Food :D

Currently i’m devouring a most delicious most unhealthy sandwhich.
2 slices of whitebread ‘VanDerAkker’ – toasted
one slice you ‘butter’ with mayonais
Then one egg baked on top of that slice
Then 2 saucages sliced in half lengthwise on top
Cover with curry ketchup
2nd slice on top and voilá

Planten-psychologie – Laiquendi

Gisteravond, viel het mij opeens op dat mijn plant ‘Laiquendi’ toch eigenlijk wel erg droog stond en dat de bladeren ook al wel een beetje begonnen uit te drogen. Vanochtend dacht ik er opeens weer aan en heb hem meteen water gegeven, is hij erg blij mee.
Nou is dit niet de eerste keer hoor, het verhaal van Laiquendi gaat zo: ik kreeg hem en na een maand vergat ik hem water te geven dus is hij toen half dood gegaan, toen herrinerde ik me het weer en is hij weer heel mooi geworden. Hij moet zelfs een keer naar de kapper.
Deze winter heb ik het erg druk en ben een beetje gestressd dus krijgt Laiquendi weer minder aandacht. Mijn gemoedstoestand is dus af te lezen aan de staat waarin mijn plant is.

Laiquendi is trouwens tot nu toe de enige plant die mij zo lang heeft overleefd, daarom heb ik hem de quenya-achtige naam ‘Laiquendi’ gegeven. Het staat zelfs op de pot – vondt mijn moeder niet zo heel leuk gezien het feit dat de pot van haar is.

Voorlopig doet Laiquendi het nog goed het is trouwens een vrij grote plant die een ‘citroen-achtige’ geur afgeeft, het ras ben ik even vergeten.

Snow!

*maakt een rondedansje*
Het sneeuwt!! woooeeee, ik werd vanmogen wakker gebeld en toen ik naar buiten keek was meteen mijn hele dag goed! Het is zo mooi buiten! Alles wit ook de tuin wit met een laag sneeuw van tussen de 5 en 10 cm. Ik denk dat ik vanmiddag maar een wandeling ga maken met mijn moeder als dat lukt.

Just a little poem

 

Red sky in the morning?
Sailor’s take warning.
Red sky in the night?
Sailor’s delight.

The poem is taken from the serie ‘Deadliest Catch’ on Discovery Channel

The picture is from this site: http://www.art4collectors.com/ship-sea.jpg

Doedels…

So today…

I was just brushing my teeth and sitting behind my laptop at the same time, when somehow I hit my toothbrush with my hand and the toothbrush hit the side of my laptop. So now my laptop had some spots of toothpaste on it.

What has liquorice to do with nose-spray? Well nose-spray has the tendency for part of it to go to your mouth, thus resulting in a near vomiting action whenever I taste the stuff. Therefore I take a piece of liquorice (soft and sweet-kind) after taking my nose-spray, works like a charm.

The weather was very kind to me today, I was almost home (by which I mean cycling in my own street) when the rain starting to really fall down from the skies in the bucketloads. Also when my father picked me up from the trainstation today, it started to drizlle and offcourse when we were nearing our home, it started to rain ágain. So that’s two times my hair got wet today and my hair doesn’t particulary like it. It get’s all fuzzy, just like in Ireland.

Furthermore yesterday evening I started reading in me ‘A guide to Old English’ and ‘Anglo-Saxon-Verse’, while the second one is a book for the second course of university the first is purely for pleasure. It does pay of the first book because know I actually know how to pronounce the ‘weird’ vowels and letters in Old English. I love Old English and I think it’s way easier to translate it to Dutch, because Dutch has more similair words to Old English then Modern English.

Tess of D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

YESH! FINALLY FINISHED! In a reading-spree I finished reading the last 130 of Tess’ 399 pages. I don’t really like the book, but on the whole I cannot say I háte the book. The book unfortunatly is a rather depressing read although there are sóme positive aspects in it, some… If you can enjoy reading Jane Austen, then you can read this book without getting crazy. I particulary enjoyed the part in Phase the Sixth, chapter XLIX (49) the part where Angel Clare’s hard life in Brazil is explained. I enjoyed the way it’s written down and the flow of that piece. I’ve got the Penguin Classics version of Tess of D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, 21st edition if I’m correct. This version does have a whole lot of extra stuff, notes, history and so on. So if you’re into that stuff, it is a nice edition. On a side-note I don’t want to urge you to buy the book, if you do look for it in a second-hand store, saves money.

My dearest grandfather…

Just arrived home from the hospital. :’(
My 88-year-old grandfather passed away at a quarter past midnight. He was hit by a car while cycling and probably could not have prevented the accident at all. He would still cycle up to 80 kilometres in a day, studied french, russian and astronomy and was still incredibly healthy, he could have easily been 60 instead of 88.
The collision caused extensive head and brain-injury, next to a broken ankle and several rib-fractures, he was almost immediately in a sort-off coma. He was transferred to another hospital but the prognosis was just so bad…
My dearest grandfather at least you won’t ever have to pine away in a home for the elderly, you died on a beautiful day, surrounded by family.

Romeo and Juliet

Today during the tutorgroup of Academic Reading we talked about Shakespeare’s famous piece Romeo and Juliet. We always get asked by our tutor who wants to read out loud the current poem we’re discussing and during Monday’s class some pieces of Romeo and Juliet was read out loud. Today however she asked for 4 boys and 2 girls who wanted to ‘perform’ a piece from this play. Together with the group I hang out, I raised my hand and it was sooo much fun to do! The piece in question.

