Sonoma International Film Festival - As if I'm not there.

There is still today/Sunday to go for the SIFF but I wanted to recommend a good movie I saw yesterday. It's entitled "As if I'm not there".  It is a tough movie to watch, I can tell you, and not one that you will forget in a hurry.  It is about the Bosnian war in the 1990's.  In the film description is it called "harsh" and it certainly is.  But it is definitely worth watching.

The protagonist is a school teacher in Sarajevo who goes to work in a remote village. But Serbian soldiers capture everyone from the village the day after she gets there. They kill all the men and take  the women to a camp.  The action is blatant: you are not left to suppose what is going on - you are shown it. The movie is based on real stories, and is disturbing and powerful.  It is all about the will to survive and doing what you have to do. 

After seeing this, I realize just how ignorant I am about all that went on in the Bosnian war, just in the last decade of the 20th century and the horrors that the citizens had to endure.

Let me know what you think if you do see it.

Weekly Bird in the hand

That time again for my weekly bird in the hand - the things I am grateful for this week:

Photo by striatic

• Last Sunday was Mothering Sunday in the UK so my Mum has to top this week's list! Thanks Mum for who you are.
• Movies that make me cry! This weekend it is the Sonoma International Film Festival so I'm watching lots of movies - not all of which will make me cry. But I do so love being moved by a movie!
• A dog who wakes me up so excited just because a new day is starting! It's quite contagious.
• My friend C who's birthday it is today - Happy Birthday Sweetie!
• My cousin C who's birthday it is today - Happy Birthday Sweetie!
• My friend D for whom today is a really difficult day as his daughter died on this day a few years ago.
• My nephew M for getting into both schools he wanted to get into for his A'levels, and also for being rugby captain when his team won the cup.
• My nephew P for getting his rugby stripes after being captain of his team.

Hope your week has been fun.

Sonoma International Film Festival

We are at the Sonoma Film Festival this weekend!  Spent a full day watching movies yesterday and today is going to be similar hard work!!!

We love this festival and go every year.   It's all in walking distance of the town of Sonoma and glasses of wine and nibbles keep you going between the movies.  All the films are independent movies - and it's great to see what people can create - sometimes with practically zero budget.

Yesterday I particularly enjoyed "Outsourced" which is about an American online catalog company that outsources it's call center to near Mumbai, India and sends the American manager to train and coach the new workers in American ways!  There aren't really any big surprises in the plot - but it is a funny and sweet movie!



My other favorite yesterday was "The elephant in the living room" which is a documentary about exotic animals being kept as pets in the US.  A lot of the film focuses on this one man who keeps 2 African lions - which then have four cubs!  Gosh - quite an eye-opening and balanced movie - and sad and tragic at times.  There was a Q & A session afterwards with the producer and that was great too to hear some of the background and what happened next.



Today I'm looking forward to seeing "Bomber" - I practically cried at just the trailer for this one - and do love sad movies - although this one seems to have humor in it too - so hoping it'll be a goodie!

I'll let you know if there are any that shouldn't be missed!  But time to head to the movies now!

Sunday's spotlight - Happy Easter

By guest blogger Pete

Happy Easter to you all. I have always thought that Easter is the most glorious of the Christian Festivals - the one that gives true meaning to everything that went before it and comes after it.

I am writing this a few days before Easter sitting in the sun after a lovely walk through the sun dappled hills of the Glen Ellen Regional Park. Everything was so fresh and the spring wild flowers so abundant and colourful. The grasses were splattered with hazes of blues, yellows, and whites. Both coming and going we saw a Pileated woodpecker hard at work. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me so I can't offer you a photograph of this hard-working fellow. The 50 minute walk was followed by a refreshing cup of coffee sitting in the shade at an outside table.


By the time you read this Pam and I will have been back in the UK for a few days. With the onslaught of the dreaded jet lag I somehow don't anticipate being so relaxed and rested as I am sitting here and writing this. Perhaps the day will come when someone will come across a cure that will stop the "body clock" from going haywire. I usually feel that mine has a broken main spring.


Yesterday saw the four of us go into San Francsico to visit the new "California Academy of Sciences". This building is situated in one of my favourite parts of SF: namely the Golden Gate Park. One year we went there on my birthday and. hard though it may be for the 49ers to accept this, the temperature rose above 100 degrees.


We walked through the park sweltering in the heat with feet making the sort of protest that only feet are capable are making. Eventually we came across what could have been fountain but was probably a paddling pool and the 4 of us took off our shoes and socks and for quite sometime luxuriated in the coolness of the water on our feet. I digress though - what I wanted to do was to recommend a visit to the California Academy of Sciences to anyone visiting San Francisco or living in that area. It's well worth the time and effort trying to find your way both into and also out of the park (let alone parking your car). That's where I took the attached photos.

Bye for now.

Enjoy your Easter.