Movie review | En gång i Phuket

Sven works as a carrier coach, a carrier he's ironically enough not too happy with. His youth has rushed him by unexcitingly leaving him alone with no kids, no wife and no future to speak of.

When his former schoolmate, turned adventurer, publishes a book and dies a tragic and abrupt death shortly before attempting a daring base-jump. Sven decides to take control of his life and do something! He quits his work and moves to Thailand to write a book.

A story about life and life changing decisions... and love. [of course!]

I went to the cinema thinking this was going to be a typical silly Swedish comedy with too much embarrassment and corny dialog, and went home with happy smile. If you put aside the fact that the story itself is as thin as bible paper it's truly a hilarious movie. All embarrassing moments are short and funny and the corny dialog [if any] is dealt with by great acting.
And always remeber, safety first!

Eurovision | quarter-final 3

And so there is but one quarter final left...

I'm inclined to believe that I wasn't alone in discovering Björn Ranelids and Sara Lis song "Mirakel" not to be all that bad. Great potential as they say.

Other good songs were Love Generation performing "Just a little bit" in some sassy [one-legged??] outfits.

Molly Sandén instead kept both pant-legs on while singing a powerful ballad about broken hearts ["Why am I crying"], could it be the remains from her recently shattered relationship with last years winner Eric Saade?

A welcome newcomer to me, Carolina Wallin Pérez, whom performed with "Sanningen" left me wanting more. She was apparently made famous for interpreting [or improving if you weren't a Kent fan to begin with] Kent-songs.

The ever one-hit wonder, Andreas Johnson tried his luck [yet again], this year with the corny title "Lovelight". As usual I find it hard to remember his song but it did have Andreas's familiar sound, I remember that much.

The first out, Youngblood with a song sporting the same name started with an energy matching Sean Banan's. It was quickly forgotten however as the second performer Maria BanHajji managed to get entangled in some false notes. I guess all that fire on stage made her nervous.

I guess Mattias Andréasson felt sorry for everyone's sake after the two performances and kept on apologising ["Förlåt mig"], it just went on and on and on.... yes we're sorry too Mattias, but that song just wasn't that good.

My personal score board so far:

1. Loreen –"Euphoria"
2. Marie Serneholt – "Salt And Pepper"
3. Love Generation - "Just a little bit"
4. Carolina Wallin Pérez - "Sanningen"
5. Dead byApril – "Mystery"
6. Timoteij - "Stormande hav" / Molly Sandén - "Why am I crying"

Recept | Tiger Cheesecake

Botten

200g              Digestivekex

175g              Oreokex

125g              Smör

Fyllning

500g              Philadelphiaost

2,5 dl             Kesella

1,5 dl             Socker

2 tsk              Vaniljsocker

4 st                Ägg

1 dl                Vispgrädde

Chokladfyllning

200g              70% mörk choklad

3 msk            Starkt kaffe

Big brother | Soon it's Sunday

With only days away from the premier, TV11 releases new pictures of the house. Sadly the pictures are all close-ups, revealing almost nothing of the house. One of the pictures shows a basin from Kosta boda… I hope they haven’t blown all their money on interior decorating because I want to see more flipped out contests and parties.

TV11 has also posted some brief interviews with last years contestants as a final goodbye to last season. Moreover former finalist Martin and Sara [Now living together] will be this year’s expert bloggers, and the sneaky couple has already started, take a look.

Book review | Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

The Temeraire series is a historical fantasy set during the Napoleonic wars in Europe. It follows the life of Captain William Laurence whom inadvertently finds himself the chosen lifelong companion of a foreign dragon, whose egg he recently helped "secure" from a French vessel.

Forced to leave his beloved sea behind and enlist in England’s Aerial Corps is not an easy transition for the former Captain. With no love lost between the navy and the Corps the conflicts are unavoidable. And to make matters worse his dragon, named Temeraire, is also a new exotic breed causing him to be the envy of everyone.

TV-show | Äkta människor - breaking point up ahead?

Äkta Människor keeps getting better and better. Five episodes have so far aired, bringing us to the sad fact that only half the season now remains. All sub plots feel pretty justified as they are but so far there are few connections in between them. Thoughts of how these will end up crossing each other and entwining in to one big great ending are keeping me at the edge of my seat each Sunday.

The cliffhanger of last episode leaves us with a badly hurt Leo in a speeding car and Mimmi waking up from her “Anita dream”.

Meanwhile Therese’s relationship reaches new heights after a little bit of black market hacking. Perhaps an independent robotic boyfriend wasn’t such a great idea after all? There certainly is no answer to that yet, but I have my suspicions that the downward spiral is right up ahead.

