It’s that time of the month when my system just craves for a Bollywood movie.

The lucky winner this time was Agneepath (2012).

The movie is a remake. The original Agneepath was made in 1990, the main role being played by Amitabh Bachchan. Apparently the original was a big success and the producers of the remake were under pressure to make a good movie. So, the main characters in Agneepath (2012) are played by Hrithik Roshan (as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan), Priyanka Chopra (as Kaali), Sanjay Dutt (as Kancha Cheena) and Rishi Kapoor (as Rauf Lala). 

They picked as main actors the most handsome actor in Bollywood, a former Miss World, the guy in Bollywood that is known for his bad guy roles and someone who’s been in the industry so long that everybody knows him. It was kinda hard to go wrong with this casting.

The movie lasts 3 hours, has 3-4 songs in it, not that much action (compared with other Bollywood movies), but it has a good story line.

The movie takes it time telling the story of Vijay, a small kid on the island of Mandwa, who witnesses the lynching of his father. Vijay’s father was a good man, a teacher in Mandwa. His only fault was he was too good. Because of this Kancha frames him for raping a little girl and from there the lynching. Vijay knows his father is innocent and swears revenge. But what can a little kid do? So, Vijay and his mother move to Mumbai where they end up in brothel with Kaali and her mother.

From there Vijay becomes the right hand of Rauf Lala, a gangster who deals with cocaine and human trafficking. Rauf Lala is an enemy of Kancha and Vijay sees an opportunity to get the power he needs to take down Kancha. But Vijay isn’t such a bad guy, even if he kills people and all that. He gives away all the money that he makes, he keeps everyone he cares for safe and in the end he makes up his mind to take down Rauf Lala and Kancha.

In the process, Kaali is killed right on their wedding day, his mother and little sister are kidnapped by Kancha and right at the end Vijay dies, but not before taking down two of the most powerful drug cartels in Mumbai. Its a bitter sweet ending for the main characters because none of them get what they dreamed of and all end up dead.

I can’t complain about the movie, it was good. But it was not my piece of cake since I enjoy mostly romantic Bollywood movies. Nothing beats a good Bollywood romance.

 This is how our days off look like. Just chilling in bed, eating ice cream or drinking bear and just slack around. These are some of my favorite moments in life.

This might sound lazy, but its not. We’re both dead tired most of the time and we’re always running around and doing things, that I really cannot remember the last time we actually had a day all to ourselves without having to share time with anyone else.

Lazy days are the best!

Did I ever mention that I managed to make some good friends at work?

If not, well I did. I actually found nice people, and not only that but I can actually call them friends.

*Happy dance*

And when my birthday came, I actually got a nice surprise.

It was nicely wrapped and heavy and I didn’t want to open it. You see, I don’t usually get presents (besides the ones from Johnny, who’s nice like that). So, I really felt like a small kid for Christmas. I really like surprises, especially nice ones.

After a few moments I decided to open it and voila: Edgar Allan Poe stories (English version).

Life is really nice at the moment, no matter how broke I am.

Speaking of being broke, I still managed to buy a book. I know I’m an idiot, but it was there, starring me in the face. I know that I cannot afford to buy the Harry Potter books, because 1) they are expensive, 2) they take up lots of space and 3) I already have/read the audio books. But I bought it, I bought a J.K. Rowling book.

Yup I bought “The Casual Vacancy” (Romanian version).

I am very happy with my two new books. But, I don’t want to start them right now. I’m waiting for that special moment and to finish the books that I am currently reading (about 5 of them).

Besides the two new books, I also managed to take a few more photo’s with my new camera. I’m starting to get used to it, even if not all the pictures turn out decent.

But, tulips are always a nice photography subject.

Especially for close ups (macro photography).

Hopefully, this year it will be a good year regarding my photography.

Finally we went to the countryside. It was about time considering we haven’t been there in a very long time.

It wasn’t anything special. We had lunch, played with the cat, fed the rabbits and just enjoyed the peace and quiet. Seriously, you could only hear the birds and the wind.

It was so nice!

What can I say, I’m really happy that Summer came. There is one thing that I would like to do on the next payday. I would like to go on a drive for the entire day and just stop somewhere and have lunch. I would really love that!

But it will take a little bit longer before that will happen. Till then, here are the rabbits.

There are 3 other white, but they have underground tunnels and most of them go there to cool down or sleep without being bothered.

There are actually 3 generations there. But the oldest one, Vera, doesn’t like to be photographed. They were really funny when we gave them fresh grass. Rabbits are cute when they eat.

And there there’s the cat. I don’t think my father was ever so attached to a cat like he is to this one. This cat, as fluffy and nice as it looks, is a real killer. Everyday a mouse/rat dies because of him.

And yet, he’s the sweetest thing when he comes in contact with humans. The fact that we were eating meat with more meat doesn’t have anything to do with his attitude. Nope, he just loves us like that.

It was nice.

I wish the weekend would come faster, but its barely Tuesday so another 4 days of hard work and then just one day off. Well, I did have a 3 day weekend, I can’t actually complain.

Believe it or not, Summer is here! Yup, I don’t thing Spring even had a chance. One day it was gloomy and cold, then it was sunny and hot.

I’m already advancing on many of my goals for this year, but on some I’m way behind. For example, I missed all my classes at university so I need to get everything from my friends. I also have to hurry since finals are coming. I’m broke and pay day is far away (10 more days to go; yup that sad), so my savings plan kinda went out the window.

But on others I’m doing good. I finished Spring cleaning. Everything that wasn’t used was boxed away under the bed, everything that wasn’t needed or used in years was thrown away and I’m still thinking when I should handle my wardrobe.

So, I’m cleaning up my life starting with my living space. Believe it or not, that’s a good way to start. Small steps, small steps..

I made a list for May. It’s small, realistic and very doable.

- Pay my university taxes.
- Pay off the bills.
- University stuff. Finals are coming, brace yourself.
- Perfect legs! I need to take out the lawn mower ^0^*
- Bye Bye Tummy! (Meaning no more soda, fat foods and junk food, starting tomorrow)
- Finish my Japanese project. (I found the perfect learning “thing” for a lazy bum like me)
- Finish the tulips needlepoint!
- Finish two books.
- Shoes, tee’s and summer stuff.
- Have fun in team building and take lots of photos.

And that’s it. I don’t need anything else.

After reading so many books with Hercule Poirot my brain demanded a change. It requested something completely different, meaning anything but a detective book.

So, after much deliberation I picked “A Walk to Remember” by Nicholas Sparks.

I knew I was picking a romance but I was hoping that it will be a romance with an uplifting ending that would cheer me up and make my day.

Boy, was I wrong!

This book was anything but cheerful. It was slow paced, nostalgic (for the good ol’ days of childhood), captivating and heartbreaking.

The funny part is that when I was reading this book I was actually thinking of those summer days of my childhood when I was always out with my best friends, doing stupid things.

It might seem weird, but those were probably the only times that I actually believed in true love. Maybe I believed in it because when I was young, we didn’t had that idea of self worth, we didn’t care much of how we looked and how people saw us. So, daydreaming about prince charming didn’t seem that far fetched, even to a tomboy like myself.

Fast forward to high school and the bubble burst. See, real life is a bitch, especially for awkward teenagers.

In “A Walk to Remember“, Jamie (the female protagonist) is shown as a plain girl, that always brings her Bible with her and only thinks about how she can help others. She is shown as someone with a beautiful heart and mind, but with a plain exterior. She is seen as a weird girl by her peers and only the adults actually appreciate her and her hard work.

By the second half of the book she goes from the plain religious girl to the beautiful misunderstood girl who is hit by a horrible fate, she has leukemia and she will die by the end of her senior year.

Landon Carter (the male protagonist) is the cool, rich kid that hangs around all the cool crowds. He goes from disliking being in Jamie’s presence to being infatuated by her, by her beauty. He notices her when her breasts start growing, he is relieved when Jamie starts wearing her hair down rather than in an uptight bun.

This was something that annoyed me. Couldn’t Landon just love the plain Jamie? Why did she have to transform from the ugly duckling to the beautiful swan? I’m not saying that Landon is a bad guy, he actually did a lot of good things to help Jamie, even before she told him about her condition. But still, why? Can’t ugly ducklings have their true love?

The way I see things in life is that people don’t actually grow out of their skin, nor do they transform over night (even with plastic surgery). Usually ugly ducklings stay as ugly ducklings.

