how to shed those holiday pounds: how I spent my post holiday vacation

Here's where I've been for the past few days. Recovering from a nasty stomach virus. I don't recommend this method of weight loss. But beyond eliminating the extra pounds I put on over the holidays, I've managed to catch up on some reading and movie watching.

A few of my favorite movies...

Amelie. A charming, romantic French film with a very unique visual style. It's highly saturated colors create a dreamlike atmosphere like no other. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and photographer, Bruno Delbonnel, used a lot of green and red throughout the movie, sometimes adding a little blue spot, such as a blue lamp, in the picture to set the contrast. Amelie stars Audrey Tautou, a shy, introverted girl born of dysfunctional parents. She is the victim of a childhood void of any social interaction. In her adult life, Amelie lives alone in a tiny apartment in Paris silently altering the lives of people around her. This little gem is a sweet, honest, emotional roller coaster ride of a film you won't soon forget.

Cold Comfort Farm. Another romantic comedy with atmosphere plus. In this 1995 film, based on Stella Gibbons's 1932 satirical novel, Kate Beckinsale plays Flora Poste, a perfectly poised, somewhat snippy girl, who searches for relatives she can live with after both her parents die in an accident. (This is not made into an emotionally big deal. Instead it's passed over as a minor bump in Flora's life. She claims she was never close to her parents anyway). Flora complains that she must throw herself on the mercy of various relatives, none of whom sound promising in the least. Flora winds up traveling to Sussex to live at Cold Comfort Farm, the well-named family seat of her cousins the Starkadders. Flora arrives to find the place colorfully appalling, and she makes it her mission to straighten out the lives of one and all. "Nature's all very well in her place," Flora declares, "but she mustn't be allowed to make things untidy." The contrast between the characters who inhabit the farm and those of British high society is stunning.

Sabrina. The 1954 version. Yes, it's another romantic comedy. Perfectly lighthearted and charming. One of my all-time favorite Audrey Hepburn movies. She's a girl in love. She's a woman in love. She sings. She dances. She's bubbly and sweet. Radiant. Sophisticated. It's a predictable film with a happy ending. Exactly what the doctor ordered!