21 Oct 2012

Random Sunday Ramblings

It's been a very quiet Sunday for me. Pretty much a quiet weekend (with a couple of exceptions)! Which is fine by me when a) I'm dealing with a blasted cold and b) the weather is uncharacteristically icky (grey skies and rain all weekend!). Today it's just been me, my computer, my sofa, the TV and a box of kleenex. And a bit of organising around the house just to feel productive. I was supposed to go hiking today, but it got switched to another weekend because of the weather (hiking in rainstorms here can be dangerous, not to mention it rains so rarely that most people in Alicante are a bit "allergic" to rain!). Big sigh of relief!

Do you have a "go-to" movie for when you're feeling under the weather? I've got a couple, but my favourite is definitely The Princess Bride! I don't know how many times I've seen it, but each time I enjoy it all over again. Big smiles, laughs and plenty of quoting! I've been thinking about it for over a week now, and finally popped it in the machine today! I could share oh so many clips from this... but I'll leave you with my all-time favourite cinematic duel atop the Cliffs of Insanity:




hmm... just missing some French! :p
Do you ever read more than one book at once? I usually don't, although from time to time I've been know to be in the midst of two at the same time. I've noticed that tendency has increased since I got the Kindle last Christmas. Now I might be reading one digital and one paper book simultaneously. But last week I realised I was in the middle of FOUR books!!! One I started reading a couple of weeks ago, but have been having trouble really "getting into" despite my general enjoyment of the series as a whole (I know from past experience that soon I'll reach a key moment and then won't be able to put it down). A history book on England's early Queens on the Kindle. Another I've been re-reading for a book club (A Dance With Dragons) and since we met last Tuesday I had to put the others down and start some fast reading to reach the stopping point for the meeting! Didn't finish it, but that didn't stop me from picking up another book I'd just bought as a birthday present for my grandmother, and since she'll be taking it with her to Valencia I wanted to read it beforehand so I had to zoom through it in 3 days!!! Hmmm... maybe my brain wasn't fuzzy last week from the cold but from the reading binge and the lack of sleep Thursday night? :p

I've also been diving into some new blogs... well some not so new but I've been meaning to share them with you for a while now and never got around to it! Some of them are new bloggers (or don't get may visitors) and would love it if someone stopped by... If you're interested, check these out:
  • Mr Spili et Mme Crevette en Tour du Monde: A young Belgian couple are making their way around the world over the next 6 months. They're currently in Thailand and Cambodia. Posts in English, French or both and some gorgeous photos.
  • The Jet Lagged Vagabonde: fun tales and gorgeous photos from some really interesting places in the US and around the world! I definitely have to take note of some of the eateries mentioned in the US stops for whenever I make it back over there! ;o)
  • Chaos of Life and Love: a young woman is trying to make sense of her past (and present and future) relationships, hoping to learn more about herself as she does, and hoping her tales will be of interest/use to others.
  • After 60 - the next 10: I've been following this retired London school teacher's tales since the beginning of summer, fascinated with her adventures volunteering in the London Olympics! Now she's travelling "down under", discovering the beauties of Australia. Lucky her!
  • New Zealand or Bust: with my love of all things Kiwi, how could I resist a title like that? A Brit about to tackle the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aotearoa, New Zealand. I wish I could go back! In the meantime I'll just have to re-live my own Kiwi adventures through her!
Now it's no coincidence that 3 out of 4 of those blogs are travel-related. You know me and my wander lust! In fact, after ignoring it most of the summer because of work, Olympics and posts on this blog, I've finally gotten back into sharing my sailing adventures in Greece on my own travel blog Cris Crossing the Globe! ;o)

Oh... and as if I didn't have enough on my plate... I've started a third blog! Yeah, I know... I'm still running behind here with a couple of dive tales to tell and I have yet to restart Fishy Fridays and haven't written about a single film in months... But there was a subject I decided I wanted to keep separate, in its own space, in case others were interested in just those writings. What subject? My eternal fascination with everything related to King Arthur, Merlin and Robin Hood! I'll only be writing whenever I read or watching something related to these characters, but I've wanted to do it for some time. In fact I had "created" the blog almost a year ago, but didn't start writing until I reached a point in my recent watching of the series Stargate SG-1 where Merlin pops up as a character! If you're interest check out Adventures in Camelot (and Sherwood!). Even if it's just a glimpse to tell me what you think! ;o)

