Happy New Year

My best wishes to all my readers and everybody else on our beautiful planet a happy new year!
May 2008 be more peaceful and a good year for all of us!

Elizabeth - The Golden Age

Seen on Saturday.

Very good movie!
I don't know for sure if it's historically correct but I think it's not too far away from reality.

Plot:

Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds Queen Elisabeth I (Cate Blanchett) facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal.
Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of the late 16th century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II (Jordi Molla) with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada determined to restore England to Catholicism.

Website: Elizabeth - The Golden Age

Bee Movie

Saw it yesterday.

Great one! Very funny!

Bees really do have a hard life making honey all their life which is then robbed by humans or bears. ;-)

There is also an important message in the story. Everyone does even with the smallest tasks something for the big whole. If the smallest wheel didn't turn the complete system wouldn't work.

It also shows that you can become more than the others tell you. Keep reaching for the stars!

I loved it!

Website: Bee Movie

Christmas celebration

This year our family Christmas celebration was once again at our place.
Preperations were a bit stressful from time to time but the work really was worth it.

The Christmas tree was wonderfull. It's the straightest one I've ever found. The prices for the trees are rather high in my opinion. Our tree cost 25 Euros, an artificial one of the same size would cost about 50 and would pay of in the second year. But the beauty and warmth of mother natures real trees is just too sovereign and so we will stay with the real ones. Julia did a great job with the decoration.



The times before we had raclette but this year we decided to try it with cold cuts. It was excelent and more than enough. A great plus of cold cuts instead of raclette is the lack of intense smell.



And here are two photos of our beautiful window decoration. Julia just bought the one for the small window this year. Looks great!



I guess it was a wonderful celebration for everyone. To bad my granny couldn't come, but she had some serious pain in her back.

Merry Christmas!

I wish everybody all around the world a very merry Christmas and a peacefull time!

This should be time of freedom and without anger!

Peace to the world!!!

Picture by Thomas Kinkade

games convention in Eisenstadt

Yesterday we have been at a small games convention in Eisenstadt. Not too big but very nice and of course not too many people.
A week ago there would have been a big one in Vienna but we didn’t have the time for that one. But I am sure that the one in Vienna was filled with people and really loud inside. So it was better to go to this one I think.

First we played ‘Jenseits von Theben’. A great board game!

You are an archeologist and have to earn knowledge by travelling and collection points in form of books, assistants and the people at the excavation sites. Then you have to go to the sites and ‘dig’ for archeological finds. As soon as you have collected enough finds you may organize exhibitions and collect additional points.


Second game was ‘Cluedo – Geheimnisse’. Pure fun!

In this version of Cluedo you can choose one of 50 secrets to solve. You have to go to the suspects’ houses and collect the hints which you write to your file until you know who did it and where the delinquent is hiding.

It was a great and funny day!

new retro style record player

On Saturday I unpacked my new retro style record player. It looks fantastic! I love the design!



The sound of the integrated speakers is very good too. And the included radio works fine. Now I can even listen to a station which is nearly not receiveable in our flat in such a clear tone that it’s just unbelieveable!
All I have to do is to get my old records from my mother and then I can listen to that good old just real live sound – without digital enhancement – again after all these years.

The Golden Compass

Seen on Friday.
That’s a great movie! A very sophisticated story that takes you on a fantastic journey.

The Characters are made up very well.
I have heard that the curch has some complaints about the movie - but I can’t figure out what their problem is. Maybe it’s that the people in this parallel universe have their souls walking beside them in the shapes of different animals called demons. I personally like this idea a lot.

I will not tell much more here – you should see it yourself! Don’t want to spoil! ;-)

Website: The Golden Compass

Christmas fair in Seebenstein

On Saturday we visited the Christmas fair in Seebenstein. It's great! You walk through the castle park along the stands with Christmas decorations, gifts and of course a lot to drink and eat.
All along the way there are candles on the ground and huge torches. The route goes all around the big pond and creates a fantastic atmosphere.
To bad it was to dark to take some great pictures of the fair and the castle on the top of the hill without a tripod. But I found a nice one of a huge torch (or whatever these things are really called) on the web.