What to do on a Summer’s Day

This is a Saturday, in Oxford, England, 11:28 AM. The sky is pure blue, sans clouds, the wind is rustling the many shimmering trees, and there’s a drone of a plane overhead.

The weather has been like this for days, and I’m so happy I can’t even think.

All I want to do is lie down, gaze at the sky and do nothing. Unfortunately, that is the worst thing to do on such a day. So, what do you do?

Well, these kind of things generally have two effects. You either get one or the other:

1. At the end of the day you feel refreshed and inspired and filled with energetic and optimistic thoughts and that you WILL lead a good life after this. Life’s good!

2. You feel lazy and good for nothing after a whole day moving in a 10-metre-radius from your bed/sofa/computer, snaffling vast quantities of all sorts of calorific things, with your work lying discarded on the floor…

Unfortunately I generally go for number 2, and suffer the results. So, I am determined to change my ways and become a new person, immune to the pleasures of laziness, who instead harnesses the powers of a Summer’s day for my own benefit!

(ironic since I’m on the computer… one of the things I was gonna advise not to do. Well, I’m doing good warning you, aren’t I?!)

1. MUSIC

You can’t underestimate the power of music. It can dramatically change the way you feel! If you play an

instrument, go on and pour out your heart. If you don’t (or if you’re a lazy bum) turn on the CD player…

Spring/Summer Playlist:

(For Classic enthusiasts)

‘The Four Seasons’, Vivaldi; ‘The Drinking Song’ from La Traviata, Verdi; ‘The Lark Ascending’, Vaughan Williams (read my review of it to see why), ‘Piano Concerto No 21 Andante’, Mozart (I love it so much!), ‘Slavonic dance in E minor’, Dvorak…

(For the Neo-rocker/R&B/Anything)

‘Don’t look back in anger’, Oasis; ‘Wake me up when September ends’, Greenday; ‘Set Fire to the Rain’, Adele; ‘Time to Say goodbye’, sung by Andrea Bocelli (ultimate modern opera style stuff), ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, ‘Airplanes’ by B.O.B. …

(For the private living-room disco party)

‘Party Rock’, LMFAO; ‘I am the best’, 2ne1; ‘You Changed the Way you kissed me’, Example…

2. Have some time being outside /a tree hugger!

Seriously, this is a big one. You can’t just view Spring, you have to BE Spring!

take a table outside and feel like a retro babe. Look how artistically your book’s pages waft and quiver in the wind. Release Helium balloons. Throw crumbs to the ducks. Eat ‘alfresco’. Jump into the Trafalgar Square Fountains, Londoners. Go to the beach, coasties. Get into your vintage sundress, heels and sunglasses and suck lemonade up a straw. Play golf, or badminton. Do the hula.

3. The Arts.

OK, so we’ve covered music. But what about books and films and all the other lovely stuff?

Don’t reach for the ‘trashy blockbusters’ (ok, ok, fine, I admit I like ‘trashy blockbusters’…), but go for something more unusual or excitingly different. Or go for old films. J’adore old films.

(best old films I’ve seen)

‘Ben-Hur’ (can’t beat Charlton Heston. Don’t even try!), ‘Roman Holiday’ (for Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck having fun in Italia), ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (who said girls don’t enjoy cowboys?)

(best old films I haven’t seen)

(you’re gonna kill me for this) ‘Romeo & Juliet’ 1968 version, ‘Cinema Paradiso’, ‘Titanic’. I know. I will try to.

Lord of the Rings is good too! ^o^

As for books…

‘Alice in Wonderland’, Lewis Carroll (I will smack anyone who thinks it is babyish and hasn’t even tried it); ‘The Little Prince’, Antoine de Saint-Exupery (made me cry once. Never underestimate); ‘The Book Thief’, Marcus Zusak (a terribly well written book of WW2 Germany. Read it), ‘Three Men in a Boat’, Jerome K. Jerome (An idyllic hilarious book of three men on a boat trip)…

Most importantly, get inspired.

