judging books

well i just saw this in the herald sun and immediately looked it up.
watch it for a feel-good moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmbJzH93NU
can't embed, youtube won't allow.
isn't she great? but you know what, having watched idol in the past, just wondering about the format of this show. don't the judges hear them audition? would they not have had any idea of her voice? surely they did. watching it i had the feeling of being manipulated, all in the service of good television.
it's good though.

west wing and obamarama: it's all coming to a wonderful, political, exciting, throbbing CLIMAX

this post is about west wing. if you don't want to spoil it for yourself, don't read it.

clokes and i have been watching west wing, from the beginning, on dvd.

last night, we saw josh and donna kiss.

FINALLY.

i have been hanging off the edge of my couch, night after night, yelling at the screen "kiss her!" and saying to clokes, during odd moments, like preparing dinner, "when's josh going to kiss donna?" and "i want josh to kiss donna!"

i can get quite petulant like that.

it was so good last night, i was bouncing on the couch, squealing, and generally behaving like a real girl. and for those that know me, they would say "melba? she's not a real girl. not in a girly girly type of way."

so, i am shuddering even now as i write. legs are crossed and mind is spinning.

first there was a kiss, a kind of excited, jump up and down together congrats, we did it, things are going well in the campaign don't you think? kind of kiss. but it went on, and became a pash, complete with several camera angles circling around, and it would have kept going had not people started to go into the room.

then, another episode, a couple later, where the campaigners start slipping away from the congratulatory bottle of scotch in the hotel bar. it's the night before the election, polls open in the morning, finally,  

FINALLY, josh follows donna and they end up in bed.

of course, we don't see any sex. we just see them lying bed, supposedly asleep, after the lurve. josh opens his eyes, looks at the clock, it's after 3am, he starts to reach for her, but then doesn't. she gets up, goes to the bathroom, he jumps out of bed and follows her, hovers in the doorway oh so casually. he is so cute.

i think my out-of-proportion investment here is because if i got to choose which west winger to do it with, it would be josh.

i mean, look at him:



i love it that his hair is longer in this final season, again. it went short somewhere in the middle there, but it's back to its clown-like length, all the better to complement his maniacal grimaces over polling data and the like. i love the way he clenches his jaw. and the looks, oh the looks he gives people. there's something vulnerable about josh, despite his ragingly large intellect and capacity for understanding the masses and the mechanisms of politics, that makes me think he wouldn't know how to boil an egg. and i do. so we would be perfect together.

donna annoyed me in the early days. her rabbity face and seemingly stupid questions were irritating. as they'd stride the corridors, holding papers and doing lots of parallel talking, i found myself becoming bugged to the max by her. but now, i see, her early questions marked an inquiring and quick mind, she was learning on the job from her boss in a way that allowed her move up and away (pissing him off in the meantime). i imagine josh has never been abandoned before, even amy was still buzzing around him towards the end of their thing, it seemed he had dropped her. and then, at the end, donna has come back in, joined their campaign as media person, has her own status, her own mad skillz, which josh can appreciate, and now they can do it because their position is not a boss-assistant one any more.

COOL OR WHAT?

the last ep. we watched last night was the one where polls opened, exit poll data was coming through, polls closed, things were looking very even between the two candidates AND ALL THE STAFF WERE GETTING A ROOT. apart from arnie vinick, who was nursing some sort of hand-shake rsi. we had mrs santos "helping" her husband have a nap. we have donna asking josh if he "wanted to go for a walk, or something" during his meltdowns. we had the staffers all jumping each other, which had been going on for a while; donna knew, josh didn't. even will and kate back at the white house are doing it. strange, that for a tv series, that went for so long, it wasn't until the end that characters started hooking up. maybe it's end-of-term euphoria. i don't know, but for quite a while there, it was only the president and abbey who were getting it on.

so we are up to the election day part 2 episode, and have 6 eps to go.

