The Caller _ Alex Barclay

Unlock the Door to a twisted mind....

My Prison is a tool, a training ground, a stopover. I look at the bars behind me, the space around me, the confinement. I think of where you are and how tragic for you it is that here I am, there you are, but oh so quickly, there I am. Right with you.

Entrance. Exit.

A killer is locked in a dark fantasy world that has come crushing into reality with devastating results...and a rising body count. He targets his victims in their own homes, subjecting them to a terrifying ordeal before leaving their lifeless bodies in their hallway for a loved one to find.

Back on the job after a year out, NYPD Detective Joe Lucchesi becomes the reluctant lead in the high-profile investigation. Battling with physical pain and overwhelmed by friction in the taskforce and at home, he struggles to make progress.

But just when he feels close to making a breakthroughm the investigation is rocked by tragedy and another victim's life is hanging in the balance.

Public Schools up the creek

Articles like this make my blood boil. For the subject matter, not for the existence of the article.
More privelege for the privileged.
Oh makes me so angry.

Your eyes can be so cruel....

Just as I can be so cruel!

As a young thing, my sisters and cousins and I would sit and watch Jareth and Sarah and Ludo for hours, over and over again. I know all the girls somehow felt this alluring pull from Jareth (don't deny it!) and even though he looks ridiculous looking back (umm..pirate ruffles anyone?), there's still a little something there.....
So it was with shock and disbelief that I discovered that
David Bowie turns 60 this year.
He of the Goblin King fame.
*fanning self*

Oh God-I know Bai Ling (sort of)

While some may see it as laziness, I see it as being completely in tune. And also, I don't have the time to devote to research and meaningless surfing for potentially interesting posts.

So ner.

The Fug Girls have found an awesome addendum to my earlier comments about Bai Ling in Cannes. Hilarious. And Riona, I have IMDBed for your convenience- See here for Bai Ling
OMG. Stop the Press.
I have just discovered in my {meagre} research that Bai Ling is actually an actress I know. In the way that you "know" anyone in any of your favorite movies.

Bai Ling is actually the cool Asian girl in The Crow! Sister to the baddie."....I Like the pretty lights....."

Pic from The Crows Loft

Oh God, I'll never look at her the same again now.....

Also from Fug

"And also, can we discuss how scarring it must have been for Mary-Kate Olsen to see her not-technically-identical-but-who-are-we-kidding-they-look-almost-exactly-alike twin sister ranking at No. 37, while she herself was left off entirely?"

Hahahahaha hilarious and well spotted. Fug Shame.

In the news....

Headlines on SMH today :

HICKS ENJOYS AUSTRALIAN BREAKFAST

Ummm....no updates, so let's talk about his breakfast? Hey guys, I had toast this morning, maybe I'm newsworthy now!!!!

SATAN MADE MY HUSBAND MICROWAVE OUR BABY

You can tell there's a problem when you put a baby in a microwave in any instance.

101 Starlicious Makeovers

Oh dear god did anyone else end up watching this drivel on Tv last night? The worst thing about it was Kate Fischer's horrid wooden hosting, closely followed by its redundancy. I didn't realise until I went hunting this morning that it was made in 2004. I realised it was out of date when they got to Anna Nicole Smith and they spoke in the present tense. Other key indicators: not mentioning Britney Spears' spectacular fall from grace and lack of skank talk about the Olsen twins.
Kate Fischer though, was just appalling. She kept sort of tossing her head around, a bit like a horse. And she had this awful hair and this white suit jacket which her breasts seemed determined to spill out of in a most unseemly fashion. Each ad break would yeild this horrible short with her and her arched eyebrows and high hair and ever imposing breasts. Awful.

Cannes Film festival

I think Toni Collette just looked stunning for the opening of Cannes. The colour suited her beautifully, and I was just really pleased to see her looking wonderfully glam. My one criticism is that her gown looks a teensy bit Bridesmaid/Yr 10 Formal, but otherwise, just lovely. I've been looking everywhere for a really GOOD pic, and finally found this.Just stunning. *sigh* I love the boning, very flattering. Weird expression, but we'll gloss over that shall we?

I was firstly very excited to see Bai Ling, of horrid fuggyness, on Channel Seven's news coverage of the event. of the THREE red carpet shots they had of "celebrities" at Cannes, in addition to the actual story of Toni Collette being a judge, they featured Jude Law, someone else, and BAI LING of all people. I actually think this is testament to the fact that they don't actually watch the footage and research it, they simply put it on the TV, assuming I imagine that even though they don't know her, she's on the red carpet, she must be famous. I can only imagine they had her confused with Shu Qi an apprently famous Chinese actress that's actually there for a purpose, or Li Gong who's been is all sorts of things, including Memoirs of a Geisha, and Hannibal Rising.
Seriously though, they must have been really hard up for an MC, they had Diane Kruger doing it. Has she done anything since being the emphatically pathetic Helen in Troy. She wasn't exactly the face that could launch ten ships, let alone ten thousand. IMDB tells me she's done 11 films since then, none of which I know. I rest my case. (I know, the arrogance...)