Enough ramblings for today. I wanted to share a couple of pix from my Grandmother's birthday, but they'll have to wait for another time because my mom hasn't sent them to me yet! :p

Hope you're all feeling better than I am at the moment! 'tis the Season of the common (and icky and nasty) cold! Nothing to do but wait it out. And keep the kleenex handy. ;o)

8 comments:

  1. Hope you feel better soon! I've never seen "The Princess Bride." 2 of my favorites are "Dirty Dancing" and "Grease." In fact, Grease was written about the high school in Chicago that I went to. When it first came out, the touring company came to Taft HS and performed the play for us.

    Yes, I read multiple books at the same time. I never know what I'll be in the mood for. However I noticed that you read multiple books in different languages. That is pretty good!

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    1. O!M!G!!!
      You've never seen The Princess Bride?!?!?! I thought only people from the under-30 generation could possibly have missed that!

      Dirty Dancing is also a favourite! I enjoy Grease as well but don't have it on dvd. It was written about your high school?! How cool is that! :o)

      Honestly for me reading in different languages is no big deal. Now I live mainly in a bilingual environment (English with my parents, Spanish on the street) since I only get French via Facebook,e-mails or Skype, But when I was in High School I lived a completely trilingual life! French 8h a day at school, English at home and Spanish in the street! I am equally comfortable in any of the three languages, and the times I have felt best communicating were with my best friend in high school who was also good with the same 3 (she had Russian too!) and we'd sometimes switch language mid-conversation! Used to drive my mom nuts! :p

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  2. Oh, Boo, Hiss about that cold, Cris! I just got over one and am glad to have it behind me. Time for a flu shot now. I just got back from seeing "Looper," and the premise was good, but all the gratuitous violence turned me off. I hate watching people get blown up time after time. I guess other people expect it, but the premise was good, and I enjoyed the ending. :-)

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    1. Thankfully colds are usually just once a year for me! At least nasty ones. I might get a light case of the sniffles in Spring. I hope to avoid the flu shot until I'm told by the doc that I have to have it. As far as I can remember I've only had the flu once in my life (2nd year at Uni, my aunt had to drive down from Valencia -2h- to pick me up 'cause my roommates were panicking at my state!).

      Pity about Looper. Both my sisters have seen it and really liked it! My dad and I will probably go see it when it comes out here... perhaps being forewarned about the violence it won't bother me as much?

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  3. Oh boy, you do have A LOT on your plate. Hope you're feeling better soon.

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    1. Starting to. Finally gave in and went to see the doc this morning for some meds since the coughing was driving me nuts at night! Faringitis means a week of antibiotics and yucky cough syrup but hopefully means I'll be sleeping like a baby soon!

      And yeah, I like to keep busy! ;o)

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  4. My go to sick movie is Under the Tuscan Sun (I'm, guessing I have at least a few decades on you). Princess Bride is a good one though and a family rainy day on vacation favorite. My entire family reads multiple books at once - until we got Kindles, it led to stacks of books. Now with fewer of us in the house and the kindles, the stacks are smaller. Seems like I usually have a fictional book, some sort of nonfiction (biography or history perhaps), something inspirational, something work related. Yah, never know what you'll feel like reading. Enjoy your blog; I'm also a Camelot fan. Quick recovery and happy travels in your future.

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    1. I think I've seen Under the Tuscan Sun, but I only have vague memories...

      The rest of my family are more "one book at a time" people. With me it kind of depends on random circumstances. I usually read one at a time, but like you I might have a second non-fiction one running parallel (particularly when it's a "slow read"). And since I got the Kindle that's happened more and more often! ;o)

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Hey there! Yes you! The quiet one in the back... I'd love it if you hung out for a bit and shared your thoughts!

I might stop by your place with an answer, but I'm more likely to reply right here so click on "email follow up comments" if you'd like to see what I and others have to say and come continue the conversation! ;o)