And to the writer I would like to add, nice touch with “removing the asimovs laws”. Said and done shortly before a robot is ordered to chop a human in to small pieces with a chainsaw…

While in a generous mood I also would like to direct some praise towards the wonderful actors. You’re putting Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator to shame!

Eurovision | quarter-final 2

What utter disappointment...

Saturdays contestants weren't even close to the high standards of last week. [Link to Loreen updated btw, see end]

High points were Soldiers by Ulric Munther and Stormande hav by Timoteij. Having a weak spot for Timoteij I was hoping for something a little better, but over all it was okay.

David Lindgren [whom apparently is an upcoming big shot I've never heard of] also rose above the rest and performed a nice little pop number.

And I guess Top Cats did put on a good show and their song isn't bad... but yet... I just can't find it within myself to like them... [I'm sorry, but that's just how it is] And much the same goes with Thomas Di Leva who performed with Ge aldrig upp. [And he certainly doesn't, Kudos to him]

And then there was this all fun early 90's [or is it late 80's?] inspired sequence with a girl named Mimi oh, performing Det går för långsamt. It didn't...

Finally at the bottom we find Eurovision veterans Andreas Lundstedt and Sonja Aldén with unoriginal and unflattering songs. Too little feeling, too little show, too little originality... just too little of everything.

My personal score board so far:

1. Loreen –"Euphoria"
2. Marie Serneholt – "Salt And Pepper"
3. Dead byApril – "Mystery"
4. Timoteij - "Stormande hav"
5. Ulric Munther - "Soldiers"

Board Game | Ticket to Ride:UK

Ticket to ride UK, designed and created by Dave Miller with finishing touches by Ken Meyers, is a free, unofficial, expansion to the original Ticket to Ride [or Ticket to ride: Europe]

From the bookshop

Today I had my Christmas gift [a gift certificate] exchanged to four new lovely books, with some small change to spare for the upcoming annual book sale on the 22:nd. Thank you grandma and grandpa!

Today's purchase:

• Johannes Cabal the fear institute - Jonathan L Howard
• Blameless - Gail Carriger
• Changeless - Gail Carriger
• Farlander - Col Buchanan

TV-show | Big brother Sweden - coming soon

9 days left…

…Until the start of Big Brother Sweden 2012!

After last years success with reviving the millennium happening - Big brother, TV11 continues with yet another season. Little so far is known about the contestants other than that the casting involved over 10 000 applicants. Gry Forssell, whom continues as host, reveals that they will keep the best parts of last year and the rest is up for change in season 2. But are close mouthed when asked what these changes might be.

According to bigbrother.se [now including a countdown] it will take place in the same house as last season with no change to the interior decoration. Personally I wouldn’t mind some change, the last season did go on for over 100 episodes after all.

Book review | Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik

Oh Naomi… What are you doing?

In her sixth installment of the acclaimed Temeraire series Naomi Novik continues from where she left off. In her usual eloquent prose she details the early life in Australia while Napoleon is regrouping in the western world.

The downside?... at the time being, Australia is an underdeveloped, under populated, desert with kangaroos and ambitionless thugs. No matter how eloquent one writes, if nothing happens, it's a really dull read... The inhabitants of the new continent remain a mystery throughout the story, as gray, dull and lifeless as the rest of the scenery. Instead she attempts to breathe life in to this dreary world by reintroducing old acquaintances from the other side of EARTH!

Eurovision | quarter-final 1

O M G! We have a winner, cancel the rest of the shows... no of course not, don't do that. Just because they can't win doesn't mean they can't compete and show off now does it?

The first out of four quarter-finals for the Swedish Eurovision song contest was held this Saturday. From a strong starting field there was one that really blew me away.

Loreen with Euphoria...

The song is everything eurodisco should be and more! With a beautiful Tai-chi inspired choreography. [perhaps it's closer to something else but to my untrained eyes it sure looked like a rapid version of Tai-chi]. It has already been praised as a very likely winner of the total shebang by both newspapers as other blogers.

I was really bummed out that Marie Serneholt with Salt and pepper had to go. That song had everything that a traditional schlager should have. But perhaps that's why it failed... too traditional. Especially since Thorsten Flinck and Sean Banan instead got a seat in the finals... What's up with that!?

The Moniker, who came close last year with an all out fun song which no one can dislike [yes I said no one... they lie, okay] fell completely flat this year. So did also Abalone Dots. Afro-Dite tried a comeback... 

And last but not least we had the shocker[!] Dead by April with Mystery, also a great song with a lot of praise from media. One can not help but wonder what they had written if not Lory had earlier paved the hard rock-road...

My personal score board so far:

1. Loreen –"Euphoria"
2. MarieSerneholt – "Salt And Pepper"
3. Dead byApril – "Mystery"
4. Afro-Dite – "The Boy Can Dance"
5. Sean Banan – "Sean Den Förste Banan"