possibly even two) and finally putting all the papers in a binder and dropping them off at university. Next clip is me walking out from the oral examination and tiredly announcing a good grade and hugging my friends and family.
It is not that I am tired of writing my thesis, it is very interesting and I’ve gotten to read some very interesting literature that I hope to be able to include (even *shudder-at-the-thought* Bourdieu), but at the same time I am mentally so ready to move on. The pending move to England and Lorna is much more interesting, I guess I am ready to go back to fulltime employment and everything that we have planned.
And the move brings me to my second point for the day, the seemingly infinite plasticity of time. When I moved over in August to do my fieldwork, the thought of spending six months writing my thesis didn’t seem like that long. I figured it would be over before I barely blinked, but now, in the middle of writing it and with four and a bit months to go, the horizon seems to have moved quite a bit in the wrong direction. Although the time already passed have gone alarmingly quickly, it just seems that October is far, far away.
I think some of it has to do with me just having one single thing to do. I don’t do that very well, which will probably also mean that a PhD isn’t going to happen. The singular focus is getting to me, because there are so few goalposts along the way. This is all conspiring to make me feel plenty guilty over “not getting enough done”, so for procrastinatory purposes, I clean. That way I feel that I’m still “doing something”. Although I could imagine that trying to explain why my section on methodology is a bit thin because I had to make sure all the spoons lined up in the drawer and were as shiny as possible probably won’t help me much.
And continuing from last time, it is obscure word time:this time you get the very uncommon adjective “didymous” and the obscure interjection “harkee”. Try using those in the same sentence!
Alex.
I feel that I should update and say something exciting about what is going on. But to be honest, not much is. I am completely caught up in my thesis. Currently I am writing the ethics bit and will move on to building the theoretical framework next.
I’m really drawing a blank here. So I will just leave you with the uncommon intransitive verb “overfeed” and the obscure interjection “looky” (as chosen by the random word generator here)
Alex.
While looking when the Pope will visit Israel (May 11-15) and learning that the Israeli postal service will issue a series of commemorative stamps for the occasion, Lorna and I came across this article in Ha’aretz.
Apparently “Swine Flu” is not Kosher, so the acting minister of health decided to rename it “Mexico Flu”. As the article details it, it is symptomatic of the complete madness that rules Israel’s politics.
Snippets include: “even though the authorities in question are currently being managed by a man who just tried to rename swine flu so that Jews in the State of Israel will not be forced to utter a reference to pork” (I’m not sure if words can or can’t be Kosher, it seems an absurd notion) and “[s]uch is the system that produces a government where a party representing a community whose media cannot print the word sex, airbrushes women out of photos, and binds them into a strict second-class status, can be put in charge of the Health Ministry, a ministry legally bound to protect the well-being of all Israelis, regardless of gender, race or religion”.
I’m still undecided on the laughing or crying. Is this supreme comedy of almost Dante-esque levels or is it just simply absurd cringeworthiness that can only induce tears?
Alex.
Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years by Jared M. Diamond
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