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Weekend update
Jun. 23rd, 2008 11:08 amTurkey won on Friday. AGAIN. And they weren't even that good, it was just Croatia that was abysmal. I mean, how daft do you have to be to miss the goal when it's 11m from you? I would miss of course (can't hit the dustbin from 1m) but then I'm not a highly paid professional footballer. So our hopes are now resting on the Germans, whom I wouldn't usually wish to see in the final.
On Saturday, the usual suspects plus a few people from other Embassies were invited chez Franz (works at our Embassy) to have a barbecue and play darts. Darts was abandoned though, in favour of Russia vs. Netherlands, and boy was it a disappointment. It was a nice evening though.
When Franz invites people, he usually contributes a table, plates and cutlery, and sometimes also the drinks, expecting the guests to bring the food. Since he's a nice guy (mind-bogglingly dim but good-natured), he usually provokes laughter rather than anger with his "invitations". Saturday was definitely an improvement, because he provided *gasp* some of the meat. I brought potato salad, which was excellent, if I say so myself (with homemade mayo, thinly sliced and fried courgettes, garlic, onion, capers and gherkins), and a sauce made with cream cheese, high-fat yoghurt, pepperoni, mint and garlic.
Having been invited to a barbecue, everybody did of course expect, well barbecue, i.e. meat being grilled over some kind of fire. Franz (as I said, he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer) was obviously convinced that a sandwich toaster would do the trick. In the end, everybody got something to eat, if a bit late and not very bbq-y.
One of the guests would be worth an entry of her own, but will have to fit into a long paragraph.
To help us with EURO'08 visas, the Austrian Ministry of Interior sent us a document expert, who has been with us since 5 May and will leave on 29 June. He's a policeman from Carinthia, especially trained and a really nice guy. Twice divorced with 2 daughters from 2 marriages, so probably he isn't all THAT nice, but as a friend and colleague Karl is very, very likeable.
Quite soon after his arrival he picked up some lady for a - from his point of view at least - no-strings-attached, 2-months-only fling. Doris and Jasmin had already met her, and the friendliest comment was "very high maintenance".
Karl was of course invited on Saturday, and he brought her too. Her name's Michelle, she works at the Irish Embassy and is, in fact, Irish. But she got married to a Turk, had 2 children and was divorced (I totally understand the man) and, after the divorce, didn't want to go back to Ireland because of the children, or so hearsay has it. So she stayed on as local staff.
When she entered the room, I had trouble controlling my face. It isn't often that I meet people who seem to come right out of a very, very cheap soap opera. About my age, a battlefield of cosmetic surgery (nose, cheekbones, chin and, most memorable, tits), hair died blonde, dressed like a hooker. It got worse when she opened her mouth. First she addressed Jasmin, whom she already knew.
Michelle: Oh my GAWD, look at your skin! You're sunburned!
Jasmin: Er, no, that's my usual skin colour, and I'm a bit warm.
M: Impossible. No no, you have a sunburn.
J: I assure you I don't. It's my normal skin colour.
M: No, no, no. You look like a peasant, you must have sunburn.
This topic exhausted, she turned to Doris' daughter Tamara. (Doris is white, Tamara's father is black)
M: And who might you be?
Doris: This is my daughter Tamara.
M: Silence, incredulity. Then: How old are you?
T: I'm 12.
M: Impossible. You look at least 18 or 19. (Which, BTW, is total bollocks)
T: Well, I'm going on 13.
M: I can't believe it. My daughter is 14, and she looks maybe 16, but I swear you look older than her.
And so on, and so forth. She kept on sitting at our table, always occupying somebody's chair "till he/she comes back!", but never moving her silly arse when the person in question came back.
Then she turned to ( or rather on) me:
M: Wasn't that a lovely football game yesterday? I was so thrilled for the Turkish team!
Me: Well, I'd rather hoped the Croatians might win.
M: Oh of course, they're your neighbours. Of course you want them to win.
Me: Er, not really. I just didn't want the Turks to win, that's all.
M: But you LIVE here! You ought to have a bit of solidarity!
Me: ??? Why?
M: Well because you live here.
Me: Does that mean, if I lived, say, in Zimbabwe, I ought to feel solidarity with the dictator?
At least she didn't speak to me anymore after that.
