Ruth's Sports Desk - Nobody Does it Better/ Old Chicken Makes Good Soupy!

Congratulazioni e baci grandi a Valentino! The Doctor sealed his ninth world title (seventh in premier class) today in Malaysia. It was a thoroughly well deserved title with his season being absolutely sublime, exciting start to finish. He came third today in rain soaked conditions and after a very difficult start in which he ended up eleventh after running wide on the first corner. So I salute a true champion who constantly raises the bar and is the most amazing ambassador for his sport. Vale you are a hero.

Also lots and lots of amore to Dani and Andrea today. Dani came second after a very assured ride which was his first podium in wet conditions which was also a super achievement. He seemed really happy and super giggly after the race which was lovely to see. Poor Andrea was running in third and looking really impressive but the slippery conditions got the better of him and his bike slid away from him a few laps from the end. So (mentally) sending a bucketload of consolation kisses his way.

Ruth's Sports Desk- The return of extracurricular Thursday

Well here we are again. Another Thursday another round of random activities to keep the boys occupied. Today the extracurricular fun department decided to send Dani go karting with some of the baby bikers (that's 125 and 250 class riders,) Legendary Loris to an elephant sanctuary with Hiro Aoyama, Nico Terol and Hector Barbera (more baby bikers,) Toothpaste Toni to some mechanical event in Bangkok (No that isn't a euphemism) and Jorge and Valentino to the Petronas Towers. Vale and Jorge seemed to enjoy themselves and as you can see the competition continued with Vale managing to attract two pretty girl fans and Jorge only getting one (bless his little socks.) As you can see poor Jorge is still feeling the effects of crashing at the weekend with his plaster on his hand and swollen and scratched nose (all together 'aaaaahhhh') but at least he can take comfort that chicks do indeed dig his scars. There was also another press con with (this is rapidly becoming a tradition) Vale and Dani sitting together again, unfortunately we're not lucky enough to be gifted with another suggestive, eye-gazing picture this week but as a small bonus here's Legendary Loris and his new friend Hiro Aoyama riding an elephant.

Life and Literature.

Well, today was a (hahaha) well-earned day off. I fully intended to do some work (i use that term very loosely) on my dissertation but got slightly distracted. I did managed to get a copy of Salem's Lot from the library which I will be using in another essay later on. I finally finished re reading Brave New World which I thoroughly enjoyed doing, its a great book and Huxley's phrasing is at times absolutely exquisite. I'm going to start rereading I am Legend next which is good because I love this book and again it will be handy for an essay. I need to get hold of a copy of a clockwork orange and have a scan through. Also I have a feeling that i need to be handing something in soon so I need to check on that. I think after tea I will get on with writing out quotes for my dissertation and crack on with my reading for that too. So quite busy times ahead. I also need to go to the library and find another article to review tomorrow *sigh.* Oh well onwards and upwards. I'm hoping at the weekend to start my review and get it out of the way and hopefully do some writing as I'm feeling creative but frustrated.
greetings and Spazibo
Ruth

Ruth's Sports Desk- Thursday is extracurricular activity day!

Well its almost the weekend which means its almost race time. But first...

Its Thursday,which as the title of the post explains is extracurricular activity day. Thursday is the day the boys get to do all manner of random fun stuff after they arrive at whichever area their race is in. In the past they've sent Jorge to the library and the Spanish riding school, sent Andrea surfing and go karting, sent all the yamaha boys to 'work' in the offices for the day and let Vale loose talking to kids. Well today it was the turn of Dani and Andrea who visited the Honda Training Centre which has something to do with road safety and motorbike skills and such things. They met the students there and got to play with a simulator and generally looked sweet in honda gear. They also sent Chris Vermeulen, Julian Simon and Marco Simoncelli to a wildlife park which was very sweet they got to meet dingos and koalas and stuff. (pictures at motogp.com)

