I'm muchly amused
Lately I've been amused by several things. First of all, Twilight. The movie and the book. (I'll move over to the discussion on that particular topic when I'm done with at least the first book.) Secondly - last night I got serenaded by a troubadour at the bar I was spending the evening with my friends. I nearly died of giggles - and so did my friends. Here was this bearded man (in his sixties, I'm sure) singing about Johanna, just random improvised words to familiar songs. How he hopes I'm rich and how he's going to dream of me and so on. And the bar was full of people, too. It was hilarious. However, I would've gladly caught another person's eye that night. You know how there are lookalikes for everyone in this world? (Or that's how it seems, anyway. I pity the girl who looks like me, though. :wink: ) Last night I saw a lookalike of Ioan! We were, before heading to the bar where I was serenaded, having a dinner with a large group of friends in a local Tex Mex restaurant. At one point a tall, dark man by the counter caught my eye - mostly because his profile was stunningly like Ioan's. The same nose, the same jawline. :shock My interest was instant, as you can imagine. Hehe. He and his friends came to sit to a table right opposite ours, and I had a clear view of him for as long as they were there. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him. It was uncanny. He looked very much like Ioan around the time of Great Expectations. And he had the same smile, too. :blink: And the downside? A ring in his ring finger. Alas, no Finn-Ioan for me. But gosh, how it was fun to just ogle him. I had my camera with me and I could've basically faked taking a pic of my friend and made this Finn-Ioan be clearly visible in the picture too, but in the end I didn't dare. However, if he hadn't had that ring, I probably would've gone and said something to him before they left the restaurant... :wink: So there, I've mostly been feeling good these past few days, despite having the worst cold in ages.

It is nice to hear you are having a good time, Yavannie. Your serenade story reminded me of a night in Nice, France, when the waiter (a very good-looking guy, as a matter of fact) came near the table where two friends of mine and I had dinner and asked us if we wanted our change of if we would like him to sing us a song (we had asked for the bill).

That sounds like a very fun time. Are you sure Ioan wasn't in the area? :wink: If you want to talk about Twilight, Ship and I have both read the series, as has Gnat when she drops back around. So, I'm sure you'll have people to talk to about that. I've also been seranaded, by a younger man who was the son of long time family friends. :shock Now the kicker - it was at a Christmas party and my parents were in attendance. :blush2: We ended up going out on a date - dinner and a movie - and had what I thought was a very nice time for a first date. Then, there was no second date. Months went by and I learned via my parents that he was now dating another man. Needless to say, it was a shock :shock . I have wondered if I was his last female date.

Gaffer, I'll get back to you on Twilight. I think I'll get the first book read today and will then proceed to the bookstore to buy the second book. I do have something to say about it. :wink: I'll probably post some thoughts on my LiveJournal later, too. So should you be interested, pop by. I did already post about the movie about two weeks ago. Both of you had nice serenading stories! :wink: I'd love to be serenaded by a young, handsome man - but I only ever get the elderly ones who are not exactly eyecandy... Bah. Oh, and if Ioan had indeed been sitting opposite me, I would've been thoroughly impressed by his fluent Finnish! :love: But this stranger could've easily been Ioan's brother. Oh, wait, what does he do - and where? :lol:

Hey,Yavannie, how do you know but that your 'handsome stranger' didn't send the troubadour over to sing to you at your table,eh??? Hahahhhhhhh, I LOVE it! ---------------------Got you hooked on the "Twilight" series now,too??? You're going to like them all. Happy reading------

Last I heard, Ioan's brother did government work - hey! maybe a traveiing diplomat for Wales. :mrgreen: Yavannie, I'm afraid most of my romances haven't had a much better ending than yours. Used to attract the older men, but rarely someone my own age. C'est la vie. At least you had fun.

Ship, I've been meaning to read the Twilight series for about a year and a half (at least), but only now got around to it. I find the story so far entertaining, and oddly addictive - even though I've got plenty of criticism for it too. :wink: But I'll definitely read at least the two middle books as well, since I bought them yesterday. Haha. Gaff, c'est la vie, indeed. But as you said, it's good to have a great laugh every once and a while. Even thanks to a silly troubadour. (Hmm, Welsh diplomat by the name of Gruffudd - I'd sure open talks with him, heh.)

Mmm,yes I could go for a Welsh diplomat very easily,if he looked like you-know-who! ---------------------------------You're right,Yavannie,the books are addictive. And,I enjoyed them purely for their escapism. Hadn't read/seen a good vampire story in a very long time,so the books took me away.

Escapism is exactly what the books offer. That's why I read loads of fantasy (and some science fiction) all the time. It's great to switch off the reality. :wink: The last vampire books I read were Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. They were campy fun for the first 6 or so books and got so bad after that that I never went back. Brr. The basic idea is that a young (vampire hunter) woman tells her story in first person, how she falls for a beautiful vampire and a gorgeous werewolf... (Eh, sound vaguely familiar?) The biggest difference between those novels and Twilight being that Anita Blake kills vampires for work and has loads of s*x with them (and the werewolves) in the middle. I'm not quite halfway through New Moon yet and somehow I don't see the story going that way in a hurry... :lol: Ah, but I need to haul this discussion to the Twilight thread at some point - perhaps after I get finished with New Moon. Hopefully this weekend. :wink: