A must see movie: The Kings Speech (2010) (now in the cinema!)

Again Colin Firth has not disappointed me with this stellar role of the British king George the VI. Not to forget the other splendid interpretation of the Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, playing the role of the speech therapist and best friend of the king : Lionel Logue. I specially like the relationship between the 2 and the peculiar techniques Lionel use to assist the king to lose his fear and talk without stuttering. Even though you may not be into British history, I'm sure you will like this moving story based on true facts! How can someone be a king or even a politician being a stutter? Can people believe in your abilities if you are not able to be a good speaker in public? Can this be overcome? I do hope Colin and Geoffrey get an Oscar for their interpretations!!! The magic of the cinema bringing true historic stories closer to other generations!

ah! no need to say , try to see this film in its original version!!

Next movies on my list: Hereafter, Biutiful and Black Swan!

Movie Recommendation: NEDS (2010) now in the cinema!

Another week that I have been in tension in my seat in the cinema but at least this week, i can say that I can truly recommend this Scottish film "Neds (non-educated delinquents")! It's class!!! The film shows how in 1972 gangs of delinquents lived in less favored areas from Glasgow (unfortunately, I think much of it ,is still seen today!). Tough to understand their accent sometimes, this reminded me of Trainspotting , when many times i couldn't understand a word lol. I'm not going to reveal the plot, so that you suffer like me (sometimes i couldn't even watch, it's a bit violent in some parts, so if you can't handle violence..don't go!). The main protagonist, Connor McCarron plays an excellent role as John Mcgill, he's personally my favorite. In the movie, they explain how hard is not to get involved in gangs when you live surrounded by them, either you join one of them or you are a victim of them! Once you see it, you can tell me if your favorite scenes are : The one with John Mcgill and the statue of jesus (what a paranoia!) and the other one, is again with John Mcgill but this time with his school mate and the lions and the tigers (another unique scene lol). Even though the movie is a drama, you will also have a laugh. As a conclusion, I have to say that if i lived in the same place and treated in the same way, i'd also have become a delinquent!

Jane Eyre (Gate Theatre, Dublin)

Andrea Corr, the lead singer of the Irish group "The Corrs" is the main protagonist of this 19th century Charlotte's Bronte novel "Jane Eyre". Before going to see this play , I was a bit sceptical, knowing only Andrea from her singer's career but she proved me wrong, her acting skills are at the same level that her singing ones! You really got into the tough stages of life of Jane Eyre, which was respected in the play. I personally liked the way , the character of the old Jane Eyre was in the corner of the stage narrating the story while the rest of the actors were ont he stage. The little kid who played Jane as a child was also remarkable along with Sir Rochester, of course.

To sum up, the play is a soap-opera of the nineteenth century where you can find: emotional and physical child abuse by Janes' Auntie, Jane's life at Lowood school with other poor orphans, her life as a governess when she fall in love with MrRochester not knowing of Mr Rochester's lunatic wife, who, by the way, scared all us on the stage ( she had a small role but gee ,it was believable! at one point some people from the audience even screamed!), an interrupted wedding, a surprising inheritance from an unknown relative and in the end a happy ending. All along, performed with an exquisite and elegante English language where any words of latin origin were used and Andrea is delicate and beautiful (i could not find er any fault, only a bit short ! and i was on the 4th row so..pretty close!). The changes of scenarios were done by the same actors in low light ,it was simple but it was good because you could use your imagination as well to picture the whole scene, i liked that simplicity and the movement of furniture. No huge budget on the clothing or effects but the 15 actors who performed made us all, feel like in another time. The audience was very respectful and no mobile sound went off or any weird noises (this is really appreciated!)! To put it in a nutshell, I'm very glad we went to see this play, a novel i never had time to read when i was at the university and that it was on the back of my mind!