the other funny thing is that somehow, we have managed to calibrate the final section of west wing with the inauguration of barack obama. this means that fiction and fact are blending into each other in a very satisfying way. i know west wing is old, but i never watched it on tv and clokes got pissed off and stopped when they started fucking around with timeslots, etc. so we have only watched it properly for the first time, from beginning to end, now. i can see myself wanting to start all over straight away. i want to see them all when they were new staffers. god, even rob lowe seems a distant memory now.

what i might do is stay up all night, watching west wing, culminating in a live cross to washington dc for the inauguration.

only problem is convincing clokes to do the same. he's back at work.

further memo to big brother's jamie

hello love

look, you obviously got lost in my last memo; bogged down in the mire of my attempts to enlighten you re the islamic faith etc. clearly, you didn't pay attention to what was, really, the most important point of the whole letter.

give. up. on. emma.

hear me?

give up on emma.

she doesn't even know you exist.

now, i'm not saying anything about her being out of your league, even though she actually clearly believes this to be the case. and it might well be the case. but if you had the right stuff, boyo, you could get her.

my suggestions are these, a couple of ideas of ways you can maybe be a little more edgy and a little less seal-like.

1. stop moaning about how emma doesn't like you, isn't giving you a chance, doesn't know you, the real you.

2. stop pointing out to others about how you falling in the pool on purpose is the real you. it's really unattractive.

3. speaking of unattractive, i don't think you are, un- that is. i think you have lovely eyes and a smile that's lovely too. actually you are quite handsome, but unfortunately (and quite opposite to what i expected) i think your personality or your neuroses are letting you down.

4. stop, JUST FUCKING STOP, lying around with your arms down by your sides and your head up at a weird angle. you were doing it last night while hayley was having a bitch in the pool. and what were you doing? in the pool in those horrible underpants? no. you were lying, fully clothed, on the decking next to her. your arms weren't propping you up, they were lying like dead meat beside your body, your legs straight out, and head up. what's going on? are you trying to look like the most idiotic person in the house? please. enough. stop it. you look like a seal.*

5. stay away from rebecca. she's a bit twisted and nutty. you will get her unpopularity stench onto you.

6. unfortunately emma is the alpha human in the pack. she is so fucking wily and manipulative. you wouldn't want her as your girlfriend anyway. believe me.

7. just relax and smile a bit more.

8. if you are packing something serious in your pants like your namesake from last year, get it out now. otherwise it might be too late.

9. keep on cooking, they like that, but don't be such a suck about everything. there've been a couple of times when i've seen a spark of something good, but you spoil it with your bleating and suckiness. be a man. go on.

10. don't do the slapstick fall-in-the-pool routine again, or similar. it just smacks of desperation and i can smell your fear-sweat from here.

the only other thing i can think of to suggest, which won't help you while you're in there, but you might consider once you're out is reading the game, by neil strauss. i reckon emma could do with some heavy negging, sarging and if you could peacock a bit more (NOT SEAL) you might be in with a chance.

that's all for now, jamie.

i'm rooting for you.

you go, boy etc.

good luck.

love melbournegirl xxx

* nothing against seals, they are gorgeous creatures. i just want jamie to present himself properly, realise his potential, as a human of the boy variety, not a water-creature, whale, sealion etc.

memo to big brother's jamie and nick, i think it's nick

hi boys,

mind if i just butt into a conversation you were having in the spa recently, maybe yesterday, remember, when you were talking about demet and the "type of muslim she is" and how while you thought that muslim women were not meant to show their bodies, and "move the way she does" and bellydance and stuff? remember that chat you had? i know you weren't being critical, more curious, so i'm not picking on you about that.

what annoyed, or frustrated, me what that while you two guys sat there in the spa, pondering demet and the way she moves her body, and that it's not how you expected a muslim woman to behave, i was sitting on the couch wanting to shout so that you could hear me. especially when, jamie, in all your reasonablene puzzlement, acknowledged that there are different types of muslims. the unspoken part was that (my interpretation) perhaps there are some muslims who are ok with bellydancing and women showing their bodies (ie dressing where you can see a slip of tummy, and arms, and no scarf).

