War Horse

Once upon a time a mare gave birth to a colt...While I enjoyed it, I can’t say I was greatly inspired by what began and ended like a Walt Disney movie, To be honest I feel it was neither here nor there. Simultaneously over-sentimental and semplistic to be a good WWI movie, yet much too violent to be a children’s   flick. The lound and clear message however is that war is total perverse insanity. Oscar nominations go to Joey the horse and horse trainer…

Seasonal Food

A friend writes: Why do we eat and drink so much this time of year? My clothes have shrunk and there’s still a week’s festivities to go. I spend half the year pigging out and the other half dieting. I was doing really well with my weight until a magnificent German bakery opened just 2 mins walk from my house, need I say more.

Answer: I know how you feel, German Bakeries are sadistic, but don't we love that sweet pain... my favourite is Cheese Cake... You know how some smoker claim to “I smoke but don't inhale?” Such a shame we cannot say “I eat but I don't swallow...”

Gemona del Friuli

Gemona is where I lived for my first sixteen years. In my time-span I have seen metropolis and outback deserts around the world yet this town on the edge of Italian Pre-Alps calls me back time after time. When there I rediscover myself in the surrounding mountains. Reflecting on ancient, frosty, ivy-covered walls and wintry landscapes, I recall that as a child I believed I chose to be born here…

The Girl On The Bridge

Stunning black-'n-white film by Patrice Leconte.
Love-story of Adele and 40-year-old Gabor, a suicidal circus performer who finds the perfect assistant for his knife-throwing act when he saves Adele, the striking vagabond waif set to jump out of a luckless life into the river. Their provocative, witty, funny, knife-erotic relationship is memorable…

Favourite quotes:

"Have you ever felt great fear and pleasure, both at once?"
“Luck? You think you catch it like cold? It takes faith! Willpower! Effort!”

A Magic Pudding for Season’s Best Wishes.

Koala Bunyip Bluegum, Sailor Bill Barnacle and Penguin Sam Sawnoff, had an extraordinary delicious Magic Pudding with an amusing personality. Said Bill: “It's a Magic Pudding because you can keep slicing into it and it never gets depleted. For a change of menu you only have to whistle twice and spin the dish around…” Cut-n-come-again is the pudding’s name and Cut-n-come-again, his nature, We been eating away at this Pudding for years and there is not a mark on it…

From an Australian Story by Norman Lindsey