My hero is almost arriving

25 days left... and counting! The next Indiana Jones chapter is almost here. Who could imagine that after years of waiting I would see the poster in french? :P Of course I'll watch in the original version, but far from my wildest dreams to ever imagine that I would be in France for the D-Day! eheh

Although I'm not all that happy with the title of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I'll definitely wait in a queue if necessary to watch it! :)
Yes, it's my favorite hero and from all previous three movies I would pick Raiders of The Lost Ark has the best (at least for me! eheh).
I remember when I got my first (and only) VCR player for Christmas back on 1987 and I didn't have any movies to play it with. So my neighbour borrowed me Raiders of The Lost Ark in VHS and my life was never the same (ok, I'm overreacting! eheh). That poor tape was played again and again and again... like a Duracell bunny! eheh
I enjoyed that movie... a lot. It's my reference for adventure movies. :P

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the opening movie for this year's Cannes Film Festival, and unfortunatelly I don't have an invitation.
Can anyone help me? :P

And the Tryceratops goes to...

Recently I've found out that Christie's, the fine arts auction house, has exposition rooms open to the public. The idea is to evaluate the items before they go into auction.
So... I decided to visit the famous Christie's in Paris to see what luxurious art items they had, and and the same time to see art outside the "museum" world! :P

For my surprise I found out they had a big dinosaur skeleton "on sale"! A complete Tryceratops skeleton to be more exact, with an estimated price of 500.000 euros! Wow! Some bank accounts would be extinct too with these prices! :P

But besides skeletons, they had several fossils, tooths from giant sharks, insects in amber, collections of beatles (no, not the band) and butterflies. It was like a natural museum on sales! eheh

At the end, Christie's is no much different from a museum, but at least you can walk around and pretend to be a rich collector ;)

The circus in Delirium

Who doesn't like going to the circus? Well, it sounds like a banal question but it's true that the "traditional" circus is loosing fans. Some people don't like to see animals being "used", others have child traumas regarding clowns (not me! eheh) and most of us already know that the formula it's still almost the same.

Acrobats, clowns, trained animals, trapeze acts, etc, etc... you see them a couple of times, and that's it.
Last January I went to see the Beijing Circus whose artists and acts are different from the standard format. I really enjoyed.

But you want to see a new kind of circus, you should definitely check out the "Cirque du Soleil". Although its name is french for "Circus of the Sun", this company was created in Canada and it's beyond the circus concept. In fact, they don't like to be entitled as a circus company, but more as an artistic one.
My first experience with the Cirque du Soleil was last year when they were in Paris presenting one of their best shows Alegria.











This time they were back to present one of their shows, Delirium. After watching it you understand why "Cirque du Soleil" is just a name, a concept, because what they offer the audience is a multimedia experience. Giant screens, some circus artists, a theatrical production, lots of colors, artists hanging from the ceiling and live music (a constant in all their shows)... lots of music!
An interest mix which confirms that modern circus (also called the circus of the future) has in "Cirque du Soleil" a very good example.
Nevertheless, the concept of the modern circus

It was a delirium night... but I do prefer and recommend their Alegria show. :)

Restos - You

Back to Japan... to a japanese restaurant to be more precisely! :P Our friend Natalie was in town and it was up to us to suggest something different for a dinner.
I know that in Paris eating japanese is not the best original idea, but Natalie is living in France longer than us... so, my final suggestion was to go once again to Sainte-Anne Street and try another typical restaurant there.

Last time we went to the Aki restaurant, and now we visited its neighbor (it's just right next) the You restaurant. But don't you think that all japanese restaurants on this street have a 3 letter name! :P

Good service is as important as good food, and at the You restaurant I've found once again the typical japanese warm welcome and service . Plus, I even managed to use my rusty japanese! Hai! eheheh

For starters we had a nice plate of several kinds of sushi: makizushi (rolls in seaweed), nigirizushi (on clumps of rice) and the exotic ikura gunkan (with fish eggs).
For main course we had a big bowl of soba (thin japanese noodle), more nigiri (these ones like a ball of rice with boiled egg inside).
I couldn't also forget the typical sake to drink with, and we've chosen warm... to help us with the cold outside! ;)

To finish... no dessert, just green tea... with free refills! :P

A nice and healthy meal, in a clean and calm restaurant, with a kind a very friendly staff.