If someone likes/loves you, they don’t see you differently. They don’t see you as the most beautiful, fairest of them all. No. They see you as you are, with defects and all, but they like/love/care for that person that you are, ugly duckling or not. And that’s why I think real life beats fiction.

I liked the book, I did. It was beautiful! But it didn’t fit with my idea of a good love story.

First was Suzy,  now it’s Marlanu’.

But he isn’t interested in the real flowers. Nope. he was busy sleeping while I stitched on my tulips needlepoint.

If I keep on it, in a few days I will finish the tulips needlepoint.

I am really unsure of how much I like this project. There are moments where the flowers seem too square and then there are moments when the result seems gratifying. I guess, its a love hate relationship and the only way I’ll know if I love this project is by framing it.

Here is a detail of the stitching.

Framing my stitching projects isn’t on any list at the moment so I’m guessing after I finish the tulips they will go to the folder with all the other finished projects.

Still, after I finish the tulips I would love to finish the cat needlepoint. It’s been more than two years since I started that project and it needs just a few more stitches and it will be done. And I will be at peace with myself for finishing something that I started.

I don’t know why, but lately finishing, completing, finalizing, anything that means an end result brings me a lot of joy and satisfaction.

With me having a new job (with a very different schedule from the normal 9-5 hours) and since we have Marlanu’, we weren’t able to visit Johnny’s parents that much. In consequence we haven’t seen much of Suzy lately.

Suzy, compared to Marlanu’, she’s like a princess. Always clean and docile (until you piss her off, then all hell breaks loose) and very small.

But she’s so cute when she’s curious.

Must make a note to self, to take more pictures of this fuzzball.

I HAD AN AWESOME WEEKEND!

It was an awesome weekend because nothing special happened. We just hanged around like we used. I really missed the good ol’ lazy days, when time was on our side and we were able to get bored.

Of course the first thing I wanted to do was to go out to the park and just enjoy Spring.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

It was really nice these last few days. It was sunny and warm, it only rained one afternoon but it wasn’t enough to bother us.

What I do like about this weather is that with the sun coming out cats are also more likely to come out and bask in the light. And that means, more cat photos for me.

Now I have a good camera to take good photos even from a distance. So I will probably have a blog with a lot of stray cats in the near future.

Another thing that I enjoyed this weekend was the good food. We went out to eat at our normal dinning spot. We’re just creatures of habit and its hard to break a habit when it involves good food and good company.

Of course I am the one with the soup and Johnny is the one with the meat and mashed potatoes. But I really do like cow belly soup (ciorba de burta) and there are very few places that make it really good.

 Then there was also the coffee. Honey coffee, the best way to get sick! It looked so nice but it was really sweet. Basically, espresso with lots of honey. But after you drink one glass of that, you don’t need another cup of coffee nor a desert.

We even went to the movies (saw “A good day to die hard”) , had a little bit of shopping (got new shoes),  went out with friends (from work, and I got tipsy), went out with family, watched cartoons and anime, played Sims, got new books  and the most important thing, we spent good quality time together.

I think that was the best part of them all, having a good time with Johnny. No quarrels or anything of the sort. Just the two of us enjoying our free time together.

Nothing can beat that.

]]> http://www.pocandpoch.com/an-awesome-4-day-weekend/feed 0 http://www.pocandpoch.com/barfi-2012 http://www.pocandpoch.com/barfi-2012#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 20:42:44 +0000 cre-cre http://www.pocandpoch.com/?p=3954

Barfi! is the best Bollywood movie I’ve seen so far and one of the best movies out there.

It’s simple, beautiful, funny, and just uplifting.

I saw a lot of good reviews on the Internet and I was amazed when IMDb showed 8.2 as it rating. That’s something to brag about, especially in Bollywood where most movies average a rating of 6.

And I was not disappointed. The long wait really paid off.

There are no villains and no heroes, no long songs with many people dancing around the main characters, nothing of the regular flashy Bollywood movies. Instead there are 3 good actors, a beautiful story, beautiful scenery and lovely songs that complete the movie.

The 3 good actors that I mentioned are Ranbir Kapoor as Barfi, Priyanka Chopra as Jhilmil Chatterjee and Ileana D’Cruz as Shruti.

The plot is simple, Barfi (birth name Murphy) is on his death bed. Feeling that the end is near, he tries to take a good photo of himself to send to his good friend Shruti (which always complained she doesn’t have a good photo of him). And from there, a flashback in their youth where they met.

Barfi, a deaf and mute boy, lives his life with his father in a small town. He is not a character that would make you feel any pity. In fact, he seems more alive than the people with no disabilities. He always causes mischief, always has fun, yet people love him because he brings a smile on their faces.

Then comes Shruti who moves with her parents in the small town. She is set to marry a very handsome and rich man and live a comfortable life. That until she meets Barfi.

He tries to court her and they even share a kiss but Shruti, convinced by her mother that their relationship will not last long and she won’t have an easy life, stays with her fiancee which she eventually marries.

Barfi, heartbroken, tries to cope with the loss of his first love. On top of this, his father gets sick and they don’t have the money for the operation. So, Barfi tries to get money from friends but is unable to get the full amount he needs. He then plots to kidnap Jhilmil.

Jhilmil is a girl that has autism. She and Barfi are good friends, and Barfi doesn’t intend to harm her, he just thinks of it as an innocent way to get money for his father. The only thing is that Jhilmil is already kidnapped. By chance, Barfi manages to recover Jhilmil and get the money for his father, but its a bit to late since his father passes away in hospital.

And he also ends up with Jhilmil who doesn’t want to go back home to her parents (which were never that nice to her).

They spend almost half an year together and they fall in love. From there, Barfi is set to meet again Shruti and their lives go on a downhill. Jhilmil goes missing for the third time. Barfi is devastated because everyone believes she’s dead. Shruti leaves her husband and tries to replace Jhilmil but cannot take her place in Barfi’s heart.

Eventually, it all turns out well in the end.

Jhilmil (who was being hidden by her family all this time) and Barfi get their love story, Shruti learns the importance of being honest and making the right decisions even if that means to be left alone. And we go back to the old Barfi on his death bed surrounded by his friends and family.

This was a heartwarming story and it was a nice way to start the Spring.

]]> http://www.pocandpoch.com/barfi-2012/feed 1 http://www.pocandpoch.com/spring http://www.pocandpoch.com/spring#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:54:17 +0000 cre-cre http://www.pocandpoch.com/?p=3949

It’s actually nice and sunny. It’s warm!

Spring? Is that you?

Oh, last day of work than a 4 day weekend. I can’t wait to just slack around and do whatever I want. I think a walk in the park would do me me good.

Even Marlanu’ likes this weather.

I tried a little Spring cleaning in my closet and when I was trying to put the clothes back he wouldn’t let me. So, for an hour or so I let him have his fun. And I had my fun as well. I like taking photos, so what better subject than a fat cat.

Been there, done that. Waiting for a real convention to come!

I’ve never been so disappointed in my life. I was so excited regarding this convention, I thought that it will be something considering the amount of publicity it was done for it but it wasn’t.

I bought my tickets in December and they weren’t even tickets for the first day, they were tickets for the second day of the event. Go figure, I was first from 400 people to buy them and they couldn’t send me tickets for the first day, yet when the first day of the convention came you could find tickets for sale in from of the building. At first I didn’t thought that it will matter that much but it did.

On the second day all the merchandise, the good one I mean, was sold out. The remaining merchandise was either deteriorated, poor quality or just expensive. I mean, the pictures they put on the official site were far from reality. I could’ve found better plushies in a second hand shop.

The so called Japan Wing was a major let down!

I was expecting to buy some manga’s, maybe a plushie. Something nice, like the last year when I went home with a Chopper plushie and a notebook with Totoro.

Instead all that I bought were 2 posters (from One Piece, one of them was ripped but for 5 Ron a piece it didn’t matter) a bookmark (One Piece again), which was fan made and a t-shirt with Mo&Foca from Robotzi, which was probably the best thing there. And just to clarify things, the t-shirt was for Johnny.

Now, I know most people will criticize me for focusing only on the material side and they will probably say that this convention was for fans to meet and have fun, even to meet celebrities and such.

I know that. I know many people go there to hang out and just enjoy their fandom, but I’m more of the loner type when it comes to fandoms. I like to enjoy a thing but not necessarily share my thoughts and hang out with other people.

There was also an incident that made me laugh: when I was looking for a poster to buy so I wouln’t leave empty handed, I heard a girl saying to her brother “If you see a poster with Luffy just grab it!“. I was like “Really now, I’m going to have to fight with a 12 year old for a poster“.

