Our Christmas Tree is a Memory Tree

For the last 21 years we have bought ornaments for our Christmas tree. When our daughter was younger, we purchased a new ornament each year, labelled with the year or (e.g.)  "___'s 5th Christmas".
Each year we also buy tree decorations from somewhere overseas or interstate. January sales are great!
Each Christmas, as we trim the tree, memories flood back. Our daughter, now 21, gets as much of a buzz as we do.

Surfing Santa from Oahu, Hawaii

Sheep from New Zealand and reindeer with Mai Tai (Kauai, Hawaii)

Our daughter's 3rd Christmas

The best 5 minutes of any James Bond film: "You Only Live Twice"

Start at the 42 minute mark of "You Only Live Twice". In those glorious five minutes you get a lot of bang for your buck:

• Bond and Aki zipping around Japan's newly completed motorways in a nifty white sportscar (Toyota 2000GT) with rear seat Sony TV.
• The helicopter picking up the baddies' Toyota Crown with a giant magnet, dropping it in Toyko Bay (to the strains of John Barry's soaring "A Drop in the Ocean"). Tanaka (head of Japanese Secret Service) asking: "What do you think of Japanese efficiency now?"
• Cut to a cheesy front projection on a country road (Tokyo to Kobe is over 500 km!) with Aki not moving the steering wheel as they turn tight corners. 
• Next, the nifty chase/fight scene in Kobe docks with a splendid helicopter shot of Bond being pursued by dozens of surly stevedores, complemented by more sublime John Barry.

At 47 minutes (on board the Ning Po) it just gets silly. 

"American Horror Story - Freak Show" Season 4 The best bits - spoilers

• Creepiest opening titles (no mean feat)
• Jessica Lange (think Marlene Dietrich/Madeline Kahn in "Blazing Saddles")
• Fraulein Elsa's rendition of Bowie's "Life On Mars". Who cares if it was written nearly 20 years after this story is set (Sarah Poulson has 2 heads, Angela Bassett has 3 breasts, for crying out loud!)
• Lobster Boy (Evan Peters) spicing up a 50's Tupperware party
• Kathy Bates (with endearing Maryland accent) as the bearded lady
• Angela Bassett's unique rack
• Finn ("The Normal Heart") Wittrock as creepy momma's boy, Danny Mott. Liked his 'double date' at the movies in Episode 6.
• The use of John Morris's score for "The Elephant Man" in Episode 1.
• Hearing a new version of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Spellbound" (1981) in Episode 2.
• The nifty black and white sequence in Episode 3, filmed like a German expression silent film.
• Roxy Music's "Avalon" in the 1952 gay bar.
• Wondering if Episode 5 is the most homoerotic episode of AHS to date.
• Elsa bombing bigtime singing "Life On Mars" to the rubes.
• Finn's unique puppet show featuring mom and the Avon lady (Episode 9)
• Finn's Tupperware themed pool party (also Episode 9)
• The recreation of two classic scenes from "Freaks" in Episode 12 (penultimate ep)
• Danny Huston playing a variation on Pinocchio's Geppetto with Crab-boy.
• "Noone gives a shit about Cole Porter" (Episode 13)
• The reprise of "Life on Mars" and the theme from the "The Elephant Man"
• Elsa wows Hollywood in 1960 and final scene freak reunion (to the tune of Bowie's "Heroes")

This season makes you want to rewatch all of Tod Browning's "Freaks" (1932).

"Plebs" Season 2, ITV2, review

The boys are back. It's puerile but irresistible. It's "The Inbetweeners" meets "Up Pompeii". The Roman sets are even more extravagant (thanks to leftovers from epics like "Hercules", filmed in the same studio in Bulgaria).
Look carefully for Tom Rosenthal's dad, Jim, as the sportscaster in Episode 1. It was good to see Lauren Socha from "Misfits" as Amanda, the prostitute, in same same episode.
Episode 2's stag night was lots of fun. "The Baby", Episode 3, was almost sweet, but it still had enough time for the fair share of boob references, boffing and butt plugs. Grumio (Ryan Sampson with his strident Mancurian accent and atrocious bowl haircut) constantly steals scenes.
Hugo from "The Vicar of Dibley" (James Fleet) tries to make Stylax his boy toy in Episode 4 (also awash with bodily function gags).

The secret of perfect pork crackling (by a lazy cook)

Nine times out of ten crackling is soggy and inedible. You don't need to pour boiling water over it/rub  in salt/turn heat up, etc.
If you need to score the rind, use a Stanley knife, much easier than a chef's knife.
This is all you do:

1. Cut off the crackling when pork is cooked and standing.
2. Cut/scrape away the whitish fat, so you have crackling less than 1 cm thick.
3. Wrap in a large paper towel. A clean oven is a happy oven (plus paper absorbs fat).
4. Microwave on HIGH (1100 W) for 1-2 minutes.
5. Open paper towel and expose crackling to air. If it isn't crisp enough (you should be able to smash it), repeat Steps 3-5. Try only 60 seconds on HIGH for smaller amounts.

Richard Maibaum, screen writer of classic Bond

New Yorker, Richard Maibaum (1909-1991) wrote screenplays for the first 13 Bonds (except "You Only Live Twice" - part witty but sexist, Roahl Dahl script/part "Thunderbirds" - and the dated, blaxploitation effort, "Live and Let Die").
His last Bond script was "Licence to Kill".
He was responsible for some of the classic Bond lines delivered by Sean Connery.

Maibaum co-wrote the 1949 version of "The Great Gatsby".

"The Silkworm" by Robert Galbraith (J.K.Rowling) 2014

"The Cuckoo's Calling" was a ripper detective yarn. Beautifully structured, atmospheric London descriptions and wonderfully complex characters. Cormoran Strike continues to outthink Scotland Yard, this time the setting is the bitchy, self-obsessed world of publishing (as compared to the bitchy, self-obsessed world of supermodels, in the first book).
A particularly gruesome murder, more background details on loony ex-girlfriend Charlotte and further unresolved sexual tension between Strike and loyal offsider, Robin are some the delights of this novel.
Looking forward to the third in the Strike series.

10 cool things from 60's movies

• Ken Adam's war room set in "Dr Strangelove"
• Derek Flint's ring tone/ Z.O.W.I.E. chief Cramden (Lee J Cobb) hotline to the President.
• The black armchairs in the Pentagon in "You Only Live Twice" (Ken Adam again)
• Use of split screens (circa 1968, e.g. "The Thomas Crown Affair", "The Boston Strangler")
• Saul Bass credits e.g. "Spartacus", "Walk on the Wildside"
• The interior of Robert Mitchum's private jet in "What A Way To Go!"(1964)
• Michael Caine's glasses in the Harry Palmer films
• The multi-level set in Jerry Lewis's "The Ladies Man" (1961)
• The first 10 minutes of "Goldfinger" (1964)
• Dr No's underwater living quarters (complete with recently stolen Goya painting)