What do YOU do on a beautiful Summer’s day…?

Mollicellus – dainty little: Cat (What I discovered this Saturday)

I was doing my Latin homework, and I was using my Latin dictionary to look up words…

My eyes began to wander down the calming rows of letters, and I began looking for words I liked

(PS I’m not a weirdo. I just happen to be able to fall in love with words. Ok? Don’t be scared)

I found some lovely words under ‘A’ :

Aurifex – goldsmith

Aurigena – begotten of gold

Don’t you just LOVE words to do with gold??!!! ( And things)

tra la la ~ I’m Dorothy ~

I turned to ‘M’…

and immediately my eye was drawn to this:

Mollicellus – dainty little: Cat

‘Cat?’ I wondered. ‘How sweet. So is ‘mollicellus’ an adjective solely for cats? How enchantant!’

So ran my ‘intelligentissimo’ and ‘refinementissimus‘ thoughts.

  

Molitrix – a female contriver: Suet

‘Ah, of course, Suet!’

Suet.

Suet.

SUET???!!?!!!!!!!??!!!

Of course (and thank goodness) I realized something was very, very wrong. And then I realized what it was.

Cat, Suet… They were Roman authors!!

Once I’d ‘eureka-ed‘ this, all these random ‘Roman authors’ began popping all over the place on the page:

 Tac, Cic, Caes, Hor, Liv …

(Tacitus, Cicero, Caesar.. 2 others I can’t know/guess. I suppose ‘Suet’ was Suetonius)

I shut the dictionary to with a bang.

And I had to put my foot in it and disillusion myself once more…

I searched what ‘suet’ was. I’d always thought it was some delicious-yummyness-dessert type thing..

my imaginary suet

… like this perhaps?

But all I found was…

NO! I will not even present a glimpse of this atrocity! For suet… suet is..

‘Suet is raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys.’

Thanks a bunch, Wikipedia!!

The Old Man and the Sea

All alone....

It’s the story of Santiago, an old fisherman, who everyone thinks is unlucky because he doesn’t catch any fish. He has a little boy who is his best friend, and who believes that Santiago is the best fisherman there is. We find out for ourselves when Santiago finds himself far out to sea, alone, with a 1500 pound marlin on the end of the line…

FUNNNESS: X X X O O – X X X X O

GRIPPINGNESS: X X X O O – X X X X O

READABILITY: X X X O O – X X X X O        (THEY ALL DEPEND REALLY… ON CHAPTER, TASTES, PATIENCE…)

The clean, precise writing style.

Hemingway uses short, clipped sentences, and doesn’t drown the poor story in endless description, though there is description of course, of the effective, condensed type.

Hemingway does not waste time, if someone does something for a reason, Hemingway will tell you straight out. For example: “Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it and it was on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt.”

It’s quite new, after a lifetime of detailed description, it’s quite refreshing. Different writing styles are very interesting to discover – no one has the same writing style as someone else, everyone is unique.

 

yes.. clean writing style.....

The poignancy…

When the old man is fishing, or being towed away by a huge marlin, he had plenty of time to think and remember the past times. Once he remembers that once when fishing with the boy, they caught the female of a pair of marlin. All through the capture and the butchering the male marlin stayed with them, searching for his female.

           “Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.

           That was the saddest thing I ever saw with them, the old man thought.”

undying love!

The hidden emotion

With all that ‘short sentences’ and ‘clipped descriptions’ business, you could infer that perhaps, the book was devoid of emotion. You’re right – but only to an extent. Take for instance, this extract:

“He was asleep when the boy looked in at the door in the morning. It was blowing so hard that the drifting boats would not be going out and the boy had slept late and then come to the old man’s shack as he had come each morning. The boy saw that the old man was breathing and then he saw the old man’s hands and he started to cry. He went out very quietly to go to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying.”

