Susanne Sundfør

I've just discovered this Norwegian musician/singer called Susanne Sundfør.

Sometimes I prefer her live performances because they have a certain edge, a rawness that's sometimes missing from her tracks (even though they are brilliant as well).   At times, her melodies are slighly too high-pitched for me, but still beautiful nevertheless. 

Take the paper! LOL of the Day

I've watched this clip a few times, and it's still making me laugh. If you've ever been confused or frustrated with your printer, you'll know what this cat is going through!!


                               

Battlestar Galactica

Ok, I think I'm a bit behind with the times here, but I've finally finished watching Battlestar Glactica.  At first, I was sceptical because I'm not into StarWars or Startrek, but I got dragged into watching it.

 It's a drama series about an epic war between humans and cylons (artificial life which come in various forms).

I won't give too much away in this review, but it's one of the best series I've ever watched.

 Big themes that run throughout the series are technological advancement, hope, religion, politics, myths, the good and ugly side of human nature, forgiveness, prejudice and the origin and meaning of life.  It raises some philosophical questions about what makes us human beings.  Is it our flesh and blood, or is it our mind and emotions?  It explores the fears that people have about artificial intelligence, the consequence of bestowing that intelligence and what we're willing to tolerate or ignore when we think of something else as being different to ourselves. 

There were some episodes that seemed pointless or boring.  There where some characters that were cheesy and some of the scriptwriting started to get weak around half-way through the series - I was getting impatient with it.    Sometimes I sat there thinking 'What the fuck is this?!!' at some silly character or poor piece of dialogue........but on the whole, it's a damn good series.  

For one thing, it actually has interesting female characters!   Some of the main characters are female, and they're not there just to make the male characters look fabulous or interesting - they're interesting in their own right.  They're not side-show pieces. I had to roll my eyes at the first fee episodes (it seemed like one character was made to draw in the young, teenage male red-blooded type), but I was encouraged to to stick with it, and I'm glad I did. 

Some people were unhappy with the ending and I must admit I was expecting something different.  Also, it seemed at times like there were plot mistakes or problems with continuity.   There were some plot features that were totally ignored - like they would discover something huge and important in one episode, but had no mention of it in the next episode, like the writers had just forgotten about it.   There was plot that could have gone on for a good 3-5 episodes but was confined to one.  The one I'm referring to is the one showing terrible working conditions, and how class systems in their word determine their fate and how it enhances or cripples educational opportunities. 

Overall, the series is exciting & thrilling but also sad in places.   The acting was also generally of a high standard and it was nice to see some unknown faces acting these parts.   I was fortunate to have the box-set and I could have easily watched three episodes in a row at times, but managed to discipline myself into watching just two each time.  Having watched so much of it in the last few months, now I have to find something to fill the gap!! :(

The Sugar Plum Fairy.......using glasses

A Different Kind of Home

Just wanted to share this great website which shows lots of beautiful and interesting homes that have been built with the environment in mind.  A lot of them look like they've taken stylistic inspiration from Hobbits, and look very tree-like with their lack of straight lines.

These houses or natural dwellings certainly look far, far better than the ugly pebble-dash or red-brick modern houses that look exactly the same as each other.  They also fit-in much better into the lush, green Welsh countryside. 


This is a link to their articles section, which shows wonderful homes from around the world, not just from Britain.  I love all of the architectural styles that are shown on this page -

http://naturalhomes.org/articles.htm

There is also a Russian and Romanian version of this website, and also Facebook pages in various other languages.

Here's the Russian one -

http://naturalhomes.org/ru/


Here's one of the houses that's recently been built in Pembrokshire, Wales -

http://naturalhomes.org/save-charlies-house.htm










This one is in Somerset -

Batman hands in a suspect to the Police! :D

 This is brilliant!  Amongst the depressing new stories out there,  this little gem brightened up my day. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-21654930

Cwm Idwal in frosty, bleak February

In the last few days, I went to Cwm Idwal.  On the way we saw big icicles around a meter long, and the mountains were sugar-dusted with snow.

It's one of the few places in Britain where you can see Artic-Alpine plants, and it's a site of Special Scientific Interest.  We just walked up to the lake, and from what I saw, it's quite an easy walk which some steeps sections,  so it's ok for children if you just keep to the lake.  It would be a nice place for a picnic in the summer.  

There are quite a few bleak pictures of Snowdonia on the internet,  and they give the impression that Snowdonia is always like this when it's not.  The Snowdonia area is incredibly green as well because of the high rainfall.

This is path we followed.

Llyn Idwal (Lake of Idwal)

There are a few opinions as to why it is called Llyn Idwal, but one of the most common stories surrounding this lake is that it was named when Idwal, son of the prince of Gwynedd in the 12th century, decided to entrust the care of his son to Nefydd Hardd.  Nefydd was jealous of Idwal because he was more talented than his own son, so he pushed Idwal into the lake, where he drowned.  Owain banished Nefydd from the kingdom, and named the lake after his son.

 To give you an idea of scale, you can just about see little dots where there are 3 people in the above photograph.  They are on grassy area, near the horizon a little towards the left.

Several people have died whilst walking on Glyderau, which is the group of peaks in this area, and even experienced walkers have died.  When we were there, there was a group of people around 20 years old, who looked like they had come from a city on holiday.  They were wearing baseball jackets, and hip-hop style clothes with no gloves, no proper coats, just hoodies.

 As you can see from the frozen water in the waterfall, it was just above freezing, and we decided to turn back because it was starting to snow lightly. 

I took these last two photos in Llanberis.


I think after that sort of weather a hot chocolate is in order!