cul's comfy corner

we sat at a friend's house this afternoon, my mom regaling my friend with far-fetched tales of her life when all of a sudden she mentions her sister-in-law's mother and close family friend who has been very ill recently.  we chatted about her and the stuff she used to get up to and had a joke about her only cracking open the best whiskey at hogmanay.  we commented that she was a tough old bird, making it to her 75th birthday on friday despite being given the last rites over 4 months ago.

we got a call this evening, she died in her daughter's arms tonight.

sweet dreams, jean.  

mom - trace?  trace?  are your cats scared of the hairdryer?

me - i don't know mom. *pause* why? 

mom - no reason

*hairdryer starts*

*cats screech*

ant - mow mow mooooow! (translation:i ain't going back in there with her!)

dec - moooooooooooooooooooooow! (translation: ooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww!)

me - mom!  what are you doing?

mom - nothing! *shines halo* 

wishing you all love on this special lovers day [::]

a special mention for my mom who is 56 today.  huzzah!

dear god,

please make bannisters long enough to dry king size duvets on.

amen. 

i have been mostly making valentine's cards for my neice and nephews and my bro. 

surely i must be in the running for most adorable auntie?

yesterday's filmage was the academy award nominated 'Dreamgirls'

i went in with a flippant attitude towards it as i usually do when a film has been so mega-hyped.  what i actually found was that i really enjoyed the film. it was fast-paced and exciting (for me at least) and i absolutely adored the music.  there were funny moments and extremely sad moments but i didn't for one moment notice that the film was over 2 hours long.

the story of dreamgirls was a very obvious semi-biography of the supremes, there are too many parallels to deny it. a blind man could see the comparison between 'deena jones and the dreams' and 'diana ross and the supremes'.

the thing that stunned me about this film is the amount of talent gracing the screen. names like jamie foxx, danny glover and the magnificent eddie murphy feature alongside the beautiful beyonce who is a very believable deena.

more than anyone else though, the person who truly fascinated me was effie white, played by jennifer hudson.  jennifer's previous claim to fame, and probable contributing factor to securing the part, was that she was a finalist of american idol, reaching 6th place in 2002.   thankfully she has finally made a name for herself in this film rather than slipping into obscurity which would have been a tragedy. i am most definitely a fan!

one thing worthy of note is that it very quickly becomes obvious that this film was adapted from a musical.  the strength of emotion displayed by the characters during arguments was excellently portrayed in song in some instances. this wasn't a film full of everyone singing every line, it was just one that took the opportunity to represent some scenes in a different way, and it worked.

obviously, not everyone in the cinema was as appreciative of the culture presented to them. the philistines behind me found the singing arguments hilarious and guffawed every time someone burst into song *grin*

if you want to have a listen to the rip-roaring soundtrack, go visit dreamgirls website

as for a score? i think 3½ out of 5 for the first viewing. not bad. not bad at all.

i'm freezing.

the sun has been out today, but it's very nippy and so i also am very nippy.

but at least the sun was out.

even if i hadn't seen the sun today i could work out it had been out today.

how?

because there's only a bloody icecream van dingly-dangling outside my window right now. 

last night was the uk season 2 finale.

i watched with baited breath to see what would become of my lovely denny duquette whom i had fallen madly in love with.

then he said it

"i choose you, izzy"

and i melted

then it happened

"that's not denny any more izzy, he's gone" 

i think jj and i sent around 100 texts to each other during the course of the program last night.  97 of them read "noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" 

i lost an important folder and needed to find it quick.

given the nature of my job, i have hundreds of folders for reference and such, things i don't use very often but need to have them at hand when i do.  i keep these folders in a fairly inaccessible cupboard that is mostly hidden by my bank of filing cabinets.   as luck would have it, today's folder was in said cupboard.

the prospect of moving an entire filing cabinet was almost too much to bear just to grab a folder and check some numbers, especially when i could see the folder and almost touch it if i pressed very close to the filing cabinet.

i shuffled the filing cabinet out of the way and squeezed myself into the gap after fashioning myself a hook out of a ruler and a pirate hook (always handy to have around) in true 'a team' stylee.

after much huffing and puffing and squeezing myself into the gap i had made, i finally dislodged the folder, checked the numbers and replaced it.  

it was then that a very inquisitive little wayne tapped me on the leg. 

"miss?"

"yes wayne?"

"that was a very little space you had to get in, wasn't it?"

"yes it was, wasn't it?  i had to really squeeze in there, but i managed it ok"

"i know.  it was tough though because you have a little bit big tummy and a little bit big bottom, don't you"

*choke* "yes, i do unfortunately"

"don't be sad though, you give me the *best* cuddles"

bastard.  cuteness.