Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up

The heavy snows of last week still haven't shuffled off the sidewalks around town, and the freezing chill in the air suggests to me that they won't be budging for a while. But I suspected yesterday that these sights and sounds would form a fun backdrop to my "Life in Chicago" DVD that I was planning to make for my family.

Hard to believe I'll be home this time in 2 weeks, so in a way the pressure was on yesterday to make a decent start on the first documentary DVD release from Preston Productions (!). With Lexie ably operating the borrowed video camera, we took off to Michigan Avenue at around 5.30pm to start filming. The crowds of people, the Christmas lights, the opportunity to see where Oprah lives - it all made for (I think) fascinating footage. No seriously, it will be great.

Lex is pretty sure she can do some snazzy editing on her computer, so we're planning on some fun voice-overs and music looping in the background and I can't wait to see what she comes up with. My social life is slowing down between now and when I leave, thank heavens, so we'll have some time to sit together and make some post-production magic.

It is party season in Chicago of course and there ARE a few Christmas shows I need to get to this week, but otherwise I'm all ready to head home. I bought some cute ribbon for my suitcase because apparently everyone in Chicago needs a plain black suitcase; and while that admittedly makes the baggage carousel look very chic, I figured after 24+ hours on the plane, I'd need a little help identifying my case! But otherwise, I'm set. I've got all my clothes, my cute cocktail dresses and peep-toe shoes, I'm headed to the tanning salon to get sprayed (a la Ross in "Friends" - let's hope not) and I've got everyone's mobile phone numbers in my address book so I can make contact when I finally arrive in sunny Adelaide.

Bring it baby, I can't wait.