Olympicados- Olympic Boyfriend

To think that it would take 3 Olympic Games to find the love of my life. Granted I didn't always watch the Olympics so intensely but this still. The Sydney games aren't THAT long ago. Anyway it's a little difficult with the long distance and everything but Canadian diver and Olympic Silver Medalist at the Beijing Games, Alexandre Despatie and I are surely going to make it. I'm just sure of it.

As you can see by the following photos, he is just gorgeous. A prime specimen of the Canadian man. I'm truely, madly, deeply in love.

Pack it in Michael Phelps, Alexandre Despatie IS my Olympic Boyfriend.

Thank you for introducing us Dinah.

Olympicados - The Pirates from Qingdao

The Danish 49'er team celebrating their gold medal

Dear Spaniards (and maybe Italians)

Regarding the on going drama about the true winners of the 49'ers at the Olympics.

When the news of the first protests of the Medal race reached me I was very understanding. Of course it was a chaotic race. You were not the only ones protesting, even the Danes protested. The protests as I understood it were the following (if I you know of any other official protests I have not mentioned please feel free to add to the list)

• The abysmal weather - should the race have been sailed that day?
• Did the Danes reach the start line before the cut off time?
• Was it OK that the Danes sailed in the Croatian boat?

Now, almost if not all of the nations protested that the race was not cancelled as clearly the weather was not suitable for 49'er racing. Personally I think they should have cancelled the race because almost all the boats capsized at one point (or many) or the other during the race. It looked chaotic. Still the jury ruled that the weather was fine. One has to accept the ruling of the Jury. Everyone (except you (and maybe the Italians, it's not clear)), apparently accepted the ruling.

The second protest was also ruled against. The Danes passed the start line 3 seconds before the cut off time. Now there is no actual line like in running. You know this, being professional sailors. The Jury ruled that the Danes did pass before the cut off time. No matter how little the margin was - accept it.

Last protest but by no means least was the issue of sailing in the Croatian boat. This has never happened before. The ruling will be significant for future events as well as the Beijing Games. Still, the Jury ruled against the protests. Now the Spaniards (and maybe Italians) are considering appealing to the International Sports Court thing (CAS) and are saying they have 21 days to do so. So they are taking their sweet time.

CAS has 10 sports judges (members) at the Games to solve these issues while the Games are still going.

My problem with all of this is that the Danes deserved the Gold. They just sailed better than you bitches. They were miles ahead before the Medal race and they sailed through the Medal race in a boat that wasn't theirs and were far behind the rest of you. Still they managed to come in 7th. Enough to keep their Gold medal. If you want a Gold medal you have to earn it.

Maybe if you stop protesting and put your effort into training you might win Gold in London. Pony up! Sour grapes much?

Stop being such desperate little brats. It's unbecoming and not in tone with the Olympic Spirit.

If you aren't careful I'll start a petition for the Olympic Officials to pull an Ara Abrahamian, who has in fact been stripped of his medal.

Kind regards

CyberPete
A supporter of the Pirates from Quingdao

The quest

I've been hard at work looking for the right things for my apartment. In general I've got the colour scheme taken care of. It's mostly, black, white, red, gray, silver and blue. The blue theme only includes the kitchen. My workspace/office/guestroom I'm not entirely sure of yet but I'm thinking it'll my colourful and unstructured room. A hint of teenage bedroom meets popculture icons. My bedroom is supposed to become a combination of silver, gray and white, and my living room white, black, silver/gray and red.

The hunt for the right red colour has been difficult. The living room does need colour as it's very black and white at the moment. I originally set out to find a red coffee table which proved to be almost impossible. I did find one that looked nice (it has to be high gloss red) but it wasn't very sturdy and would be come wonky quite quickly and eventually just fall to pieces. So that was out of the question. Now I'm looking for a red carpet to put under my two white high gloss coffee tables instead.

On my quest I've found a few red items I could use that were the exact red colour I was looking for. One of these is the most incredible coffee pot I've ever seen. Tim asked if he could see, and there is no one I'd rather show it to than him.

It's the red Alfi designed by Ole Palsby (a famous Danish designer) and I love it. Tim asked if it was a Bodum to which I replied "no, but I also have one of those". So here it is



The Bodum coffee pot. It's my coffee maker. I don't drink coffee so I would never get a proper machine. It takes up space, collects dust and isn't something I would ever spend money on. Coffee is disgusting. My parents hate my decision not to get a proper machine but I don't really care.

