http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/ Copyright 2012 Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:43:35 +0000 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I strongly recommend The Shadow of the Cathedral by Vicente Blasco Ibañez to anyone visiting Toledo. Half of the book consists of detailed descriptions of the Cathedral that, on the day I first saw and visited it, made me feel... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/06/toledo.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/06/toledo.html Travel Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:43:35 +0000 So much for my online (sort of) diary. I failed to note down a California trip notable only for my failing - for various reasons - to do a short Raymond Chandler pilgrimage in La Jolla (his pipes are on... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/05/catching_up.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/05/catching_up.html Personal Fri, 25 May 2012 15:49:06 +0000 I have discovered what ereaders are good for: reading erotica in public. Actually, they're good for a myriad of reasons. I am a reluctant gadget adopter as I tend to only buy them when I have no way out... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/04/post_156.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/04/post_156.html Books Sat, 14 Apr 2012 17:21:43 +0000 At Edinburgh Books. ****** Edinburgh has brilliant cemeteries. The 18th century graves at St. Dunstan's are the best ones. Memento Mori galore. ***** The National Galleries of Art exceeded expectations. The only downside was that the shop had run... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/04/easter_in_edinb.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/04/easter_in_edinb.html Travel Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:57:06 +0000 What do you do when you find the French state has massive portions of their public records online? You go find birth records of writers and artists, of course. Marcel Proust. Or Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust. His father... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/useless_but_add.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/useless_but_add.html Books Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:41:54 +0000 Claudia's Law of Unwise Reading Choices: sitting next to me on a flight from Lisbon was this very nice and interesting Portuguese lady who turned out to be a scholar, prize winning poet and profusely translated at that. We chatted... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/argh.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/argh.html Personal Wed, 21 Mar 2012 16:19:39 +0000 Misericords. I noticed them in Ludlow one of these last weekends for the first time and I only haven't found them earlier because I've been sitting on them. Misericords are narrow ledges on the underside of tip-up seats, offering... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/misericords.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/misericords.html Art Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:12:50 +0000 I'm never without a book to read and, despite the periodical frustrations with fiction, I almost always have sucess at finding new authors. Especially through other authors - I just ordered a John Cowper Powys on the strength of a... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/on_having_a_bib.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/on_having_a_bib.html Books Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:38:43 +0000 Why am I not going to heaven? Certainly for very good moral reasons, but for much more practical reasons too: I've already been there. What is heaven? It is the Galleria in Milan. I'm sitting with a real cappuccino, in... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/post_155.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/post_155.html Books Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:48:31 +0000 Dorothy L Sayers in her essay "The Gulf Stream and the Channel", from the book "Unpopular opinions": "It has, I believe, been said that Britain possesses no climate, only weather. The weather of this country has been much abused (...)... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/post_154.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/03/post_154.html Personal Sun, 04 Mar 2012 11:59:50 +0000 The Muppets. Unexpectedly, the level of silliness was below par. It was probably the mixture of nostalgia pangs and "misfit identity crisis" plot which, while never reaching a stage that could be mistaken - not even remotely - for serious... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/at_the_movies.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/at_the_movies.html Cinema Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:34:13 +0000 We spent the weekend climbing to see hidden lakes on top of mountains. Llyn Cau. It's in a protected area and there was no one in sight. Other than sheep. If it weren't so cold out I would have skinny... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/snowdonia.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/snowdonia.html Travel Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:57:14 +0000 Despite living in the much famed Cotswolds, we have as a favorite day trip a jaunt to the city of Bath Spa in Somerset. You don't realize "awarded World Heritage Site status for its outstandingly preserved Georgian architecture" means until... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/bath_spa_suburb.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/bath_spa_suburb.html Travel Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:58:52 +0000 (quote that proves my theory that the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey is, in fact, a bitchy gay man) William Beckford in a letter: "I take airings everyday like an old Dowager".... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/lateral_evidenc.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/lateral_evidenc.html Personal Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:53:58 +0000 Double happiness: it snowed and my favorite spot - I always have one wherever I am, like a cat - will be spared the ignominy of fake beautification (also known as "development" or "progress"). The spot being the ruins... http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/keeping_tabs_1.html http://claudia.weblog.com.pt/arquivo/2012/02/keeping_tabs_1.html Cinema Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:51:44 +0000