Hemingway doesn’t describe how the boy cries, or why. Perhaps to a person opening this for the first time at a random time wouldn’t know the reason. But we do – we’ve been through thick and thin with the old man, and his pain and exertion and bravery in catching the massive marlin. That is the reason why we too can cry with the boy. Relief that the old man is alive. Sympathetic tears for his terrible wounds. Regret that he had not been there with the old man to help him.

that night, the old man dreamt of the lions on the beach...

it is a book you should try, though many have mixed opinions on it. Tell me what you think of The Old Man and the Sea…

I want Ice Cream hair, with a cherry on top.

What, exactly, is so alluring about ice cream?
After all, it is just:

“A soft frozen food made with sweetened and flavored milk fat” according to google.com,

hmmm!!

and:

“a frozen dessert usually made fromdairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners. In some cases, artificial flavourings and colourings are used in addition to, or instead of, the natural ingredients. The mixture of chosen ingredients is stirred slowly while cooling, in order to incorporate air and to prevent large ice crystals from forming. The result is a smoothly textured semi-solid foam that is malleable and can be scooped” according to Wikipedia.com!

So, what’s special about it?

ok, fine, looks nice -

alright, alright, I GET THE IDEA.

But what about HAIR that colour…?

Hair that is that pretty, sugary, candy colour, without being punky or emo in any way..

I would like that (and I am about as emo as the queen is a rockstar)

but I think I’m too afraid to take that plunge…

 

candyfloss, crushed strawberry, butter, mint, lavender, cloud, peach…

heavenly!!

These pictures are ‘biro-and-colouring-pencil’ drawings of my own idea of ‘ice-cream hair’…

I like this one of the girl on the magic carpet, with her sherbet-y hair flying up behind her.

 

Can you guess who that jolly girl with the pink hair is…?

She’s what I imagined what the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland would look like if he’d been a girl

 

This drawing was pronounced to be by one of my friends a human ‘ice-cream sundae.’

the red hat is very like ‘the cherry on top’, and the hair has very ‘ice creamy’ swirls and shades…

Vanilla and mango sorbet, maybe?

And remember…

Why Holden Caulfield wanted to catch a body coming through the rye

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is the story of Holden Caulfield, who narrates the story from a mental hospital, from the day he was expelled from Pencey Prep. It spans over two days as a flashback. This book, originally written for adults, is also popular with teenagers who recognize the same themes of alienation, rebellion, teenage angst and confusion. Famous for confronting issues like identity, connection belonging. Notorious for its profanity (eg. swearing)…

FUNNESS:                 X X X O O / X X X X O

GRIPPINGNESS:  X X X O O / X X X X O

READABLITY:     X X O O O (UNDER AGE 12)

                                         X X X X X  (OVER AGE 12) (because the book contains material for slightly older readers)

READ IT FOR:

1.Holden Caulfield

Holden may seem like a coarse, rude and inconsiderate person on the outside, but as the narration goes on you get little glimpses of the gentle, sensitive, beautiful inside, the true Holden who tries to find sense, and good in the world, but sadly failing except in his little sister Phoebe.

he loves little children, finding in them the innocence he craves. That’s the reason for his dream of saving the kids from falling over a cliff  - perhaps the cliff of adulthood, phoniness and the loss of innocence?

2.Jane Gallagher

he’s Holden’s love interest and the way he talks about her makes you really want to know her. You get the feeling that she’s the only girl Holden will ever love… and he’s never even properly kissed her on the lips. She is a stark contrast to Sally Hayes, and all the rest of the fluttering fickle girls around Holden, she almost seems the most real…. Even though we never meet her in the book. Oh bother…

3.The complete believability of it all!

It sounded completely in character. The vocabulary, the tone, the pace, the italics, the swearing…

Holden would repeat a phrase over and over again in a passage, like when talking about his ‘kid-sister’ Phoebe he would say ‘I swear to God you’d like her.’

It’s incredibly well written. Incredibly. I’ve read many good books, but none with the same style as Catcher. The tone, the pacing, the vocab… Read it, will you!!!

