2020 – what a year! And not in the “Woohoo! What a great year!” sense either. I mean, it wasn’t entirely awful, but every time it seemed like things were on the improve, everything went south again in spectacular fashion; case in point, Sydney is once again in the grip Continue Reading
Christmas 2020
Book review: The Nine Lives of #Christmas by Florence McNicoll
All of us long for some kind of profound connection. More than that, we need it, in ways too complex and unknowing to articulate at times, and we often need more of it that we realise, especially at Christmas which, possibly more than most other festivals, near-demands an intense and Continue Reading
#Christmas TV review: Home For Christmas (season 2)
Christmas and romance … Christmas and romance … go together like, well, nothing rhymes satisfactorily with “romance” so let’s just say that falling in love during the festive season is seen as pretty much the most perfect time of the year to give your heart away to someone special. (Unless, Continue Reading
Book review: The Parisian #Christmas Bake Off by Jenny Oliver
Can Christmas transform your life in the most magical and transformative of ways? We all like to think so; there’s something about this most wonderful of seasons that makes most of us believe that it is somehow set up from the humdrum, pell-mell banality of life and thus is capable Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I listened to A Holly Dolly Christmas by Dolly Parton
As you might expect from a bright, larger than life personality like Dolly Parton, Holly Dolly Christmas, her new Christmas album and the successor to 1990’s Home For Christmas, opens on a joyously upbeat note with “Holly Jolly Christmas” that starts off an album with exactly the right kind of Continue Reading
Book review: A Dog’s Perfect Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron
If ever a Christmas called for some feel good love and wonder, it’s this one. Coming at the tail end of a year of pandemic, which shows no sign of bowing out gracefully for a 2021 unfettered by sickness and death, Christmas 2020 feels like it needs all the help Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I put 15 more pop culture ornaments on my tree incl. Toy Story, Back to the Future, The Muppet Show, Aquaman, The Golden Girls
Remember how I said I bought a LOT of ornaments this year? Well, here’s proof I wasn’t lying! All kinds of things contributed to my ornaments binge, among them the fact that if you see an ornament of a particular character on eBay then you must grab it or you’ll Continue Reading
This #Christmas I re-watched festive classic Home Alone
Time can play tricks on your mind. Not simply in the whole nostalgia-warping-everything-to-make-it-seem-better space but in over-emphasising certain parts of a something you love, such, oh say, a movie, over others to the point where your perceptions of what actually take place don’t actually represent the totality of what you Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I listened to My Gift by Carrie Underwood
In its calmer moments, and yes, Christmas does have them, there is a hush and reverence to proceedings that calls for music that speaks to that quiet place of contemplation, love and thoughtfulness. Carrie Underwood’s My Gift is the perfect soundtrack for those moments, offering up a largely traditional slate Continue Reading
On 9th day of Christmas … I watched Christmas Chronicles 2
Christmas films, in common with just about every genre known to humanity, is rife with tropes and cliches. That’s not always a bad thing – used well, wisely and with creative originality, these standards of the genre can be a point of familiarity and access for audiences while allowing the Continue Reading