While on the subject of amazingly gorgeous women however, I had long held that I think Elizabeth Hurley is the most stunning woman in the world. Not a great actress, probably an airhead to boot, but she I think is absolutely the epitome of beauty. Divine. Interestingly as I selected a good pic from Cannes, I realised she is beginning to show her age a little. Not in a bad way, she's just got a couple more lines than when she did that movie where she was the devil with Brendan Fraser. And with Valentino on her arm for the night, who can go wrong...And my second contender, a newer one (I've always loved `Liz) Aishwarya Rai, an Indian Bollywood actress, and incidentally, a advertising lady for Longines watches. (Bit of A&C trivia for you there). She's gorgeous also....

Oh Shappelle Shappelle Shappelle

more at twiigs.com...

Angels and Demons - Dan Brown ***/*

When a world renowned scientist is found brutally murdered, a Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. His conclusion:it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years-now reborn to continue their bitter vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic Church.

In Roma, the college of cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Yet somewhere within the walls of the Vatican, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion. While the minutes tick away, Langdon joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to decipher the labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome to the long-forgotten Illuminati lair-a secret refuge wherein lies the only hope for the Vatican.

But with each revelation comes another twist, another turn in the plot which leaves LangdonVetra reeling and at the mercy of a seemingly invincible enemy.

Hmm didn't enjoy this as much as Deception Point. It's actually the one book that before reading it had really turned me away from reading the rest of Browns books. Deception point was a breath of fresh air as it had nothing to do with Religion, which I wasn't expecting. Angels and Demons however, as you can assume from the name, ALL about religion, and while it was it;s own story, overall I felt there were too many shades of Da Vinci code and Deception Point to really make it stand out. I only read it over two days because I was sick in bed all day yesterday. Other than that it may not have kept me as interested. Worth a look, but read Deception Point first IMHO.

3.5 / 5

Cold Target - Patricia Potter ***

In the dead of night, Holly Matthews- the wife of a New Orleans senator- takes her son and flees for her life...

At her mother's deathbed, lawyer Meredith Rawson learns that she has a sister- and promises to find her...

As Holly and her son try to start over in Bisbee, Arizona, Meredith begins a desperate search for information on her long lost sister. Almost instantly, her life is threatened and her house ransacked. She finds help - and passion- from an unexpected source. Detective Gage Gaynor is investigating a closed murder case that dead-ends at Meredith's powerful family. As sparks fly between them, they begin to rebuild the past, linking Meredith and Holly in a conspiracy of lies that could shatter their lives- and the dreams they never had a chance to dream....

While the last two lines of the blurb smack of "WTF, where did they pull that from?" this wasn't a bad read. I was very concerned when the recommendation said "Pat Potter writes Romantic Adventure like nobody else" on the back cover, but I actually now think she got a bit of a bad rap. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a little sideline romance thrown into a good thriller or crime fiction, it helps you feel for the character if they're in danger, but to have your romance story, with danger thrown in, that's bad. That's not what this was though, even though the comment tried to make me believe so. The love stories do get a little too saccharine though, so not be read with a weak stomach.
All in all, worth the read, not bad for something someone gave me.

3 /5

Weirdest Dream ever

Had the most bizarre dream last night, full of bugs and creepy crawlies, and also a wedding, and a boating accident. By boating I mean canoeing.
So the fragments I remember, there was an Indian wedding at mum's house, and they were getting married sort of over the pool, and there was a big archway thing and dancing and it was a bit Bollywood, floating things in the pool and people sort of coming over the fence near the clothesline and we were sitting down behind the fence at the corner of the house (weird) where the hotwater system is and I was regretting not having my own wedding over our pool! LOL. But even in my dream state I was like "Oh...but even if we'd had it here, I wouldn't have known how to make it look like this!..." And I kept changing outfits.....

And then later in the dream I was going canoeing with T.o.m and I think I fell in the water or something he found very funny cos he was laughing at me.

Lastly there was this whole sequence of events where my bedroom (not really my room as you imagine, some sort of plantation house, *just finished book set in Louisiana so I'm assuming that where this part is coming from...* and it had snakes all over the ceiling and giant shelled bugs crawling up the walls and Mark was trying to calm me down and say it really wasn't that bad....

Freaky freaky stuff.... *shiver*

It's Official!

Official word today that Oral sex is bad for you and can give you cancer.