can i just say there are different types of muslims but these are basically, as far as i know, sunni and shiite. what you were talking about, jamie, is that there are infinite degrees of adherence to the religion, just as there are with other religions. i know jews who eat pork products, and those that keep kosher. and then there's everything in between. some christians go to church and show their faith in certain traditional ways, others don't. muslims are the same. some cover, some don't. some smoke, and drink and eat pork. some don't. i've met muslim girls who wear the tightest jeans and skimpiest tops, in istanbul, not here, and also ones who cover but have the most amazingly stylish and sexy clothes underneath their overcoats.

obviously, the ones who aren't strict about dietary and behavioural guidelines are not the super-religious ones. but some who observe the dietary restrictions aren't particularly religious - diet and dress is a customary thing. but they all still probably identify as muslim.

so you see jamie, you were kind of close, but really kind of wrong and ignorant. it's not your fault. i think alot of australians have similar ideas and misconceptions. there is no such thing as "Relaxed Islam" [bellydancing, showing skin, premarital sex and drinking alcohol] as a religious group. but there are millions of "relaxed" muslims around the world who are just living their lives - skin, dancing and movement - just like everyone else. just because someone identifies as muslim doesn't mean that they pray 5 times a day, cover themselves, etc. they are just the religious or more conservative ones.

hope this has shed a bit of light, boys.

good luck with it all though jamie. just give up on emma. she is just not interested.

mg xxx

you know that a television show has entered your family's life in a most fundamental way when

1. on a road trip, the categories for a popular guessing game are animal, vegetable, mineral and neighbours.
2. your daughter is calling all her nintendogs sky, steph, dylan, stingray and jp.
3. the first item of business at the dinner table is discussing "neighbours theories"
4. you keep having this conversation* with your daughter as follows:

princess: i just can't believe it
me: what? carl and susan?
princess: yessssss! isn't that an affair?
me: well, it was just a kiss-
princess: but they went up onto their KNEES...
me: well- as i was going to say, it was a kiss. if they did more and carl didn't tell jenny, then that would be an affair-
princess: i just can't believe it

5. the mosaic-style promos that run immediately after each show can sometimes send our family into paroxyms of collective excitement and confusion (in equal measures) with hearty demands for a rewind, sometimes twice, before we all kind of settle down, muttering about theories, and highly-pitched chatter from princess about what's coming next on this show of shows.
6. much thought and time is invested in considering which neighbour is the favourite. princess says she likes sky and mishka.
7. on mishka, i myself have given much thought to whether mishka, admittedly almost my favourite character, is truly a russian laydee. i have seen her in other things, though, i am sure. i feel she is just acting well, though of course with all the vodka and overuse of the infinitive, it strays well inside stereotype-territory. i am impressed with the authentic phrasing of her "bad english". someone on the script team has done some english teaching and one stage, is this not true?

* i swear. i have been over this with her about six times now.

this week's six feet under. only one to go.

last night i watched most of sfu from behind my hands, and a cushion off the couch. i was convinced really bad things were going to happen.
there was a toing and froing of maya between brenda who has clearly been all over the place since nate's death six weeks previously. ruth wanted to keep maya, george pleaded on her behalf, brenda agreed, then changed her mind.
ruth had a conversation with george, and said "we could raise her [maya] couldn't we?"
he gallantly ignored the "we" and what it implied, and agreed that yes, they could.
brenda was having weird dreams about billy; especially after nate appeared and told her she and billy could "be together" in all senses of the expression, that they should as they belong together, that they could go away somewhere new and set up as a couple and fuck. that last word just hung in the air. so confronting. then brenda has a dream, only of course the viewer doesn't know it's a dream. she enters billy's room (he is staying with her) he's in bed. they end up hugging, he is naked, she looks at him, he suggests she touches it, she does. they kiss. so twisted but so well done. so like a dream.
claire is going off the rails. she is drunk all the time, or stoned. drives and totals her car. so we see the end of this beautiful beast, one of the visual icons of this show for me:








in another scene she confronts two women leaving the funeral parlour, who have just been making arrangements for their son and brother. we know the dead man was young, a returned soldier, legless and missing one arm. he was horrifically injured. we know also his sister helped him kill himself. on the back of the mother's vehicle, a huge petrol guzzling suv, is a sticker that says "support our troops".
claire catches sight of this while she is drunk; she lets rip a poisonous invective against the two women, ranting that it's because of cars like this that america has invaded iraq, for oil, also that the support the troops sticker is misguided, people are dying over there, she screamed, iraqis, children, women, etc etc.
she has no idea that their son and brother was a soldier and was dead.
it was a wonderful scene, and hard to watch.
also hard to watch claire spitting abuse at the kindly ted who has been her rock the last couple of episodes. a man not more than an acquaintance but clearly a decent person who has supported her and been there for her, and, we hoped, a potential long-term, happily-ever-after future husband. claire pushed him away, told him to fuck off, told him he was a jerk etc.
david continues to lose it with his panic attacks. it's just all spinning out of control and i really fear for next week. i won't be able to watch it until probably tuesday night. and then i will mourn its finishing.
and move onto something else.

big brother uk

i have missed the boat with the bb here, so apart from occasional shows here and there i don't think i will invest.

however, thanks to the power of ms fits, and her magic linkages, i have just spent some time viewing the wonder that is bb uk.

one character stands out for me. if anyone is ever going to murder a person on bb, i think this girl, nikki, is an out-front leader of who might be the victim.

check her out:

audition tape

nikki in the diary room

"i'm a caged chicken" - rant number 1

"i need bottled water" - rant number 2

"water continued" - rant number 3

is she for real? or is she a vicki pollard character who has been sent in...

this week's six feet under. you know the drill, don't read if you don't want it spoilt.

i'm so scared about how all this is going to end.

looks like brenda and nate are on the out. what the fuck is he thinking of? maggie hovers alluringly [so, perhaps, he thinks]. we found out this week she's a quaker. not that there's anything wrong with that, but why does she have to be a quaker? will it become relevant in some way? do they not believe in medicine, and so when her son was sick did she refuse treatment for him and let him die?

perhaps this will be revealed soon.

brenda is rightly pissed off with nate; when she said to him "just do what you want to do" she went straight to the crux of the matter. he never seems to do what he wants to do. he doesn't seem to even know. but his return to the family when his father died, his getting involved with the business [remember, david was pissed off that nate had seemed to just run away and left him having to work with his father] is perhaps another example of him doing what he thought he should do, which might not have been his true preference. again, with lisa; she got pregnant and he obviously thought the right thing to do was to marry her and make a family. which so didn't work either.

so what now?

i think ruth is realising that she has perhaps acted rashly; although the way george went off and got himself engaged so quickly is an indication that he really is not stable himself. remember, ruth is wife number 6 or something, so this is a pattern in his life. perhaps it's a cycle of being mentally well and getting his shit together and meeting someone, moving fast with an engagement and marriage, then things fall apart mentally for him, the marriage ends, and so it starts again.

vanessa and rico. shit, the writers just don't want anything to wrap up nicely do they? that's what i love about this show. the creators don't succumb to the easy option of the hollywood endings.

keith and david seem to be getting it together. out of all the vignettes, maybe these guys are going to be the ones to show how it is to live your life well and make good decisions and commit to things. truly commit. perhaps keith and david are going to be the only ones to triumph?

and claire. the best thing about this week's ep was the realisation that her work crew have got this in-joke going where they say "yeah, baby" in response to almost everything and everyone. it was done so subtly at times, where the voice volume was low and in the background, but still there's this chorus of "yeah babys" happening in the background, the foreground, everywhere.

love it.














yeah, baby. love it.

days until i want to submit my thesis: 7

days until i have to submit my thesis: 12

six feet under - discussion of this week's episode.

