Princess Orchid

Moonlight starts in the UK in Feb! Woo hoo!

I've not updated in ages, and I don't have time to do it properly this week so I'll settle for just listing the books I've read since I last blogged. Terribly boring, I know! "The Russian Concubine" (Kate Furnivall) "Slave Day" (Rob Thomas) "Garlic and Sapphires" (Ruth Reichl) "Twilight" (Stephenie Meyer) "New Moon" (Stephenie Meyer)

I watched a few episodes of the show whilst I was in Toronto and..it wasn't bad. It was actually quite decent - pleasantly surprised!

I've just started reading the series, and I'm really enjoying it so far. I have to say, I like the banter between Edward and Bella more than anything else - gotta love a sarcastic vampire!

Not strictly horror, but there are definately vampires and werewolves aplenty - I'm currently reading Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" series, and I've grown quite addicted. I may be a little in love with the snarky vampire though...

I started reading Christophe Dufosse's "School's Out", and I just couldn't get into it. The style of writing just felt a little awkward for me, which I think might have something to do with the translation - I'll try to get my hands on a French version at some point and try again. So I've given up on it for the time being. I started The Russian Concubine (Kate Furnivall), which I'm enjoying so far. God, those Bolsheviks wee me off! Peasants, pheasants, PAH!

I read a fantastic book at the weekend - it's one that has been sitting in TBR pile for ages, and for some reason I'd never gotten round to reading it. But...wow. The Oyster House Siege (Jay Rayner) had everything - intrigue, violence, plot twists, food. Now, this isn't a spoiler, as it appears in the opening chapter, but I thought I'd share this as I found it to be a very powerful theme. A man lies dead in a pool of blood. He's been shot. The man is wearing chef's whites, and the siege has ended - the hostages have been released. Another person, also in chef's whites, comes along and says to the dead person "You weren't supposed to die." Now all through the book, the shift in focus from character to character leads the reader to guess who the dead man is. At first I thought, it had to be one of the cooks - I mean, who else would be wearing chef's whites? But it's never who you think, and I was guessing right til the end. The narrative shifts from present day to events in the past, both of the head chef (an American woman named Bobby heller) and the leader of the gunmen. I didn't actually realise until the very end how closely everything was linked, however random. Fantastic book. Read it, seriously! I have some funky quotes as well, which I shall dig out when I get home.

I love Italian - pasta especially. Every so often I crave a good pizza, but only the thin crust kind. I find things like stuffed crusts revolting. I'd say my favourite Italian dishes involve cream though, rather than the tomato based sauces. On the other hand, i love French food as well. Escargots, fresh seafood, anything in a delicate buttery sauce, frogs legs, duck, red meat barely cooked, steak tartare...mmm... And Chinese food as well - although I lean towards the noodles, every time. Soup noodles - nothing better on a cold day, right? And Japanese food - tempura udon and sashimi! Mmmmm! Indian food I'm rather ambivilant towards. I don't mind it, and I like some of the more interesting stuff, but really I don't care much for the bog standard classics. Mexican and south American food I tend to get the odd craving for. It must be the cheese. I'm not a fan of refried beans, but a good fajita or an enchilada, and those deep fried things - what are they called? Oh yeah, churros. Dipped in chocolate. Oh yum! Greek food I like if done well. Trad Jewish cooking as well - there's a place in Toronto that makes a mean Matzoh soup, which is something you just don't get in the UK. I miss things like Vietnamese Pho, and Korean food, and proper dim sum. Ah...food...

Oh crikey, it's ben awhile since I've updated this. Well, here goes... I finished Ithaka, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. There were a few things I didn't "get", which may be down to personal preference rather than a proper commentary of the style. For example, Penelope's dreams - I'm not a huge fan of dream sequences heavy in imagary and symbolism (ironically, I studied History of Art at uni...), so I found these a bit tedious. And as for Argos's dreams? What? Yeah, that must have missed my realm of comprehension. Other than that, I thought the characterisation was fantastic - and it was nice to read something on this subject matter from the POV of a "secondary" character. Every other Trojan war/Odysseus/Oddysey novel I've read has been from the POV of either Odysseus, Penelope, or of course Helen. It was refreshing to see something different. I've also nearly finished "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" (Kate Atkinson), which I initially found a bit hard to get into (it skips between "present day" accounts from Ruby Lennox from the time of her conception, to "Appendices" which go into the backgroudn ogf her mother's childhood, her grandmother's, etc). I found the appendices a tad confusing, as I was forgetting the names of Nell's various brothers and sisters, trying to remember which ones were dead in present day and which were still alive...and associating these children with elderly Nell, for example, didn't sit quite right with me. However, once I got into it, about halfway through, I thought the book was brilliant. Kate Atkinson is quietly witty, and her Ruby Lennox (throughout the ages) is witty and clever, but not too clever.

That's the next episode. We just got the one before that last night on E4. I don't mind about spoilers. I read TWoP anyways, so I know bout the spoilers for most of my favourites.

I tend to avoid: - Mills and boon - Biogs of any "celebrity" under the age of 35. No, make that 40. I mean, what could Colleen McLoughlin, Chantelle, any contestant of BB have possibly done in their short time on this earth that could be interesting to read? - Anything written by anyone who claims to be a "muso".

I miss Thanksgiving...I used to do a big dinner when I firt mvoed to Scotland, but most of my friends had no idea what iw as on about (and quite a lot of them were vegetarians, so I gave up).

