Yes, they are choc coated Scotch Fingers in the top right hand corner of this photo of our office fridge. But, they’re not mine!!! Who would’ve thought.

image from justjared.com

Russia mobilizing troops in the Ukraine rightly deserves the world’s attention right now. Just listening to the accounts of how quickly and how aggressively the Russian military have moved to paralyze the Ukraine forces has been frightening enough, let alone seeing the photos or video footage online. But, predictably, it was another breaking news story caught my eye today. They’re coming! To Sydney! All three of them.

It takes a brave pair of parents to take an 8 month old halfway across the world on a plane but somehow I think that the Duke and Duchess will have an easier time of it than the rest of us. Hopefully the plane won’t be too full and Prince George will have lots of empty seats to crawl over and under. I’m also hoping that he might even have a larger aeroplane bassinet than the standard on most planes these days – they barely fit five month olds. I’m sure that there will be plenty of flight attendants (and nannies) who will only be more than happy to have a hold of the little one and take him off to see the pilots and first class (sorry, it’s probably first class from nose to tail on Air Mountbatten-Windsor) whilst mum can savour that extra glass of champagne or bar of chocolate she’s well and truly earned just for making it onto the plane.

Changing tack for the rest of this post. I’ve been reading all manner of celebrity memoirs. It’s to make up for not having Foxtel and hence not being able to watch our Real Housewives of Melbourne. I have to confess that some of my reading has involved the second instalment of Jordan’s life story. After I dissed the first part. Part of me loves her for the love and lengths she goes to for her children, especially Harvey. Her fight for him to lead as normal a life as possible with his illness and disabilities. Her frank observations of what it’s like trying to be his mother, carer, advocate and protector definitely have me on her side. Then there’s the part of me trying to reconcile this with the more colourful confessions she makes about her relationships.

Image from imdb

A memoir that I’ve had less of a dilemma over is Scott Thorson’s Behind the Candelabra – upon which the Matt Damon (Scott) and Michael Douglas (Liberace) telemovie is based. Scott Thorson was Liberace’s lover in the late seventies. A time where many younger gay men were comfortable about being open about their sexuality while men from older generations often felt afraid to come out, often because of the trauma of having had a young adulthood in which their sexuality was seen as a disease to be cured. Until his death from AIDS, Liberace vehemently denied his homosexuality and even took news publications to court over their ‘lies’.

image courtesy of HBO

The contrasts of these generations is a theme that Thorson explores in his book. To him, Liberace was almost hypersexual with a huge appetite for pornography and sex whilst Thorson comes across as being more focussed on the emotional ties between them.

image courtesy of HBO

It surprised me that I found ‘Behind the Candelabra’ as perceptive and thought provoking as I did. Thorson writes of the cycle of their love and eventual bitter separation candidly and he also is quite open about his addiction to various drugs and the way his cosmetic surgery ultimately became part of his undoing. It’s the kind of memoir I imagine he would have found very cathartic to write about. The final chapters in which Liberace contacts him before he finally succumbs to AIDS were particularly poignant.

www.fontsinuse.com

On a lighter note, how could I have only just discovered Ron Burgundy’s autobiographical masterpiece, ‘Let Me Off At the Top’? It’s right up there with Tina Fey’s Bossypants for me and I’ve only read the first two chapters. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do justice to Ron’s humour, intellect and all round classiness with a review so why don’t I just link you to some of the highlight paragraphs written by the anchorman himself?

All rightie. That’s it from me today. It’s been a very therapeutic 45 minutes typing out this post. Thanks, as always, for reading.

I’ll be back.