[the formatting of blogger is pissing me off but i haven't time to fiddle, so apologies.]

in this episode the beginning, where someone dies, shows ruth's sister sarah walking up a mountain with another woman, her best friend fiona. fiona somehow stumbles after commenting she didn't think she would make it to the top, and falls off the cliff and dies.

it turns out she was the woman who at 32, when nate was 15, took his virginity. as he said sadly about half way through the episode, he wrote her silly poetry and at an age when he was fumbling around in the dark, trying to get his hands down the pants of girls his own age, she showed him her whole body, and (it remained unsaid) allowed him to explore it.

the way the writers managed this piece of history was so well done. at the beginning of the show, there was an almost-missed comment by ruth about what "fiona had done to nate." it was left there, subtle, so you almost didn't give it another thought, as there was so much else going on.

then slightly later it was revealed fiona had been his first lover. but nate said she was his first love, and there was an excruciating moment when she is on the slab, breasts bare, being tended to by rico when rico insensitively asks nate how she has held up physically, since the time he first saw her naked. nate gets pissed off, covers her with a sheet, and this is the moment when he said she was his first love.

also in this episode we realise that ruth has left george. it snuck up on me. i must be as naive as george is, for when it became clear that she had moved him into a new apartment, by lying to him that they were both moving in, yet she only took one change of clothes, i felt as sad for him as he looked. he kept his dignity at the end, as he closed the door in her face, and left her standing there. i thought of the opening scene a few episodes ago when we saw the young george holding his mother's hand as she slowly goes to sleep after overdosing on pills and alcohol. and there he was, a woman he loved leaving him again. cruelly.

billy is shitting nate and brenda with his hanging around.

maggie asked nate not to ever lie to her, and that she would promise to do the same. what kind of oath is this? what kind of person requires this sort of promise from an acquaintance?

claire looked gorgeous in her pastel shades of office wear; the riding pantyhose, the stultifying workmates. and then not getting her art grant. what is going to happen there? but at least she and ruth had a hug, though i was unsatisfied that ruth didn't apologise after treating claire appallingly.

keith and david! oh no, they are being tested. but this is life, this is how it happens. keith wants to give up on dorel and his little brother after two weeks. david rightly senses they are just right at the beginning. it could take years for them to establish a trusting relationship. i hope they stick it but keith "overparented" by getting physical and angry with the boys, and as david said, turned into his father. who he detests. is this what happens to us all? we turn into our parents? why can't we break the cycle? because we only know one way?

some good news (i think) was that vanessa asked rico to move back in, which was all he really wanted. to be with his boys again. i hope this works out. but it might not. who the fuck knows anymore? this show is just so unpredictable, which is one reason why i love it so much. you know billy could either kill himself, do a massacre-type job on everyone, or turn up in the next episode with a new girlfriend.

i had an awful thought that everything will just blow up and everything will go bad. that there will be no happy endings. please don't make any comments about what you might know about this show, if you do know what happens. but you're welcome to make comments about what you think might happen. i'm happy to read supposition, i'll just be heartbroken if anyone spoils it for me. i have access to the episode guide but am not going to look.

my fingers are not as long, nor as skinny, as kate moss'

[warning: this post contains text about six feet under, particularly the episode shown this week. it also contains text about chimney sweeping.]
okay. i am coming down to the wire with my thesis. i cancelled an appointment with my supevisor today so i can write. my days are messy; yesterday the chimney sweep plus my mother managed to combine and suck all the hours from my window of opportunity between school-drop-off at 9am and pick-up at 3.30pm. the hours fly, as they are now. and i have no excuse about blogging do i. the chimney sweep is not making me do it. but i have to have the right mental state in place to sit and write and think clearly about structure and flow and coherence. to be coherent is extremely difficult.
and here i am blogging. i've painted my nails bright red, which is something i don't usually do. toenails, yes. fingernails, no. but i wanted to approximate the kate moss look, you know girls, when she has short nails, but they are red. and they look fucking awesome with her long, skinny fingers. my fingers are not as long, nor as skinny, as kate moss'. it's funny how much i want to put another s after moss' like this: moss's.
to business.
three words.
SIX