There were and nice things, the artists that sold their sketches, the kids running around in costumes, the red carpet at the entry, the food and the hope that on the next convention people will actually bring more merchandise!!!

I’m now waiting for Otaku festival in May.

I believe this year will be Hercule Poirot year, in terms of books. I’ve been reading  Agatha Christie’s books like there’s no tomorrow.

I must admit that stitching and audio books go hand in hand with me. I cannot stay still and listen to a story without doing something with my hands.

And yet, I am afraid that very soon I’ll finish all the Hercule Poirot books and I will have to satisfy myself with Miss Marple stories (which aren’t as addictive as the ones with the little Belgian detective).

Books are really addictive, detective books I mean. But not all of them, I tried to see if other detectives will have the same charisma as Hercule Poirot but I was disappointed.

For example, I read “The two cases of Danwel Strong” by Juan Angel Cardi and I barely made it to the end. It took me a month or so to finish a book that, in normal conditions, would’ve taken me a day or two.

Then, there were the Maigret books which are a step or two above normal detective books. But even the Maigret books don’t come close to Agatha’s Christie little Belgian.

In no particular order:

The Mystery of the Blue Train

This book was first published in 1928; that’s 85 years ago. The story resolves around the death of Ruth Kettering, an American heiress that gets murdered on the Blue Train (Le Train Bleu).

After the murder, it is also discovered that the famous “Heart of Fire” diamond also is missing from the possession of the late Mrs. Kettering.

On the same train there are Mrs. Katherine Grey (a 30 year of companion that comes in a large sum of money and decides to visit the French Riviera), Derek Kettering (which is following his wife, trying to reconcile with her and save the marriage for financial reasons more than for the sake of love), the dancer Mirelle (Derek ex-lover, who is after the Heart of Fire diamond rather than Derek), Ruth Kettering maid, Ada,  and of course Hercule Poirot.

Rufus Van Aldin, Ruth Kettering father, employs Hercule Poirot to solve the mystery of his daughter’s death. At first, all the suspicions are directed towards  The Comte of Roche and Derek Kettering. The Comte of Roche is well known for approaching married women’s and making their precious diamonds disappear and Derek Kettering is known for having financial difficulties.

After many twists and turn and a little help from Mrs. Katherine Grey, Hercule Poirot resolves the case and the famous Marquis (a famous burglar) and his accomplice is found guilty for the murder of Mrs. Ruth Kettering. As for the Heart of Fire diamond, well it is believed lost … but there is a certain dancer that is very proud in her new necklace.

Time of reading: 1 day. Stitching while reading interesting books is bad for one’s  needlework.I believe I made some mistakes since I was wrapped up in the story so much, but it was worth it nonetheless.

Dumb Witness

This was a very well played plot by Agatha Christie. Basically you go through all the characters and believe at some point or another that they must be the murderer.

And in the end, the murder is the the last person you would think of. I won’t give any details of this book, because its more fun this way than having an idea of what you are getting yourself in.

This is a classic when it comes to detective books. Well played Christie, well played.

Time of reading: around 2 days. I have to take breaks from time to time and works comes into as well.

Appointment with Death

I’ve noticed in most of Agatha Christie’s books that there are some characters that just deserve to slapped silly. And in this book there is one character that is so annoying that you are just happy to see her die.

The action takes place abroad, Hercule Poirot tries to take a vacation from death, but death just has a different agenda.

Mrs. Boynton is the annoying character that I was speaking about, the step mother of a large family who just enjoys keeping her children in line and basically bullies them into submission. And this “lovely” lady finds a tragic end on what should’ve been a “vacation” with her family.

All of her children are suspected of murder, and the question is: did they all act together or was just one of them that decided that enough is enough?

Well, it was fun to read and the ending was very satisfying.

5 MORE DAYS!

I’ve bought the tickets since December and I can’t believe that there are only 5 more days till Comic Con!

This is really an amazing event that I just can’t wait to go to. The only downside of this is the fact that I’m actually working, both on Saturday and Sunday, from 4PM.

So, I’m stuck not knowing what to do. I can either take a day off from work, ask someone to do my shift or skip work altogether and go wild.

I’m just so torn up, I  WANT TO GO and just waste time and money.

When I first bought the tickets I planned on going just to buy stuff and that’s it. But now, I’m looking on their website and I’m just crying a lil bit inside.

John Rhys-Davies (from “Lord of the Ring” and “Sliders”) will come to the convention. I’m just looking and the website and an autograph from him is 50Ron. That’s not much, but considering I was planning to spend no more than 100Ron (trying to be rational here) kinda makes it hard for me. So I decided to go as high as 300Ron for this convention, hopefully I won’t overspend.

For me to actually be able to get an autograph from this big guy I’ll have to go on Sunday. But I’m not going alone, since I have 2 tickets. Johnny said he’ll pass this one out and I’m actually going with a colleague from work. But she’s in Germany at the moment and she will be back at the end of week.

I want to make plans and set things straight.

Then there are the many shops with merchandise! I’m so excited I can’t even describe the feeling.

I feel like a little kid that will go to the amusement park for the first time and doesn’t know what ride to try first.

I’m one sure of one thing, I’m taking my new photo camera with me and I’ll go wild with photo’s. I want lots and lots of photos of this event.

]]> http://www.pocandpoch.com/east-european-comic-con/feed 0 http://www.pocandpoch.com/georges-simenon-maigret-collection http://www.pocandpoch.com/georges-simenon-maigret-collection#comments Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:58:47 +0000 cre-cre http://www.pocandpoch.com/?p=3785

I believe I mentioned before that I borrow/buy books and just forget about them. Well, this year I decided to read as many books as I can from my bookcase. What I would do with them after I finish reading them, well I haven’t decided yet.

I don’t remember reading so many books in such a short period of time, not even in school.

But then again, I didn’t read huge novels that never end (The Fellowship of the Ring doesn’t count), I actually read detective books.

Nope, no Agatha Christie books this time, but Georges Simenon books.

 I still had 3 more books from the Jules Maigret series that I haven’t read and I was actually missing the French detective. The thing that I like most about Georges Simenon detective is that he isn’t a snob like you see in most detective books. So, in no particular order here are the three novels by Georges Simenon:

~~~Maigret Loses His Temper~~~

The plot: a nightclub owner is murdered and the police doesn’t have any suspects in the case. The owner of the nightclub is an Italian with a respectable family and who doesn’t have any enemies.

Basically, the owner vanishes one might and his family reports him as missing. Two days later his body is found in a cemetery. Maigret tries to find out if anyone from the other nightclubs might’ve had quarrels with him, but none hated him enough to kill him.

In the end I realized why the book was named “Maigret Loses His Temper“. The killer is actually the least expected person: the lawyer of the nightclub owner. The reason is actually simple: the lawyer used to pick his cases depending on the type of crime people committed. Then he used to ask “protection” money promising that the criminals wouldn’t be prosecuted and the police won’t be bothering them. But the money was never shared with the police. In reality, he was smart enough to know that the people won’t be indicted and would’ve gotten away even if they didn’t pay up. The nightclub owner was getting suspicious of the lawyer and his methods and that’s why he was killed.

In the end, the lawyer commits suicide in his cell being to afraid to face the harsh reality.

• Rating: 2 stars out of 5.
• Reason: it was interesting but not captivating enough.

~~~Maigret on the Riviera or Liberty Bar~~~

Plot: A murder takes place on the Riviera. Maigret is called in to investigate because the person murdered was actually a spy and the authorities want the case to be solved as soon as possible and without any complications.

The main suspects are the dead man’s lover and her mother who are caught in the act of fleeing the house their shared together.

The entire atmosphere of the book is that of a lazy vacation. Maigret cannot concentrate on the case, but in the end he finds the guilty person and guess what he lets that person go.

Basically his resolve of the case is that a stranger is guilty. Easy fix and with no complications. I won’t actually spoil this book because I really found it fascinating.

• Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
• Reason: it was interesting, made me yearn for the summer days at the sea side and for good food.

~~~ The Friend of Madame Maigret~~~

Plot: Inspector Maigret attempts to prove that a murder has actually been committed without a corpse anywhere to be found. As the investigation becomes increasingly complex, seemingly unconnected characters are drawn into the case, and Maigret begins to wonder if his wife’s earlier strange encounter with a woman and her baby may be the missing link.

This is the first book where Maigret wife is actually shown as being more than a housewife. She actually helps Maigret with his investigation and puts him on the right track.

It’s actually funny when a taxi driver questioned by Maigret says he saw a fat lady looking after a small child, the “fat lady” in question being Maigret wife. Again, I shall not spoil the ending. It was funny, interesting and it showed that even without an body you can still prove that a murder was committed.

• Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
• Reason: again it made me hungry, it was captivating, the Maigret family unites in solving a case.

Spring is here! It’s so nice to not wear many layers of clothes. I think the reason why I like Winter so much is that it makes Spring so much sweeter.

I’m doing good.

I wanted to write about many things but then again not everything needs to be shared. I passed all my exams at university, work is OK and soon we’ll go team building (it will be high school all over again). But, I am happy about one thing in particular: I finished a needlepoint project.

Yup, I finished my geisha needlepoint from Draga Decor. I actually, worked on it on every spare moment I had (while I “read” about 6-7 audio books by Agatha Christie).

And here is the end result, my framed Geisha:This was the final stage right before framing it.  I was really happy with the colors and all that. Had some issues with the quality of the floss but that passed.

Of course, Marlanu’ had to approve it before putting it on the wall. But then again, I have no idea where I could put it in my room and all the other rooms are already packed full with paintings and other stuff.

So, I’m still pondering on the location.

Still, its so nice. The framing was really expensive and this was actually the second choice of frame since my first pick, a more simple reddish frame, was out of stock.

I’m actually proud of myself, now another 5 projects to finish and I can say that I don’t leave anything unfinished.

This song is infectious and I’m starting to like Sistar more and more.

One of the best videos that I’ve seen in a very long time and a song to match it.

Routine can make one feel tired. The days pass so quickly and so uninteresting that it makes me feel like I’m wasting time rather than being productive.

But its a miracle what a little change in the daily routine can do to one spirits.

Just by leaving one hour earlier and going to the park before work, by visiting a friend during my day off, even reading a book or two. I really do feel much more refreshed and I’m in a better mood than before.

I must admit the weather was really nice and it was a shame not to go out for a walk. Even if I was by myself. I guess being alone doesn’t bother me at all, especially on a lovely early Spring morning.

Yes I do consider that Spring is here. I can actually smell it!

What can I say, when Spring will come in full force all the parks will be full with people so I should enjoy them and their solitude as much as I can.

After that I know for sure that everybody will come out and the parks will be much to full for my liking.

And yet, even staying indoors has it perks when you have a cat.

]]> http://www.pocandpoch.com/feeling-refreshed/feed 0 http://www.pocandpoch.com/geisha-needlepoint http://www.pocandpoch.com/geisha-needlepoint#comments Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:37:10 +0000 cre-cre http://www.pocandpoch.com/?p=3831

Before:

After:

Almost there but still a long way to go. The part that take the most time is her kimono. A lot of colors and some are very close to each other. Hopefully, spring will come with a project finished.

I am starting to feel like Valentine’s Day is becoming more and more like Christmas. The only difference is that I forgot to buy gifts, or more like I thought we had an agreement that no gifts will be purchased this year for Valentine’s Day.

Well, Johnny surely surprised me.

I woke up looking at a red rose and a black box with a silver ribbon on it. Inside it, 2 BB cream’s: a cleanser and a face cream. BB creams just appeared on the Romanian market so I was really surprised that Johnny actually went to a drug store and bought them for me. And he didn’t buy the imitations he bought the real deal.

I was shocked! Really, I was just shocked.

And that was not all, in the evening after Johnny came from work he opened his backpack and got out a new photo camera!

I actually started crying a little. I mean, I bought nothing and here comes Johnny with things that I wanted and for which I was saving for. And I was just staring at him thinking “I have no idea what to buy for you“.

I am in such a happy state right now. All I need is a case for the photo camera and I can take it with me without having to worry that I will ruin it.

So, now lets plot on what should Johnny receive for his birthday in March.

I have this thing that once I start a project I keep going on it for a while but then I get bored and I start another one.

So at the moment I have a “few” projects that just beg to be finished:

Probably the most “famous” project that I have yet to finish is my needlepoint  cat from Krif. This stitching project is almost finished, I really have a few more stitches to add and then I can frame it and just get over with.

But those last few stitches are criminal. So many colors in such a small area, it’s becoming annoying to change the floss every couple of stitches. I thought of buying more needles but then there’s a chance I might lose them and I don’t want to have a bad surprise later.

Another project that is on the last 100 meters is my tulips needlepoint. The thing with this project is that I made a mistake on it and I’ll have to undo and re-do some parts of it. I don’t mind re-doing, its the undoing that will kill me.

Still, this project is dear to me and I will most likely finish it by the end of this year.

And then we have the two Geisha’s. One of the is a huge one, when I bought it I was so in love with it, with the bright colors and all, but now that I am actually stitching it the love is slowly fading away. That’s the issue with big projects when it comes to stitching you get bored and even tired of them and its very hard not to give up on them completely.

The only thing that keeps me going back to this project is the fact that its printed so I don’t have to check a paper every time and count every stitch. That would’ve been criminal.

The second Geisha is a lot smaller and I’ve seen this project on many blogs. I’ve seen the completed needlepoint and the cross stitch version, but the needlepoint version is much nicer.

This the most “cleanest” project I’ve worked on. I really just tried to complete each stitching page before going to the next one and the result is really nice. This will probably be finished as the same time as the tulips.

But wait, there are a few more:

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Those projects are the “least” important to me. I don’t feel burden to finish them but at the same time I don’t feel like throwing them away either. It’s really sad, but stitching really takes a lot of time. Even if I would stitch two hours per day I wouldn’t be able to finish a project in a month.

And yet, its so addictive that you really can’t give it up as a hobby.

Unfortunately for me, I have one more. This one is a cross stitch from Marjolein Bastin. I made a HUGE mistake with this one. I didn’t keep the same material on which came with the packet. I said to myself that I can’t stitch on that small piece of material and there’s no way that the project will fit on it.

Guess what, now the project is way to big.

I still have a lot to learn about stitching and hopefully this year I will have a project or two finished.

Today I finished “The Fellowship of the Ring“, the first book of “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

I’m actually happy that I finished this book because it has been on my reading list for a long time. The truth is that even till this date I have not seen “The Lord of the Rings’ movies because I wanted to read the books first.

I was really inspired to read “The Hobbit” before starting reading “The Lord of the Rings”. “The Hobbit” shows how the hobbit (Bilbo Baggins to be more precise) ends up with the ring, “the ring to rule them all“. The first book of “The Lord of the Rings” starts in the Shire (the land of the hobbits), 50 years later after Bilbo Baggins gets the ring from Gollum and leaves it as a heirloom to his nephew Frodo Baggins.

And in come Gandalf and the hobbits are off on an adventure of a lifetime.

What is really nice about “The Fellowship of the Ring” is how much the beginning of the book resembles “The Hobbit”. When Frodo & co where leaving from the Shire I was remembering about Bilbo first time out of the Shire along the dwarfs. In a weird way you get a nostalgic feeling and its hard not to compare Frodo with Bilbo.Then again, Bilbo was hired as a master thief, not knowing the perils that he might encounter (OK, he knew about the dragon), whereas Frodo is more or less aware of the power of the Ring and he knows he is in danger.

The only thing that I didn’t like about the book was the lack of dwarfs. Really now, one dwarf is not enough for an adventure.

What I would like to say from the start is that Tolkien is really awesome. And, I actually found one of the most awesome tributes made for him on Tumblr:

Basically, what J.R.R. Tolkien did was to create a new world and he didn’t create the world for others, he created the world for himself. Because of this, his creation is truly wonderful.

Tolkien describes everything to the smallest detail and its really hard not to let your imagination run wild. I actually lost track of time a couple of times reading “The Fellowship of the Ring” and twice I almost forgot to get ready for work. Good thing I’m by nature a lazy nature and getting ready to go to work takes 10 minutes.

I actually cannot imagine how many hours this man spent writing these books. What most intrigued me the most is the songs. Almost every chapter has a song or two, and some of them are in elvish.

I’m thinking of taking a small break before starting the second book. It took me a month a few weeks to finish one book and I would like to give my imagination some time to rest. That I don’t want to finish the series too soon. I just want to enjoy them as much as I can.

~~~ Source of pictures: 1, 2, ~~~

I actually made time in my hobbies/free time schedule for Korean dramas. Even if most of the Romanian TV channels air daily Korean dramas I never actually have the time to watch them.

My only option is to watch them online if English subtitles are available.

