Reamonn - Million Miles

I just found out that the latest video from Reamonn - Million Miles was filmed before Christmas in... ROMANIA!
It's a really beautiful video, with loads of snow... I wonder where they filmed it ?! Anybody recognizing the trees? Or the wolf :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaVBqx4fsHw

Happy Birthday Ancutzele :)

Today was my niece's birthday!
Sooo, HAAAAAAPPPPPY BIRTHDAAAAY Poponetz :P
She is getting older and wiser, becoming a responsible adult, not like her aunt who becomes older and none the wiser, and about responsability... don't get me started :)
She will become the most famous fashion designer ... in our family at least ... and hopefully she will hire me as her photographer (I already started, actually) :D and then I will have to work twice a year - for the autumn/winter and the spring/summer collections... It's great to dream, isn't it!
But that isn't important now! The whole family gathered for her birthday: 4 1/2 (Anca, Mihai, her mother, father and the cat, of course) + 2 (me and my mum) + 1 (her boyfriend) + 5 (Constanta wing - buni, batu, Marius, Aura and Alex) (you do the math - almost 13 people :P, that's not a lot, no?) and we ate Paul 's cake (no, we don't know any Paul, that's the name of the bakery), drank moldavian champagne and played Wii Tennis... and let me tell you that it wasn't easy!
Playing tennis, I mean! We had a small championship, although it was more The Weakest Link - sport's version! Anca played with Vali, and Vali won. I played with Vali and I won (actually I won 2 games out of 5 but I think he let me win - it's never too late to have a responsible aunt on your side!) and then I played with my nephew who kicked my butt (figuratively speaking of course, because he wouldn't dare to do that physicaly... yet, I hope) and then he played with His 4 years old nephew and lost :)
I knew there is a God somewhere...

Midnight sun

I know I decided that this week will be a movie frenzie, but unfortunatelly after seeing yesterday Twilight I decided to start reading "Midnight Sun" - Edward's side of the story... http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html
Although I always say I should read only one chapter a day so it will last longer, of course I wasn't able to keep my promise so I stayed till 3 o'clock in the morning reading it... so today I have a headache and I still haven't finished the book :(
But not all is lost... I still have tonight :)
I don't know what the logical explanation is, but I can only read Stephanie Meyer's books at night... when the vampires come out :D
For a mormon lady, she really knows how to keep you captivated. Luckily I still have 2 more books from the Twilight series to read, so I'll be entertained till next week... And then, what shall I do?
Shall I move to Hollywood and start preparing for writing and directing the sequel so it will be better than the first one? Or stay in Bucharest and complain about it?
I think we should vote :D
All votes for Hollywood will be accepted, the other ones will be deleted!

Twilight

Sooo, today is Orange day :) that means 2 people on the same movie ticket... In these times it's no wonder everybody is using them and the cinemas are full...
I finally saw "Twilight" http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/ on the big screen! I saw it on my laptop and I was sooooooo disappointed that I decided to pay big bucks and see it on a bigger screen. What can I say - if you read any of Stephanie Meyer books you will definitely be disappointed, because the movie doesn't come close to the books (I mean it looks like a graduation movie, not a big budget one - the special effects are hilarious and the vampire make up is.. no comment) - but if you haven't read the books, then the movie it's ok. Of course all the girls go ga-ga over Robert Pattison so I don't think they care about anything else.. and the boys go with the girls to make them happy and maybe practicing some vampire bites ;P
I would say it's better to read the books http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ which are quite thrilling and dream the movies yourself, I'm sure you'll do a better job.
Apart from that I had a blast at the cinema today with Adinutza (who read the books but had'nt seen the film before - so she was in a way a Robert virgin :P), Little Mountain (who was already an expert, seen the movie 120 times, coud recite all the lines and the music, and she could bite your head off if you don't agree with her :D) and Jiji (who was completely innocent and didn't get much of the movie, but he was happy to go with 3 girls to the movies). We decided we should try this more often, especially the popcorn fight :D at least once a month...

In Bruges

It seems this is a movie week, continuing with "In Bruges" today!
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0780536/
I totally looved it, well written script, good actors - Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes (in one of his best roles as a hysterical mob boss) and Colin Farrel (who actually won a Golden Globe for the role of the depressed hitman) - and of course the landscape - f***ing Bruges is so beautiful (not a s****hole as some might say) and I can't wait to visit it this spring to compare notes :)
I highly recommend you all to see the movie, it's a brilliant dark comedy/tragedy that will brighten up your rainy day :(
P.S. It's also Oscar nominated for Best Original Screenplay!
I do hope Martin McDonagh will win! He already has an Oscar for the Best Short Film, Live Action - Six Shooter in 2006, with Brendan Gleeson. So maybe Brendan is his lucky charm and he will win this year too...

