What a big year it has been! Horrible in some respects – Trump, Australia’s treatment of refugees and North Korea sending off missiles I’m looking at you – but also delightful, wonderful, warm, funny and good for the heart, soul and spirit. Much of that joy has come from Continue Reading
Christmas 2017
Love and belonging are the unexpected gifts in Christmas short film “Tag”
Christmas is one of the most special times of the year. Family comes together, friends celebrate and neighbours commune, collectively giving the laudable ideals of peace and love a tangible, soul-stirring workout. But what if you don’t have that special someone, that companion who turns a bright and beautiful Continue Reading
On 12th day of Christmas … I listened to Warmer in the Winter by Lindsey Stirling
There are quite a few festive things that, right at home in the depth of a northern hemisphere winter, are almost comically out of place in a southern hemisphere summery Christmas. Take chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Or walking in a winter wonderland perhaps? Or even dashing through the Continue Reading
Now this is Christmas music: 10 favourite festive tracks + 5 fab indie covers
When you’re a Christmas tragic such as myself, one of the key ingredients to falling headfirst, and utterly, completely and absolutely so into the festive spirit – it begins sometime around the end of November, ending only on Boxing Day or in my case, considerably after that – is music, Continue Reading
On 11th day of Christmas … I finally read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, published on 17 December 1843 to almost immediate popularity and acclaim, is one of those books that is so happily ubiquitous that you feel as you must have read it. So intimately familiar with the story are we, thanks to countless reinterpretations on TV Continue Reading
On 10th day of Christmas … I read A Die Hard Christmas picture book
Way back in 1988 when I first saw Die Hard, which is as much a love letter (albeit a violent one) as an action thriller – you may recall that John McClane (Bruce Willis) is in L.A. from New York where’s he’s a cop to see his estranged wife Continue Reading
On 9th day of Christmas … I listened to Gwen Stefani’s “You Make it Feel Like Christmas”
As a recording artist, it makes sense that you’d be tempted to go Full Throttle Retro Festive when it comes to putting together a Christmas album. After all, consumers of festive tunes know what they like, and what they generally like is for your album of Christmas songs to Continue Reading
On 8th day of Christmas … I watched retro TV ep “Don’t Bring Your Guns to Town, Santa” (The Partridge Family)
If there’s one thing that is always totally and utterly welcome in any TV show’s Christmas episode, especially in a series already delightfully rife with cheesy, heartfelt moments, it’s a happy, cosy, all is well with the world neat ending, preferably one tied up with a pretty red glittery Continue Reading
Festive book review: Five at the Office Christmas Party by “Enid Blyton” (really Bruno Vincent)
If you are of a certain age, and I mostly am, and spent your childhood reading the books of British author Enid Blyton, you will be more than a little aware of her Famous Five books which feature siblings Julian, Dick and Anne, cousin George (Georgette) and of course, Continue Reading
On 7th day of Christmas … I reviewed The Man Who Invented Christmas
While it’s safe to say that the justly-celebrated British novelist Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) did not, in fact, invent Christmas – that honour belongs, I think we can safely say to one Jesus Christ – he was very much its saviour when it came to rescue the holiday from Continue Reading