Both were on sale and I saved quite a bit of money on them. I would have paid full price had I not stumbled upon them on sale. Now my quest continues as I go forth to aquire more red things (and silver).

We can't have a post without mentioning the Olympic Games in Beijing. So I thought I'd just mention Michael Phelps to get a bit of Dinahs action.

Olympicados - The Drama Medal Update

Yesterday brought with it a big drama in the 49'er series at the Beijing Olympics. Today was the day when it was to be decided if the Danes would get their gold, or they would have to settle for 4th place.

It was all we could talk about at work. I'm sure none of us did much productive except talk, and read online news about the big drama. It was all settled this morning much before I woke up. Still before you saw them with the gold medal around their necks it was not certain. The most incredible thing, or surprising really, is that it seems like everyone in Denmark knows everything about sailing now and are intensely interested in the sport. It seems a little fake, and you could say that most of my interests in the Olympic sports are fake. I normally hate watching sports on TV but there is something about the Olympic Games. Something unifying or something. I love it. Anyway even my mother was all up in arms about the 49'er. It was a little more real at work as I work with financing of boats. Not 49'er boats mind.

Anyway back to the issue at hand. The plot thickens. The story I told you isn't completely true. I just told you what I was told, so it's not like I embellished the story, but I apologise about misleading you ever so slightly (the misleading, not the apology).

I told you that the Danes was offered the Croatian 49'er. Apparently this is not the exact truth. They stole it. Well they went in the place where the boats that were not sailing in the Medal Race and picked one. The Croatian boat. Then took it and went to sail, while their helper man who takes care of the paperwork called the Croatian team and asked for their blessing. The Croatians were quick to give their blessing so the Danes sailed for their life (and their Gold medal which had been safe until their mast broke just minutes before the Medal Race).

When the Medal Race was over there were protests from almost all teams. The Spanish team especially were not happy. Would the Danes have been disqualified the Spanish team would win the Gold and the Germans would win the Silver. Still, today it was decided that the protests had nothing on them and the Danish team was awarded their Gold Medal.

The Danish 49'er team in their ugly red outfits with the GOLD MEDALs around their necks

The German team was quite quick to congratulate the Danish winners. They had not protested against the Danish win and said they would rather win a deserved Bronze medal than a Silver medal they didn't deserve. The Spanish Silver medal winners were not sharing the German view of things. While they did congratulate the Danes, they doubted very much that the right decision was made. For the sport you see. For the sport.

You'd think with all this drama, things would be over for Denmark. We'd go pack up our bags and go home. No, we still have athletes competing and medals to receive (and win). One of which we were given today in Cycling - Track Mens Team Pursuit.

The Danish Silver Medal winners (and no they didn't lose gold)

Olympicados - The Danish Drama Edition

It looked so very good yesterday. The danish 49'er was so far ahead that it just had to get through the medal race today and the gold was theirs. Then the worst thing possible (almost) happened. Their mast broke on the way out to the startline.

The Danes sail back in to try and fix the the mast but it's hopeless

Then the most fantastic happened. The Croatian team were packing up their 49'er as they were not competing in the medal race. Showing great sportsman ship in the spirit of the Games they ran over and offered the Danes their 49'er boat. The boat was rigged and off went the Danes just 5 seconds before the cut off time.

The Danes fighting for their medal in the Croatian boat

They were quickly back in the game, fighting their way through the waves and horrid weather. Passing a few of the competitors on the way. Despite having started much later than the other 49'ers. Braving the weather and sailing with a determination and Danish courage they got closer and closer to the finish line.

The Danes having a bit of trouble on the way much like the other boats


The sea around Beijing was not behaving itself as the Danes fought their way past the other boats

I was a very intense race and in the end the Danes made it past the finish line and were announced by the ref. as the GOLD winners.


After getting back on land official protests were issued by amongst others, the Spanish team (who, if Denmark was disqualified would win the Gold) and the Danish team themselves. Other teams also issued protests.


The protests by all teams including the Danes were that the weather conditions were too horrid and that the medal race should be sailed again in the morning. This protest was refused by the committee along with a few other protests about the Danes leaving the start line too late. Now, we are waiting for the Spanish protest to be solved.


