This is one of Mr B’s favourite movies, but I am ambivalent. It’s Hugh Grant at his floppy, bumbling best and a fantastically quirky supporting cast, but I never could buy into the Julia Roberts character and how they fell in love. She is such an awful character! Anyway, if you have somehow missed seeing this movie during the past 15 years, it’s worth a gander for the hilarity and love and community of the sweet little friendship group, and, Oh! London! What a city, huh?

Anyway, there is a “time passing” scene in the movie and I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen so I thought I’d share it with you. Look out for all the tiny details that indicate change and stability co-existing.

This was Madeleine’s first movie. She is not even 20 months old and I wasn’t sure how well she would cope, so I chose seats next to the aisle just in case. But from the opening credits she was mesmerised. Beautiful snowflakes, twinkling over the oh-so-familiar (to me) Disney palace, had her breathing “Wowww.” She laughed, she held her breath, she cried “Weeeeee!” as the characters slid down mountains of snow and ice and sailed through the air. When Princess Anna puckered up to receive a kiss from Prince Hans Madeleine made loud kissing noises herself, to hurry them along.

We didn’t need our two seats. Madeleine spent the entire movie on my lap, and it was a perfect cuddle. While never taking her eyes off the screen, she would reach back from time to time to stroke my face or hair, or find my hand in the dark and hold it. When the scary snow-monster began roaring, she turned her body around to face me so I could cuddle her tightly, but the draw of the movie was too much. Little hands wrapped tightly around my neck, she insisted on twisting her head back around to continue watching.

As we walked out of the theatre, hand in hand, I asked Madeleine if she had enjoyed the movie. “More?” she asked. “More? More? More?”

It is simple, silly things like this that make my heart swell and make me so happy to be a mother. I absolutely loved my afternoon with my daughter, introducing her to something that for most of us is so ordinary – a movie – yet to her was nothing short of pure magic. I felt a crazy sort of pride walking out of that theatre with Madeleine, a kind of “I’m with her” Entourage moment that had no grounding in logic and was all heart.

When we arrived home, Harry and Mr B were still asleep. We sneaked upstairs and Madeleine jumped on her father and covered him with kisses to wake him up. I picked up Harry, who had woken with a jolt from all the noise, and he gave me his sweet, soft, old-soul grin that never fails to put a lump in my throat. He smelled amazing. I kissed him and kissed him. I could kiss those chubby cheeks forever.

(Oh and the best part? Nobody had told Madeleine about popcorn or choc-tops, so she was content to sit through an entire movie munching on an apple.)

I know most of us dread Monday mornings but sometimes, when you’ve had one of those weekends, it feels quite good to start out fresh. There’s something to be said for new beginnings, even if they do come with the beginning of the working week.

To help ease you into this particular Monday morning, I give you a glorious celebration of the resilience of New York and New Yorkers by the New York City Ballet, filmed at sunrise on the 57th floor of the new 4 World Trade Center (4WTC) building.

Mr B and I met in New York. I had just moved there, he was visiting on a conference. It was a beautiful, brief romance, and that scene at the end of the first Roshambo video where the guy hops into a taxi… oh so heartbreaking and familiar!

Two days after our own ‘taxi scene’, I had an email from Mr B saying he wasn’t going to let a little thing like thousands of kilometres get in the way of what could be something good. And so started a year-and-a-half of long-distance love.

I went to Peru, but I thought about him. He went to Dubai, but he thought about me. We met up for holidays together in Fiji, in London, in Australia, in New York.

And in between the travel and the longing we just had to get on with our own lives, his in Queensland and mine in New York. There comes a point, when you’re in a long distance relationship, when you just have to let go and let yourself be in the moment wherever you are. If you constantly pine for the other person, you never open your eyes to the world in front of you. That’s something in the second video that I really related to.

Anyway, this is a fun, romantic little mini-series if you’re in the mood for some light entertainment. Plus, I have to give props to Free People for such a creative way to showcase their latest collection. And it’s working, too. I want to wear ALL THE CLOTHES.

The sweet gal behind the blog Happiness Is, Shannon Eileen, just got hitched. And while I’m not normally a fan of the “our love story” type movies or slide-shows that some couples like to play at their weddings, this one was cute and quirky and entertaining, and a tribute to one of my favourite movies of all time. Take a look:

Did you make a creative movie for your wedding? What was yours like? I’d love to see it! (Shannon has converted me).

There’s a wonderful sense of abandon to a good hill-roll, completely surrendering yourself to the forces of gravity while tumbling in a disorienting swirl of sky and grass and sky and grass until you land at the bottom, puffed and dizzy and proud. Then you brush the grass and twigs off your clothes, and run to the top of the hill to try again.

When did I stop rolling down hills? When do adults stop playing in general? And why do we choose to stop doing something that is so harmless and so much fun?

I don’t want to just watch Madeleine play. I don’t want her to have to beg me to join in. I am going to make a conscious effort to rediscover playful, childlike me.

This Schweppervessence ad premiered on Australian television on Sunday night, during Downton Abbey. It’s like childhood, but better: grown men and women tumbling through an alpine landscape, over snow, fields, forests and finally a waterfall.

In one sense, I fear that sharing an ad with you guys is buying into commercialism but, honestly, I’m just thankful to the folks at Schweppes for making me happy. So I have to give them props. What a joyful, creative minute they gave me!

ps. Once upon a time I made up a story that if you rolled down the hill in our front yard with your eyes closed, when you got to the bottom you would be in a different world. I played this game with my friend Elise when I was about seven or eight. When we got to the bottom of the hill, all dizzy and disoriented, I said, “Look! We are in an ancient world! Can you see the pyramid?” (I was pointing at the swing set). That game was short-lived, since the next time I knocked on Elise’s door and asked her mother if she could come out and play, her mother said, “Elise isn’t allowed to play with liars.” So much for imagination, huh?

You start watching the YouTube vlog episodes, and following the various characters’ social media accounts and conversations (for example, this is Lizzie’s Tumblr), and reading the behind-the-scenes insights and, before you know it, a whole hour has gone by and all the things you’d planned to do have been left undone and the most pressing discovery to your world is that KITTY IS A CAT.

My dear friend Brandi Bernoskie (also from Not Your Average Ordinary) introduced me to Lizzie’s world last week, and I have been hooked ever since.

I hope you have a wonderful Monday. We have a public holiday here but I am working. Boo.

(ps. If you want to start from the beginning do it from here so you can get all the social media interactions between episodes, in order.)

Or is it? Are you a fan of this time of year? Or does all the expectation and commercialism weigh you down? I think I fluctuate wildly from one of these categories to the other at least six or seven times a day throughout December.

So whether it helps to enhance your mood or manages to bring a little magic back into your busy day, I wanted to share with you this truly beautiful moment of flight from the stunning and almost-wordless animated film The Snowman, based on the book by Raymond Briggs.

I have to thank Jesse of Head Butler for alerting me to this beautiful clip. I used to read Raymond Briggs books (graphic novels?) as a child, but I’d never come across this film.

I thought this cute little film might work as an antidote if you’re suffering from Mondayitis.

Airmail from Sabah Nicolas on Vimeo.

ps. You can still win a handy Target voucher OR a present from me on this post

GRAVITY // UN RÊVE DE DEMAIN from Filip Piskorzynski on Vimeo.