Last year I watched one Korean drama “Lie to Me” and even that series I was unable to finish. So, while I was looking up again the entire series for “Lie to Me” I started watching the recently completed series “I Miss You“.

I only watched the first two episodes of the drama. Each episode is one hour long.

I must say the first episode was very confusing. In the first 20-30 minutes a lot of things were going on and it was hard to tell the relationship between the characters. But I managed to figure out what was going on.. eventually.

Basically the “plot” starts with two different situations:

• Soo-Yeon (played by Kim So-Hyun) is a 15 year old kid who is bullied at school because of her father is a murderer. Also, her home life with her mother is not actually very pleasant since they are barely scrapping off  and the entire world seems to be against them.
• And there is Jung-Woo (played by Yeo Jin-Ku) who comes back to Korea from America wanting to be more closer to his family. But what he doesn’t know is that his family is in a feud over a huge sum of money.

And around this time Soo-Yeon meets Jung-Woo. They have a rough start since Jung-Woo ignores Soo-Yeon after he learns about her father but soon has a change of heart. Then they start hanging out and Jung Woo even protects her as much as he can from the bullying at school.

Then, they grow up and lose touch with each other.

The second episode ends with the grown up version of Jung-Woo (played by Park Yoochun) sitting on the stairs of Soo-Yeon old home just contemplating his memories and wanting to reunite with his old love.

