P.S.

No, I don't think Johanna is stupid! It's quite amazing she understands me, yet a seemingly obvious Batman film goes slightly over the head.....Women hey- full of surprises : )

The Dark Knight

Having just spent the last 2 and a half hours watching this Batman film, Johanna turns round to me and says 'I don't get it'....Ok, what don't you get?!

Before anyone questions whether this film (being a Batman film) could be good, all I can say is watch Batman Begins, which is without a doubt the best in the franchise.......up until now anyway.

The problem with Batman is that it's slightly tainted- Batman and Robin was without doubt the worst film, not only in the Batman name, but potentially ever made.

Yet somehow this has been turned on its head, as the last two Batman films are potentially some of the best films ever made. Long gone are the days of Adam West, Michael Keaton and George Clooney as Batman. This new film has more than just 'lets beat the shit out of the badies', you really have to pay attention to the twists, the satire and the greater 'meaning' of this film.

It's truelly awesome, especially with the extra roles with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Christian Bale is by far the greatest Batman and the franchise is definitely back on track and I'm sure has surpassed all critics opinions of what was another potential disaster in the making. All I can say is watch this one (preferably Batman Begins first, but not entirely necessary-well ask Johanna!!), you won't be disappointed in the slightest. Heath Ledger has done 'the Joker' justice: I'm sure you can see some truths in his character which led to his untimely downfall. Nevertheless, forget about any previous Batman or even comic book assumptions, this film is truelly one to be remembered.

A bad start but a vast improvement

Well the title appears to be a moan and then some. However this is far from the direction I want to go. Without boring the pants of you, this weekend started like, well as bad as it could: I think throughout my biology education I've avoided topics that have apparent boredom, you know, evolution, ecology, those type of things, whilst maintaining strict distance from the mind-boggling: the biochemistry type process and worst of all, genetics.

So guess what? Yup, Friday morning I sat a Medical genetics exam. For those people who know me, I give my all with most things, from sports to exams, so I wasn't going to be phased by this slight hiccup in the smoothness that is life. Out of my class, I was 2nd to finish. Lets just say, it wasn't as good as it could have been. I don't know when I get the result back, but my first question after was, 'When is the re-take?' A bad start to the weekend, oh most definitely. But boy did it change.

It might be an appropriate time now to mention, this weekend was Johanna's birthday. I think birthdays are times we try and forget about (well after about 15!). It doesn't bode well when 18 year olds are now born in 1990!! I do occasionally remind Johanna she's not far off the 30 mark and that she's a craddle snatcher, haha.

I should also mention this weekend was mine and Johanna's 1 year engagment anniversary.......ok, I can't lie- it's gone fast and yes, I've enjoyed (almost!) every minute of it. I'm definitely one of the luckiest people on this planet.

Well what did I get Johanna for her birthday you ask? No it wasn't the cliche flowers, chocolates, perfume etc etc, all useless presents I know. I got her a sneaky trip to Helsinki instead. For most Swedes, they can't really understand why anyone would go to Finland. I guess it's what Wales/Scotland/Ireland is to England. The language isn't particularly attractive, the proximity to Russia doesn't bode well and it's quoted as the most expensive country in Europe. Good choice Mike, good choice.

After my excruciating exam, we shifted down to Stockholm, where we boarded a boat almost as old as me (courtesy of Viking Line). Not without it's charm and middle aged alcholics, buying crates and crates of tax free alcohol, we found our cosy cabin, ready for the over night trip to Finlands capital.

Being the romantic in the relationship, I bought the cliche bubbly (ok, sparkling wine was all I could afford), check this out:

After a celebratory drink or two, we had an early night ready for a long stroll in the morning. Having no real expectation of Helsinki, it was quite refreshing to go there mostly unbiased and make up my own mind.

First thoughts were good (and no it didn't change!): much like Stockholm it's all surrounded by water, full of buildings similar in size and design. Although lacking in tall, leggy blondes (more angry looking Russian types....ok, there's only partial truth in that), I was expecting a burger to cost as much as it did in Dublin, you know around 20 friggin Euros and it wasn't far off, but slightly cheaper.

The main Cathedral is quite spectacular:

The lay out of the city is compact and well structured, everything (as they say) is where it should be. So after a good 8 hours of non stop strolling, it was time to jump back on the love boat. Of special note after we'd gone to a reptile place (I like snakes etc...yeah I'm weird, whatever.), Johanna officially fell in love with someone else......a 3 month old Bernese Mountain dog puppy, who was standing there all fluffy, just outside the reptile house.....the definition of 'opposites' came to mind.

After another night on the beast of the seas, we arrived fresh faced (officially Johanna's birthday) in Stockholm and what a day it was: perfect blue sky, perfect crispy temperature and perfect company. We had breakfast and all that malarcky, more walking and more pictures.