I'm still not quite sure how I managed to get up at 8 yesterday, after too much beer and 5 hours of sleep, but somehow I managed and went shopping with Gabriele. Since neither of us is able to just walk past D&R, we succumbed to temptation and bought DVDs and CDs. Concerning classical music CDs especially, most of the fun is to be had in browsing the (meagre) offers. There's André Rieux next to string quatuors of Schnittke, Turandot next to some obscure Turkish composer, and every now and then there's a gem you'd never expect to find here. (Well, I wouldn't expect Schnittke either, to be completely honest)
Anyway, I bought The Golden Compass - against my better judgment - and Sweeney Todd, and Othello (Fishburne, Jacob, Branagh - seen at the cinema years ago, left a vague good impression, so I thought why not)
For somebody who is as much in love with His Dark Materials as I am, it is probably impossible to be satisfied with the film. Parts of it were quite good, and I think they did a good job conveying certain necessary background information, like e.g. introducing Fra Pavel right at the beginning and making him the one who tries to poison Lord Asriel. On the other hand, they oversimplified quite a bit, probably because the film was aimed at a young audience. Which was probably also the reason for leaving Roger's death during Asriel's experiment for the second film and thus obtaining some sort of happy ending for this one.
I loved Nicole Kidman as Ms Coulter, and I liked Lee Scoresby as well. Of Daniel Craig there was too little (isn't there always?) to form an opinion but,. much though I like him, he just isn't my Asriel.
And of course the film committed one major, absolutely unforgivable sin by making the daemons' mouths move when they spoke, which was absolutely unnecessary. Why not do a voice-over? Why turn something as mature as Pullman's book into something childish? And why - no, I won't rant on and on, because it's essentially useless. Just *grrr* And I'll have to re-read the book, which isn't the worst thing that could happen.
Sweeney Todd was ok. I'd expected to be more enthusiastic, but had underestimated the somewhat stultifying effect of not exactly brilliant songs executed by actors who can't really sing. Poor Helena Bonham Carter though, she seems to be stuck forever with playing madwomen.
Today I'm very, very tired, because I had to watch Spain-Italy till the end. It was worth being half-dead today, but I'm very glad that today and tomorrow are football-free. Otherwise I'd seriously have to consider sick leave.
What a verbose entry.
Lunchtime now, and afterwards I'll be even more tired, as always after eating.
On Saturday, the usual suspects plus a few people from other Embassies were invited chez Franz (works at our Embassy) to have a barbecue and play darts. Darts was abandoned though, in favour of Russia vs. Netherlands, and boy was it a disappointment. It was a nice evening though.
When Franz invites people, he usually contributes a table, plates and cutlery, and sometimes also the drinks, expecting the guests to bring the food. Since he's a nice guy (mind-bogglingly dim but good-natured), he usually provokes laughter rather than anger with his "invitations". Saturday was definitely an improvement, because he provided *gasp* some of the meat. I brought potato salad, which was excellent, if I say so myself (with homemade mayo, thinly sliced and fried courgettes, garlic, onion, capers and gherkins), and a sauce made with cream cheese, high-fat yoghurt, pepperoni, mint and garlic.
Having been invited to a barbecue, everybody did of course expect, well barbecue, i.e. meat being grilled over some kind of fire. Franz (as I said, he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer) was obviously convinced that a sandwich toaster would do the trick. In the end, everybody got something to eat, if a bit late and not very bbq-y.
One of the guests would be worth an entry of her own, but will have to fit into a long paragraph.
To help us with EURO'08 visas, the Austrian Ministry of Interior sent us a document expert, who has been with us since 5 May and will leave on 29 June. He's a policeman from Carinthia, especially trained and a really nice guy. Twice divorced with 2 daughters from 2 marriages, so probably he isn't all THAT nice, but as a friend and colleague Karl is very, very likeable.
Quite soon after his arrival he picked up some lady for a - from his point of view at least - no-strings-attached, 2-months-only fling. Doris and Jasmin had already met her, and the friendliest comment was "very high maintenance".
Karl was of course invited on Saturday, and he brought her too. Her name's Michelle, she works at the Irish Embassy and is, in fact, Irish. But she got married to a Turk, had 2 children and was divorced (I totally understand the man) and, after the divorce, didn't want to go back to Ireland because of the children, or so hearsay has it. So she stayed on as local staff.
