![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This is Anti-Subject-Line week.
Nov. 18th, 2003 07:37 amI was quite tired yesterday when I came home--not that it was too late, but spending hours in airplanes and on airports is quite tiring. Probably it's that horrible, dry, recycled air.
Anyway, both flights went without a hitch and were perfectly on schedule.
Lisbon was, of course, wonderful.As I already know the city quite well, there wasn't much sightseeing I ought to have felt obliged to do, and so Irene and I spent two days of pure laziness, with occasional strolls, talking until our faces hurt, cooking together, going to the cinema and sitting on her terrace enjoying the sunlight.
She's an absolutely wonderful person, one of my closest friends, and I really should thank god every day for having found such friends.
The very good news is that she'll be coming to Vienna before Christmas, to stay at my place from 19 to 21 December, before she goes home to stay with her mother. And, oh joy, on 21 her daughter Hannah--now proud 17, the adoptive goddaughter I never had--is coming and staying here with me until 24. Then a friend of Irene's is going to take her to the rest of the family in Styria. So there's something to look forward to, definitely.
As I said, we went to the cinema--blessed be Portugal's lack of money, because they don't have dubbed films, only subtitles--and saw 'Love, Actually' and 'The Human Stain'.
We were both severely disappointed by Love, Actually. I can only assume that the actors merely read the first third of the script before accepting. Or they were in dire need of money. Otherwise I really can't figure why an intelligent actor like Rickman or Thompson would willingly participate in the creation of such a piece of crap. The Brits used to make such good movies, but it seems they've been totally Hollywood-ized. The sheer kitsch and mind-boggling clichéd-ness of that thing is unbearable. True, there is some fun stuff in there, but on the whole it's really, really bad. Thompson and Rickman make an excellent couple, though, I could easily see them in a black-and-white Truffaut movie.
The Human Stain, on the other hand, was excellent. I never really liked Nicole Kidman, well, not at the beginning of her career. Since 'The Others' and 'Moulin Rouge', my attitude has changed, though. She's turning into a very good actress, and The Human Stain was another proof of this development. Plus, there were Anthony Hopkins (perfect), Gary Sinise (very, very good) and Ed Harris (excellent). And the film had a good plot, too--it's based on a novel by Philip Roth, which I mustn't forget to include into the next Amazon order.
Well, and Lisbon is such a lovely, livable city. Unless you insist that public transport be right on schedule etc., of course. But it's EU-Europe's smallest capital, therefore even when the traffic gets chaotic it isn't as chaotic as in London or Rome. Then, it's all hills, with next to no skyscrapers, the climate is fantastic, the air is clean, it's a very safe city... I could go on gushing for hours. It's quite simply wonderful. Besides, most people speak English well enough. I'd love to learn the language, though, even if it sounds like Czech (the Brasilian variety sounds much better).
So that's it for now. I've got to clean the flat--ze boyz have been good, but three days without vacuuming etc. do show--and get some laundry done etc. It was a good idea to take today off work, too.
Oh, and I've finished reading V. Wolf's 'The Voyage Out'. So-so. Not one of my favourite books, I think. And started on 'Stupid White Men', which is a hoot.
Anyway, both flights went without a hitch and were perfectly on schedule.
Lisbon was, of course, wonderful.As I already know the city quite well, there wasn't much sightseeing I ought to have felt obliged to do, and so Irene and I spent two days of pure laziness, with occasional strolls, talking until our faces hurt, cooking together, going to the cinema and sitting on her terrace enjoying the sunlight.
She's an absolutely wonderful person, one of my closest friends, and I really should thank god every day for having found such friends.
The very good news is that she'll be coming to Vienna before Christmas, to stay at my place from 19 to 21 December, before she goes home to stay with her mother. And, oh joy, on 21 her daughter Hannah--now proud 17, the adoptive goddaughter I never had--is coming and staying here with me until 24. Then a friend of Irene's is going to take her to the rest of the family in Styria. So there's something to look forward to, definitely.
As I said, we went to the cinema--blessed be Portugal's lack of money, because they don't have dubbed films, only subtitles--and saw 'Love, Actually' and 'The Human Stain'.
We were both severely disappointed by Love, Actually. I can only assume that the actors merely read the first third of the script before accepting. Or they were in dire need of money. Otherwise I really can't figure why an intelligent actor like Rickman or Thompson would willingly participate in the creation of such a piece of crap. The Brits used to make such good movies, but it seems they've been totally Hollywood-ized. The sheer kitsch and mind-boggling clichéd-ness of that thing is unbearable. True, there is some fun stuff in there, but on the whole it's really, really bad. Thompson and Rickman make an excellent couple, though, I could easily see them in a black-and-white Truffaut movie.
The Human Stain, on the other hand, was excellent. I never really liked Nicole Kidman, well, not at the beginning of her career. Since 'The Others' and 'Moulin Rouge', my attitude has changed, though. She's turning into a very good actress, and The Human Stain was another proof of this development. Plus, there were Anthony Hopkins (perfect), Gary Sinise (very, very good) and Ed Harris (excellent). And the film had a good plot, too--it's based on a novel by Philip Roth, which I mustn't forget to include into the next Amazon order.
Well, and Lisbon is such a lovely, livable city. Unless you insist that public transport be right on schedule etc., of course. But it's EU-Europe's smallest capital, therefore even when the traffic gets chaotic it isn't as chaotic as in London or Rome. Then, it's all hills, with next to no skyscrapers, the climate is fantastic, the air is clean, it's a very safe city... I could go on gushing for hours. It's quite simply wonderful. Besides, most people speak English well enough. I'd love to learn the language, though, even if it sounds like Czech (the Brasilian variety sounds much better).
So that's it for now. I've got to clean the flat--ze boyz have been good, but three days without vacuuming etc. do show--and get some laundry done etc. It was a good idea to take today off work, too.
Oh, and I've finished reading V. Wolf's 'The Voyage Out'. So-so. Not one of my favourite books, I think. And started on 'Stupid White Men', which is a hoot.