The olympic circus

Update: one video added!

One of today's highlights was the olympic torch relay in central Paris.
Usually I'm not interested in this kind of event, but this time the relay was surrounded with a climate of tension.

After yesterday's chaotic scenes in London, I was looking forward to see what was going to happen in Paris.

The relay departed around 12h30 from the Eiffel Tower, and I was waiting at Champs Elysées during my lunch break.
On the sidewalks, there were chinese groups carrying their flags, supporters of the tibetan cause... and a never ending number of policemen! On foot, on horse, on bike, on car and ever on roller blades! It looked more like a police parade than the olympic torch relay! eheheh

After a few minutes, some girl next to me jumps the barrier and starts to run up the Elysées avenue. The police goes after her and on the sidewalk everyone who had a backpack was ordered to show its contents.

When the torch "arrived" at the Champs Elysées I realized there were two torchs :P At the same time the official torch was being carried down the Elysées, there was this guy dressed up as a tibetan monk who was carrying... a toilet brush! :)

This is the true olympic "clean" spirit! :D

Congratulations FC Porto!

We are the tri-champions! :P Last night the FC Porto soccer team won the portuguese championship. The third consecutive championship! Hooray! :)
Plus, FC Porto is the first champion in Europe for this season! Hooray hooray! :)

Even if I wasn't there, at the world's most beautiful city of Porto (or Oporto if you prefer), I was able to watch the decisive match on TV. And with good soccer matches I always have good snacks to follow up with! :P
A crowded stadium, painted in blue and white, where everyone was expecting a good game, which was going to decide the winner of the portuguese championship.

The final result of 6-0 was the "cherry on the top" of a great night. I only missed the party after the match around the stadium and all over Porto city.

There are still 5 matches until the end of the season, and we're still on the Portuguese Cup... but unfortunately we were knocked out from the Champions League. Better luck next year!

Congratulations FC Porto... and we'll see each other again soon!

Coming up next: Euro Cup 2008! Go Portugal! ;)

Poisson d'Avril!

We have some winners! No, I wasn't running a contest, but I was waiting to see who believed in my previous post! :P

It was April Fools' Day and, to keep the tradition, I made my contribution with one "simple" story. Nothing happened to my car, but it's true that I almost forgot to pay! eheheh My bad!

And now you might be asking what does it mean Poisson d'Avril (April fish)? Although in France food is almost a religion, the "April fish" means someone who was fooled with a prank/joke, usually at April 1st.

Of course I was curious about the origin of this name, and I found out that... fish, one way or another, are the the ones to blame! :P
During early April fish was abundant in French rivers and it had the reputation for being.... stupid because it was easy to fool them with a hook and lure :P
Then, it became tradition to place dead fish on the backs of friends! Nowadays the classic April Fools' Day prank is to stick a paper fish on someone's back. What are friends for? eheheh

I didn't put any fish on you, but it's a good idea for next year! ;)

I want my car back!

Usually I never forget to pay my bills, specially when most of them are automatically payed via electronic deduction from a checking account. But, for no special reason, I pay in person for car parking... and I never thought I could cause so many problems!

Unfortunately, last month, I forgot to pay. Well, I went to the car parking two days after the deadline... only to find out more problems. The parking management, for security reasons, had called the police to tow my car... even without calling me!

The parking is very close to the city hall, and because my car's licence plate is still portuguese they took security measures and removed the car out!

In result, I had to take one day off work in order to go to the police. Accordingly to them, I was lucky, because they were about to "gently open" the car and search for "threats"!
After paying **** euros (censored! eheheh) and filling a dozen forms, I managed to arrive home almost at midnight!

I hope I wasn't flagged as terrorist! :-P