The Spanish team protested the Danes use of the Croatian 49'er. It has never happened before ever, that a team has sailed in a boat that did not officially belong to the nation sailing it. Normally in these cases a "measure man" would have to go and evaluate the boat to see if it was fit to sail but this didn't happen because there was no time for that. The "measure man" has afterwards checked the Croatian boat which was alright. Still there are also the issues that the Danish team did not fly the Danish flag and there was no camera in the boat as that had been removed after the race yesterday. The committee was going to rule on it today but the decision has been postponed until Monday (tomorrow).


If the Danes are disqualified from the race they will be 4th. Which is the worst placement in the Games.


However, in this major drama we forget all about the reason why the Danes still have a shot in hell to get the gold. The CROATIAN team and their incredible sportsmanship. They should get an award for that. Like at beauty pagents there is the Miss Congeniality award. There should be the same at the Olympics because what they did was just amazingly generous. I love Croatia!


What Petar Cupac and Pavle Kostov did was just so nice and I can't do this post without a shout out to my Croatian Homies!

Petar Cupac and Pavle Kostov looking good on their 49'er

Team photo of the Croatian 49'er team

Olympicados - The Danish Update

It's been a very busy weekend for the athletes at the Olympics in Beijing. Although this includes almost all nations, I'm going to concentrate on the Danish athletes competing. We are so very proud of them all. Even the ones who slightly, almost, barely or not even by a long shot won a medal. Afterall, it's not really about who wins, it's about being part of it. Enjoying competing against the best nations in the world.

Some should have won a medal, others won despite all odds and some beat their own personal records. It's been a great Olympics all around. We (the Danes) could have, should have more medals but all in all we've done well. So far we've got 4 medals (plus another one which there is a bit of a drama about - but that's a story for another time) of which 1 is gold and the last 3 are bronze. A fairly good load for a small country like Denmark. In Athens we left with 8 medals of which 2 were gold and 6 bronze. My favorite Olympics were the Sydney games where we left with 6 medals, 2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. So we are well on the way.

We had/have athletes in

• Athletics - Mens Long Jump
• Athletics - Womens Javelin Throw
• Athletics - Mens Shot Put
• Badminton - Womens Single
• Badminton - Mens Double
• Badminton - Mix Double
• Badminton - Womens Double
• Badminton - Mens Single
• Table Tennis - Mens Single
• Wrestling - Mens
• Archery - Mens Individual
• Archery - Womens Individual
• Cycling Mountain Bike - Mens Cross Country
• Cycling Road - Mens Individual Time Trial
• Cycling Road - Mens Road Race
• Cycling Road - Womens Road Race
• Cycling BMX - Womens
• Cycling BMX - Mens
• Cycling Track - Womens Individual Pursuit
• Cycling Track - Womens Point Race
• Cycling Track - Mens Individual Pursuit
• Cycling Track - Mens Team Pursuit
• Cycling Track - Mens Point Race
• Trampoline - Mens
• Handball - Mens
• Kayak - K2 500 m Men
• Kayak - Double 1000 m Men
• Kayak - K1 500 m Women
• Kayak - K1 Men
• Kayak - 500 Meter Men
• Equestrian - Team Dressage
• Equestrian - Individual Dressage Womens
• Equestrian - Individual Dressage Mens
• Equestrian - Individual Cross Country Mens
• Rowing - Lightweight Double Sculls Men
• Rowing - Lightweight Double Sculls Women
• Rowing - Mens Pair
• Rowing - Lightweight Men's Four
• Sailing - RS:X Womens
• Sailing - RS:X Mens
• Sailing - Finn
• Sailing - Laser
• Sailing - 49er
• Sailing - Windsurfing Men
• Sailing - Windsurfing Women
• Shooting - Mens Skeet
• Shooting - Mens something rather with 125 targets
• Swimming - Womens 4x200m Freestyle Relay
• Swimming - Mens 400m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 100m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 50m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 100m Butterfly
• Swimming - Womens 200m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 200m Breaststroke
• Swimming - Womens 200m Individual Medley
• Swimming - Womens 400m Individual Medley
• Swimming - Mens 1500m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 400m Freestyle
• Swimming - Womens 800m Freestyle
• Swimming - Mens 200m Breaststroke
• Swimming - Mens 50m Freestyle
• Swimming - Mens 100m Freestyle
• Tennis - Womens Singles
• Triathlon - Mens

That's quite a long list, how pathetic are we with so few medals? Heh, well I think we've done really great. We are apparently certain to win a silver or gold medal in the Track Cycling - Team Mens Pursuit tomorrow.

