0nce again the house is still. The vacuum cleaner is full of dog fur and I suspect a couple of Scrabble tiles. There are still 12 blocks of various cheeses, olives and a carton of Cab Sav in the fridge so I have no need to cook till February nor visit a supermarket. I did nine loads of washing yesterday which only confirmed that putting the ironing board out in a garage sale twenty years ago was the right decision. The silence is golden.

In between three weeks of playing Mummy Dearest – but not in a Joan Crawford kind of way – I did squeeze in a little binge watching, sashaying around the kitchen with Yul Brynner as the King of Siam and crawling through air conditioning ducts with Bruce Willis in the greatest Christmas movie ever made in movies 1,2,3,4 and 5 (watching the receding hairline with glee).
Young Cat Balou gifted me with a DVD of the television mini series Feud : Bette and Joan, as in Davis and Crawford, and based on the making of the movie “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane”. Starring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange respectively I adored this muck in all its depressing detail about the treatment of women particularly by the Hollywood machine during the so-called Golden Years. My viewing partner found the bitchiness between these two “stars” too brutal to watch and scampered after Part 4 which was okay as it meant sharing the Toblerone (and plonk) was no longer required for the final 4 parts. Besides, if I’m invested allow me to view in peace. Does that work for you too?

My favourite viewing was an obscure little Australian flick (1998) which I am adding to my list of favourite Xmas movies, right up there with Die Hard, and Joyeux Noel. It made such a little ripple upon its release that I’m giving you all 12 months to locate a copy for December 2022.
Crackers is a Christmas movie that will resonate with many as it includes much of our Aussie culture including dog poop, a pub brawl, weed in the mince pies, and grandpa, an old Rat Of Tobruk, who hits the turps and is an ex con. The aesthetics are straight from Christmas’s past: the wooden spoon and fork hanging on the wall, the painted tyres turned into swan planters on the front lawn, the aboveground swimming pool. It’s every bit as chaotic as Christmas always tends to be, yet amongst all the dysfunction it’s about a family who cares about each other.

The only actor I recognised was a younger, trimmer Peter Rowsthorn, 15 years before he played Kim’s doormat husband in Kath And Kim.
Before we move away from the movie theme did you know that LEGO are considering a kit for the house from It’s A Wonderful Life? I want three.

Ah, the serenity.