In awe this day

Nothing more extraordinary than to discover a new writer of worth. This novelist writes each paragraph as though it were her last. I am in awe. It helps that the cover design is of the perfect woman - from the eyes of both sexes - but it only helps; it's the words that are incandescent.

Wake-up Call

The first thing I see every morning while brushing my teeth.......surely the perfect man to wake up with?

Cliche, but I finally nailed it!

Struggling with my search for nail-polishes that stay and are deep enough for two coats only, three make me feel as though I'm buried alive, I've come to a conclusion: Not in India. Well, it's in Delhi but, you know, that's not India. And what is in Delhi? OPI, the only nail colour that can stand tall in a sea of not quite-quite brands. Included in the shades of shame are Lakme, Bourjois, Colour Bar and Faces. These don't apply evenly, leaving those horrid see-through patches that my OCD simply loathes.
I mean, how difficult  can it be to get the fundamentals of nail-polish right? We can't all afford Chanel's Le Vernis, so OPI it must be. Now to check Delhi flight rates. Hmm, I know, I would end up paying 10 times what Le Vernis costs. Alright, alright, you've held a gun to my head. Le Vernis it must be. The shade appropriately called "Vendetta" (top). 

Gotta have that

The kind of red you can imagine on a wall, on a LRD or as a slash across the mouth. Win-win. And of course it would be called Lady Danger. From M.A.C.

One line can hold a world of sorrow

Mills&Boonwriters are seriously under-rated.

First of all, there's nothing trashy about romance, as Robin Williams said in the marvellous Fisher King.

Second, sometimes, it's these authors who have the most ringing lines you'll come across.

Take Jane Donnelly where a character asks a woman what it was like afterwards, after her husband died. The answer: “There was no afterwards.”

Or Robyn Donald where a man says of the time spent without the woman he loved, that it was “years and years, all grey”.

Anyone who has understood what it's like to live in a bubble of time where you can see all the roads not taken and cannot break through because it's too late, will recognize this kind of sorrow only too well.

The best-dressed man on TV

I've always had a soft spot for Jim Caviezel. Mainly because he has the face of a suffering Christ, sensitive, beautiful, intense. No doubt the reason he was chosen to play ol' JC in The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's first foray into the engrossing chaos that is his mind. The story about Jim being struck by lighting on the cross when they were shooting in bad weather was one of the best I'd heard in film anecdotes. But I digress.

He is now playing Mr Reese in Person of Interest on Star World and I really think he's edible in the role. He's tall, well-built, has thick, salt-and-pepper hair cropped short, and wears perfectly-cut, dark suits with open white shirts and impeccable black shoes that look Italian. He speaks in a compelling whisper which is not irritating, (unlike Kiefer Sutherland in 24 and now the entirely forgettable series Touch). He is protective, loyal and has scruples. One look from his icy blue eyes and violent individuals have been known to stop short as though hit by a brick wall.

Good grief. Is he the perfect man or what.

The Secret Millionaire

This show on BBC Entertainment has me hooked. I dislike the fact that I'm in tears at the end of every episode but you can't have everything, can you.

What a concept. Millionaires in the UK go undercover in seedy cities to find people or organisations they can give money to. They mingle, work in poorly-paid jobs and often go back to their roots. What's interesting is the way their personalities are revealed, and how they embody the fact that you can take the boy out of Liverpool but can't take Liverpool out of the boy, or whatever gender or place can be substituted here. The last show I watched Hilary Devey weeping about her heroin-addicted son and the fact that she was friendless, lover-less and had not quite found her place in the world. This from a woman worth 50 million pounds.

She finds joy in working behind the bar in a pub, and we discover she grew up in pubs before striking it rich through sheer hard work, but acknowledges that she wasn't there for her son and that was the highest price a mother can pay. How sad are our lives. Money may not buy happiness but only a fool thinks it can't solve most of our problems. Let me be rich at least when I'm moaning about what else I don't have.

Still, it's a great show because it reveals what makes people tick, whether it's the millionaires at hand or the selfless individuals they interact with, who do things for others without wondering why. That's the interesting parallel, really, when people who have been focusing on themselves meet people who have focused on others.