in which I am London-bound

Today I am mostly happysmilyhappybouncyhappy. It's fairly safe to say that I absolutely have the Friday feeling, which, lets's be honest, is always nice.


Not only have I had a fairly good week [so far, so good, 2012] but this time tomorrow I will be in London Town with the fabulous Jen Campbell which I am extremely excited about. It's been a long time coming and I am uber excited about walks on Hampstead Heath and antiquarian bookshops and The Hummingbird Bakery and a Quentin Blake exhibition and catching up with other London-based friends and chatter and books and films and wine and photographs. It will be a very nice time indeed I think and I shall return next week and regale you with tales of our adventures [which hopefully will not involve us getting lost anywhere ever]


In other news it has dawned on me that I haven't blogged about the good books of 2011 which is annoying as I totally meant to do that over Christmas. Curses.
I struggled a little because I  read some really really good books last year. 2011 has been a good year for me, reading wise and narrowing it down to just 5 was tough. I managed though, so in no particular order here you go:

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro 
Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and no matter how much we despised ourselves for it--unable quite to let each other go.”

The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini 
For you, a thousand times over”

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
[I’m cheating a bit here and counting the trilogy as 1 choice. Please don’t shoot me. I loved these books. I preferred the first and second to the third but I loved them all. They totally got under my skin and I just couldn’t put them down. I can’t wait to read them again!]

One more time? For the audience?" he says. His voice isn't angry. It's hollow, which is worse. Already the boy with the bread is slipping away from me.

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

“I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.”


Between Shades Of Grey - Ruta Sepetys
I left the jutra to chop wood. I began my walk through the snow, five kilometers to the tree line. That's when I saw it. A tiny silver of gold appeared between shades of gray on the horizon.
I stared at the amber band of sunlight, smiling.
The sun had returned.
I closed my eyes. I felt Andrius moving close. "I'll see you," he said.
"Yes, I will see you," I whispered "I will." 

I reached into my pocket and squeezed the stone
And there you have it. If you haven't read those books then I suggest you do because each one of them is fabulous - be warned though because they'll more than likely bring a tear to your eye. I seemed to like books that made me sad last year.  Maybe 2012 ought to be the year of laughter....

Happy Friday.

Always nice to see you, Watson



Anyone remember this scene from the first Sherlock Holmes movie:

Holmes: You’ve never complained about my methods before.
Watson: I’m not complaining. 
Holmes: You’re not? What do you call this? 
Watson: I never complain! How am I complaining? When do I ever complain about you practicing the violin at three in the morning, or your mess, your general lack of hygiene, or the fact that you steal my clothes? 
 Holmes: Uh, we have a barter system… 
Watson: When have I ever complained about you setting fire to my rooms? 
Holmes: Our rooms… 
Watson: The rooms! Or, or, the fact that you experiment on my dog? 
Holmes: Our dog… 
Watson: The dog! 
Holmes: Gladstone is our dog! 

<3

Anyway. I saw The Game Of Shadows this week, which, I loved and which pretty much made my week. It’s the highlight of 2012 thus far.

I read an interview somewhere on the t’interweb with Jude Law describing this film as a Rom-Com with him and RDJ as the stars. How apt that is. It’s like the film is dancing around singing ‘this is as gay as it could be and you love it’ and you know what?

It really is and I really do.

Fine, I love the action scenes and the fight scenes and the scenes with the very big weapons [actual weapons, guys, that’s not a euphemism] too but what really makes this film, for me, is the whole Holmes/Watson dynamic.
I mean, Sherlock at Watson’s wedding; Watson’s panic on the train when he thinks Holmes is dead; the ballroom dancing; the ‘always nice to see you, Watson’ [brought a lump to my throat almost, that line]; Watson’s face when he  watches Holmes and Moriaty fall; the banter; the looks; the read-between-the-lines-if-you-want-to subtleties; the ‘lie with me Watson’-esque not-so-subtleties [that whole train sequence almost made me squeal actually. I loved it] All of that, their whole relationship, sorry Watson, partnership is show-stoppingly good.

I’m not going to say that Holmes and Watson are sleeping together secretly and Watson’s marriage to Mary is a big fat Remus/Sirius/Tonks type of sham.*  I'm not.
What I am going to say is that the chemistry between these two characters is a million times more sizzling than that between Twishite’s Bella and Edward [which is tragic when you consider RPattz and Stewart are dating in real life] and  that chemistry is a large part of what makes this film so fabulous.   
That and the fact that Downey Jr is seriously sexy and spends a fair portion of the film either shirtless or deliciously dishevelled and that  Stephen Fry is gloriously Stephen Fry and has and that every actor in the film has spot on comic timing and that Guy Ritchie is clearly a very clever man because the cinematography is excellent.

I loved this film. It’s laugh out loud funny and edge of your seat exciting and just so much fun.


In that spirit: Happy Friday. 









*except that possibly maybe I am saying that. Or at least, I hope that if anybody ever decides to marry me and their best man asks them why, their answer is less ‘because I want a relationship and the chance to start a family and I don’t want to die alone’ and more ‘because I’m crazy in love with her.’ Just sayin’….