Bring Em Back Alive.

Everyone had a merry Christmas? Good, so did I. The Christmas Eve was pretty much as planned, though seeing few kittens at Elina´s made it more fuzzy and lovely. (There is no way you can say no when someone asks wether you want to see kittens, no way.) Loads of good food as always, though the conversation we had while eating was kind of interesting... I have no idea how Dad and I ended talking politics, but we do that quite often. Like on the Eve. Dad is massively against stripping the President off his/hers rights whereas I´m more for the Italian/German kind of way where Prime Minister and Government do the actual deciding and the President just is. But yeah, that was one of our topics... Dad was Santa, did fine I guess and we took some candles to the cemetery. All the gifts were nice, it seems my Godmother´s are imlplying I should move out because they once again gave me stuff for "my own home". The calendar of 2009 is epic and I did eat some damn expensive Belgian chocolate. Done with all the candies for a year now thank you.

I have been reading and watching some good and not so good movies and reading a bit more and sleeping. I did watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix again and I still do not like it. They dropped off all the pieces I liked in the book. But if there is a chance of getting Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman on Christmas Day I´m not skipping it. I also watched The Devil wears Prada and liked it much more than I thought I would. I´ve read the book and didn´t think it was that great, but the movie was fine, nice light watching after eating too much chocolate and ham. I still have Arn-Tempelriddaren recorded but I think it´ll be next week before I get around to watch it.

I had some retail therapy today. In other words, I went to the sales. Got two cardigans, a grey one and a purple one. Mom wanted to know why I want the grey one, but when I was looking for a white button-down shirt, she didn´t even think it was odd. The last time I was looking for a button-down was when I absolutely needed it, now I just wanted it. And got it. But yeah, I´ve seen so many white button-down+grey cardigan outfits I needed to get one too. I think it looks great. I also bought the movie Alexander, but I don´t know when I´ll watch it.

I am reading the lovely Cathedral of the Sea (La catedral del mar) by Ildefonso Falcones and am totally in love with the story. Usually all that medieval stuff just bores me, but this one... No wonder it is a bestseller. I am about half way through the book by now and can´t wait to read what happens next. The novel is also making me fall in love with Barcelona, a city I have never visited. The first time I started to love the city was when I read Carlos Ruiz Zafon´s The Shadow of the Wind. I have a good amount of books to make me love Spain, a country I´ve never been to. Lorca has gotten me in love with Andalucia again (I never ceased to like the area, the feeling just mildened), The Basque History of the World has gotten me to like the entire Basqueland... You get the idea. Travelling at home.

Of course I have also been watching football. Last night´s match of the death. Or Aston Villa-Arsenal as some might call it. 2-2 is a miserable result when you have a two-goal lead. Then again, I spent most of the match in a fetal position in our couch because I thought Arsenal was dreadful. At least during the first half. I mean, I don´t think they should have been called footballers. And I couldn´t believe my eyes when Denilson scored. Villa had totally controlled the game as it wanted and suddenly we have the lead? Bizarre. And then Diaby and Eboue go and create the second goal. When has that happened last time? I can´t remember... In all fairness, as miserable as the result is, Villa deserved the point and it can be counted as a minor miracle we had one too, because we sure as hell weren´t the favourites of that match. The title still is impossible to get, but maybe there is some slight hope with the fourth place... And our team would have been an absolute mess hadn´t it been Bacary Sagna. When the time comes, I am in favour of giving him the title of the Arsenal Player of the Year. He constantly kept saving us, and the save from the goal line must have been one of the greatest I have ever seen. I have said several times when watching Real Madrid this season that Gonzalo Higuain is single-handedly trying to save his team, with Arsenal it really is Sagna who does the work and I really adore him for that. Almunia was having a fine game too, if you don´t count the penalty which he so badly missed (Blame Gallas for handing Villa the penalty, I won´t, because I think Gallas was doing fine on the defence. He might be the biggest cunt of the team, but sometimes we really need him.). Aaron Ramsey was finally given a bigger chance than last five minutes (Happy 18th Birthday Aaron! It must have been a pretty nice B-Day gift.) and he has what it takes to become a star player. But yes, he just turned 18 yesterday, so you can´t expect him to be it just yet. But he was trying, maybe sometimes too hard, but he was trying and that is what matters. The rest of the team... Well, I want to see them give their 100% against Pompey tomorrow at home. The match should be interesting. Okay, Pompey hasn´t been that great and we get Ade back, but Tony "Mr. Arsenal" Adams makes his return to home. More when the match is played. RIght now, I´m trying to be happy with the one point from yesterday.

Transfer rumours go wild as January first draws closer. I don´t know who I want to sign for Arsenal (I just want Cesc and Tomas and Theo back in form), but Arseblog has suggested we should get Mikel Arteta of Everton. I wouldn´t mind, he is a fine player and might fill the void we have in the midfield. He would also adapt in quite easily, unlike, say, Arshavin I think. I have no idea wether Liverpool might sell Xabi Alonso or not, but I think it´s more of the not since they are playing for the title. I would like to see him... I like him as a player and he has talent and I´m getting over the fact that it was his (completely fair) tackle that ruined Cesc´s season. I don´t think anyone else is showing their card yet either. Well, Real Madrid got Huntelaar, but that is so old news. Lassana Diarra is replacing the other Diarra of the team and I still can´t believe the back of his shirt. "LASS". Seriously. You might get away with that in Spain, but everyone speaking English will make jokes of it. I have.

I also have been having some odd dreams lately. First of all, one night I dreamt Arsenal signed David Silva from Valencia. All I can remember was that I was thinking the entire time that why the hell did we get him, we have decent wingers... And no, I hadn´t been thinking of Silva for ages (the first name of Palanca on the other hand bugged me for three days before I checked it - Miquel). Then I dreamt that I was in Budapest with a bunch of friends but the city was nothing like it is. There was a huge rollercoaster that was made of stone and some impressive fountains and all that kind of stuff, but no river or great buildings. As I said, odd dreams indeed.

One more thing. I have this lovely anonymous commentator that keeps feeding my Lorca obsession (keep doing it, it always makes me happy, like idiotic-smile-on-my-face -happy), so I think she/he at least might be able to help me with this one. I finished reading The Dialogue of Amargo or whatever it is in any other language than in Finnish and at one point the rider says something like this: "If you stay there where you are, then why do you want to be there?". I really need to know if there is a proper translation to English for that one. OR. If I can get that question in Spanish, I´d be more than extremely delighted. I need to kick my ass next year and I think that question is perfect for that purpose. (I know the rider is Death asking Amargo things, but that isn´t the point.)

I have a couple of pictures from Christmas Eve I want so share with you. They were taken at the cemetery, it is the memorial site we have. Where you can put candles if you cannot visit the grave of your beloved deceased relative/friend/other important person. I think they turned out well, given I usually don´t take pictures during dark hours and my camera isn´t a great as I´d want it to be. And I have no idea what happened when I took the second picture.


This is one of those posts that got longer than I expected, but apparently I need to tell everything I have to say at once. More when I have something. Until that, enjoy the rest of the holidays and take care!

Listening to: Tri Sestry - Stará Vec