If you have a chance to see this adaptation by Alan Stanford, don't miss it!!! You will laugh, suffer and even feel fear of MR Rochester lunatic's wife (we thought she was going to jump out of stage or something lol)

IF you don't believe me you can read Irish times review ,like they say this adaptation can inspire a new generation of readers!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/1111/1224283081027.html

Blue Valentine (2010) - Depressing movie..take tissues with you..

This year I have decided that I'm going to write about all the movies I see in the cinema just for me to remember at the end how may i have watched! (I usually lose count!).

The first movie I have seen in 2011 has been " Blue Valentine" and Gee..if you want to leave the cinema depressed and seeing your relationship as wonderful because your boyfriend/husband is not a loser and hasn't got alcohol problems, then go and see it! I can't say it's a bad movie because the 2 main protagonists: Ryan Gosling (you feel sorry for him and he is actually cute..and he has a nice body..and smile..) and Michelle Williams plays very believable roles at one point you forget that it's actually a movie and it feels like you are watching the reality of a couple's tough love story. Before I went to see this movie , I read that they deserved an oscar nomination and I agree, they do but still the film was not my cup of tea but I do give them credit!

Some people start leaving before it ended , I honestly, didn't leave because Andr'es wanted to stay at the end of the movie i felt like jumping into the river Liffey lol! Honestly, go and see a comedyyyyyy.

Glee Serie Recommendation for musical lovers and Attention they are on Tour! (in Dublin in July!)

Some of you may know already the famous U.s. series of Glee produced by FOX but for those who do not know it yet, I wanted to recommend it to you if you are a fan of musicals like me. Glee's first season started in June 2009. The young cast of Glee do their own version of current hits and old ones from the 80ies like for example : "it's my life" by Bon Jovi, " Hello" by Lionel Richie and famous hit of the series " don't stop believing". The series mix comedy and drama with music and dance. My favorite characters are the attractive teacher played by Morrison, Rachel (played by Lea michelle,the lead singer), Finn (Played by Cory M) , Kurt who played the gay student ( starred by Chris Colfer)and Mercedes with her impressive voice (played by Amber R.). Of course I have to mention the coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch), she is so mean and funny!!! In the series they usually pay tribute to some pop icons like Madonna, Britney Spears, Rhianna and Lady Gaga, they put their own style! I personally liked a lot the episode in tribute to Madonna, you can see a short footage of their version of vogue in this video.



All the cast can really sing and and dance and the can prove that on a world tour they are doing at the moment where they sing the most famous hits of the series. I'm going to be lucky to see them live in Dublin this July at the O2! I still can't believe that I have found tickets! I'm a big fan of Glee and to me to see the real actors live singing in front to me ,it's going to be an experience!

The series have a web page where you can see videos and photos and of course you can find them on youtube, too.

http://www.fox.com/glee/

Reportaje recomendado para los fumadores y no fumadores (Informe semanal)

Quer'ia recomendaros el primer reportaje de Informe semanal sobre la ley antitabaco en Espa~na en el que tambi'en salen m'edicos que relatan que el tabaco tiene adictivos como amon'iaco o alquitr'an! Es una de las sustancias m'as adictivas y en el futuro la Uni'on Europea va a regular mejor dichas sustancias que se a~naden.

Hacer click (son varios reportajes, el segundo sobre los secuestros de ni~nos tambi'en es muy interesante pero al menos veros el primero sobre la ley antitabaco que dura unos 20 mins m'aximo).

http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/search.html?q=informe+semanal#983014

Ya me dir'eis que opin'ais.. , de momento a mis amigos fumadores TODAVIA ESTAIS A TIEMPO !! y no me se'ais pat'eticos y no os met'ais en uno de esos clubs de fumadores que se est'an creando por ah'i..

