Christmas Time...

This is how Christmas in Rio looks like. The huge laser Christmas tree floating in the Lagoon, changing lights and patterns at every minute. I love it, and miss it so much!
We are heading to Ballina today, where we'll stay until Tuesday. Then back to Dun Laoghaire. I have lots of things to blog about, but not much time right now. So, I wish you a super lovely Christmas, full of light just like the tree on the Lagoon! And see you next week!
XXXX,
a.

Mark is back from Japan!

Last night Mark arrived from Japan! He was looking great, wearing his suit with a casual blue t-shirt. He was hoping to look like a young Yakuza fella, he said, but I'm afraid not... And he wasn't missing a little finger anyways.

He didn't seem too tired either, because he was up watching a gore Clive Barker film until past midnight.

He brought me lots of things. Lots of Minamoto Kitchoan sweets (my all-time favourites), a Kitty stash that he managed to get at Narita Airport and some wonderful perfumes, that can only be found in Asia, unfortunately.

Here's my boxes of sweets:


I could not resist to show the original package. The boxes come wrapped in that gorgeous green paper, tied with natural fiber cords instead of ribbons. The way the paper is folded is almost like origami. I couldn't possible work in that shop, since I am a disaster when it comes to gift-wrapping! Now the box itself (after unwrapped) is the one at the top. Sturdy carboard, and again, enveloped in white paper displaying a Japanese print and more fiber cords...

Now, these are the sweets...


The ones at the left are tsuya, adzuki bean paste inside mikasa yaki (pound cake)...
These at the right side, are a wonderful selection of their delicacies: a box containing a big yokan (solid bean jelly), 3 soft bean jellies with a chestnut inside, 3 soft white bean jellies with yuzu and green tea flavour and 4 fukuwatashi-senbei - crispy waffles stuffed with milky cream...

He also bought me some Pocky! These are very addictive... Mousse and White Chocolate:


And my Hello Kitty stuff...



As for the perfumes, they are simply gorgeous. But I will write about it in a separate post.

Today's CD: Composer Meets Director...

I got a new CD yesterday: Joe Hisaishi Meets Kitano Films. It is a selection of great music composed by Joe Hisaishi for some of the most memorable Takeshi Kitano's films.

It is a must-have for Kitano's fans, truly capturing the mood and atmosphere of those films. This is my very first Hisaishi's CD, whose work I really love: his soundtracks for Hayao Miyazaki's films are equally magnificent, real gems, and that's how I actually got acquainted to his work. Then, watching Kitano's films I thought: "Who is this composer, this music is so gorgeous..." And I saw it was Joe Hisaishi again. Not surprised though, he is just brilliant.

The music is perfect. If you see these films, you may feel how beautifully it flows through the story, and the sceneries, acting, everything. It can be jazzy in parts, traditional in others, sentimental, and violent when required. Just perfectly synchronised with the plot - be it a Kitano or a Miyazaki production.

Piano, Japanese drums, synthesizers and haunting vocals are sure to please not only die-hard Kitano's fans, but even people who are not familiar with his films. The tracks on this CD come from several films such as Hana-Bi (definitely one of my favourites, including the mesmerizing track "Thanks For Everything" ), Kikujiro, Sonatine, Brother and A Scene at the Sea.

Follows the CD cover... In case you are interested, it can be purchased at Amazon:

Portugal Pics Uploaded (Finally)

Hello:

We have organised the pictures we took in Portugal last September, in case you wish to take a look. Unfortunately we did not write any captions for them, but there are some nice pictures. All the people appearing in the pics, in case you wonder, are my relatives, brother and sisters, nephews, grand-nephews, in-laws and so on. The dogs and cat are Honey the Yorkshire , Rita the Whippet, Xaninho the Cat, Boy the Labrador, and one dog that I had the pleasure to make acquaintance in Sintra. Don't know his name though, but he was a very polite dog that much liked soft cheese, but no toasts!
:)

Here's the link:
http://www.irlbrl.com/images/2005-09_Lisbon/

Enjoy!

Latest News

I should have blogged as soon as I arrived from Lisbon, but things have been quite hectic since then.

We departed on the September 13th and came back on the 27th. It was wonderful, we took lots of pictures and I finally met my sisters, brother and nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, in-laws etc... And even the "latest addition" to the family, a super-cute great-grand-nephew! Yes, amazing! It was cool... We stayed with Betinha, my sister and godmother, and were out with her and Jana, her daughter (and my niece, of course). Betinha has 2 lovely pets: Honey (or "Hunny"), the little yorkshire terrier, and Xaninho, a lovely gray cat with big yellow eyes and a chronic allergy - which makes him sneeze quite a lot! I fell in love with Xaninho! Aw, so cute...

I will tell more in the next few days and hopefully organise the photos. We came back as I said on the 27th. However... The day after my arrival to Lisbon I woke up with a very, very bad cold. To shorten the story a bit, I still have this cold - which has actually been upgraded to a chest infection, naturally accompanied by all those nasty symptoms: sore throat, fevers, awful coughs, headaches, runny nose etc etc... You name it. Meaning I was at home for almost 3 weeks, unable to go to the office (or anywhere else, needless to say).

I gave some of this lovely cold of mine to my Mother and Mark, of course, but they are more resistant, gladly. In my case, everything gets worse due to my MS, which sort of "amplifies" all symptoms, it seems. But that's boring. I mean, I don't want to talk about it, since I already need to live with it. Somedays I do want to talk, some other days, I just want to forget. And today, I want to forget!

