Yesterday it snowed here, really snowed. Not just a light sprinkling but a genuine layer of snow on the ground. It actually snowed for around two and half hours without stopping which I think is the most the I have ever seen it snow anywhere before, except for that one time when I went skiing at Mount Hotham but you do expect it to snow a lot when you are skiing on a mountain. Anyway, it was really lovely and completely unexpected and best of all I was home to enjoy it. 
Seth was with me and at one point while we were both gazing out at the yard in complete raptures he turned to me and said "God the world is an amazing place isn't it?' To which I had to reply, yes...yes it really is. We sat there for a good 30 minutes not really saying anything, just basking in the wonder of that peaceful falling snow. It was so lovely and it got me thinking about all of the incredible things that I love most about the world, the little things that are easily taken for granted that actually make life pretty great. Little but not at all insignificant things like:

• Looking down on the clouds from a plane window.
• Laughing until you actually cry.
• Eating biscuits that are still warm from the oven. 
• Excellent coffee and a good book in bed on a Sunday morning. 
• The first tingle of sunshine on your shoulders in Summer. 
• Watching the snow fall outside from the comfort of your couch under a blanket. 
• Meditating with your cat napping in your lap. 
• The first BBQ of the Summer.
• Road trips with awesome people to places you've never been before. 
• New art supplies and blank canvases. 
• Eating a piece of fruit that you just picked off a tree, vine or bush. 
• Fresh linen, straight off the line and onto your bed. 
• Hearing a song that gets you or your mood. 
• Galleries, museums, parks and public gardens. 
• Watching electrical storms on the deck with a glass of good whiskey on a Summer night. 
• Meeting people who like the same movies/ TV and or music as you. 
• Smells that spark good memories of people or places. 
• Long, hot, 'thinking time' showers. 
• When the curtains open at the start of a theatre performance. 
• Sunsets, sunrises, full moons and starry nights. 
• A brand new journal at the beginning of a new year.
• Long dinners, cocktails and catch ups with friends. 
• Walking in deciduous forests in Autumn as the leaves fall around you. 
• Collecting wildflowers or wild mushrooms from the bush. 
• Cosy naps and recharging deep sleeps. 
• Watching a really sad movie and having a really good cry. 
• Kisses on the forehead and long hugs. 
• Remembering the really awesome dream that you had last night. 
• ​Laughing about an 'in' joke with a friend or family member. 
• The creak of big old trees moving around on windy days. 
• Looking through old photos with family members and reminiscing. 
• The way that the sand feels under your feet when you stand at the edge of the sea and let the waves roll over the tops of your feet. 

And let's not forget - 
Swings, photo booths, record players, really good croissants, ugg boots, freshly squeezed juice, flowers in the cracks of footpaths, fireworks, trees in blossom, vintage fashion, fresh bread with butter, flannelette PJ's, yoga, bonfires, antique jewellery, bubble baths, comfy sneakers, second hand book stalls, fresh pasta, Fridays, comfy pillows, getting tipsy, waterfalls and mixed lollies. 
Yes, yes and yes! The world really is an amazing place and all of the little things just it make it all the more awesome. I feel completely inspired after writing that list, so think I'll go and do something awesome right now!

I've never really been what someone would call 'one of the cool kids.' One of the weird kids maybe, one of the strange kids sure but definitely never one of the cool kids. And that wasn't because I didn't want to be one, I actually remember really wanting to be one, but I just never really reached that kind of social height or status. As you get older you realise more and more how little it actually means to be 'cool' and how much more amazing it is to be kind, generous,  thoughtful and loving. However, when you're a kid being cool means something completely different, it means being accepted, being 'looked up to' and being somewhat influential. 
The cool kids back in my time were what people today would call influencers. People listened to them, laughed at their jokes, wanted to be just like them and longed for the status that came with being 'cool.' The word cool isn't really even used anymore and kids today would cringe at the thought of being called cool. Cool has been replaced by words like edgy, dope, GOAT, lit and snatched, all of which come with completely different connotations. The cool of my time would be considered extremely basic my modern standards, you were either cool or you weren't and it was really just that simple. 
However, when I think back to the so called 'cool kids' of my time, a lot of them were actually not very nice people at all. A lot of them were actually raving assholes, teenage delinquents and mean girls. I did run with a few 'populars' for a while there in high school and it was easily the most bitchy, competitive and petty time of my entire life when I think back to it. I made some of my stupidest mistakes, took my biggest and most dangerous risks and in some ways probably sold out on who I really was for a little while there just to feel like I belonged in a clique. I also recall it being a really stressful time for me where I learnt to second guess myself and overthink every single thing that came out of my mouth. But I suppose that a lot of people would say similar things about their formative teenage years, a time when we often found ourselves doing and saying things that make us feel nauseous as an adult when we think back on it. I know without a shadow of doubt that my teenage years were less than brag worthy and rife with shitty choices. 
So what does 'being cool' mean to me these days? Well it's certainly a far cry from what I thought that it meant was when I was 16. However, I do still find some people irresistibly cool but for much broader and more humanitarian reasons these days. I find people that are willing to stand in their own truth very cool, people that are willing to question the status quo in intelligent and not necessarily provocative ways also very cool and people that are just trying to be good or better versions of themselves extremely cool as well.
There are also some cool and influential famous people that I just can't get enough of like:

• David Lynch
• Eckhart Tolle
• Maya Rudolph
• Keanu Reeves
• Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• Olivia Coleman
• Taika Waititi
• Childish Gambino
• Ilana Glazer
• Nick Cave
• Reggie Watts
• Lena Dunham
• Jeff Goldblum
• Guillermo del Toro
• Ricky Gervais
• Joanna Lumley 

However, outside of fame and fortune, it turns out that I am truly blessed to have some of the most wonderful, cool, kind and considerate people in the world in my life right now. My family and friends are an eclectic bunch of gorgeous individuals who are not only inspirational and incredible company to be around, but are also way, way cooler than anyone else that I can think of or have known all of my life. So it turns out that I finally am running with all of the cool kids after all and I didn't even know that I was - how cool is that?

16 CANDLES 
Release Date: 1984
Rating: M
Running Time: 93 mins
This John Hughes 80's classic is right up there with the likes of The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  Hughes films were a staple for me growing up, and the jokes and teen awkwardness still work well today. Basically, there's always enough headgear, leotards and floppy disks to fill an 80's convention and the soundtrack is always kicking, making them the perfect coming of age options for any generation. 
Samantha Baker has just turned 16, however with her sisters wedding stealing all of the limelight, no-one even remembers. Smothered at home by an influx of extended family for the wedding and the horny exchange student Long Duk Dong, she turns her attentions to the high school dance. However, at school she is being pursued by a relentless geek whilst secretly lusting over the incredibly popular hunk Jake Ryan.
Things are set into motion for a crazy 48 hours of mis-hap and hilarity as love finds a way against all odds in true Hughes style.
FINAL SAY: Craziest 16th ever.
3 Chilli Peppers ​

Zombie movies are pretty hit and miss in my books and just like vampire movies, every one of them has their own spin on what a zombie is supposed to be and how or even if they can even be killed. Some zombie movies (Romero classics in particular) have the undead moving around at an almost comically slow pace. You know the type, The Walking Dead TV series really depicted them perfectly. The zombies are generally partially rotting, decomposing corpses that are mostly braindead and wander about so staggeringly slow that the main characters never seem to struggle to get away from them. 
And then on the other side of the coin there's the deliriously ravenous and high functioning hordes that retain some of their pre-zombie brain functions and are sprinting around full throttle all the time and sometimes even appear to have abnormally agile almost parkour capabilities and ninja like reflexes that make them virtually impossible to get away from. These are clearly the more terrifying types of zombies when it comes to horror.
In some zombie movies the undead are only interested in gobbling up brains and are driven primarily by the need to feed on grey matter. And then in other movies zombies are happy to eat any living thing including animals that may cross their paths and then again in other films they really only seem to want to spread infection and are mostly uninterested in eating anything much at all. 
Some zombie films depict infections spreading extremely fast and full zombie action can occur in a matter of moments and then sometimes it can take days for the effects of a zombie bite or scratch to kick in, giving characters a chance to be fully fleshed out before they start chowing down on everyone else. The pace and source of infection reliably always varies greatly from one zombie movie to another. 
And if we want to talk about inconsistencies, the way that zombies are eradicated is vastly different in every movie as well. Some zombies can be so die hard that they give Bruce Willis a run for his money and they seem basically impossible to destroy even if you chop them into tiny pieces. And them other zombies seem to be able to deplete by just encouraging them to topple idiotically off cliffs like lemmings. Some need to be decapitated, some need their hearts removed and some need to be starved to death in order to kill them. Oh, and let's not forget that some of them just need a 'double tap.' There really is no one magic formula when it comes to killing zombies. 
And honestly, these types of inconsistencies do not bother me in the least, in fact I kind of like that the genre gets changed up because it would be pretty bat shit boring of they were all the same anyway. And when it comes to zombie horror movies, although they can be hit and miss, there are some absolutely brilliant offerings around that no serious horror fan should miss. 
Here is my list of the best zombie films that I have scored 3 chilli peppers or higher and are definitely worthy of a watch (for full reviews check out the horror tab under genres).

