Monday 28 November 2011

Elegy for a Dead Admiral

There's been a lot on my mind recently. Something very good (hopefully, keeping fingers crossed) and something really bad... And everything in between. That's why I needed a distraction.

What can be better than a 1500 pieces jigsaw puzzle :-)

I got Elegy for a Dead Admiral by Jack Vettriano, who is probably my favourite contemporary painter. If I had to pick one piece that I like most, it would probably be this one (In Thoughts of You):

Anyway, back to the puzzle. The beginning:


And the end:


The puzzle (By Ravensburger) is pure joy! Pieces fitting perfectly, with a huge variety in shape, obviously carefully made with great attention to detail. Love it!

Sunday 20 November 2011

Christmas-card teaser

With Christmas rapidly approaching, it's time to start making Christmas cards. Without ruining the surprise, I'm just posting a teaser. Can you guess what I'm making this year?


Well, no, you probably can't ;-)

More to follow in a month or so ...

Update

Saturday 19 November 2011

Curious cat

I'm slowly running out of my customised Tux penguin stamps, so it was time to order some new ones. As I don't have much spare time recently, I purchased a picture from Shutterstock and altered it a bit. Here it is - a peeking cat:


A whole lot of peeking cats:


Now that I have stamps, it's time to move on to the Christmas cards, right?

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Agatha, again

51. PARTNERS IN CRIME (Tommy & Tuppence)
Tommy and Tuppence read mystery novels and play detectives! Unfortunately I don't know most of the detectives they impersonate, but the whole thing is fun to read anyway. Interesting short stories with clever endings, what else!

Memorable quotes:
-"I was brought up to believe that men - especially husbands - were dissipated beings, fond of drinking and dancing and staying up late at night. It took an exceptionally beautiful and clever wife to keep them at home. Another illusion gone! All the wives I know are hankering to go out and dance, and weeping because their husbands will wear bedroom slippers and go to bed at half past nine."
-"'If you must be Sherlock Holmes,' she observed,"I'll get you a nice little syringe and a bottle labelled Cocaine, but for God's sake leave that violin alone."
-"If you disperse energy in speech, it doesn't leave you too much over for action."
-"It is a great advantage to be intelligent and not to look it."


Favourite Guest Character: Una Drake from The Unbreakable Alibi
Favourite Episode: The Man in the Mist. And The Case of the Missing Lady is funny.
Mystery: **
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ****
10/15


50. APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH (Poirot)
An American family with a tyrant mother visits Petra in Jordan. While everyone frowns upon her behaviour, everyone also agrees that something needs to be done. For someone, it needs to be done before it is too late!

A great book but the latest film adaptation is a huge disappointment. Why change the plot? And the motive? And the murder weapon? even the murderer? Also the setting? I was so hoping to see Petra again, but got Syria (or, as a matter of fact, Morocco) instead.

Memorable quotes:
-"To have too much power is bad for women."
-"And I'd very much like to have a look at the Rose Red City of Petra, a most remarkable natural phenomenon, I believe that is, and right off the beaten track..."
-"If anything is to be accomplished, mark my words, it is women who will do it."
-"The illusion that freedom is the prerogative of one's own particular race is fairly widespread."
-"Women do not look their best in the desert."


Favourite Guest Characters: Sarah King, dr. Gerard, and Nadine Boynton
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ***
Entertainment: ****
11/15


49. DEATH IN THE CLOUDS (Mr. Air Kule Prott)
A plot somewhat similar to the Orient Express - but this time it's in the air! Poirot is one of the passengers on an air-liner, together with some pleasant and some not so pleasant passengers. And a wasp. As an old lady is killed, it's time to dig up the past to find a motive.

Memorable quotes:
-"Oh, my dear friend, when a girl is nervous it usually means a young man - not crime."
-"Nothing can be so misleading as observation."
-"Mon cher, practically speaking, I know everything."
-"Stupid, to read the same thing over and over again.... As though the words might alter their meaning."


Favourite Guest Character: Jean Dupont
Mystery: ****
Final Solution: ****
Entertainment: ***
11/15