Things going on lately...

* Last Friday I watched my first two episodes of Queer as Folk, US version, and I think I'm hooked... Gale Harold is so hot as Brian Kinney... *sigh* I found, among others this great site, Gale Online, with lots of info and pics!!

* These last days (since Sunday, actually) I haven't been around LJ as much as I usually am because I've been abducted by a book I'm reading... First of all I have to say that I haven't been reading a lot this year (apart from books about Japanese and Chinese, and fics :S) but during summer I usually read more... I'm reading some books at the same time but the one I got on Sunday, is just an easy read that asks to be finished as soon as possible... It's a romantic novel by Sue-Ellen Welfonder... Bride of the Beast, that actually is a second part of a series (yes, I'm weird that way, I don't mind) of stories about a Scottish clan... Anyway, apart from the cliches typical in the romantic novels, I'm enjoying it quite a bit... I can be so silly... *hi hi*

The book tells the story of Lady Caterine Keith who is in troubles since an English lord, Hugh de la Hogue is claiming her lands and wants her to be his wife. Her sister Linnet MacKenzie (one of the main characters in the previous book, that I also got, but later than the second :S) sends her a protector... However sir Marmaduke Strongbow, the chosen one, best friend of Linnet's husband, is also English and Caterine won't receive his help as nicely as she should... Besides, Strongbow, even being the best fighter and a perfect gentleman, has a problem: a scar crosses part of his face making him less atractive than he was in the past, insecure and full of demons. He isn't the only one, since Caterine has her own ones...

I haven't finished it yet but I don't think it will take me long ;)

I checked the author's website, and I found out she has written more novels, all placed in Scotland. Here it is, in case you're curious.

I have to say that I started reading romantic novels some years ago because a coworker of mine loved them but told me that she only read them in English because she had a friend who gave them to her... She started recommending me some authors that I checked out... I didn't like all of them or all the books but there were some quite interesting... She moved to Miami a year ago or so, and before leaving she gave to me part of her collection (that I haven't started reading since I still have some others I bought myself waiting to be read).

For now I have to say that I kind of like Kat Martin and Jude Deveraux... but I'm partial to stories placed in the past... I can't read (or interest me) stories placed in today's world... don't know why... It may be that I find more interesting or magical stories with knights and ladies, castles and swordfights...



*Last Monday, Fuji TV aired Takuya Kimura's Hero SP!! I can't wait to watch it... but I haven't so far so I don't know how it was, but I'm sure it was great since Hero was such a great dorama.

*Summer sales started here and I got totally crazy and bought some clothes and shoes (I'm really am considering to make a post about shoes-shopping addiction ;))



Crocs shoes, very comfortable... This is what it says in the label:
only original crocs use pccr, a revolutionary proprietary material ensuring the most comfortable foot experience on the planet. Anti-microbial; anti-particulate; erogonomic design; hypo-allergenic; non-toxic

Their official website



My sister got ones like this but an earlier model a couple of years ago and I wanted a pair for myself but couldn't find any that I liked. I have a lot of sport shoes and mr. ginger wasn't very fond of them as we saw them at the Nike Shop, but he suggested I tried them on, and he really liked how they looked on me, so he decided I should buy them ;)



*Today, yesterday, I read this great adult fic, Yellow Plastic by minisinoo featuring Cedric and Hermione as adults. She writes them so nicely, so real... that I enjoyed it a lot!

*Okay, a bit of World Cup thoughts... Today Italy made it to the final. I told mr. ginger a week ago or more than it would be cool to have an European final and we'll get one. I haven't watched the match, Germany-Italy, just bits... but a friend told me that Italy played better than Germany. Originally I wanted a Germany-Portugal in the final... but let's see if I get an Italy-Portugal instead... It would be cool anyway ;)

*Talking about Portugal. Last week I was watching tv late at night when I caught this program about Spanish culture issues, called (translated) Culture with Ñ. I was nicely surprised to see that the guest in that program was Joaquim de Almeida, my favorite Portuguese actor! But what really astonished me was the fact that he admitted he talked 6 languages and acted and worked with 5 of them... So guessing and checking movies, I think he meant he has filmed or worked in movies using English, French, Italian, Spanish, and, of course, Portuguese, since he admitted that the one he didn't master was German, although he studied in a German school as a child. Simply amazing! Now I'm admire him more than before!







*And... sadly, the last thing: this news about North Korea, worries me :/