Good Morning Stockholm!

(yes I took it with my mobile...)

This lovely sight met me this morning! You cannot be nothing but happy! It is Friday, the salary has arrived and I have ordered the ITV Jane Austen Box-set including Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park and Emma and if you ordered quickly you got a package deal to order Persuasion as well! :) Me so happy! It only set me back a mere £30 including postage and packaging. Considering you get FOUR dvd's for that price it's very cheap!

We're going off to my darling's father after work today. It's going to be so nice to get away, if only for the week end. Job has been hectic as always but it seems to be slowing down a bit now. Finally! I can now actually have time to drink my coffee before it gets cold!

All and all, Maria is one happy chappie!

WTF?!

“"Heath Ledger is dead,” said my darling when he called me this morning when I was on my way to work. “What the fuck?!” I replied in shock. “Why?!” Heath Ledger, 28, had a daughter with actress Michelle Williams, died possibly due to a drug overdose. If it was intentional or not is still uncertain. It is so wrong that a young person’s life can just end like that. It amazes me every time I read that someone has died too young. Especially when it is someone who seems relatively healthy and sensible. I wouldn’t be as surprised if I heard that Britney or Lindsey has left the living when thinking of how they live their life. But Heath, my knight in shining armour, my homosexual cowboy, why?

Heath has since 10 Things I hate About You been one of my favourite male actors. A Knight’s Tale did not make it worse! ;-) My love was a fact. Need I even mention Brokeback Mountain? Though Heath was over shone by Jake Gyllenhaal, at least in my eyes. Not because of his acting but because Jake is simply more handsome. ;-) I believe this call for a Heath Ledger-movie-marathon some weekend in the near future.

HEATH LEDGER

R.I.P

Mansfield Park

As promised, here is my little review of the new adaptation of Mansfield Park. I haven’t read the novel for some time, but I saw the last adaptation a few months ago. For you who have not seen or read it, it is about Fanny Price who at the age of 10 is sent to richer relations at the estate Mansfield Park. She is a good student, clever and pretty. Fanny becomes very close to the youngest son and her cousin, Edmund. Her friendly feelings soon turn into something deeper but Edmund is more interested in the new next door neighbour Mary Crawford. Mary’s brother, Henry, on the other hand takes a fancy to Fanny and tries to make her fall in love with him. Intrigues, intrigues…

Blake Ritson’s Edmund is uncommonly handsome and he plays the part as the sensitive younger son very well. Fanny Price is played by Billie Piper (who recently married Laurence Fox who played Mr Wisley in Becoming Jane) the part suits her very well. I really enjoyed this adaptation, it was entertaining and when Edmund finally realises that it is Fanny he loves, well that moment is just priceless! Yes, I am a hopeless romantic, and yes there was a tear in my eye when it dawns on him, and I went around with a silly smile on my face for a long time afterwards. It is so worth seeing! Thanks to my newfound heroine Tanixmuller you can see it here. I can recommend checking her play lists for other interesting stuff worth seeing. She also seems to be a great fan of James McAvoy (my new found celeb crush) to my great satisfaction! There are two movies to be seen there.

Thank God it's Friday!

After a hectic week at work it’s finally time for weekend! It has been calling like hell at work, I don’t thing I’ve taken fewer than 600 calls any day. :-o And we have had an extra back up as well! That might be the explanation to why I have been drawn to Jane Austen’s magic world. Away from phones, computers and angry students who doesn’t listen to a word I say. ;-) I can say that it will be another review of an Austen movie during the weekend or so. It so happens that I found the new adaptation of Mansfield Park at youtube. And I cannot keep away from it! I have seen the first part and so far so good. Edmund is very handsome. But as I said, there will be a more detailed description later.

The weekend will be spend just hanging around and not do anything in particular. Or, well, we have to vacuum, do some laundry and the dishes, but still. The season of Dancing with the stars (or as we call it in Sweden, Let’s dance) started last week so I will be watching that tonight.

Tata for now!

Sense & Sensibility episode 3

Yes, I have finally seen the last episode of Sense & Sensibility. I am still very much in love with Edward, he is absolutely lovely. Even Brandon turned out to be lovable on closer acquaintance though it was not Alan Rickman. One thing I really liked about this adaptation was that they had included Willoughby’s visit to Cleveland in a try to explain his behaviour towards Miss Marianne to Elinor. I do prefer the mini series to movie adaptations. It must be very hard to choose what to include and what not to include. How do you choose? In Ang Lee’s version had many of the characters been left out, but in this one most of them still included, and that is appreciated. The movie adaptations may feel a bit cut short but the mini series is wallowing in Austen heros and heroines.

