Saturday, November 24, 2007
Thanks, giving.
SundayThe last of the weekend was spent watching season one of criminal minds (if only their jobs were real) and baking more yummy goodness - i.e banana butterscotch cupcakes with creamcheese and chocolate frosting. Baking is strangely relaxing and very therapeutic (like knitting is!), a good way to ease the "oh-my-god-the-holiday-is-ending" kind of disappointment.
banana butterscotch cupcakes/ examining the cupcake mess/ all packed up and ready to go!
SaturdaySaturday was spent reading (Anne Lamott, the newspaper, psych textbook) and then meeting a friendly Norwegian down by elmwood in an attempt to finally brave the lines of an icecream shop we've been waiting to try. First was dinner at Filippo's Pastaria (yummy fettucine al salmone, not so yummy gemelli venezia), a cozy little Italian restaurant. Then came dessert at
Ici, where the ice cream was wonderliciously heavenly (A. had maple and honey-nutmeg, I had coffee and candied cocoa nips - and the coffee ice cream is truly the best I've EVER tasted). Lovelylovelylovely!
The lineup outside/ Ici at Elmwood/ Yummy icecream flavours of the day!
Friday
Friday morning brought with it brunch at
La Note (which I've been dying to since I got to Berkeley), a cosy little French restaurant with a killer menu! My friendly company shared some l
emon gingerbread pancakes with poached pears and the o
melette de pommes de terre (potato and caramelized onion omelette)
, while I had the
les oeufs maison (traditional eggs/homefries/toast breakfast). We waited about 25 minutes for a table, so if you're planning to breakfast here, be prepared because there's usually always a lineup! Later in the night, we watched 'No Country for Old Men' (which was awesome! see below).
La Note's exterior/ Somebody else's pictures of the (yumms!) lemon gingerbread pancakes and the house breakfast.
Thursday, or better yet, Thanksgiving day!
Actual Thanksgiving day was spent in the loveliest of company up in the berkeley hills, partaking of a 3 hour megafeast of turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a vast array of yummy vegetables (especially the heavenly artichoke and onion dish), and piepiepie! :) So stuffed.
Sather gate on the berkeley campus on thanksgiving day (devoid of the hoards of students)/The view of berkeley from a lookout in the berkeley hills (If you look close enough, you can see the golden gate bridge on the top right) :)
WednesdayHad lunch with Shian (my brother's friend from junior college!) at Jupiter, and arrived home to find a package outside my apartment door. The boy sent a surprise present, the lovely ae belted cardigan which is so comfy and so cute!
Surprise!/ Yay to new sweaters! And ribbons!
Tuesday (and Friday)
So on Tuesday (after the horror of my stats test results) a few of the psych grads and I headed out to watch
The Darjeeling Limited. Wes Anderson is probably one of my favourite directors, there is totally no denying the brilliance of The Royal Tennenbaums (although The Life Aquatic was pushing the strange-factor for me). So I really liked The Darjeeling Limited, the visual and thematic imagery was spectacularly executed thoughout the film (the symbolism of their father's luggage, the irony of emotional avoidance on a quest for spirituality, the unease and detachment played off by the colours and drama of an Indian landscape).
On Friday we watched
No Country for Old Men, made by the Coen brothers, another set of people whose movies I like. Fulfilling it's label as a "thriller", it was suspenseful, focused and calculating, but did so in no hurry unlike so many modern thrillers. Javier Bardem plays his part well, displaying behaviour that is at the same time subdued and calm and frighteningly violent. There is no need for a resolution, no need for poetic justice, it is a simple resignation of humanity, so cold and very haunting.
@ 1:47:00 am
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