Feeling Zen

Last January I taped 3 hour and a half episodes of Italian detective stories called Zen based on the books by late Michael Dibdin. All the 3 episodes were filmed in location in Rome and they have managed to capture a very Italian feel, allthough the dialogue is in English riddled with delicious black humour. I am so glad I finally got around to watch this brilliant series and it feels like I have been to Italy for few nights.

The gorgeous Rufus Sewell plays the handsome but actually totally boring honest detective Aurelio Zen from Venice. He is somewhat of an anti hero and a maverick but to his credit he does get very passionate with the female lead Tania Moretti played by Italian actress Caterina Murino.



Simply the best TV series in a while and I do hope they get their finger out and do some more one day!

Dishy Mr Rob Lowe

Rob Lowe actually never caught my imagination until he played delish Sam Seabourne in the West Wing. And this picture today caught my eye and shows how he just improves as he matures *deep sigh*

Are you surprised?

The news that Madonna's millions for the orphanage have been wasted in luxuries by the few who could. No, I am not surprised at all. This has been going on for years and countless charity donations have been blown by people who can.

This is one of the reasons why my charity donations go to animal charities and only in this country where the charities are held accountable. This article in the Indpendent says it quite well. It is time for the "do gooders" to hand over the tools rather than money to the locals and get out.

And that is all I have to say about that.

Doing nothing much

Luckily no stupido riots/demonstrations here in SW19 this weekend. Quiet life has prevailed and resting has been the order of the weekend.

The clocks going back (totally futile excercise in my opinion!) has cost me an hour of my sleep and now the mornings are darker again for a while *shaking my head*

Still, even if this weekend is an hour shorter, it is much appreciated and I will get on with doing nothing much ;)

Weekend chores...done!

Clic the pic to make it bigger

It'z Friday

What a strange week it has been. Nice but very odd at times and just as well it is Friday. Norm weekend ahead with DVD's & red vino as the weather forecast promises colder days and nights again. Have a good one!

Welcome to Midsomer!

Yesterday aired the first new episode of the Midsomer Murders. It was a bit slow to start with the usual carnage, but there was some gruesome imagination presented of how they actually went down.

I found DS Jones slightly annoying as always but the new DCI John Barnaby was a hoot. There is a wife but we did not see her yet in this episode.

He has a marvellous companion called Sykes whos manners are somewhat unexpected but naturally very canine.

The dog playing Sykes is the same dog as you see in the Thinkbox adverts as Harvey the wonder dog, a 60-second spot set to Bachman-Turner Overdrive's You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet. Good stuff!

Bon voyage Liz!

Elizabeth Taylor has moved on to the big screen on the sky. She was an absolutely gorgeous woman and not a bad actor as it goes, married few men and did a lot of good charity work in her time. Respect!

Sunny and warm Wednesday

Looking forward to

The weather has turned positively spring like this week and despite this country fighting in 3 wars and dying on it's feet with spending cuts, there seems to be temporary optimism in the air. Well, I am sure it will vanish as the sun goes down.

The lovely sunshine increases the production of vitamin D and generally I feel way more energetic than of late. Good time to start counting down to holidays this coming season.

Just 37 sleeps until Heavy arrives for the Royal wedding and the merriment can commence and I have bought a tiara for the day as this is the best opportunity to dress up like princess at my age ;)

Then it is "Lisbon baby!" after 48 sleeps. Me and Min will spend 5 days in my favorite European capital, yeeeeei! Can't wait for the sights, smells and sumptious food.

Then in July it is time for the Finnish road trip to Ilosaarirock with Heavy and that is currently only 113 sleeps away.

To wrap up the travelling at the end of August is the annual trip to home away from home, the beautiful and gorgeous haven called Arillas in Corfu for two weeks of beach, bar and beer along with food, friends and fun. That will all happen after mere 150 sleeps. CAN'T WAIT!!!

After all that I will be very very poor and eating potatoes for the rest of the year, but hopefully very very happy with few more memories to sustain me over the winter. Life is good ;)

I'z Monday

Something funny for money

The 2011 Red Nose Day yesterday happened with some TV comedy gold. Fake That video and the Smitty sketch taking the cake and the biscuit. Seriously funny so enjoy, I did :)

F*$!ing SleazyJet!!!

What goes up must come down like my mood. In SleazyJet's case they just won't go anymore. They have in their infinite business wisdom decided to stop the Gatwick - Helsinki route and I received an email saying:

Dear KB,

We are really sorry to inform you that your easyJet flights, 8965 to HEL on 13/07/2011 and 8964 to LGW on 22/07/2011 have been cancelled. We understand that cancelling your flights will cause you inconvenience and we are very sorry when things don't run as scheduled.

We always aim to provide the best possible experience when flying with easyJet by assessing our network and business opportunities to manage a portfolio of routes fitting with consumer demand. Due to weak demand from Helsinki we have taken the decision to regrettably cancel our services for that destination. Last flight operating dates will respectively be on 13 June for Manchester, 22 June for London/ Gatwick and 7 July for Paris/ CDG. Flights to and from Helsinki before these dates are wholly unaffected.

We will do all we can to help you make quick and suitable alternative arrangements and have detailed the options available to you below.

Once again, we are very sorry for the inconvenience this will have caused you.



You can imagine how pleased I am about this retail experience. Now I will have to return to the extortionate price proper air line and depart with almost triple the money I paid for the SleazyJet flight if I want to do this trip in July :(

Still, no one died and it is Friday. There will be red vino later.

