Spinning Words

BRD Bucharest Open

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Diana

Here is another great reason to write about tennis: the first ever WTA tournament held in Romania – BRD Bucharest Open. The rumor about this tournament got out somewhere last year and the WTA included it at the end of the year in the calendar on their website. It was from the start an amazing reason to wait for the Summer. So here I was, barely 2 months and a week since I left the tennis stadium in Bucharest, back at the BNR Arena enjoying some really beautiful evenings full of tennis. It was bliss.

The matches started late in the afternoon so by the time I got out of work and reached the tennis site there were still 3 matches to go till the day ended so I had to be ready to stay out late. Summer evenings can be beautiful in Bucharest especially if you spend them in the middle of a park watching this amazing sport. The setting of the Tennis Village got me a bit confused because it looked totally different than what I have been used to from the ATP event but after a quick look-around it all became ok. I still love the sound the ball makes when it leaves the racket or when it hits the ground, it is music to my ears. I also love meeting people that I have been seeing constantly every year since 2002. We are a bunch of very faithful tennis fans here. This is not what I can say about the people who came to see Simona Halep play. This more than amazing girl that put Romania back on the tennis map gathers a huge crowd and has thousands of fans but unfortunately half of them have no idea what tennis is all about or how to behave at a tennis match. I apologize for that to all of the people who have felt offended. In time they will learn to change their attitude and understand that tennis is not football.

But going back to the tennis. It was my second time at an all ladies tournament, I’ve been to an ITF event some years ago, even so the beauty of the game is all there. The tension too. Oh my God did we cheer for our girls. And as always there was a bit of drama too: in the ladies doubles semifinal between Elena Bogdan / Alexandra Cadantu and Katarzyna Piter / Olga Savchuk just as well as in the final between Bogdan / Cadantu and Buyukakcay / Knapp our girls were the winners of two very beautiful and exciting tie-breaks. This tension also brought the audience into the match, making the few tennis fans that were there to watch the doubles scream louder than a full stadium, all to give power and faith to the Romanian girls who kept home the first WTA doubles title.

In the singles the first two seeds, Simona Halep and Roberta Vinci, met no real threats until they met each other. The most beautiful and painful match was the semi between Simona and Monica Niculescu, I wish that were the final. Both girls played amazing and because I couldn’t and didn’t want to pick a favorite I just enjoyed the tennis.

So at the end of a tennis week under the warm Summer sun there were so many reasons to be happy and listen to Stand Up (for the Champions) because: we have a WTA tournament in Romania, we have two major tennis events per year, and because game, set, match, championship went to 3 amazing ladies: Simona Halep, Elena Bogdan/Alexandra Cadantu.

Posted in Day to Day, English, Tennis | Tagged Alexandra Cadantu, Arenele BNR, BRD Bucharest Open, Elena Bogdan, Monica Niculescu, Roberta Vinci, Simona Halep, tennis, WTA | Leave a comment

Thirty Seconds To Mars @Bucharest

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Diana

Summer time means, among other things, lots of concerts in the great outdoors. These outdoors can be in the middle of town squares, on the beach, outside on the field, by a forest or in a hot parking lot behind the building you are working in.

First stop for me this Summer was Thirty Seconds To Mars. I almost didn’t make it to this concert but in the end I was there to see them. I knew that their concerts were spectacular and that they are known to sound good live, they are not on the list of artists that I listen to on a regular basis but their songs end up in my playlist quite often.

I must say that the organization was ok up to one point where there are always problems: the extremely long lines for the coupons for the drinks and the shorter but still quite long lines that you had to battle to enjoy a cold beverage. However nothing mattered after the concert started.

Being the concert of a mainstream band meant that there was a wide range of people in the crowd and I swear some really didn’t belong at a rock concert. But I’ll stop with being mean right here, at least for some good minutes they were listening to some really good music. In the end nothing mattered: I have no idea when the concert reached its end. It was a back-and-forth journey between music and Jared Leto acting like a clown or, most of the times, a very charismatic and charming front man.

I sure hope more great bands make Bucharest and Romania a permanent and constant stop in their touring. The Romanian crowd is still pretty keen to see artists perform live under their eyes.

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Back to the Basics

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Diana

Back home and things have already started to announce themselves interesting both in a good and a bad way. One thing that I am suffering from: the heat. Well, it’s not 35 outside, as it usually is during a Romanian Summer, it’s actually quite chilly, barely getting to 30, mostly staying around 24, it’s raining a lot but for me it is humid and warm. Sleeping with the window opened is a good idea until the thunders start. Yes, thunders. I think we had a thunder storm nearly every day since I came back. As beautiful as thunder storms are they are not so nice when you are on your way to/from work or in the middle of your deepest sleep.

I only had one day to rest and switch from the “school” mood to the “corporate” one. I must say that I felt quite lost the first few days but now I got the hang of it and it seems like nothing has changed. However what has changed is my attitude towards getting to work: if first tram is missed because of the traffic light at the crossing, worry not, there’s always another! There is no reason to force the green light or get angry. I wonder for how long am I going to be this calm. One good thing about taking the tram to work again is that I read a lot, unfortunately you can’t spot deer out the window here. My desire of getting at least a bit of fresh air every day leads me to “corporate” breaks high on the terrace on the 8th floor, above a noisy and dusty construction site.

