That's all folks! + December Movie round-up

As the year comes to a close, I want to say thank you to everyone who spent time with me in 2025. It ended up being a much busier year than I had anticipated, with some genuinely great experiences!

Whether our paths crossed just once, became an occasional return, or you’ve been a long-standing regular, I appreciate the trust you placed in me. Nothing is ever assumed, and your support is always truly appreciated, especially in the current climate.

I'm excited to see what next year brings! If you've been meaning to see me again, or haven't quite made it happen yet, 2026 might just be the year to do it.

Bookings for 2025 are now closed. I'll be available for bookings again from January 8th.

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Site updates:

Main page - updated my age (thank you for the birthday wishes!)

Services and Rates

Revised my rates, durations, and activities. Rewrote descriptions for GFE,

dinner dates and couples bookings.

Bookings

Summer hours for January and February will be back in full swing once I return, with availability for one booking per day, of any duration, with a summer start time of 11am on most days, and the usual end time of 10pm.  Afternoon bookings tend to have their moment over the summer months…and only over the summer months!

Also, these earlier hours mean that dinner dates can work as lunch dates, too! See the "Dinner Dates" section of my Services and Rates page for more.

Testimonials

Formatting + added one new testimonial. Loved re-reading these.

FAQ

A behemoth of a page, and one I'd put off updating for quite some time!

Formatting + editing/rewriting of many questions

Thanks again for 2025. See you in 2026!

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And now to end with another one of my “ideas” - to be abandoned next month I’m sure - I thought it might be of interest to fellow movie buffs if I rounded up all the movies I’ve seen in a month, with super brief, quick fire commentary that’ll aim to be as spoiler free as possible. Guess I’ll discuss themes / imagery / vibes instead…dunno! Could be fun, and I’ll enjoy the challenge of trying to keep things brief - something I definitely struggle with!

Oh, and a warning: I’m a sucker for Lifetime movies…haha, only joking!*

Anyway, here’s the lineup for December.

December 2025 Movie Roundup:

My Husband's Secret Wife (2018)

*Turns out I wasn't joking about the Lifetime movies.

Sometimes the mood calls for a cheap 'n' cheerful, leave-your-brain-at-the-door kind of movie. Easy to watch, delivering a specific brand of drama that only Lifetime can: slightly ridiculous and borderline trashy. It knows exactly what it is and makes no apologies for it. Guilty pleasure viewing at its finest.

Falling Down (1993)

(Rewatch)

Talk about having a bad day! This is a disturbing character study that becomes harder to watch as it goes on. This movie does a good job of making you question your sympathy, while never fully letting the main character off the hook...

Rope (1948)

A very "contained", almost claustrophobic movie, directed by the master of cinematic tension himself - Alfred Hitchcock. In Rope, the tension coming from what's left unsaid rather than big dramatic moments. A fascinating look at arrogance, ego, and the slow unraveling of bad decisions.

The Day Of The Triffids (2009)

A grim reimagining of the classic sci-fi tale. Moody and bleak rather than action heavy, with more of a focus on social collapse rather than horror. The plants feel like (more or less) an afterthought. I'm not sure I'd recommend this version - but it's made me curious to investigate the others.

Strangers On A Train (1951)

A masterclass in suspense, turning a chance meeting into a chilling exploration of moral entrapment. It's wild how something that initially feels like a joke becomes so genuinely stressful to watch! Relentless tension...and Hitchcock at his finest. Absolutely one of my favourite movies of his.

Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie (1997)

Rewatch

Note: I am a massive Mr Bean fan. He's one of the very few characters who can make me laugh out loud, often to the point of tears. I revisit the two movies and the live-action episodes every few years, and I even own a replica of his teddy bear. (Got it in a dvd set!)

Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie is pure chaotic slapstick. The kind of silliness you'd expect from Mr Bean, who shows us just how far nonsense can go when done with confidence. Ecce homo qui est faba - behold, the man who is a bean!

Mommie Dearest (1981)

Rewatch

Unsettling, impossible to forget, and definitely not recommended to anyone scared of their mothers...and yet, this is a rewatch for me.

Mommie Dearest is a harrowing biopic about Joan Crawford's relationship with her adopted daughter, Christina. A deeply disturbing movie with an intensity and discomfort that sticks with you long after the credits roll.

Cruisy Sunday evening vibes

First free Sunday night in 5 weeks (!), so it’s a night at home with a cheeky beersie and sausies for tea.

Windows wide open, native birds going ape in the trees carrying on like they won the $55 million in Lotto. I respect the energy.

Tonight’s plan? First up: Alone: Frozen - nothing like watching people starve in the Arctic to make you appreciate your $8 pack of Woolworths branded snags.