Foto tomada de: http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/lit%20cigarette._80576

Musée d'Orsay: Gérôme exhibition and some of my fav paintings ( Paris)

You still have until the 23th of January to see the exhibition of the French painter Gérôme .. in this link you can get an idea of what,if you happen to be in Paris, you can see: Musée d'Orsay: Video trailer of the Gérôme exhibition , we liked it a lot.. (Andresillo tried to take pics and we were about to get in trouble lol so we had to stop..)

Appart from recommending this temporary exhibition , I wanted to share with you some paintings i, personally, liked even though I'm not a big fan of impressionism art and I'm not an art expert either!:

1..Bonard " Mujer con vestido de cuadros" (there are a couple more paintings of diff women..all beautiful..)

2. Painting by George Seurat "El circo"(Scientific impressionism)
3.A piece of art by Matisse " Lujo,Calma y voluptuosidad" - (Scientific impressionism)
4.Being Spanish, I had to like this Van Gogh's painting called "siesta"!

I could go on..and on.. but I leave you some for your visit to the museum d'Orsay! Remember that the first Sunday of each month,the main museums in Paris are free (expect long queues ,too..)! The entrance at the moment for the Orsay costs 8 euros, you can get there either by train - RER (the stop is just under the museum or by underground (Solferino -line 12 - only 5 mins away from the museum). Just to see the layout of the building inside ,which used to be a station, is beautiful!! BUT!! BUT!!! leave the camera at home.. photographs are forbidden..

One thing is clear after going to the Louvre (Louvre is the best museum in Paris,in my opinion..) and to the Rodin museum (I have to write about this one one day..is beautiful!)..Orsay should be on your list (if you are a big impressionist fan ,then it should be your number one)! Just take into consideration that in Paris, main museums are massive..only in the Louvre you can spend a couple of days.., Orsay is smaller but still big!

The Secret Millionaire (TV reportage series -Channel 4)- A must see

I wanted to recommend you an interesting TV series of reportages that you can see on the Brisith channel 4. To my mind, the initiative of these U.k. reportages is inspiring and I'm always moved by the stories of people who live in less-favored areas that need help and they actually get it in the end. On this programe, you can see every week a British millionaire who wants to donate some money (usually at least 65 thousand pounds)to really make a difference. The undercover millionaire lives for a week or 2 in a less-favored area and live like them (they even have minimum "welfare" pay) and start mingling with community organizations, charities or common inhabitants. At the end of the experience, he needs to decide whom he is donating the money and he has to reveal the truth. It's so nice to see how people react when the millionaire gives them a check , you can really tell that it's real! You can see some episodes on the channel 4 webpage, the one i'm sharing the link with you now ,made me cry like a baby!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-millionaire/4od#3147678

This reportages also show the amazing work many volunteers do to assist others. Another thing you can learn from the programme is how some U.k. citizens are stinky rich!! GEE!!

La verdadera identidad de los Reyes Magos seg'un el Jueves (JAJAJA)

No os perd'ais este corto video sobre la verdadera identidad de los Reyes Magos relatada por una ni~na en la p'agina de la revista de humor espa~nola : El Jueves JAJAJAJ

http://www.eljueves.es/2011/01/05/los_reyes_son_los_padres.html

Gracias Amalia!! genial!!

Where to have lunch in Paris for food lovers and non-speakers of French?

You can't leave Paris without eating a crêpe and/or a galette , a street between the Odéon and the Notre Dame has some nice crêperies like the one I'm going to recommend now: Crêperie Saint-Germain in rue de Saint-Andr'e des-Arts , number 33. The place is cozy, good service, quick and for a moderate price. They have a wide variety of crêpes and galettes. Please note that this place is not for tourist and you will need your dictionary to understand the menu,unless you can understand a little bit of French. Try out the crêpe au chocolat uhmmmmm!! You can get to this street walking from the Odéon metro stop (lines 4 or 10). If you want to have a nice cocktail you can go back to Odéon and you can find some places with Happy hour, too. Those who know me can trust me since I love good food, even if I'm not from Paris, I have been very selective and I have had very nice meals!!

