opening of the rossell special collection

 a friendly crowd gathered last night at goldsmiths college to celebrate the opening of the deac rossell special film collection at the library













beautifully presented by special collections head jacqueline cooke and smoothly organized by richard bolley, deac's gift to his department and the greater college community has made the news in the nicest possible way







 
speeches from the warden, professor geoffrey crossick, and dr cooke were cheerful and down to the point that this is a great assett to the library with far reaching subjects from early german silent movies to international film studies.

people looking at the books, posters and broschures probably had the same kind of question: why is he giving this great stuff away? but although the answer 'because there is no space left in the house' was freely supplied by the wife nobody seemed to believe her

friends and colleagues had travelled far to be there

and deac's home department had sent the usual suspects

so there was ample provision of gossip and story telling

and because of the prospect of a delicious icecream later on in meze mangal even the junior photographer and occasional library help was happy - inwardly, that is...

new horse for anette

the horse that anette started riding around christmas here is tutti, way too big and way too fast but exciting anyway even if there is no feeling of control there yet whatsoever...

marlis goes riding too, just not on horses...

the riding bug, my dear friends, is catching fast, and whereas lovely auntie marlis was adament last summer that anke and the rest of the crew were risking their lives on horses it is now cristal clear that she had no problem with the idea of riding itself - it's horses she doesn't trust! meanwhile, we can't believe how young and trim she looks given that it is now a few years ago that we celebrated her 70s birthday. beat that!

ps: rumors have it that after a few minutes with the leader at her side marlis got a little impatient with the slow speed and while the good man tried to step up his pace she urged the beast into a little gallop and so arrived an hour ahead of the guide at the camp. and - no! we don't have a picture of that!

grade two: passed

it's official: the child is noisy! (and sometimes, very ocassionally, her noise hits the right tone...)










so, after torturing her parents for month with an instrument that mainly sounds like a ship in the night (ok, a pretty ship in a beautiful night)

and poor mr suter in his efforts to put a brass band together 








our darling daughter entered the royal schools of music grade 2 exam for french horn in december - and you know what - she passed!

whether this is now because her good father nagged her every day to practise and drove her from band practise to concert or whether there was always something more important to do we don't know but it worked


a solid 'pass' - congratulations, sweetheart!









and we hear you are determined now to do the same for piano - well, together with deac on the sax and poor mum playing the recorder we'd make a terrific band, right? 



watch this space...

boris and pelagia

lovely pictures (and stories) have arrived here at 'what's up' from the beautiful pelagia (left) who was born no less than 11 years and 7 month ago to our pretty cat 'beans' amongst five other rascals in the middle of our move from highgate to brockley and eventually set up with our friends in blackheath were she has enjoyed her status as best pal to boris (below) and boss of the household (as all respectable cats are of course) ever since.









and while we drag ourselves out in the dark and rainy mornings to face yet another day of commuter's hell and office woes don't these images of feline bliss make you think that actually that's the smarter way to beat the january blues... you tell me....

he's in!

a slightly belated post but we were just too busy celebrating - true to form we had american pancakes last night








and one member of this household wore something similar to the cap in the pic and waved flags around and was glued to the telly all day

and what can we say: he's in!

(the full text of the speech is here)

Lieber Nino und lieber Leon: Charlton Athletic vs Fulham FC

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag!!!

publish or perish

yes, you too may have asked yourself what my dear husband actually does with his spare time when he's not lecturing in his famous courses or taking care of the many demands that city life, sax and child present to him







well - while it is fair to say that he does loiter on the sofa a good deal he's not only reading books - the man actually writes them

and just, -just! - before the house truly collapses under the weight of thousands of film books and magazines - he gives them to his college as a major donation

and they all live happily ever after...

yep!

 








(take a look at this fantastic list of publications in the picasa window on the right and come to the goldsmiths library one of these days to admire the rossell collection!)

it's icy!

it's flipping cold in england and for the first time in a decade even in london we see the thermometer now steadily around the -3C mark and we're just praying that the garden survives this cold spell. don't be surprised if you see anette with a hairdryer in front of the big agave tonight...just looking at the beautiful hendrick avercamp painting makes us shiver...

Selica is mine! (at last!)

Rike writes:

This beautyful Arabian dapple grey mare is Selica. Since mum and dad got her for me on loan, she is practically mine! She is SO pretty with her lovely long eyelashes! (except, of course, when she is scared and is galloping away with me AGAIN!)




 

Our lovely riding teacher has also just promoted me to a harder ride, the 1:30 ride, which means I ride two hours in a row. YIPEE! I am also going to care for Selica 3 times a week now (grooming, mucking out, feeding, ect). I will also be riding her on two other rides every week!

Here is a little canter you can watch...



 

Off to the Nederland!

anette is sent off to groningen to attend a conference and after a full day at work she barely makes the last city airport flight to amsterdam only to learn that klm has lost her suitcase...

which somewhat wrecks the trip to the university groningen a bit (try talking friendly to your colleagues with hair washed in dishwashing soap borrowed from the hotel kitchen)...

but the symposium at het kasteel is incredibly well organized and very interesting and the rest of the city is equally pretty, even in two days old clothes...

...and anyway it's off to amsterdam already the next day where - wow - the suitcase has been found thanks to deac's unparalleled insistence and nagging qualities.

we stay in a pretty little b&b right in the middle of jordaan and get to explore this part of town over three days quite thoroughly...










and we come to the conclusion that 20 years after dreaming of living here this place is as magical as ever.

















and that all those dutch are incredibly lucky...











and that time really does stand still in some places...














(ckeck the picasa pics on the right for more)