I've been enjoying Smallville of late, mainly for Lex. I find Clark Kent a little too...earnest. And Lana Lang is a little pathetic. Chloe I like, and I love the fact that Jimmy Olsen's in it now (and I shall forevermore think of him as Troy Van de Graff, thankyouverymuch!). Also, CSI. Although there haven't been any episodes I haven't seen on lately, and the new season hasn't started. I'm not that invested that I care whether Sara lives or dies, as I know it's entirely political and depends on Jorja Fox's contract. I quite like her character though. I've grown fond of CSI:Miami, though David Caruso's acting is laughable really. And CSI:NY is growing on me... Bones is back on the air, and I think they're making more of a point about stressing the relationship between Booth and Brennan (which I'm all for). I love the forensic anthropology angle, I love that Zach is back from Iraq, and I'm a little disappointed in the Hodgins/Angela storyline (they're trying to find her husband from ehr Fiji marriage). Oh, and what I'm definately loving? The cannibal. Oh, and I've been watching House, which I've gotten into quite religiously in the past month or so. Plauisble - no. Godd telly - probably yes. Then there's the usual suspects of Scrubs, Ugly Betty...and I still miss Veronica Mars...

Wicked the Musical is actually based on the book by Gregory Maguire (it's about Elphaba, the WWotW).

I bought the VM soundtrack. Mainly for Sway by the Perishers, and Momentary Thing by Something Happens.

I liked Grey's Anatomy (until the Gizzie storyline killed it for me - not I Sky+ it and FFWD over any scenes between the 2 of them), and I loved Kate Walsh in GA. Saw the leadup to PP that was on GA, and I have to say, I'm a bit meh of the entire hippy dippy LA vibe they've got going on - and I do not in any way, shape or form buy Chris Lowell as a hot surfer. Emo kid, maybe. I'm currently consistently unimpressed with the state of television today. I like Ugly Betty, for its unabashed fluffiness. And it's fast paced, there's always loads going on, and the characters are such parodies of themselves.

I finished How to Be Right (James Delingpole) last week, and hilarious as it was in parts (not sure if it was entirely meant to be quite that funny), I was a bit wary of reading it on the bus in the morning in case someone I work with spied me. Ahh...how to be right wing...the guide every girl in a Government job needs to give her a chuckle throughout the day... I started Ithaka (Adele Geras) last night; I'd picked it up originally because I love all things ancient, and Greek, especially anything with mentions of the Trojan War. I loved Margaret Atwood's "Penelopiad" (surprisingly, as I find MA a bit hit or miss sometimes), and thought it would be another interesting take on the perspective of Penelope, the wife left behind. So far it's a little heavy on the romance, a little light on the meatier prose. Hopefully it picks up... I've been a little behind on my reading, for a few reasons - one is I've signed up for NanoWriMo this year, and am probably only 10K/W into my 50K/W piece. I've also got another fic to finish, being at just over 25K/W, and 9 chapters out of a possible 12. Well, best get working then!

I've not updated much recently, but I'm just about finished reading Nigel Slater's "Eating for England". As a food writer, he irritates me somewhat - he's a smidge more pretentious than I'd like in someone who claims to love real and simple food. And the fact he mentions he's middle class every couple of pages puts me off as well. Still had my mouth watering at some of his descriptions of roast chickens and ye olde Sunday dinners, though. I've not been reading much in the way of books recently, so I think the Nigel Slater was a good choice in one respect - it's easy to dip into, as there are no chapters, just little sections of a few paragraphs each. You don't exactly need to know what happened to the syllabub when you go on to read about crumpets and Jaffa cakes.

Salad from M&S - I think it's chicken and sundried tomato with pasta today.

Pasta, noodles...sometimes bread, tatties, rice. CHO in any of its many forms... I prefer savoury foods to sweet, and I think I could ea savoury stuff all day long - but sweet stuff (even fruit) tends to get a bit sickly for me after awhile.

I sometimes like breakfast food for lunch or dinner. I don't think I could handle a full Scottish so early in the morning. Ugh!

No apparently Gio the Sandwich Guy is meant to be a bit of a recurring character - which annoys me, because I find him irritating (and he reminds me of Jonathan Taylor Thomas). Strangely, Freddy Rodriguez, the actor who plays him, was on Six Feet Under, which I thought he was fantastic in. Gio's meant to be another romantic interest for Betty, which is a shame because when that kicks off, I'm gonna stop watching the show! Christoper Gorham (Henry) is definately quite cute (especially sans glasses). Strangely, he's one of those actors who can alternate between playing the hot guy and the geek. He was definately a geek on Popular, but was quite hot in Jake 2.0.

"Rats Saw God" (Rob Thomas), not only the best YA book I've read in a long time (and now tied for best ever IMO, with "Girl" by Blake Nelson, which I read and loved in high school, and have loved ever since), but possibly one of my all time favourites. Everything about this book is sharp and witty, from the characterisation to the dialogue. The pacing is just right, the characters and the banter is realistic...

I'm having a turkey, bacon, stuffing and cranberry sauce sandwich. And grapes.

I've posted in this thread before, but my favourites have probably changed since, so: 1. Favourite main meal: Tempura udon or oyako don (rice, chicken, egg, onion, special japanese sauce). Or anything with noodles or pasta. 2. Favourite starter: Won ton soup, or sushi. 3. Favourite dessert: Rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, Chinese sponge cake, Japanese cheesecake. 4. Favourite pizza topping: Seafood, or pineapple. 5. Favourite bread: Honey and pumpkin seed (Duchy) 6. Favourite vegetable: Cabbage or chinese greens 7. Favourite fruit: Figs, tulameen raspberries, sugar loaf pineapple. 8. Favourite cheese: Bleu de Causses 9. Favourite takeaway: Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Thai (anything with noodles) 10. Favourite chocolate bar: Green and Blacks or Divine 11. Favourite sandwich:Roast chicken or turkey with stuffing, bacon, and craberry sauce. Or brie and grape.