zappo

... I've inspected three railway tunnels and choked at fumes in the local oil harbour, as well as battled bridge & tunnel management systems. Also read several books (though not enough to make a dent in the to-read-pile, it keeps regenerating), John le Carré rocks. "Written In Bones" arrived in less than a week, not the 30-40 weeks that amazon.ca led me to believe. I missed out on "Iron Sky" due to two of those tunnels but hope to be able to catch "The Avengers". And yesterday I had a lot of fun watching the local techno-students' parade, Chalmers-cortegen, which I've only seen once before. I'm never in town on Valborg!

Now the tempreature has finally crept above 15 degrees C there's a thick haze of BBQ smoke over the neighourhood. Something I hope to explore to greater olfactory and gustatory satisfaction in October when we go to South Africa.

But first, lots more episodes of "The Mentalist", my current obsession!

Two weeks ago I went to Stockholm to take part of what an internet dictionary calls an estate inventory. An old SF fan who was very prominent in the 60s has died and bequeathed a large sum of money to, among others, one of the clubs I'm a member of, Club Cosmos. I went as representative of the board. We had anticipated some strife and litigation over the will but that didn't happen, everyone was calm and civilised and the Arne Sjögren Memorial Fund is go.

Afterwards we went to his flat. I'm just saying, before I die I'm gonna CLEAN and PURGE and not leave a mess like that... Also I will not start smoking. I snatched some books for the memorial fund prize collection, and then went home. Yes, another there-and-back-again day in Sthlm. Just as cold as always, too.

***

It took me two and a half days to read "Tinker Tailor" -- what a brilliant book! And what a tour de force performance by Alec Guinness! It's like le Carré wrote the book after watching him in the TV series. Then I watched the new movie again and found it sadly lacking. What other le Carré books should I read then? There's quite a lot of them.

***

I won't go to Eastercon this year (it's in two weeks) or Swecon in October (we're going to Southafrica that very weekend). So to make up for lost fannish activities, maybe I should go to Return of the Ring? They had a big ad in the latest SFX, a whole page full. I don't think anyone else from these parts is going.

***

Last, we went to see "John Carter of Mars" yesterday. The BBC called it "deadly dull" and that was very harsh of them. It actually was quite a lot of fun! Stunning landscapes, fun characters, fairytale kind of story (it IS a century old) and good actors. The only bad part was the 3D which was completely flat. Why do they insist on slapping on 3D when the movie is in 2D? Keep it flat then! Anyway, a rollicking good romp it was, and then we got out and looked up at red Mars glaring at us from the night sky.

Winter solstice! And I'm playing my xmas playlist all day long; it contains goodies like this one, "Scary Solstice" and... The Goodies. Thanks Tribs!

Last night I saw "Sherlock Holmes 2" again, whee. Anything I might say about it would be a spoiler so I won't. Soooo haaaaaard to keep mum! Next up: "Tinker, Tailor". I loved the Alec Guinness TV show though I don't remember much, other than this guy who turned up in another show that Swedish TV sent some time later: Albert in "Secret Army".

There's been so much work lately, all the deadlines piling up together. But then, after the holidays, there will be practically nothing. Our work load in a nutshell! Consultants can't plan ahead more than a month or two because of this ketchup effect. It's the same every year, and somehow we manage to keep ourselves occupied. At least there's no snow this year so we don't have to wait until March to go out and look at the ground.

Speaking of work, last week Mithlond went on a shikar, ie a book hunt. We go to a used book store and hoover it for goodies, and then go to a café or pub and gloat. This year I found an old book called "Bergslagernas Järnvägsaktiebolad 1872-1922", with many of the places I have visited when inspecting railroad rock cuts. Fantastic!

Ooh, and I just saw the "Hobbit" trailer. Also fantastic!

Current Music: Paul Gross and David Keeley - Santa Drives a Pickup

Yesterday we went to see "Narnia 3", for convenient abbreviation. A nice fairy-tale, quite revamped story-wise if I can recall the book I last read at least 20yr ago. It looked pretty but the 3D was completely wasted. Don't see it in 3D! The kid who played Eustace was brilliant and the bits with Aslan, as always, made the old tear ducts spring into action. All in all a nice evening.

Then I went home and dreamt I met Dave Foley. wtf?

I've just come home from "Predators" -- two hours of thinking of something else but I'd rather have seen a cartoon, it was too slow and not enough Arnold -- and found a foul thing on my doorstep: election advertising from sverigedemokraterna. Ew! Where can I chuck it demonstratively with loathing, so they see it?

(sverigedemokraterna is the biggest right wing populist party who claim they're not nazis at all, suuuuure.)

My mother is still home, but they're going to the clinic every day to change dressings on a leg wound that's getting worse and worse. It's the physical ailments that brought on the emotional crisis, and they're still just as bad as when it all started. We're all taking one day at a time, with more or less pain. When I talk to people about it, it turns out there are far too many stories about pharmaceutical abuse and severe depression. It's just not something you discuss publicly. I guess it's too painful, and also shameful.

So a good dose of Hyacinth should be in order.

Waiting for the US "The Office", not enough time to start either "The Sarah Jane Adventures" or "The Muppet Show". Too early for food too; today at least I went out and bought some vegetables to eat.

Yesterday I spent most of the day watching Almodóvar movies, "Todo sobre mi madre", "Hable con ella", "La mala educación" and "Volver". Thanks, T, for lending me the box!

Last week I was out doing more inspections along the railroad to Borås. It rained _a lot_ on Friday, when we also found a dead owl, almost completely intact, it looked taxidermied, and a small live frog. Also, I heard about Lermannen (the Mud Man), apparently a well-known character among construction workers. He turns up at dig sites and asks if he can wallow in the mud. Then he drives off. There are some seriously weird ppl out there!

Entries tagged with movies

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Been a while again....

The Goodies

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the trains in spain stay mostly in the mud

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