Richard Armitage cameo

On By EstherIn Richard Armitage9 Comments

About a year and a half ago I wrote about enjoying the first season of the ITV mini-series Red Eye with Richard Armitage. After a lot of Harlan Coben adaptations that for me were mediocre (not because of Richard but because I didn’t enjoy the stories) and other projects I didn’t like so much, it was the first Richard-project I had actually enjoyed in a long time. A second season has been made, without Richard Armitage as his storyline had been wrapped up. However, on January 1st I saw this tweet from Richard, announcing he was popping up after all in a cameo role in the second season of Red Eye.

Now that was a nice New Year’s surprise! You can read a short interview with Richard about it here.

He appears in the 5th and 6th episodes of the mini-series. I was able to see some of it and took screenshots. So, for your viewing pleasure, Richard Armitage as Dr. Matthew Nolan in the second series of Red Eye (click on images to enlarge).

In the old fandom days a long time ago, and I can’t remember where exactly, there used to be tons of pictures celebrating Richard Armitage’s forehead crinkles. I was reminded of those when I made these screenshots – some beautiful examples of forehead crinkles to be seen here. I love me some Armitage crinkles and that profile is to die for. Enjoy!

Speaking of the old fandom days – Richard used to write Christmas / New Year’s messages to his well-wishers. I miss those…

Winter wonderland

On By EstherIn Real life1 Comment

Woke up to this sight…

It was snowing gently when I got up and it’s still snowing more than an hour later, a little harder now. You know you live in The Netherlands when even now, from your window, you see an occasional biker pass by in the snow. They are not mountainbikes of anyting, they are just regular bikes. A few years ago I became far more aware of how special this biking culture here is, so to see people biking through the snow seemed worth a mention.

We don’t get a lot of snow here anymore, which makes it not an annoyance for me but something beautiful to marvel at.

Best wishes for 2026!

On By EstherIn Real life7 Comments

This past week there has been a lot for me to be very grateful for; our lovely family Christmas lifted my heart.

We had a nice brunch on Christmas Day with my in-laws and my daughter and her girlfriend also came.

All my siblings came over for a family celebration on the 26th (called Second Christmas Day here in The Netherlands). My older brother who lives in Israel and who we haven’t seen in two years stayed with me, which was so very nice. My niece, his daughter, also stayed with us. There was Christmas cooking and baking in my kitchen…

And then we had a wonderful large family Christmas at my other brother’s house, where everyone brought food. A few friends and neighbours also came, which made it around 25 people present, full of beautiful words, remembrance of those who can’t be with us in person but are with us in spirit, and full of love.

We really missed having Junior and his girlfriend with us, but they are travelling through Europe now and are in Vienna as I type this, having a beautiful time. They are happy and that makes us happy.

After everyone disbanded again, Mr E and I left for a little cottage in the south of The Netherlands with our cat.

We visited an exhibtion about the Burgundians in Limburg…

…where Mr E saw his favourite book ever, the Gelre Armorial…

…and I was somewhat baffled by the “Vulva on stilts” badge, apparently used by pilgrims. I haven’t found out yet why the pilgrims used a vulva for a badge. One of my brothers commented “Oh, those Burgundians…” but if someone has a better explanation, I’d love to know.

(Modified to add that I found an article about this on a blog of the Swiss national museum: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/05/medieval-badges-and-their-risque-designs/).

We’re not doing much else in our cottage, just hanging out. Last night we had the traditional Dutch New Year’s Eve food, oliebollen and appelflappen, and this morning we watched the traditional New Year’s Day concert from Vienna.

For anyone still reading here, I wish you all a loving and healthy 2026!

May we all be grateful for what we have, even when things seem bleak, may we be kind to ourselves and to others, may we not villify those who are different from us but approach them with love, and with all that may we build a more peaceful and happy future together. All my love to you all!

Merry Christmas…

On By EstherIn Real life8 Comments

… from me to you, if you celebrate. And if you don’t celebrate, just have a lovely day!

(Credit to ChatGPT for the Christmas edit of this picture – it ain’t half bad)

🎄 May you find some contentment, whether you are alone or with other people, and may the memory of the people you miss the most make you smile as they live on in your heart. My warmest wishes to you all! 🎄

Work from home day

On By EstherIn Real life2 Comments

Meetings cancelled so was able to work from home today and I did so in my new office.

I don’t know what it is that makes me love having an own office. I never had one, never felt the need for one, but somehow I am loving it now. It also makes me think that now that I have a space to myself, I can maybe find the peace to start putting some energy into the writing I have always wanted to be doing. I have attempted it in the past, I’ve spent hours writing fan fiction, but haven’t written anything in ages and ages. I have also always felt that there is so much more I need to write about from life that I have never done before. Not sure whether that would be in a novel form or a memoir form but at some point the time and patience needs to come to do it and I feel that maybe now I could be at the start of that. In any case, having my own office makes me consider new things and that is really nice.