Mamma Mia!

I finally was able to see Mamma Mia! the movie :)
It's funny, funny, funny - Meryl Streep can really sing and dance, and to see Bond, James Bond singing Abba songs it's quite a treat!
The movie is 99% similar with the musical, but the 1% counts...
If you haven't seen it, I warmly recommend it for a relaxing weekend!
http://www.mammamiamovie.com/

Pui cu sos de ceapa si mustar

Si reteta de astazi mi-a reusit, este foooarte simplu de facut, asa ca o impartasesc cu voi...

2 observatii: se poate folosi orice carne (pui, curcan, vitel, purcel, ... catel), iar ca garnitura orez, gnocchi sau paste scurte. Pofta buna :)

300 g carne de pui taiata cuburi sau fasii, 1 lingura ulei, 200 ml smantana lichida, 200 ml apa, 1 plic supa de ceapa, 1 lingurita mustar dulce

Se caleste carnea in ulei, si dupa ce a prins culoare se adauga smantana, apa si plicul de ceapa. Se fierbe la foc mic 15-20 min, pana cand mai scade sosul si e gata carnea. Se adauga mustarul, se mai da un clocot si... gata! Se serveste cu garnitura de orez.

Spuma de ciocolata

Aveti aici o reteta... delicioasa! Un singur lucru am de comentat: nu folositi o ciocolata cu concentratie foarte mare de cacao (maxim 65%), deoarece iese spuma prea amaruie!

200 g ciocolată amăruie, ruptă în bucăţi, 4 ouă mijlocii, separate, 2 linguri lichior de portocale, 1 lingură zahăr tos, coaja de la o portocală, tăiată în beţişoare

Topiţi ciocolata într-un vas aşezat deasupra unei cratiţe în care fierbe mocnit apă (bain-marie). Amestecaţi şi lăsaţi să se răcească uşor. Amestecaţi în ciocolată gălbenuşurile şi lichiorul de portocale. Bateţi albuşurile pînă s-au întărit uşor. Amestecaţi rapid o lingură de albuşuri în ciocolată pentru a înmuia amestecul. Încorporaţi treptat albuşul rămas pînă cînd amestecul de ciocolată s-a omogenizat. Lăsaţi să se răcească la frigider. Topiţi la foc mic zahărul în 3 linguri de apă. Aduceţi la punctul de fierbere, adăugaţi beţişoarele de coajă de portocală şi lăsaţi pe foc 4-5 min pînă se caramelizează. Scoateţi beţişoarele de portocală cu o spumieră, dezlipiţi-le şi lăsaţi-le să se răcească pe o farfurie. Serviţi spuma pe farfurioare de desert şi decoraţi cu fîşiile de portocală.

Shut up.... i kill u all !!!

And to end the week with a smile - Achmed , the dead terrorist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go
A classic already, but it makes you laugh every time.
Have a great weekend, I know I will !

And the nominees are...

Today were announced the Oscar nominees...
Who will be the Best Actor this year? Brad Pitt or Mickey Rourke?
Will Heath Ledger win a posthumous Oscar?
Will Kate Winslet cry again if she wins?
Will Hugo Jackman do a good job as a presenter?
Will the Slumdog Millionaire win anything?
There are a lot of Will's here so you better tune in on February 22nd on Pro 7 and find out.
Here are all the nominees http://www.oscar.com/nominees/?pn=nominees

Day 05 in Vienna

... and our last day in Vienna arrived :(
With light drizzle and clouds, all we could do was... to go shopping for the last items on our lists :)
Unfortunately, Sky Europe called and told us the flight was 2 hours delayed so we had 2 more hours to shop some more... (which wasn't that bad after all!)
We ate lunch at the Naschmarkt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naschmarkt, in a really small chinese restaurant and then we bought some delicatessen for the people at home (cheese and some johannisbrot - in romanian roscove - which i haven't figured out how you can eat them...) .
We ended up where we started our shopping spree - on the Mariahilfer Strasse and we stopped at the Coffee Shop in the Thalia Bookstore for some R & R. It's a really nice place where a lot of young girls come to do their homework (it's better to write your essays in a Coffee Shop than at home in your room ;P).
After rearranging our luggage ( I bet you will never guess why :)) we ran in the rain to catch the bus which was taking us to the airport and arrived 5 seconds before it's departure... (the buses, not the plane's), and half an hour later we were at the airport.
During our long wait for the plane we found out the differences between various house music styles (minimal, out house, in house or something like that... we don't know which) in a discussion between a famous?! DJ we never heard of (but it's not like we know any...) and a romanian singer (I won't name names, because he is not that famous). The conversation was so uplifting it's a wonder we didn't took off immediately... but when we finally took off we regreted almost instantaneously - we had such a turbulent flight (the worse I have been in), at one point I was picturing some crash landing from the movie Airplane with Leslie Nielsen that I started laughing isterically, but what can you do in such situations? Kiss your ass goodbye and hope for the best! Luckily we had a very good pilot and we survived to tell the tale...
This is how our trip to Vienna ended, I hope many more trips will come in the near future! I will keep you updated :)

