Marry Me – 7 fantasy husbands

Nell participated in a challenge on her blog to name 7 fictional characters that she would marry on the spot (this is originally a challenge from another German blogger). I’m always one to fantasize, so I figured I’d just jump in and join the challenge as well.

The rule is that it’s all about the character and not about the actor who portrays him (all men, in my case). I know actors of course do influence my choice because favourite characters lead to favourite actors for me and vice versa. So, actors can not be completely ignored and characters played by my favourite actors are naturally on this list. 🙂

OK, on to the challenge: which 7 fictional characters am I so in love with that I could marry them?

1. I just had to pick a character portrayed by Richard Armitage and I considered Harry Kennedy from The Vicar of Dibley because he just feels so familiar, like I could know him in real life, or John Porter from Strike Back, a tough guy who can think for himself, but in the end I would just go for John Thornton. Ah, the way he and I could change the world together! And he sure can kiss…

2. Nell mentioned Joe Bradley, the reporter in Roman Holiday (as portrayed by Gregory Peck) and I thought I’d pick him too but then I thought of a few other characters Peck played who I wouldn’t mind marrying either. James McKay in The Big Country springs to mind, the quiet Easterner in the Wild West who has such moral fibre and is made of sterner stuff than most people think, and of course Atticus Finch who, in a way, reminds me a bit of my own father. I’ll just go with the Oedipus complex choice and pick Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird. He’d be a good daddy to my children too.

3. Prince Edward (Richard Chamberlain) in the Cinderella movie The Slipper and the Rose because he was the first character that touched my romantic childhood heart.

4. Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) from The Mentalist because life would never be boring with him around and you know how deeply he can love once he lets you in.

5. Amenadiel (D.B. Woodside) from Lucifer because who wouldn’t want a fierce looking but soft hearted angel at your side to fight for you?

6. Mark Darcy from Bridget Jones’s Diary. Yes, he’s uptight, but underneath all of that… woof! And he’s smart too, changing the world one high profile human rights law case at a time.

7. Captain Frederick Wentworth (embodied most perfectly by Ciaran Hinds) from Persuasion, a self-made man with a faithful heart and I would get to travel the world with him aboard his ship.

Compiling this list, I chose the characters that popped up in my mind quickest and another one of them was John Keating (so brilliantly portrayed by Robin Williams) from Dead Poets Society, so he gets an honourable mention.

I know that makes it technically eight men I would marry and if I think a little longer I could probably think of 10 more (ooh, maybe hotshot lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) from Suits or honourable FBI agent Jack Hudson (Yannick Bisson) from Sue Thomas F.B.Eye or even Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) from Little House on the Prairie) but I’ll just leave it at this.

Fictional crush challenge – day 10

10 days, 10 fictional crushes
Post an image of a fictional character who has been or still is your crush. No names or explanations needed. TV, movie, book, comic, cartoon characters are valid.

And so we come to the final listing in this fictional crush challenge. I’ve been listing my biggest crushes chronologically and this is the last one I’ve crushed quite heavily on…

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) from The Mentalist. I started watching this show because a colleague at the time (in 2011) recommended it. From the first episode that I saw, I was hooked. I caught up to season 3, which was then airing, and from then on faithfully, feverishly awaited each new season and episode. There were to be 7 seasons in total, ending in 2015.

I got hooked on the charm, smarts and devious mind of Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) who helped detective Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) solve murders in California. The former fake psychic turned police consultant used unusual, often amusing, methods (to the exasperation of Lisbon) but was also hell bent on taking revenge on serial killer Red John who had killed his wife and daughter. This juxtaposition of glee and tragedy is what makes Jane such a fascinating character, a man with flaws and all but still lovable. Of course, there’s also the vest (gosh, he looked sexy in his vest!) and the hair and that smile. When Simon Baker flashed that wide Patrick Jane grin I often found myself grinning back at the screen. I swear that smile is the most infectious smile I know.

I made several fan videos about Jane and Lisbon (in those days I used “Hannah” as a pseudonym), they have their own page here on my blog. Looking back at them, there are some I would do differently now but I do have two favourites of the ones I’ve made. The first one, with only season 3 clips, from when I first started watching the show…

… and one video I made at the end of season 6.

At 7 seasons (the last season was half a season, really), the show had run its course, the finale gave Patrick a happy ending (I could also easily have seen it go another way with this character, glad that didn’t happen) and it was a good time to end. Yet somewhere deep down I still miss the show, and Patrick Jane, and his vests, and his grin…

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So, there you have it, the end of the 10 days, 10 fictional crushes challenge. There’s a bonus fictional crushes post waiting to be published tomorrow and then it’s on to other things. This was fun.