"Are you sure, Terribly Sorry?"

4. If you’re one of those rebellious frustrated types and need someone in the same situation… even if he’s in a book

It was the perfect book. I read it and I was like, “Holden? You too?” It felt great to find someone who understood so perfectly. You have to read it to find out.

5. What he writes is SO TRUE.

Check out this excerpt about holding hands with girls ( about Jane Gallagher) :

“I don’t want you to get the idea that she was a goddam icicle or something, just because we never necked or horsed around much. She wasn’t. I held hands with her all the time, for instance. That doesn’t sound like much, I realize, but she was terrific to hold hands with. Most girls if you hold hands with them, their goddam hand dies on you, or else they think they have to keep moving their hand all the time, as if they were afraid they’d bore you or something. Jane was different. We’d get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we’d start holding hands, and we wouldn’t quit till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.”

aw!!! And it’s definitely what I can relate to (fine, ok, I admit that I’m one of those girls who think they have to move their hand a bit to keep you interested. Ahem.)

So please. Read it. You’ll get what I’m talking about once you do.

oh my. A batman themed remake of The Catcher in the Rye… whatever next..

How to have a Bon Anniversaire

HOW TO HAVE A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY

Hip hip hooray! It’s my birthday today -

this was the view from the window this morning. Pretty and blue… with blossoms all around.

1. GOOD WEATHER

And this is what was on the table as I went into the kitchen -

2. FOOD. OF THE YUMMY KIND

its.. well I don’t actually know exactly…  it looks a little meringue-y to me, don’t you think? I think it’s my birthday meringue, not very conventional but why not be different for a change? Who wants to be conventional anyway…

reading with a lovely kit-kat in sight…

3. HAVING EVERYONE TREAT YOU AS A PRINCESS

… like Audrey Hepburn’s pampered princess in Roman Holiday. I haven’t been treated too much like a princess today, which is fine with me. I know I’ll be in Princess status when and only when my little brother brings in a full english breakfast for me in bed. And doesn’t get huffy when I send him back to fetch a different spoon. Ha.

3. FACEBOOK BIRTHDAY MESSAGES

Who cares if they’re only saying happy birthday cos its says so on the side! Like all the posts and say thankyou (and find out who those heartless people were who didn’t say anything at all…)

4. GOING OUT FOR DINNER. OR LUNCH. OR ANYTHING. JUST GOING OUT

no, I didn’t have breakfast at Tiffany’s…

but I did go to the Trout Inn for lunch

that was a very small snapshot of my rather luxurious lunch. I’m glad I didn’t see the bill… If I had, I would’ve died of guilt!! But your birthday is only one day a year, isn’t it?

after that, we all went to Bicester Village and burnt off that lunch by trudging from shop to shop. My lovely auntie and cousin went shopping, and I tried to find a little something for myself. We re-calorified ourselves at Costa. Look at the joy on our faces!

My Mad Hatter, my Hot Chocolate, my Birthday Wishlist and Me.

and finally back at home sweet home we had a huge dinner. I am still feeling the side effects!

I have firmly decided to only have a slice of cake and a cup of (non-caffeinated) tea for my birthday party. Any more and I might burst…

Anyway, the moral of the story is to EAT WHAT YOU LIKE but in MODERATION. got it? good

5. JUST ENJOY THE FLOW AND GO WHERE IT TAKES YOU. FEEL THE LOVE

take plenty of photos – on cameras, phones, instagrams (hehe) and polaroids…

Err.. not suggesting you should flirt by eating an ice-cream messily with a friend, but have the same free spirit!!

And who doesn’t like balloons?

6. (ALMOST) UNEXPECTED SURPRISES…

this is what I saw when I opened the door…

But the best part wasn’t the food, or the cake, or the shopping spree…

It was the people all around me that made my birthday special. So thankyou Mum, Dad, Auntie, Cousin, Sister No.3, Little Brother. For no birthday party is a birthday party celebrated alone.

