Gifted

This is the week of receiving gifts, it seems.

When Kirsten Marie visited, she offered to make me some bling out of materials we bought at The Bead Company. I don't wear much jewellery, but I do appreciate handmade things. And so a few weeks later these earrings arrived by post and I think they are very, very pretty. I'm not a Slytherin but I am  a sucker for all things green and/or silvery. Thank you, Kirsten Marie!

And then Other Half gave me an abecedarium (of sorts) because he knows I love typography and lettering above most other things in life. And he got me a pop-up abecedarium! It's amazing. You can see how Marion Bataille's ABC3D works in this little YouTube video:

A Beautiful Day

It's going to be a beautiful day so the bluebirds sing. I have booked myself a short, but much-needed flight home to Denmark in May. I need to spend time with the Danish part of myself, I have decided. Going back is always odd because it invariably ends up being a long series of meet-ups with everybody I have ever known in Denmark. I cannot remember the last time I spent a few hours in Copenhagen just, you know, hanging out with myself. I am not complaining. It just feels strange after having spent fifteen years in Copenhagen and suddenly the way I engage with my city is transformed. I think this is something most expats experience.

Linkage, then:

+ When I read "Glasgow Artist Restores Lost Mural" on the BBC website, I knew exactly who and what they were talking about. Wooh! + Cover Versions: "Classic records lost in time and format, remerged as Pelican books." + Speaking of which .. Pelican paperbacks. I used to own a lot of them. + Art-House Book Trailers. Just as vile as the name suggests. + CraftGawker. Look, be inspired, create. + This Is Not A Riot: An effective, non-violent response to riot police. (I miss going to demonstrations) + The Fall of the Spanish Hapsburgs, or why marrying your first cousin is a bad, bad idea. See also this pictorial guide to the Spanish Hapsburgs. Ouch. + As seen everywhere on the web: Uncomfortable plot summaries. To wit: "Groundhog Day: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker." + And as seen on John's blog: "Over the weekend, sharp-eyed Cassini-watchers on unmannedspaceflight.com noticed a series of way-cool photos on the mission's raw images website." Mindblowingly cool photos.

I finished reading The Time-Traveller's Wife. It was rather "girly". I have also begun yet another knitting project: Geno in duck's-egg-blue milk-cotton. It's rather lovely and very summery.

Bibliophilia

Do you think reality TV beckons me? I'm thinking of entering one of those "Britain's Got Talent!" shows with my uncanny ability to acquire a massive amount of books without spending much money. This week's haul is pictured to the left. Fourteen books adding up to a whopping total of £4.50. Okay, so the top one was a bookmooch and the bottom four were purchased with a five-pound note I found on the street, but it is still not bad going.

The selection is suitably eclectic (for me, anyways): some bestsellers, some fluffy Georgette Heyers, a historical novel which had been recommended to me by my old mentor, some Booker nominees/winners, a bonafide classic and some slightly obscure novels.

I'm a chapter into Heyer's Cousin Kate and will also start Crumey's Mr Mee as soon as possible.

Some links for your perusal:

• When disability becomes superability: Aimee Mullins: ".. the myth of being dis-abled, the truth of being super-abled, why individual shifts in consciousness work and a new definition for wearable art. " (thank you, David)
• The Forbidden Railway: Travelling from Vienna  to Pyonyang: "In September of 2008, two Europeans go by rail from Vienna to Pyongyang without asking permission or going through the official North Korean travel agency." A fascinating travelogue with photos from inside North Korea. (via)
• My arty uncle finally has his own website. I grew up with his paintings on the walls and today David and I have one of his collographic prints in our living room.
• Nine Words You Thought Came From Science, But Actually Came from Science Fiction. Zero-gravity, anyone? Like the commentators, I'm slightly irritated that Karel Capek has not been given credit for "robot" (I did a secondary school project on early science fiction novels, you see).
• Finally, James Earl Jones recites the alphabet. As good as it gets.

