villa | Cooking With Fire

Lilacs on my birthday have been a tradition as long as I can remember and no birthday seems complete without them. Yesterday was no exception.

My precious Mom was concerned that the lilacs would be finished by the time I get back to Canada towards the end of this month. Bless her resourcefulness, as she took her iPad out to my favourite dark purple lilac tree and took some pictures to ensure I would enjoy their beauty on my day.

Ron managed to find a fresh lilac bouquet at the Bridgehampton Farmers’ Market on Friday: their exquisite fragrance fills my heart with memories.

One of my favourite memories is of a card I received on my 50th birthday from my dear friend, Bettina. She had traveled to Italy with me to celebrate this milestone and she made the time there incredibly special. Outside our villa in San Gimignano was an archway of the most beautifully scented jasmine, of which Bettina picked a bouquet and had waiting for me when I awoke on my birthday. No lilacs that year, but the jasmine was an elegant substitute.

Everything Bettina did was very special and appreciated, but the card she found and gifted me could not have been more perfect. She purchased the card years before and remembered to pull it out of her stash before we left Calgary. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me and I’ll never forget its significance. Here are the words from that special card:

On the porch,

Many years from now…

You will sit on the swing

I will sit on the chair,

And the fragrance of lilacs

Will hang in the air

I will tell you a story

I’ve told you before,

We will laugh (like the last time)

And tell a few more

Then perhaps we will say it,

And perhaps we will not,

But both of our old hearts

Will be thinking this thought

That it’s good to be known,

And it’s good to be there,

Where the fragrance of lilacs

Hangs in the air

Ahhh…the amazing fragrance of lilacs.

Earlier this week we drove to East Hampton to see a show. Aside from the movies that we watch on television in Cabo, we don’t get to theatres until we’re either on the road to or from the Hamptons or while we’re here in the Hamptons. The show we decided to see was Money Monster directed by Jodie Foster and starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

George Clooney has had a house on the corridor (between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo) at a development called El Dorado for several years. The villa is on a compound shared by his best friend, Rande Gerber, and Rande’s beautiful wife, Cindy Crawford, and is known as Casamigos (which is the name of their tequila brand, by the way, and means “house of friends”). Both villas were recently sold in April of this year for $100 million to an unnamed Mexican billionaire (the infamous Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s cell and landline phone businesses, perhaps?). Ron has played tennis on the El Dorado courts next to George and his wife, Amal, and our good friend, Steve, was the head pro at this resort for many years and has played tennis and basketball numerous times with the star. We hope that they build in our area again as they have a reputation for their warmth, generosity and kindness when dealing with the local people and businesses (unlike many other celebrities).

In the movie, George Clooney plays a character named Lee Gates, a Wall Street guru who picks hot stocks as host of the television show Money Monster. Suddenly, during a live broadcast, disgruntled investor Kyle Budwell storms onto the set and takes Gates hostage. He tells Lee that he lost everything because of one of his stock tips. As Gates tries to plead with Kyle, he’s also using an earpiece to communicate with his longtime producer, Patty Fenn (played by Julia Roberts), in the control room. Together, they must figure out a way to defuse the situation and disarm the angry young man.

Hating Wall Street, greedy corporations and their corrupt executives have become popular themes in movies and this film certainly embraces all three. We found this film to be a bit predictable but definitely entertaining. I gave it 3 1/2 stars and Ron gave it 4 (out of 5).