07.12.09
Posted in Film, Food, San Francisco at 5.32 pm by Caitlin
I have finally landed in San Francisco after nearly two months of separation from my beloved husband. The flight from London was fairly long – about 10 hours – but uneventful and comfortable. I flew premium economy with Virgin Atlantic and was quite impressed with the service.
The last week or so in London was hectic, with last minute packing and finishing off work before the big move. My visa does entitle me to work here but I have to complete some paperwork first and it can take a while to process. In the mean time, I am a lady of leisure. It’s a good opportunity to take time to set the house up, look for work and make contacts, and work on my novel.
My husband stayed in corporate accommodation when he first arrived but moved into our new rental property last weekend. He’s found us a lovely Victorian cottage with a garden in an old neighbourhood. It’s huge compared with any of our London abodes and bigger than our house in Sydney five years ago – we have two bedrooms, separate living and dining rooms, a laundry room and a private garden. It is unfurnished and all my husband has bought so far is a bed so I also get the pleasure of decorating it.
San Francisco is pretty amazing visually with steep streets and wooden Victorian houses with amazing paint detailing. Our neighbourhood has really nice cafes and shops and a good vibe. Downtown is not too far away by public transport, though we are thinking about getting bikes (those hills would give us a good work out!).
On Friday we went to the opening night of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival (or the SF Squared Festival) at the Castro Theatre, an old movie palace. It is an amazing theatre with beautiful period features – I especially loved the light fittings on the ceiling. The theatre was packed and the audience was very enthusiastic – clapping and cheering throughout the opening speeches and giving a standing ovation at the end of the film. It also shows new releases at the cinema, though only one at a time.
We saw The Gaucho, a Douglas Fairbanks movie set in Argentina, and it was great, both funny and dramatic in equal measure. The film had been beautifully restored and it was accompanied by an orchestra playing the live score, just as it would have been in the old days. The scenes with the Virgin Mary were originally in technicolour and this was yet to be restored, but we got to see out-takes that had never been seen since the original showing and it was pretty visually impressive. It’s just green and red but it somehow it fools the eye into believing you are seeing a fuller spectrum of colours. I guess 3D films where you have to wear red and green glasses must use a similar concept.
Yesterday morning we went to the farmers’ market in the Ferry Building downtown. It’s open Saturdays and Tuesdays and I think it’s going to be a regular for me – lots of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables, plenty of them organic, and great bread and cheese too. This place is amazing for fresh produce – at the moment we are eating some exquisite white nectarines, which have a really unusual flavour as well as being sweet and juicy. It’s not quite so good as Europe for things like cheese though, even in the artisanal shops, but it’s not bad. The bread is fantastic – we bought a lovely sourdough loaf and another loaf of crusty cranberry and walnut bread.
This morning we went to a local cafe for breakfast. In Sydney, breakfast was probably my favourite meal to eat out, especially around the Inner West where we lived. In London, it was possible but it always seemed like more trouble than it’s worth. San Francisco is much more like Sydney in terms of its cafe culture so this morning the hubby and I loaded up respectively on eggs florentine and pancakes with nutella and banana. The key difference with Sydney is that drip (filter) coffee with free refills is ubiquitous.
In general, the vibe of the city reminds me a lot of Sydney – it’s built around a bay, the houses are old, the streets are lined with trees (including eucalpytus, bottle brush and jacaranda), and the pace of life seems similar. It’s a lot colder though – this might be California but we’re in the middle of summer and the temperature is hovering around 16C. It’s about 10 degrees warmer in London right now! Part of the reason it feels so cold is because there’s quite a bit of wind. I fear my lovely collection of cotton summer dresses may be slightly redundant here, unless it gets warmer soon.
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I’ll put up photos when I can.
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For the past few months, I have been doing an automatic daily post of my tweets. Now the feed seems to be broken – the last update was nearly a week ago. I’m not sure if this is such a bad thing as it was overwhelming any other content on the blog. You can always look me up on Twitter if you miss it, but meanwhile I’ll try to keep this blog updated with original content.
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01.10.09
Posted in Career, Film, Life, London, Media & Internet, Travel, Writing at 3.13 pm by Caitlin
A snapshot of my life in January 2009.
- It’s really cold here in London right now – we’re apparently getting winds from the Arctic rather than the Gulf Stream. There’s often a dusting of snow on the trees and grass in the mornings, plus we’re getting heavy frosts. Apparently it got down to -12C this week. Today we’re expecting a maximum day temperature of zero celcius (32F) so it’s literally freezing. It’s meant to warm up a little next week though.
