a little east of reality

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

new year's eve

New Year's Eve didn't work out at all how I originally planned it. I ended up going to the zoo with Flexi Boy, Drummer Boy (who needs a new nickname, as he's not a drummer any more) and DB's girlfriend. Here are a few pics:





A cheetah enjoying the shade.









The kangaroos are in the walk-in section. Sometimes you can pat them, but they can easily avoid people if they're not in the mood (no human can outrun a kangaroo - they can be six metres away in two lazy hops).





Pffft!











The bears were pretty cooperative - lots of photo ops.










Saudi had been planning to go to Sydney with a friend for the NYE fireworks over the harbour and I was actually looking forward to spending NYE at home alone, so I wasn't super thrilled when I got back from the zoo and found he hadn't gone. I think he might have been hoping I would end up driving into the city for the fireworks here, but even if I'd wanted to, I'm avoiding driving until my brakes get fixed next week, so that wasn't an option.

In the end I made dinner (tres delicious steak with mushroom gravy, veggies and curly fries...mmm) and we talked for about an hour. Then he went off to do his own thing and I had a couple of quiet hours before seeing the new year in with a little toast:
To 2008 and the clarity it brought me; to 2009 and all of its possibilities!

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

coraline figurines


I quite like the one in the yellow raincoat. Unfortunately it looks like they come as a set.
I wonder when the movie is starting here...

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Monday, December 29, 2008

twilight revisited

I've been reading Twilight again - well, listening to it actually. Last time I read it really fast, mainly because Bella's constant whiney martyrdom is so irritating. However, my favourite kids are currently obsessed with it, and I missed so many details the first time that it's hard to participate in their conversations about it - the book, the movie, comparing the book and the movie. I decided it wouldn't cost me too much holiday time to just read the thing again.

I've thought several times that the writing is not as bad as I first thought. In fact, wherever Bella isn't rambling about how perfect and beautiful and amazing Edward is, or about how hopeless and ordinary and insignificant she is, some of the writing was downright good. Of course as I'm typing this, Bella is under the impression she's dying and is now talking about an 'angel' saying her name...Edward of course. After I got through rolling my eyes I spent some time controlling my gag reflex - so sickeningly sweet.

The things I do for those kids...

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Thursday, December 25, 2008

so this is christmas

Merry Christmas All. I realise not everyone celebrates Christmas, but even so, I can still wish you a very merry time, no? :)

I'll be going to my friends' house today (Flexi Boy, Gangsta Girl and Drummer Boy's parents). I love going to their house for Christmas. The atmosphere is relaxed and joyous and never stressed. Last year the turkey went in late and lunch was delayed till almost 3pm. In spite of the fact that presents can't be opened until after lunch, the kids just rolled their eyes, laughed off the mistake, and started up a game of Uno to pass the time. Carols, bowls of cherries and cashews and homemade truffles, traditional acting out of the Christmas story (in spite of them all protesting they are too old for that now), Norman Rockell picture lunch, cats hunting the baubles on the Christmas tree (and this year a cat that seems to be planning to have her kittens under the tree!), occasional visitors...it's just a fabulous Christmas. Even the weather is being kind - the forecast for today is 29C (84F)!
I hope you all have a wonderful day, too.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

chosha saves christmas

I called Flexi Boy this afternoon to ask if he'd bought a particular present for someone (so I could get it if he hadn't) and discovered he was also at the mall. When we met up for bubble tea ten minutes later I asked how many presents he still needed to buy. He said all of them bar one: seven presents.

It was then I informed him that the shops were closing in less than an hour.

One mystery book (my present), Barbie Island Princess bean bag, sea monkeys, video game, Play Doh, Iron Man DVD, box of sea shell chocolates and bathrobe purchase later he was all set. I took him back with his treasures to my place and we wrapped everything so he could take it all home ready to go under the tree. It was a crazy hour of shopping, but so much fun!

This year is the first year he's had a real part-time job and he was excited that he could afford to get people things they'd really like. Not that that always meant something expensive - one of the presents cost him $80, another just $9, but in both cases it was right for the person - but last year he probably had $50 to spend in total and had to decide everything by price. All three of the kids are like that. They really enjoy buying gifts for other people and appreciate everything they receive. I'm really looking forward to watching everyone open their presents tomorrow.

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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

roll on, last minute shopping!