The first two episode were really cute to watch. For the time being I am enjoying this drama and hopefully the next episodes will be as interesting.

~~~Pictures source: 1, 2 ~~~

Bibliophile – n. lover of books; one who loves to read, admire and collect book

I present you my 2013 reading list, in no particular order:

1. The White Woman on the Green Bicycle by Monique Roffey
2. Maigret Loses His Temper by Georges Simenon 
3. Maigret on the Riviera by Georges Simenon
4. The Friend of Madame Maigret by Georges Simenon
5. The Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
6. Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
7. Appointment with Death by Agatha Christie
8. Evil Unde The Sun by Agatha Christie
9. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie
10. Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
11. Mrs. McGinty’s Dead by Agatha Christie
12. After The Funeral by Agatha Christie
13. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
14. Third Girl by Agatha Christie
15. Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie
16. Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
17. The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
18. The Moving Finger by Agath Christie
19. The under dog and other stories by Agatha Christie
20. The Labours of Hercules by Agatha Christie
21. The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
22. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
23. The Hollow by Agatha Christie
24. The Two Cases of Danwell Strong
25. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
26. The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
27. The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
28. A walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
29. A bend in the road by Nicholas Sparks
30. A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
31. Cocosatul by Paul Feval

]]> http://www.pocandpoch.com/bibliophile-2013/feed 0 http://www.pocandpoch.com/much-ado-about-nothing http://www.pocandpoch.com/much-ado-about-nothing#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:23:26 +0000 cre-cre http://www.pocandpoch.com/?p=3741

It’s not even the end of January and I already feel myself stuck in a rut. But then again, January has always been a “dead” month for me.

Well, I can’t actually say it was a dead month since I did went on vacation, read books, worked my ass off (at work and at home). But, I just feel unfulfilled like all that I did so far is insignificant. And its a real unfair feeling since I know I had fun even when things didn’t went as planned.

I don’t know, I’m being weird today.

I feel unfulfilled yet when I try to make a list with things to do (for end of January-February), this is what comes out of my head:

• use the photo camera and actually take photographs
• take lots of photos of Marlanu’
• macro photography
• find online programs to edit photos besides Photoshop
• select photos to print out
• make a Bibliophile list to ease things when picking new books to read
• clean my bookcase
• clean my portable hard drive
• clean my netbook drive
• update my MP3 player list
• find new music and artists
• watch “Lie to me” till the finish
• start watching “I miss you“
• make a list with all Korean drama’s that I want to watch this year (a realistic list)
• get all the Korean dramas that I want to watch this year
• renew my subscription at the library
• try not to fail to many exams this semester (update: 4 exams down, 2 to go)
• a post with all my stitching projects that I’m working at
• get a haircut
• go to the gym more (we have a new gym at work but all places are filled up for the next 2 weeks T_T  actually managed to sign my name twice next week and once for the week after)
• shave my legs (brace yourself.. it’s still Winter)
• make lots of quality posts on the blog (about what I have no idea)
• throw away stuff that I no longer use from my room
• visit a memorial house during the weekend
• re-start the Japanese lessons (and as promised post the lessons)
• use my free time more wisely

See, it’s only silly stuff. I’m such a weird cookie today. I even stayed 10 minutes figuring out what to name this post and nothing came out.

Somehow, I think I should just get some rest.

Wonder Girls were my very first K-pop group. They were the ice breaker to Korean music, movies, culture and heck even the language. If someone asks me about the Wonder Girls this is the image that I have in my mind: Sun, YeEun, SoHee, SunMi and YuBin.

This is my “original” Wonder Girls.

This was way back in 2009. And till the current date their songs (Nobody, Tell Me and the very recent songs from 2012) have been on my MP3 player list and they will probably still be there for a very long time.

Yet, I have a feeling that the Wonder Girls won’t be making a comeback any time soon which is really a shame. They are probably the most awesome girl groups that ever existed.

First it was Hyuna, then it was SunMi and now its Sun. Basically, the members left and are leaving due to personal reasons:

• Hyuna left because of health issues but managed to make a comeback with another group;
• SunMi left because she wanted to continue her studies and at that time the group was in America trying to enter the American market;
• Sun is getting married next week and will take a very long leave to basically enjoy her newly married life.

I am really happy that their agency allowed them a freedom that is very rare to find in Korea, especially if you’re an idol. They are allowed to chose their path in life and are even given the opportunity to make a comeback.

At the moment, the other members will have solo activities to focus on so I’m expecting SoHee to take part in different movies, YeEun will most likely focus on her musical show that she’ll be part of for the next two months (and on her singing career) and then there’s Lim and YuBin that have no plans (at the moment).

Even so, I’ll most likely wait patiently for news of their individual activities and for a group comeback. I’m sure that many fans will do the same. And just for the old days, here’s “Tell Me”.

Source of the pictures: 1, 2

It’s bitter cold outside, raining and in general horrible weather. And if that wouldn’t be enough I have to go to work in half an hour.

And here I am trying to muster the energy and will to get my butt to work and then comes Marlanu’

Seriously I hate him. If I die and I get a chance to come back I will always choose the reincarnate as a cat.

Grr, I’m off to work.

“Rurouni Kenshin” the live action movie was amazing. This was one of the most beautiful adaptations that I’ve seen in a very long time. Dare I say it’s way up there with Watchmen.

Normally when I hear that a movie will be made after a certain anime, I get this bad feeling that they will ruin everything for the fans. A very good example is the Dragon Ball movie that appeared a couple of years ago.

But then again, this is not an American adaptation of an Anime.

I was really hipped about this movie because Rurouni Kenshin holds a very dear place in my heart and childhood memories. Not only was Rurouni Kenshin one of the first anime movies that I’ve seen but the anime series (Samurai X) was on TV every weekend morning. It was something that we could all watch on those lazy weekend mornings. Heck I still have Bonnie’s Pink song “It’s gonna rain” on my MP3 player.

So, watching the movie took a lot of guts from me since I didn’t want to ruing those feelings. Well, I must say those Japanese know their stuff because the movie was awesome on so many levels.

Basically, the action of the movie is exactly what happens in Samurai X first season. They managed to cram in the action of one entire season in a 2 hour long movie and it was amazing to watch from start to end.

Another thing that I liked about this movie was the casting. They actors were brilliant and it’s like they were meant to be apart of this movie. Their manners, the way they spoke, everything was so similar to the anime characters.

Talk about fan service…

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When I actually looked them up on Google I was really amazed how much different they look in real life compared to their characters. I don’t think that it was all down to make up and a good wardrobe, I do think they were able to bring to life the characters with their acting talent.

Truthfully as a fan of the series I was really pleased with this movie. I was so pleased with it that I actually gave it a 9 on IMDb.

Believe it or not I actually convinced Johnny to watch a Japanese movie with me. All that I had to say was “It has lots of blood” and he was settling in to watch.

So, this is the very short story on how we watched “Battle Royale”.

This isn’t a movie for kids, but then again the amount the blood the movie has is childish compared with other movies. I mean, its not the blood that shocks is the main idea/story of the movie: kids killing kids.

I was planning on reading the book first (“Battle Royale” by Koushun Takami) but it was much easier to find the movie than the book.

The story is basically simple, Japan is going through a bad phase. Adults are losing the respect they once had and kids are basically running wild. So, a new law is introduced. This is called the “Battle Royale” law where each year a class of students is chosen and they are taken to an island/remote place where they have to fight and kill each other in maximum 3 days. There can be only one winner or else everyone is killed.

At first, the kids think this is a big joke but soon they realize it’s not. Some of them kill themselves, some start killing just to stay alive, others just kill because they want to blow some steam.

The main focus of the story is on Shuya and Noriko. Shuya tries to protect Noriko for his dead friend Nobu who was in love with her. Then Kawada comes in the picture, since he’s been in the “game” before and he knows exactly how things work. And Kawada actually helps Shuya and Noriko to survive the game.

It’s basically the older version of the Hunger Games. It might not be as complex as the Hunger Games but its worth watching.

I am thinking of looking up and the second part of the movie, but a quick peak at the reviews and I have mixed feelings about it.

That’s a very long name even for my taste, but that’s the name of the book that I recently finished.

First lesson of the year: Don’t pick a book by its cover. It might be pretty, the “resume” might sound interesting but the content might be rubbish.

“The White Woman on the Green Bicycle” by Monique Roffey

Johnny bought this book for me at the end of 2012. You could say it was a Christmas gift, but I know he was being nice and just spoiled me with a new addition to my ever growing book collection.

Actually I wanted a new book but I really didn’t know what I wanted. The books that were on display at that time weren’t that great. Seriously, I thought people got over the Twilight saga but I guess I’m wrong. Almost 80% of the shelves were with vampires, werewolves, supernatural and other things related.

It was the picture on the book that draw me. It was so different from all the others. I also read the back of the book and said why not.

Well, it was a nice reading but just about it. The book has two parts.

The first part presents the lives of Sabine and George, an old British couple in Trinidad trying to live their remaining days in “peace and harmony“, if not in love. But their past, their ego, the fact that they are white, the current social situation in Trinidad, almost everything keeps them from being happy. So, George tries one more thing to prove his love for Sabine but ends up dying in their pool.

This triggers Sabine to do something very stupid (for a 75 year old woman) and then the story goes back to the period when Sabine and George barely moved to Trinidad.

And the second part starts, with a young Sabine and George just moving to Trinidad. They are very much in love and plan on only staying 3 years in Trinidad and after that to move back to U.K.

But George falls in love with the island and basically refuses to see anything wrong with the social situation in Trinidad (black people being denied the same rights as whites, increasing tensions on the island, the black power increasing and so on), while Sabine sees all of the above (and even more) and starts fearing for their lives.

Basically its a story on how one person (Sabine) gives up everything for another (George), in the process becomes a very bitter (old) person. I don’t know how accurate is the information about the political situation of that time, but its a weird story. Both characters are exaggerated: George is completely selfish and everything that doesn’t fit in his scheme isn’t important therefor not real and Sabine is basically an idiot, a whining idiot.

And this was supposed to be a love story. I really can digest that. First book of the year was a minor let down.

What better way to start the year than with a vacation. When everyone went back to work we actually went on a vacation.

Our mini vacation consisted of 4 days and 3 nights at Sinaia. I must say it turned out to be one of the best vacations ever. We went by train, it took us 2 hours to get there, and surprisingly the train got on time, no delay what so ever.

The weather there was beautiful: sunny, lots of snow and very, very cold.

We planned on not doing much except eat, drink and sleep. And even so, on the first day we went by foot up to the cable car and from there up to 1400m. There we took photos with Lord, a beautiful Saint Bernard that we took photos with last year at Busteni.

The owner was kind enough to let us take a few more personal pictures with the dog. Well, it wasn’t such a big request since we paid 20 Ron just for one photo.

Well, at 1400 m above sea level, if you don’t have a sledge, skies or a snowboard, there’s not much you can do. We actually stopped and ate lunch but when the bill came we had the shock of our lives. Eating at high altitude is very expensive.

The next day it was cloudy and we decided to visit Pelisor Castle.

We saw Peles Castle a few years ago, we really liked it even if the tour was 10 minutes long and they basically rushed us out so they can make time for the next tour. Well, at Pelisor it was the exact opposite.

Me and Johnny were the only ones visiting Pelisor at that time since everyone was heading for Peles. Basically, they gave us the go ahead to visit the castle at our own pace. They even begged us to take pictures, but we declined. It wasn’t that expensive to take pictures but we just wanted to enjoy the castle not having to worry if we took photos of this or that.

What I really loved at Pelisor were the painting of the french painter Marguerite (Gamy) Montaut. The paintings were in the children’s bedroom and they just caught my eyes. I’m actually thinking of reproducing a few of her paintings in stitching.

The interior of Pelisor was beautiful. Some of the rooms were amazing just by concept, leaving out all the decorative things.

On the third day we decided to brace ourselves and hit the high slopes at 2000m. We took again the cable car and basically we didn’t see anything besides fog. Yup, 2000m above the sea level and all around us just fog.

It was disappointing since we were so high and we wanted to see the views and all around us was just white fog. When we found a place to eat we were even more shocked of the prices they had. Seriously, eating on top of the mountain its a very expensive hobby.

I’m not saying that we didn’t spent money in our 4 days at the mountain side (we spent a lot of money in 4 days), but seriously 25 RON for a bowl of soup. I’m sorry but that’s just way over the limit of common sense.

In the end all we ate was a bowl of baked potatoes with goat milk. IMO that was one of the best meals I ever had in a very long time. It was healthy and yummy at the same time.

Also, we had good company while we were enjoying our meager lunch. A tabby cat, a very fat one if I might add. We actually had a discussion, where ever people are animals will always be close by. In this case lots of big dogs and a very fat cat that was enjoying the heat and hospitality of the cabin.

I also made a list (of photos) with the best foods I ate while I was on vacation. Don’t be surprised if you see lots of ice cream photos. I actually lots more food, like deer jerky, cow belly soup, pizza and so on, but 75% of the time I was very tipsy and photos were not on my mind.

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“Bulzul Boierului”  (the fourth picture) was one of the few things that I was not able to finish. It was so good but very fat.

And to end the mini vacation, in our last day we had a few more hours to kill before taking the train back to Bucharest. So we actually went to this Trains exposition. It was awesome on so many levels. First of all, we were in minority there. Actually all adults were in minority there. And it was easy to see why, there were a lot of mini trains, a place to do puzzles, draw, play with toy trains, an area for tea and coffee and they even had some cool souvenirs. And all of this was actually within the train station at Sinaia.

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It was such a good vacation! I can truly say for the first time in my life I had a stress free vacation.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope the passing of the year was filled with lots of fun, friends and good memories for the year to come.

What can I say, I had fun, as much as I could given my circumstances. I mean, I worked on Christmas, on the 31 of December and on the 1st of January, and when my “weekend” came I actually got a nasty cold and most of time was spent indoors… NOT!

I wasn’t crazy to sleep my free time away. I really didn’t care that I could barely speak or that I was dizzy most of the time, I really wanted to have fun and that’s what I did.

What better way to start the year then with a good movie. So we went to the cinema and saw “The Hobbit“.

It. was. epic.

The last book that I read in 2012 was “The Hobbit” and I enjoyed it so much. I really didn’t expect the movie to be this awesome. It has all the right elements combined in such a beautiful way.

Almost 3 hours of comedy, action and beautiful visuals.

The actors were simply amazing in bringing the story to life. I don’t know who did the casting but, my God they got it right. A new fan base has started on Tumblr and their main idols are Fili and Kili. And sincerely I can’t see why not, the actors are just drop dead gorgeous.

What I loved the most about the movie is that they didn’t cut anything from the main story. They didn’t compromise the details of the book just so they can get a normal 90 minutes movie. Nope, “The Hobbit” lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes and it didn’t even finish the story.

So that means the second part of the movie will be released at the end of the year. It will be a good karma to go an see the second part at the same cinema before 2013 ends.

It’s that time of the year when we wait for a new year, a new start..

It’s weird how people think that the new year will mean a better life in general. A new year does not mean a new start. Nothing changes when the first of January comes.

Everything is the same. The people around you are the same, your current life is basically unchanged, you still have the same issues. Nothing magical happens on New Years Eve.

I sound pretty negative, don’t I?

Truthfully, 2012 has been a challenging year. Lots of changes, actually there have been so many changes that I really cannot keep track of them all. One thing I know for sure, things come and things go. So 2012 came and with it so did change, now 2012 is ending 2013 is coming.

I am actually happy with myself. I completed a lot of things that were on my list, some more important than others and in general it has been OK.

For 2013 I would like to maintain the same course of action.

So without any other comments about the past year Happy New Year and here is my Resolutions:

