Tag: Chat

2020 General chat with Bobi

No, no. I jest. It’s just a New Year’s Day Chat.

I contemplated doing a retrospective but it’s been such a crap year for many of us that I thought I would just focus on the day itself.
I have simultaneous and conflicting thoughts about January 1st.

Firstly, I am well aware that it is just a number, an artificial construct, but for some of my friends it is the best excuse for a party that just goes on for hours … with fireworks. Who doesn’t love that, apart from people who have dogs and whose official bedtime is 9.30?

It is a day to put a line in the sand and look forward. I am not a great believer in New Year’s resolutions, and every year I say that this year I am not going to make any, but things can’t improve just on a wing and a prayer. There have to be goals: measurable, quantifiable, specific and achievable. Otherwise everything is the same old, same old.

So.

I’m going to watch less television. No, don’t panic. Don’t. PANIC!

I have the telly on for the dogs, from sun-up until I go to bed, and even then some. And I have been known to mindlessly watch it, just to keep them company you understand. I don’t think I’ll do that anymore. I think it should be an evening activity, once the day is done. Hopefully that will mean I will appreciate and enjoy it more.

And maybe I’ll be a little bit more selective: Cooking shows that actually focus on cooking. I love a good cooking show.

And I’m going to actually cook.
I’m going to plan the menu for the week, write it down, shop once a week … and cook. What’s the point of it all if I don’t take all those lessons and implement something. Maybe I’ll get healthy. Amazing by-product.

And I’m going to write down what I spend all my money on.

No, I’m not going to budget. I’m too old for that s**t but I am going to spend less on the grandchildren. They don’t need it and I waste a lot of money thinking that they do. Maybe I’m trying to buy their affection? Good job, well done. Now move on.

Okay. I suck at New Year’s resolutions.


Happy New Year.

Bobi

Note from Juz: many thanks to Bobi for all her posts in 2019 and thanks, everyone, for hanging around TTV. I hope you are all safe tonight and here’s cheers to 2020.



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General chat December with Bobi

Over to our chat director, Bobi, with thanks…

Bear with me. I’m feeling maudlin this week.
It’s that Christmas week where you start getting nostalgic for Christmas past: all of those
lovely and real Christmas trees, snow when I was much younger, carol singers, Santa Claus, wrapping home-made presents in newspaper, and a huge amount of excitement and anticipation.
There’s not much to look forward to this year: bushfires, heat, it is my second Christmas without my mother, her dog is showing signs that the end is nigh (he is 17 so it is not unexpected but still sad) and I bought a jar of Vegimite that is too large for the space in the cupboard.

It’s funny, isn’t it. When I mention that my aunt died (3 days before her 99th birthday and a little bit by choice), people take a step back and awkwardly pat me on my shoulder. And yet when I mention that the dog has a cough, they throw themselves into my arms sobbing with empathy and sympathy.

He is a beautiful boy and my heart will be broken when he’s gone but I won’t miss the vet bills. He has a pill-pie for dinner every night and I reckon that I have paid for an entire new west wing on the vet clinic.

I tend to think of both my mother and aunt as remarkable people but they were probably just typical of their time. They had to leave school at 14 because there were no other options, and my aunt never moved more than 50 ks from where she was born. And yet they were both more than capable of respecting and having compassion for those that thought fundamentally differently from them. The world doesn’t need to be so polarised. Still, I never actually asked if they voted for Pauline Hanson – that would be a step too far.

So feeling overly sentimental, I mired myself in sad movies about death and destruction. Mainly children’s movies. Tell me, why do all children’s stories kill off one or both of the parents? Why do authors want to make children cry? But also biographies of people long dead and some uplifting stories. The story about the rescue of the Thai boys in the cave is pretty amazing. I hope that Elon Musk has to pay millions of dollars in damages.

I was sad to hear that Clive James died. He wrote one of my favourite books – An Unreliable Memoir. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it. He has a wonderful turn of phrase without it feeling contrived or forced. My favourite is “ A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing”. Okay, there are lots of favourites but that is my favourite favourite.

I watched both the tributes to Clive on the ABC. Clive James: A Tribute was fairly ordinary but Clive James: The Kid from Kogarah was worth 50 minutes of my time – more of his life in his own words. It suspect that it was a difficult interview for him because he knew he was dying and his life was falling apart.

I don’t want to end on a really sad note, and I promise to be more cheerful next week, so I will end with a link to one of his poems, The Book of my Enemy has just been Remaindered. https://web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/bookofmyenemy.html

Bobi



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Christmas movie chat with Bobi

Over to Bobi, with thanks, for some Christmas Movie Chat:

It’s Christmas movie time. You will need to take notes, make a plan, configure a spreadsheet and start immediately if you want to fit them all before the all important day.

I will try to keep the list short. Insert cackling-laugh track here.

Now that we have that obvious joke out of the way, let’s get on with the list. I have checked it twice. I take this very seriously.

Please note that my definition of a Christmas movie is very loose. It must take place at Christmas and it should be watched at Christmas, repeatedly and often. Sequels are included as a matter of course.

