ICHIBAN

Zondagavond een heerlijk uitje gehad in het Japans restaurant in Aalst dank zij Magda en Denis en natuurlijk de culinaire hoogstandjes van de Chef. Aangezien we de hekkesluiters waren hebben we een heerlijke babbel kunnen hebben met de echtgenote van de chef: een heel toffe en gezellige familie. De chef was zo vriendelijk om te poseren voor en fotootje en fier dat hij daarover was! De zondag is echt een aanrader als dag want het leek me dat de porties dubbel zo groot waren dan op zaterdag. En ja hoor, alweer een stampvol restaurant.
Aan het lezen: "The Samurai's Wife" van Laura Joh Rowland.
Om in de Japanse sfeer te blijven ga ik vandaag nog maar eens proberen Noh maskers te vinden in Japan via E-Bay. Aanbiedingen genoeg voor nieuwe maskers, maar weinig antieke maskers en die zijn dan natuurlijk peperduur... geduld hebben meisje, er komt wel iets aanvliegen...

I am reviewing the entire Buffy and Angel series and I still like all of them. After all these years I am still in doubt about our 2 vampires. Who was really the best fit for Buffy: Angel or Spike.
No doubt about whom I would have chosen: both of them at the same time... or am I too wicked now?

ICHIBAN

Zaterdag gaan dineren met de Strootjes en ons moe in het Japanse restaurant Ichiban in Aalst. Heel lekker en toffe sfeer, dat gaan we dus nog doen.
Tijdens de rest van het weekend niet veel anders gedaan dan in de zetel gelegen en gelezen. Ben nu begonnen aan "The Concubine's Tattoo" van Laura Joh Rowland, het 4de boek in de Sano Ichiro samurai detective reeks. Haar boeken worden steeds beter en beter...

Wishing you were here

I have been dreaming about You last night and that is reminding of Lady Ono no Komachi's verse:

Hito ni awan tsuki no naki yo wa
Omoiokite
Mune hashiribe ni
Kokoro yaki ori

No way to see him
On this moonless night
I lie awake longing, burning
Breasts racing fire, heart in flames...

KARNAVAL

Terug van het karnaval. Prachtig weer en een fantastische sfeer.
Mijn nieuwe PC op het werk is een fantastisch machientje...joepie...
Aan het lezen: Hannibal Rising van Thomas Harris... gruwelijk mooi zoals al zijn vorige Hannibal boeken.

BUSY BUSY

Life has been hectic lately. My PC at work is doing very strange things so I have asked a new one, and guess what, today a replacement arrived. Installation will follow.
Masaya Kato the cat is still having a great time at home, so I am very glad he's still there and doing fine.
Saturday: Sales at Kaat Tilley: WOW, spending time...

OEF WEEKEND!

Vrijdag! Eindelijk weekend na een superdrukke week.
De dakgoot is gerepareerd na de storm, dus dat is nog vlot en snel gegaan.
Het sneeuwt hier in Brussel: uitnodigend voor een weekendje languit in de sofa met warme sake en knabbeldinges en een goed boek...

STORM

We hebben de storm van donderdag gelukkig zonder al te veel schade overleefd. De bekisting van de dakgoot is letterlijk gaan vliegen en die zou deze week moeten gerepareerd worden.
Zaterdag gaan eten met Magda bij Yok Tha in Aalst. Lekker en gezellig, voor herhaling vatbaar.
Ik ben het laatste Sujata Massay boek aan het lezen: GIRL IN A BOX, nu is het afwachten tot haar volgende schrijfsel waar ze gelukkig druk aan bezig is.

RUSTIG

De dingen des levens lopen zowat hun gewone gangetje. Druk op het werk en nog altijd geen nieuws over de toekomst van ons kantoor. Geen nieuws, goed nieuws?
Ik plaats dan ook gewoon een fantastische foto van Michiel Hendryckx, een van Vlaanderens beste fotografen en TV-makers. Het is een foto van de kat Kareltje van zijn buren, die bij hem vaak aan huis komt. Net zoals Masaya bij mij is komen binnen wandelen...