~~~~2013 wish list~~~~

1. Sighisoara
2. Start the year with money in my pocket. Be wise with money and don’t spend it on rubbish.
3. End the year with the set amount of money in my savings account.
4. Have 3 office/casual dresses & wear them.
5. Start my daily Photography blog & take more care of the current Photography blog.
6. Finish all current stitching projects (Geisha, .
7. Stitch a bookmark.
8. 50 books (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
9. 10 movies at the cinema (The Hobbit, Parker, A Good Day to Die Hard, )
10. 10 Bollywood movies (1, 2, 3, ).
11. 10 Korean/Japanese movies (1, 2, ).
12. Visit 10 memorial houses (in Bucharest or others cities).
13. Finish my second year at university with good grades.
14. Take a foreign language course.
15. Practice Japanese twice a week (post my lessons online just to keep myself on track).
16. Visit different coffee houses and go out more (with Johnny and friends).
17. Buy something that would make me feel like the most special person alive.
18. Get my drivers license.
19. Learn not to take everything personal.
20. Learn to get over failures and rejections.
21. Do something today that your future self will thank you for.
22. Finish my 1000 pieces puzzle and frame it (update 31.01.2013: Started the puzzle and sorted the pieces).
23. Buy myself a photo camera.
24. Have fun

In 2 hours or so I’ll be back at work, doing stuff and things like that. I am in no mood to go anywhere. I just fell like staying home in bed, reading a book or watching a good movie.

*Sigh*

Oh well, there’s one thing that I’m actually happy about I got new stuff. I didn’t buy many or expensive things just one book and a puzzle. The puzzle is really awesome and I actually can’t wait to finish it and frame it.

The puzzle is a vintage one with a well known actress of her time, Marlene Dietrich and it has 1000 pieces. I really like the colors and the title of the movie “The Devil is a Woman”.

I’m thinking of adding it to my door when it’s finished or somewhere around my room.

The other thing that I’m happy about is a romance book. The book cover caught my attention, it was actually in the section with all the Twilight/vampire/werewolf books. It was really easy to spot actually.

The book is called “Femeia alba pe bicicleta verde” and I never heard about the author up until now. But I liked what I read on the back of the book and I said to give it a shot. It’s not like I’m currently reading 3 books at a time, nope, not me.

Besides my little shopping spree nothing much. I really am not feeling the holidays this year.

Today is a very special day for us. I guess we just reached the first milestone in our relationship.

5 years ago on this day me and Johnny had our very first date!

5 years of dating and spending time together, bickering, having fun, enjoying our time together and the experiences around us. Boy, time sure flies and what can I say, we’ll let you know when the next 5 years pass.

Besides that I can truly say that I can’t wait for this year to be over. Just 5 more days and the new year will come.

I can’t say that I’ve felt the holidays, because I actually worked for Christmas and I will work and for the New Year as well. So I guess I’ll be ending the year on a working note. But at least I’ll start the year with money in my pocket. That never happened before.

On a brighter note I have two days off and I can say that I am making the most off them. We went to the park today. It was almost deserted but we expecting that since everyone was recovering after the Christmas madness.

It was nice and quite warm for this time of the year. After that we went for pizza, visited family and friends and the day still isn’t over. As I am writing this, we are waiting for some friends to pick us up and go out.

It will be a double date celebrating our 5 year milestone and a friends birthday so it should be fun.

Until then we are just hanging around,either watching TV (How its made), on the Internet or just slacking in bed as Marlanu’ will demonstrate.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The real Winter is here.

It started snowing last night but I wasn’t expecting to find the tress white since it also rained yesterday. Still it is a nice surprise and its a good way to start the week in my opinion.

My mini vacation is over and I start work today.

I’m also expecting an increase in snow related posts on my dash on Facebook and Tumblr. It should be interesting..

Its been a long time since I last seen an animated movie. Around 2 weeks I believe.

I got used staying up late and not being able to sleep I decided to watch something easy to “digest” before going to bed. I had plenty of options but I decided to watch “ParaNorman”.

It has 7.2 on IMDd. That’s a really good score if you consider how many movies there are out there.

The movie resolves around Norman, a little kid that can see ghosts. Everyone thinks he’s out of his mind, or that he’s trying to get attention since his grandma passed away.

But the truth is he actually sees ghosts exactly like his “crazy” uncle. Long story short:

Norman’s town, Blithe Hollow, looks down upon him as well, but when a witch’s curse is set to bring the dead back to life in that very town, it’s up to him (and only him) to save it. As his fellow townspeople slowly realize the strange and paranormal exist, he’s aided by his new friend, Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), a bully named Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), his sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick), and Neil’s brother Mitch (Casey Afleck).

So Norman and co try to break the witch curse. They end up being chased around town by the 7 victims of the witch curse only to realize that the zombies are actually trying to send a message to Norman. The zombies, when they were alive, actually convicted of sorcery a little girl that could see ghosts just like Norman. She was killed and was buried in an unmarked grave.

The little girl, before being killed cursed them, each year on the day she was killed they would come back as the living dead.

Norman eventually convinces the little dead girl that there is no winning in taking revenge on people that fear what they do not understand. And so, the little girl removes the curse and she is able to rest in peace, Norman makes a new friend, the people of the town and his family start realizing that he actually has a gift and they stop looking down on him.

The movie is actually done in the same way as Shaun the Sheep and Coraline. They actually made clay puppets and photographed each scene in order to make it. I saw the movie in 2D, but the reviews of the movie in 3D are really good.

I doubt I will have the chance to see the movie in 3D but one never knows. This isn’t actually a movie for kids, heck the witch is a little girl that was murdered by 7 grown ups, Neil’s brother Mitch has a boyfriend and the zombies are actually more harmless than the living.

What else can I say, it was a easy to “digest” movie, perfect for watching before going to bed.

I have done the unthinkable, I watched a horror movie on my own.

I wanted to watch a post Harry Potter movie with one of the trio. I watched a lot of movies with Emma Watson, but almost none with Rupert Grint or Daniel Radcliffe.

So I decided to watch “The Woman in Black“. This movie was a lot more accessible than any of Rupert Grint movies, since British movies are really hard to find in Romania, especially if they aren’t that well known.

As I said, “The Woman in Black” is a horror movie. The movie doesn’t have a lot of blood, but it has a lot of scenes were you just jump out of your seat. Some of them are easy to anticipate but even so you get a jolt whenever they come.

The movie is based on the book “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill.

It’s a sad story of a young man, Arthur Kipps, who lost his wife when she was giving birth to their son. He tries to make a living for himself and his son and he is put in a difficult situation where he has to go to the country side and take care of some legal papers otherwise he will get fired by his employer.

He ends up in a small depressing village (very much British like, with lots of fog and mud everywhere) where everyone just wants him to go back to the city. The locals try to hide the town’s tragic history from Kipps, but he soon learns that the house of his client is haunted by a woman in black. Whenever someone sees the woman in black a child dies.

Most of the children of the locals have died in tragic circumstances and no one knows why the woman is killing them.

Kipps, while looking through all the papers in the haunted mansion finds that the woman is actually seeking vengeance. She had a boy that she had to give up for adoption because she couldn’t take care of him, and the family that adopted him (her sister and her husband) do not let her see her son and nor do they let their son read all the birthday cards he receives from his true mother.

There was an accident and the boy is killed and his body was never recovered.

The woman in black commits suicide and her soul starts seeking vengeance since she was never able to be with her son. And from there all the killings in the village.

Of course being a horror movie there is no happy ending. Kipps tries to put the woman at peace by recovering the body of her little boy from the mud where he actually died. But, she cannot find peace and she eventually kills Kipps and his little boy.

The ending scene presents the Kipps family being reunited in death. It actually is a good ending to the Kipps family, sad but good.

I actually liked the movie. Its an old school horror movie and hopefully the book will be such as good since I do plan on reading it in the near future. As for Daniel Radcliffe, well they were right about his acting, its actually good.

Its actually a lot better than Emma Watson’s acting.

Now all that is needed is a Rupert Grint movie and I can consider myself satisfied.

Today was one of my free days. I could say it was my weekend since my working week is so much different from the normal working class.

I slept in, was lazy most of the day until Johnny suggested going for a walk in the park. Since we’ve been to most parks in Bucharest we decided to go to Carol Park.

