random

i have been a bit absent lately in the blogsphere, and i am trying to catch up in most comprehensive way possible. i tried to load the photos of my last trip to belgium and share with you some funny, some painful, some sad, some exciting moments of this past week, but we will have to wait that blogspot resumes its full technical capacities.

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after this second break of the month, february will be much quieter. i may have a couple of business lunches and one very important meeting. i may go to the russian exhibit at the royal academy of arts and to a bridal fashion show, but that's about it.

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yesterday i went to the presentation of a new italian book, mangiamore, at the italian bookshop. it was an interesting sociological experience. i was surrounded by stale museum pieces, with voluminous wigs, stony rings and evil looks. i was told most of them were from the circle of the italian embassy, in other words the representatives of the so-called high society of italians in london. the presentation in itself was boring because one of the two authors present at the launch was rather boring. her interviewer, also manager of the italian bookshop where the event took place, was spontaneous and informal, which i liked. whereas i was not impressed by the author's puritan attitude and plain remarks on her writing, style and inspiration. the novel is set in an idealised london, something you would expect from someone who has never lived here and embellish the most blatant stereotypes that usually float in the imagery of tourists and alike. i flicked through the table of contents and found far-fetched names of british plates intended to sound inventive and original. the book apparently plays also with the language and its phonetics, but again i did not find anything innovative in it. it may well be that my acrimonious critic is unfounded since i haven't read the book, but if its blurb and presentation did not trigger any intellectual or personal curiosity in me, it is not a good sign.

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tonight we are going to celebrate steve's birthday at the turnmills. the night will offer tapas and some good live music, as well as the company of an intimate group of friends.

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i have not a ring yet... we have been looking and looking. i even met the designer of eva green's love knot in the last james bond's film to come up with an original piece. she was cool and relaxed, a hippy type, i would say. the trouble is that i have changed my mind twice since. i am going to see a few more tomorrow in hatton gardens, the heaven of shiny things...

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i put kundera on a side to finish miranda july's short stories collection (see on the right bar). i am not sure whether i will be able to review it as it is alway difficult to review antologies, but i can certainly spend some words on her style and writing and will post some quotes that i found cleverly funny and wished i had written.

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we renewed our picturehouse subscription, which was the best spent money in 2007: for £50 we got six free tickets and a high number of free previews. speaking of films, steve and i have been mad at twin peaks. i got him the first series for xmas. we watched it in less than a week and downloaded the second one from the internet ~ which took two days. we are half way through it and there is no night without at least an episode. steve finds it the best tele-film ever. i am not so sure about it. there are some scenes i would happily erase for their incoherence, i find some characters incredibly annoying and pathetic, but i keep watching it with eeriness and eagerness as i want to go to the bottom of it and let's admit it, the script is at times pure genius and the music, well, the music has become legendary. i watched it for the first time this year and i am still sure that i would not have been able in any way to watch it in my teens, by myself, in my bedroom for two reasons: some scenes are really freaky, especially in the second series where things turn into the realm of weirdness; and i would have lost patience with one episode a week. it's great watch series in DVD as you can set the pace as you wish.

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after a frantic search for a montgomery or duffle coat, i found out that pretty much all the high street shops of london had a version of it but they are all gone now that we are in post-clearance time. i wonder: how did i manage to miss it? the answer is that i stopped shopping in the high street in favour of the occasional independent boutique or of the comfort of the online connection. i am starting having very demanding expectations on clothes as there is so much crap laying around these days. cut, fabric and tailoring have become my priority, and i tend to favour classic and versatile pieces. in brussels i found the nearly perfect coat that is the closest version to a duffle coat. it's by a moroccan designer based in paris, labelled "sandro". it's in navy blue combed wool, above kneed length, with a detachable hood, three quarters length sleeves, trapezoid shape and a sherlok holmes style cape attached to the back. cute.