Our medalists so far are the following

Our equestrian team won the Bronze - our first Olympic medal at the Beijing Games


Our second medal - another bronze in womens 800m Freestyle


Our third medal - oh how about that, another bronze. In Lightweight Men's Double Sculls


Our first GOLD medal in rowing. Lightweight Men's Four.

About the last win, I have to say I loved the Canadians who won the bronze. They looked so happy and were all smiles. That's the spirit!

We are still in some kind of debacle about another gold medal we won in Sailing - the 49'er which I hope is cleared up quite quickly. Apparently it's looking a little grim at the moment and we might be disqualified and only end 4th which is quite unfair and not in the spirit of the games. I will tell you about it when I hear any news. As I just know you'll be on the edge of your seats.

Do you remember this?

Whip It (Good) by Devo.



You must whip it!

Discuss.

Olympicados - Royal Dressage

The Danish equestrian team wins the Bronze in Dressage

This was the day that all we proud Danes have been waiting for. Our first medal, and we are quite happy. Ecstatic really, although Bronze is not exactly Gold but beggers can't be choosers. We are very happy. It's just that it was an equestrian disciplin. Odd. Still we are pretty excited about it. A medal is a medal and it's our first (of many, hopefully) in Beijing. Do you want to meet the team?

From the left is Andreas Helgstrand, Princess Nathalie Zu Sayn-Wittgensteinon (yes she is royal!) and then Anne van Olst. Congrats! We are now no. 37 along with amongst others, Tajikistan (where the heck is that?) and Togo.

In other olympic news our Danish tennis talent numero uno Miss Caroline Wozniacki lost yesterday to Russian Dementieva and is leaving the olympics to go back to the United States to practice for the US Open.

Arrivederci bitches!

Like at the Fabulous Dinahs blog it's been a little dude heavy around here, which is understandable as the dudes are hot! Yet, I want to give those who miss the ladies (I'm not saying Caroline Wozniacki isn't a lady, but she is still a teenager) so here is a few ladies.

Cheerleaders making the men stand at attention

Larissa Franca from Brasil - is that a come hither?

Milagros Crespo - right here!

Olympicados

You know, there are fabulous bodies and exciting competitions all around but it's not all peaches and cream as this poor hungarian fella found out. Nice arse though.



Bless him.

A certain something in the air....

Due to a (less than) surprising release of *GOSH!* a video for Kylie Minogues digital only single The One, the Olympicados will continue tomorrow. There isn't much to say except the fourth or fifth track lifted off her album X has been given a revamp by the Freemasons and Parlophone/EMI funded a video for this otherwise very secret release. So here is the video. Enjoy.



I'm not sure what I think about the video, I think the outfits are dominating the video. Otherwise it's good. Certainly better than the stuff of the soon to turn 70 years old hag has produced in years.

Olympicados

Well congratulations all around to everyone who competed (and won a medal) today/yesterday. Of course I missed the main events, actually I haven't been able to watch any Olympics today and it won't start again until after I've gone to bed tonight. But I'm not bitter. Not at all. No. Not. At. All.

There is something that's always freaked me out slightly but also had me in awe is when the athletes do something synchronised. Especially the synchronised swimming is bizarre. Today I've decided to put a spot on the 'Mens Synchronised 10 m Platform' diving. How they can do that just amazes me. Anyway they held the finale today and this is how it looked.


Lin Yue and Huo Liang (China) compete


Lin Yue and Huo Liang (China) winning the olympic gold


I would show a photo of the Chinese guys since they won the gold but frankly they are not attractive enough up close. So I give you the silver medalists Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding (Germany). On a side note, the Russians won the bronze.

Big applause to them all.

Olympicados

I was just reading Bingowings entry from yesterday about the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Apparently it was also incredibly expensive and to compare London will only have about half or a third of that budget when they get the games next time. That's a bit worrying and apparently Beijing really raised the bar. I would say China, but it's not really. It's Beijing because it's all just a nice front to show the world how fabulous China is. Like when they booted all those homeless people out of Atlanta. Only pretty people and no drama. Still it I was sad to hear about the American who got killed. That certainly can't be part of the promo package. But it may freak out the American athletes enough so other countries have a bigger chance of winning. I feel a conspiracy coming on. Still, very sad news and I feel for his family and everyone who knew him.

Still this was not what I was going to talk about. I was of course going to talk about all the important sporting things going on. The things that really count. You know, such as mens beach volley, the mens tower diving thing, mens swimming and maybe a bit of the mens gymnastics. Including but not limited to trampoline jumping. How this became more than a festival activity I'll never know. Still it looks delightful.