Let’s start with my favourite because, after all, this is all about me. I love Die Hard. I love watching Alan Rickman chew the scenery. I know there is a debate as to whether this really is a Christmas movie. Just quietly, I have been know to join in. Everyone who doesn’t agree with me is wrong. [Juz interjects here: It has Alan Rickman in it which is reason enough to watch.]

Some movies are joyful and I can’t imagine that there could be much disagreement about their inclusion on a list: Elf (who doesn’t love the OTT acting during every second of that movie), The Santa Clause (He kills the previous Santa Claus, guys. Don’t think about it too much.), The Muppet Christmas Carol (just muppets), and A Charlie Brown Christmas (I’m showing my age here. It has just enough sentimentality to keep me both happy and sad).

Out of left field, there are two foreign movies worth watching. The first is Tokyo Godfathers. It’s an anime comedy and a little bit fabulous.

And the second and by far the better of the two, is 8 Women. It’s French. It’s a musical. It’s a mystery. Seriously. Could life get any better? What more could you possibly want?


Speaking of old-age, I also love A Christmas Story. Let me be right up front when I say that this movie is problematic on so many levels but, at the same time, it is charming. He licks a pole. It was funny. Maybe you had to be there. I am not sure that it has stood the test of time and yet, secretly, I watch it in the dark while eating a whole packet of Tim Tams and drinking Green Ginger Wine.

I deliberated at length about including Gremlins in this list. The heroine’s father died in a chimney dressed as Santa Claus and the gremlins die in a movie theatre watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Okay, a lot – animals, aren’t they? – die in this movie, but it does have a Christmas background. I’m sure that makes it okay. Oh, dear. It is regularly played in our house at Christmas and we do enjoy watching it together. Maybe we will shift it off the list and replace it with Frozen.

And to end on a high note, White Christmas. Enough said.

You will, of course, notice the glaring omission – Love Actually – so to distract you (look over here) I will end with this link as a gift from me to you. Enjoy.

YouTube

– Bobi



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General chat mid-November

Well, this is a bit weird …
Every Saturday morning I go out for coffee (ok, yes, and a pastry), scan the TV guide and set up the posts for the week.
But today, there’s no Bachie, no Block, no Love Island even.
Sure, Zumbo’s Just Desserts is starting but we know how bad that was first time round.
We are entering the Summer Dead Zone and it’s only mid-November.
So, what’s everyone watching?
Mr Juz and I just watched the gazillionth episode of Grey’s Anatomy and I am attempting to catch up on Outlander, although I am not as obsessed with at as some people are.
I do enjoy One Born Every Minute but I cry every time.
Mr Seven is currently addicted to Teen Titans and Ladybug & Cat Noir, although I recently let him watch Bondi Rescue and he was fascinated. I just fast forward through the drunk backpacker scenes.



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Daisy does France (again)

(Over to TTV foreign correspondent Daisy, who continues her European travels)
Check out this HomeAway rental:
https://t.hmwy.io/vivv2GuLdZ

No not nice….Nice. We stayed here before and a week went tutu fast, so this time we have 2 weeks. I am happy to be heading back to France, but can highly recommend Santa Margarita. Portovenere and the Cinqua Terra less so. They were jam packed with tourists. Where we stayed in Grazie was a good choice for accomodation because it was quieter, but quieter means less choice of cafés and restaurants. And finding a good beach wasn’t easy. Santa Margarita was easily my favourite. You are holidaying with Italians rather than international tour groups. The buildings are vibrant, but still in the Italian ochre colour tones. The beach was spacious, and you can easily visit, the more expensive Portofino by ferry or bus from there. Let’s keep Santa Margarita our little secret.
But now onto Nice. We had trouble finding accomodation here so we had to raise our budget. So we are heading to what is supposed to be a lovely 2 bedroom apartment right on the Boulevarde d’Anglais. It won’t take long to drive there. About 3 hours, with my music playing. Tunnel after tunnel, toward the Italian/French border.
Yes, difficult news from home has affected our trip, but we soldier on.
– Daisy

View from the apartment.



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General chat – June 10

What’s everyone watching, other than MasterChef or House Rules?
Apart from the Project Runway semi-final I have been enjoying new series of Netflix’s dystopian international dramas The Rain and 3 Per Cent.

I’m watching The Umbrella Academy sporadically (mainly to see Nathan from Misfits). It’s beautifully filmed but not really emotionally grabbing. Must cost a bomb to make so not sure if it will be renewed. And I just watched the first 6 minutes of Lucifer after someone recommended it. I will get back to it eventually but I just realised Handmaid’s Tale has dropped, so I need to watch that before someone lets loose a spoiler.
What are you watching?



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Christmas chat

Merry Christmas to all you TTV readers. Thanks for another year of online snark, fun and news of baking successes.
And for those of you who are having a not-so-merry Christmas this year, for whatever reason: We made it through the year! Let’s raise a glass and cheers to brighter days ahead.
Before you know it we’ll be whingeing about the casting on MKR and the plethora of panna cottas.
Oh and for the Doctor Who fans among you, remember no Boxing Day episode this year – boo! It screens in the UK on New Year’s Day, so I guess it’s January 2 for us.



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