Time travelling (at the movies)

I'm a period drama junkie. Stately manors, forbidding castles, sprawling gardens complete with a labyrinth, fields of wildflowers, vintage clothing - they all set my heart fluttering.

Which was way I couldn't peel my eyes off the screen during the 2+hr Brideshead Revisited especially when the director utilizes the slow-mo and panning shots to a max (thank god for lighting and camera trickery). You see the characters close up, words unspoken, brimming with emotion. You see the reflection of Venetian waters dancing off the walls at night.

I admire the director's eye for detail in recreating a 1920 English uppity society. I marvel at the effort it must have taken to put every guy into shirts, vests, blazers, ties and scarves (no tweeds allowed for dinner at Brideshead).

Other than the trite issues of love and social status, themes of homosexuality and religion add a certain tenseness to the plot, another reason why I didn't doze off halfway (also partly cos I kept imagining Emma Thompson as Professor Trelawney instead of a snooty matriarch). I've just discovered that the author with his rather misleading name - Evelyn Waught - is actually a male.

On a chocolate high

Marks & Spencers dark chocolate digestives is therapy for the stressed and worried me.

Who knew that the humble brown wheat biscuit could help elevate moods sky high. But who am I kidding, of course it's the luscious coating of dark chocolate that seals the deal or addiction in this case.

Unlikely other tried and tested choc biscuits - Oreos, Tim Tams, Famous Amos - utility for dark choc digestives diminishes at a much slower rate than its counterparts. Arrgh. I hate its insanely high and dispproportionate caloric value (itsy bitsy biscuit vs. GAZILLION of calories).

The Time Traveller's Wife

It's a love story; deeply moving, highly inspirational, utterly romantic but never gushy or maudlin.

It's fantasy, magical realism weaving time travelling seamlessly with modern everyday life.

Always believable, never too incredulous, the characters are down-to-earth and their story is told matter-of-factly.


I sped through 3/4 of the book, too enthralled to leave it. And then I stopped, avoided the book, ignored its lure, knowing that soon, I'll have to return to it and from then onwards, all will be a downwards slide. As Clare says "we're at the top of a rollercoaster".

I cried for the rest of the book, silently and sometimes chokingly when it gets unbearably painful. The book broke my heart and now I feel bereft of something dear.

***Eric Bana popped into my mind when I thought of an actor for the role of Henry and Eric Bana IS going to act as him in a 2008 production!