Neverending Story

Suffice to say that I did not appreciate Let the Right One In. Despite liking little nasty books, I am definitely not a horror reader. It was also very, very wordy. From one of the programmers behind Etsy, I give you Orbital B. It is "a collection of particles operating on one simple rule: choose another particle in the system and orbit it with a fixed radius at a constant velocity." In other words: you get to play with little aplets and create really gorgeous art vaguely reminiscent of Umberto Boccioni (Italian Futurist whose artwork I admire).

If Orbital B isn't your thing, how about NewScan. You select your favourite newspapers and, hey presto, you get to read the news. It's pretty if a bit impractical.

Finally, some things once seen cannot be unseen; some things once heard cannot be unheard. So, keeping that in mind, here is Limahl and His Swing Orchestra. You can thank/threaten me later.

I'm A Professional Cynic (But My Heart's Not In It)

It is fair to say that the last week or so has been a bit of a blur. I spent it recovering from two days in Kraków(!) which meant painkillers, getting up only to need a long nap two hours later, and spending my awake hours on the sofa either looking out on the sunshine or reading. My partner, David, took over cooking duties for most of the week, bless him, but I still feel vaguely guilty about leaving it all to him. I've read three books this past week: Anne Donovan's Being Emily, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Michel Faber's Under the Skin.

Donovan's book was a letdown after her excellent Buddha Da or perhaps I am just not very good with emotional, comic and heart-warming family tales. Satrapi's graphic novel proved an interesting, clever and often funny look at growing up a smart woman in 1970s and 1980s Iran. I still struggle with the actual graphic novel format, though. Finally, Faber's Under the Skin. A fascinating, horrifying and absorbing read. I wonder what it says about me that I cannot get behind "emotional, comic and heart-warming family tales" but I fall head over heels for a strange, disturbing, genre-defying short novel?

Finally, I know I've posted a lot of YouTube links lately, but this one is an absolute cracker. A student at Glasgow's School of Art sat down to make a video installation about obsolete technology. This is the result. So strange and beautiful.

Knitting, Books and Heeland Coos!

Knitting: I have the body and one sleeve of Forecast done. In other word, one sleeve and the button bands to go. It has been a very quick knit so far - I wonder if I can finish it before the end of February? My plan was to finish it before we head off to Poland, so I'm well on my way to meeting that target. My knitting group has a crochet-focus meet-up planned, though and I was one of the bright ones suggesting it, but I really should get around to finish my cardigan. Also? Do I really feel like chaining up a crochet project when my fingers are itching to cast on for Frances.. decisions. Books: I got quite a few book vouchers for my birthday and they had been burning a hole in my purse since .. well, last Wednesday! So yesterday I had a 'little' shopping expedition to Borders. I came away with:

• Anne Donovan: Being Emily. Donovan is a local writer - so local that she lives just down the street - and I really enjoyed her Buddha Da.
• Junot Diaz: The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. It has been very well-received but in a manner which made me suspect I'd actually enjoy it. I've already begun reading it and, ten pages in, I'm not disappointed.
• Ross Raisin: God's Own Country. Okay, I admit I was swayed by the cover and the fact that I rarely get to read books set in Yorkshire's sheep-herding communities. Shhh.
• Michel Faber: Under the Skin. I haven't read any Faber although friends tell me to read The Crimson Petal and the White. I thought a sinister little book might be a better introduction than a big, sprawling Victorian-esque caper. I like sinister books.
• Michael Chabon: The Yiddish Policemen's Union. After having read the wonderful Kavalier and Clay, both Other Half and I were keen to explore Chabon's oeuvre. I have been warned that this is less engaging but seeing as a friend of mine apparently inspired a bit character, who am I to resist?
• Robin Melanson: Knitting New Mittens and Gloves. Ahem, well.. I have been circling this book for quite some time now. Grumperina has quite a few pictures of various patterns up. I can see myself making a lot of these mittens in the future.

Today: David and I went to the Burrell Collection to see a British Museum travelling exhibition on Ancient Greece. How do I say this politely? Uhm, having previously lived in a city which boasts The Carlsberg Glyptotek, I was fairly underwhelmed. Fortunately we met this little guy in the pastures outside and he cheered us up (although David proceeded by getting lost in the park and I had to wait 40 minutes at the entrance before he made his way out. And he used to be a boy scout!):