Travel

Decided some time ago, my mom and I, that we would go visit my uncle, her brother, in Norway on their
birthday (they're twins), and perhaps do a bit of skiing besides the usual family stuff. We usually just hang out and play games or watch movies. Stuff like that. Nothing serious, which, to be honest, is a nice change of pace for me, after a 7 working day stretch. They're having temperatures well below 0, around my uncles place of residence, and lots of snow apparently. That can't go to waste!

With LAN over, all we had left to do was drive home, deliver our belgian friend to the authorities at the airport, then turn back the car to the rental folks. Had an interesting time renting the car, being quoted lots of different prices. We ended up on a semi-ok price, with included 700km roadtime. We were glad to find that we could make it all the way there and back again on 3/4 of a tank. Economic car for sure. But we did exceed the km amount with about 30 due to the airport run. But what the hell. It was like 2 kroner per extra anyway, and I wanted to give the foreigner a ride out there. 

Anyway, having turned in the car, and no LAN to attend, Bense and I were standing outside the rental place, eyes glaring at the busy street life we had been removed from, for a full week. 'Now what', was the question that presented itself most urgently. And the reply: why the hell not just catch a movie. We're in town anyway. It's sunday and neither one of us have anything to do. It was 10:45 in the am, and most movie theaters had their matinees about to start. We went in, and after a bit decided upon Hulk. I've heard decent things about it, and while the 2004 version by Ang Lee absolutely sucked, I had confidence that not only would Edward Norton to a better job than Eric Bana, but the makers of the new one would have learned from the disaster run of the older version. Before the movie we had a good 45 minutes to kill, and since it was early, and neither one of us had had breakfast, we decided we'd grab a bite. McD is usually the only choice in town unless you wanna go to a sit down restaurant and order from a menu. So McD it was.

And then, the movie. And it didn't suck. I was well impressed with it actually. While the first movie spent a lot of time with how the hell Bruce Banner got himself into the Hulk predicament, this new movie got that whole deal over with before the beginning credits had finished rolling. At first I was a little bewildered. "Is this it for the pre-story" I found myself wondering. But when the next 5-10 minutes didn't present itself with further explanation, I figured it was. And I was pleased. Because, to be honest, it's pretty boring. Bruce Banner isn't an interesting enough character to carry a lot of movietime without Hulk backing him up. Not like Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne can anyway. But here, it did get interesting. Even though it took a fair amount of time before we got a look at the Hulk himself, the movie had a good drive and a fair amount of suspense.

I guess you could say that this movie, as opposed to the 2004 one, does require the viewer to have a certain knowledge of the story. As I mentioned, the whole prelude explaining how Bruce Banner got himself into trouble, is dealt with in images only, during credits. Granted, some more explanation can be gathered during the movie itself, from dialogue, but even so. Didn't bother me tho, and as I had expected, Edward Norton was pretty friggin good. Also, I enjoyed how they dealt with the inevitable lovescene between him and Liv Tyler (who is as stunning as ever). William Hurt lived up to his usual standard as the war mongering general, and of course... the Stark cameo in the final moment of the movie. Gives you the feeling that something big is being cooked up for us down at Marvel Studios.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie a whole lot, and I doubt I'm alone on that front. I never understood why they'd want Ang Lee to make a Hulk movie (he did the 2004). I mean, if you look at his resume, he is well out of his usual genre. For that matter, I dunno why he'd even wanna do it. I guess he wanted to try something different. He does good movies usually, so I don't doubt his abilities as a director. I'm just saying, sometimes it's best to stick with what you know. But of course, if everybody did that, where would we be. Kudos for trying, Ang. You did get bested though.

Well... the title says it all. I arrived back home Sunday afternoon, and spent most of my evening and night with catching up with everything that's been going on, on the internet while I was away. Spam had to be sorted, mails read, downloads looked through, people talked to and all that sort of business. It was a good two weeks away, but being home does have it's benefits.

So, skiing for 2 weeks. It was very nice to be back on a pair of wooden planks again, after a 4 year hiatus from the slopes. And wouldn't you know it, I was just as good a skier as I remembered myself to be :) Of course there's room for improvement, but I daresay I could negotiate my way down almost any slope in any type of condition you can throw at me. But overall, the weather was pleasant, the slopes were decent and the food was plentiful.

Only a few negatives about the whole deal, namely the nights. We didn't bring a laptop this year, and I can't deny that we suffered accordingly. Watching a movie or some eps of a series at night is really nice, and I missed that. German television sucks, basically. It's utter shit. All the shows and movies you love, with german dubbing... it can really ruin even a good flick like Die Hard. Bruce Willis talking German? Get the fuck out.

So I took up another old passion; reading. 5 books in two weeks, with time to spare for another, had I been able to find an english book amidst the german litterature. Of the 5 books, 2 of them were very good, 2 were a decent enough read, and one was pretty crap. They are as follows (in the order just named):

• Man who hates women (Danish) by Stieg Larsson
• The girl who played with fire (Danish) by Stieg Larsson
• Hundehoved (Danish) by Morten Ramsland
• The Afghan (English) by Frederick Forsythe
• Cockpit (English) by Jerzy Kosinski

The two books by Stief Larsson are widely popular. I'm hoping they are translated to English, as both books are definitely worth the time of most people. Absorbing, with a good flow and a very interesting plot indeed. I was mildly amazed at how easy and interesting they were. Even with my scattered mind, small attentionspan and lack of abilities to concentrate, these books were litterally pageturners, and I hardly put them down, when first I had started reading. Hundehoved was a fun little read, but I kind of disliked the last few chapters. Sort of felt like he rounded it off in a weird and unconclussional way. The Afghan was a classic terrorist vs. the west novel. Well researched, the story was somewhat compelling, but it wasn't like... it didn't quite cut it as a timeless classic. And finally, cockpit... I dunno, perhaps it's a great novel on some levels. But I didn't like the narrator. I know he's supposed to be slightly unsympathetic. But he just felt like the kind of dick I'd never associate myself with. And to top it off, he didn't catch my interest as the kind of guy who does sick shit, just to make a statement. The book overall was pretty crap, imo.

Ok... enough rambling. I'll recount some of the more interesting events on my skiing trip later on. Just wanted to let you guys know, I was back. Back in the proverbial black... and to this design even. I dunno about this skin for dalif.com... it's a little wack, imo. I'll see about changing it.

So much has happened in the last few days. I wanted to type stuff daily, but it's too hard getting the time to sit down and do it. So, here's a brief update. I'll type out a more verbose version, when I get home and have time.

Yeah I know that the title didn't follow the rules completely, but I hope you got the point anyway. I'll try to keep up on here, with my doings in Ireland, altho I suspect getting to an internet connection daily will be hard. I'll just do it as frequently as I can. Oh, and this also warranted a new category, methought.