Camp'n

It is really hard to get excited about a week under canvas when you are packing the car in the bloody rain.  Just can't get myself excited about the whole thing.  No Totaranui this year so the sun is not a sure thing.  Lake Rotoiti will be lovely but not so much if the sun ain't shining.  As I am finishing the clothes packing I have American Idol on and I just want to say WHAT THE F%&* is VICTORIA BECKHAM doing on the show?
1.  She can't sing
2.  She is really thick/vacuous/dense
3.  She is too thin and makes my eyes hurt
AND
She knows nothing about music....NOTHING.  All she has said all night is 'you look lovely', 'I love your jeans and your hair' DUH!  Honestly, I have never had an opinion about her other than TOO THIN and very very VAIN, however now as you can tell, I have a lot to say about her. 

So, yeah, not around for a week or so.  HAve fun without me.  Ha ha.

at the movies

I got to see the very well reviewed and acclaimed film version of the 'Girl with the dragon tattoo'.  Swedish with sub-titles, the ONLY way this story can possibly be authentic.   No substitute would work.  I was interested to see how they made a very complex and intricate book into a watchable length movie. They focused on the main story of the book and the key handful of characters.  It is an interesting and very disturbing story that was well developed without including everything or missing the essence.  I found some scenes harrowing and the tension was there all the time.  I loved it.  Great story, chracters, location and interpretation of the book everyone is reading and loving.  Excellent.

Just finished reading #29

Bleeding Hearts - Susan Wittig Albert

My little secret and 'sorbet' subject is female detectiove novels.  These babies, I imagine, seldom turn up in bookgroups and never thought of as great literature.  However, they are really fun to read.  People who read them often have a few different detectives whom they follow.  I have three - Kinsey Milhone - Sue Grafton.  I have U is for Undertow on order at the library.  China Bayles - Herbalist and ex attorny living in Pecan Springs, Texas and Stephanie Plum (not strictly a detective).  Being a follower, you get to know the characters, the location and get a real feel for the culture and geography of the area.  I really enjoyed Bleeding Hearts for its mixture of small town characters, herbal facts and stories and the secondary side stories. The misadventure all relates to the heart - bleeding and bruised so a nice theme thing going on.   However, I can't get my head around what China Bayles looks like because there is a giant photo of the the author on the back in her giant 80's glasses and that image eclipses any vision I have of China and makes the sexy bits REALLY hard to imagine.  Good palate clearing reading before I tackle my next dark tale.

New Blog

I have started another blog.  It is about random things from the visual world and it is where I am going to reveal my intense interest in every tiny detail of design in our next house plus other interesting things I find around the place.  Click on the title of this post (above)and you will find it.  I hope you enjoy it.  I am still building it and trying to decide on the look and feel so I think it will evolve.  Hope you like it

Just finished reading #28

Legend of a suicide - David Vann

Literally the nano-second I finished this book I had to Google it ot find out what the hell I was reading.  I spent the latter half of the book rather confused although I was enjoying the writing, if that makes sense.    Turns out the book is actually five separate stories with essentially the same characters.  You can imagine my confusion when once dead people were alive again.  Anyway, the stories really are about Roy and his father's suicide.    It was a bit morbid but not really as the stories were more the 'man alone' style of writing.  Life is what it is and that is it and being set in the wilds and small towns of Alaska the enviornment or setting contribute to that sense of alonenes, escape and wilderness.  Fishing and boats and Hemmingway, if you know what I mean?  I enjoyed reading this book for some reason and found it compelling.  Nice for a change if you don't read these types of books all the time.  Good.

Living the good life

This is a sneaky holiday post from the bach using Jonty's new HP mini. So far eating too much chocolate and swimming for hours on end.  Man it is hot and even at this time of the night there are at least 20 surfers still out there.  The last two nights have seen a huge impressive swell coming in from the north.  Nic has had two fab says on his boogie board and also had his first surfing lesson with Jonty.  I think he stood on the board for about 1 second.  I was impressed.  This morning we started out with a 2 hour round trip walk up to the trig station at the top of the hill as it was cool and windy but by lunch the beach had started filling up and the surf was cranking. We pottered around int he surf until the family arrived for a bbq dinner.  Delish.  Julian and I polished off a nice bottle of wine and the night turned very mellow.  Almost bed time.