Big Sister?

Jade and Betty
Channel 4 seems to be eating itself at the moment, and the viewers seem to be enjoying it.

We have the American "Devil wears Prada" knockoff of Ugly Betty, where a minor American actress spends pre-screen hours getting prepped to look less attractive in a sitcom whose plotline is almost the Lauren Weisberger novel. I wonder whether the 'inner beauty' will be sustainable, or whether the show will need an 'LA' moment where she morphs back into her un-remodelled self?

Or a different kind of Devil with filmmaker Ken Russell now an honorary member of celebrity Jade Goody's family in "Big Brother Celebrity Edition"?

Strange how things sometimes overlap.

tags technorati : rashbre big brother jade betty ugly betty ken russell

felicity

Discernable changes now we are past the shortest day of the year. Many say the shortest day forms the start of Winter, but I'll assume that the start of December is more appropriate in the United Kingdom.

Persephone may still be in the underworld at the moment, with Demeter lonely and the ground hard, but as I left home this afternoon at around 4pm there was still daylight and even a red sky.

Maybe these are very early signs that the days are lengthening, even if we still have cold and frost. But as I took down some twefth night lights, I could already see early buds forming on the trees. The Eleusinian mysteries may be myth, but hold close to the season.

ultraviolet

A short television fix yesterday included stumbling across a movie that seems to have bypassed cinemas completely on its way to the playstation.

That so much gloss and probably cell-by-cell cgi treatment could blend with such a poor script is remarkable.

T&A based derivative futuristic vamp(ire) Manga clone vs humans delivered in ultrasillyvision.

Precis of movie below.

cube

So I'm now a member of the expresso sipping set with my fine new cube, which promises all manner of beany delights, via a capsule system. Santa brought it with about a dozen flavours to get started but I was a little sceptical when I discovered that the only way to order replacements was online.

Having now tried the order system, during Christmas week, and getting back the package of additional capsules within three days, I'm quite impressed. I mainly drink filter coffee in one variation or another, but am conscious how much can get tipped away. So these little capsules deliver a wide variety of bean types (expresso, lungo, cappucino etc) fast and in just the required amounts.

Right now I'm enjoying a Latin American Livanto.

T13 : Get Cape; Wear Cape; Fly

This is my first chance for any reflection since the start of the new year, delivered in the form of a Thursday Thirteen. I couldn't help but also look back through blog entries as part of this process. I normally only spend about ten minutes a day dropping in an entry, which varies from questions about the amount of sugar in a doughnut, to some commentary about current events, usually with a vaguely relevant picture and often using a snap that I've taken myself.

The thing I found facinatiing some twenty months since I started, was just how much gets captured in even just those fleeting entries, whether its the words, the comments from others, the digressions to other folks' blogs, the varied locations or just the amusement.

But the most intriguing part was the way time has behaved - conventional wisdom says time speeds up, but if anything the process of writing down entries has stretched it out.

So, here's around thirteen entries from 2006.

1) January : Saw the year in from rashbre west, in Florida. Then later in the month, off to Brussels and Barcelona. And my car heater broke. Lucky I was away such a lot.

2) February : Helped Christina get her website started. And she's still borrowing my server space and flickr library. Seems a lot longer since that pivotal expresso.

3) March : We ran the music mixing experiment with one of Christina's tracks which featured a foodblender. I started editing the NaNo novel from last November and arbitrarily started a 'Free link Friday', which created about 30 links.

4) April : My iPod broke, and I published instructions about how to dismantle it, which has continued to receive hits every month, ever since. Short version, use a guitar plectrum to get inside the case. Then the rest drops out fairly easily. The most likely loose connection is where the hard drive connects to the circuit board. Use electrical tape to re-secure. I also set up rashbre.tv and Simon from Holyhoses developed the definitive version of Christina's track called wind

5) May: A blogging adventure whilst in Barcelona, meeting the delighful mar and mr.mar! And in addition, a visit to the Princes Trust, which was royally attended. Oh, and a couple of bloggers set out to find out about me! Some of us prefer our anonymity.

