Hau`oli makahiki hou !

Happy New Year Hawaii Style!

It's two weeks of surf (pray for me), sand, sun and eye explosions courtesy of some pretty awesome scenery for me tomorrow and I can't wait.  Two weeks does seem like an awfully long time, but who knows, I may surprise you with a post or two while I'm gone.  Life's full of surprises if you just let it take you that way - by surprise. 

Here's to a 2012 full of surprises.  Have a Rock - A - Hula New Years, baby!

xo

Confession

So, I have to tell you something.

I feel if I don't tell someone I'm going to burst at the seams and no, not because of Holiday Excess people, but because this secret needs to be told!  I need to get it out from inside me so I can start living my normal life again. Or what's left of it.

Okay.  Here goes.  Please.  Don't judge me. 

I went to the movies.  In the middle of a work day.  Damn it was fun.

GASP!  I know!  Me!  Uber diligent me!  What have I started?  Where does this end?  Mid day massages and manicures?  Oh, never mind.  That's kindergarten compared to this caper.  Am I really a closet slacker just mascarading as a hard worker stiff?

Perhaps yes.  Perhaps no. That secret stays with me.  I like where this is going, don't you?

Festive Friday!

My love affair with Christmas is well known, and today I extend this love to all of you.

May the true spirit of Christmas ring in your hearts throughout the year, may you always be surrounded by those you love and may 2012 bring you all that you hope and wish for.   (Even those of you who feel it necessary to wear Christmas ties & festive jewellery - why?!)

You've maybe learned a bit about me this year - that my overt sentimentality often clashes with my jaded cynicism to the point I often feel hypocritical.  Well, why change now?

Enjoy ... :)



And ...

Merry Christmas. xxoo.

Tactile

Am I a dying breed?

I read newspapers and books.  I print pictures I take.  I mail birthday cards.

I won’t argue if you think I’m a tad old-fashioned, hanging on to a life and style no longer considered normal, new and modern.  I agree completely and wholeheartedly.  I AM hanging on to a life and style no longer considered normal, new and modern.  I am not evolving and I’m being rather stubborn about it.  Oh well.

I like touching things:  to anxiously turn pages of books while curled up in bed; to quietly rifle through the weekend newspapers endless cup of coffee in hand; to nostalgically pour over photo albums with a laugh and a tear; to carefully write addresses out on envelopes and pop them in the post (how’s that for an old-fashioned sentence).  I don’t want these little life pleasures to go the way of the dodo where everything is stored in some imaginary Neverland that doesn’t really exist. Where IS it?  I want to touch it.  I need to touch it so I know it’s real and not some magic trick of the eye or slight of hand. 

I wonder where I would have been in eras past, poo-pooing modern inventions as common tricks of the local charlatan.  Well, I’ll tell you:  riding a horse, lighting candles, writing telegrams, watching silent movies and living large as a complete curmudgeon.  

I wonder if Thoreau had it right, eschewing modern society and invention and heading off to Walden Pond in search of a simple life and simplified lifestyle.  Well, he may have had it right for him but that’s obviously not the move for me (cabin.  woods.  alone.  two. years.)  I’m all over modern conveniences like the world wide web, air travel, the Blackberry, iPod (oh yeah, an original 4G which – by the grace of God & Bono, yes, I know, not the same thing - is still rocking), running water and the like but I’m not entirely keen on losing everything that once was in order to make room for what will be, especially when that new thing doesn’t seem to actually be anything.  Don’t you miss records?  Talking on the phone?  Writing letters?  I do.  I miss all of it.  So I’m keeping what I can because I want to hang on – to literally hang on - to things I can see, feel and touch.  As things move forward, I’m stepping back.  I think that’s rather revolutionary.  

Firth Friday

I know! I know!  Where am I, you ask ?

Here, there, everywhere ! 

But this is not the time for excuses or explanations, just a little apology and a knowing - between you & me - that I'll be back in full force soon.  Trust me!

So, on with things, then?  Right!  Here's something from Colin that's perfectly fun and silly and completely ridiculous, complete with a Greek restaurant, some singing and an Acropolis birthday cake. You know where I'm going ... Perfect, right?

Enjoy!

Bridget Jones's Diary

http://youtu.be/1-mYuhkXaEA

(More Apologies:  I have no idea what's going on with the embedding thing and quite honestly I'm in no state to figure it out ...).

Firth Friday

Yes, this movie is most serious. Yes, it won Colin an Oscar. But, oh yes, it also made us laugh. So, for this Firth Friday, a Friday that sees many of us run down (me), behind on everything (me) and anxious about a super huge weekend (me) let's have a little laugh, shall we?

The King’s Speech



Now, tell me, don't you feel better?

I know. Me too.

Thank you, Colin.

Firth Friday

It’s December!

December means many things to many people. For me, it means snow and birthdays and Christmas and hugs and family and gingerbread and friends and Love, Actually. December is all about Love, Actually. I’ve seen this movie a zillion times and every time I watch it, it gets better and better. Best is when I can watch it with someone that has never seen it before and get those first time view feelings for real. Love this. I recently found out that my dear SF only now just saw this movie. I know she kept this from me (or maybe I blocked it from my mind?) because I’d probably have broken up with her, or flown to YVR to force her to watch it. Anyway, that’s over now. This cinematic and life wrong has been righted and, of course, she loved it. Even with all the hype and expectation and my going on and on about it ad nauseam year after year she loved it. A movie has to be pretty amazing to withstand all that hyperbole. But seriously, how can you not love it?

It’s Love, Actually!

The interwoven storyline dealing with all facets of love is so charming, heartwarming and poignant it kills you. It’s hard to say which storyline is my favourite, my thoughts on this shift every year depending on where I’m at. Yes, every year. I watch every year most definitely at my Love, Actually viewing party where I gather ‘round with all my peeps and feel the love en masse. Sometimes I spoil myself silly and watch more than once. It’s typically on for the whole month as pseudo background condo-companions as I clean, bake and putter. I want every month to be Love, Actually month. Every day to be a Love, Actually day. The movie is perfection. And, now,I’m gushing. And getting off point. It’s Firth Friday! I feel that it’s a testament to how God really feels about me (because, like rappers and Award Show winners I feel God is there for just me) that Colin was cast in this film. His presence doesn’t make the movie by any stretch, it would have been amazing without him, of course, but with him? With him, in his particular thread, it’s better than the best. What's better than the best?  Why, brilliant, of course!  So Colin, so British, so Love, Actually.

Enjoy. And really, if you haven’t seen this movie come to my party. It’s going to be so great. No. No, it’s not. It’s going to be brilliant.

Happy December!  Happy Firth!  Happy Love, Actually!




(Thanks to Kory, I can now embed. :) ).