As we were coming from Dublin and we are used to have meals at any time (at 16.00 or even 17.00) after having a huge breakfast to take advantage of the day ,specially on holidays, we found that Bistros were the best places to go to have a nice meal. Close to our hotel our favourite was "Bistro Dupleix" (Metro stop: Dupleix, line 6, in the city centre)they have food ay any time and with one plate you have more than enough! Prices are not cheap but as we are in Paris, we stop thinking about this not to go nuts! To give you an example my plate was Poulet routin with French Fries for 12 euros ( chicken in a brown sauce). BE careful don't order soft drinks! a coke is more expensive than a glass of wine (Glass of wine 3,80 and a coke 4,00 euros!). I also learned the lesson not to order a coffee with milk, they call it "creme" and only for the name , a simple coffee with milk costs 4,20 !!!!!as a coffee addict this was a hard lesson to learn..having a coffee with milk is expensive,it's more practical to order a caf'e noir (expresso) which is half price or got to Starbucks (coffee for the same price!!). Apart from the prices, the service was very good (They speak a bit of English and the menu is in English, too) and the service. Expect to pay circa 50 euros for 2 people. (desserts costs at least 7 euros each, Mousse au chocolat is recommendable uhmmmmm).

The best place we found for a good price was the Bistro: L'entrecote in the Rue Sant- Denis, They offer a menu (The call it "formule") for 13,90, with a main course, main course and dessert. This place specialty are the entrecote, nice chunks of meat!!i=If you are vegetarian , don't go, then! To find this place, it's only 5 minutes away from the modern museum of the Pompidou (metro stop: Rambuteau). You can go and visit the Pompidou Centre if you are into Modern and Contemporary art and then go for lunch here. Always check if there is a menu, otherwise it can be expensive.

In the Pompidou area there are many places to have a drink with happy hour (cocktails and beers half price in specific time range).

I 'd recommend yo more places but these are the best ones i have found (in the Bistro Dupleix we had lunch 3 times lol and it's only 20 minutes away from the Eiffel tower on foot).

If you are on a low budget ,you can have a nice baguette with different things: cheese, chicken, salami in many places or ven crepes to go, we totally love French bread and sweets!!!

All the places above are on a budget from 30 euros (2 person - no drinking wine or soft drinks and sharing the dessert) to 50 euros (for 2 people, with red wine (50 cl) and again sharing the dessert unless you order 2 menus, then you get a dessert each.)

Last but not least some tips:

- Avoid soft drinks - rather I'd order tab water (they usually put it in a bottle or jar and it's free and tastes good) or red wine (a Jar for 2 glasses : 50 cl )

- Do not leave tips, service is included in the bill (15%), unless you feel extremely generous!

- Avoid ordering coffee with milk after the meals (as I specified before) or going for a coffee only.

-Do not call the waiter garçon but Messier.

-Bread is included in the meals, enjoy it! is so tasty!

A cemetery full of art and dead celebrities: Père Lachaise (Paris)

One of the visitis I enjoyed the most in our second trip to Paris, was the visit to this beautiful and of course peaceful cemetery in Paris: Père Lachaise, also commonly known by "the city of dead". I'm going to give you some tips that helped me.

How to get there:

Père Lachaise is one of the biggest cemeteries in Europe so if you are in a rush (unless you live in Paris and can go back different days) what you need to do first is to decide what tombs you are interested in. The cemetery has many doors, I was for example very interested in seeing Oscar Wildes' tomb and Edit Piaf (they were on the same area) so in order to do this you need to :

Take line 3, stop: Gambetta, walk the street "rue de Rondeaux" and only in a couple of minutes you will get to "Porte Gambetta" - secondary entry of the cemetery. I personally liked more this part of the cemetery where you can find many tribute tombs/statues to jews who died in concentration camps like the one in Dachau or in Auschwitz ,even tribute to casualties who died on the Airfrance crash over Rio de Janeiro a couple of years ago.