To summarize is tough, Johanna ordering 'a Newky' on the boat to a Finnish barman was midly amusing. I did tell her afterwards, it's just an English phrase....It's been a year of official engagment and I have no complaints. It's hard to write something all lovey dovey without sounding like a tit, so I won't try.

If this weekend is a fair reflection of what's to come, I definitely have no complaints about my future. 'I've done well' is more than appropriate and I honestly couldn't ask for more. I've got a beautiful, intelligent fiancee.....older woman and all that (grrr.....). It's not hard to enjoy our time together and I can't wait for the 2 year anniversary.......

Just a quick stupid report

The latest thing on Sky News (literally just happened) is a man has died whilst getting assaulted in prison. Shock you may say? Well not really.

For starters he's in jail (well technically he's probably in a morgue now), so no sob story here. He was probably some murderer/drug dealer type person (Im sure the details will be revealed) so fair play I say. You get your just desserts (Classic phrase I know).

The report made me laugh because the opening lines are 'A man has died after being seriously assaulted in prison. Police are treating the incident as murder.'

What genius figured that out?!! A man dies and they are treating it as 'murder', well put a barge pole up my ass and call me George. Of course it's friggin murder!! He's bloody dead!!

However, this line can be surpased by the finishing sentence: 'Two men have been arrested and are being questioned'. Amazing- you can actually get arrested while in prison....what are the odds of that?!

What the hell happens to you after you get arrested in prison? Is it some weird reverse psychology where they actually release you? Do you get locked up in a smaller room? What do you do with a person that gets arrested in prison?!

Well ship them out to Iraq I say, what's the easiest way to deal (a related issue here) with an overcrowded prison? Easy: you lower the inmates right? Conscription is one option but why not kill the bastards? They choose to do whatever they want, so their punishment should be likewise. I guess the government has lost their kahoonas. In the meantime, lets stay amused with lame reports from the Sky News team.....great job

Andy Murray

No he's definitely no Björn Borg but he is Britains best. I thought this quote was quite funny actually. It was regarding his runners up spot at the US open: "I know mentally now that I can get to a Slam final, and physically. The only thing it comes down to is the tennis." Did someone tell him his profession is tennis? 'the only thing it comes down to is the tennis' erm......slight problem there then. Oh you grumpy Scottish wee Jock Mcplop

Music and such

Just doing our usual tonight, you know, chilling, watching Old School (sooo funny), playing on the wii (no Johanna wasn't beating me) and listening to some tuneskies.

Interestingly enough Johanna found a band I used to listen to called Millencolin, who unbeknownst to me are indeed meatballish (Swedish for non natives). They are kind of punky and actually listening to the guy sing, it's fairly logical that he sings like a Swede (you can just tell somethings 'wrong'- you know).

So between us we tried to come up with a list of famous Swedish bands etc. We didn't get far, but again surprising to me, Eric Prydz is a Volvo driver. Yes, the 'talented' song stealing bastard (Ok, the video is good) reminded me about the class English act (Ok, he's a Brummie, so only half English) he robbed: the legend that is Steve Winwood. Now most of my generation even thinks Eric Prydz's song is most definitely his own: that Take That wrote and in no way shape or form stole EVERY single song they 'sang'.

But in that magical year of 1982 (yes when I was almost concieved) one Steve Winwood blew us away with this:



May be blown away isn't quite the right word. It only reached #51 in UK charts, which is actually quite pants. Nonetheless it has become a cult classic, thanks (but no thanks)to Mr. Prydz.

However, this hero of a singer actually had 5 number 1's in the states, which is no mean feat. I mean the Beatles (however crap I think they are) didn't conquer the states. To do such a feat is worthy of great honours, yet no-one seems to know about such things: just a mere shadow of 3 words that Mr. Prydz has butchered, 'call on me'.

Who else is on the hero list from Sweden then? Well ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, Europe and the Cardigans are the big 5. (Shamefull Europe are in there I know). Then for the younger generation we have The Hives, Millencolin and Basshunter, Eagle Eye Cherry (sort of), sadly stuff some Brits might know like the Ark or Mando Diao. That's about it though.

Well it's not all doom and gloom is it? Well probably, but hey, what can you do? On a slightly more varied note, we've been trying to find some examples of weird accents from around the World (it sees fitting as I'm on an international Masters taught in English) so we went on line and found some classics here. (Just play around with different countries etc)

Spurring us on to hear how stupid we sound, both me and Johanna read passages in English from her book- yes we recorded them (I should put Johanna's on here-classic!) and had a giggle. For some weird reason Johanna tends to read words that aren't actually there....may be it's a boredom thing or just wants to make it more exciting, needless to say if she was a reporter, she'd definitely be good working somewhere like at Aftonbladet (The Sun equivalent): you know, making up stories.

Don't worry, it's my turn soon- I'll be reading Swedish at a 4 year old level, in the mean time, another classic from Sir (I made that bit up) Steve Winwood