Let's talk faces

I just finished re-watching 'A Study in Pink' from the new Sherlock series. It's brilliant isn't it?

And Benedict Cumberbatch has the most interesting face! I love angular cheekbones and weird faces, it makes me really want to draw them.



Just look at that odd face!

And talking about weird faces. Don't tell me that this isn't a perfect face for the Doctor. Absolutely delightfully odd.



And when mentioning cheekbones and faces I want to draw, who can forget the young Merlin? Sometimes I just watch the show for the shadows the dramatic lighting throws on Colin's face.



British television really has a lot of interesting male faces to look out for, doesn't it? (Don't hesitate to point out the ones I forgot!)

And to not let our American friends feel left out, let's add two of my favourite faces from US television.

One American who's too damn adorable for his own good. I really must draw that upturned nose of his!



And one Englishman the Americans shamelessly stole and who only seems to get better and better with age.

I've been busy!

As I said, my uncle and aunt arrived Thursday evening and stayed till Sunday morning. And as promised, the intervening time was spent in chaos and a whirlwind of random energy and excitement.

On Friday we went to Cambridge, where we ate and walked and got lost and found ourselves again.

I have three things to say about Cambridge. Because I've been before many times, and you all have either been or seen so many photos of the place you feel like you know it.

1. Cambridge is not very wheel-chair friendly. My grandmother has trouble walking because of her bad hip, so we wheel her around in a wheel chair. And let me tell you, it was very hard work in Cambridge! And rather painful for her because of all the bumps and cobbles and stuff.

2. Cambridge is a dream for bicycle lovers. I spent all my time ogling bicycles and drooling over the more attractive ones. I found my perfect bicycle! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). It's an old fashioned women's city bike: a gorgeous white Raleigh with a beautiful flower design, a basket and a rack.


3. Cambridge is full of trendy students and cute young men even in the summer. One of the upsides of being in Britain is that I see many more cute guys than I did in Greece. When we went for coffee the cashier was a particularly drool-worthy twenty-something blond (and I'm not even that keen on blonds!). I tried giving him my most charming style, but there's only so much you can do when you're with your loud squabbling mother and aunt... (Unfortunately I don't have a photo, which is a pity because his haircut was absolutely perfect!)

On Saturday it rained all morning and then we went to Hampstead Heath where we got caught in the rain and promptly drenched. Afterwards we went to central London.


Three things about London:

1. If you want to buy an epilator go to Boots, it has the best selection. Also the Boots in Oxford street is absolutely huge!

2.Chelsey is a lovely neighbourhood, but also very expensive. If you decide to eat there bring a credit card and be prepared for a lot of damage.

3. Central London is also not very wheel-chair friendly (and they want to host the Olympics!). Some of their underground parkings don't even have lifts. And don't get me started with the underground!


And on Sunday I was invited to a barbecue in Clapham Junction!

Angela and Charles decided to have a barbecue to welcome her back to London. They invited all their friends, but apparently two weeks notice isn't long enough in London and at least half had already made plans. It rained all morning and most of midday so many of the other half decided to stay at home. But it still was fun!

Charles bought a gazebo that he set up in the garden and then spent hours trying to get the barbecue to work in the rain. But then the sun came out, the chicken - and the german sausages from Lidl brought by Cora the german- were cooked to perfection. We were all foreigners, and many were engineers, and we had lots to drink, lots to eat and laughed a lot.

I finally got to meet Giovanni (good looking, Italian and charming), Charles old room-mate from Brixton in who's bed Nikoletta and I had slept innumerable years ago while he was away and we were visiting. We had left him a post-card thanking him for the use of it, which we later learned he had kept to remind himself that two women had once slept together in his bed (and bemoan the fact he hadn't been there I guess...)

And Joss, the French womaniser, told us all about the restaurants he takes his dates and are guaranteed to work. Actually he said he first decides which restaurant he wants to go to and then goes through his phone list to see which woman best matches it. Charles and Albert the techie immediately started talking about creating an app to better help men like Joss pair up restaurants and women, and another for the women, to explain to them what their date's restaurant selection implies. I'm pretty sure Albert is working on it as I type...

Anyway, it was fun.


And now back to working on my CV. Charles and the consultant from RIBA I got in touch with gave me lots of advice on how to better it.

They all boil down to two things:

1. Include as much stuff as you can in the most concise manner.

2. Lie as much as you can.

Musing on crazy families and relative coolness

My mother arrived yesterday from Athens, and tomorrow my uncle and aunt are coming down from Manchester. Chaos will surely ensue! My uncle is a force of nature, my aunt constantly talks nine to the dozen, my mother acts like a dazed alien and my grandmother is already complaining about how all this is going to mess with her routine.

And I will have to sleep on the sofa... (And be woken up at the crack of dawn I assume when my grandmother gets up.)

Whatever. That's what family is for. To create chaos. And give headaches. But seriously now, I like my uncle and aunt. They are fun, tiring, but fun.