Yesterday around 8am they were showing these boating and sailing things which is not at all exciting to watch. Of course Denmark is very much present in that discipine (I say that, but I know there are many, different boats, and rowing and sailboating and Finnsailers and whatnot) but apparently they did horribly in what I managed to see out of the corner of my eye while fiddling on Facebook. So bad in fact that it's not even funny. Out of sheer luck I then managed to change the channel JUST as Michael (godlike) Phelps (an American swimmer to those who have been living under a rock) was about to hit the water in something swimming rather. They did all kinds of odd strokes. I know there was butterfly and breast strokes but apart from that I'm a little puzzled. Thankfully he just kept swimming and it looked gooooood. He also won by a water(?)slide. Even though it was just the preliminaries or something. After that the swimming continued. Something I appreciate watching a lot. Very exciting stuff and such perfect bodies. The women got on after that and I changed the channel back to the boats.

My question though, is WHY must they place the most important sporting events in the middle of the friggin night? I remember when Sydney was hosting (the most amazing Olympics EVAH!) it was the same. Something about timezones but I'm always left with a few short mentions of mens beach volley and that's it. I never got to see it and now again. They are showing it at 3am here when I have to be up and at work by 8.30am. It's just not fair.

Click to enlarge and you know you want to.

Do you remember this?

Vamos a La Playa by the fabulous Italians, Righeira.



Discuss.

Hey there, pretty birdie!

Whenever people mention Batman I get very nostalgic. My mind goes back to a simpler time when things really packed a punch. You know, KABOOM! KAZAM! OOOOF! POW! And that sort of thing written on the screen. It was fabulous! That was my Batman for many years. Mostly due to reruns on TV every Sunday afternoon. Watching that is the only continueous thing I can remember my brother and I doing together. Well except for fighting obviously.

Well I thought I'd be clever and list all the Batman movies through the years but as I'm too lazy to list them all you can find them here. Just scroll down to the "partial matches".

Did you know there are 8 actual Batman movies?

In recent years however these are the most popular titles according to IMDB.com one of the best and biggest (bigger is better, you know it!) movie databases online.

1. Batman (1989)


2. Batman Returns (1992)
   
3. Batman Forever (1995)
   
4. Batman & Robin (1997)
   
5. Batman Begins (2005)
   
6. The Dark Knight (2008)

I think people tend to forget Batman Forever when they talk about Batman. The reason I'm mentioning this is that I've heard no mention of it at all. Like it never was. I think a lot of people prefer it that way though. It's just so frustrating because I like Batman & Robin and that's the only one people remember to say bad stuff about. Which isn't fair. Batman Forever was awful. The only thing Batman & Robin is guilty of is camping it up a bit, injecting a little humour and making the universe a bit more cartoonish. Away went the really haunting dark universe in favour of something else. Something that was still dark but injected with actual colours. Not just monochrome.
In case you are wondering which movie was which, I'll give you a brief introduction to the top 6 Batman movies.

To a lot of people Batman didn't start until the release of Batman (1989) starring Jack Nicholson as the Joker, Michael Keaton as Batman, Kim Basinger as Vicky Vale (a more useless actress is hard to find).
Personally I can't remember much of it as it's been quite a while since I last saw it. People will remember this as the Tim Burton movie.

The bat logo was used everywhere after that. I remember my brother had a poster of just the symbol. I never understood why. In fact I didn't watch this one until 1995 along with the next one in the series.





Batman Returns from 1992 was one of my favorites. I found Danny DeVito as the Penguin absolutely disgusting but Michelle Pfeiffer was there as Catwoman and she became an instant favorite of mine. Christopher Walken was also in this one. The movie also saw the return of Michael Keaton as Batman and director Tim Burton was back at the wheel.

This one was about The Penguin trying to take over Gotham City and while Batman was trying to do something about that, Catwoman was up to her own tricks, and she didn't just purr and play with yarn.






When Batman Forever premiered in 1995 it was with a new cast. Val Kilmer took over as Batman, Chris O'Donnell was introduced as Robin (or Batboy heh), Jim Carrey as The Riddler, Tommy Lee Jones as the Two-Face and the horrid Nicole Kidman.

In this one Batman and his sidekick, the circus acrobat Robin battle Two-Face and The Riddler. As far as I remember it was camped up a bit. I can't remember much of this (except it was utter shite) but I suppose it was pretty over the top as that's what Jim Carrey does, and in that outfit. There was little else to do I'm sure.