Smiles of the week

New jobs are exhausting! The amount of information and complexity of issues and getting to know the people and trying to get a feel for the place with its (unspoken) rules can be somewhat overwhelming at times. But I can also safely say it’s been good, the people have been very nice to me, they have waited to start certain projects until I’d be around and I feel welcome. A new manager started the same day I did, had a talk with her yesterday, and she feels worlds removed from being a micro-manager, which is excellent news. Two or three clients (internal colleagues) who were frustrated because no one got back to them on certain issues (due to someone else leaving and there being no back up) were made happy by me because I was either able to solve something for them or at least able to listen to them, promising to look into the problem. I worked on Wednesday because they wanted me along for a work field trip, so I changed my day off to today without any micro-manager giving me shit about it. Heck, even the view from the 10th floor where I work is good! This is the view from the elevator hallway…

Yes, first full week at my new job has been exhausting but good, which makes me smile!

But there were more smiles. Richard had a lovely little Twitter exchange promoting his The Lodge movie…

… which means that for 3 days now this has been singing around in my head…

I’ve never been a big Grease fan (I know, sacrilege!) but I do like this song, not bad having that in my head and making me smile. 🙂

Another smile this week is the new second-hand car we bought and picked up on Wednesday, late in the afternoon. We had a guzzler for a car that could pull our caravan and, strictly speaking, we didn’t need it anymore, as we don’t have the caravan anymore. So, to make things a little cheaper for us (gas, taxes and insurance) and to be a little more environmentally friendly, we bought a hybrid Toyota Auris. My daughter had been with us when we bought the car 10 days ago but she was in Berlin with school for the week, so it was only our son who was with us when we picked it up.

The car has a ‘panorama roof’ (just glass, you can’t open it, but wonderful for gazing at the sky and daydreaming) which my son fell in love with. Yeah, the rain couldn’t take the smiles away.

Of course, the big smiley news is the news of Baby Sussex being born. Yes, Harry and Meghan have a son named Archie, who was born earlier this week. Pictures of the happy couple with baby were shared, which is worth a smile of its own…

WINDSOR, ENGLAND – MAY 08: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, pose with their newborn son during a photocall in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle on May 8, 2019 in Windsor, England. The Duchess of Sussex gave birth at 05:26 on Monday 06 May, 2019. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

… and Harry was in The Netherlands yesterday for the Invictus Games which are apparently coming to The Hague next year. Het got a little onesie from Prinses Margriet (former queen’s sister, our king’s aunt)…

However, the best part was the jacket he was wearing during a short bike ride, which also said “I am daddy”…

Yeah, big time smiles for that one as well!

Early this morning my daughter came home from Berlin (they drove through the night)…

She’s been exahusted, napped through most of the day, and she is out now with Mr Esther, giving the new car a little exercise. 🙂

And finally, Simon Baker. After The Mentalist ended I lost touch a bit with what he’s up to and while he does have Instagram, he doesn’t post that much on it. But he did post this today. My first thought was: “oh my, he’s looking so good”! And that smile, he has one of the best smiles I have ever seen on anyone. Then I looked closer and see that his Mentalist co-star and the person he ends up marrying on the show, Robin Tunney, has reacted to his post…

… and then a short little exchange follows in the comments…

Now, wouldn’t it be lovely if these two meet up and take cute pictures together? A sort of happily ever after, after The Mentalist? Ah, the memories this brings back!

“White Orchids” — Lisbon accepts Jane’s surprise marriage proposal, but a killer’s quest for revenge may cost them the happy ending they’ve worked so hard to achieve, on the series two-part finale of THE MENTALIST on CBS Wednesday, February 18 (8:00-10:00, ET/PT). Pictured: Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon. Photo: Robert Voets/Warner Bros./CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

“White Orchids” — Lisbon accepts Jane’s surprise marriage proposal, but a killer’s quest for revenge may cost them the happy ending they’ve worked so hard to achieve, on the series two-part finale of THE MENTALIST on CBS Wednesday, February 18 (8:00-10:00, ET/PT). Pictured: Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon. Photo: Robert Voets/Warner Bros./CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

“White Orchids” — Lisbon accepts Jane’s surprise marriage proposal, but a killer’s quest for revenge may cost them the happy ending they’ve worked so hard to achieve, on the series two-part finale of THE MENTALIST on CBS Wednesday, February 18 (8:00-10:00, ET/PT). Pictured: Simon Baker as Patrick Jane, Robin Tunney as Teresa Lisbon. Photo: Robert Voets/Warner Bros./CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

I’m totally up for a reunion with some pictures for the fans. Here’s living in hope!

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Aussie – as in an endearment for an Australian. 🙂 There has been some great Aussie entertainment news this past week!

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Last week two of my favourite Aussies were posing together: Simon Baker of The Mentalist fame and Hugh Jackman. Simon has made a movie called Breath and Hugh Jackman and his wife Deborra-lee Furness were helping Simon promote his movie in New York City! As shared on Hugh’s instagram account…

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A post shared by Hugh Jackman (@thehughjackman)

… as well as on Simon’s instagram account. Apparently Jackman hosted the screening!

