Movie Night: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

It’s actually been a few months since I have seen this film, but I happened to watch a trailer for it last night and it brought back memories of a truly wonderful piece of art.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is one of those exquisite films that is able to make you feel the entire gambit of emotions. It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry. It will make you feel loss and regret, but also show you hope and joy. And above all love, both young and old alike.

Starting with a stellar cast of Britain’s best actors—Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson—this gem of a movie takes us on the adventure of embarking on a new life. A group of retirees come together on the road to exotic India, where they hope to live out their golden years in the elegance of an Eastern palace. But once they arrive, they find that all is not as it initially appeared.

Each of them learns to cope (or not) in their own way, and in the process of overcoming their individual tests and trials, most of them find that this very different reality turns out to be far better than the mirage that they had originally come looking for.

My Netflix rating: 5 out of 5

I Have a Dream...

If I won the lottery, or had unlimited amounts of money, I would give most of it away.

Sure, I would use some of it to pay off my own debts and buy a nice home somewhere. Set up some investments that I could live comfortably on. But that would only use a small fraction of what I’d get from the lottery (one or two million at most). After that, I’d give money to my family and closest friends, but even that would hardly make a dent.

With the bulk of my money, I would help strangers. I would seek out people who would have their lives changed by my beneficence. But I wouldn’t chose people with families. Not that they don’t also have needs, but there are already groups out there who help them. You see all the time articles and programs about some family somewhere that is struggling with hard times, trying to make ends meet, etc.

Meanwhile, single people struggle unseen and unheard. If it’s hard for a family to get by in today’s world, it’s even harder when you are on your own. For every hard-luck family out there, you could find as many (if not more) single people who have it just as bad. People like me, who are blocked from realizing their potential because of the circumstances and burdens that have been placed on them by a cruel life. Those are the people that I would want to help.

I would love to be able to find those deserving souls and wipe the slate clean for them. Give them a fresh start. Find those people who have almost given up on their dreams because they have been crushed beneath one obstacle after another.

Even if some of those people never made anything of themselves after my help, at least I would know that I had given them a chance. Even the ones who did not learn from their earlier mistakes—who end up right back where they were before I came along—even they would still have known a short period of joy and happiness and freedom. That alone would make it worth it for me.

But think of those who would make a change in their lives, who would go on to realize their dreams… If just one of the people that I had helped went on to do something wonderful, then I would have made a difference.

That is my dream…

1,001 Books to Read...

One of my passions is books. I love to read and there is always a book or two (or three) on my bedside table. Recently, someone I was chatting with online brought my attention to a list of “1,001 Books to Read Before You Die” and after looking it over, I decided that it was something that I wanted to do—especially after seeing how few of those books I had actually read. I’ve read a fair bit of ‘classic’ lit from the 18th and 19th centuries (probably more than most people), and thought myself fairly well-read, but going over the list brought my total to only 59.

There were a LOT of books that I’ve seen the movie adaptations for, but I’m sure that does not count. There are also a couple of titles that I think I’ve read, but I’m not completely sure about, so I can’t really claim them either… There were a couple of titles that I was able to add to my list, but only because I happened to have read them within the past several months.

One thing that surprised me was seeing how many of the books were from post-2000. Sixty-nine books from the past 13 years that were good enough to be included on a ‘must-read’ list just struck me as a lot for some reason.

As soon as I finish reading the book I currently have out from the library, I will begin working on the list. I’m not sure if I will read only books from the list. I’ll probably alternate with other things I’ve been wanting to read. But when I am reading from the list, the biggest problem I can see already will be how to choose what to read next. There are SO many books on the list, and many of them I’ve never even heard of before. I’ll need to do a bit of research online to find out about some of them.

Will I actually read all 1,001 books? I’m not sure. I read mostly for pleasure, and while I like many different kinds of books, I’m sure there will be some on this list that I just won’t be into. But I definitely want to be able to say that I’ve read more than just 59 of them! Maybe 901…?

If you are curious to check out the list for yourself, follow the link:
http://www.booklit.com/blog/1001-books-to-read-before-you-die/

Let There Be Bread...

... and homemade snack crackers, too.



I was in a baking mood, so I decided to bake some bread. Bread is one of my favorite things to make from scratch, not to mention one of my favorite things to eat (I often describe bread as my own personal version of crack). There is something very satisfying about kneading and shaping the dough, and there are few things to compare with the wonderful smell as it is baking...

This time, what really sounded good to me was a nice, crusty French bread. This was the first time that I made my own baguettes, and there are one or two things I will do differently next time, but i think they turned out pretty good. You probably can't tell from the picture, but they are a tiny bit over-done. I opted to shape the dough into demi baguettes instead of regular sized ones, and I forgot to reduce the baking time. But they are still edible, if a bit crunchier on the outside.

While I had the oven on, and taking advantage of the lag time while the baguette dough was rising, I also opted to make some homemade snack crackers. Unlike the French bread, I have made these crackers many times in the past, so this was like re-visiting an old friend. They are inexpensive to make, and it's fun to experiment with different seasonings and flavors. I really should make them more often. (And just an FYI, the picture shows only half of what the recipe makes. I divide the dough into two portions, to make it easier to work with).

Homemade bread and snack crackers... it's a good thing! :)

Movie Night: Australia

Did you ever watch a movie where you started out thinking, “this is okay”—and maybe even wondering if perhaps you’d made a mistake in picking it—but then somewhere along the way you find yourself completely engrossed, and by the end it had become a completely different sort of movie?

For me, Australia (2008, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman) is one of those films.

Set in the wilds of Northern Australia on the eve of WWII, this film paints a canvas as broad as the Outback, interweaving the lives and stories of a headstrong English Lady, a rough no-nonsense cattle herder, and a half-white/half-aboriginal boy. From racing against the odds to save the ranch from the machinations of a power-hungry rival to facing the upheavals of war that threaten to take everything away, the film threads multiple stories into a single epic tale.

The movie opens with a tone that strikes you as almost farcical, but don’t let it fool you. When Lady Sarah realizes what is at stake (not only for herself, but for everyone on the ranch), the movie transforms seamlessly into something more dramatic and compelling. After a nail-biting sequence along the edge of a canyon (of which I won’t say anything more lest I spoil it), I was completely hooked.

If you like historical dramas, I would definitely recommend watching this film. My Netflix rating: 4 out of 5.

A Humble Beginning...

As a writer, struggling to establish a habit of regular writing in the face of difficult times, it was suggested to me by a friend that I start a blog. And so, after much cajoling and not-so-subtle hints, here it is—finally.

For me, this blog will provide my talent with words some much needed exercise and practice. Before I can hope to write anything worth a publisher’s time, I need to get comfortable again with my palette and brushes and (most of all) the blank canvas.

For any readers that may stumble upon my blog, I hope that my words will—at the very least—entertain.
Thank you for reading.