Entertainment

Hand Me Down World

/ Leya / 8 kommentarer

I had some days off…and that’s when I always read a good book – or try to find a good book to read. This October week I was lucky, because I brought Lloyd Jones’s Hand Me Down World.

Gran Canaria 2013 007

A woman washes ashore in Sicily. She has come from north Africa to find her son, stolen from her by his father when the boy was just days old and taken to Berlin. With nothing but her maid’s uniform and a knife in a plastic bag, she relies on strangers— some generous, some exploiting—to guide her passage north.
These strangers all tell their story about her, and each account gives a different view of the truth, just like the versions of truth we all create to accomodate our lives. These fragments of a life piece together to create a spellbinding story of her, this woman and mother, who crosses continents searching for her missing child. Not until towards the end, we also get her own version of the story.
It’s haunting and beautiful, because ”Sometimes a person passes through your world and you don’t forget them.” She is one of them, and this is her story. I suggest you read it.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: White and Purple

/ Leya / 18 kommentarer

Well, what about this photo of my daughter cosplaying the famous Mephisto! I knew it would come in handy some day… Costume play – so, she made the costume herself, even the teeth and the hairdo…and the ears…

Sommaren går mot sitt slut 2013 001For more White and Purple entries at Cee’s – click here.

Travel theme: Play

/ Leya / 24 kommentarer

Introduktionsdagar! Ailsas tema är Play – och vad kan passa bättre?

Now there’s only hard work to look forward to  –  school is here again! The two first days are always dedicated to getting to know each other, old students and new ones. So, playing games is only one of the things we do…

Picking up things in water…
Prisoners?
No, it’s a game of trusting others!
Run 7 times around the stick and then back to your team…if you can!
Cooperate being three legged…
…is not that easy
Speed and precision – that’s what you need to win!

For more play and games – go to Ailsa and Where’s My Backpack?

Skateboarding – a work of art

/ Leya / 6 kommentarer

Skateboarding föddes någon gång på 1940-talet bland surfarna i Californien. Ingen vet vem som konstruerade den första brädan, men de var gjorda av trälådor med rullskridskohjul på.

Skating har gått upp och ned i popularitet, men här i Sverige, i Skåne, var det inte så många som åkte när sonen började. Bilden av en skatare har för mig alltid varit positiv. Från början, i USA, tycks den ha varit ett uttryck för en rebellisk ungdom som inte ville inordna sig i samhället. Min bild av dessa ungdomar är att de utövar sin sport av sann glädje och de är sjyssta mot varandra, hjälper, stöttar och uppmuntrar varandra till nya trick och att klara allt svårare saker. Att uppfinna nya trick är en ständig utmaning, och många filmar sina åkningar och lägger ut dem på nätet.

De populäraste namnen och de stora tävlingarna arrangeras samt sponsras av skate- och klädmärken. Skateboarding har sen mitten av 1980-talet blivit en storindustri och några av de största namnen då var Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi och Rodney Mullen.

Sonen började skata när han var 13. Han kör mest streetstil (utvecklades ur freestylen), även kallat flat ground, som är en ursprunglig stil med låg fart, många fingerflips, spins och akrobatik. Ofta var freestylebrädan då smalare, mindre och rakare, med lång tail och nose. Kända freestyleåkare är Rodney Mullen, Stefan ”Lillis” Åkesson, Boris Schwemin, Ulli Schönborn, Starsky, Bernhard, Luis Max Escarate, Paul Bakker och Georgio Czwerwinsk.

Longboard är också en favorit när vädret är fint och gatorna har bra asfalt. Då kan de dra ut några stycken på landsvägarna och bara njuta. Longboarden går snabbt med sina bredare hjul och är något tystare än vanlig skateboard.

Sonen förklarar sin kärlek med egentligen bara ett enda ord: Frihet.

Skateboarding was probably born sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s when surfers in California wanted something to surf when the waves were flat. No one knows who made the first board, but these first skateboarders started with wooden boxes or boards with roller skate wheels attached to the bottom.

The image of the skateboarder as a rebellious, non-conforming youth has faded in recent years. My experience from my son and his friends is that they are having a positive outlook on life, prone to poking harmless fun at each other, and supporting each other to innovate, finding new places and landing new tricks.

The increasing availability of technology is apparent within the skateboarding community. Many skateboarders record and edit videos of themselves and friends skateboarding. Some of those are real works of art – like this one, showed above.

Skateboarding video games have also become very popular in skateboarding culture. Some of the oldest, most popular are the Tony Hawk series and Skate series.

My son explains his love for skateboarding with one, single word: Freedom.

Travel theme: Tilted

/ Leya / 19 kommentarer

Nya Zeeland förstås…var annars skulle det finnas något som lutar mer än tornet i Pisa?

New Zealand of course…where else would anything be as tilted as this?

Nya Zeeland 2 099

For more tilted things, look here at Ailsa’s Where’s my backpack?

Camden Cavalcade

/ Leya / 24 kommentarer

Marknaden i Camden, London,  besöks enligt Wikipedia av närmare 100 000 varje helg. Här finns något för alla, och vill du se verkligen precis alla sorters människor är det hit du ska åka. Vi råkade bland annat på ett glatt sällskap av äldre kvinnor i röda hattar…the British Red Hatters (se länk längre ned på sidan).

Detta område vid Regents Canal består, förutom av slussen (Camden Lock), mest av affärer och en stor utemarknad med allt mellan himmel och jord – att titta på eller köpa. Många av stånden erbjuder mat och den är både god och billig – vi köpte några olika, mycket goda Yorkshire puddings till lunch.