It’s a nice park but very small compared with I.O.R. or Herastrau. Yet it has a lot of monuments that others parks do not have. One of them is the “National Technical Museum Dimitrie Leonida“. At first we thought there would be only engines and other technical stuff that we wouldn’t understand but we actually had fun in there. There are a lot of nice things to see from old cars to electrical devices.

One of the most awesome things there was the Oldsmobile.

Seriously I thought it would be a lot different than what it actually look like. We did saw other cars like a Cadillac or mini electrical cars. But the Oldsmobile was the funniest of them all.

Speaking of the mini electrical cars we actually studied them a little trying to figure out the maximum height one should have in order to fit inside the cars.

Just to get a better sense of the actual size of the cars here a picture with both mini electrical and me.

There were other cool things like miniatures models of trams and trains, sketches of how things work, paintings and even the first aerodynamic car which was built by a Romanian. Go figure…

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It was a nice walk that got me refreshed and feeling happy. And I even left with a souvenir: a leather bookmark. Yup, I wanted a bookmark for a while now, I was even considering of stitching one for myself (but its been well over a year since that thought came into my mind) so a bookmark made sense. It’s something practical that I will use since I started reading more books (audio books and normal books).

This visit actually gave me an idea of what I should put on my 2013 list. Yup, my Resolutions list is coming.

Guess what movie we saw.. not like the title wouldn’t be sufficient.

Yup, we saw Brave.

I don’t even know where to start. Well, it was AWESOME! From my point of view this movie belongs in the Top 10 movies I’ve seen this year.

It was brilliant, beautiful, captivating and just funny.

I cannot say how much I loved the bears, the queen and the triplets.

Don’t expect me to write a review, if you want to know got watch the movie. Trust me you will love it.

But what I do want to say is this, they actually made plushies with the triplets as bears and I them, if not just one will do. I’m such a kid when it comes to plushies from anime or cartoons.

Time is flying faster and faster. I still can’t believe that November is almost gone, that Winter holidays are approaching, that the year will end in a month and 3 days.

It feels like I did nothing all year long and I just woke up today from a long sleep.

I now feel useless for no apparent reason.

I just found out that I will be working for the holidays. In a way I am happy because I’ll have a pretty good excuse to avoid all family. In a way I am sad cause I won’t be able to celebrate with friends.

Still, the weather is still fine. It’s sunny and pretty warm for this time of the year. No snow in sight.

In a way that’s better. If I can’t feel the holidays then I won’t be sad in any way.

Good morning!

It is a good morning, I finished a good book while enjoying a good coffee. I am on the afternoon shift so I have plenty of time in the morning to relax. I missed these days. I am enjoying the peace and quiet of an empty house.

Well, I can’t say that it is peace and quiet since I can still hear the workers outside the windows. But it’s not as noisy as before.

I just finished reading “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” by Agatha Christie. This is actually the first novel in which Hercule Poirot appears. It was a fun reading since you get to know about the first impressions Captain Hastings had on the little Belgian man.

Believe or not I actually read the small autobiography before reading the novel and I was shocked to find out that my favorite detective will die eventually. Yes, Agatha Christie killed Hercule Poirot in the last novel. I am disappointed.

I always liked to think that Hercule Poirot had a nice retirement and took some small cases from time to time to keep himself busy. But apparently he dies. I actually looked up the name of the novel just to be sure that it will be the last novel from the Hercule Poirot collection that I will read.

It will be a sad thing when I will reach that novel.

Still, I still have a long way to go before reading all the novels with Hercule Poirot. I could actually read them all before the end of the year, but what fun would that be.

Oh well, back to picking audiobooks for my mp3 player. The poor little mp3 player, he gets new files every two weeks or so and yet he never lets me down..

I have this bad habit of borrowing books from different people and not read them. I just forget about them and they start gathering dust on the shelves.

So, on my last trip to the beach I decided on taking “Moulin Rouge” by Pierre La Mure with me. Remembering the movie I had the impression that it will be a romance book. Boy was I mistaken.

This is a book for my soul. A slow paced book about painters (famous ones I might add), the difficulties they encountered during those times and the old days of Paris when the Eiffel Tower was being built.

The mention of the Moulin Rouge cabaret only comes about half way through the book. Till then the book presents the life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Truth is I never heard of this Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and yet it seems he was a famous French painter, who was a good friend with Cezanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin.

Henri was not the normal painter that struggled in life, he belong to an aristocratic family meaning money was never a problem for him. But, life is a bitch and we all know it, but Henri de Toulouse Lautrec knew it better than anyone.

His parents were primary cousins. So his genes were really messed up, and at an early age he got sick, broke his legs and he only got better when he was 17-18 years old. But by that time, his legs stopped growing, he had problems walking, his eyesight was bad and he was basically deformed. His upper body was that of a grown up and his lower body was that of a child.

I believe the cover of my book was reproduced after this particular picture.

The action in the book mostly revolves around Henri stay in the Montmartre neighbourhood in Paris, “the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers“. Henri life, even if he is from a good family, is really hard. He was mocked for being short in stature and for his physical appearance which led him to drown his sorrows in alcohol.

Its actually really sad considering the book depicts him as being a nice person (can’t tell for sure how a person is if you never known them personally). He is shown protecting the honor of Van Gogh (who was well known for being mentally unstable ), being generous with friends and even prostitutes.

I normally don’t enjoy history with all the dates and events, because I believe too much info is bad for the mind. But I do enjoy history when it comes to people. Knowing what they did, how they managed in life, what where their pleasures in life and all the little things. This type of history fascinates me to no end.

Its amazing how many things go together in life, how many people knew each other even if their field off work was completely different, how certain events were related between them. History that is taught in school is boring. History learned by accident is much more fun.

Seriously, now only did I found more about famous painters, but I now know that the Eiffel Tower was built in the same year as the Moulin Rouge.

I started the book at the beginning of summer and I only finished it now at the end of autumn. It’s not a hard book to read, it’s very captivating but it starts on a happy note which coincides with summer (all nice and sunny, warm and full of fun) and it has a bitter end (gloomy and sad) just like autumn.

I did a bit of research on the Internet and it seems that Lautrec died from syphilis and alcoholism, but the book is a lot kinder and it attributes his death just to alcoholism.

This was one of those books that will stick in my memory for a long time.

Adulthood, if you’re not tired you’re not doing it right.

I don’t know who said this but he was spot on. I’m dead tired so I guess I’m doing pretty good at being an adult.

At least I’m doing good at one thing.

I work. I sleep. I go to university. I help at cleaning the house after the major renovations we had in the last month. What can I say it’s a pleasure to stay awake for more than 24 hours in a row and just work or clean.

But at least, when morning comes I get up to the nicest view ever. Sorry Johnny, but Marlanu’ takes the cake.

Hopefully, they’ll put me on the afternoon shift so I can actually feel that I’m living.

We’re already in November. There is less then two months till Christmas and the New Year is coming fast.

And here I am wasting my days, sleeping away my youth and just being annoying most of my time because I don’t get enough good rest. There is one thing to get a good 8 hour sleep and another to stay in bed for 12 hours at a time but not being able to sleep because of all the noise and not being able to do things because of being to tired to stand or walk.

So, there’s no solution for me just to stick it out and hopefully they will give me an afternoon shift.. or else I might go Hulk on their asses.

Moving on…

So, last weekend it was Nijikon and I didn’t went.

I know, you must be wondering what in Gods name came over me not to go to the only anime convention that I like. Well, someone *cough*Johnny*cough* got a hold of a car and we went on a road trip. It was nice, not awesome nor awful, just nice. The company was OK, well most of our company.

I don’t know if I am becoming more grumpy because I’m just tired in general or the people around me really are annoying. I’m going to say that both options sound about right.

Either way I was out of the house and into the open fresh air and it was perfect for me. The weather couldn’t have been any nicer, the food was good, I did get some sleep in the afternoon even if I was rudely awaken by someone who was grumpy because they were hungry, but we’ll let that one slide.

So of course I’ll have to post pics or else it will be like it never happened.

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Not many pictures to post because most of them are with people and I don’t like to post pics with people in them.

Either way, it was fun. I enjoyed the ride but truthfully a part of me regrets missing out on Nijikon. This year there were a lot of events that were pretty cool. You see, I could’ve always went to friends and family but that damn convention is only once a year. Am I being an idiot, probably but there some things that mean a lot more to me than they do to normal people.

A good way to start the day.