When she entered the room, I had trouble controlling my face. It isn't often that I meet people who seem to come right out of a very, very cheap soap opera. About my age, a battlefield of cosmetic surgery (nose, cheekbones, chin and, most memorable, tits), hair died blonde, dressed like a hooker. It got worse when she opened her mouth. First she addressed Jasmin, whom she already knew.
Michelle: Oh my GAWD, look at your skin! You're sunburned!
Jasmin: Er, no, that's my usual skin colour, and I'm a bit warm.
M: Impossible. No no, you have a sunburn.
J: I assure you I don't. It's my normal skin colour.
M: No, no, no. You look like a peasant, you must have sunburn.
This topic exhausted, she turned to Doris' daughter Tamara. (Doris is white, Tamara's father is black)
M: And who might you be?
Doris: This is my daughter Tamara.
M: Silence, incredulity. Then: How old are you?
T: I'm 12.
M: Impossible. You look at least 18 or 19. (Which, BTW, is total bollocks)
T: Well, I'm going on 13.
M: I can't believe it. My daughter is 14, and she looks maybe 16, but I swear you look older than her.
And so on, and so forth. She kept on sitting at our table, always occupying somebody's chair "till he/she comes back!", but never moving her silly arse when the person in question came back.
Then she turned to ( or rather on) me:
M: Wasn't that a lovely football game yesterday? I was so thrilled for the Turkish team!
Me: Well, I'd rather hoped the Croatians might win.
M: Oh of course, they're your neighbours. Of course you want them to win.
Me: Er, not really. I just didn't want the Turks to win, that's all.
M: But you LIVE here! You ought to have a bit of solidarity!
Me: ??? Why?
M: Well because you live here.
Me: Does that mean, if I lived, say, in Zimbabwe, I ought to feel solidarity with the dictator?
At least she didn't speak to me anymore after that.
I'm still not quite sure how I managed to get up at 8 yesterday, after too much beer and 5 hours of sleep, but somehow I managed and went shopping with Gabriele. Since neither of us is able to just walk past D&R, we succumbed to temptation and bought DVDs and CDs. Concerning classical music CDs especially, most of the fun is to be had in browsing the (meagre) offers. There's André Rieux next to string quatuors of Schnittke, Turandot next to some obscure Turkish composer, and every now and then there's a gem you'd never expect to find here. (Well, I wouldn't expect Schnittke either, to be completely honest)
Anyway, I bought The Golden Compass - against my better judgment - and Sweeney Todd, and Othello (Fishburne, Jacob, Branagh - seen at the cinema years ago, left a vague good impression, so I thought why not)
For somebody who is as much in love with His Dark Materials as I am, it is probably impossible to be satisfied with the film. Parts of it were quite good, and I think they did a good job conveying certain necessary background information, like e.g. introducing Fra Pavel right at the beginning and making him the one who tries to poison Lord Asriel. On the other hand, they oversimplified quite a bit, probably because the film was aimed at a young audience. Which was probably also the reason for leaving Roger's death during Asriel's experiment for the second film and thus obtaining some sort of happy ending for this one.
I loved Nicole Kidman as Ms Coulter, and I liked Lee Scoresby as well. Of Daniel Craig there was too little (isn't there always?) to form an opinion but,. much though I like him, he just isn't my Asriel.
And of course the film committed one major, absolutely unforgivable sin by making the daemons' mouths move when they spoke, which was absolutely unnecessary. Why not do a voice-over? Why turn something as mature as Pullman's book into something childish? And why - no, I won't rant on and on, because it's essentially useless. Just *grrr* And I'll have to re-read the book, which isn't the worst thing that could happen.
Sweeney Todd was ok. I'd expected to be more enthusiastic, but had underestimated the somewhat stultifying effect of not exactly brilliant songs executed by actors who can't really sing. Poor Helena Bonham Carter though, she seems to be stuck forever with playing madwomen.
Today I'm very, very tired, because I had to watch Spain-Italy till the end. It was worth being half-dead today, but I'm very glad that today and tomorrow are football-free. Otherwise I'd seriously have to consider sick leave.
What a verbose entry.
Lunchtime now, and afterwards I'll be even more tired, as always after eating.