Marknaden var från början till för bara hantverkare, men har på senare år vuxit ut till att innehålla kläder, prylar och krims krams samt, som sagt,  god mat.

The Camden markets are a number of adjoining large retail markets in Camden Town near the Hampstead Road Lock of the Regent’s Canal (popularly referred to as Camden Lock), often collectively named ”Camden Market” or ”Camden Lock”. Among products sold on the stalls are crafts, clothing, bric-a-brac, and fast food. According to Wikipedia it is the fourth-most popular visitor attraction in London, attracting approximately 100,000 people each weekend. If you want to meet all sorts of people, this is the place to go. We even met some absolutely wonderful ladies in red hats, members of the British Red Hatters…

Originally, the Lock was a market for crafts, occupying some outdoor areas by the canal and various existing buildings. While the range of goods has since widened, with stalls selling books, new and second-hand clothing, and jewellery, the Lock retains its focus as the principle Camden market for crafts. There is a large selection of fast food stalls, where we bought some really tasty yourkshire puddings..

From 2006 a large indoor market hall was constructed in a yard between the Camden Lock Market and the Stables Market that was previously used for open air stalls. In November 2007 a large part of the Stables Market was demolished as part of a long-term redevelopment plan for the area and rebuilt as a year-round permanent market area.

Nerds

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Nörd kommer från engelskans slangord nerd och är en stereotypisk benämning på en person som har ett fixerat intresse eller intresseområde. Enligt Wikipedia användes ordet första gången 1950 i Dr. Seuss bok If I Ran the Zoo, men då med betydelsen av en särskild djurart. På tidigt 60-tal var slanguttrycket spritt i USA och ända bort till Skottland. Fram till slutet av 1900-talet användes ordet nörd oftast negativt, men idag används ordet minst lika ofta positivt.

Nördar kan antingen beskrivas utifrån sina hobbies och intressen, eller via sin personlighet, status, sociala kompetens eller till och med sitt utseende. En vanlig uppfattning är att nördar ofta intresserar sig mer för teknik eller naturvetenskap än socialt umgänge. Det ironiska begreppet social nörd används ibland av nördar om personer som har ett starkt fixerat intresse av socialt umgänge och mänskliga relationer. Nörd kan du eventuellt kallas om du är/har:

  • Datorintresserad
  • Intelligent
  • Enkelspårig
  • Tekniskt kunnig
  • Låg social kompetens

Nördar finns naturligtvis med i populärkulturen, bland annat i filmerna Nördarna kommer! och i dokusåpor som Beauty and the Geek och FC Z. Andra exempel på nördar är Simpsons-karaktärerna Professor Frink, Lisa Simpson och Jeff Albertson.

Den internationella nörddagen firades den 25 maj…men den glömde i alla fall vi bort! Till London hade jag sällskap av två andra nördar i familjen…så vad sägs om ett allmänt nördigt galleri…?

London juni 2013 005

A nerd is a person, typically described as being overly intellectual, obsessive, or socially impaired. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, obscure, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly technical or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Additionally, many nerds are described as being shy, quirky, and unattractive, and may have difficulty participating in, or even following, sports. ”Nerd” is a derogatory, stereotypical term, but it has also been reclaimed and redefined by some as a term of pride and group identity. Nowadays it’s often used positively as well.

According to Wikipedia, the first documented appearance of the word ”nerd” is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo (1950). The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, found in Newsweek magazine. By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland. At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.

Nerds can either be described by their hobbies and interests, or by abstract qualities such as personality, status, social skills, and physical appearance. Some interests and activities that are likely to be described as nerdy are:

  • Intellectual, academic, or technical hobbies, activities, and pursuits, especially topics related to science, mathematics, engineering, linguistics, history and technology.
  • Hobbies, games, and activities that are described as obsessive and ”immature”, such as trading cards, comic books, fantasy and science fiction novels, role-playing games, tabletop games.
  • Interest in the fine arts, non-mainstream music, hobbies (i.e., collecting), or other ”obscure” interests.
  • Heavy obsession with a topic that would otherwise be mainstream (such as a popular TV show or a sport).

Well, in London I was accompanied by two other nerds in my family, and what about a short trip through some nerdiness?

Covent Garden

/ Leya / 18 kommentarer

Ett kort besök i Covent Garden är ett måste på varje Londonresa. Den här gången uppträdde en mycket säker Charlie Chaplinkopia som drog ned en del skratt. Inte minst på grund av att han enrollerade en charmerande liten flicka ur publiken och gjorde henne till sin assistent. Alltid publikfriande!

Lite kockskoj och till sist en ung man med mycket vacker röst som underhöll med några av operavärldens absoluta glansnummer. Avkopplande!

No London visit is a London visit without visiting Covent Garden. This time a Charlie Chaplin copy was very entertaining, much because of his charming little assistant from the audience. Then some fun made of chefs… and others in the kitchen, and last but not least – a voice! A young man singing the most beautiful opera. He was so good that he might win ”Britain’s got Talent” , had he entered the competition. (Maybe he had already?)

According to Wikipedia, the first record of a ”new market in Covent Garden” is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House.The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every day except Sundays and Christmas Day.The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and in 1830 Charles Fowler designed the neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today. Further buildings were added—the Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers was built.

By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing problems for the market,  The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market. The beautiful hall where the opera singer entertained us (the last picture) is the former vegetable market.

Another market, the Jubilee Market, is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square.The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden have been owned by the property company Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo) since 2006.