How to Celebrate December 14th, 2025?🕯🎄⛪

The Second Sunday in December

Yesterday was 'Worldwide Candle Lighting Day' and the first day of Hanukkah this year.

Sunday December 14th, 2025 -
Monday December 22nd, 2025

It's also the month of Advent, so the candle theme is big this time of year for all kinds of reasons.

Advent and Advent Calendars? 🕯📆🗓🎄

Begins on the fourth Sunday before
Christmas Day, ends on Christmas Eve

So, it's tragic and horrific that a mass shooting takes place in one of my favourite cities in the world in my home country, where mass shootings are a rarity compared to countries like the USA.

Bondi shooting

Ironically, I spent the afternoon at the cinema watching Russell Crowe playing Hermann Göring in the movie 'Nuremberg' and by the time I got home I had heard reports of active shooters running amok in Sydney and switched on the news to see it was taking place on Bondi Beach, not that far away from where Russell Crowe's team the South Sydney Rabbitohs are based.

There was even a rabbit on my Chinese calendar this morning.

I even watched this interview Russ did about a month ago for a British radio show, where he talks about the Rabbitohs hat he gave the DJ a while back and how Albo (the Australian Prime minister) is a lifelong Rabbitohs supporter before I went and saw the movie.

Nuremberg (2025)

I have actually never set foot on Bondi Beach in my lifetime, although I have visited the surrounding suburbs.

Being a Sharks supporter myself, I always spend time at Cronulla Beach when I head to a beach down that way.

Hugh Jackman’s very Aussie advice
 to Oprah ahead of visit

Even Oprah has visited Bondi recently thanks to a bit of advice from Hugh Jackman.

I texted my son about the Brown University shooting, which I had heard was happening Sunday morning Australian time, as he had visited Rhode Island in September this year.

I'm always telling my son how I don't like him going to America that much, because of all the mass shootings I hear about on the news, and now here's one in my own country, a country I used to feel pretty safe in, but not anymore.

Shit like this can happen anywhere when gutless f#ckers like this can get their hands on guns and go on a rampage in downtown Sydney where there are everyday normal Aussies and tourists on the same beach as the people these pricks were targeting.

I guess I'll be lighting candles well past New Year's Day?

Why Intelligence Is Now a Whole-of-Society Fight? 💻🔍👀🥊

Another interesting 'Secrets & Spies' episode I thought.

Australians travelling to the US may soon
have to provide access to their
social media history for the past five years

Trump's America could soon be harder to enter than Russia or China for Australians?
I'm not handing over 5 years of social media history to any fascists to enter their country.

My first and probably
last Espresso Martini

Not EVERYONE Who Listens to Secrets & Spies Likes Espresso Martinis?🍸🔍🔎🥃🥂

Dick Van Dyke Turns 100 Today?🎂🥳🎉

Born on December 13th, 1925

Mary Poppins (1964)

I watched Disney's 1964 movie 'Mary Poppins' today for the first time in my life, because it was Dick Van Dyke's 100th birthday.

I've had the DVD laying around my home now for a few months from when I bought it after seeing that someone had donated a copy to the Op Shop.

Oddly enough, the year the movie 'Mary Poppins' came out was the year I was born, and my hometown Brisbane looked like what you see in this You Tube below.

P. L. Travers the author of the Mary Poppins books wasn't born that much further away from where I was either.

Hopefully someone donates a copy of Dick's new book to the Op Shop soon, as I have a lot of books on my reading bucket list and I'll need to live at least to 100 myself to read them all:-)

100 Rules for Living to 100

I see that Julie Andrews turned 90 in October this year, so she is doing well when it comes to longevity, as well.

The Sound of Music (1965)

And 'The Sound of Music' turned 60 this year of the snake, as well:-)

Born on December 13, 1929

And what are the odds of Christopher Plumber being born on December 13th just like Dick Van Dyke was?

I see that Christopher Plumber was born in the Year of the Snake and is an Earth Snake just like Taylor Swift is, and who also shares December 13th as a birthday?!

