The New Year Begins,

we needed a few things from Friendship,

so off we went, which was a bit of a mistake, the roads were absolutely packed with cars and trucks, although we were on the motorbike it seemed to take forever to arrive, but then it was a public holiday and market day as well,

 arriving home Diana decided that we should have a bit of a spring clean,

 naturally I helped out,

by hovering all of the mosquito screens to remove dust and fluff with Diana's birthday present, I know I am all heart!

 but it did not stop there, I was also on bar-b-q duty as well,

 perfectly done, light the paper under the tray and away it will go, well that's the theory,

 whilst at the front of the house I took a few pictures of our insectivorous plants,

 all of them seem to be doing well, the pitcher plant throws up a new stem every couple of weeks or so,

 very triffid like in miniature,

 the Venus fly trap has gone from just 5 or 6 traps when we first purchased it to between 10 or 12 traps now,

 the monkey cup is growing well with 3 or 4 new leaves,

 as is this one, although it still has only 4 traps they are twice the size of the ones when we bought it,

 this is our feast for this evening, marinated spare ribs, KPK sausages and a hot dog, plus onion bom-boms, garlic bread and baked potatoes,

 so time to light the bar-b-q,

 burnt fingers again!

 but at last it catches,

 and it is going well,

Diana decided to help out as well, but my fire making left a lot to be desired, it looked liked a clip from a Second World War movie when the Captain of a destroyer yells the command 'Make Smoke!' luckily the people that live next door were outs as it went straight across their front yard,

 soon the smoke started to clear,

 as the paper and wood really caught,

 once the flames died down it was on with the food,

 after the ribs as a starter it was on with the main course,

 with baked potatoes covered with garlic onions,

 'Cheers!',

Diana made a fruit cocktail for dessert then it was feet up for Jean de Florette, a French film with English subtitles, forget about special effects or camera wizardry, this is a film set I am guessing in the late 1930's I have copied this from the IMDB page as I could not have said it better,

'in a rural French village an old man and his only remaining relative cast their covetous eyes on an adjoining vacant property. They need its spring water for growing their flowers, so are dismayed to hear the man who has inherited it is moving in. They block up the spring and watch as their new neighbour tries to keep his crops watered from wells far afield through the hot summer. Though they see his desperate efforts are breaking his health and his wife and daughter's hearts they think only of getting the water',

this is the first part of a 1966 two-volume novel by Marcel Pagnol we are both looking forward to watching the second, Manon des Sources in the next few days, the acting, story and camera work in Jean de Florette was first class, a real joy to watch, we both hope the second half when Manon de Florette, the daughter of Jean returns and is as enjoyable,

to round off our evening Jurassic Park III, another watchable film that we both enjoyed so much, now here if it is to be believed is a bit of good news for Jurassic Park fans, Universal has now announced that the return of the genetically engineered giants will hit theatres and IMAX cinemas April 5th of this year, we will be booking our seats as soon as we can! but by now it was late so for us we were off to bed.