One of the truly great ones.

Photo by Sid Avery/MPTV.net.

30 second review - Jar City

Having never seen an Icelandic film before, is it strange to say that Jar City was exactly what I expected ? An excellent thriller, bleak and dark - no neatly wrapped up happy ending here - but very human and not entirely devoid of humor.

Last weekend

...was great fun. Well, for me anyway.

S having planned a weekend in England canoeing and camping with his best mates, I made plans to entertain myself and see friends and keep busy - not that I can't do that when he's around, far from it, but I was looking forward to some me time - absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.

Well, S's plans were ruined by the almost apocalyptic combination of flood (canoe trip cancelled for security reasons) and fire (in the Channel tunnel, so no Eurostar service...) so the poor guy ended up having to amuse himself while I gallivanted around without him - Friday night was drinks and sushi and great conversation, Saturday was a lovely afternoon at the Opéra Bastille admiring the New York City Ballet, followed by dropping in on a friend and his daughter - just turned 5 ! - and Sunday was seeing Mamma Mia at the cinema followed by more chat with my gal pals.

I did feel a bit guilty about having so much fun while S's weekend had gone pear-shaped, but instead of moping and feeling sorry for himself - which probably would have been my reaction - he very sweetly told me to "stop being stupid". So I did, and it was wonderful.

I don't usually post about politics

...but as the line between politics and comedy has become increasingly blurred, please check out Saturday Night Live, with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, with thanks to Chez.

Well, I was going to

...write a weekend round-up, because it was great and I saw friends and did loads of stuff, but instead, can I just say... Deezer.com !

Why had I never heard of this great site before ?

Mamma mania

The film was just released in France today. I'm a bit nervous of going to see it - just seeing the posters around town means I've had Abba songs stuck in my head for weeks now (Daaancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeeeeen....), I'm afraid of what seeing the movie will do to me.

30 second review - Deception

The only thing I enjoyed about this movie was the line "I haven't had this much fun since I saw Van Halen in '97". Oh, and Charlotte Rampling's cameo appearance was good - she's always a pleasure to watch. The rest ? Meh, and double meh. This review pretty much sums it up.

Madness

A 59-year old woman gave birth to triplets in a Paris hospital this weekend.

While I don't want children myself, I feel the utmost sympathy for people who do want them but can't conceive "naturally", and I can understand why they would turn to medical assistance to make their dreams of having a family come true.

But at 59 ? Nursing three babies through the night at that age ? Running after three toddlers to make sure they keep out of mischief in one's early 60's ? I hope the new mom is in fabulous shape and has plenty of help lined up. Best of luck - and better her than me...

It's "la rentrée"... back to school.

Or to work, for me anyway. Couldn't remember my network password when I arrived this morning, which is, in my opinion, a sign of a truly good vacation. Had a ridiculous 254 e-mails in my inbox this morning - wasn't everyone else in France also on vacation in August ? Who were these people and why were they writing to me ? Thankfully there was loads of spam so the contents of the inbox didn't automatically translate to 254 items on the to-do list. Whew.

Last night I kept putting off going to bed, because, as I explained to S, going to sleep meant waking up to a Monday. Make sense ? Perhaps not. But when Boss n°1 came in, also after a 3-week break, the first thing she said to me was "I didn't go to bed until 2 a.m. because I didn't want to wake up and have to come to work !" This shared attitude is probably why, for the most part, we get along quite well...