Santa and me

WOMAN FACING SEX ASSAULT CHARGE FOR ALLEGEDLY
GROPING SANTA

You may have come across naughty Santas who can't control their hands. But have you ever heard of a woman being arrested for groping Santa?

That's exactly what is alleged in the US, with a woman facing sex assault charges after an incident at a shopping centre.

Santa claimed a woman touched him inappropriately while sitting on his lap at Connecticut's Danbury Fair mall over the weekend.

She was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and breach of peace, The News-Times reported in its Tuesday edition.

She was released on a promise to appear in court on January 3.

I’ve been told that I’m difficult to buy presents for.

Apparently it is difficult to distill my eccentricities because unless you share my taste it can be hard to come to grips with.

I like Mid-Twentieth Century Modern Design, dress alternatively, jog in stilettoes - in fact I'm sporting a towering pair of fuschia satin heels as I type. I'm breaking them in. Tomorrow I will wear them with a simple dark olive gown and a matching fuschia corsage to distract from my decolletage as part of a wedding ensemble. Mr Stickyfingers will have a matching boutonniere. But I digress. For now, back to my confounding taste.

On my iPod there is anything from Break Beats to alternative, all forms of Jazz except Trad and have playlists for Brazilian, Classical, Ska and Punk. I have a small collection of vintage scarves but I prefer travel to hoarding stuff. I like boutique Art based jewellery from local Jewellers and Silver Smiths. I was raised around wine and know my stuff. The cupboard is full of Riedel O series (that's pronounced like NEEDLE, not the High School in Grease). I have 24 crystal champagne flutes, but my favourite drink is a dry martini.

I’m allergic to paraffin based candle smoke. Candles are reported to be one of the most unwanted gifts in Australia, alongside foot spas and novelty neck ties. We have no room in our little home for generally popular crud. That stuff resides in storage at Kennards until such a time as Mr Stickyfingers can offload it on eBay.

Where I am easy to please is naturally enough with gourmet or boutique groceries, cookbooks and gadgets…and dark chocolate.

So this year, after the annual bun fight, it was with great pleasure that Mr Stickyfingers and I received the following:

375ml Maggie Beer Extra Virgin Olive Oil

375ml Maggie Beer Aged Red Wine Vinegar

285gm Ogilvie Sundried Tomato Mustard

190gm Byron Bay Cookie Co. Fig and Olive Tapenade

100gm Oi Mild Chilli and Olive Tapenade

Puccini Amsterdam Bomboni – hand made dark chocolates

25Og Unibic Chocolate Chip biscuits

Ferrero Collection Chocolates

Lindtdor Collection Dark Chocolates

Shortbread handmade by my Godson Cody & his big brother Bailey
(from a yummy kid’s cookbook that I gave Bailey recently)

I was overjoyed when Santa gave me Maggie Beer’s latest tome – Maggie’s Harvest. But it was the Sunbeam FoodSaver, to Cryovac all and sundry to my heart’s content, that earnt him a grope.

What was your ‘best’ present this year?