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A post shared by Simon Baker (@snappytoes)

Here a few more pictures from that same event (click to enlarge)…

Breath is an Australian movie set in the 1970s. It’s a coming of age story about two teenage boys who befriend an older surfer (Simon Baker) and he challenges them to take risks. Here’s a trailer…

Simon Baker not only stars in this, he also directed, produced and co-wrote this movie and, as an accomplished surfer himself, he also surfs in it. I’m not sure how wide the release will be but the first reviews I have seen sound promising!

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In other Aussie news: the Australian Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries film is a go! Crowdfunding (and yes, I also am a backer) helped make this possible. 🙂 All the main actors will be back and filming will start in October in Morocco and in Australia (Melbourne). The new movie is called Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears…

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A post shared by Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (@missfisher_official)

You can read the full press release here. From the press release…

“The film opens with the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher rescuing Shirin Abbas, a young Bedouin woman, who has been thrown into jail in British Mandated Palestine, for making trouble at a time of colonial unrest. After a perilous escape from Jerusalem, she rejoins Shirin as a fellow guest in the home of Lord and Lady Lofthouse, for the London ‘season’ and she pledges to help her right a wrong and discover the truth about the Crypt of Tears – an ancient crypt rumoured to lie somewhere beneath the rolling sands of the Negev Desert.

Fiona Eagger said: “Miss Fisher & the Crypt of Tears will have the witty intrigue of Indiana Jones, the opulent style of a Merchant Ivory Production, and the feminist fun of Thelma and Louise.”

It’ll be a while before we’ll actually see it but already I am getting excited for this!

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Also, a bit of Aussie fun: Chris Hemsworth, Australian actor of Thor fame, posted this funny little video of him signing photographs of himself the other day.

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A post shared by Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

I can so imagine that it must feel like a workout if you have to sign so very many!

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And in final Aussie news – nominations for Australia’s biggest TV awards, the Logies, have just been announced. The Aussie show A Place to Call Home, that I love so much, has been nominated for ‘Most Outstanding Drama Series’!

They won the award last year and I wouldn’t mind them winning it again this year! Jenni Baird has again been nominated for ‘Most Outstanding Supporting Actress’ for her role as Regina…

… and by George, would I absolutely love to see her win! She has been the most dubious, chilling and layered character on the show, she was robbed for not winning last year. I hope she gets it this year, fingers crossed!

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Yes, I love me some good Aussie news!

A Valentine’s Day declaration of love

I’m not that big on Valentine’s Day – my husband and I say we prefer to show our love all year round, we don’t need V-day.  🙂 But on blog I felt I couldn’t quite ignore it, especially after I came across these very fitting Hugh Jackman gifs…

So, a Valentine’s Day post it is. This means that, of course, one of my fave on-screen kisses ever by Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe needs to be featured here…

And Colin Firth declaring his love can not be ignored…

The kiss I have been most pre-occupied with in recent months needs to be included. Suits finally returns for it’s second half of season 7 at the end of March when we will finally, finally see what happens after this Donna & Harvey (#Darvey) kiss…

However, for all these things, the true love in my life really is my husband. After last year’s V-day post I came to singing his praises in the comments there and now here, in its own blog post, I want to reiterate what I wrote then, for all to see…

Mr Esther and I have been together for 26 years now and this is the first picture of us as a couple, taken during the first weekend in February of 1992, just a week after we got together (Mr Esther was close to 21; I was close to 22)…

We were both in college at the time and from the very first kiss everything felt completely right between us. We’ve been soul mates, best friends and lovers ever since. In 1999, on our 7.5 year anniversary, we were married…

The declaration of love that I made in the comments last year still holds true today, even though we are really getting old and fat (these pics were taken last summer and 9 years ago respectively)…

I suspect I will always love this man from the bottom of my heart. Quoting from last year:

“No, Richard [Armitage or any other man actor crush for that matter] is in no way whatsoever a rival for my husband. I think even if I would know Richard in real life, who knows whether I could really love him in the romantic sense? He could be a Mr. Grumpy pants for all I know, or a work-a-holic who’s never around, whose life and career would possibly take precendence over me, etc. etc. I don’t share a 25 year personal history with Richard, I don’t have children with him, he isn’t the one who has helped me deal with losses and disappointments, he isn’t the one who supports me and leaves me free to be who I want to be, who nurtures me and encourages me, he isn’t the one who loves me completely as I am, warts and all, he isn’t the one who is there for me physically and mentally – my husband is all that and no one can replace that. And I hope I am all that to him. [It’s] a personal exchange. When my husband and I met I was already a fan girl of all sorts of movie stuff, with posters of faves all over my room, he doesn’t know better than that I am always in love with some actor or other and it never bothered him. Also, I find that the actors I love all seem to have a bit of my husband in them, so basically when I fall for an actor, I’m falling in love with aspects of my husband… Yeah, I’m so so lucky. 🙂”

We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day but today is as good a day as any to let my husband know yet again that I love him! Maybe when he reads this post it will earn me a surprise bouquet of flowers? Or at the very least an extra little caress and/or kiss, like these from the sweet movie Something New that Simon Baker and Sanaa Lathan made in 2006…

Happy Valentine’s Day!