Make merry on this day of feasts

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I hope that the holiday cheer brightened everyone's home this year, and will keep it warm the whole year long.

You can tell from the presents that we are book people.

Best wishes for the New Year!!!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snowed in

We've been in Switzerland since Saturday and if we thought htere was a lot of now when we arrived, we were clearly not prepared for it to snow until now (and for it to continue for the rest of the week).
I must say the snow is making it easier to watch all of our Christmas movies of greatness.

 Hello! I was very cold at this moment.

Shoveling snow in the darkness. The first couple of minutes after we got to the house. The garage was slightly hidden from view.

We all felt very bad for whoever this car belongs to. Oh yeah. That's a car.

Feanor's natural element, it suits her well no?

Momentary patch of blue sky to really appreciate the view.

One of our favorite eating joints, La Cabane.

This was actually not very easy to walk up, with snow shoes, in.

I admit I was tired and Mother taking a picture of me was a good excuse for some breath catching.

Ready to go!

Just look at the layer of snow on our roof!

A winter wonderland, if you ask me.

Still snowing now. Just a bit worried about getting home this Thrusday, although the snow is just great at this time of year, home is an important part of this holiday.

Hope everyone else is having a white Christmas, whether it's outside or in your heart.

Monday's recommendation

So, even though books are very important, I haven't had the time to read that many this year. So I'm going to recommend the Christmas movies that my family and I are planning are watching from now until Christmas, because let's just face it. They're brilliant.

Miracle on 34th Street

Love Actually

The Grinch

Scrooged

Die Hard

Santa Claus the Movie

A Christmas Carol (with Jim Carrey)

Mickey's Christmas Carol

A Muppet Christmas Carol

The Bishop's Wife

The Santa Clause (1 and 2)

The Holiday

It's a Wonderful Life

White Christmas (even though it's only for that one part)

Little Women

Christmas Story

The Polar Express

All the pictures come from Google, I have no time for actual pcitures.

Isocrates, Quote

Democracy destroys itself because it abuses its right to freedom and equality. Because it teaches its citizens to consider audacity as a right, lawlessness as a freedom, abrasive speech as equality and anarchy as progress.


This was already true at that time. I have a feeling of hoplessness for the human race.

Write on Wednesday: 14

The Write On Wednesday Rules: Feel free to get creative with the writing exercises - there isn't a right or wrong. Please do try to visit the other members of Write On Wednesdays and leave a comment. You can grab the button for Write On Wednesdays from my sidebar.

Write On Wednesdays Exercise 8 - The clock winked...Write the words "The clock winked" at the top of your page. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Write the first words that come into your head after the prompt. Stop when the buzzer rings. Do this exercise over and over if you wish. Write beyond 5 minutes if you like, you can link it up as an extra post.

The prompts for Christmas are to use old prompts from InkPaperPen at our own leisure during the Christmas season. So I have chosen the Clock Winked.


The clock winked and the uneven arms stretched far across its pleasant face. The house was deserted, as few people as when its arms became one and the lights were all out.
The table groaned loudly and let itself creak on its hinges. There was no sound and it had no face to check if there were people, so it relied on the noises of the house. The house settled in turn, listening to the table and knowing that the time was right.
And as all this happened, Elijah sat there and listened. The whole house had sounds like this. The whole place was alive. He knew to hide next to the clock, waiting where its face couldn't see, waiting to hear the house come to life. It was his birthday that day. Another day in the house alone. The nanny didn't want to see him anymore, she couldn't stand the noises of the house. He had overheard her talking to his parents about how he was different and strange and would never speak.
If she wanted him to speak, he could only conclude that she didn't want to hear the house. Everyone knew you could only hear a house when you became a part of the house, an object that was still and almost lifeless.
The clock chimed next to his ear and the window shook against the pushing wind, the candles on the table flickered in response before one of them gave in to the darkness.
It was a dark day that day and it was only getting darker. And as the boy counted the sounds of the clock, he knew that his parents were late. Later than they ever were before.
The window shook with the strong winds of the outside and the house creacked in sorrow as the tears of the young boy resonated through its walls.

Flights, sights and interesting situations

On my way home from Vancouver to France, I had one of my most interesting aerial adventures yet.

