Muriel's Wedding

Muriel's Wedding is a tragic comedy set in the town of Porpoise Spit, Australia. The movie is about Muriel, an ugly-duckling, and her one motivation in life --- to get married. Her motivation arises from the fact that all of her friends from high-school, the ones she tries so hard to fit in with, are walking up the aisle.

After her family has found out that she stole money from them for a trip to Hibiscus Island, she runs away from home to Sydney. There, she changes her name to 'Mariel' to represent her new life. When called by her old name 'Muriel', she doesn't hesitate to quickly correct it to 'Mariel'.

As my own big wedding day is coming closer, lately I've been corrected many times as well. While practicing my wedding vow, the vowels in my fiancees name wouldn't exactly come out like they would in her home country.

'Miryam', 'Maaryam', 'Mirjam'--- I'm still trying to get it right.

Starting a new life by getting married sounds easier than it is. It's all in the name.

To Catch a Thief

'To Catch a Thief' is a Hitchcock film, but the movie seems to belong to Grace Kelly due to her personal connection to the location of the story: the south of France, in and around Monaco. Not only did she marry Prince Rainier and became Princess of Monaco in 1956 after making her last movie High Society, in 1982 she died from a car accident as she was driving along the southern coast of France not far from Monaco. The scenery and movie location are spectacular and 'To Catch a Thief' was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Attractive location - not only important when shooting a movie, also important when you want to pick the best place to propose to your girlfriend.

When I first started to think about a location where I could propose, Santa Fe seemed like the perfect spot as we would be going there for a long weekend in August. But while we were playfully discussing the possibility of getting engaged, my gf asserted that proposing during a weekend trip would not be a big surprise. I didn't respond to her remark but realized that I had to change my plans. 'Don't panic', I thought, there are always other possibilities. Despite a two week waiting list, I'd been thinking of making reservations to 'Boulevard' for a long time. Boulevard is one of the top Restaurants in San Francisco and I know that my gf had wanted to go there for a long time. It would have been a great location to propose if not for the fact that one day before going to the Restaurant, my sweetie mentioned that proposing in a Restaurant would not be memorable. So dinner came and went by.

Luckily, sometimes a solution offers itself, even if you're not actively seeking it. On a hot summer day we decided to cool off in the Stanford Movie Theater in Palo Alto. "To catch a Thief" was playing there and I entered the theater with an engagement ring in my pocket. After the movie uncovered the thief, I felt safe to take the ring out of my pocket and proposed - while the Wurlitzer Organ was playing during the credits.

Catching a thief caught me a wife!