Day 04 in Vienna

Today was quite a busy day!
We started the morning doing a good deed: we went to Schonbrunn and fed the squirells!!! For me it's already a tradition, but for Rucxandra was something new. She discovered that the grey rats with bushy tail are cute and funny and they come to you if you give them something nice to eat :)
We continued the day with a short shopping spree on Mariahilfer Strasse.
Why short? Because we had big plans for the evening: the Mamma Mia! musical http://www.mamma-mia.com/ (the English version, of course). It's the best musical I have seen lately, although the tickets were quuuuite expensive, it was worth it. The way mother Donna and her Dynamo girlfriends are dancing and singing it's HILARIOUS! Can't wait to go home and see the movie with Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan.
So it was a great way to spend our last night in Vienna, although after the show we really wanted to go dancing but didn't know were so we ended up at home drinking beer and listening to the austrian radio... which wasn't that bad after all ;)

Day 03 in Vienna

We decided to start the week with a little bit of culture and a Vienna Melange at the Hundertwasser House http://www.hundertwasserhaus.info/. When you go to Vienna you should go and see it and spend 5 minutes at the bar there. Also you should see the toilets, they are worth a visit!
Afterwards we went to Donauzentrum http://www.donauzentrum.at/html/start.php to start the shopping spree (the actual reason for our holiday in Austria). If it's raining or it's bad weather you should try coming here. It's like the whole MariahilferStrasse in one shop!
If you are looking for bargains, you should definitely try Vienna in January for the winter sales. The H&M shops have amazing deals, especially for children clothes, but in all shops you find nice things at really nice prices.
Have I told you how many hours we spent shopping? Only from 11 to 17 (it's almost a work day - that would be a nice job - a personal shopper).
You are wondering what we did in the evening? You will never guess!
We were in bed at 20.00 and asleep at 20.05!!!

Day 02 in Vienna

... and there was Sunday!
Considering the fact that all shops are closed on Sunday we decided to do a culture Sunday and started early in the morning (well that was the plan, but till we got up, ate some croissants and drank our tea it wasn't early anymore) and rushed to Hofburgkapelle for a morning mass with the Vienna Boys Choir. It was really a good way to start the day with a Joseph Haydn mass - the Mariazellermesse. Loads of people attending, especially chinese. Maybe they wanted to see if it's worth converting.
Afterwards we went to Belvedere for a special Gustav Klimt Exibition. It wasn't an easy task to find the Museum because there was so much mist, but finally we found it and had a great time.
Of course all this culture made us quite hungy and we decided to try a small pub, the Salm Brau http://www.salmbraeu.com/. If you go there you should try the spare ribs, but be careful, a portion for 2 goes a long way as you can see (actually it goes 2 days at least).
And then evening arrived with the highlight of the month... for me at least. The Reamonn concert from the Arena Hall. It was a sold out concert (of course) with the german reggae band Jamaram http://www.jamaram.de/ as opening act. Rea was amazing as always, cracking jokes and singing his heart out, Uwe playing the lead guitar like a pro, Sebi the multi-tasker playing saxophone like there's no tomorrow... but the biggest surprise of the evening was Philipp, the bass player who enchanted us with his piano skills - starting with the classic Somewhere over the rainbow and ending with.... Clocks from Coldplay - and the whole band joined in. It was a great night and hope many more will come! They definitely won a new fan, Rucxandra bought the next day one of their albums :)

Day 01 in Vienna

... and then we left for sunny and Vienna :)
Who is we? Me, of course, and my friend Rucxandra, the wife of my former neighbour and friend for 29 years!!!!
We arrived safe and sound in Vienna, carried our very light baggage to the appartment and then went for food shopping. That was the easy part!
Walking and window licking for 5 hours afterwards proved to be the hard part, considering the weather drastically cooled till about -10 degrees Celsius.
Luckily we found in our way one of the best icecream shops in Vienna - Zanoni & Zanoni http://www.zanoni.co.at/- where we bought a small box of 1 kilo :) with 6 different flavours.
I can only say that the combination between After Eight, Chocolate and Orange-Joghurt flavours is something you should try at least once in your life.
And the best time to eat icecream, as everybody knows it is in winter!
P.S. I shouldn't forget to mention our doughnut type of duvet which was quite a challange to sleep into... but we survived :)