The Great Roll Debate

Have you ever stopped to think about why you change it?
Not the obvious reason that it has run out, but why do you change it rather than sneaking away and pretending it wasn't you?
Or if you live with only one other person, is it being polite? Is it being courteous to the other person? Is it Shame? Shame of the other person knowing, when they get there, that it was you. Because pixies don't use your toilet paper to make elaborate headdresses while you're at work, so it must have been you who used it.
Perhaps its simply because that's what you were taught to do.....
hmmm

more at twiigs.com...

Ooh me me me I want it

Ooh I love this dress, I absolutely now wish I owned it, in all it's beautiful fuschia glory!!! GIMME GIMME GIMME!

Random stuff

EW!!!!!

What began as a faint popping noise in a nine-year-old boy's ear - "like Rice Krispies" - ended up as an earache, and the doctor's diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.

"They were walking on my eardrums," Jesse Courtney of Oregon in the US said.

One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader's left ear canal.

His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear - "like Rice Krispies".

Dr David Irvine said that, when he examined the boy, it looked as if he had something in his ear.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead.

The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. (!) Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.(!!!!)

Jesse was given the spiders - now both dead - as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Helen Mirren turns down Dinner with the Queen!

"It is unheard of for her majesty to extend a personal invitation to dinner to someone who has portrayed her in a film," it quoted a senior palace official as saying.

"We did not expect to be told that the date is unacceptable."

Mirren told the paper that she was invited to dinner at the palace on May 1 but could not attend because she was filming and could not change her schedule.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Subway worker sacked for sharing complimentary Coke-NZ

Managers had found video footage that appeared to show Lang giving some of her cup of Coke to a friend.

Bill Clark from the AWU said Jackie admitted sharing her drink with a friend, who had come into the workplace upset.

"They are allowed endless amounts of soft drink if they work there. Her friend came in all upset and distressed, so Jackie took a break, poured a drink and sat down with her," he said.

According to reports the video footage shows Lang giving some of her drink to a friend before refilling it and leaving it on the table where her friend sat.

She has been charged with stealing the drinks, valued at $4, and will appear in court later this month.

MTV Fug-Erin McNaught-y

I'm always sort of secretly cheerful when the Fug Girls fug an Australian, or an Australian Event (i'm hoping for some Logies fug in the coming days). And yet I'm sort of surprised we don't hit the radar more often. Sometimes they disappoint me with their particular choice of B-Grade celeb, other times, right on the money-Natalie Bass..etc...

I must say actually, that McNaughty is actually dressed just the same as a number of horrid looking girls at the Fug Hill Rissole on Friday night. I tell you I didn't know where to look, it was a horrible spectacle in front of my eyes, one girl in a particular mustard outfit....

For Logies fug, this is awful. Horrid horrid advertising Mix.

PLAY!

In a most bizarre turn of events at work today, one of the warehouse boys asks if I can find out where an orchestra is playing. I listen to opera most days at work, so it has been assumed I will be able to find this out.
The catch?
The score is the theme songs from video games....how odd I thought, doubting my abilities to find this weirdness.
I punch four words into Google.
symphony
orchestra
video
game ---hoping this will yeild results....and Bingo, it does.
First link listed does the trick.
Its called PLAY! A Video Game Symphony and its playing at the Opera House if you're interested in paying $80 to listen to Zelda and Super Mario Brothers

Deception Point - Dan Brown ****/*

I'm going to do this one around the other way than usual, because the blurb is one of those ones that can potentially ruin the book if you plan to read it. I was recommended this book by my father-in-law, also an avid reader, and I am most glad he did.
Put aside the fact that Brown wrote an incredibly successful and controversial book, and think of this book only as a book. I will admit that while I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, I certainly wouldn't have rated it as well as this one. So I went in probably expecting it to be not very good, until this tme actually I had gone so far as to shun the other Dan brown books, thinking he was simply cashing in on his success. Having read Deception Point however, i will seek out his other works, and I hope not to be disappointed.
Essentially while you could loosely say of The Da Vinci Code that its set in Paris, and deals a lot with religion, this book could not be further from that subject matter. I had thought for a while, as another of his books is called Angels & Demons, that he wrote primarily in the religious realm. I think now he writes books that while they are fiction, could be real.....
So, of Deception Point, you could loosely say that it is a book set in Washington DC, in the midst of a Presidential election and deals a lot with NASA and a touch of American Intelligence Agencies, plus some time spent in the Arctic. A compelling read, I found it to be one of those books that once you start, you can't put down again and while you're not reading all you want to do is be reading!!!!
Quite the thriller, if you think you might read it, don't read the below blurb....


4.5 / 5







I warned you.......






When a new NASA satellite detects evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory....a victory that has profound implications for the U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election.

With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Arctic to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charasmatic Michael Tolland, Rachel discovers the unthinkable- evidence of scientific trickery-a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can make her findings known, she realises, perhaps too late, that such knowledge puts her and Tolland in deadly jeopardy. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope for survival:find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all....