HAPPY

Vrijdagavond met de collega's een heerlijk avondje uit gehad met een uitstekend diner bij Confucius, een Chinees restaurant in Brussel gespecialiseerd in de traditionele Sechuan-keuken. Vele lekkere dingen gegeten in een restaurant uitgebaat door 3 generaties vrouwen van grootmoeder tot kleindochter. Voor herhaling vatbaar dus. (www.confucius.be)

Zaterdag retour naar Brussel voor Solden-shopping bij Kaat Tilley en wat boekhandels. Bij Kaat een prachtige lange elfen-look halsketting in zilver gekocht (lijkt wel iets uit de films van The Lord of the Rings) en een linnen zomervest die goed combineerbaar is met de rest van mijn Tilley-collectie.
Ik heb maar 1 boek gekocht: de nieuwe Herman Portocarero : New Yorkse Nachten.
Geen Engelse boeken, daar heb ik nog een onoverzichtelijke stapel van liggen waar ik zeker een paar jaar zoet mee zal zijn.
Net uitgelezen: The Bride's Kimono van Sujata Massey: een heerlijke thriller
Op naar haar volgende werk: The Samurai's Daughter. De titel alleen al doet me watertanden...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to all of you and may all your wishes come true!
The long weekend was good! I spent a lot of time cooking and reading, while watching and listening to my DVD's with U2 Live Concerts (Slane Castle, Vertigo, Video's)
I achieved a total of 118 book read in 2006! That's 1 book every 3 days. Not bad for my very busy life.

Tranquility

I enjoyed a very good Yule-dinner and the always enjoyable company of the Strootjes and Magda, Denis and Kim.
I am having lots of fun reading my 3rd Sujata Massey: The Flower Master. This author is book by book becoming one of my most favourite writers after JK Rowling.
Yesterday I ordered the 7th Harry Potter at Amazon.uk and today The Leake Cauldron reported that the book was already noted Nr 1 bestseller after only 8 hours of being available for Pre-order. And JK is still writing the thing...
Masaya Kato (the cat) is alive and kicking and I must say special thanks to C. for sending me the movie "The Seventh Floor" with Masaya Kato (the actor). Yes, life is getting complicated with 2 Masaya's drifting around...

Happy Yule

Happy Yule to all of you from Masaya Kato and me.
If you go to the Yule ball, dont behave like a bunch of You-Know-What-Babboons!
No, don't make me repeat that...

HP 7

We finally know the title:
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

Lots of dead people in it I guess...

Relaxing weekend

The long weekend was super! I woke up Friday morning very early (6.00 AM) to clean the entire house, went shopping at around 10.00 and was at home for the rest of the 3 days. Listening to music (Mozart and U2) and playing with Masaya.
I finished reading Sujata Massey's first novel : The Salaryman's Wife. Very good if you like modern Japan and murder-mystery. In fact it was so good (funny and sexy as well) that I ordered all her next novels immediately with Amazon...

Still there!

Well, Masaya the cat is still living with me. That makes a whole week now. He seems to have adapted very well to my being out of the house the whole day. At least I have a long weekend coming up. Yippie, three days at home, except for the food and kittylitter shopping...

Masaya the Cat

Thursday evening on my way from work to home, a gray tabby cat with white feet followed me more than three streets far, walked into my house (I was cleaning the sidewalk, so I had left the front door open), jumped on the kitchen table and begged for food. The weather outside was very stormy and wet, so I opened a can of tuna and fed the adorable cat. Result: he’s still there. Purring and acting as if the entire house belongs to him. One problem: he’s wearing a collar, so he must belong to someone. Anyway, an entire weekend of searching around for his boss has not been successful. So I guess he will stay for now. I named him Masaya Kato, because I was watching Aragami that night (again!). And he seems to like the name Masaya very well. It’s good to have a cat in the house again. I just hope I won’t have to give him up soon as it is still possible his former bosses claim him back… Just wait and see...

DREAMS

I had a very vivid dream last night. Actually it started as a true nightmare, with me being pursued in a large building by some unknown person doing lots of bloody horror-movie things to the inhabitants of the appartments. And then who was there to suddenly save my ass in a spectacular way? Masaya Kato of all people... and all of a sudden my nightmare turned into a wonderful sexy dream... thanks Masaya for walking around in my dreams!

FLYING DAGGERS

Last night I finally took some time to watch “House of the flying Daggers”.
WOW. WOW. WOW. Even better than Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon!
The script is romantic, the action is great, the colors of the settings and the costumes are used in a spectacular way. The special effects blow your mind out and then there is again Ziyi Zhang. I liked her acting in the other movies and especially in Memoirs of a Geisha, but in this movie she gives also a stunning exhibit of her dancing talents. Well done little China girl…

ARAGAMI

Watched a lot of DVD's during the weekend. Kept my very special favourite ARAGAMI just before bed last night. Masaya Kato is definitely my Raging God of the Sword.