1. 28 Days Later - 2002 (4.5 Chilli Peppers)
2. Zombieland - 2009 (4 Chilli Peppers)
3. Shaun of the Dead - 2004 (4 Chilli Peppers)
4. Cargo - 2017 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
5. The Girl with All the Gifts  - 2016 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
6. Wyrmwood - 2015 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
7. The Return of the Living Dead - 1985 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
8. Dawn of the Dead - 2004 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
9. Zombieland: Double Tap​ - 2019 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
10. World War Z - 2013 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
11. REC - 2007 (3.5 Chilli Peppers)
12. Warm Bodies - 2013 (3 Chilli Peppers) - find me on the romance list!
13. Here Alone - 2016 (3 Chilli Peppers)
14. The Serpent and The Rainbow - 1988 (3 Chilli Peppers)
15. The Horde - 2009 (3 Chilli Peppers)
16. #Alive - 2020 (3 Chilli Peppers)

This year will be my first Father's Day without my father in the world. It is a strange feeling to not have a father to rally around and celebrate on Father's Day and it makes the day slightly painful in many ways. What it has done is make me remember all of the things that I really loved about my dad and some of the things that I am really missing now that he is no longer with us. 
It's so weird because sometimes I can still be watching a TV show or a movie and I will think to myself - dad would love this, I can't wait to tell him about this; and then I remember that he isn't here anymore and I feel really sad. One thing that I could always have a conversation with my dad about was movies, in fact I believe that a lot of my passion for movies actually derived from my fathers own passion for cinema. My dad loved movies, especially westerns, action films, war films and gutsy dramas, and like me, he could lose himself down a rabbit hole of movies for hours and hours; much to the disgust of my mother. 
Dad and I could natter about movies for hours, we would recommend movies to each other and we would quote our favourite lines from movies to each other when we were talking about them. My dad understood what it felt like to be genuinely moved by movies and he would watch just about any genre, including art house and foreign cinema which we would often chat about. I really miss having my dad around to talk about TV and movies with and I miss the excitement that I felt when I would find a movie that I knew that he would love. He got DVD's on more than one occasion from me for Father's Day that's for sure. 
​I had a pretty special relationship with my dad and for all of his hard exterior and seemingly toxic masculine throw out comments, my dad could actually be a deeply compassionate, caring and genuinely gentle man. My dad offered me comfort, understanding and a sympathetic ear on more than a few occasions and I always felt, even though he could at times be so distant and aloof, that he had a soft spot for me that no-one else in my life has ever had.
They say that no-one will ever love you like your parents and when it came to my dad I believed that to be true. He loved me, he really did. And even though he struggled to demonstrate it times because of his own issues, he did love me like no-one else ever did or has since. He forgave me for every shortcoming or fault that I had growing up, he hugged me like he was going to break my ribs and he spoke to me in honest and revealing ways that told me that he trusted me and he loved me. I miss having a love like that in my life and even though Craig offers me a pretty huge love, like I said before, no-one will ever love you like a parent and I miss that unconditional love and mutual adoration greatly. 
​I also miss the old school Aussie larrikin side of my dad. Political correctness never quite reached my dad's wheelhouse and it meant that he was never afraid to say some scandalous but also quite funny things. I know that dad always fancied himself as a bit of a maverick and shocking people was something that I think that he enjoyed greatly. He was always the first to call bullshit on everything and sometimes it was really funny but it could also be quite revealing because my dad's tolerance for actual bullshit was incredibly low. Again I know that I also have inherited that quality from my dad as well as my quirky and cheeky sense of humour and I do miss having a laugh with my dad, he could be side splittingly funny when the mood took him. 
And I suppose that's it's completely healthy and normal to miss my dad and to long for a little bit of what is now missing from my world. Holidays like Father's Day are always going to heighten my longing for more time and also make me reminisce about the times that we did get to share together. I guess that I should feel lucky that I have such great memories of my time with my dad to recall when I do feel the heaviness of the world without him and for that I will always be thankful. 
Missing you dad...thinking of you and wishing that you were still around - Happy Father's Day xx