Packing my bags

Hurray, tomorrow I'm flying to Vienna for a couple of days!!! It's my first trip abroad this year and hopefully many more will come. There is some shopping involved of course (it's Winter Schluss Verkauf!), some concerts and musicals, loads of culture, meeting old friends and ... who knows what else!?
As you can see I already packed the important stuff :)

Peace among animals

Love is in the air... and snoring too :)

Photoshoot gone.. bad

I really have to protest! I was experimenting with a borrowed photobox, preparing for a photoshoot next week when a viciously intruder attacked the star of the photoshoot, Kylie the Hippo, and wanted to replace her in the limelight...
So here is the result
P.S. Would you believe that is my real voice, not helium enhanced...

Hurray!!!

I know that today it's the 13th, but I was verrrry lucky today!
After trying almost anything to get 2 tickets for Reamonn's concert in Vienna on the 18th, and not succeeding, I was able to find today a guy in Vienna who bought 2 tickets and he can't attend the concert, and he agreed to sell me the tickets.. at the official price!
Now that's what I call LUCK :)
Can't wait till Sunday to see the guys again...

And the winner is...

The biggest winners of the night were Kate Winslet, Heath Ledger and surprise, surprise Mickey Rourke...
Here are the other winners http://us.imdb.com/features/rto/2009/globes

Golden Globe Awards

Don't forget tonight the Golden Globe Awards...
In Romania you can watch them on HBO, in Germany on Pro 7
Here is the link with the nominees http://us.imdb.com/features/rto/2009/globes

Expat Shop

Who wants to try various english products should access http://www.expatshop.ro/index.php, they have really nice stuff there, and cheap also...

Placinta crocanta cu cartofi

1,3 kg cartofi de marime medie, 85g unt, topit, 1 lingura de frunze de cimbru, plus 1 ramurica, 1 varf de cutit de nucsoara, 2 linguri de ulei de masline, sare de mare, la servire

Se incalzeste cuptorul la 220°C. Se curata cartofii si se pun intr-un vas cu apa rece, sarata. Se dau in clocot, se fierb timp de 3 minute si se scurg. Cand s-au racit suficient pentru a fi manuiti, se taie cativa in felii. Se inveleste baza unui vas termorezistent, rotund, cu unt, apoi se pune o ramurica de cimbru in mijloc. Se acopera cu o felie de cartof, apoi se aranjeaza restul feliilor de jur imprejur. Se feliaza restul cartofilor si se pun intr-un bol, peste care se toarna untul ramas, nucsoara, frunzele de cimbru, sare si piper. Se amesteca totul, apoi cartofii se pun peste feliile aranjate si se preseaza usor pentru a aplatiza. Se coace placinta la cuptor. Din cand in cand se scoate, se preseaza cu o spatula si se stropeste suprafata cu ulei de masline. Se coace timp de 1 ora - 1 ora si 15 minute, pana cand marginile devin aurii si crocante. Se scoate cu grija pe un platou, se presara cu sare de mare si se serveste taiata in felii, cu un sos de iaurt si usturoi.

Pofta buna!

Waiting for Santa...

The Christmas Tree behind my building ... after a St. John's party :))

Siteul zilei :)

For inspiration only ...
http://www.thefwa.com/

Reciclare...

Haideti sa incepem anul nou cu o fapta buna... sau cu mai multe!
Daca reciclati hartia, cei de la Copacul de Hartie vin si o ridica si cu banii obtinuti din vanzarea ei, planteaza copacei...
Nu-i frumos?
Mai multe detalii pe http://www.copaculdehartie.ro/

Apus de soare

... iarna in nordul Bucurestiului.
Romantic, nu?

Dakar 2009

The former Paris-Dakar rally has started this year in... Argentina :)
Will Peterhansel win again.. or not?
Check the website http://www.dakar.com/ for more details and live updates...

No comment...

A photo a day keeps the doctor away :)

Twilight...

de Bucuresti...

Rezolutie de Anul Nou

M-am decis... ma fac bloggarita!
D c? D c nu...
Cum multi prieteni se plang ca nu mai stiu nimic de mine, e mult mai simplu sa scriu aici cateva cuvinte si cine vrea... se informeaza. Asa ca sa nu fiti surprinsi daca voi scrie si in engleza (hope i'll find the inspiration) sau chiar in germana (daca voi fi fleissig, ceea ce nu cred)
Va urez, dragii mei cititori, un An Nou... interesant

P.S. Vedeti ce frumos a fost in Piata Revolutiei