Off to a wedding

We are off to a wedding....hooray! One of Mr K-E's friends is getting married tomorrow in Staffordshire (North West England) and we are travelling up this afternoon.

We were supposed to have an extra-long weekend but Mr K-E has to go into work on Monday, which means that I might as well go into work too. Oh well, never mind. We will just do it some other time.

Nice Noodles

I'm still very self-conscious about taking photos in restaurants but I was so impressed by the presentation of these seafood crispy noodles that I asked Mr K-E to take a quick snap.

The noodles were served in an unusual boat-shaped bowl. They were delicious, too.

We were at Dragon Castle at Elephant and Castle in South London. The other dish you can see is Sizzling Black Pepper fillet. Also very good.

Dancing in the streets

Guess where we were on Monday. Carnival!

Oh, the crowds, the crowds!
2 million people were there and I was one of them!

These guys were quite cool. They had a great set, pity I don't really like ska.

Transformers

Very good. Action all the way with no boring bits. Autobots roll out!

We went to see this on Sunday night and really enjoyed it. My younger brother had some of the transformer toys the first time around and I remember the cartoon series.

I had read lots of nice things about this movie but I was still pleasantly surprised to find out that it was very good. Great effects, good use of of humour and likeable cast. OK, the storyline is not the best in the world but let's face it, you are watching a movie about robots who can turn into everyday vehicles and stereo systems. I think you have you suspend your disbelief in this case!

Mr K-E and I loved every minute of it.


Mr K-E's favourite bit : When the truck-sized robots are trying to "hide" in the garden. Also the high-speed transformation scenes.

My favourite bit : I like the yellow Camaro. He's the best transformer.

True Tales of American Life edited by Paul Auster

Highly recommended.

In 1999, America's National Public Radio invited listeners to send in their true life short stories. Stories that were true, but sounded like fiction, to be read on-air as part of the National Story Project. The response was overwhelming: more than 4,000 submissions were received and this book is a collection of 180 of the most fascinating submissions.

I really enjoyed the stories in this book. They are all short, mostly two or three pages, but they are such a reflection of human experience - happiness, sadness, regret, love, tragedy, comedy and almost unbelievable cooincidence. Knowing that these are all "true" stories adds a layer of emotional engagement and there were stories that made me wipe away a tear on the bus on the way to work.

Some of the stories are better than others, of course, but as each story is only a few pages, you never feel that you have wasted your time. The book is divided in sections i.e. Animals, Objects, Love, Death, War etc in an attempt to organise the stories sensibly. I found the stories in the "War" section incredibly intense; I often had to close the book after reading a particularly good (or bad, depending how you look at it) story. Just to gather my thoughts before moving on to the next one.

The only slight criticism of the book is that the final section "Meditations" was the weakest section of the book to me. It seemed a shame that these were at the end of the book, when we had read so many stronger stories in the beginning. However, this is only a small criticism - afterall there is nothing to stop you reading the stories randomly, dipping in and out as you please.

Coffee and croissants

Saturday was warm and sunny, which made a nice start to the three day weekend.

We tried to recreate the breakfasts we had in Paris. Happy food!

Friday Night Date

Mr K-E and I have both been really busy with work all week, so we decided to have a date on Friday night to catch up.

We booked a table at our favourite Indian restaurant for 9pm and went out for drinks on Friday evening. It was really nice to chat and talk about our week - it's strange how, even when you live together, if you are really busy you hardly talk to each other.

We barely speak to each other in the morning as we are both in a daze and rushing to get out the door. Then in the evenings, we have been getting home at nine or later .... and you just want brain "shut-down" at that point.

So I really enjoyed our night out together : drinks, delicious food and spending time with someone you love.

(And to think we don't even have any kids. It must be hard when you are busy looking after a family as well)