Happy Christmas to our loyal readers

We get around 2500 regular readers from all over the world every day plus a whole more visiting. This sorta sums up Christmas Day in Sydney. It has everything : sand, a beach, cocktails, Bondi, drag queens, sundshine and a few social identities in that crowd.

A Christmas Message from Dame Edna Everage

A special Yuletide treat from Jan Terri

GaGa Christmas

Santa Baby...

The last time tSS encountered the diminutive Bob Dylan was a year ago in the now closed Ritz Carlton Hotel in Double Bay. That was the inn were Princess Diana hid out on her last ever charity visit to Oz in 1996 and where INXS frontman Michael Hutchence hanged himself. The evening before his death tSS had shared drinks with Hutchence in the hotel bar.

Dylan and a friend entered a lift along with tSS and being near the operating buttons became slightly agitated as the elevator failed to respond to his repeated finger stabbing. "Swipe your room-key" was our advice and -voila !-the lift began to rise as Dylan gratefully responded, "thank's man, you saved my life". A slight exageration-he was only going one  floor. As he alighted holding 2 plastic beakers of take-away coffee tSS was rewarded with a  friendly wave.

Later we learned he had just returned from Graeme Goldberg's DeeBees cafe where he had spotted hanging amongst the flags of the world fluttering outside,a Jewish kippah and asked the waiter why it was there. That was enough to bring Goldberg from his office and 20 minutes later, Dylan left clutching his takeaway coffee after posing for a snap and signing an autograph which now takes pride of place amongst dozens of similar celebrity snaps lining the cafe's walls.

And that's by way of introducing Dylan's new Yuletide offering- Must Be Santa