Month: June 2007

You know you’ve found some of it when

thegirlinthecafe 5 Comments

You meet this nice street cleaner who asks you how you are while passing him. Good, thank you, and you?
Your busdrive to work passes The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington park, Hyde Park and Knightbridge.
You like the book you are reading.
The sun shines when you decide to go for lunch.
You work only a few hundred meters from Portobello Road where it is market day today.
You wander around on the market and it is indeed a nice market to wander on. (I had never been in Notting Hill on a market day (Friday and Saturday) before).
You find a cool vintage Levi’s jacket in one of the stalls with 2nd hand clothing, it’s exactly your size, it’s a girls jacket and it only costs a tenner.
You buy some sweet cherries in one of the fruit stalls with very nice people helping you.
You feel like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill again.
You realize that you are one lucky pirate, living in a city like this.

And now I realize I should have taken a picture of it, shouldn’t I?

(Yes I know they found a car bomb just a few meters from the cinema I often visit, but I try to ignore worrying thoughts)

You know you’ve lost it when …

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

You’ve seen POTC 10 times in the cinema? (That’s 1680 minutes of Pirate pleasure …)
Post silly postcards of Bill Nighy?
Yeah, also then.

But.
You know you’ve lost it when it’s gone.

When you are standing at the counter in Sainsbury’s and you want to pay for your groceries. And you pick up your wallet and start looking for your debet card. First in the front, because you always put it there right? But it’s not there. You check the other compartments, but it is nowhere to be found.

I didn’t even panic. I just knew I’d lost it, and with my head full of things I didn’t even try to remember where because that would have been useless.

The last place I could remember I had used is was in the Marks & Spencer at Victoria station yesterday. I called them, it took them quite a while to check, but no, they didn’t have a card with my last name on it.

So yes I lost it completely.
But you knew that already, didn’t you?

Like electricity

thegirlinthecafe 11 Comments
  • It’s amazing. We were 7 people, all around my age (17) and we were all so nervous for this exam, it was like being back at high school again. We all passed. I am relieved, because it was tougher than I thought, it was all new for me and it is all so different from what I used to work with.
  • The trainer I had for this course could be a brother of Michael Caine. He looked a lot like him, and his accent was rather, ehrm, voicilicious.
  • Just shortly on the explosives: they are small round flat circles that you put on the rail. They make a sound when the train drives over them and this alerts the driver that there is trouble ahead on the line and it will make him stop the train.
  • And about my electricity adventure: when I was young (13 is my guess) I was trying to be handy. I was opening and messing about with a screw driver and a power outlet/strip, while it was still connected. I got a major shock, my arm was numb for quite a while and I never ever forget it. I like to think that my mind got messed up by it, which is very useful if you want to be a writer.
  • Power on train lines: on the over rail lines (the ones above your head) : 25.000 volts. (never ever touch them). And on the 3rd rail that is an unprotected rail just running along normal rails on lots of places: 750 volts. This does cause a lot of accidents, especially when outsiders get onto the rail (kids playing or graffiti sprayers). I was quite surprised to hear that those rails are this dangerous. And I was wondering if we have the same system in the Netherlands and in Denmark. Just never ever step on or touch rails in the UK is what I’ve learned.
  • Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at military sites in the country because the actor is a Scientologist.. Weird story. Bill Nighy is in Valkyrie as well.
  • I was walking around in Canary Wharf this afternoon and they were showing Henman’s amazing tennis match on a big screen outside on one of the sky scrapers. Funny to watch all the suits watching it. And I am happy for Henman.
  • I promise not to write about trains tomorrow.
  • I found out: Papa Oscar Tango Charlie: One Zero times. Because I just returned from the One Zero time. I felt I deserved some Bravo India Lima Lima after passing my exam.

Oh, fuck, wank, bugger, shitting arse head and hole

thegirlinthecafe 10 Comments

Well I got the hat and the boots, so bring it on.

Writing yesterdays post didn’t take me a lot of time. When there is (Pirate in this case) passion involved, words come easily and posts get long. Most of the time, when I read it back the next day, I feel I have written something completely ridiculous, and I feel the urge to remove it again. Weird enough those posts often get a lot of comments, so I guess I should stop worrying.

And I am afraid this is a long post again »

But I just can’t seem to get enough of

thegirlinthecafe 9 Comments

There are many transport possibilities to get to my new office, and I have been trying a few of them already this week. There are people who want to get home after work as soon as possible, and there are people who actually enjoy taking buses they’ve never taken before crossing through areas in London that were still undiscovered. It’s a great way to get to know the city.
Read More

Parlay?

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

The Dutchman sails as her captain commands-uh.
This is one of the most awesome pieces of movie soundtrack I have heard in a long time. And the scene belonging to this piece of music is one of the greatest shots in At World’s End. The music reminds me of Once upon a Time in the West. When I hear this song I want to see the film again, there is no way around it. It is after all a long wait until 2008.

Audio no longer available…

How life has subtly changed

thegirlinthecafe 4 Comments

2 weeks ago OLE meant :
Object Linking and Embedding
That’s a boring programmers term, forget about it it’s boring.

From today on it means:

Overhead Line Equipment : Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point.

That’s a boring railway term, but it’s just to illustrate that the railway can compete with the IT world when it comes to the number of abbrevations. In that aspect, not much has changed. In other aspects things certainly have. A lot. Which is good.

More notes:

Imagine Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry and Eddie Izzard in the same film, together with Patrick Wilson, Carice van Houten (she’s Dutch!) and Tom Cruise.
Doesn’t that sound (apart from the Cruiser) too good to be true? It is not : Valkyrie is set to be released somewhere in 2008.