Then, loading up good ol’ Pokemon Go and beating the ever loving shit out of other people’s Pokemon in the Go Battle League (or trying to).

After that? A classic, which I’ve recently rediscovered on YouTube: Heartbeat. Do you remember Heartbeat? No? Oh ok. Well, my Mum watched it back when I was a kid - she had a massive crush on Nick Berry.

Then, maybe continuing on with my Jurassic Park rewatching - I’m up to movie number three.

So yes - nothing spectacular happening. No wild adventures. No fancy dinners. Just a cold beer, some good grub, and a night where I exist like a feral gremlin.

The vibes are immaculate.

Chur to the motherfvckin chur!

The Art Of The Perfect Mount

Let me lick you up and down (‘til you say stop).

Savour the sensation of my soft, silky hands gently caressing your perforated edges. Ohhh, so very, very perforated…

Let me mount you firmly, pressing you into my crisp white sheet, perfectly placed, not a corner out of line.

No stress, honey - I always handle with care. I learned the importance of proper alignment early on; nothing worse than a wonky mount.

Fine, I’ll confess: I’m actually talking about stamps. Postage stamps. Stamp collecting. Philately.

This was not a requested topic.

Perhaps I should’ve titled this Return to Sender: (My Reputation After This Post!)

If you’re new here, you’re probably thinking I’ve lost the plot. If you’re no stranger to the Gemma Rose experience, you’ll know this is just par for the course.

I have a stamp collection, and I pulled out my album this afternoon for the first time in years!

Although it’s no big secret, it just never comes up, especially not in a Gemma Rose session, for fairly obvious reasons. Turning you on is the name of the game, and surely nothing would kill the mood faster than me whispering, while I’m on top of you, “By the way, did you know I used to be a member of the Philatelic Youth Council?”

There’s no grand story behind how I got into stamp collecting. I was six years old when Nan gave me a little starter kit: a stamp album, stamps, a magnifying glass, a perforation gauge, and a packet of hinges (or “mounts,” hehe).

Naturally, I ignored the hinges entirely and went straight for the sellotape. At six years old, I was a philatelic philistine; blissfully unaware that I was committing a cardinal sin of stamp collecting.

Proud of my work, I marched up to Mum to show her my first completed page. She was horrified. The offending page with the sellotaped stamps was removed. Within days, she bought me new stamps and made sure I knew exactly how to use those hinges. Lesson well and truly learned: sellotape and stamp collecting do not mix.

For the first few years I collected all kinds of stamps. One afternoon I was playing at a friends house, and we were going through a huge pile of stamps her father had in an empty icecream container. When she wasn’t looking I stuffed a handful into the pocket of my pinafore. Next minute my friend, Emma, had a grand idea: “Let’s roll down the stairs!”

As we rolled down the stairs the stamps fell out of my pocket.

I joined a club run by NZ Post called the Stamp Hunters Club. Each month you’d receive a newsletter and a handful of stamps. I also became a member of the Philatelic Youth Council, who issued me with a shiny little “PYC” badge upon joining, and sent me quarterly newsletters.

Around age nine I decided to shake things up a bit by becoming a thematic stamp collector - collecting stamps based on a specific subject or theme, rather than focusing on a country or time period.  My focus was on animals: domestic, farm, woodland, exotic, prehistoric. If it had fur, feathers, or fangs, I wanted it on a stamp. My album began to look like Noah’s Ark!

Fast forward to my early teens and through a stamp collecting club on Yahoo!, I had gotten to know a prolific stamp collector in England. He was very much a mover and a shaker in the philatelic world. A power player, if you will.

He was also a Beatles fan, and a retired maths teacher. I know it sounds super dodgy, but nothing untoward went on. Every so often he’d send me British stamps and I'd send him some New Zealand stamps in return. The bulk of my collection from my teens came from him.

One of my greatest boasts at the time was a limited-edition set of Paul McCartney’s “Happy Memories from the Isle of Man” stamps - designed by Paul himself, no less.

When I looked at them again this afternoon, for the first time in years, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “Fuck‘s sake, Paul. Doodled some flowers, slapped your name on it and called it a day?” Gotta love Paul.

These days I’m not an active collector, but the affection’s still there. Turning those album pages today was such a lovely little trip down memory lane!

My stamp album might stay closed most of the time now, but like me, it’s full of lovely things worth revisiting…if you ask nicely. Philately will get you everywhere. (see what I did there?)

Sellotaped stamps, ft. Donna

And now for a mini-tour through my stamp album. These are just a few pages out of many!

Paul McCartney limited edition stamps