Dick Van Dyke was born in the Year of the Ox, and seems to be as strong as one:-)

Taylor Alison Swift was born
on December 13th, 1989

Taylor Swift Turns 36 in the Year of the Snake, Which Means That She Really is a Snake? 🎂🐍🥳🎉

Taylor Swift Turns 36 in the Year of the Snake, Which Means That She Really is a Snake? 🎂🐍🥳🎉

Taylor Alison Swift was born
on December 13th, 1989

1989 and 2025 are Years of the Snake

That's 3 12-year cycles of the Snake for Taylor $wift, as from today.

Happy birthday Taylor, and just snake it off;-)

Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' Was Released on the First Day of National Dance Week?💃🕺🩰🤠

UPDATE: December 14th, 2025

Born on December 13th, 1925

Taylor also shares December 13th as a birthday with Dick Van Dyke, who turned 100 this year.

Dick Van Dyke Turns 100 Today?🎂🥳🎉

How To Celebrate National Poinsettia Day?🎄🤔💭

Every December 12th

Candice Fox Facebook Post

"Let us all have a moment of silence for the poinciana/poinsettia mix up in Gone By Midnight, about which I got 14 letters and counting ..."

Candice Fox third from the left
at The Loft in 2024

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret?🎅🤶🎁🎄😶

Don't ask me what that tree is:-)

At the 2024 Byron Writers Festival:
 the ethics of crime writing

Candice Fox and Jane Harper at the BWF in 2024

I've only spoken to Candice Fox once in my life so far, and that was at the book signing table at the 2024 Byron Writer's Festival when I was getting a book signed by Jane Harper after Candice and Jane had been on a panel for crime writers that morning where Candice had told the story about readers writing in to her to point out the differences between a poinciana and a poinsettia.

I just pointed to the tree right in front of the signing table with art hanging from it and said to Candice with a grin, "that's a poinciana tree":-)

She probably thought to herself "smart arse little f#cker" as I was walking away, but I just thought it was ironic that she mentioned the tree mix up on the panel talk and here she is at a signing table with a poinciana tree begging to be noticed, right in front of her:-)

Artworks at the 2024 Byron Writers Festival?📕🎭🎨🖌

First full weekend in December

Candice Fox on the veranda singing books at the BWF in 2024

I knew what a poinciana tree was, because my late father was obsessed with growing one in our old backyard and his ashes were scattered under that tree.

Mt. Thompson: The Place Beyond the Pines?

The Poinciana tree in my mother's backyard
 where my father's ashes were placed

Mind you, if you had have asked me what a poinsettia was back in 2024 I would have said to you "f#cked if I know".

Francis Albert Sinatra (or as he would be known professionally, Frank Sinatra) was born on December 12th ironically:-)

730. Fearlessly Failing:
Crime Author - Candice Fox

The latest podcast episode I listened to featuring Candice Fox was the 'Fearlessly Failing' podcast hosted by Lola Berry from July this year.

I found it interesting, because they talk about their fondness for living in LA as Australians, and I visited LA this year and stayed in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd. with my youngest son for two nights.

Oddly enough, in that podcast episode Candice talks about rescuing various animals in LA, including a pigeon?

And on my last day in LA me and my son stepped out of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in the morning to see a headless pigeon on the sidewalk next to a LIME scooter, with no head in sight.

LA is an OK place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there to be honest ... nothing to do with the dead pigeon on the sidewalk, either.

There's No Place Like Home?🛫🏡🛬

I haven't read any of Candice Fox's books yet, but I did buy her book 'The Chase' from an Op Shop earlier this year, which is the only one of two novels of Her's that has a Wikipedia entry, I've noticed.

795. Hot Seat: LA Christmas Highlights

I had to laugh when I did listen to a recent podcast episode where Lola tells Aussies the best places to visit around LA for Christmas and she mentions the "Dutch" town of Solvang?  

Solvang "The Danish Capital of America" 

Being of part Danish family heritage and writing about this town in a post earlier this year, I wonder if I should write a letter/e-mail to Lola explaining the differences between the Dutch and the Danish?-)

Let’s Buy California from Trump –
Denmark’s Next Big Adventure?

Solvang, California and The Unseen?🌏🛫🛬🌎🏈🦉👀