What I Did On My Winter Vacation

I had a mostly lovely week off, with only a smattering of things that pissed me off (more about one of ‘em later). Space to think, space to rest, all kinds of time to get perspective. Or try to get perspective. I learned, among other things, that I have to take more time off and that’s something. Herewith a brief rundown of the happenings at chez Lene in the past week.

I napped. Quite a bit. It was lovely.

Watched movies. A History of Violence - brilliant story, brilliant directing, brilliantly acted, a brilliant special feature on ‘the making of’. And Viggo Mortensen has a really brilliant arse. Walk the Line – Reese Witherspoon has a surprisingly nice singing voice, both she and Joaquin Phoenix were good. I just wish the script had been better. And…

I consider the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice to be the definitive one. Who could possibly do Darcy better than Colin Firth (who has the sexiest walk I’ve ever seen)? It was with some trepidation that I rented the recent film version with Keira Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett and Matthew Macfadyen as Darcy – I was worried I’d only see that it wasn’t the BBC miniseries. And I loved it. Macfadyen made me forget anyone else was ever Darcy (but only as long as the movie lasted – my heart still belongs to Colin, although Mr. Matthew might share a top 10 spot), the movie’s gorgeous on all levels and I think the two can comfortably co-exist as different and equal interpretations.

Read. I was in the middle of this book before the vacation, but it made me too upset, so I switched to this one. Don’t let the Harlequin label mislead you – it’s well-written, funny and highly entertaining.

Speaking of books – did I manage to persuade any of you to read The Historian? Let me know what you think.

Found a blog entry (through this article – a very good read) that advocates putting elevators in hard-to-reach areas to encourage people to take the stairs and hence achieving a better fitness level. When asked about the impact on people with disabilities, the writer of the blog replied in her comment box “I accept for some people with disabilities that would be inconvenient - those for whom walking a very short distance is possible but longer distances aren't - but that would, I think, be a not unreasonable price to pay for better overall societal and environmental health.”. It took me a full day to get my blood pressure down to normal. Let’s hope she never breaks a leg skiing, have a child in a stroller or y'know… GETS OLD!

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