If on the contrary you are more interested to see Jim's Morrison's tomb or other musicians or composers like Chopin, they are just on the opposite side of the cemetery so you will need to take a different metro line to go to the main entry:

Take Line 2, Metro Phillippe Auguste and take the Rue de Repos,only on 5 minute walk, you will find on your right the Porte du Rep'os. Once you get in, on your left oyu can find a house where free maps of the cemetery with all the division numbers are given (this is essential not to get lost, believe me!).

What we did as we only had 4 hours to visit the cemetery we took the metro twice not to lose time and I don't regret it,it was the best decision and we got to see it all! (you can buy, on the metro machine, a bunch of 10- metro ticket for 12 euros and you have for 12 trips!).

All the above may look simple but it took me a while to do a research to go to the right cemetery door to see the celebrities I wanted to see.

Further Tips:

Have a look at the cemetery web page before you go and you get a list of celebrities and in what division (it's divided in division numbers) and number of the tomb they are located.

Take into consideration that free maps for the cemetery are only given on the main entry , on the other entries you will find a sign with all the numbers only at the entrance ,what we did was to take a picture of it with the camera since we didn't have a map (because Oscar Wilde is at the other end,as I have explained) and this helped us a lot!

Preferably go in spring time where it has to be nice to walk along the cemetery and see all pieces of art that you find, really..you can see some on the pics.We went in winter time and it was very cold.. so you don't enjoy it that much if the weather is not nice.

I found beautiful the garden of remembrance very interesting, it's very close to the Gambetta door inside the cemetery. To me it was the first time that i saw human dead ashes spread on a garden with roses..some ignorant tourists were stepping on to the garden...please don't do that.. and please respect the tombs, too.. I still can't believe the amount of red lip kisses I saw on Oscar Wilde's tomb..,which it was a pity .

The cemetery is a bit far away form the city, so I'd advise you to go very early in the morning to be there at the opening time and spend the morning there, we for example wen to the cemetery and in the afternoon as it was a Monday , we went to the flee market , which is only on at the weekends and on Mondays.

If somebody finds Maria's Callas tomb please let me know, we didn't have time to go and see her.

Web page for the cemetery can be found:

http://www.pere-lachaise.com/perelachaise.php?lang=en

Have a look at it and see what does it look like, you can even do a virtual tour and look up the celebrities on a search engine! Surprisingly enough, this cemetery is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris.

Lido Show Paris ,January 2011

English version coming soon, in case you want to see this show in Paris one day.For now only in Spanish sorry:

>Quer'iamos ir a un show t'ipico de Paris donde salieran las t'ipicas bedettes con sus trajes de plumas. Estuvimos un buen rato decidiendo que show era mejor si el Lido o el Moulin Rouge.Al final nos decidimos por el Lido al estar situado en los Campos El'iseos (m'as centro y seguro que en Pigall con el Moulin Rouge) y al haber una oferta con la agencia de internet "Tourisme de France".

Consejos : Ir con tiempo (una hora antes si se puede),Los de la cena est'an en primera linea, comprar cena y show, porque si coges una oferta como nosotros con una copa de Champagne solamente, estar'as en lo m'as alto del teatro con poca visibilidad. Merece la pena pagar un poco m'as para verlo m'as de cerca. Importante cuanto antes llegues al show, mejor puesto coger'as.

Evitar a las agencias de internet como France Tourism : Por 90 euros: Tour d lights y oferta y recogida en bus ,en el mismo precio cuando el final del tour s'olo haces una m'inima parte (45 mins), el tour continua pero a t'i te hacen bajarte en el Lido, nuestro asiento era lo m'as atr'as del teatro (de esto no te avisan en la p'agina, si me hubiesen avisado habr'ia pagado m'as). Al salir el conductor de la agencia no sabia nada y no nos queria llevar al hotel. Acabamos con 'el como v'eis en la foto JAJA aunque fue una experiencia m'as en Francia. Si pod'eis contratar directamente con el teatro, se pueden hacer reservas por tel'efeno normalmente y hablan ingl'es. Si comprabas s'olo el show sin todo lo anterior costaba 70 euros.