6) June : Solstice, Mountain biking, world cup and the convent.

7) July : The Bootleg Beatles, a visit to New York, a field in Priddy Folk Festival, a visit to Dublin, Ireland and a treasure hunt in the English countryside.

8) AugustWarhol at the Fringe gets four stars in the Scotsman. Brief stops in Sweden and Verona earlier in the month.

9) September : Kate and Neal's big day; Newcastle and the Malmaison effect and travels mixed with helping Julie collect tunes from pop concerts.

10) October : Germany and Connecticut, plus a quick trip to Milan as well as several trips to Chelsea, SW3.

11) November : My second attempt at a NaNo novel. Although I did enough words, I've only written about one third of the story, interspersed with my business time in France. My strategy is to try to get the first 'novel' finished before I tidy the second one.

12) December : Off to America again, including the John Lennon Tribute. A late build towards the festive season, but including a bit of a jam session now that I've learned a few more guitar chords.

13> 2007 : Let's just say its starting well!

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Tag: Thursday Thirteen, free link friday, 82ask

OTA Wordless Wednesday

bicycles of Bruges

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Tag: Wordless Wednesday

Brugge

Brugge is a very walkable city, yet has many areas of great contrast. And of course, although the buildings are mainly quite old, they are still fully functional and in great condition. The hotel I've been staying in derives from 1470 and has been through a suitably torrid past leading to its recent renovation to modern boutique styling, yet still maintaining most of the old architectural features.

I gather Brugge started to issue coins back in the 9th Century, although almost certainly the original inhabitants go back a few hundred years further when the city would have also been a fortress to provide protectiion from lurking pirate ships.

There was a golden period to around the twelfth century where Brugge had good sea access and fortifications, making it a great staging post and creating a woollen market.

Later, Brugge also opened a Bourse (Stock Exchange) and this created further wealth for the area. Then the city turned towards arts as well, with the famous Flemish School of painting deriving from Brugge as well as William Caxton's first book in English being printed in Brugge.

So, by the 15th century, Philip the Good (the Duke of Burgundy) had set up his court in Brugge attracting a number of artists, bankers, and other prominent personalities from all over Europe.

Later, the river's silting allowed Antwerp to become a preferred port and this saw the start of a decline for Brugge as a key commercial centre.

But this rich history has served well nowadays for a town packed with architectural interest, many small cafes and bars, fine restaurants, artistic views on every street corner and of course the waffles and chocolates for which Belgium is well known.

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

Happy New Year

A fine sunny start to 2007 here in Bruges! This is a view of the friendly cafe with the very home-made gluhwein near to the hotel, which is in the background just behind the bridge.

And the people in the snapshot do all seem to be enjoying the start of the new year, too.\

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

Last evening of 2006

Not a bad view from the room, for the last evening of 2006? The canals of Brugges and a sky later to be lit by the fireworks of Silvestre, which is a co-ordination in much of mainland Europe which ich is still fairly uncommon to we British. So in Brussels, I suppose chocolate and champagne will be on the agenda at some point.

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

Eurostar

No prizes for guessing I'm in Bruges, Belgium.

Well, put it another way, I wouldn't have been able to guess this, even when I was being bundled onto the Eurostar from London. This is a great surprise for New Year! So it is a time for meandering around the picturesque lanes of an ancient town, once the largest trading centre in North Western Europe.

Nowadays, its an endearingly pretty location where every corner creates another scenic view, of old buildings, canals, churches, statues and cobbled pathways.

tags technorati : rashbre, Belgium, Brussels, Bruges

clean

So I finally cleaned the car

tags technorati : rashbre, carwash, car, filthy

crank it

A certain amount of black smoke today as I restarted the blog after several days of offline festivities.

Its been a great break, with people, parties and presents and, in my case, a certain amount of driving as well. In fact, at certain points it was challening to figure out how to get people, presents and general luggage into the car together.

tags technorati : rashbre, blog, blogging, blogs