- Freelance work has slowed right down in the past few months so I’m pitching furiously trying to drum up more work. I’m certainly open to any ideas or offers so please keep me in mind if you know anyone who needs writing or editing work done. I’m still doing regular posts for EcoSalon, which I’m really enjoying. I also had a piece on music copyright published recently in The Observer – it was lead media feature in the Media & Business section – and a piece on podcast fiction in The Bookseller.
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The countdown to the wedding is on in earnest – the date is 4 April so it’s less than three months to the day. Yikes! We’ve booked the venues and the caterer and I’ve bought the dress. The dress fits now but I’m focusing really hard on healthy eating and exercise in the hope of shedding a few kilos and toning up so hopefully a few adjustments will be in order closer to the day. We’re hoping to get invitations out really soon.
- On that note, we are still madly researching honeymoon destinations. We want to stay close to Australia to cut down on flights because my cousin Rhia’s wedding is 15 days after ours in Queensland. We were looking at New Zealand at one point until we decided we wanted a tropical island. The problem is that April is the tail end of the rainy season in places like the Great Barrier Reef, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji. We’re not really sure what that actually means – days of torrential rain and cyclones or just semi-regular showers to cool down an otherwise hot and sunny day?
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We went to see Changeling last weekend and I was really impressed. We had resisted seeing it to a large extent because it looked suspiciously like an Angelina Jolie Oscar vehicle. I guess it is to an extent but it’s also a really good movie. I’m a fan of Clint Eastwood as a director and he does a really good job with this movie. It’s tightly plotted, emotional but not contrived, and it’s a real testament to his directing talent that there are so many strong performances particularly from the child actors. It’s based on a true story and was quite a pivotal point in the development and reform of the Los Angeles police force so that was interesting too. Plus, there are some fab hats – not only the Jolie character’s 1920s cloches and 1930s wide-brimmed hats but also for the men and the journalists (can I have a hat with a ticket that says ‘press’ for the next press event I attend, please?).
- My blogs are in the running for a couple of awards and I would really love your help. Please consider nominating my travel site Roaming Tales for Best Travel Weblog in the 2009 Bloggies and the travelogue category of the Lonely Planet Travel Blogger Awards. Please also consider nominating The Gooseberry Fool for Best Food Weblog in the Bloggies. I would also be delighted if you would nominate either or both blogs for Best European Weblog or Best-Kept Secret Weblog or any other category that you think is appropriate. I think my chances are best with Roaming Tales so if you want to focus your fire on just one blog, that’s the one I would ask you to go for. It would mean a lot to me to have your support and if I have any degree of success, it could really boost my readership and help pay off my blogging efforts.
I haven’t actually nominated myself so I’m relying on friends, family and readers to do it for me – and apparently the more times I am nominated, the higher my chance of making the finals (it’s not based exclusively on votes – there is a panel of voters as well). The Bloggies have been running nine years and they’re quite well respected and prestigious but this is the first time they’ve had a travel category, so that’s quite exciting.
Please note, you can nominate as many times as you like in the Lonely Planet awards and you have until early February. However, you can only nominate once for the Bloggies and you only have until the end of Monday 12 January. Also with the Bloggies, you need to put at least three blogs in total forward so you can’t just nominate me.
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11.08.08
Posted in Family & Friends, Film, London at 7.22 pm by Caitlin
I saw the new Bond flick A Quantum of Solace last night at the Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. While it’s not as close as it was when we lived in West Hampstead, it’s worth the trek for the cool bar, comfy sofas and arm chairs and the fact that you can order wine or treats to be brought to your chair. It was a group outing and we caught up with a bunch of friends and met some of their friends, which was nice.
I didn’t think too much of the movie to be honest. I’d heard some people rave about it and others pan it so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I never go into a Bond film with overly high expectations and I’m prepared to take it for what it is – pure entertainment. I was pleasantly surprised last time to be quite emotionally engaged with the character and the story. Unfortunately this doesn’t really seem to follow on in the same vein – even though it quite literally follows on with the story picking up immediately where Casino Royale left off.
Even though it was fast-paced with no saggy bits, I found it strangely boring and unmoving. I didn’t care about the characters so the car chases and fight scenes were just pretty choreography (if that’s what I wanted, I’d go to the ballet!). Even though they kept upping the ante, I never felt like there was anything really at stake. The plotting was almost too tight in a way as I couldn’t follow every twist and turn and didn’t understand the significance of the ending until it was explained. It wasn’t a bad movie but I was left a little dissatisfied.
If you do want to see it, don’t pay any attention to me as most of my friends enjoyed it. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood. I would suggest rewatching (or watching) Casino Royale beforehand as some of the characters recur.
