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Princess Orchid

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About Princess Orchid

  • Birthday April 10

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  1. Moonlight starts in the UK in Feb! Woo hoo!
  2. 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)
  3. 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!
  4. 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!
  5. 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...
  6. 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!
  7. 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.
  8. 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...
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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".
  12. 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).
  13. 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...
  14. Wicked the Musical is actually based on the book by Gregory Maguire (it's about Elphaba, the WWotW).
  15. I bought the VM soundtrack. Mainly for Sway by the Perishers, and Momentary Thing by Something Happens.
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