You don't get if you don't ask

About 3 weeks ago I decided that I had outgrown my old wardrobe and needed some more storage space in my bedroom. I set my mind to a canvas covered wood framed wardrobe but unfortunately Argos and Homebase had both sold out. Not to be deterred, I googled the item in question and found that ASDA Direct was also selling this type of wardrobe with a really agreeable price and delivery cost. So I clicked away and ordered it there and then.

Extremely loooooooong and frustrating story in short; delivery was delayed 5 days due to unbelievable incompetency of the courier company, three crucial pieces of the wardrobe were damaged and in the end I was hopping mad and the frustration levels were palpable.

Well, Min the marvel fixed the broken parts and then we proceeded to assemble the wardrobe to the best of our ability with fits of giggles and managed to make a decent job of it at the end.

My new wardrobe with all my crap in it and on top of it

I did not want to let this matter lie so I wrote a 2 page letter (Royal Mail 1st class recorded) with 3 A4 sized pictures to ASDA head office in Leeds and let them know exactly how I felt.

Yesterday I received an email from their Dotcom Executive Relations and they wished to talk to me regarding my letter. I replied to the email but did not hear anything more until this morning I received a call from a very nice lady from ASDA Dotcom Executive Relations who was soooooooooooooooooo sorry about my negative retail experience and she offered me a refund and I also received a £15 e-voucher on top of that to spend on their on-line shop.

NICE! I do have to say that ASDA has been marvellous with their customer service all the way trough so a big thank you to them! And it does pay to be a Victor Meldrew when you clearly have a case and I will now proceed to spend my peace offering e-voucher on ASDA Direct.

"He's been a bad kitty"

The very very delish Antonio Banderas has made another film as the filthy but oh so entertaining Puss in Boots. Purrrr...this trailer made me laugh out loud!

Good deed

I was rummaging through my drawers over the weekend I found three pairs of old glasses that I can no longer wear. As they are in reasonable condition Min had a brilliant idea of donating them to a charity called Vision Aid Overseas.



So off I trodded down to the Strand during my lunch break and handed over the glasses in Specsavers shop where they will check them and send then forward them to people who need them. What they cant use they will recycle.

So even a lazy person like me can do a little bit to help someone somewhere in a practical way without handing over cash. Makes me feel quite warm and fuzzy, but I am sure it will pass ;)

It'z...Monday

Today I have been mostly...

Spring like day in SW19 and temperature was balmy +13 celcius and the beer much colder. My new leg tattoo got it's first fresh air outing today and life is good ;)

It'z finally Friday

This week of annoying lows and insane highs is finally decending into weekend. Both of my friends who were briefly hospitalized are getting better and all the Spurs supporters are still singing.

Standard weekend is expected with red wino and bed as the main features.

Life is good ;)

COYS!

Come On You Spurs for those who did not get that! Not the most exciting game last night but the away goal in the previous game won it for us!!! My belowed Tottenham are through to the Champions League quarter finals, as they should be.

Arsene Wenger; were you watching? I am giddy, happy, delirious and grinning stupidly. Love me, Love my team ;)

Bad times

In the last two days I have dealt with truly pig ignorant clients of a client, I have battled with Northern Line to get to and back from work and two of my friends have ended up in a hospital.

What f is going on? Hopefully things will improve towards the weekend as this is by no means fun. *shaking my head*

Arrow of time

New series on BBC2 with my fave Prof Brian Cox started on Sunday night called Wonders of the Universe. I taped it and got my head aching trying to comprehend what was being said in the program.

He tried to explain the arrow of time and how it can only go one way. There was a talk of after sun has exploded few billion years from now and the closest Red Dwarf star Proxima Centauri has done the same, everything will eventually turn into humongous Black Dwarf star which at the end will just go puff in the cold dark space and vanish in to the void as radiation.

And that is it for everything, for EVERYTHING. Strange thought and the enormity of it really slightly hurts my head.

Good stuff though ;)

It'z Monday *yawn*

Doppelganger for my Younger Brother

This weekend has been quiet and restful and I have not done much apart from the usual chores and a big pot of pork sausage soup.

The dancing for Comic Relief continues and this weeks favourite was Ade Edmondson doing a ballerina and dancing the dying swan, which he did not do too badly at all.

What made it especially funny that he looks remarkably like my Younger Brother. Watch the video right till the end as Rik Mayall makes an special appearance with a frying pan. Good stuff!

When Deimos met Young Vic

My beloved silk haired mutt Deimos met with my nephew Young Vic last year.

I though this picture of the meeting is the funniest ever as Deimos simply cannot comprehend what the little blonde person is about and being so totally unpredictable.

The meeting went well and Deimos tolerated the little blonde person nicely. Thank you Younger Brother for sending it :)

It'z Thuuuurshday

Stupid excuses galore

It has been 4 long years since the logo for the totally unessecary kaboodle called London 2012 Olympics was revealed and now suddenly a certain middle eastern country has said that they wont come and play at the games because they claim the logo is racist as described in the pic on the left.

I just wish those stupidos would get over their high and mighty nincomboob selves already!? If the logo gets changed they will feel sooooooooo important and use it as propoganda. If it doesn't change (which it won't) they will have an excuse not to take part.

The likely reason is that they know that some of their athletes will take the opportunity to claim asylum once in this country or the athletes are actually not too good/fit or actually not allowed to train as it might against some religious rule. But to me it looks like that they really are just looking for any "exit" that allowes them to keep their stupid thinly veiled contempt to other countries veiled.

Womens Murder Club

I have devoured first of the 7 of these Womens Murder Club books during my underground journeys and they have kept me entertained to distraction and nearly caused me to miss my stop several times.

James Patterson and Maxine Paetro have created a nice group of women with way more balls than most men at times. This morning I will start the 8th Confession. Good stuff!