This movie is definitely one of my favourites. The script is so simple and refreshing. Despite the fact that it is a very low budget film, the acting and set lifts the movie above the more usual Samurai-movies. Ofcourse from the maker of Azumi. The young Japanese directors get better and better. Watch out Hollywood, Asia is going to take over...


Friday I went to see the Canadian Dance Company Flak.
The choreography was by Jose Navas : Portable Dances.
Good but not certainly not the Masterpiece described in the press.

LEATHER!

Ok, this is not just for everybody, but I have done it anyway: I grant you a preview of my husbands favourite leather outfit that he is wearing in the upcoming HP5-movie.
Am I good or am I good?
You will have to wait another 8 months to admire him in full regalia.
Poor silly Muggles, I have him all the time ofcourse with or without leather... sigh, moan...

ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

Wow, I just saw the first trailer released by Warner Bross of Movie 5


It all looks great, as usual, look at Snape


and look at those crazy eyes. Helena Bonham Carter definitely has fun in this role.


And then there's Harry kissing Cho...very good Daniel, no wonder you took advantage of the situation (more than 30 takes on this scene...naughty, naughty!)

BONES

Spent the entire weekend with cleaning the house and the aquarium and the office and washing and ironing and so on and on..luckily in between every chore done to satisfaction, I rewarded myself by watching my favourite vampire in all 22 episodes of the first year of Bones. Great forensic and antropological details.
And David is great as an FBI agent.

MAKO YOSHIKAWA

I just finished reading "One Hundred and One Ways" by Mako Yoshikawa. A stunning story about love and all the emotions involved. The tale of a young Japanese woman studying in the USA mixed with the life story of her grandmother who was a geisha in old Japan. A stunning debut novel...and Oh, did I mention that there's a ghost as well drifting around in the woman's loft...I loved it.

CARDASSIANS

After a very busy Saturday I did nothing much on Sunday except for relaxing my tired bones & muscles in front of my tele with my favourite Cardies...

BUSY, BUSY

Music: The soundtrack of Battlestar Galactica 2, a magnificent CD with no less than 23 outstanding tracks. I especially like the fact that so many instruments were used in the compositions: from violins to taiko, from African voices to Cajun guitars, SciFi-music with a Celtic sound. Great work.

I finished reading "The Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama (much better than her Women in Silk)
I have a very busy weekend in view with shopping, sporting and lots of friends and a family-reunion...

BICHUNMOO

Gisterenavond BICHUNMOO voor de zoveelste keer herbekeken en dus een lekker potje zitten janken met dit zo typisch Aziatische liefdesverhaal. Zwaarden en veel Ki en nog meer Liefde. En dat de hoofdacteur bloedmooi is mag ook meegnomen zijn naturlijk.

Net uitgelezen: WOMEN OF THE SILK door Gail Tsukiyama: niet zo goed als gehoopt, maar toch een indringend levensverhaal over de onderdrukking van de vrouw in China in de vorige eeuw.

QNTAL

Listening to QNTAL V: SILVER SWAN: a stunning work of old music and texts in a modern arrangement and the wonderful elfin voice of Syrah.

Monsieur’s Departure.

I grieve and dare not show my discontent,
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate,
I do, yet dare not say I ever meant,
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate,
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned,
Since from myself another self I turned.

My care is like my shadow in the sun,
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it,
Stands and lies by me, doth what I have done,
His too familiar care doth make me rue it,
No means I find to rid him from my breast,
Till by the end of things it be suppressed.

By ELISABETH I

THE STATE WITHIN

I watched the first episode of this new BBC series and it looks good so far. Very up to date with the terrorism and USA-UK tensions.
And I must admit that my husband looks hot in his tuxedo, even in his Polyjuice Potion disguise known as Jason Isaacs. Do I have to mention that he is a "Sir" in this role. Pureblood, pureblood, always a pureblood...

Automn is here

I had a very relaxing 1st of November at home, reading and listening to music.
Finished my 5th Haruki Murakami: A Wild Sheep Chase. A very funny story.
The weather has changed abruptly into rain and cold nights.. yes the leaves are turning brown and golden and are falling, falling...