FEET











UNDER.








you will just have to indulge me for the next seven weeks, because for the moment, sfu is my obsession. hear me? obsession.
it's come like a godsend back into my life. there was such a long break between seasons i thought it was lost to me forever. i'd seen it in the video shops but it didn't seem to have the correct shows. then out of the blue, it returns.
for me, sfu is unlike any other show i've ever watched. and i've seen a lot.
so, no big brother [used to watch it and like it until it got too skanky], no survivor, no amazing race. we do watch desperate housewives, and prison break and medium. and neighbours.
neighbours, i love. prison break is ok. like, just ok. not great, but there are characters i do enjoy, such as teabag is just such a thigh-grindingly creepoid. desperate housewives is good for watching bree and lynette, but the others are wearing thin. medium is great but i always feel it should have gone for another hour, and the endings can feel rushed and a bit pat.
last night we watched our taped episode of six feet under. nate and brenda seemed to reach a rapprochement, so i'm hoping that will be the end of the tension. maggie came to dinner with george; i really wonder what the maggie character will do.
seems david and keith are going to adopt a boy who has an older brother as well. we haven't met the brother but there's promise that he might be difficult. but david and keith are getting on so well, i LOVE the dynamic between them. the tender looks, the graceful bowing to each other's preferences.
billy is such a pathetic character, it is so hard to watch; his neediness and his on-the-brink-of-panic is so replusive. claire has such a good head on her shoulders, she is strong and she knows what she will and won't put up with. you can see she can't stand to be near him, and when she was tricked into seeing him not once, but twice, and the second time with the assistance of his mother, you couldn't blame her for just running away from the restaurant when she said she was going to the toilet.
george and ruth looked at a house, in an interesting area of town that is near the market and something else, a museum or gallery? ruth's face looks lighter and george is so loving with her. there was a very subtle after-sex scene, where she looked particularly harrowed and you just knew she had done it for him.
rico spoke about vanessa's private business behind her back to the principal of the kids' school and another mother; a transgression that was unforgivable and completely killed any chance of them getting together. i love the way rico speaks; he is so solemn and precise, and uber courteous. it's delicious.
and finally, a bit of closure about lisa and her death. i was wondering whether it would be mentioned again. it came up in the context of brenda thinking maya should be being told about her "first mommy" and nate was feeling rushed about it. then it all came out, his feelings about the way lisa died, that she'd been having an affair with her brother-in-law, and, shockingly, the thought nate has obviously been nursing that perhaps maya is not his biological child. this is something i had never considered, and brenda said they were also things that she had never thought of.
each episode is so full. i am going to be so bereft when it finishes. unlike arrested development and curb your enthusiasm i feel i have invested so much emotion in this show, in the characters and the stories. they are like family, my family. never has a show so thorougly moved into my mind and taken up residence before.

only eight eps to go of six feet under, don't read it if you don't want to know some stuff

six feet under would have to be one of my favourite shows of all time.
i think when it finishes, i will need the dvd collection. i will miss it, the show, and the people.
check out the hbo website to remind yourself of what has happened thus far, and after this week's episode where nate bashed the blue bird (of happiness?) to death with a broom at his surprise 40th birthday party, i just don't know that it will all be ok in the end.
i know the creator Alan Ball has tried to keep it realistic and resisted some writers wanting to break up relationships so they can write new things. he said
sometimes i exercise veto power. for the longest time there was a lot of energy behind splitting david and keith up and letting david move on, because there was concern that keith was not a good partner for him... i fought that. i just felt that this is what these characters are going through, this is what will solidify them as a couple. a lot of times writers get bored: 'i want a new doll to play with.' i think what's more interesting is trying to maintain a relationship with somebody who's so different. what i'm interested in is seeing these two men who are basically good people with different pathologies trying to make them work... no this show is not about moving on and getting the next new exciting thing to happen. this show is about what it is like to remain in a relationship. this show is about what it is like to remain alive while other people die. you stick it out. you don't just jettison and move on.
[taken from the age green guide, april 13, p.16]






what is going to happen to claire and billy? actually, i think claire can take care of herself. in which case, what is going to happen to billy?