Lo que m'as nos gust'o del show (el que recomiendo si se quiere vivir en directo un show de variedades con mujeres gigantes llevando trajes suntuosos de Plumas y mamotretos gigantes y con poca tela en el pecho y en la parte de atr'as): Vestuarios,escenarios,Variedad: Caballo, un mimo bastante gracioso (de lo que m'as me gust'o) que sac'o a dos voluntarios del p'ublico,un hombre colgado de dos bandas blancas haciendo trapecismo, un elegante show egipcio que sal'ia de debajo del escenario, patinaje sobre hielo de una pareja (la pista de hielo sali'o tambi'en de la nada, del escenario!), cante en honor a Edit Piaff de la bedette principal rodeada de los/as bailarines etc .

C'omo v'eis el show tiene una variedad que al menos yo no esperaba (incluso sale un caballo blanco hermoso con un jinete muy elegante bailando entre las bailarinas!), no debes esperar grandes actuaciones de baile porque no son grandes bailarines, entre otras cosas ellas no puede casi moverse con los trajes tan aparatoso que les ponen pero en general el show es muy est'etico y elegante, no es para nada vulgar. Yo habria quitado del show la parte en la que las chicas , todas con un cuerpo impresionante ,salieron diciendo "im gorgeous" en todos los idiomas (en espa~nol "soy linda"), cosa evidente que s'olo nos hacia sentir m'as peque~nas y barrigonas al resto del p'ublico (esta parte del show consistia s'olo en esto, desfilaban como modelos y dec'ian eso durante 10 minutos).

Cosas que me decepcionaron:

No te dejan hacer fotos ,ni videos (aunque nosotros hicimos en plan pirata jaja upps!).

No bailan can-can!!

Los bailarines hombres eran bastante malos y los vestuarios bastante gays pero exagerado, sin clase.

S'olo canta la Bedette principal pero ella cantaba muy bien era espectacular.

Del resto me encant'o todo!!! No me arrepiento! En dos d'ias voy al Moulin Rouge as'i que podr'e deciros cual es mejor.

C'omo ir vestido:

De Etiqueta: ir de chaqueta al menos y las mujeres con un traje arreglado de media pierna - pueden no dejarte entrar si vas d zapatillas y vaqueros (aunque alguno se col'o..).

Tener en cuenta que:

Que hay grandes colas, sobre todo para el show de las 23.30 (recomiendo ir al show de las 21.30 si se puede ), reservarlo con mucho tiempo por adelantado y llegar al menos 30 o 45 mins antes.

Conclusi'on: Me llev'e una grata sorpresa porque es un show hecho con mucho gusto para todos los p'ublicos y no es para nada vulgar a pesar de que salgan en topless , es de una gran belleza visual y con variedad de actos. Otra conclusi'on que saqu'e es que esas mujeres tan gigantes y con esos cuerpos tan perfectos no pueden ser de verdad! Ser'an robots?? Qu'e comen?C'omo son sus padres? Menos mal que Andresillo no llevaba las gafas y no podia ver bien!!!

Donde est'an los Fuegos artificiales? Matarile,rile,rile (Paris 2011!)

Miles de personas esperaban durante horas como nosotros , los fuegos artificiales junto la Torre Eiffel, sino en su defecto, un concierto, un discurso del alcalde, un reloj o alguna campanada grabada o algo! No me entend'ais mal, yo adoro Paris pero compar'andolo con otras grandes capitales como Madrid, Berl'in o Londres..., se lo podian currar un poco m'as a parte de iluminar durante un par de minutos la torre Eiffel con luces parpadeantes..