Four things tag

I've been tagged by Carissa from Musings of an Introvert.

Four jobs I've had:
1. PhD student/researcher
2. Administrative assistent (multiple times)
3. Bookstore employee (for exactly one week...)
4. Cleaning lady

Impressions of The Railway Man, The Passing Bells and Mr. Turner

  

Of helicopters and long-haired singers

A few months ago, I rediscovered two 'loves' of my early teenage years. First, I was wandering aimlessly over YouTube, hopping from video to video, as you sometimes do when you're very tired ;-) Then, my eye caught a recommended vid in the sideline of a Dutch/Belgian series that I used to love: Windkracht 10 (freely translated: gale force 10)

Impressions of Our Zoo, The Scarlet Tunic and Princess Ka'iulani

  

8 Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts (1)

           Bookish and Not-So-Bookish Thoughts is a weekly blogging event hosted by Bookishly Boisterous. It allows book bloggers (and non-book bloggers) to write about pretty

 much anything, bookish or otherwise (i.e. sharing exciting plans for the weekend, 

rants on things they've encountered during the week etc.)

For a while now I've been looking for a 'format' to talk a little bit more about real life stuff or just small observati ons and shout-outs that I'd like to make which don't fill a whole post. I think this weekly blogging event is just what I need for that! I hope to make posts like this more often (though perhaps not weekly...)

1. Tomorrow I'm going to visit a traditional country market. There are going to be demo's and workshops of old farming techniques, cooking and crafts, rare animal breeds and lots of stand with interesting traditional products. The weather promises to be good and it all takes place in an open-air museum. I'm really looking forward to it!

Trailers!

I've been seeing a number of pretty interesting trailers recently for, mostly, period movies. I thought I'd share them with you!

The imitation game: This reminds me quite strongly of Enigma, one of my favourite WWII movies. On the one hand, why make another movie about the Bletchley codebreakers? On the other hand, it's a fascinating subject and this one seems to be based more on true historical events. Besides, it stars the-one-and-only Benedict Cumberbatch and also Matthew Goode (one of my personal favourites!), Allen Leech and Keira Knightley. 

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 7 (the end!)

We're nearing the end of our time in Middlemarch...
And Lydgate seems to be nearing the end of his wits as he fights once again with Rosie about their dire financial situation. Rosie has written to Tertius' rich uncle, but the letter they get back is less than friendly... To blow off steam, Lydgate goes to the pub where he gets quite drunk and is dangerously close to loosing a large sum of money. Luckily Fred, who seems to have matured quite a lot since the last episode, is able to steer Lydgate away from danger.

Have some roles been reversed or what?

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 6

Here we are at the one-to-last episode of Middlemarch!

Last episode, we left Lydgate and Rosie in a very unhappy place and it doesn't get any better this episode. Lydgate tries to explain to Rosie they will have to live less luxurious, but Rosamund doesn't want to listen to him or help him. Meanwhile, she's visited by Ladislaw (who apparently is still hanging around Middlemarch). She airily talks about Casoubon's will and Dorothea's situation, without realizing Ladislaw knew nothing about this part of his relative's will. Ladislaw is mortified and when he meets Dorothea by accident, he tells her he will leave Middlemarch and never come back, because she is forbidden to him.

You're telling me whát?!

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 5

When putting in the second dvd of my Middlemarch box to watch this episode I discovered that my series dóes have 7 episodes and not 6 as I thought. Well, that solves the problem of the different episode beginnings and ends between my version and the version of some of you commenters. So, just so you know, there will be two more watch-along posts coming!

Now, back to Middlemarch, where Mr. Brooke is trying to get votes for his election as local MP. He doesn't succeed so well however and is even bombarded with eggs. I felt quite sorry for him, after all, he's not a bad guy. Just incompetent.... Brooke seems to realize this himself as well and withdraws from the election and decides to live abroad for a while. He also sells his newspaper. This is bad news for Ladislaw, who works there as an editor and now has to go look for a new job.

I wonder what is taking the pizza-delivery guy so long

Season finales 2014

The series I regularly follow have all finished for this year and I wanted to give my quick thought about the following season finales: Grey's Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, Elementary and The Good Wife
Be warned, there are spoilers about the last episodes of the mentioned seasons under the cut!

And now it's time for some summer viewing! I have already started with some short period drama series I didn't get to watch when they aired, but I also want to try something new contemporary. I'm thinking of trying out either Arrow or Revolution. Have any of you watched one of these series and what did you think about it? Or should I watch something else entirely?


