Merry Xmas One and All!

BMP is signing off for the year and we want to wish all our blog and Elf~Fin readers (as well as Black Mermaid followers!) a very Merry Xmas and a wonderful New Year celebration. Looking forward to talking to you once again in 2012!
Jozef and Julie
xoxo

Animated Christmas Card for $500!!!

Talented Aussie comic artist and animator David Blumenstein is offering a special deal for anybody who wants to do something original and creative at Christmas – his company Nakedfella Productions will create a one-minuted personalised animated Christmas greeting card for just $500! Send it to family, friends and clients and set up the entire silly season with a big belly laugh. This is a limited offer which ends 25 December 2010 (We're presuming Australian EST). The only thing is you won't be able to with your greeting card is put it on your mantlepiece with all your other regular ones. However, this gives you the perfect excuse to buy a plasma TV or a new iPad to keep playing it around the clock when Christmas celebrations begin at your home or office. For more information, go to the Nakefella website.

Post-Xmas Post 3

Just downloaded some Xmas pics – thought you might like to see. Our family doesn't use a real tree – nobody wants to cut down and kill a young pine just for the sake of a few weeks so we recycle a fake tree every year and spend our money on ornaments. My sister and I have a tradition of buying an ornament each for our departed Babushka (grandmother) who loved Christmas and cherished beautiful baubles. The flower you see in the table centrepiece is a white protea – an Australian indigenous plant (although I am not quite sure if this variety also grows in Africa). I had a conversation with an American friend (and Black Mermaid blog reader) Cat who may be visiting our shores this time next year. One of the things we talked about was the difference in plant species between our two continents and the protea is a good example of that. I look forward to showing her our waratahs, wattles, grevilleas and bottle brushes – oh and mustn't forget the kangaroo paws.

Here's the Xmas menu which I also posted on my FaceBook page so you may be able to make a game out of spotting which dish is which on the table: Chilled pea soup with mint gelato; Maple glazed ham; Mushroom and goat cheese gallette (vegetarian option); Salad of dried pears, prosciutto and blue cheese; Peach, BBQ duck and pecan salad; Lacy parmesan biscuits. Dessert: Sour cherry and ricotta strudel. Drink: Lime and mango tropicano.

We had a wonderful Xmas although there was so much congestion on the mobile phone networks that I didn't receive Jozef's sms greeting and good wishes for about three days.

Merry Xmas Everyone!

A very Merry (and belated) Xmas to all our readers. Have a wonderful New Year celebration. We will be posting again soon.

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! 

Post-Xmas Post 1

Just waddled the 100 metres or so from my house to my studio after a 1 1/2 hour siesta. I'm sure my blood sugar is completely out of whack from all the Xmas treats I've been consuming. One more brunch to go before I go on a three-day salt water fast to detox and hit the gym to get my system ready for 2009 Black Mermaid™ activities. My energy level drops away during December but miraculously shoots up from the 1 January of every year – it's psychological I know – but it's nevertheless very real for me. 

My Xmas calendar has been full during the last week. We have a bunch of Austrians staying at the moment so it's a delight to witness an Australian Xmas through their eyes – the father in the family remarked that this is the first time he has every mowed the lawn at Xmas time (their place is usually snowed in about now!) They watched Carols in the Domain where the two children were stunned to see Santa arriving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a sparkly Harley rather than a reindeer led sleigh, and the slightly more sophisticated and classical Melbourne-based Carols by Candlelight. In the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry I am sorry to say, this is one event where Melbourne consistently wins out!

It is tradition in my family for me to do all the cooking on Xmas day and on Boxing Day so I've been in the kitchen for nigh on three days. I kept the menus simple this year but simple for someone who loves cooking and entertaining still translates into swollen ankles and a vampire-white complexion from not venturing out of doors into the sunlight during those three days. Thankfully I had help and I also paced it. I cooked for 10 people at Xmas and 14 for Boxing Day. Here are my menus:

Xmas Menu

Breakfast

Cherry & ricotta pancake with cherry almond syrup

Lunch

Terrine with cranberries & pistachios

Tomato tarte tatin with caramelised garlic (vegetarian option)

Ravioli salad with summer greens

Lime & chilli seafood sausages on green papaya salad

BBQ Chinese duck with fruit dipping sauce

Soft fruit & crushed meringue ice cream gateau

Drinks

Lime passionfruit crush (non alcoholic)

Wine

Boxing Day Dinner Menu

Entré

Smoked salmon and caviar pasta

Main

Chicken with rye bread, prune and chestnut stuffing

Eggplant timbale (vegetarian option)

Drunken potatoes

Spiced pumpkin chutney

Mixed leaf salad with cranberry dressing

Dessert

Xmas pudding & custard

Drinks

Ruby grapefruit & lemon sorbet fizz (non-alocholic)

Wine

For any Americans who are reading this, please note that your use of the word "entré" is different to the Australian use – here an "entré" is your version of an appetizer.

The surprising hit of the entire two days menu turned out to be a drink which scored a resounding 5/5 on the family rating scale, so I've decided to publish the recipe for those of you who are interested.

Ruby Grapefruit & Lemon Sorbet Fizz

Pour 2 cups (500 ml/16 fl oz) chilled grapefruit juice and 1 cup (250 ml/8 fl oz) chilled soda water into a jug. Stir in 1 tablespoon of caster sugar, then pour into chilled glasses. Top with a scoop of lemon sorbet. Mix the sorbet in or serve with a parfait spoon. Serves 4.

(Source: Wendy Stephen [Series Editor], The Essential Christmas Cookbook, Murdoch Books, 2000)

Outside of that, I didn't know that this blog would serve as a default Xmas list for my friends. I happen to mention in a previous post that I had never seen the last season of Dawson's Creek and then, low and behold, it turned up in my Xmas stocking courtesy of my friend Phil and his wonderful daughter Meredith, who reads our blogspot. Thanks guys! Now all I have to mention is that I'd like a cruise on the Sea Princess, a home theatre system, tickets to the Moonlight Cinema in Sydney ... (oh, I got that last one too – thanks, Meredith!). Now can you arrange a publishing and feature film deal for Elf~Fin? Nope, okay ... we'll have to arrange that one ourselves.

I found four new feral kittens three days before Xmas, living in a drain on our property. I'll be covering their story on my TameFeralCats blog. My sister (bless her!) gave me a new HP PhotoSmart Fax/Printer/Scanner for my office. There's nothing wrong with my old printer, it's just that it costs $229 for a new toner cartridge which is simply outrageous – I had commented that you could buy a new printer for that price. My sister took notice and did. I was lost for words when I opened the big fat present. 

My parents renewed my gym membership for me, which is brilliant – I will be making good use of it from Monday to shed the Xmas kilos (can't make it today or tomorrow although I have already done my stretching and toning exercises and have swum a kilometre. The only thing stopping me from going on a 40 minute walk now is the thunderstorm raging overhead). I also treated myself to two pieces of clothing I'd been eyeing off for months at QueensPark – a white blazer and a hot pink Indian style tunic top with creme embroidery down the middle (bought them both at 50% off prior to the big post-Xmas sales). I also received a gorgeous hanging mermaid figurine, a pair of gum boots with a holly design (the rest of the world calls them Wellington boots), some much sought-after music (Seal, Soul and Dido, Safe Trip Home), cook books, and several gift vouchers. 

I'll post some pics in the next couple of days so you can eye off the gorgeous Christmas flower arrangement on the table and get a look at our tree. In the meantime, take it easy ... 

Merry Xmas Everyone!

It's five days before Christmas and Jozef and I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous 2009!