Getting ready for my first flight, from Vancouver to Montreal, I made my way through the less than busy airport and listenned to some Def Leppard while playing Tetris and being harrassed by twin redheads who believed that my being a redhead made me part of their awesome gang. I believe in this statement wholeheartedly of course.
Making my way into the airplane, an old man sparked up a conversation with me about my bag (and the school name that is written on it). After a brief chat about Sound Design we finally arrived at my seat. The man obviously was seated further away.
The most adorable look of regret crossed his features as he admitted,
"I was secretly wishing we would sit together. I shamelessly admit it."
Of course I could do nothing more than break into one of my widest smiles ever and thank him for his kind remarks. Expressing my own regret in turn.
The place next to me was not long left vacant however, and one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen took place next to me. An Australian girl returning to her boyfriend. She voiced her worry that he wouldn't love her anymore. This was after talking to her for a while so I knew she was really nice and I gave her another look, noting that she was still devastatingly beautiful. I couldn't do much more than roll my eyes at her worries and reassure her that that was pretty much impossible.

Turbulance smashed us around as we spun around Montreal, having no place to land, and we landed shook up and very late for my connection flight.
I had never had to run all the way from one plane to another. I have now.
Of course, even though the woman closed the door behind me with a dissaproving look, it only took a few mintues for a woman near me to suddenly start screaming.
My first thoughts were of an assault. Oh God I was going to die in Montreal. In a plane. Alone.
So it can be understood that I was relieved to hear it was a man with a 'medical problem' who had gone into shock next to the wailing woman. They decided after 30 minutes of thinking about it to leave the plane.... It took another 40 minutes to find their bags.... Yeah....

The rest of the trip was less eventful. The TGV arrived late of course, I missed my connecting plane and managed to get a different ticket for free because the man at the train station thought I looked aprticularily pathetic and I met a women with a bunny rabbit in the collar of her shirt. In the train I finally got home on I was surrounded by a miriad of colors as a man carrying orchids placed his possestions all around me. It was lovely.

And now I am finally home. After driving from my house in France to the one in Switzerland for 6 hours.....

I've had 3 hours of sleep. In two days.
I'm a bit tired.

Letter of Congratulations!

Huzzah! Remember the Soundscape I was talking about here? Well I won the Sound Design Contest!

*Happy Dance*

Flying around

So tomorrow I am flying home from Vancouver to France. I'm ecstatic of course and I can't wait to spend the holidays with the most brilliant three I know (unfortunately my older brothers won't be there as they are working hard in there respective places in the world).
My problem, however, with all of this excitement and happiness I am actually really going to miss this lovely city and the fantastic people I know here. Even the ones I just met yesterday and were brilliant people!

Found this on Google

Also another small issue is a lovely boy. A lovely boy that also happens to want me to stay behind. So a sweet, lovely boy. 

It's ridiculous really.  

 

Monday's recommendation

Little Women
by Louisa M. Alcott

picture found here.

What better way to get into the Christmas spirit than this classic. There really is no film more evocative of the lovely winter feelings of warm happiness and family moments.

The book follows the second eldest of a group of four sisters,  and their family problems as they discover the feelings of love and loss all set in the Alcott home in Concord, Massachusetts, 1868.

Gastown

After making my Steampunk Christmas soundscape, what better way to keep up this fashionable holiday trend than to head on over to Gastown for dinner with Juan before he leaves for Christmas vacations.

Such a great clock. When it chimes it releases a gust of steam.

We stopped by the Black Frog to fatten ourselves up for the winter. This enormous burger was.... There are almost no words for how good this thing was.
I recommend this bad boy to anyone near Vancouver.

My darling Juan. Don't want you to leave!

We ended the night by taking a walk around Vancouver and strolling next to the ocean (Granville island over there on the other side).

Steampunk Christmas Soundscape

Steampunk Christmas Soundscape

For the Christmas contest at my school.

Denny's

 found picture here

Today is was the last day of classes of our 1st Term at VFS, so (of course!) we needed to go out together to get a lovely class breakfast.
Unfortunately the camera did not come out although it really should have. Sigh for me being lame and forgetting to document historic moments.
In any case, if you want some delectable brunch I definitely recommend Denny's Restaurants! You just know you're starting a good day when the first thing placed in front of you are pancakes, hash browns, brown sugar roasted ham and scrambled eggs. Oh and don't forget the exceptionally large mug of coffee. Yum, yum and YUM!

Getting ready now for the end of Term/Winter Party! Huzzah!

Monday's recommendation on Tuesday

Sorry I'm getting a bit behind on things with first term ending this weekend though I must say I'm impressed with all I'm getting done, I can tell you know from the 5th and 6th term colleagues I see running around all day that it will not always be the case that I can give you some lovely recommendations. But at that time it won't be lovely Christmas so at least I can share Christmas cheer with all of you.
Here's a book I absolutely adored when I was young and does not get as much credit as I feel it deserves. It's writer, however, has gotten a lot of credit for one of his famous trilogies.