How people don't mention that THIS is the worst Batman movie is beyond me.




Batman & Robin from 1997 is my favorite Batman movie. Not due to huge big Hollywood names such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O'Donnell (he was something back then), Uma Thurman or Alicia Silverstone (hot off the movie Clueless) or Joel Schumacker directing it.

Well almost anyway. I always had a thing for George Clooney (because YUM!) and one of my two favorite Batman characters Poison Ivy was in it. Uma Thurdan did a bang up job with it too. It was camp and cheese lines (and dodgy acting as always from the Governator and Silverstone hadn't shaken Cher off her yet) but the story wasn't any worse or better than the previous. Much can (and have) been said about about the Batmobile and the Batsuits but I liked them. The nipple bit was hilarious.






Then it took 8 years for another blockbuster Batman movie to premiere. In 2005 Batman Begins premiered to rave reviews. A darker, more tormented Batman. Definately a Batman not suited for kids. I suppose either George Clooney didn't want to do it or he was looking too old and refined to be the new Batman, so they opted for Christian Bale. The rest of the cast included Sir Michael Caine as Alfred (he is always fantastic and this was no different), Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes (I suppose her husband pulled a string or two at Warner Bros because bleugh), Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy and many many more.





This was the story oh how Bruce Wayne became destined to be Batman.





I remember going to see this with colleagues who were all up in arms about how fantastic it was. I didn't so much find it fantastic as I did a bit dark and depressing yet not particularly bad. I suppose if you go back in my blog to that time I may have said nicer things but looking back now the shine has worn off.



I wouldn't know what the new one, The Dark Knight (in a cinema now near you) is about. All I really know about it is the cast, that Heath Ledger died, a stuntman died on set and the CGI looks grossly overdone. Oh, and on that poster Batman looks a little constipated. That or he's concentrating very hard on not pooping his pants.

Batman is still Christian Bale, Alfred is still Sir Michael Caine and Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are both back for another movie. Heath Ledger surely won't be back in the next one which is a shame. Supposedly he's brilliant.

Let me just mention here what I think about all that Heath Ledger is the best actor ever hype. I know this is a cold and heartless thing to say but I don't buy it. He may be brilliant in this role but no matter how great an actor he is. The reason he is hyped so much and people talk about Oscars and whatnot is because sadly he's dead. And it's just a little ick. When he was brilliant in Brokeback Mountain there was a buzz sure. However it was never this over the top. There I said it. Moving on.

Surely there will be yet another dark, dreary and probably slightly depressing Batman movie in the future for Christian Bale. That is unless they decide to cut forward 40 years and show him in a wheelchair in the Arkham Asylum. Enjoy your Batman movies no matter what people say about them. Afterall it doesn't matter if other people hate it, as long as you enjoy it.

Lovefilm

I was supposed to do a Lovefilm update during the past week but I couldn't as my parents had taken over my office and I couldn't got to my computer. My laptop is having issues and I had no iPhone at the time so things were looking a little grim. I finally managed to get the stench of guilt and Chanel no 5 out of here and I'm somewhat back, although not with a vengeance. That will have to wait. Still on we go, for another edition of.... Lovefilm.

The first movie I watched the week before last was A Breath of Scandal starring Sophia Loren, Angela Lansbury and John Gavin (very attractive). I'd never heard of it before but I was browsing on imdb.com and came across Sophia Lorens page and thought I'd see if Lovefilm had any of her movies. They had this one.

A sweet movie from 1960 in which Sophia Loren has been banished from Vienna by the Emperor to a castle she inherited after her late husband. She was apparently behaving scandalous in Vienna and had to cool down. She meets a man there, but is called back to Vienna as she is forgiven by the Emperor and she is then to marry a Prince.

It's a lovely movie. Sophia Loren is gorgeous as always and it reminds me of the good old fashion Danish movies. They always involved royalty and sweet stories of love. This was a really good choice and I love old movies.

Next movie was Sparkle starring Stockhart Channing, Bob Hoskins, Anthony (Stewart) Head, Shaun Evans and Amanda Ryan . Now I'd seen a trailer to this one and it looked bloody brilliant. Very funny. With a cast like that, how can you go wrong.

I can't say it was bad. But it wasn't good, and it just felt like it went on forever. Even if it was just 100 minutes long. I guess the trailer had shown every funny scene and there was just too much filler and although the story was good, it wasn't something I hadn't seen before. In fact I would go as far as to say it was quite predictable.

