.: so comes snow after fire :.

Still having a wonderful time with my aunt, it's great. :D Yesterday we spent the whole evening packing my old tv, and today I called the courier. They'll come by tomorrow morning, and by the next day it should arrive at my aunt's place. This way they'll finally have a Full HD tv, and only for 35 euros, the shipping price. I'm very proud of myself. ^^

Today I could finally see the new Once Upon A Time premiere. I loved it! I love both the new princesses, the way they included their story in the Enchanted Forest, and that new magical item at the end made me squeal like a baby! :D But most of all, I loved this:



Skip to 1:40 to see what I mean. I had tears in my eyes! Oh OTP, you're so lovely!

And then I had a wonderful surprise when the mailman rang, and I had a surprise gift from a magazine I subscribed to a couple of months back. It turns out their gift to new subscribers is a video camera!



It's not the best video camera out there, obviously, but it's a nice one, and should work better than my plain camera at making videos. I can't wait to try it! *_____*

Yesterday I also read a new wonderful book, that kept me awake until 1 am, I just couldn't put it down. I highly recommend it to everyone! It's PJ Palacio's Wonder, that couldn't fit in the Reading Bingo but gets a mention here anyway, because it's a fantastic book. It's the story of a kid born with a disease that gives him a "ugly face". We don't get to know what he looks like until much later in the book, but it doesn't really matter: it's a story of disability and how other persons react to persons who aren't "normal". August is a bright kid who starts his first year of school with the fifth grade, and who makes friends, meets bullies, lives life in an environment that can be both hostile and exciting. Some chapters are told by his sister, his friends, and the style adapts to every new narrator. It's a story that doesn't hold back punches but doesn't fall into a sob-fest. It tells life how it is, with the good and the bad, weaknesses and strenghts, and most of all it's the story of a kid with a family who loves him.

None of what I wrote feels worthy of this amazing book, so I'm sorry for that. Words fail me because I loved it very much. ^^ You can find it on Amazon both as a paperback and as a ebook, and I really can't praise it enough.

Tomorrow it'll be another crazy day full of legal tutor appointments and so on, I'm happy I got to have this quiet happy monday to prepare. ^^

I'm back! I visited the family during the weekend, arrived on sunday, returned this afternoon. We did our taxes, my aunt made me a strawberry cake, it was a wonderful weekend. I wish we lived closer, so I could do this more often; it's an 8-hour-long trip, quite exhausting, alhtough it's always worth it.

Yesterday a neighbour came by to give us some bread he had baked in his oven. I'm talking of a huge bakery oven, that is one cool hobby. The bread was fantastic, although he brought 6 kilos (13 pounds) of it, it was a bit overwhelming. Until we found out my uncle, who's a fisherman and a hunter on the side, had given him I don't know how many kilos of trouts the other day as a gift (because if he brings any more trouts into that house my aunt is going to set his fishing pole on fire), and the neighbour was feeling obliged to give us something back.




That's typical Focaccia Piemontese, it is the tastiest thing ever, 2 kilos of it plus the bread.

On the train I mostly read The Great Gatsby. I had never read it before, although I've been spoiled to hell and back (well, obviously). I'm enjoying it a lot, especially the descriptions, how he chooses to focus on one detail and suddenly the whole scene comes alive, so vivid in my mind. At the beginning I had a bit of a problem getting into it, though, and I blame John Finnemore. Yep. He does this sketch in his Souvenir Programme, with the old guy telling the audience a peculiar story, and so everytime the narrator described someone, I heard Finnemore's voice in my mind, I looked at her, she had sharp, intelligent eyes set in a sharp, intelligent face, all in front of a blunt, stupid brain, it was making it very hard to keep a straight face while reading. :D I suppose it would be the same for someone who'd want to read the Sherlock Holmes stories after watching Without A Clue, for example.

Getting a headache, I'd better lie down a bit before dinner. ^^

What a great weekend! Yes, the weather is horrible, rainy and grey and cold, but I'm spending so much quality time with my aunt! We had a friend of ours coming over both on friday and today, and we had cake and talked for hours, it was such a warm and lovely weekend.

I finally read the Young Avengers The Children's Crusade, that I absolutely adored. Scarlet Witch is one of my favourite characters, and this story was intriguing and fascinating, with a great script and wonderful art, and the kids were amazing. I have so many new favourite characters, I don't know where to start. *______*

We also watched Poirot's Murder on the Orient Express together, they were airing the David Suchet version on tv, with the Lord from Downton Abbey and the Governor from The Walking Dead, and my aunt had never seen it nor read it, so I got to spend two hours chuckling and making dramatic noises and throwing her completely off tracks everytime she asked me "oh would you please just tell me who did it!!!" Her face at the end was priceless, she definitely did not see that coming. :D

She's leaving on tuesday, so tomorrow I'll probably spend the whole day clinging to her arm and following her everywhere like a duckling. It's embarassing, I know. ^^"