Be happy

Why Brad Pitt’s body will not bring you closer to the Iliad. Read the real thing

“Hmm… the Iliad? Oh, I know! Him!!” you say. And I know exactly who ‘him’ is.

It’s this person…

… and you know what? I can’t blame you. Not only is  ’Troy’ a major blockbuster, but Mr. Pitt is not at all bad to look at. Neither is the film.

But there’s a slight problem…

THERE ARE LOADS OF THINGS IN THE FILM THAT ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL STORY.

ahem. Of course, the poor directors want a really smashing film (so adding in squabbling gods might spoil the whole thing), and perhaps they want to portray the story of the Iliad as it really might’ve happened…

But whatever their excuses, the plot of the film is different.

so without further ado -

THE ILIAD

FUNNESS:

(IF YOU’RE ME)    X X X X O

(IF YOU’RE MY ANNOYING LITTLE BROTHER)          X X O O O

GRIPPINGNESS:

(IF YOU’RE ME)        X X X O O       (OR)       X X X X O      (DEPENDS ON THE CHAPTER)

(IF YOU’RE MY INSENSITIVE BROTHER)      X X O O O 

READABILITY:

(DIE-HARD GREEKY GEEKS)                           X X X X X

(MORE NORMAL PEOPLE)                                   X X X O O 

 (PEOPLE WHO JUST WANT A BREAK)       O O O O O

WHY READ THE BOOK?

1. ACHILLES

theres no illustrations of Brad Pitt, I’m afraid, but who needs him?! Use your imagination…

I mean he’s just so brilliant!!! Read all those descriptions of him!

2. THE DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS HEROISM OF IT ALL!!!

It’s so glorious and majestic… Fates, Aristeia, honour, kudos, ransoms, libations… this here epic has got ‘em all.

3. YOU WILL SEEM INCREDIBLY ATTRACTIVE AND INTELLIGENT 

Once word goes round saying you’ve read the Iliad, you’re going to be a hot issue.. Who cares if it was the English translation and not the ancient greek!!

4. THE OTHER CHARACTERS!!! (U KNOW, THE OTHERS APART FROM ACHILLES..)

The ‘others’ are pretty hot issues themselves…

Agamemnon, Menelaus (two king-brother hotties… never imagined them to be the grandpa’s from the film, you know what I mean?),

Nestor (the nice old king),

Odysseus (one wily cunning king (he’s the guy who blinds the cyclops later on in the Odyssey))

Diomedes (HOT ISSUE!!!) a very brave daring young warrior,

Patroclus (Achilles’ veryveryvery nice friend who gets killed by Hector and starts Achilles’ bloody rampage of revenge),

Briseis (Achilles’ (HOT) girlfriend who was the cause of his big sulk and squabble with Agamemnon),

Hector (HOT ISSUE!!!!!) ‘breaker of horses’ :’) (the one who gets dragged around by the ankles behind a chariot),

Paris (the HOT but extremely annoying young pest who causes the whole business by running off with…)

Helen (the face that launched a thousand ships) the most beautiful woman in the world…

…and many, many more!! Discover them all…they’re all really exciting and unique…

…AND all those hot gods who direct the whole thing (haha – got you there!! the film didnt include the gods… can’t think why…)

Menelaus, Paris, Diomedes, Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles, Agamemnon (from left)... but use your imagination!!

5. IT’S SO ICONIC… HOW CAN YOU NOT READ IT??!!!

Nah, that’s a shallow reason…

you should read it for discovering the finer details of the character (both heroes and gods), and the iliad is not just a story of lust, fighting and war… The scene when Priam ransoms Hector’s body near the end of the epic is considered one of the most finest parts of the iliad, where the two men realise their similarities. its full of the meaningless of things!! the meaningless of war!! the childlike gods and the godlike heroes!!!! how can you not read it??!!

OH …LOL!!!

(in case you never feel like reading it without illustrations….)

the marvel comics adaptation!!!

so, please, for the sake of your inner warlord, give the Iliad a go!