Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Since my new laptop should arrive in April and I will carry it with me almost everywhere I really need it in a protection case and we all know it needs to be pretty!!

This is my laptop! 10.1 inches, 9 hour battery life, 5.3 pounds (2.4 kg)! These are the things that are very important for me since the laptop is mostly in my handbag!
I need some kind of cover! I want the cover to be adorable and pretty and not white. If it is white it will just get destroyed to quickly.
And technically I am still doing the "not buying black things" thing therefor I need the colors!

These are the ones I have found and liked! Now I just need to pick one (or two).






Which should I pick?

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Book Review: My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin

The last book of the month is My Last Duchess by Daisy Goodwin. Daisy Goodwin is born in December so we are month buddies (I count all people that are Sagittariuses to be my month buddies!). This is her second book. Her first book, Silver River, was published in 2007 and is a memoir of her own life.

My Last Duchess was published in August 2010, it's a romantic story about a girl named Cora Cash and her journey into adulthood and life in general. Cora is a wealthy heiress in 1890 in America. Her mother biggest dream is for Cora to marry someone with a title so they move to England. In England Cora falls in love with a Duke and the story doesn't end there!

I did quite enjoy the book. Cora is a lovely character and you can feel for her. You can sense her loneliness and the bitterness between her and her mother without getting to annoyed at them.

What I didn't like was the supposedly twist that wasn't much of a twist for me, it jumped out on the first page when she met the Duke for the first time! Otherwise the book was good.

Some memorable quotes:
     Page 35: She smiled when she saw Lincoln waiting for her in the stable yard, twitching his head impatiently. A sixteen-hand grey stallion, Lincoln was the finest product of her father's stables. Core was not ready to admit that she might find a British horse to suit her, so she had brought her favourite hunters with her, walking them every day on the deck the SS Aspen, her father's steam yacht.
Cora about her horse Lincoln, I can just so easily imagine this scene happening.

     Page 57: Mrs Cash had wanted to leave Sutton Veney as soon as she had received her daughters note, but Lord Bridport had persuaded her that it would be better to go in the morning. As she sat down to dinner, Mrs Cash was grateful for the opportunity to find out something more about the man she now thought of as Cora's duke.
Mrs Cash can see a glimpse into her long lasting dream of Cora getting married to someone with a title.

     Page 89: So she had come fully prepared for the brief moment of disappointment when she would see the Duke shaping himself around the bulk of her inheritance. She was almost looking forward to seeing him moulded by its weight. It had not occurred to her that he could be indifferent.
Cora about the Duke.
      Page 128: The staff of Lulworth  were lined up on the grey stone steps as the carriage drew up, the male servants on the left. the female servants on the right, from the butler and housekeeper right down to the scullery maid and knife boy.
 When the Duchess (the Dukes mother) came for  visit.

All in all I quite liked this book and would recommend it. It has quite the charm and it flows very well. It is well written and that can save any type of bad twists.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Book Review: The Belle / The Brothel by Lesley Pearse

This is the second book for February! The Belle (or apparently The Brothel) by Lesley Pearse. Lesley doesn't have her own Wikipedia page! But I found something interesting on her own page.
Number One bestseller Lesley Pearse has created in Belle a heroine for our times: a strong woman who stands up for right in a world turned bad.
 Well I'm sorry to say, that's just wrong. The book is 574 pages and usually I prefer long books because the description is most of the time better. This book consists of 574 pages of copy-paste and you get so tired of it. I somehow assume that Lesley Pearse was paid by the word count!

Anyway, the book is about Belle who is sold into prostitution. Her family and friends search for her endlessly but she decides she likes selling her body for 2 dollars a night and that she is good at it so she does it but hates herself for liking it. Meanwhile a boy that fell in love with her before she was sold still loves her but she doesn't even write home because she is a prostitute. 574 pages later you want to slap some sense into her or burn the damn book!