is claire ever going to make things up with ruth? they are so hating each other right now.







david and keith have been getting on so well. are they going to get their baby and be happy?








how significant will george's daughter maggie be? was i imagining a frisson or two between her and nate? he was leaning in for a kiss at his party, was he not?







will we ever find out anything more about lisa? it seemed to jump from when her brother-in-law confessed to nate and then shot himself. that was the end of the season, and then this season there seemed to be a gap, or is that just me?








i just love that kitchen. this isn't a question or a loose end. it's just a statement. i love that kitchen.







will rico and vanessa get back together?










will ruth ever be happy again? will george be ok. a heartbreaking scene this week, involving him and his mother. truly one of the saddest things i have ever seen on film.
and finally:










will nate fucking get his shit together and make a life with brenda? she's already feeling insecure, she has done really well to pull herself together, she's pregnant again after a traumatic miscarriage the day before their wedding. why does he seem to keep repeating the pattern, and behaviour, of a commitment phobe? he's done it all along. is this going to be his fate?
and really, did nate die during season two? is it going to be like some sort of inverted bobby ewing thing or the sixth sense all over again? are they going to fuck with our minds?

arrested development, arrested life.

i know i'm slow. i've been studying with my head in books for the last two years, plus being romantically inclined along with everything else in my little life.
did everyone know about this show, arrested development?
we have just finished watching the first two seasons on dvd. i love it. it makes me laugh out loud which is not easy to do. all the characters are wonderful, they all amuse me. it's too hard to break down, but it is so funny.



the other thing we love love love is larry david's curb your enthusiasm. also, hello, did everyone else know about this too?

what else is there i might have missed? once i've got my thesis in i'm happy to commit to almost anything requiring a lot of dedicated time input. but it has to be really really good. no dross. my life is too short.
so we watched arrested development to fill in time while waiting to get a hold of curb your enthusiasm season 5. now i'm hooked on arrested and there's only one more season at the video shop; so tell me please. where am i going to get my laughs in the next 6 weeks once we have finished watching these?
only funny suggestions please. i need to laugh.

mayday, mayday, urgent assistance required. please SOS, wee oo, wee oo, wee oo, wah, wah, wah, beeeeeeeep, beeeeeeeeeeeep.

now i realise this may completely undo all the gold stars you have been giving me, completely on trust, over my last post about what a nutritional goddess i am, with regards to princess's upbringing

BUT now i will confess i have allowed something quite saccharine, full of preservatives and artificial badness to come into our lives

NEIGHBOURS

yes, we have started watching neighbours. we have watched about four episodes now, but not consecutively.

so tonight we watched neighbours and i have some questions. because princess kept saying things like:

"why doesn't she like him?" and "what's the secret they are keeping from those kids?" "mummy, tell me what's going on!"

and i'm shushing her and saying "I CAN'T HEAR" and "LET ME WORK IT OUT AND THEN I'LL EXPLAIN TO YOU!!"

so i would really appreciate some help to get me up to speed so i can fill her in on what's the go.

i remember some of the names from years ago, so it makes me seem like i know more than i do.

1. why does... oh shit, where's my bit of paper where i wrote down my questions, let me go and get it.

okay:

1. why do Joe and Janelle hate each other? are they brother and sister, or exes?

2. what is Susan's problem with her friend? (This is the guy who is Zeke and Rachels' father?) Is he a goodie or a baddie? Does she know the whole story?

3. i know this goes back a way, but why did Carl and Susan break up.

also, if anyone could give me a groups precis, ie who belongs to who family wise.

much appreciated.