Real life first, today I had my first therapy session in two weeks, I tried to talk faster than usual to squeeze in one hour all the things that had happened. And I'm already a fast talker. :D We decided to focus on the next few weeks on a couple of things, we'll see how it goes. *____*

Merlin is back! I spent the whole episode wondering how many years had passed, and then a certain character made his great entrance, and I realized it was a lot more years than I thought. No wonder Merlin looked so pissed off at everyone and eager of showing off he's a sorcerer. The poor guy looked one second away from hitting Arthur with a lightning bolt just to show him. After all the angsty scenarios I had in my mind for the big revelation, I now have a strong feeling it'll be a moment a-la Martin Crieff, "oh for god's sake, I'M the sorcerer! Look at my arm, look at my hat!". :D Speaking of which, everytime we had a shot of the guards in the cave, and Percival and Gwaine talking to each other, I shouted out "hey, you two! less yammering, more hoovering!". I'm easily amused. :D And kudos to whoever designed those prison uniforms. Yum yum yum.

Yesterday I finally watched Pirates, A Band of Misfits. Mostly because Martin Freeman did the dubbing of one of the pirates, and because I love stop-motion animation. And pirates. I especially adore pirates. It was lovely! The story was quite simple, but the british dry humour in every other line was unexpected and adorable. Highly recommended for an evening of snickering and giggling. :D

I finished The Sherlockian, and that's another recommendation, it was brilliant! I loved how it wasn't a shocking turn of the tables, but a slow, metodical build-up to the finale. I especially loved the Victorian characters, as they were incredibly realistic, from their time period, even with all the prejudices that a modern reader would find despicable in a good character. Well done indeed. *___*

I'm writing this entry using the new Update page. It looks... huge? I'm not sure I like it, but I guess I could get used to it. My only complaint regards the userpics, that window was already sloppy when writing comments, I wish they hadn't put it in the update page too. Oh well.

Sorry I dropped off the map for a few days, but Tati is finally on holiday, so summer is officially over for me too. And it's that stupid week of the month, with bonus hormonal storms that messed a lot with my mood. PMS, you're the opposite of Batman. You're so not invited to my birthday party.

This morning I got a new package from Amazon, and now I know how I'm going to spend my weekend:


I was watching the movie last week for the hundredth time, and halfway through my brain got lost in a conversation with itself, "this is so good, I should re-read the books too - I haven't read them in years - wait, now that I think about it I only have the Italian editions - to Amazon!". And there's also the new album by Amy MacDonald, and Cherry Tree by the National because it was the only one missing from my collection. Blasphemy, because it's the one with About Today, and that's one of my favourite songs ever.

When I came back home I stopped by the railway station and bought train tickets for Milan in two weeks. Now I'm all set, Frankenstein, here I come! ♥

EDIT:
What the frak is wrong with the mood, I completely missed it the first time, and I can't preview it!?

It's been raining, with various degrees of intensity, since last afternoon. I'm over the moon. Sakura has this constant expression like she feels victimized by the rain, it's pretty funny. I slept with a blanket (a very thin one, almost a sheet, but it still counts), this morning I used the hair dryer for more than two minutes without breaking into a sweat, and as soon as I finish writing this entry I'll iron the pile of fresh laundry that's been sitting in my room all week waiting for a cold day!

I have therapy this afternoon, and my therapist, who hates the cold and the rain, texted me twice to ask me if I wanted to postpone it. Postpone it? When it's the first time in four months I can wear trousers and real shoes and jump into puddles and impersonate Don Lockwood while skipping through the last hordes of tourists left this season? I wouldn't miss it for the world!

And a much-expected package from Amazon arrived five minutes ago!



My favourite part of re-watching Teen Wolf with Tati is that everytime a character takes off his shirt, I turn around and tell her, very seriously "This part is totally necessary. Vital to the plot." I just can't help it. :D

But can we talk about how horrible that cover is? I had a huge fight with myself because I wanted to buy this dvdset weeks ago, but I couldn't stomach it because that pseudo-Twilight cover was making me sick. I know they're trying to lure in viewers, but this show has nothing do with that crap, thank you very much. They should write that on the cover! "This show has strong, indipendent, three-dimensional female characters who don't need men to feel validated". And sexy shirtless werewolves.

Next, Cinderella is finally on bluray! I'm so looking forward to seeing it, Beauty and The Beast on bluray was stunning (first time I saw it I spent the whole movie doing an impressive Colonel Kurtz impression, but with "the colours! the colours!"), I can only imagine this one is going to be just as beautiful. Now if I could only get The Little Mermaid too, then my life would be complete. ♥

When I was in high school, Catch 22 was my favourite book, along with Hamlet. I read it a thousand times, carried it with me everywhere. And it took me all these years to realize I only ever read it in italian! Shame on me! And it's only 5 pounds! Seriously, how come books on Amazon cost one fourth of what they cost here in Italy? I sometimes feel guilty when I think of my beloved local stores, but if I were to shop there like I used to years ago, I could never buy all these things. With what I spent for one dvd boxset, one book and three cds, I could buy only ONE novel here. It's crazy.