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05.11.08
Posted in Family & Friends, Film, Food, London at 2.46 pm by Caitlin
Summer is here early in London. There are green leaves and flowers all over town, we’ve enjoyed beautiful sunshine for days on end, everyone is out enjoying picnics in the park, the pubs are doing a brisk trade in cider and Pimms (one of the quintessentially English signs of summer).
It’s actually unseasonally hot – it’s expected to peak at 26C today and I can well believe it. I think I must be acclimatised because, for the first time, I can understand the English male’s desire to take his shirt off when temperature climb around the high 20s.
I was out this morning, doing my Japan tour at the British Museum and having coffee and lunch with friends. Now I’m spending a relaxing afternoon at home, perusing the Sunday papers. This evening we’re catching up with Kimberley, who is in town briefly on holiday from her native Vancouver.
Last night we met with our friends Emme and Jon. We saw a movie at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) and then had a picnic in St James’ Park. The picnic was lovely – homemade sushi, salad and parsnip cake (like carrot cake but with a straight substitution of parsnips). It was a beautiful night and really great to catch up with our friends as we hadn’t seen them for a few months.
The movie, however, was awful – it was a Japanese film called Vexille – and it was probably the worst thing I’ve seen in a few years. I usually enjoy Japanese animé but I guess I’ve only seen the good stuff – this was a highly implausible and emotionally vacuous story with ridiculous plot holes and even more ridiculous dialogue. Also, they seem to have used the cut-and-paste job with the animation – the Americans look Japanese and the two main female characters are identical except for their hair and clothing.
I did see Iron Man the previous week and that was surprisingly good. Robert Downey Jr was superb in that role – utterly convincing. It’s not that Iron Man is any more plausible than Vexille when you get down to it but solid storytelling means you are willing to suspend your disbelief and that makes all the difference. It’s not going to change the world or win any prizes, but the characters are charismatic and believable, and it’s all round good fun.
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05.05.08
Posted in Family & Friends, Film at 9.46 am by Caitlin
Probably the best movie I’ve seen so far this year is Persepolis. It’s based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi and it’s an autobiographical account of growing up in Tehran and Vienna during the Iranian Revolution.
The movie basically animates Satrapi’s drawings, so it has a very distinctive style and it’s mostly in black and white. The drawings appear very simple but are in no way crude – it really conveyed a wonderful sense of place and character. One of my favourite moments was when she went driving with a new boyfriend and the car sprouted wings and flew down the hill.
Iran is a fascinating place and this film gives you a wonderful peek behind the veil to see what real people in the country actually think and feel. Marjane was a wonderful character and I really liked her family as well, especially her cool granny. It was also just so sad because of how unfree Iranian society is, especially for women, and how many people live in exile and never see their families.
We saw this last weekend with Tash and Matt at the wonderful Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. You can buy single seats or sofas and order food and drinks from the ushers – what’s not to like?!
I did laugh when they played the trailers. Because it’s based on a graphic novel, the trailers were all for other comic book movies – Batman, Iron Man and so on. I wonder how many people in the cinema were really in the demographic for both Persepolis and Iron Man?
Actually, that would be the four of us… And I saw Iron Man last night and thought it was brilliant. But that’s a subject for another post.
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01.01.08
Posted in Film at 1.00 am by Caitlin
My five favourite movies of the 2007 were:
1. Notes on a Scandal
2. Atonement
3. 3.10 to Yuma (see my review)
4. Stardust
5. Ratatouille
My full viewing for 2007 included, in chronological order:
1. Casino Royale
2. Miss Potter
3. Amelie
4. Elizabethtown
5. Marie Antoinette
6. Notes on a Scandal
7. The Devil Wears Prada
8. The Curse of the Golden Flower
9. Karas: The Prophecy
10. Bridge to Terabithia
11. Spiderman 3
12. You and Me and Everyone We Know
13. Music and Lyrics
14. The Holiday
15. Seven Samurai
16. Paprika
17. Tales from Earthsea (Studio Ghibli)
18. McLibel
19. Amazing Grace
20. Meet the Robinsons
21. Shrek the Third
22. Ratatouille
23. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
24. Hairspray
25. The Simpsons Movie
26. Becoming Jane
27. 3.10 to Yuma
28. Dirty Dancing
29. Superbad
30. Stardust
31. Atonement
32. The Savages
See all reviews from my blog.
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12.31.07
Posted in Family & Friends, Film, Food, Travel at 5.54 am by Caitlin
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…
Six geese a laying, five gold rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree
Jessica got back from Detroit this morning and we went out to breakfast at a diner up in Brooklyn Heights. It was a classic New York diner with pancakes, French toast, eggs, sausages and so on on the menu, fresh orange juice and free refills of coffee. They made a mean omelette with feta and spinach.