(pics above from BBC)

I have just realized that I will spend a small fortune in buying the adaptations on DVD. Especially since I have to order them from the UK. I’ll have to buy them one at the time or something but they usually have package deals. At the moment I’m waiting for my Becoming JaneDVD that should arrive in the end of the month. Yey me!

(pic from Amazon)

Online TV rocks!

Thanks to my absolute favourite site when it comes to Jane Austen, Becoming Jane Fansite, I found out that Persuasion is available to watch online. Thank you! Wonderful! A really good adaptation, if I may say so. Even though it is rather short, only one and a half hour so they have cut it a bit. It is in any case absolute worth checking out. Aw Rupert Penry-Jones’ Captain Frederick Wentworth is so handsome and dashing and played the role so well. Sally Hawkins was also very good as Anne Elliot, though I do not remember her as so wimpy as such. As her father sir Walter Elliot we see Anthony Head, perhaps more known as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Many a pining gazes was exchanged between Wentworth and Anne. The only downside was that you have to download software to be able to see it, but then again, you might be able to use veohTV for something else later! ;) See the movie HERE!

Northanger Abbey

I sat and eagerly awaited Northanger Abbey yesterday evening. I had a smile on my face through the whole movie. It is completely wonderful! I even think my darling would have liked it if he had dared stayed. It is making fun of the gothic novel from those days and Catherine, our heroine, has a lot of trouble of separating fantasy from reality after reading too many scandalous novels as The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. Which also reminds me that I have had that novel at home for like to months without reading it. But it is in two THICK volumes and it feels invincible at the moment.

The only negative I have to say about this adaptation is that the male actors could have been more handsome. In the novel they are portrayed as to dashing young men, but here, nope. JJ Fields who plays Henry Tilny, however, has something of Jude Law over him. It must be his charming smile that does it. But William Beck who takes on the role as John Thorpe has nothing what so ever. He looks almost grotesque (I am sorry if there are any fans out there, but I do not like his appearance one bit!). What do you think? Check him out here. But one cannot get everything here in the world. Not everybody can be as dashing as James McAvoy! ;)

I love YouTube!

I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked in on the youtube-user that had uploaded Sense and Sensibility ep 1 yesterday. She had also uploaded episode 2! Oh, to think one could get so happy of so little! Another marvellous episode. I sat teary eyed and unable to move when it finished. Even though I know how it ends I go really upset about the way Willoughby treated poor Marianne. The Steele-sisters were worse than ever! That might be because Ang Lee’s version only included one of them, the more gentile Lucy, now her older sister Anne was included and she is utterly vulgar. Oh how I long for the next and finishing episode!

Northanger Abbey airs at SVT tonight. Can’t wait. Iwill return with a review tomorrow!

(Pics from bbc.com)

Thank God for YouTube!

I have, since for ever, been regretting that I don’t live in the UK. Especially now when the have Jane Austen Season on BBC. The have made new adaptations of Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park. The first episode of Sense and Sensibility aired at New Years day in UK. I was sure I would have to wait until the DVD-releases, but some kind soul has uploaded the episode on YouTube. Oh lucky me! I was very antisocial towards my darling yesterday, though it was our five year anniversary. I had to see the episode. Very good indeed! I am not that impressed with Colonel Brandon and Willoughby as of yet, but that is probably because of my partiality towards Ang Lee’s version from 1995 with Alan Rickman and Greg Wise as those characters. I just have to see how if they grow on me. Dan Stevens Edward Ferrars, however is a younger and more handsome version of Hugh Grant. Totally wonderful! I really do hope that the youtube user will continue to upload the rest of the series!

(bbc.com)

Sometimes I wonder what’s in my head. A colleague of mine asked me on Monday: “I guess, as a Jane Austen-fan, you saw the movie on telly yesterday?” Eh, no? said I with a big question mark on my forehead. “Yeah, the one on SVT1 yesterday.” Oh my god. I usually know these things. In panic I went to Svt’s homepage. Maybe they will put it up their site. But no, though a rerun during the day at 1:55 pm when I’m at work. I called my darling to ask him to ask his father to record it for me. He could! Thank god! *happy* I can tell you that I will be sitting plastered in front of Northanger Abbey that they air tomorrow! ¨They are the only two adaptations I have not seen before.

Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones in Persuasion (svt.se)

New year and what not!

just realized that I haven’t updated here in a while. Christmas and New Years were both fine. It was very nice to have a couple of days off but now I’m back at work again. Been hellish here since the university and the teacher’s college has been put together. Lots of confused students are calling not sure where they belong anymore. There are new departments and a lot of new stuff to learn. Yesterday we took over 2500 calls. :-o Seriously, I had around 840 myself. It hasn’t been that hectic in years.

I spent the holiday at my father in law’s with brother in law and his two daughters and of course my darling! Very nice indeed. Pictures are found here.

To day we celebrate our fifth anniversary together! :D