Post-Xmas Post 2

Thought you might want a look at our Xmas tree (it's plastic). It may not be as romantic as having a real tree but we don't cut them down here for environmental reasons. The ornaments are gorgeous though, although I don't have a closeup of them. It was and still is tradition for my sister and I to buy them for our grandmother, even though she died nearly three years ago. The view outside the window shows green grass and no snow unlike our friends in the northern hemisphere. In fact it was hot and humid on the day in question. The second pic is our Xmas table flower arrangement – red and yellow orchids (don't ask me to tell you which ones they are!) and holly. The table runner was bought in Turkey last year.

Bruce Love (ex Black Mermaid™ Classic business partner) popped in on Boxing Day with his partner for a visit and to drop off four of my books that he had had at home on his book shelf for about seven years. I had forgotten them actually but it was good to get them back – William Goldman's Which Lie Did I Tell?, Peter Biskind's Easy Riders Raging Bulls, Barbara Sher's I Could Do Anything If Only I Knew What It Was, and Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star. Before you jump to conclusions and think it is outrageous to keep somebody's books for such a long time, I in turn returned Bruce's hardback copy of Stephen King's Insomnia which I had kept under my bed for about the same length of time. We have all been spring cleaning and thought it best to return the books to their rightful owners. This is about the longest I have kept a copy and visa versa but both Bruce and I trust each other with our books. I just want the person who pinched my personalised signed copy of Robert McKee's Story to get off his or her butt and send it home to me!

I also finally managed to watch The Notebook, which I thought was a glorious romance. It starts in a contemporary setting and flashes back to South Carolina just prior to World War II and tells the story of Noah and Allie played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams who both did a stellar job. I am now officially in love with the two actors. I'd heard that this film has even brought tough Ausssie men to tears (you know the rugby player type!) and my sources weren't wrong. I thought it was terrific. I watched the special features and took note that there was an extended sex scene that had been cut for the theatrical version to get a PG Rating. The editor and the director Nick Cassavetes (who by the way is Gena Rowlands son – Ms Rowlands also stars in the movie along with the ever wonderfully warm James Garner) lamented that the film was lesser for it and that the sanitised scene distilled the pent up sexual tension and the erotic charge the characters had maintained between them after having to wait seven years to consumate their relationship. We promise faithfully that we will do no such thing with Hyfus and Tilaweed! We're waiting for the day when we and you can see them together in their penultimate love scene!