Trick or treat

Clémence Poésy y Día de Muertos

 

Out and about in Helsinki

"The dream of Helsinki was born in around 1550, when the Swedish King Gustav Vasa was inspired to found a city on the Gulf of FInland's northern coast to in order to catch up with Russia's expansion of the Baltic trade routes. 
In 1808, during the Russian occupation, the entire place was levelled by fire. Plans for the city's reconstruction only began in 1817, but the city would have been nothing without the ideas and inspiration of Carl Ludwig Engel. Engel based his city planning directly on St Petersburg, and with materials no more eminent than brick and wood he built a capital that was remarkably Hellenic in feel. 
Towards the end of the nineteenth centaur, vast swathes of the city were rebuilt and expanded in forward looking Art Nouveau and Jungend styles. Later, the influence of national romanticism was made manifest by a trio of locally born architects - Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Elliel Saarinen, whose approach formed the basis of the work of the mastermind designer Alvar Aalto. Alto of course brought worldwide fame to Finland through his architecture, in addition to a small number of memorable building to Helsinki. More importantly, he moved a generation of (or three) of architects to to look in their backyards for inspiration, seeking construction based around organic forms and utilising natural materials - ideas which have brought Helsinki well into the modern world."

The Rough Guide to Finland

 

Forest reclaims the city

"...in 410, Rome withdrew its protective hand; like the hand found beneath Thames Street, it was of bronze rather than of gold. There are reports of raids against the city by Angles and Saxons, but there is no record of a great collapse or transition. There is, however, some evidence of decay. There was once a bath house on Lower Thames Street which, in the early fifth century, was abandoned. The glass was shattered, and the wind destroyed the roof; then at a later date, after the collapse of the roof, the walls of the eastern range of the buildings were systematically demolished. Found among the debris was a Saxon brooch, dropped by a woman while clambering over these alien ruins."

Peter Ackroyd - London

Power dressing

Lately, I've been reading lots of books by successful people. Business women who have achieved things through sheer effort. It's made me want to wear a lot of tartan, bob my hair and spend less time blogging and more time working.

"I've always had to make up for my lack of intellect with my drive, my work ethic and my personality. I think that if you do really well at school, you grow up believing things will come to you naturally because they always have. Then when you go out into the world and you're not automatically the best at everything, and things don't always go your way, it's much more difficult to cope. If you're always on the bottom half of the table and you have ambition, you have to develop other skills to compensate."

Karren Brady - Strong Woman

The finest food quotes

Scarlett's honeymoon in Gone With The Wind:
"Best of all things in New Orleans was the food. Remembering the bitter hungry days at Tara and her more recent penury, Scarlett felt that she could never eat enough of these rich dishes. Gumboes and shrimp Creole, doves in wine and oysters in crumbly patties full of creamy sauce, mushrooms and sweetbreads and turkey livers, fish baked cunningly in oiled paper and limes. Her appetite never dulled, for whenever she remembered the everlasting goobers and dried peas and sweet potatoes at Tara, she felt an urge to gorge herself anew of Creole dishes."

Gloria in The Beautiful and Damned:
"She was used to certain dishes and she had a strong conviction that she could not possibly eat anything else. There must be a lemonade and a tomato sandwich late in the morning, then a light lunch with a stuffed tomato. Not only did she require food from a selection of a dozen dishes, but in addition this food must be prepared in just a certain way. One of the most annoying half hours of the first fortnight occurred in Los Angeles, when an unhappy waiter brought her a tomato stuffed with chicken salad instead of celery."

Mary Quant and avocados on set:
"We'd stop to have what we called a photographer's lunch- invariably avocados, which we were passionate about. They're so good and they don't make you fat. We'd have two of those each, washed down with loads of tea."

 Coco Chanel and boiled eggs:
"A seminal moment came in her early teens, when she left the orphanage and went to stay with two rather austere aunts. When she arrived after a long journey, they offered, grudgingly, to make her two soft boiled eggs. Despite being starving hungry, she refused, saying loudly that she hated eggs, when in fact she loved them, because she sensed a loathing behind the offer. to have accepted the eggs would have felt like weakness."

 Charles in The Sea, The Sea:
"In food and drink, as in many (not all) matters, simple joys are best, as any intelligent self-lover knows. Sidney Ashe once offered to initiate me into the pleasures of vintage wine. I refused with scorn. Sidney hates ordinary wine and is unhappy unless he is drinking some expensive stuff with a date on it. Why wantonly destroy one's palate for cheap wine? One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats, and if some of these can be inexpensive and cheaply procured so much the better."

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
"She bought some calvesfoot jelly, some essence of beef and a bottle of aspirin. She got to the door, then went back and bought a packet of rusks. Altogether it cost her sixteen shillings, which left four shillings in her handbag and eleven pounds in her post office book, but she couldn't draw any of that until tomorrow. By the time she came back, the kettle was just boiling. She made the beef tea like her mother used to, in a glass with a teaspoon to stop it cracking, and all the time she glanced towards him, as if she were afraid he was dead."