Michael Carøe Andersen

Month: February 2010

Beautiful Malta

While London is cold, grey and dreary these days Malta is pretty warm so I decide to post a few pictures.

Malta is very photogenic and very different from my usual habitats so there is lots to “shoot” at. Especially for the Christmas trip where I had a new camera and was spending 16 days. Here is a couple of my favorite pictures and themes from this trip and others to Malta.

Malta has many cats – some are pets others just roam around.

Typical Maltese balconies can be seen everywhere.

The decorative doors and windows begs to be admired whether they are falling apart or had a new lick of paint.

Old, rustic street decorations as niches, statues and signs can be found on a lot of buildings.

Beautiful panoramic views of the sun, sea and the sandstone of Malta.

And a couple of the quirky and cute ones;

Shepherd and his sheep

Green toes!!

Japanese truck

Privte Propeirty

Last but not least I need to mention that I won two nights stay and the luxury hotel Kempinski in Gozo! They had a competition where you should write a blog post about Gozo and then the winner was found in a draw. If you are interested you can go read my piece here: Going to Gozo – A vacation within a vacation.

…and now it started to snow – again – in London [sigh].

February 23, 2010
How to pour an ale

One of the things I love about being here in UK is the hand pumped beers or cask ales as they are also called. These are unfiltered and unpasteurised beer that are not drawn from the kegs or containers by carbon dioxide but instead by hand pump or gravity. In UK you just have to look for the Cask Marque sign and you know the pub serves some good, traditional cask ale.

If you go to the north of England you will get your pint like the one on the left, smooth and creamy. If you ask for a pint in the south you will get one like the one on the right, clean and crisp. The two pints shown are the same beer but poured in two different ways that produces slight differences in taste. There is more of an explanation here.

Thursday Ann and I went to the February edition of London Bloggers Meetup. The meeting was sponsored by Greene King brewery who wanted to show of their new beer engine that could produce both Northern and Southern style pints. The head brewer John Bexon was there with another guy to tell about the beers and explained how to taste a beer.

I enjoyed speaking to other bloggers and having a night out. The beer was very good I enjoyed both versions – and it was free which makes it even better. We had a great evening where we got away with goody bags filled with interesting beers from the brewery and tickets for a rugby game but more on that some other time.

February 21, 2010
Ursula Martinez' stories and emails

It’s been a while since we have really taken advantage of living in this cultural hub but now we are getting into a stream of events again and hopefully I’ll get around to blog about them.

This weekend started off with a visit to a black box. Not just any box however it was Miroslaw Balka’s Box of Darkness at Tate Modern. A huge steel box that as you entered it completely covered you in darkness. It is 30 meters deep and as you walk in you can’t see anything – until you hit the back wall. A quite eerie sensation produced by simple means.

Last night we went to a sold out Pit at the Barbican to see Ursula Martinez. If that name doesn’t ring a bell you might remember the video of her doing a magic striptease trick that made it’s rounds on the interweb around 2006. She never intended for her act to be film but it did and eventually ended up online which caused a torrent of attention and fan mail.

Now she has turned this unsought celebrity status into a new show called My Stories, Your Emails which we saw last night and it was hilarious. First part was her telling embarrassing and funny stories from her life unrelated to the video. Then she showed the infamous clip and second part was her reading emails she received as response to the video. She did this while showing pictures sent along by the emailers and she impersonated the different accents of the people who have written her. I thoroughly enjoyed the show and so did Ann and who knows when I can watch striptease with her again without complaints 😉

We didn’t really know anything about the show before we went but it has been interesting to read up on the reviews and criticism of the ethics – or lack thereof of the show.

February 14, 2010
Invisible Children at UCL

Last night Ann and I went to a presentation and discussion about the child soldiers of Central Africa and Global Citizenship.

Photo from Invisible Children

It started out as a civil war in Uganda but today, more than 20 years later, the conflict continues as a terror regime where the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continue to abduct children and mutilation and slaughter the local population. The LRA has caused the lives of thousands and dispalcement of millions of people in Uganda, DR. Congo and Sudan.

Invisible Children started out as a film project for three American guys and has turned into a grass-root organization trying to help the children affected by the conflict. It’s a conflict that hasn’t had much focus which is what the Invisible Children organization tries to do and one of the things discussed in the panel debate was how to bring attention to it.

The story is heartbreaking and what the organization is doing is really admirable in trying to give these kids a chance for an education and meaningful life. Until the conflict comes to an end it is worth reminding ourselves and our governments that we should not just stand by as this happens.

See the whole documentary Invisible Children: Rough cut.

February 3, 2010