Quotes from the book (no freaking favorite!)
  Page 99: It was bad enough that they were taking her to France, but Sly was sickened when Kent wanted her put in the trunk. Waiting so long at Dover had been one of the most agonizing times he'd ever known. If she'd woken up and started hammering on the trunk and alerted people, Sly knew he'd be facing a very long stretch in prison.
The kidnapper of Belle having some doubts.
  Page 211: The young man was growling more and more exited as Betty stripped off her clothes, and as she climbed up on to the bed and knelt beside him, she lifted her chemise to show him her private parts. Belle could see that she had a very luxuriant mount of dark curly hair there, and as the young man reached out to touch it, Betty groaned and arched her back, inviting him to take liberties with her.
Bella watching Betty (another prostitute) do her job.
  Page 246: It was she who had to put up with the men groping her, gawping at her, saying crude things, pawing her, fucking her and finally maybe even giving her the pox or making her pregnant. All Martha did was sit on her fat backside and watch the money flow in.
 Bella not happy about her pimp (Martha) getting all the money.
  Page 306: Almost daily she wished she were back with the other girls in Martha's kitchen over long, leisurely breakfasts, sitting around in their nightdresses with tangled hair, everyone talking at once about the night before and shrieking with laughter as one of them described a particularly odd experience. Then there were those lazy afternoons wandering the French Quarter or lying around in the back yard chatting and sipping cold drinks. She'd even give anything to hear the front-door bell tinkling, although that meant a gentleman was coming in and suddenly they all had to turn on seductive smiles and brace themselves for what was to come.
Bella being all sad when she didn't have to be a prostitute anymore.

  Page 551: Her eyes were growing used to the gloom now and she saw him pick up a lenght of cord to tie her hands behind her and round her ankles in much the same way he had the first time he captured her.
 Bella being kidnapped by the same guy again (she got kidnapped about 4-5 times in this book!)

I think these are enough quotes mostly because I really don't want to copy more of them!

Friday, March 25, 2011

hair hair hair

It's not very often that I finish a hair product (except for shampoos) but now I finished one and was sad when it finished. This product is a conditioner and I LOVE IT! Pantene Pro-V Brunette Expression, Daily Color Enhancing Conditioner (freakishly long name) does (for my hair) exactly what it says it will do! It keep my hair a bit browner then usual which is good since my hair is dyed a little darker then my normal hair. My roots get a bit darker with this conditioner and it keeps my dyed hair dark brown!

It even helped with minimizing my purple hue that my hair still had after I dyed it brown over the purple hair. But as soon as you wash your hair without it it goes back to its normal hue (usually after the second wash without it).

I usually wash my hair and then put this generously in my hair (even the roots since it doesn't weigh my hair down) and wash my body. I try to keep it in my hair for a decent long time (5-10 minutes) and then wash it out.

It makes my hair seriously smooth and it doesn't make my hair oily! My hair stays smooth for many days (I try to wash my hair only 2 times a week). My other hair conditioner usually smell funny but this one doesn't!

I don't know how the one for blond hair works (I haven't had blond hair since 2008) but if it is something like the brunette one I would definitely recommend that one as well!

I might buy the brunette one again but I really want to try John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Shine Release Daily Conditioner and see which one I like more. 

I'm now off into the sunny Geneva (with spf 50 on my face!)

Have a nice day :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

the lost days...

Since my little laptop just doesn't work I needed to pull out big boy! Big boy is my old big laptop. I bought it in 2005 I think! He still works! Big boy is an Aspire 5610! He has no keys left on his keyboard and the mouse doesn't work so I've got external mouse and keyboard. He is my big boy. He has been with me trough everything! EVERYTHING! It was one of the few things I moved with me from Iceland to Geneva and he was my best friend for ages (well the outlet for me to contact my friends) since I didn't know anyone here in Geneva and the people I met were awful!

And almost 4 years down the road (since I moved to Geneva!!!) big boy was hidden underneath a big (biiiig) pile of paper. But what big boy showed me and I'll now show you is pictures from 2006 (when I got my own digital camera). Many of them are damaged (I don't know why).

Katrin from 2006 - 2008

1st of January 2006, 17 years and almost 1 month old (I still have that blouse!)
I was chubby, I had short hair that I LOVED and I had loads loads of freckles. And that trip was one of my most unhappy memories of my teenage years. 

 9th of February 2006 -> in school
I was ashamed of my lips because they were to big for a white girl (yep someone told me that) and therefor I used to pinch them in or just suck on them. My skin wasn't that great, but I wasn't doing anything about it anyways. (and I still have that sweater!)


2007 
 28th of May - my last month in Iceland
I started dying my hair, first in some what of orange/red color. (still own that sweater)

29th of May 

 I don't own any of these clothes anymore.

And then I moved.....
Do you know what Roskilde festival can do to you?
8th of July 2007
 Sunburned! Eye infection! And strangely my lips started to swell up! Not to mention right before I left I decided I was dumb and therefor I should have blond hair. Didn't work 100%



Then I was in Switzerland
13th of July 2007
My hair is awful, my skin is awful but this is the first pic of me smiling!