I then caught the subway out to Coney Island and met up with Alex. Coney Island is shut for the winter but it was interesting to see the place. We walked along the beachfront and then went to Brighton Beach Boulevard, which is the main Russian neighbourhood. There were a lot of signs in Russian and not much English spoken. Alex lives in Manhattan but he is actually Russian so he was the perfect tour guide and interpreter, introducing me to the children’s characters in the Russian storybooks and, explaining the point of the tied bundles of sticks and leaves (to beat your body in the sauna), and introducing me to such delicacies as pickled watermelon and birch juice. That was a lot of fun!
In the evening Jessica and I went to see The Savages at the cinema and had a quick bite to eat. The movie was really good although a little depressing. It was about two siblings reunited when their estranged father is diagnosed with dementia and they have to deal with it. It was smart and funny and I loved the ending but it was also quite an unhappy movie so it’s not one for when you’re feeling depressed or if people close to you have suffered from dementia.
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12.28.07
Posted in Film, Food, Skating, Travel at 10.09 pm by Caitlin
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me…
Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.
My rendezvous with Rema has been postponed until tomorrow so I had the day to myself. It was a lovely clear, blue day, at least in the morning, so I went exploring. I walked down Court Street into Carroll Gardens, which is a very Italian neighbourhood with great bakeries and delis. Then I crossed the highway into Red Hook, down by the old docks, which is becoming popular with artists and writers. I spent quite a bit of time down there, poking my nose into all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies (I found the corporate office of performance troupe Blue Man Group for example). Crossing back into Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill, I did a bunch of shopping.
My purchases did not include any pear trees, partridges or other bird life, but did include:
- A knitted blue mini-dress, vintage circa 1958
- A handmade handbag with an space-inspired abstract design
- A green jersey material dress with pockets and a hood
- A high-waisted grey skirt with bright blue buttons, suitable as glam office wear
- A black top with beading and a flared waist – very flattering
- A clutch bag with a crysanthemum design, possibly as a gift
- Black leather knee-high boots, lined and waterproof (actually I bought these the other day but from the same area)
- Homemade salami, rice ball, eggplant parmigiana, and olives with pimiento cheese from an Italian deli
- and the pièce de résistance… red leather lace-up ice-skates, vintage 1960s, in perfect condition and in my size
I had dinner at a local Thai restaurant (I had a some summer rolls and a great squid salad), and then I went to see Atonement at the local cinema.
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10.06.07
Posted in Film at 11.27 pm by Caitlin
I missed the game between England and Australia today. I’m kind of glad as it would have been a little depressing to watch. Even as it is, I’m still getting messages from gloating Poms.
This evening we went to see Superbad, which was an okay and somewhat amusing comedy about two high school seniors trying to get laid. Then we made it back to the pub to catch the second half of the France v New Zealand game.
I never thought I would be an All Blacks supporter but so far from home and with Australia already out of the tournament it was only natural. To see them down against the Blues really tugged at my heart strings. France admittedly played really well – they are mercurial but they can really pull it out when they want to. There was one player – a guy with shoulder-length brown hair who really looked like something out of Asterix.
So now I’m going for Fiji – but I fear they don’t stand much chance against South Africa tomorrow.
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Posted in Film at 11.22 pm by Caitlin
Sometimes it’s good to rewatch the classics.
Dirty Dancing was showing last night at the Prince Charles Cinema (a cinema just off Leicester Square that shows old movies – both slightly out out of current release and genuine vintage celluloid – cheaply. Tickets were only £1 so how could I resist? It was the perfect chance for Girls’ Night Out so I met up with Tash, we caught the picture, then had dinner at Tokyo Diner nearby.
It’s been years since I’ve seen Dirty Dancing and I’ve never seen it on the big screen. I thoroughly enjoyed myself – it was good to see something that was just thoroughly entertaining without trying too hard to be clever. The dancing was great and oh so sexy and the story line was simple and believable with a lot of commentary about class that is very obvious but somehow I didn’t absorb when I saw it in my teens the first time around. Some call it the cheesiest movie ever made, but I don’t buy that – that would be Top Gun, which I also saw at the cinema in London.
I’ve got no real desire to go and see the stage musical – why bother when the film is available for rent at a fraction of the price? The chemistry between Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey is legendary – how could any stage production compete?
Mind you, I wouldn’t rate this as one of my favourite films of all time. Some people are just waaay too passionate about it – in America there is the “100 club” open only to people who have seen the film more than 100 times, and here in the UK there is a couple who recreated the final dance for their wedding day. Apparently they learnt it from scratch – neither of them had a dance background – admittedly they needed help for the lift but it was still pretty impressive!
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