Purge: Sofi Oksanen

I bought a copy of Sofi Oksanen's 'Purge' while I was in Norfolk this weekend and became instantly gripped by the first few pages. I'm now patiently waiting to finish work and go home to a hopefully empty house, make a pot of tea, and to catch up on the the final few chapters. This book really deserves a wide readership. 'Purge' is published in the UK by Atlantic Books. It has been a number 1 bestseller in Finland and has won numerous literary prizes, including Finland's including Finland’s premier literary award, The Finlandia Award. How long now before a Finnish/Estonian production film is made?

Photo Credit: Toni Harkönen

A Norse Saga

Finished my crazy early 6am shift this morning over at the Southbank and on the way home had a call that two Norwegians (Jurgen and his daughter) will be arriving on Saturday and can they stay for a few days. Looks like I'm going to have to make my way to Scandinavian Kitchen tomorrow with a shopping basket in an effort to have something welcoming in the cupboard, or perhaps visit the Finnish and Norwegian Church on Albion St (just up past Deptford) in Rotherhithe SE16 - the Finnish Church has a shop attached to it selling rye bread and pastries (the Church also holds a really good annual Christmas Fayre where you can buy lots of Finnish produce and Christmas decorations). Failing that, Scandinavian Kitchen now opens on Sundays, so it looks rather likely we all will pitch up at a table for coffee and some lunch.

Join us on the Nightshift

A 9am start at the dentist today which has turned into a bit of a lengthy, pricey and painful saga. However, this meant I had most of the day left free to see two films more or less back to back; Wender's Pina (again) with a break for lunch then on to see Hanna (well, it had Eric Bana in it; 'Munich' it isn't, but it is worth a watch for Tom Hollander wearing the 'very wrong' white track suit in which he does a lot of running about in). Enjoying the screening of 'Nightshift' on BBC4 as part of Icelandic week, a sitcom based at an Icelandic Shell petrol station; if you like the black humour of Finnish director, Aki Kaurismaki, then this should be right up your steet - Jack Black has bought the rights to turn this into a US comedy series/film.

Home Made Poster

Liking this huge wall poster handmade by Candi Mandi. Right, off to listen to Sylvain Sylvain now on Radio 6.

Andrew Bird

My afternoon off and a chance to catch up with some chores before an early start again tomorrow. It's just started to rain outside now and I'm home listening to Andrew Bird's Noble Beast; what a truly beautiful album released on Bella Union back in 2009.

Photo Credit: Amy Stein

Norm 69

I've admired the Norm 69 designed by Simon Karkov in 1969 for some while and decided to make a purchase. However, I was glad I'd read up on the Normann Copenhagen website before deciding to buy as it is comes as a flat pack self-assemble number, consisting of 69 pieces. Each fragment has to be individually folded and this has to be done in a room that is warm, otherwise the pieces have a tendency to crack as you fold them. Their web boasts that the quickest anyone has assembled a Norm 69 is 38 minutes; however, if you haven't had a crack at assembling one of these before, I think a realistic 2 hours needs to be set aside. I was almost breaking out in a brain surgery style sweat at the terror of one of these leaves cracking while I was folding and attaching the leaves. However, the result was worth the effort in the end.

Material World

And just a reminder, it's time to limber up for a genteel weekend scrum as it's the largest Swishing event to be held in the UK as part of UK Aware at Olympia this Saturday 26th March. Swap your old clothes for some new garments. The unknown nature of what's on the racks at these events and the ability of trying to spot a possible swap at 20 paces is what makes this fun and it's saving clothing ending up in landfill. How it works: take along up to 5 items of good condition, clean clothing that you are no longer in love with (or can fit into), pay a £7 admission charge on the door, hand in your items, then browse for a replacement set from items that other people have brought in and, voila, go home with a completely new outfit. Simple.

RIP: The devastatingly devine Ms Elizabeth Taylor