I got a little bored.
14th of July 2007
You can still see how sunburned I am, the white stuff on my face is soothing mask! My skin was thinking about committing a suicide.


I've gotten back from my first trip to Finland and just was really really bored but happy.
25th September 2007

I made my first sweater! 
And haven't made one since then! (still have it!)
2008
11th of January
Kept myself busy with whatever I could think of! Here am I making stencils for a t-shirt.

 19th of January - changing back to brown (it took AGES!)

Last pictures with my old camera :)
18th of February
 My hair a bit darker, I had to let it all grow out because it wouldn't hold a coverup color!
I started to use make up and being in general happy about everything. Still EXTREMELY bored! 

I was so bored I got a new camera 
9th of May 2008

And there is where I'll end this thing because at that time I got then facebook and all the rest of the pictures are there :)

Endless Love

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Geneva...

There is this thing about Geneva that I love. The thing is strangers. I've had so many amazing talks with strangers here! Sometimes I then look back and wonder what has now happened to the people afterwards.

Like this man that had just moved to Geneva the same day as I was talking to him. He always only used cold water when showering (something I can't even do during the summer months!!). The winters in Geneva can be really cold and there is nothing better then taking a scalding hot shower before jumping into bed. If I would meet him today I would ask about the shower!

Or that english boy that rolled my cigarettes one summer. I rarely talked to him, he just rolled my cigarettes. Did he go back to England? I saw him once later that autumn wearing a suit. Did he start working in Geneva?

I could write endlessly about these people that I meet! I know I should probably have been more friendly to them and we might be in some contact but that's just isn't really me. We all know how much of a horrid bitch I am! ;)
Love

Friday, March 11, 2011

Problems.....

+
My dearest laptop has been slowly dying for some time now. I haven't had the courage to just pull the plug and get a new one until last week when my beloved little monkey just did it himself and stopped charging.
So I ordered a new one that was supposed to arrive yesterday......... It didn't. To represent my loss I'll use a picture of these dead roses that I'll throw out later (and I really wanted to try to post a blog from my blackberry!)
So there won't (probably, seeing how this works I might start blogging from my blackberry with pictures) be much from postings until I get my new monkey and have him all started up!
x

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Book Review: Purge by Sofi Oksanen

This month (February, yea yea I'm late) I read 3 books! (Purge, Belle and My Last Duchess). I'm going to write about them and some more this week/weekend so there will be a bunch of posts!

First I'll tell you about Purge. This is Sofi Oksanen third book. It was first a play that morphed into this book. The play was staged at the Finnish National Theatre in 2007. The book came out in 2008 and there will be a film coming from it in 2012 (talking about a cash cow book!). Since I do not read any Finnish (well 3 words don't count as being able to read in a language) I can't read Sofi's other books. Some of them are being translated but not in English. I'm not even so sure if I'll read the other books (Baby Jane and Stalin's Cows) because Purge was not that well translated.

Maybe it is the original version that is badly written but somehow I doubt it since it has gotten tons of prizes. The fact is as well that the subject isn't much written about so that gives the book a lot of leverage. 

The book main story happens in 1992 but it fluctuates a lot. Almost every chapter is a different year. It goes from World War II to 1992. The main characters are two women, Zara and Aliide. Aliide lives in a little house in a little village in Estonia and Zara is a Russian girl forced into prostitution.

Well, here are my favourite quotes from the book:
Page 61: She carried herself like a dog that has to constantly look out for kids trying to step on its tail
Aliide describing Zara.
Page 72: She took the red leather skirt and red high-heeled shoes out of the cabinet. Her shirt was a child's shirt. Pasha thought that only children's shirts were tight enough to arouse men's desires
Zara waking up and getting dressed.
Page 170: His long armpit hair was yellowed with sweat and funguslike, in spite of its thickness, like rusted steel wool. A belly button like a cavern and balls that hung almost to his knees.
Aliide describing her husband Martin

I find that the book is supposed to shock and is written that way. It is a good book and I do recommend it. I liked it when I was reading it but the ending was horribly written/translated so it really ruined the entire book. I found as well that the characters were a bit to whiny and needed to put their big girl pants on and deal with it instead of whining in the corner. The "big secret" that this book is based on was as well not very well put out since I realized in the beginning of the book so the super emotional revelation was more ridiculous then anything else.

Damn, I was going to write good things about this book! Well next book (that's a lie it was weak as well!)
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