The story is about a son and his mother moving to London. He finds a job as a cater waiter and works his way up to PR where he starts shagging his boss and then breaks it off to go shagging the daughter instead. On the way there were various bits of family stuff. Some of it funny, some sad and some just painful to watch. I stopped caring about an hour into it.

This weekend I watched the OH in OHio. This movie starred Parker Posey, Danny DeVito, Paul Rudd (I love him), Keith David, Mischa Barton, Heather Graham and Liza Minnelli.

I'd seen a trailer for this one too, which was absolutely hilarious. It seemed funny and sweet and Paul Rudd is just lovely. I love him (have I mentioned that?). The movie is about Parker Posey who is married to Paul Rudd and they are having problems in their marriage. Well one problem. She's frigid, and has never in her life had an orgasm. Finally it's too much for Paul Rudd to handle so he moves out and starts having an affair with a student. Parker Posey buys a vibrator and becomes addicted. Still she can't achieve orgasm with another person. Until she meets the "pool guy" or pool salesman Danny DeVito.

Anyway, on paper this should be really really funny. It wasn't bad. In fact it was quite a standard comedy drama, and I did like it. Still it was a bit of a disappointment after watching the trailer. It should have been funnier. Liza was funny as hell though. I just kept waiting for the shit to hit the fan with the affair with the student. Because that's just not right.

I remember watching Talking Movies on BBC World. Tom Brook was reporting live from NY Times Sq. About the movies that were being made and were premiering. He reviewed them and he was speaking very highly about The Human Stain. This was 5 years ago though, and what kept me from watching it was Nicole Kidman. I've never liked her as an actress, I've always felt she was highly overrated.

The movie is about Anthony Hopkins who works as the dean at a college and after using the word Spooks about two studens who were never in class (who happened to be black) he was sacked and shortly after his wife died from the shock. He then meets Gary Sinise who he wants to write the story. During this time of them meeting he hooks up with the much younger Nicole Kidman who comes with baggage. A psycho ex husband played by Ed Harris.

This movie was great. Despite Nicole Kidman. It's not at all a happy happy movie. In fact I'd say I got slighty depressed watching it. Still it was good and the acting was brilliant. Even Nicole Kidman did well, I hate to admit that.

IDV made a huge fuss about not owning Clueless. I did own it, just not on DVD. Then earlier last week I found it in a £3 bin at a supermarket and picked it up. The "Whatever!" Edition no less. We all know it, it's a popculture classic. Exceptionally funny and sweet. Paul Rudd is in it. I love him. Did I mention that?

I adore this movie. Still after 13 years (yikes it makes me feel old) it's still fabulous and although the fashion is a bit dodgy now (Cher wears a yellow plaid outfit for gods sake) it's still very much fabulous. You knew that from the very beginning with the cover version of Kim Wildes Kids In America. Even the thanks to those Egg McMuffins from McDonalds without which Travis would never have been tardy was still funny. In fact I remembered most of the movie word by word.

Finally I watched Some Like It Hot from 1959 starring the fabulous Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon. Now there is a classic if there was ever one.

There isn't much to say about this except bloody brilliant!

Boys and their toys

Yesterday was a fabulous day. I can't remember when I last had a day like that. My parents were back where they belong, the sun was shining and I was having a good day at work.

It all started around 1pm when the window washer came to do our windows. That's not usually a high point of my life. The usual window washer is a 42 year old man who comes in, does a shoddy (at best) job doing the windows and leaves. It takes him a good half hour. Yesterday though, a man in his late twenties came. Tanned and his white t-shirt hanging from his backpocket.

Click to make it bigger

I couldn't look him in the eyes, I just stared at his fantastic body. Thankfully I didn't drool. He just smiled when I finally got my eyes to meet his. After handing him a towel (I think I needed it more than he did) he went to work. Taking his time. At one point one of my colleagues who had gone to the storage room to pick up something came in asking me "why is there a half naked man by the window?". I just kept staring. "Huh?". He repeated the question and I shrugged "I don't know" (and I didn't care, as long as he kept standing there). After about 45 minutes he left. I mourned him for a good 30 minutes but he'll always be with me in spirit. That was the best work day ever, but the day wasn't over.

