News Bites

Well, I have a couple of things to discuss today. One of them is kind of embarrassing so I might as well come right out with it: I have been "bitten" by the Twilight bug. (Ha! See what I did there?) I really can't believe it either.

I've been seeing these books in the stores for a while now and I would pick them up and read the back covers and then put them back down again. I love a good vampire tale as much as the next morbid person (Anne Rice anybody?) but these seemed a little silly and youthful and gossip girly to me.

Then came the movie buzz. Photos of Robert Pattinson kept turning up on some of the websites I go to and I'm here to tell you that he is seriously good looking. People are saying the series is the next Harry Potter. I overhear grown women like me requesting the books at the library. Then I inadvertently click on the trailer - and I decide I'm going to have to see the movie. But first I need to read the book.


What????


So off to the local booksellers to buy the first one, Twilight. It's over 400 pages long and 24 hours later I'm finished with it. I return the very next day to the same store and purchase the rest of the series. I don't know what to tell you. It's not Pulitzer Prize winning or Oprah's Bookclub either (thank God for that) but Stephanie Meyers knows how to tell a tale. The pages just keep turning. It's at heart a romance but a very intense, stirring one, with supernatural creatures, breath taking action, and an all-permeating sense of ill foreboding. I want to know what happens next and more than that, what will Edward do? For better or worse, I feel like an overwrought 14 year old.


I get it next!


I also read the next one in a day, 500 + pages. This is getting ridiculous. It's all I think about. I make some decisions: don't bring it in the car for one or I'll read at stop lights, at the dentist's office, in line at the grocery. Judging from the depression I felt when I finished the final Harry Potter, or the Return of the King, I know I'll be miserable when I finish the last book. So I decide to ration myself. Only a hundred pages a day. Also, the way I feel is just too intense! I don't even allow myself to start the third one until I've calmed down a bit, which in the end takes several days.


I guess everyone is reading it.



The movie opens on Friday in the US but not here until Dec. 4th. But good news! I'll be in Houston then and I can see it as soon as my jet lag clears! Who's in??

Yes, I am coming home for the holidays. Since Robert is out of school for most of December, he and I are headed to the States for the entire month. I will be in Houston from the 1st until the 14th when I fly to Vegas for a week. After that, it's Christmas in Covington, TN and then back through Houston for a day before jetting back to beautiful Abu Dhabi. I feel like a rock star on tour. So if you live in or near any of those places you can come see me and I will sign your copy of Twilight for you!

love,
Jaimie

Life is a Cabaret!

Well, not a terribly original title but I had some trouble coming up with a clever saying apropos Berlin. I could have used Kennedy's quote, "Ich bin ein Berliner" but I don't think two visits qualifies me for citizenship. Also, during the course of the week, a kind gentleman said I reminded him of a younger Liza Minelli (thank goodness not the current one) so I thought, why not run with it?

The Kulturforum in Berlin. Funky.


But I am getting ahead of myself. Connie had a conference in Berlin last week so we flew into Amsterdam a day early and flew back out of there as well. Many people (including the Dutch) ask us what makes us like Amsterdam so much. We go there as often as possible and never seem to get tired of it but it's hard to describe why. For one thing, we love to walk and we seem to go for miles there. It's just so beautiful; every street is lined with unbelievable houses and mesmerizing shops and murky cafes. People putter along the canals in their boats, others swish by on their bicycles. We used to make sure we always did something cultural like visiting my favorite museum, the Van Gogh, but now we are happy to simply wander up and down, looking at people and things and stopping now and then for a beer. All the buzz and activity is so energizing to me. I even love the bad weather because we just don't have things like rain here in Abu Dhabi. It's literally refreshing.


Awesome houses.


People in boats. What's not to love?



The day we were there was absolutely gorgeous. It was Saturday and everyone and their dog and grandparents was out on the streets and in the open air cafes enjoying what was probably the last day of autumn. When we left the next day, the clouds and rain had moved in and the cafe tables had moved back inside.

Just hangin' out at Dam Square with ol' Darth here.


On to Berlin.

I personally had a great time. Connie, unfortunately had to work, and didn't get to see any of the cool things in Berlin. Since the hotel we were at is in a residential area that straddles east and west Berlin, I became pretty adept at taking the train. If you want to see what the local residents are like, take mass transit. I dragged a couple of the other wives with me on the first day and some psycho dude hearing us speak English launched into a tirade about monkeys and mixed marriages and jewish people and finally that the US was a crazy place. I agreed with him and he drifted off. Then when we got to the museum area it turned out they were closed on Mondays. I did manage to find us a good place for lunch and then the KaDeWe, the big department store there. We felt that was enough for one day and returned home. Mass transit also consumes a lot of time.


The old with the new and a hot air balloon. It's Potsdamer Platz.

The next day most of the guests and spouses went on one of the tours I had already been on (with a different guide, thank goodness) so I went back to the museum which was all European masters. Excellent representation of many major artists like Vermeer, Rubens, Holbein, Van Dyke, Van Eyk, Lorraine, La Tour, Caravaggio, even some Botticelli and a Velasquez, but nothing particularly famous by any of them. I happen to love Dutch still lifes and floral paintings and there were plenty of those. But the important discovery came in the gift shop. I picked up a book about museums in Berlin, and there was Nefertiti! I had totally forgotten she was in Berlin. So of course, the next day I had to go see her at the Egyptian Antiquities Museum and she was as wonderful as I had hoped. Perhaps even more so. That was the highlight of my trip. My only regret is that I forgot to bring the menehune to see her.



Yes she did! She's usually photographed from the side because she's missing an eye. I think she's pretty anyway.


Berlin Cathedral with an eastern Berlin radio tower next to it. I'm kinda into that whole juxtaposition of old and new thing here.


The next day I had neither the heart nor the energy to take the train again so I simply trudged around town in the rain, checking out old neighborhoods, funky shops and beautiful buildings, both run-down and restored. The cost of living is really low there right now so currently it's a favored place for arts and artists. I didn't see too much evidence of that where I was but it certainly is a historically interesting and visually appealing place to hang out for a while.


Someone told me they didn't really like modern art. That's why I love this neon sign in front of the ancient history museum: All Art Has Been Contemporary.

Ciao for now,
Jaimie