Grey's Anatomy season 10

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 4

This was a very Dorothea and Casoubon-heavy episode of Middlemarch.

The animosity between Ladislaw and Casoubon increases when Ladislaw accepts a job at Mr.Brooke's newspaper. Casoubon thinks a job as a newspaper editor will reflect badly on his status and tells Ladislaw he is not to visit them anymore, without telling Dorothea about it. Dorothea does not find out until she meets Ladislaw at her uncle's home. Ladislaw sees right through Dorothea's pretend happiness. 

Oh dear, those 1830's hairstyles....

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 3

Oh dear, almost two weeks have passed since I posted my previous Middlemarch episode recap. That was not what I'd planned! But there was a conference for work and then a busy weekend with lots of family visits and suddenly it's Wednesday again....

A lot has happened in Middlemarch as well since the last time. Dorothea and Casoubon have returned from their honeymoon and are welcomed home by Celia and Mr. Brooke. Celia has some exciting news, she and Sir James are engaged! Now I know a trip to Rome usually took longer in the 19th century than it would today, but still, that was one fast engagement! Seems to run in the family.

Well, that was fast!

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 2

A little note before we start the second episode recap of the Middlemarch watch-along. Hamlette let me know that her first episode was longer than mine (75 vs 60 min), but that she had 6 episodes in total, similar to me. So it looks like there are content differences between my 'European' version and Hamlette's 'American' version. Is this the case for anyone else?
I will keep doing the episode recaps according to my dvd, but please let me know in the comments if you think I'm missing any scenes that you do have, I'm very curious where the differences are!

On to the episode! Where the previous episode was about getting to know all the characters, in this episode we are introduced to some of the main themes of Middlemarch: progress vs stagnation, old vs new.

Wait, if you don't know anything about art, then why did you praise MY work?

Middlemarch watch-along: episode 1

Here we are, the first episode 'recap' of the Middlemarch watch-along. I hope you all enjoyed starting this period drama. I sure did! Even though it's a rewatch for me, the previous time I watched it was over 5 years ago, so I've forgotten a lot of the details.

In this first episode we meet the wide cast of characters whose lives we will follow. What arrested my attention was how we are thrown right in the middle of the lives of these people. No introductions, no voice-over, we get to know them as the story goes along. And quite a lot already happens in this first episode!

First, we meet dr Tertius Lydgate (Douglas Hodge), a young and ambitious physician who arrives new in Middlemarch and who hopes to do revolutionary work there. The building of a new hospital is in an advanced stage of planning and dr Lydgate discovers he will be a member of the board and will have to make some difficult decisions. 

What was dr Lydgate actually doing in these scenes?

Impressions of Glorious 39, Spies of Warsaw and George and the dragon

  

Glorious 39 (2009)

Adaptation of: no adaptation
Length: 129 min

Summary: In the tense last summer before World War II, the adopted daughter of a high class British family discovers a family secret which could not only endanger her, but the entire nation.

Why I'm done with BBC's Sherlock

With the recent airing of Sherlock's third series on the BBC and now it's run on USA television, my Blogger and LJ reading lists are filled with posts about this show. All of them positive, raving reviews and recaps, stating how the show is better than ever and how wonderful the characters are.

I can't write such a post. Yes, I did watch series 3 of Sherlock and I did enjoy the previous series (never was on my top favourite list of tv-series though). Yes, I do think Sherlock is made extremely well storywise and with regard to cinematography. And yes, I do think the acting is phenomenal. Still, series 3 has made me realize I don't really like Sherlock anymore and I most likely will not spend time on any further series*.

Might contain slight SPOILERS for series 3!

End of the year - Movie, book, tv masterlist

It's becoming a bit of a tradition (you can call something a tradition when you're doing it for the fourth time right?) to post a fandom picspam/masterlist of everything I watched and read at the end of the year (or the beginning of the next...) In the lists I've linked to reviews and posts I wrote about various movies, books and tv-shows (links are to my LiveJournal. I didn't feel like changing all the links after I'd posted this at LJ...). If you're interested in anything which I haven't reviewed, don't hesitate to ask!

End of the year - TV meme

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2013?
I started watching Elementary and I watched the first three seasons of Primeval over the summer months. I also watched a good few miniseries, one of them BBC's The Village and ITV's Mr. Selfridge, which I believe are getting second series