Around 2.30pm I got a call on my mobile telling me that there was a black 16GB iPhone waiting for me in the Telia shop at the Copenhagen Central Station. I almost cried, that's how happy I was. So at 4.30pm I picked it up. Of course I had to go through all this contract nonsense with them and having my current phone number transferred to Telia from 3. Unfortunately they won't release my phone number for another 30 days as 3 are mean like that. So Telia gave me a temporary number until the end of this month. Such big ado for nothing. My journey home felt like it took forever.

See the box! It's mine, all mine. Mine, mine, MINE! My precious! Even the box looks sleek and tasteful.



I was pretty taken by the sheer elegance of it.



Now let's open it up Pandora and see what's inside your box.



Now look at it. Not much to look at all covered in protective plastic but still. Yay! An iPhone for me.



My very own iPhone.



Come on Pandora, do your worst.



Oh no, is there nothing else in there? Is it so simple it doesn't come with accessories?



Let's look beyond the surface Pandora. Remove that plastic.








Yay! Look! It comes with a regular power adaptor, USB cable and headphones.



It also comes with a nice black iPhone cloth, two glow in the dark stickers (Apples of course) and a needle. I named the needle the space needle. I don't know why, but somehow it just seemed appropriate. The needle is for opening up the sim card tray.

The excitement was massive at this point, so I threw Pandora out of the window.

So this is it! With my background photo and everything. It's on standby obviously showing that I just took the photo a few minutes ago rather than yesterday when I had just opened the box.

You see, I was too busy making it my own, and having issues with synchronising it with MS Outlook. Somehow it wasn't keen on taking in my contacts and still doesn't like one of my email accounts.

I wonder why, how do you get ringtones for it? On my old mobile I could use mp3 files as ringtones. It doesn't appear as if I can do that on this new wonder.

Now look at my menu. Very nice if I must say so myself. I even installed the Phonesaber, Facebook, Jawbreaker, Diamond something (a game that looks a lot like Bejewelled) and Super Monkey Balls (which I completely suck at). I also downloaded the new download only Kylie single "The One" - fantastic Freemasons remix. It's wicked!

I love the iPhone. I don't think I need anything else in the whole wide world. Everything is right there at my fingertips. Plus it's like a visual orgasm. So gorgeous.

There are a few things I haven't worked out yet. Like how to actually call and talk to people. Is there a mic in the headset in the box? I felt a bit like a moron and my friends say there is lots of echo.

Hmmm. I guess someone will have to teach me about these things Tim.

But I'm in love (I hope mr. complicated won't be too jealous).

Book update

I realise that writing a book update after only reading one book is a bit much. The thing is, I have to write about it, now. I finished it a few days ago and I can't stop thinking about it. To be perfectly honest, that's only part of it. I'm afraid that if I don't write about this book now I'll end up thinking about it and start crying. That would be uncomfortable, especially at work.

The book is The Brothers Bishop by Bart Yates. I had never heard of it before but somehow stumbled upon it on Amazon. I was purchasing a few other books and on my way to the checkout bit I found it. The recommendations were good and I read a little bit about it. Still I didn't know much of the story before I started reading it. Which is what I prefer. For the most part I'm surprised in the good way.

This is a story about two brothers who were raised by their father in a small city on the east coast of the US. Their mother died when they were very young and their father was a really mean man. Because of this the two brothers grew very close and it wasn't until after their father died that they started to drift apart. The older brother gets a call from the younger brother telling him he's coming to stay with him for a week with his boyfriend and this couple friend of his. That's when the story starts.

It's the older brother Nathan telling the story and he admits that he tends to remember the bad stuff and forget the good times. It's funny, it's engaging and it triggered something in me that made me cry, I could hardly read the end. It drags you into the universe and I was almost responding by saying things out loud like "Oh no you don't!" and "Yeah, keep telling yourself that". The best thing about that, is that he calls you on it. Completely deflating the arguement you are having in your head.

There was two sentences that keep coming back into my mind. I was sitting at work today writing a letter to our attorneys and they popped into my mind. The tears started to make their way up towards my eyes and I could feel my eyes becoming moist. Thankfully I managed to stop it. The sentences are

"He said 'Nathan and Daddy hurt other people when they are sad. It's the only thing that stops them from hurting themselves.'"

When I read that it completely floored me. But enough about that. This is one of the best books I've ever read. I think it surpasses previous favorites, like A Density of Souls and The Snow Garden both by Christopher Rice. The only thing that bothered me was after I had read it, I looked at the next page and there were "Discussion Questions". It made it feel a little bit like school. I never thought much of "Discussion Questions", I always felt like it took away the pleasure of reading.