Letters from Father Christmas
by J R R Tolkien

found the image here

This lovely story is based around the lovely letters J. R. R. Tolkien's children would receive in beautiful handwriting, sent to them from the North Pole and chronicling to them the lives of the people in the North Pole and most importantly, the role of Father Christmas.

You can't help but be swept away by Tolkien's version of our beloved childrens' dream and laugh with him as he tells of the loose Reindeers and the accident prone Polar Bear.

You can find the book here.

Write on Wednesday: 13

The Write On Wednesday Rules: Get creative with the writing exercises - there isn't a right or wrong. Please do try to visit the other members of Write On Wednesdays and leave a comment of support and constructive criticism. 




Write On Wednesdays Exercise 27 -  Mel suggested that we look at the "12 Days of Christmas" poem/song and select one of the days/lines for our writing inspiration. So, whether a Partridge in a Pear Tree or Five Golden Rings, write your line at the top of your page, set your timer for 5 minutes and write the first words that come into your head. 

Your second choice is to use Coming Home (To you this Christmas), a song by Achoo! Bless you, as your writing prompt. I heard this song on the radio this morning and besides thinking that this Sydney Folk Duo have come up with the cutest, sweetest name for a band ever, I also thought the song serves up an alternative to the more traditional tune of the season. Download the song for free here, write down the song title, set your timer for 5 minutes and write the first words that come into your head.

So this prompt is written to the Coming Home (To you this Christmas) by Achoo! Bless you and thank you to InkPaperPen for showing me such a sweet song. 

Ok so this started off as a completely different story but somehow ended up becoming another part of the previous stories that you will find here and here and here. I hope you enjoy. This is the ending to that story just so you know, but there are a lot of things in between that you are missing. 


She looked out the window longingly. The snow was coming down harder then ever and even the road that she had been staring at every day since she sent the letter was blocked from her view by the millions of thick flakes. She had always loved snow, she imagined that if her eyes were better she would be able to see every individual flake and what made them so special compared to others. 

She had only recently discovered the importance of one individual as opposed to a group. She had always thought that that would be a fault on her part as a leader but the warmth that her brothers had given her when they found out had made her feel... Well it had made her feel and that to her was already more than she thought possible while looking at the needy faces. 


She stared at the place the road was supposed to be. She knew in her heart, if she had one or not, that he would come for her and they would share what they shared for that brief moment in the church. One moment of peacefulness and bliss. He knew things about her that she didn't even know. She smiled and moved away from the window. He would come, she was more sure about that than she had ever been of anything in her life, and as she moved around the large table that the children had lit with their different machines and the tree they had built -because he was the one that had taught them about Christmas- she could not help but feel grateful for having been born part of her generation. For the first time in her life. Because she had met him.

 

Decorations

So I've decided that I am going to decorate my apartment with paper origami animals (mostly butterflies) so that I have a beautiful place without any extra cost or without having anything I can't carry away if I have to move at the end of the year.
I am way too excited about this decision and am sharing this exaggerated happiness with you!

A Christmas deed

Hello again my dear blog wall, I've been neglecting you.
It has been a filled up week, and still will be since I still have class tomorrow, but seeing as Fridays are the day my lovely classmates feel that we absolutely need to step out and refresh ourselves I will write now.
Many a development has happened since Monday (wow for some reason I was writing London, my mind is elsewhere). 

My lovely living room

I've decided to give the school Christmas contest a try. I've never actually participated in a contest with my own work, seeing as I never think it's good enough and I'm an editor so it's usually someone's movie that I'm slicing up and then sending off with the director. So for the first time, my own work, for the simple reason that it is a new step in my life, will be given in to the head teacher of the Sound Department to compete against not only the students from every single term but also the teachers! Yes! The teachers are part of the contest! You can see why my optimism in winning is not at its highest, just being part of it will be great.

I'll be sure to post the final project here so that, even if I lose, you all can appreciate (or click and then promptly pause) it.

The project will be a Soundscape, so a story told only with sounds, with a simple narrative of Santa Claus landing on a roof, going down the chimney, placing the presents, eating the cookies and drinking the milk only to be discovered by an awoken child and promptly fleeing the scene.

It's a pretty detailed story and can only be 1min30secs so you really need to have your own personal twist to make it stand out.

I'm making mine a special SteamPunk Christmas.