The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 79

Contact upfront via fax on (02) 282 1623 or e-mail: upfrontgoodweekend.com.au Running with the corgis write up Love Takes You Home By Julie Capaldo Mandarin, $14.95 This is meant to be a book resonant with the food of love, magic, music and myth, rich with recipes similar to Like Water for Chocolate, except the elusive beloved is not a man, but a distant culture. Raised on the rich, traditional food of the post Now that Diana, Princess of Wales, has found solace and strength through self-actuali-sation therapy and colonic flushes, one can only hope that the rest of the Royal Family will follow suit. Perhaps we can expect a New Age Christmas message from HRH, the Queen, this war Italian family, this author refuses to give in to the ways of the pale and tasteless Anglo new world. Capaldo conveys the longing of a sat down to chant, meditate and bang our handbags in consistent rhythm. And so began our women's sacred journey.

"One would have loved to see one's mother take part, but mention "runes" or "reiki" to her and she's away like a scalded corgi. Still, it must be said, one's scope for personal transformation is fairly limited when one is pushing 100. "But as we sat there, the sombre faces of kings and queens of the ages gazing down upon us, we felt a wave of powerful energy washing over us, radiating through us, cleansing our regal auras. One felt deeply connected with a primal female power. One saw a vision of oneself, pelt wet with dew, the fields lush and chilled under one's paws and overhead a broad and starry sky.

Truly, I was a monarch who was running with the wolves. "Unfortunately, I was set upon by my husband's hounds under a hedge and ripped from limb to limb. "However, one now feels empowered to step into one's role as your Queen which is, after all, an inheritor of the Great Mother mythology. It has been a source of great psychic pain to realise that the House of Windsor is a dysfunctional family unit and is home to commitment-phobic, obsessive and addictive personalities wounded children who have lost their way on the hero's journey. "I want to assure you all that my family and I are now doing some major creative visualisation work and are fully committed to the healing process.

"I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and one trusts that in 1996, the entire Commonwealth will learn to simply be. To go with the flow." "My loyal co-dependants. "As we draw near to the end of 1995 and the Year of the Pig, it has become abundantly clear that my family is going through an incredible period of negative energy. "However, as you know, the Chinese symbols for 'crisis' and 'opportunity' are the same, and one welcomes this time of turbulence to undertake some personal and spiritual growth work, to connect with you all in a more meaningful way. "I'd like to share with you a recent experience I had here at Windsor Castle in one of our regular Goddess Workshops in the east wing.

Diana, of course, took the role of Artemis, the virgin huntress and moon goddess; Princess Margaret was a wonderful Indian Maya-Shakti-Devi in one of her old caftans from the late '60s; the Duchess of York did a marvellous job as the Egyptian goddess Nut in a sky-blue, sequinned Versace, and the young princesses Beatrice and Eugenie flitted hither and yon in their matching spangled tutus from The Fairy Shop. "Although there wasn't a piece of uncut crystal to be had, we carefully placed tiaras and diamond brooches on energy grid points through the castle. With a moon in Venus shining through the casement windows, we generation who grew up on the romance of multiculturalism, where the unadulterated life of the home village has more meaning for those brought up on its distant tales than it does for the tellers, and where the second and third generations seek out what was lost by the first. Ultimately, however, the book has most in common with the Australian pavlova -sweet, but more air than substance. Sharon Arts CONTRIBUTORS Fiona Scott-Norman.

CO Mention this page to receive 20 per cent off imported panettone from Speed Revheads should make their way to Parramatta City Raceway (Wentworth Street, Granville) on Boxing Day when nearly 1 50 drivers take to the track from the stars of Miss Saigon and Home and Away will perform at the Carols in the Domain tonight at 8 pm. Phone 0055 20425. patltO The Princess Special Effects: The Secrets Behind the Screen is on show all weekend, 9.15 am to 5 pm. Tickets, $4 to $20 (family). Phone 217 01 11.

mitSiC Big Heavy Stuff will play their Christmas gig tonight at the Annandale Hotel (17-19 Parramatta Road, Annandale). Doors open at 7.30 pm. Cost $6. Phone 550 1078. Sport Iron men and women sweat it out on Manly Beach (South Steyne) this weekend in the fifth round of the Uncle Tobys Super Series.

The competition starts at 10 am both days. Phone 9977 1088. exhibition Discover the tricks of the film and television trade at the Powerhouse Museum (500 Ham's Street, Ultimo). 7 pm; $5 to $18. Phone 637 0411.

Simon Johnson, Purveyor of Quality Foods, 181 Harris Street, Pyrmont. Phone (02) 552 2522. Compiled by Horan Wall Walker. Phone: 331 6600. Fax: 380 5S33.

ana me rea is on at Ql Sydney Opera House tonight and tomorrow at carols Monica Trapaga and jfa 6.30 pm. Cost $9.50 to $17.50. Phone 250 7777. The Wiggles jj (right) and GOOD WEEKEND DECEMBER 23, 1995 10.