Today we had my aunt, cousin and her eldest daughter round for dinner. I cooked pizza! From scratch! I made the dough and everything! It was the first time I had ever tried it, and it was surprisingly easy. Everyone seemed to like it, except my grandmother. Old people, what can you do? They will always complain.

And as if I hadn't won enough brownie points from my eleven year old cousin's daughter from giving her pizza for dinner, I won even more when I told her I've read all the Harry Potter books and seen all the films. She high-fived me and asked me to come to the new film with her! When an eleven year old high-fives you does that automatically make you cool? It certainly made me feel less old!

Trees, Beards and Books

I'm feeling alternatively stressed and depressed. Pay no heed to me. I get stressed very easily and I have a depressive personality.

I'm not getting anywhere with my job hunting, but these things take time. So lets not talk about that, shall we?

In other, more interesting news. I took my bearded friend Dimitris on a walk through the forest around Forty Hill on Sunday. It was nice sharing a familiar childhood experience with a friend.






Yes, I just had to share Dimitris' absolutely ridiculous beard with you. Sometimes I wonder how I agree to go out with him like that. (By the way, he's not nearly as old as the beard makes him look.)


Also I have been reading. A real book! A real published book. In paper!

So do you like Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction? Because I do. Not the kind that has starship battles, lazer guns and scantily clad women and men with too big muscles and swords, obviously. But the kind that creates whole new worlds and societies. You know, like Herbert's 'Dune', or Pullman's "Dark Materials'. Like Narnia or Middle-Earth. Like the universe in Harry Potter obviously.

One such author that delivers in spades is Ursula LeGuin. She's really old, so you should know her. My friend Nikoletta kept on telling me I should read her stuff. In the end, to make in extra easy for me, she got me the Earthsea Quartet a couple of years ago. The Earthsea books are classic boyish fantasy fiction, with magic and dragons and a quest and lots of adventures. The kind of well written boyish fantasy fiction that grown women like me like to read on occasion. I guess my age shows when I tell you that I possibly liked the last book in the series the most. The one where the hero is now middle-aged and has returned from his adventures and has to learn how to live like an average everyday person.

Ursula LeGuin also writes Science Fiction. The kind I love. Her science fiction is all about strange new societies on different planets. Societies made of people a little like us, but with completely different attitudes towards human relations, power play, gender, families, sex and marriage.

Last year I read her book 'The Left Hand of Darkness', which I urge you all to read. It's brilliant and engrossing. Because it was written in the 1970s, the feministic polemic in the book is a bit too obvious for today's tastes, but I think we can all forgive her that. It's all about a Terran who visit's a planet where the people there have no gender. They live most their lives without gender or sexual urges, and only when they go into heat - which happens on a regulate cycle - do they arbitrarily turn into women or men and have sex, and on occasion get pregnant. It really is quite an interesting idea.

Now I'm reading a collection of her short stories, 'The Birthday of the World'. So far all the stories are about sex and human relations in completely alien societies. It's all very engrossing and interesting. I always believed that good authors are also sociologists and psychologists.

Hmmn. Anyway. I hope the title of my journal sufficiently warned you of my incoherent and random ramblings.

Living in Athens

I am no longer in Athens, but I am being kept up to date by my friends back home - and the BBC news. Things are getting really intense and worrying. I'm sure you must have all heard. What is going to happen?

I think I will have to find a job as fast as possible to rent a big house, because I most probably will be housing economic refugees by next year.










The last video is pretty awesome but unfortunately in Greek.

London Pride Parade

I'm still busy getting stuff in order and registering for various things. But I can't be bothered to blather on about that today.

Today I want to share some bad photos and some even worse videos. Yes, I still haven't replaced my stolen digital camera and am still taking photos and videos with my mobile (it's days like this I wish I had an iphone!).

So as many of you must know Saturday was London's Pride Parade. I went with Angela and later met up with Dimitris and some other friends - we couldn't seem to organise ourselves to get to the Pride all at the same time.

Lot's of people, lot's of brightly dressed and scantily clad people! Lot's of loud dance music - why can't the gay movement have better taste in music? The previous night some friends had taken me to a gay bar - complete with dancing go-go boy and go-go cross-dresser - and the music couldn't have been more cliche! You know what the market is missing? A gay/lesbian bar/club with rock or indie music. Do you think it might catch on?

Because I spent most of the time with Angela complete with colourful stickers and pins we were given trying to find the others, I think most people thought we were a couple. A very girly couple (is that what a lipstick lesbian is?) complete with colourful short summer dresses and jangling jewellery. At some point we sat on a bench for Angela to eat her sandwich and me to eat my apple and a strange man in sharp black business suit with a fat cigar in his mouth took out his iphone and started taking photos of us. We told him to stop, but were too lazy to actually get up and tell him off.

Anyway, enough of that. As promised, here are some bad photos and really bad videos. The videos turned out so murky because the glare of the sun was against us.















By the way, I'm sick! Miserably sick!