Letting out my inner child...

Careful! Special delivery!!!

Guess what the...

... brought in today?

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Blog Action Day 2010: Water!

I just learnt about this... apparently there's a Blog Action Day (every year on Oct 15th) where the purpose is to unite bloggers around the world by posting on the same topic in the hopes of sparking discussion and action.

Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Unfortuately it's too late for me to participate significantly in this, which is a pity because this topic is right up my alley! I've often wondered why our blue planet is called Earth instead of Ocean, but that might just be the oceanographer inside of me popping her scientific ideas into my head... Sadly it's almost midnight and my brain is turning to zombie mush (has been a long hard week, finally noticing the season  changing due to waking up in the dark several days in a row and a significant decrease in temperatures,;have yet to get used to it) and I don't have the energy to put in the effort to produce something worthwhile.

But I did want to mention it here in case some of you do have time to participate in this (here are some ideas), and in any case so you can check out the website I linked to above and go read what people around the world are writing on the subject!

I could also remind you about our annual Oceanic Blog-A-Thon (click here for 2009, and here for 2010 editions) which is after all about water, from a certain point of view! ;o)

 

Finally, for those of you living in "developed" countries, take a few moments to appreciate the simple miracle of opening your water faucet, filling a glass of the transparent liquid, and being able to drink it without worrying about possible health problems. And then ditch the bottled water 'cause you don't really need it!

Hiking through Wallonia: Creppe with the FFBMP

I think I mentioned last week that some of the hikes organised by the University Hiking Group don't allow for meet-ups at noon and so you're either in for the long haul (25km) or you don't go... Well turns out my second weekend in Li�ge was going to be one those, and quite frankly after the aches of the previous week and worried about my ankle I wasn't up to trying a 25k hike on my second trip out! Fortunately for me some other people in the group felt more like a half day hike as well, so a friend (the one who got me mixed up with this group in the first place!) and I joined them on Saturday Sept 25th for a hike organised by the F�d�ration Francophone Belge des Marches Populaires (FFBMP for short). I hadn't heard about this organisation before, but I think it's fabulous! Each Saturday and Sunday they choose a couple of spots where they programme circular hikes of varying distances (usually 5-10-15-25-50 km) and mark the paths with colourful bowties or arrows so that they're easy to spot and follow (and you don't need to be an expert with maps and following complicated GR trails). You go alone, with friends, in a group... at your own rythm! There's a rallying point where you start and finish in a local school where they serve food (grilled sausages) and drink, and there are a couple other "rest stops" along the way where they also have drinks available.

So Isa, a University hiker with two dogs, e-mailed several people telling them she was going on one of those hikes in Creppe (r�gion de Spa) instead of the big Sunday hike and who wanted to join her? Well 4 of us did and we had a lovely afternoon of it! Not as challenging as the University hike for sure, but was nice to get some km under my feet (we went a bit too leisurely and ended up doing the 10km circuit instead of the 15km as planned 'cause we were running out of time). Had a bit of rain (not too bad for Belgium) and mostly had to deal with a lot of MUD! :p

So ready to join me on another hike? Here we go! ;o)

keep reading!

La banda sonora de nuestras vidas: Cine

A nadie se le escapa que la m�sica en el cine siempre tuvo una importancia capital, incluso antes de ser sonoro: fon�grafos, pianistas y hasta orquestas y coros fueron los encargados de, entre otras tareas, crear un ambiente adecuado que centrara la atenci�n del p�blico en lo que estaba sucediendo en la pantalla. En la actualidad, todos guardamos en la memoria grandes bandas sonoras y espectaculares n�meros musicales, pero hoy no voy a escribir sobre ellos. Hoy voy a escribir sobre dos sencillas canciones que aparecen en dos cl�sicos. Pasar�an desapercibidas en cualquier listado sobre m�sica de cine, s�, es cierto, pero consiguen atrapar nuestra atenci�n y hacernos sonre�r como s�lo pueden hacerlo los grandes.

La primera es Comin thro' the Rye y la canta Ava Gardner en Mogambo. No es m�s que una inocente canci�n infantil y, su letra, un poema de Robert Burns. Como curiosidad siempre se cuenta que el t�tulo de la novela de J. D. Salinger El guardi�n entre el centeno proviene de ella. Ya sabemos todos que el argumento de la pel�cula es un tri�ngulo amoroso y que, casualmente, hay dos estrofas de la canci�n que pueden venir muy bien aqu�, �no? Al fin y al cabo, si dos personas se encuentran a trav�s del centeno, �tiene alguien que llorar? Es m�s, �tiene el mundo que saberlo? Justamente es esto lo que canta "inocentemente" Eloise Kelly, dando lugar a una de las mejores y m�s divertidas escenas de la pel�cula; cosa por otro lado comprensible: siempre que aparece Ava en escena, se esfuma todo lo dem�s. ;)