In a way every bit of me is against being here. Barely a day back home and my stomach gave me a head ache with its protests. Yes, I am on a diet again, trying to eat healthy (the Swedish godies are carefully stored till proper conditions for their consumption will be reinstated). I am feeling tired and parts of my body are occasionally going numb. For this reason a MRI is necessary. I never had one so I am a bit afraid, I don’t know if I can stand still for so long plus it is kinda scary… not the test itself but what may come out of it. Hopefully it’s just a way in which my body says that it’s not that happy to be back. I don’t blame it in a way.

I think some parts of me are still strolling around Södermalm and others are studying hard in JMK. Plus I am pretty sure some are still at Kungliga Tennishallen. It will take a while until I pull myself back together, for now I am just trying to keep myself in one piece and focused on what is to come, whatever that is. And I still listen to Swedish music… Will do that as long as Spotify will allow it. After that I will find other means to get to that music… or get it to me.

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The Cats That Took Over the World

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Diana

Ok, I couldn’t help myself, I just had to write about this. I ran across this article from The Guardian about the hidden truths of existence in Simon’s Cat videos: http://www.theguardian.com/books/shortcuts/2014/jun/04/simons-cat-animation-philosophical-questions.

Simon’s cat

Of course I know all Simon’s cats videos. After reading the article my first thought flew to the IR myths we discussed in school earlier this year (more details can be found in Cynthia Webber: “International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction”) and my first impulse was to re-watch the videos and see if I have missed any hidden messages while being totally fascinated by the cuteness of the characters. I know that one of the videos was created to raise awareness of diet issues for dogs (“Simon’s Sister’s Dog”), but otherwise I only see cute cats when watching them. But if I think a little bit more there are some power-issues over there: cat-bird, cat-dog, cat-kitten. I will not go further into this, I am writing a blog not a course paper.

Street Cat Bob

Second issue that got into my mind: cats have taken over the internet. Think Dewey, Bob and Grumpy. All of them became huge stars online, just like Simon’s cat, all of their stories migrated or will migrate to books and/or movies and the press all over the world wrote about them.

Their stories attract the audience because they are clearly emotional and touching pop culture texts (lines read in texts books go through my mind right now) and this is what makes them profitable. Look at me, I have Bob’s books, I read Dewey’s story, watched all Simon’s cats videos, have one of his books and enjoy every Grumpy Cat meme that is online. Plus I subscribed to their Facebook pages.

Grumpy Cat

Some stories were created just for fun (Simon and Grumpy) but some have more than just a background made out of cuteness. Bob helped a drug addict with his recovery and Dewey was a library cat with a bit of love for every person that entered that institution.

There are discussions to transform Dewey’s and Bob’s story into movies, Simon’s cat has a deal with Disney and Grumpy Cat has his own coffee (Grumppuccino) and is the image for Friskies cat food. Add to that lots of other promotional materials, websites, fan pages etc. Meryl Streep is rumored to play Dewey’s savior and owner.

Dewey

And there are some social issues depicted in these media products that at first sight promote cat tales, if you look behind the emotional stories you can identify some political and social problems that are as real and as serious as the feelings created in the audience when coming in contact with the narratives.

Plus the stories didn’t just take over the internet, they took over the world, these cats are global personae.

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Life with Smoc

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Diana

Life with Smoc has been a bucket of fun.

So little

I remember when we brought him home: at first he was pretty dependent on us, coming where we were, walking bandy-legged.

A bit bigger

Then he got the hang of us and of the world and he began doing whatever he wanted… like hiding in the sofa through a hole he found in the back and letting us look for him desperately for minutes in a row. He wasn’t allowed to sleep in bed, he had his basket and pillow by the radiator in the bathroom.

He helped with the dishes 🙂

That was until we all noticed how cute he looked curled up at our feet. So we started to pay attention to how we move our feet during the night so we wouldn’t hit him. And he started moving from someone’s bed to the other so he would get as much attention as possible.

Loved flowers

In my case he even ended up sleeping on my pillow while I was sleeping next to it. He found great toys in ones toes especially in the middle of the night.

He was the best alarm clock in the world. The cutest too. He had no snooze button so getting to work on time was no problem.

…and ice cream

In case he was unsuccessful with a quiet meow he would in turns: stare, tread, touch your nose (even if carefully tucked under the blanket) and eventually bite.

All curled up

When our apartment was broken into and I walked in finding everything turned upside-down, I couldn’t care less about what they took, I entered the house calling his name worried and afraid he might be hurt or catnapped.

Brave hunter from behind the window

The moment I saw him coming out from between the piles of things spread around the house was the moment I knew it was time to call the police.

Loud noises in the night can be scary. After Smoc showed up loud noises in the night were the reason behind the question: “What has he done this time?”.

What is a kitchen table?

The answers were: pull down the curtains, slam the flower pots, spill the vase, climb on the fridge for his food, fall off something, bang his head in the shoe closet etc. Some of his deeds were most of the time too funny and adorable to turn one mad, even if they were committed in the middle of the night.

Helped me study

What he was very good at doing at night is offer someone company. He often curled up by my side with his head on my pillow or shoulder and purr himself to sleep. Also when there was a power outage and I was home alone (and scared in the dark) he came by my side and just put his paw on me as if he were saying “I am here”.

…by chewing my notes

To tell you the honest truth, as long as he was in the house with me I knew I wasn’t alone.

He was patient

He always listened, always replied, always kept company for supper, shower, nap time, movies, tennis matches (funny, he once followed with interest a Fed vs Rafa match… for about 3 minutes) and he was always where everybody was sitting.

… because he was wise

I want to believe that he was well taken care of, pampered and appreciated. I know he won the sympathy of some non cat-people too. And above all this I know that he was so so loved.

And he was so cute

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