A “couple” night... before you have children you take them for granted, we certainly did. Jump in the car on a Saturday evening, movies, dinner... nothing special. But with a small child everything changes... for the best, of course… but I do miss those couple nights now that they require a certain amount of logistical organisation.

Luckily we have at least two very willing and able babysitters (i.e. my mum and dad) who are always very keen to have Prince Will overnight. So at fairly short notice my dear mum (aka Baba) stepped in and Saturday afternoon through to Sunday morning became couple time.

We started off at WBJ looking for suitcases for our upcoming (when? when? when?) trip. I found a huge red Jag suitcase at Myer; not only was it just what I wanted but it was 40% off the marked price. His Highness Prince Jason did not like any of the suitcases which were on sale and I thought that $300+ was just a little too much for a suitcase which may be used once a year - so we decided to agree to disagree. [Jason is now the proud owner of a suitably price reduced suitcase which he purchased in the city on Monday.] Since there was a little bit of time before our first movie started I popped down to the shoe department and guess what? Two pairs of shoes at 50% off the already reduced price (including a gorgeous pair of Italian purple suede loafers). Does life get any better? I think not!

Time for the first film. I love horror movies. Have done ever since I was 14 and watching The Evil Dead in the basement of my friend Aila's house. We would turn off all the lights in the house and watch it over and over, scaring ourselves senseless (we'd have to wait 'till her parents got home to go to the toilet as we were too scared to go up the stairs). Over the years I've screamed at the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, jumped during the Scream movies and in recent years tensed myself into a state of exhaustion during The Ring and The Grudge (those Japanese sure know how to scare the pants off you).

The Skeleton Key is a fine film in the suspense, bordering on horror, genre. It is not a slasher film and it is not as tension-filled as The Grudge (which I have to say left me a nervous wreck for days). It is beautifully filmed in and around New Orleans. The place itself has a tremendous presence and the cinematography is stunning, adding greatly to the suspense and foreboding which is built up throughout the film. The cast is wonderful - Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, Gena Rowlands and John Hurt. I really enjoy Kate Hudson, she is pretty without it being distracting and she is a very natural actress. If you haven't seen 200 Cigarettes you must. I think it's one of her first films and she plays a young clumsy girl out on a blind date on New Year's Eve. She is just gorgeous. 200 Cigarettes is a real ensemble piece with a cast of thousands (Courtney Love, Paul Rudd, Casey Affleck, etc, etc); lots of different stories and they all converge on the one NYE party in New York in the 1980s. Quirky and funny and perfect for all of us 80s leftovers.

I digress. The Skeleton Key focuses on Caroline, a young nurse saddened by the lack of care for terminally ill patients. She finds an ad for a hospice worker and travels out to the swampy boondocks to take care of Ben Devereaux, who has apparently been struck down by a stroke. Ben and his wife Violet live in a gothic old mansion filled with creaks and shadows and secrets. Caroline is given a skeleton key which opens all the doors in the house and with it she discovers the "secret" room in the attic (there's always a bloody attic and/or basement - don't these people ever learn?!). The story really wasn't what I was expecting and I didn't see the twist coming at all.

After this movie we enjoyed dinner at Kelly's which is a South African steakhouse. I had a cocktail called a West African Yellowbird and it was huge and yummy (I think it had rum in it and banana liquor). It made me feel good and I said to Jason that I should drink more (I'm generally a non-drinker) and he agreed, even suggesting he buy a cocktail book and make me cocktails at home. Not sure why he was so keen to have me drunk all the time! Dinner was delicious. I love a steak and was glad I ordered it medium rare. Generally I order medium but lately medium has been bordering on well done. Either I'm getting more blood thirsty or there is a consensus amongst chefs to overcook steaks. Whatever the answer, my steak was bloody enough for my liking and very yummy (no offence, but I'm so glad I'm not a vegetarian!).

Short space of free time between dinner and movie #2. We attacked the CD shop. I should have known better, having already burned a small hole in my credit card, but I was on a roll. Ten minutes later we came out with Martha Wainwright's beautiful new CD, Madeleine Peyroux's new CD (gorgeous old style jazz [but new] and she has an amazing voice), Complete Madness (for $10, all their hits and then some, it's frightening but I remember every word to every song, even after all these years!) and a double compilation CD of old swing songs (Jason's pick, he is such a boring old fart in a [reasonably] young man's body).

Then it was time for more cinematic entertainment. This time it was Wedding Crashers. I love Vince Vaughn and I don't care who knows it! I fell in love a number of years ago when I first saw him in a fabulous little black comedy Clay Pigeons and my love has continued to grow with Swingers and Made (however, it took a review of all these films for my love to survive the new Psycho - what were you thinking Vince, what were YOU thinking Gus Van Sant, shame, shame shame). Maybe it's because I have a thing for tall men, maybe I have a thing for that nervous talking thing (which John Cusack perfected in his early movies - see the dinner scene from Say Anything) – I don’t know why, all I know is I wouldn’t throw him out of bed for… ahm, having wind.

He is at his slightly manic best in Wedding Crashers. It’s very very funny and there were scenes which had me writhing about in hysterics, much to the annoyance of the old bag sitting next to me… who had surely wondered into the wrong movie for she sat still and silent throughout. Obviously left her sense of humour at home.

Overlooking the rather ugly “disagreement” we had on the way home about which of the new CDs we would listen to, we were home and in bed at 12:30. Sunday we enjoyed a small sleep in before heading off to pick up Will, JB and my grandma. We headed down to La Perouse to enjoy the winter sunshine and some huge seafood platters in celebration of my grandma’s 86th birthday. My god I was full, it wasn’t pretty. I swore never to eat again but it only lasted until about 7:30 pm when I finished off the “doggy bag” crab in front of Australian Idol (now there’s a mental image that’s guaranteed to scar you for life).

So overall it was a great weekend, filled with my favourite activities – shopping, eating, movies and spending time with my family.
So now it’s Tuesday and I really feel like we’re in countdown mode. Ring phone, ring! As that fine specimen of Australian manhood Lleyton Hewitt would say “COME ON!!!!” (do the actions with me now!).