And talking about films, apart from Not here to be loved, here is another French film you absolutely have to see: Tell No One. It’s a fantastic thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the first second, and it’s also a story about love. Ah, love – a dreadful bond … (for hose having seen Pirates).
The fact that François Cluzet is utterly charming, handsome and French and has something that reminds me of lot of Ken Stott makes it an even greater pleasure to watch. Catch it if you can.

I like

thegirlinthecafe 9 Comments

Cricket in Vincent Square
Cricket in Vincent Square

I like the “don’t squeeze me until I’m yours” sign on … the muffins in a cafe. Makes me want to squeeze them even more.

I like the white uniforms of the cricket players playing the game around the corner where I live.

I like the sharpdressed men walking to work in the morning in their suits … on sneakers.

I like the posh women walking to work in the morning in their suits on … sneakers. I am not making this up, I meet them every day. It must be a transportation thing. Using the underground in London makes you walk, and I guess that poshy shoes are too uncomfortable to walk on if you need to walk long.

I like that they wear sneakers, this means that I somehow fit in, wearing sneakers most of the time myself.

I like the free Observer Book of Film with today’s newspaper. Did you know that both France and Italy produce more films per year than the UK? And that India by far produces most films in the world per year (the US is number 4 on the list, the UK number 11).

I like having seen Pirates for the 6th time today. I like being a cine-maniac.

I like to like things, and I hope to like my new job. I start tomorrow, and yes I am a tad nervous.

What do you like?

The Girl In The Cafe – still on tour

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Bill Nighy as Lawrence in The Girl In The Cafe
A post very much due (excuses for the wait to the people who have contributed!).

First, here is another clip of Bill Nighy’s trip to Tanzania, where he clearly explains why he thinks aid is a good thing, and that it in fact works on the places he visited.

I have received 4 reviews from people who particpated in the The Girl on tour:

  • Tony from the UK (Bill Nighy obsession, me? What’s he on about?)
  • Jacqui from France
  • Naomi from the US (yes I know I Capture the Castle, I saw it again tonight actually, I love it and James Mortmain)
  • Joachim from Germany (who has an interesting take on it all, as Germany has just been hosting another G8 meeting)

Four different reviews, 4 different opinions. Very interesting.

The Girl is currently on her way to Hawaii, Canada, and has just arrived in Zagreb, Croatia.
How international can it get? I love this project.

Step inside for the reviews.
Read More

Trains and movies and writing

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Brief Encounter
Oh, the agony of saying goodbye …

I wish I could write about adventurous stuff I have done today but I haven’t done any! I spent the whole day finishing off my applications. I am going to apply for 2 different schools (betting on 2 horses seems clever). It’s amazing how much paperwork it actually is, apart from all the other stuff you have to deliver (film review, film script, story outline for the film you want to write etc.) I have reread everything several times now, have done a triple spell check and I am going to post it tomorrow. I will personally deliver the one that needs to be in latest on Tuesday, as I don’t want to have my future depending on Royal Mail not delivering on time.
Those days off are taking more energy than a normal day at the office!

So all I can come up with for today is two films with trains in it.
Read More

Not here to be loved

thegirlinthecafe 7 Comments

When I woke up this morning I felt very weird. Weird that I didn’t need to go to work, weird wondering what I have done – quitting it, and well, my head is just still a bit confused about what is happening in my life at the moment. It will get better soon I’m sure.

A way to get me out of that kind of state of mind is the cinema, the cinema is my second home. Yes, you probably knew that already.

Read More

I’m learning to fly

thegirlinthecafe 6 Comments

Take away love ...

The garbage man joked around and made me smile as one of the first things this day. One of my neighbours was talking to another one without his teeth in, and although I know he is English I couldn’t understand a word he said. I walked my last morning walk to Victoria Station. I decide to take the slow train to East Croydon. I wave goodbye to Anti Beauty, Clapham Junction, Wandworth Common, Balham, Streatham Common, the guy at Thornthon Heath and 100 years of Passion and Pride at Selhurst. I am close to East Croydon, and I will miss my daily train journey enormously.

Read More

Love+Rock: Funny little frog

thegirlinthecafe 2 Comments

Funny little frog

They are Scottish.
They are from Glasgow.
They have been around for quite a while.
I am always late in discovering delicious music like this.
When I heard this song for the first time today I had to run to my drawing pad.
In between dancing I draw the frog.

I have also listened to The Murders in the Rue Morgue – Read by Bill Nighy.
I wish I could hear Bill say “Loge du concierge” 24 hours a day.
Yes I love his hat.
But his message was really more important.
I hope it didn’t snow under in the hat talk.

Here’s the song. Clean the room. Start dancing.
Tomorrow is my last day at work.

Sound no longer available.

Was this the really the best I could come up with for a post?
Yes.
I apologize.

But you’re the funny little frog in my throat.
I hope you stick around for a while.

Bill Nighy in Tanzania with Oxfam

thegirlinthecafe 13 Comments

bill-nighy-in-tanzania-with-oxfamThe BBC has a 3 minute film of Bill Nighy who travelled with Oxfam to Tanzania to see the difference that international aid can make. BBC news has also featured a short clip with Bill, as has the morning Breakfast show on BBC 1.

Heya kids, here’s a very important message from your uncle Bill:

Bill Nighy in Tanzania with Oxfam.

And here is more information, should you want to know more. And you really should.

www.makepovertyhistory.org
www.whiteband.org
Oxfam
www.one.org
The G8 wait
www.joinred.com

And – I love his hat.

Update:
The BBC Radio 4 has a very interesting interview with Bill Nighy about his trip to Tanzania with Oxfam where he tells about his experience and his thoughts about how aid really helps. At the other side of the table, so to speak, sits Paul Collier former Director of the World Bank.

Listen to the program here. (it’s the first 10 minutes in the beginning, and available for a week only)