During this time, what I mostly did was reading: manga and serious books, as well as watching great DVD's. But that's stuff for another post, since now I am way too tired!
Good Night!

Digressing...

Long time no blogging, it seems! Today I am back. First of all, a report of the weather here: just the way I like it. Rainy and fresh now. Lovely breeze coming through the windows... Relaxing...

My Mother is arriving to Dublin on Tuesday, so, I managed to clean the house to perfection today. And by myself, because Mark has a back ache. He normally helps me out. Actually he still did: since the kitchen is his territory, he scrubbed it so clean that it would make Aggie and Kim very proud! (Yeah, the ladies from the TV series "How Clean is Your House").

While I write this, I am listening to a wonderful Japanese singer. Her name is Shiina Ringo. She has a wonderful voice and sings not only in Japanese, but also French, English and even Portuguese, to my surprise! Her choice of a Brazilian song is "Manhã de Carnaval", an old Vinicius de Moraes' song from the classic Brazilian movie "Orfeu Negro". I love her singing in French, the accent is just perfect. She sings "Feuilles Mortes", alternating between French and English, and it is such an original, almost funky version. Just beautiful. Well, that lady simply rocks. The arrangements are superb, needless to say, and the album presentation is amazing, as only in Japan we can find. Check that out:


CD Title: Utaite Myouri, 2CD, Toshiba- EMI.

Finally, Mark has been to Washington DC some days ago and came back last weekend. He took lots of pictures, which are quite good. I hope he will be posting them soon. Anyway, he took one that I especially loved. It's from a shop that sells Japanese goods, called "Ginza" (what else???) He told me he could not go in because it was closed by the time he passed by, but look at that!



As you can see, all things I love are there (just click on the pic to see it bigger): Manekineko, Hello Kitty, nice ceramics and who knows what else! I really wish I was there, can you imagine? That would be paradise!

Now I need to go, we are starting to watch "Violent Cop" by the ever-so-wonderful Takeshi Kitano. Just love his films... They are, I know, very violent, and it's strange to see someone who so much loves "cute" things to appreciate this kind of films, but there we go. I love them. From soundtrack to acting, Kitano's films are something everybody should watch at least once. Meaning, you should not die before you do it! Ditto.

See you later then!

Bornéo 1834: Falling in Love...

Today, I have received a card from Les Salons Shiseido, in Paris. The usual lovely message from Amélie, directrice, and the announcement of their new fragrance, being released this coming September for their Eaux Anciennes series. The 1st, to be precise.

As usual, it included a card with the wax sample: Bornéo 1834. The wax smells gorgeous, I cannot wait to get the juice! Bornéo is pure magic, conjuring old memories of distant places - imaginary places, fairy tales, all dreamy and beautiful things under an autumnal, dusky light. A blast of camphor in the head notes, then patchouly, sweet cocoa accords and something mildly spicy - which I cannot quite identify. I detect dark woods starting to make an appearance in the middle notes and becoming quite prominent in the almost smoky, chocolate-ish drydown. But that chocolate, cocoa powder, whatever... It gives the composition smoothness and douceur. Bornéo 1834 is a forest out of a good dream, dark and comforting.

The initial camphor notes remind me of our ancient Chinese carved blanket boxes back home in Rio - which still nowadays let that delicious scent waft all over the place when we open them. I am wondering how it might smell like once layered with some Vétiver Oriental, which also contains patchouly and dark chocolate notes. But that experiment, only when I have the real concoction here!

Finally, here is what the card says about it:

"Bornéo 1834: on patchouly leaves, a dry and soothing perfume. The smoothness of a waltz, in a long forgotten Paris."

Nahéma, Guerlain (pure parfum)

Creamy, almost edible dark red roses enveloped by sheer, delicate lace, on a base of soft vanilla and precious sandalwood.
Use it sparingly. Light-handedly. Never too loud.
Just a whisper.

The Glasses...

I am posting a photo of myself wearing those glasses! I do look older!

Gail, this is for you! And the little dog is called Shiro (aka "Lucky", from Crayon Shin-Chan)...

New Kitty Item: Kawaii!!!!

Long time without posting, very lazy indeed! And it's getting really hot here in Ireland these days. A real Summer, which, by the way, I don't appreciate very much, favouring a bit of cold, breezy weather instead.

I have ordered a beautiful Kitty doll from JBox! It took some time to arrive (it was actually out of stock but I just needed to have it, thus the delay - otherwise it's all very fast!), but man! Was it worth it! Look at her here, graciously holding a "sensu" (traditional folding fan)!

She is wearing a beautiful brocade silk kimono, and comes in a neat box, like those traditional Ningyo dolls. She's a beauty, made of delicate porcelain, its texture like an egg's shell. I highly recommend JBox for all your Japanese needs, it's a cool website and I love buying aromatic oils, Kitty goods and those fantastic tatami slippers that they sell up there... Just love it! My other Kitties (the ones from the Kabuki collection) are also from them:


Apart from my Kitty, not much news here, I'm afraid. I am reading Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series at the moment, but I must write more about it in the next few days.

(Now, I need to go because my head is pounding again, it's been like that lately, don't know why... Ouch... And it just started raining here! I love Summer rains, they smell so nice! Will rest my head a bit and open the window just to feel that wonderful rainy smell...)