ratzi in the background

after one photo, tiz covered her double chin in subsequent shots.

family stroll in the retiro

my fair lady

in tandem with one of my top pals, P, click here to access her fab little blog
i thought i better blog too about one of my favourite holiday films, starring old hep as i like to call her affectionately. thank GOD she played eliza doolittle and not that MINGING julie andrews. audrey could do no wrong as far as i am concerned. miscast as a cockney flowergirl on the Tottenham court road? nonsense! and she was marvellous in this little gem of dialogue at the ascott races, how i laughed. now kindly pass me the ladle of gin, if you please. lurverly.

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: I do hope we wont have any unseasonable cold spells, they bring on so much influenza. And the whole of our family is succeptable to it.
Eliza Doolittle: My Aunt died of influenza, or so they said. But its my belief they done the old woman in.
Mrs. Higgins: Done her in?
Eliza Doolittle: Yes, lord love you. Why should she die of influenza, when she come through diptheria right enough the year before. Fairly blue with it she was. They all thought she was dead. But my father, he kept ladling gin down her throat. Then she come to so sudden she bit the bowl right off the spoon.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Dear Me!
Eliza Doolittle: Now what call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza? And what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me?
[pause]
Eliza Doolittle: Somebody pinched it. And what I say is: them 'as pinched it, done her in.
Lord Boxington: Done her in? Done her in did you say?
Lady Boxington: Whatever does it mean?
Mrs. Higgins: Its the new slang meaning someone has killed her.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: Surely you don't think someone killed her?
Eliza Doolittle: Do I not? Them she lived with would have killed her for a hatpin, let alone a hat.
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill: But it can't have been right for your father to be pouring spirits down her throat like that, it could have killed her.
Eliza Doolittle: Not her, gin was mother's milk to her. Besides he poured so much down his own throat, he knew the good of it.
Lord Boxington: Do you mean he drank?
Eliza Doolittle: Drank? My word something chronic.
[responding to freddy's laughter]
Eliza Doolittle: Here! What are you sniggering at?
Freddy Eynsford-Hill: The new small talk, you do it so awfully well.
Eliza Doolittle: Well if I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn't?
Mrs. Higgins: No my dear.
Eliza Doolittle: Well thats a mercy anyhow...

New Year's Resolutions

well, this is usually a time-honoured tradition for the tots.

with a crackling fire in the background and the air thick with smoke, we sit around our wooden table in maremma crammed with chewed out cheese and redolent of sausage fat. after getting royally plastered and resoundingly tanked on a toxic cocktail of negronis and different assortments of wine, we grab the leather-clad guestbook by the window sill and jot down about (give or take) 50 resolutions.

now many of said resolutions are de rigueur reiterations of tired old pledges from years ago (``quit smoking''), wishful thinking (``sleep with kate moss''), or just plain foolhardy (``publish nov,'' hang on that DID happen..)

this year, although the tradition still stands, i will in the cold sobriety of my working day, compile a little list i expect to be held beholden to.

1. quit smoking
2. see sister and swing my lake district to recover from ordeal
3. find fabulous new apartment with massive terrace at contained cost to live life of domesticated goddess with j and the turd.
4. take serious steps toward writing something else outside my daily fodder
5. finish year in the black

someone once said ``small realistic goals''....so..

6. become overnight sensation slash subject of christian iconography
7. be first female to make cover of vogue and vanity fair in same month
8. own property in major world hubs slash hotspots and flit between old and new continent seamlessly and effortlessly taking drags of a non-nicotine fag
9. be on first-name terms with barrack, mickey, kristin and catherine and kate in that order
10. pen award-winning, box-office smash hit and rest on laurels for a decade to create aura of mystique and expectation in the style of garbo.

nothing gets me going more

than discussing oscar nominations. well. i do like to get my two cents in.
so am just going to go ahead and name winners already and get it over and one with

best actor - mickey rourke - wrestler



(mmmm. how how was he?? ... mmm)

best actress - kristin scott thomas - i've loved you so long



well i haven't really got round to thinking past this or seeing enough films to bang on. am just fixed on these two for the time being. and just easing myself back into blogging.

brit

back from weekly hiatus just to say
i love this bitch
cannot WAIT to see full unadulterated version.
in fact here it is
and it's freaking AMAZING


CLICK CLICK CLICK

keener alert

OH! OH! OH!
and it has robin wright penn too!