La segunda es mucho m�s conocida, se trata de My rifle, my pony and me, de Dimitri Tiomkin, y la cantan Dean Martin y Ricky Nelson -con el acompa�amiento de Walter Brennan ;)- en R�o Bravo. Protagoniza una de las escenas m�s famosas de la pel�cula y, no s�lo eso, siempre me pareci� que condensaba en sus l�neas todo el mito del cowboy:

Purple light in the canyon

that is where I long to be

With my three good companions

just my rifle pony and me

�Alguna m�s que a�adir a la lista? ;)

La banda sonora de nuestras vidas: Cine

A nadie se le escapa que la m�sica en el cine siempre tuvo una importancia capital, incluso antes de ser sonoro: fon�grafos, pianistas y hasta orquestas y coros fueron los encargados de, entre otras tareas, crear un ambiente adecuado que centrara la atenci�n del p�blico en lo que estaba sucediendo en la pantalla. En la actualidad, todos guardamos en la memoria grandes bandas sonoras y espectaculares n�meros musicales, pero hoy no voy a escribir sobre ellos. Hoy voy a escribir sobre dos sencillas canciones que aparecen en dos cl�sicos. Pasar�an desapercibidas en cualquier listado sobre m�sica de cine, s�, es cierto, pero consiguen atrapar nuestra atenci�n y hacernos sonre�r como s�lo pueden hacerlo los grandes.

La primera es Comin thro' the Rye y la canta Ava Gardner en Mogambo. No es m�s que una inocente canci�n infantil y, su letra, un poema de Robert Burns. Como curiosidad siempre se cuenta que el t�tulo de la novela de J. D. Salinger El guardi�n entre el centeno proviene de ella. Ya sabemos todos que el argumento de la pel�cula es un tri�ngulo amoroso y que, casualmente, hay dos estrofas de la canci�n que pueden venir muy bien aqu�, �no? Al fin y al cabo, si dos personas se encuentran a trav�s del centeno, �tiene alguien que llorar? Es m�s, �tiene el mundo que saberlo? Justamente es esto lo que canta "inocentemente" Eloise Kelly, dando lugar a una de las mejores y m�s divertidas escenas de la pel�cula; cosa por otro lado comprensible: siempre que aparece Ava en escena, se esfuma todo lo dem�s. ;)

La segunda es mucho m�s conocida, se trata de My rifle, my pony and me, de Dimitri Tiomkin, y la cantan Dean Martin y Ricky Nelson -con el acompa�amiento de Walter Brennan ;)- en R�o Bravo. Protagoniza una de las escenas m�s famosas de la pel�cula y, no s�lo eso, siempre me pareci� que condensaba en sus l�neas todo el mito del cowboy:

Purple light in the canyon

that is where I long to be

With my three good companions

just my rifle pony and me

�Alguna m�s que a�adir a la lista? ;)

Randomness...

Random thoughts from today...

• I remembered today how much I HATE laundromats! And this one (2 blocks from my kot, only good thing about it) is particularly crappy... only 4 working washing machines and 1 working drier. And I had a load of light and dark to do (I've got enough clothes to get me through 2 weeks, and with sheets and towels can complete enough for 2 machines). Talk about wasting time... Thank heavens I've got free time in my class schedule during the day 'cause this place has to be impossible on weekends! :s

• I am so behind on my blog it's not even funny anymore! Even with free hours here and there in the day, it's hard to sit down and write when I have to prepare classes, or when I'm tired (or recuperating from the extremely nasty cold that hit me last week) and just want to veg out watching a TV show, or catch up with family and friends on Facebook or Skype...

• When was the last time I talked about movies? Or the books I was reading? I have to bring myself up to speed on those 'cause I've got access to some really good ones here! We've got a great independant movie theatre (I saw a couple of lovely French movies in Sept!) here, all in VOS (no dubbing, YAY!!!), and I've managed to renew my suscription to the local library... Add to that the books friends have been kind enough to loan me, and as you can see:

keep reading!

Hiking through Wallonia: Nonceveux-Lorc�

Time sure flies when you're busy as a bee! So much to write, so little time!

One of the reasons I'm glad to be back in Belgium this fall is that I've joined the University of Li�ge's hiking group! Starting up hiking again was one of my plans for getting back in shape last winter and spring... until a certain tumble knocked me out of circulation for a couple of months and then limited me to aquatic action. Well, taking it slow but surely (being careful of my ankle and how it reacts) I'm done with standing still, I'm on the move! And I'd like to share these tales of trees and hills (they don't really have mountains here... but the hills can have some very steep climbs!) and mushrooms with you! Hope you're interested. ;o)

keep reading!