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I'm working, but the Chairman (like a CEO) always sends an email out on the last day to tell everyone to go home at lunchtime. As you can imagine, everyone likes that tradition. It's also payday, and almost all government employees get paid on the same day, so the shops are going to be busy, but not too insane, as half of Canberra has already taken off for their holidays. Canberra is so deserted around this time of year that some restaurants shut down for two weeks. This is the first place I've ever lived where that was the case. The cinema never has much of a line and you can actually finish your Christmas shopping without lines ten people deep.

I have maybe four presents left to buy and somewhere in there I need to get a haircut, too. I finally sent some Christmas cards out on Monday. They'll be late of course, but seeing as this is the first time in three Christmases that I managed to actually post the things, I'm going easy on myself. :)

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Monday, December 22, 2008

christmas music

The Book Guardian introduced me to playlist.com (and many, many great songs), but I wasn't planning to add it to my blog...until her Christmas list appeared. My favourite part of Christmas is the music, so what a nice way to infuse the blog with some Christmassy goodness. Of course I procrastinated, but after seeing a list from Yankee Girl (and watch the clip...it's so cute, especially the ending) I realised I had to pull my finger out and get a list together or Christmas would be long gone. So I stayed up till 2am last night playing with songs to find my favs. Appearing in my sidebar until December 31st...enjoy!

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Saturday, December 20, 2008

i'm supposed to be on leave right now

In fact, I was supposed to be on leave all last week, but only ended up taking Tuesday and Friday. Now next week I'm working Monday and Tuesday as well. I'm not sure why I so easily agreed to that. I know there is work to do, but it's not like there's no-one else to do it. I think it was just that I knew I didn't have anything in particular that had to be done those days, so why not be cooperative and come in? The trouble with that reasoning is that I slotted in those days of leave because I need a break. I've been sick probably five or six times in the last six months and also had a lot going on with work and church as well. For a lot of reasons, 2009 is going to be quite a different year for me and I want to go into it happy and rested.


Which all boils down to the fact that on Monday I'm going to tell my boss (who is well aware that I've been sick a lot and had planned to take a real break over Christmas) that I'm shifting this leave not taken to the week after New Year's and heading for the coast.

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

well do i?

I don't know where this came from originally. I know I stole it from Ampersand Duck. I laughed so loud at it that I had to share:

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Saturday, December 06, 2008

when do you tell?

I talked to a friend today and he mentioned that his wife is pregnant. It's early days yet, so they're not telling people, but I don't see him very often so he did tell me. (First baby...very exciting!) I guess they'll do like most people and go public when the first trimester is safely over.

On the net, picking your moment to tell some news involves a whole new level of analysis. No matter how anonymous (or limited in audience) you think your blog is, once you put something on the internet, you better be cool with the world knowing it, because once it's out there, well, it's out there. Romance is a good example here, because if you talk about dating someone, then you end up 'having' to blog the break-up if it happens, if only to signal that people should no longer ask how said romance is going.

You also have to deal with comments. This is true in real life, too, which is exactly why another friend has been keeping her romance on the downlow for months. And if you've ever been a part of a Mormon (or any closeknit religious) community, you'll understand how that goes. Everyone's always waiting for an announcement, even if you are nowhere near making one.

So most people want to get that 'first trimester' safely over. Nemesis introduced Gentleman Friend not too long before their engagement, but we all knew he was significant back when his photo appeared. I thought when Riftgirl and her beau joked about 'doing it for Obama' they were talking about sex. Seems now that 'it' was getting themselves hitched. The blog world had to wait a whole month for that news (totally worth the wait). I can really understand that though. They both have a relatively high profile on Youtube, etc, and share a lot of their personal lives, so it must have been really nice to have something special and secret they just enjoyed for a while alone before they told the world.

So what do you think? Do you blog about romance? If you do, what's your equivalent of a romantic 'first trimester' you want over before you hit the interwebs with heart-shaped news? What other kinds of news would you wait a while to blog?

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Tuesday, December 02, 2008

big day out 2009

I decided to give Big Day Out a miss this summer - lots of other uses for my money right now. In keeping with this decision I knew it was a bad idea to check out the line-up. It's like deciding to be vegetarian and then accepting an invite to a barbeque. At someone's house who really knows how to barbeque.

Neil Young? Artic Monkeys? The Prodigy? Infusion? Pendulum?

Neil Young is a legend, and I've wanted to see both The Prodigy and Infusion for the longest time. There's probably another six bands on the list I'd love to see live.

Dagnabbit!

Here's hoping not all of the sideshows are sold out. I'm kind of scared to look.

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