Romeo and Juliet
Act III, scene V – Loggia to Juliet’s Chamber

Enter Romeo and Juliet.

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear ;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree ;
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

Rom. It was the hark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale : look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east :
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain’s tops ;
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

Jul. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I :
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua :
Therefore stay yet, thou need’st not to be gone.

Rom. Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death ;
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I ‘ll say, yon grey is not the morning’s eye,
‘T is but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow ;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heas :
I have more care to saty than will to go ;-
How is ‘t my soul? let ’s talk, it is no day.

Jul. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away ;
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps.
Some say, the lark makes sweet division ;
This doth not so, for she divideth us :
Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes ;
O, now I would they had shang’d voices too !
Since arm from arm that voie doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.
O, now be gone ; more light and light it grows.

Rom. More light and light? – more dark and dark our woes.

Just a side-note any weird lay-out things, and strange spelling I próbably did because this is straight from my: Blackfriars edition, The Works of William Shakspere. Edited by Charles Knight, published in 1867 by George Routledge and Sons. No,I really don’t adore that book, no I really really don’t.

The first pair a boy and girl where asked to act the piece as if it was a relative normal discussion, they would see each other quite quickly after. The second pair me and another boy where asked to act the piece as if we would névér see each other again, this would be the last time we would see each other. The third 2 boys, I actually forgot how they where asked to play it. The last pair where 2 boys because in Shakespears time woman weren’t allowed on the stage, all parts where down by men, the female parts where usually done by young boys/men.

Thus, while the rest of the group got to enjoy their 10 minute break we searched for a room where we could practise for a bit. After pairing up, we first read through the piece carefully and after that we acted through it thrise I think, deciding on what was important and decidin what was the meaning of the words (and helping each other out with the pronunciation of two words – damn, they’re are só bloody annoying) For example try to read the entire bit out loud and pronounce the words: ‘yon pomegrenate-tree’ and ‘loathed toad’ Such tongbraekers. After a bit our tutor came down and asked how it went, and we said it went okay.

Walking back up the stairs we took our regular seats and the first pair was asked to start, they did really great because it wás really a ‘normal discussion’. Now it was our turn, oh that was very fun. I really tried to give it all, mind we where just standing there with our books trying to act with a glance here and there and a handgesture here and there, but mostly it was just the use of the voice which is brilliant. The last pair did really well also and the public did find our ‘act’ the most dramatic and the others had highlights on their different importances.

To explain the piece a bit;
JulietL In my first line I try to convince Romeo that it is not a hark which we heard, but a nightingale. A nightingale sings in the Night, but a Hark announces the morning. It so happens, that Romeo can’t be found in the cover of darkness, but when the light of the morrow comes, he can be caught and executed by my family, which hates hís family. I’m really just saying ‘No it is not morning! It is still night!

Romeo: It is morning! It is a lark! If I say it is still night (which it is not) I shall condemn myself to death.

Juliet: Still saying, I am absolutely 100 per cent sure it is still night, the light is just a meteor which will help you see the way to Mantua (Where Romeo will be going )

Romeo: Well really, then I shall let myself be murdered by your family and will be content with my death. We do still have time for a lengthy discussion. It is still night.

Juliet: *Changes her opinion * You must gó! Because it is the morning, you must go (because I don’t want you dead) the light is grower stronger.

Romeo: Something, like: Really is it getting more light, you sure? But while this light is getting stronger our thoughts etc are getting dark, because they will seperate.

Well of course there is much much more to be found in this play, but I must admit I am getting wary and the night-candles (stars) are already bright in the dark cold sky of autumn which is finally upon us.

Music behaviour

So here is the amount of cd’s I listned to today. It is just a regular day and I usually prefer listening to my cd-player because the sound is much better then my laptop. Although my laptop does a good job with the music. The Dawn of Destiny and Nightwish are utterly normal, I listen to them áll the time. Within Temptation, however is a bit more irregular but I’m still enjoying Within Temptation, just not all the time like I used too.
- Human Fragility – Dawn of Destiny
- The Silent Force – Within Temptation
- The Silent Force – Within Temptation
- Once – Nightwish

Billy Elliot

My dad was sitting on the couch and said ‘There isn’t anything nice on the television’. As a response to that I zapped to another channel and came across the movie ‘Billy Elliot’. This resulted in me, my mum and my dad sitting on the couch and watching the éntire movie and I am not kidding. My parent’s really liked the movie, which I really enjoy.

It is quite a weird movie actually, about a boy who goes to boxing class and then spots a ballet-class. He’s really bad at boxing and really likes ballet. But the movie is about so much more. It is about the difficulty of a father losing his wife and having to be the head of a family, which exists out of a grandmother, Tony who I guess is around 20 years of age and Billy who is 11 when the movie starts. It is about the difficulty of living in a poor mining-town, about the strikes. About the way people did try to stick together even in these troublesome times. You notice the way Billy and his father stand out when they go to the Royal Ballet School, not just their dress and way of speech, but behaviour and believes. All kinds of issues are adressed, for example even  middle-class family may have it’s troubles. Also you see the behaviour of Tony, the big brother but I really think he’s just being a protective brother to Billy, cause Billy is ‘just a kid’, as they call him. Really, there is so much in this movie it is fascinating.

You should really see it