Thursday is also press con day. Which apparently Dani and Vale enjoyed. This is after they did a joint interview together in a spanish newspaper. That's a real interview not an imaginary one that only exists in my head. A real one, the link is at the bottom. They discuss Dani's recent mountain climbing trip (yes really) and what they think of each other (yes really again.) Its a thing of beauty. The photo on the right is so full of possibilities, someone should totally run a caption contest on this thing. (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/somos/distintos/elpepidep/20091005elpepidep_20/Tes)

Movie Reviews - Inglourious Basterds and Mesrine

I went to see Inglourious Basterds the other week. I really really liked it. I'd heard mixed reviews beforehand but went with an open mind. I thought it was an excellent piece of film-making with Tarantino's direction assured and masterful. The cast was excellent with Michael Fassbender as a particular standout with his British army captain looking and sounding uncannily like a young Laurence Olivier, top notch. Also Brad Pitt was on excellent form with his brilliantly witty and OTT American soldier. It had brilliant moments of dark comedy and was super stylish with deft little touches from QT such as the little chapter headings and the good old fashioned noir voiceover. It was a film about film with QT fashioning a love letter to the power of cinema and making a genre movie with a twist.
I've also seen Mesrine parts 1 and 2 which is a french gangster movie about the life of Jacques Mesrine, a french gangster. It was a fantastic movie, a really slick old fashioned gangster film. Vincent Cassel gives a supreme performance as Mesrine, bringing electrifying charisma and convincing brutality to a complex role. Also excellent was Mathieu Amalric all wired intensity and excellet facial expression acting as an accomplice of Mesrine. Gerard Depardieu was also great as a smooth talking big time crime man. The soundtrack to the film was brilliant and it looked both accurate and vibrant. All in all two great films.
Ruth

Ruth's Sports Desk - The return of sixy football and excitement in Estoril

Well that sure was a fun-filled weekend of sports. First up Moto GP. The boys rolled in to Estoril for the latest round of racing and this week was the return of Casey Stoner (yawn.) He seems to have recovered form the most boring mystery illness in the world and is now back in irritating form. Once again Dani Pedrosa started the race super fast but was soon overtaken by Jorge Lorenzo. Dani had a right old battle with Casey and although he was a couple of seconds behind it really seemed like he was going to catch him. Poor Valentino struggled in fourth with grip issues but despite being miles behind Dani he was also miles in front of enforcer Edwards, so had a lonely but useful race. Lovely Dovi had a cracking battle with toothpaste Toni that went right up to the line with almost nothing in it and toni taking sixth and Dovi seventh. So Jorge emerged victorious and promptly did his routine of sticking a 'Lorenzo Land' flag on the racetrack. That's spiced up the title fight a bit with Valentino's lead down to 18 points with three races left. Casey was second and Dani third which means there's only about three points between them. I was rather disappointed that Casey was back on the podium so soon as I was robbed of seeing Dani and Valentino indulge in their normal overly chummy lets make Jorge jealous speculation inducing podium love in.

Next up (and on the same day, I nearly combusted with excitement) was Arsenal vs Blackburn. It was an interesting game which started badly as we conceded an early goal then went behind again. But we fought hard and were absolutely majestic going forward. We scored 6 goals and each of them were wonderful, particularly the wonderful left foot volley from Thomas Vermaelen (who is now our top scorer and a centre half!) All of the players put it an amazing display with Cesc Fabregas in particular standing out, assiting on four of the goals and scoring one himself. It was a great game to mark Arsene Wenger's 13th year in charge (happy anniversary) and even Thierry Henry was there watching in the stands.

Enjoy a random photo of Andrea Dovi at a petrol station opening looking sweet just for kicks.

the lurgy

I have been struck down with a horrible cold, hence the radio silence on the blogging front. So i spent the last two days convalescing on my sofa, wrapped in a blanket drinking hot lemonade and watching movies. I'm still not 100% but I'm getting better. And when i'm recovered expect some sports and movie blogs coming your way. Also perhaps some complaining about uni...
Spazibo
Ruth.