And now it's cold air that's getting through my open window. Actual cold air. This day just keeps getting better. *__________*

Today I was going to meet a friend of mine who's three months pregnant. Luckly, yesterday she called me to tell me she had to postpone it. I said luckly because today I woke up with a cold, a slight fever, aching throat, sneezes, all the package. So I would have had to cancel it anyway (no way I'm going anywhere near a pregnant woman while having a cold, I've seen The Mirror Crack'd, thank you very much). I must admit I'm almost glad I got this stupid bug: everyone else had been sick these past two weeks, I was the only one left, it was only a matter of time, and I prefer to just get it over with. The one downside is that with such a sore throat I don't feel like eating at all, but I have to eat solid food to get my meds, so I've been in a sour mood since I woke up. Yes, I'm acting like an annoying six-year-old, yay!

Anyway, this is the week everything else I ordered during the last couple of months arrived: the courier even offered to help me bring all the packages upstairs, but I declined because otherwise what are all those months at the gym for? But carrying awesome stuff up two flights of stairs, of course! ^^



It's a Record Player! Now, let's rewind this a bit: we used to have a record player back in the 80s. Dad and Mom had many records when they were teens, mostly classic rock (although I guess then it was just... rock) but they had to leave them in their old homes when they got married and moved to Venice, so all the records I have here are records they bought for me and my sis. When I was five or six our record player broke, and dad decided to buy a cd player instead, so it's been at least 22 years these records have just been sitting there, in a corner with my old childhood books.


It took me a few attempts to get it working, because, I can't stress this enough, 22 years, but in the end it is surprisingly easy to use. And even more than the songs themselves (I own all these albums on tapes and cds too), it was the whispery sound between tracks that sent me down memory lane. I sat on the floor, while Sakura checked all the boxes, and felt like a little kid again. So worth it.


But since it's also 2012, I bought the player with the USB port too, so I can use it for my iPod as well. :D It also has a SD card slot, and on the back the jacks to connect it to my stereo speakers. The player speakers are already great, the sound is clear and polished, I was so surprised.

There's a lovely music store downtown where they sell all kinds of records, I'm definitely buying a Ella Fitzgerald one! \o/

And I also got the War Horse bluray (cue joyful dance I would do if all my joints weren't aching like hell), The Charioteer by Mary Renault (in keeping with the vintage vibe of this entry) and Okamiden, the Okami game for Nintendo DS. Okami is one of the most beautiful videogames ever created, an amazing experience, and now the sequel is my hands! Yessssshhhh!

Completely off-topic, there's an update on the Travelling Lemon project, with an amazing map of the submissions they already got, a new deadline, and info for donations. This fandom is brilliant indeed!

A stupid headache knocked me out all afternoon. More like a migraine, and I'm not really used to that, so I got really cranky. Took me one pill of ketoprofen and a good hour lying down in a dark room with my right arm over my eyes to feel better. Now I feel like I ran a marathon, but at least there's no more pain, and my head feels so light and empty. Good.

day one • a song
day two • a picture
day three • a book/ebook/fanfic
day four • a website
day five • a youtube clip

So, instead of a book I recommend let's go with a book I didn't like at all. I'm currently reading Fallen by Lauren Kate. I picked it up because I needed some light reading for when I have to wait in line at my doctor's, or at the post office, but it turned out to be even lighter than I thought. Too much purple prose, too little content. It's hundreds of pages that are supposed to be character development in the author's mind, but it's just beating around the bush. Boring. I'm actually rooting for the evil shadows to eat the protagonist's face. Bit not good, but that would speed up the story a little.

Instead, I have a recommendation on the FanFic front. It's Lacuna by colored_ink. The fandom is Sherlock, the pairing Sherlock/John, and I'm not going to say anything else because I don't want to spoil it. It's great, moving, gripping, the characters are complex and realistic, and it's just the right side of angsty without making you want to throw your laptop out of a window. ^^

My aunt is here! The sun is up, the sky is blue, and my Skyrim copy just arrived. *deeeaaarr prudence*



When I told a friend of mine that I had ordered Skyrim, she replied "it was nice knowing you". I know it's meant to be a very addictive game, but I couldn't resist. :D

I bought The Descendants because serepink recommended it, and I bought Mystery Man because Benedict Cumberbatch recommended it. :D

Speaking of which, we're seeing War Horse in a couple of hours! \o/

This random entry has been brought to you by a very giddy Nausicaa because this morning over tea her aunt referred to her as her "daughter". *______*

My aunt is here! The sun is up, the sky is blue, and my Skyrim copy just arrived. *deeeaaarr prudence*



When I told a friend of mine that I had ordered Skyrim, she replied "it was nice knowing you". I know it's meant to be a very addictive game, but I couldn't resist. :D

I bought The Descendants because serepink recommended it, and I bought Mystery Man because Benedict Cumberbatch recommended it. :D

Speaking of which, we're seeing War Horse in a couple of hours! \o/

This random entry has been brought to you by a very giddy Nausicaa because this morning over tea her aunt referred to her as her "daughter". *______*