Tidying up 2010

The last week of 2010 ended in the usual way.

The birthday of Baby Cheeses was celebrated with too much eating on our deck with family and friends. The weather was gorgeous, leading me to go through a little bit of guilt as half of our country is flooded and the other half was scortching (a land "of droughts and flooding rains" indeed), not to mention Europe and parts of the US which were frozen.

Nothing to be done about it but open gifts, eat many more prawns and oysters than is strictly necessary and gaze in wonder at the 10kg ethically raised ham.

Speaking of gifts I can now proudly confirm I am the owner of a WeeSing Robbie Williams for Wii game. After a couple of glasses of Bella and a couple more lychee martinis I may have tortured entertained our guests with a spirited rendition of Something Beautiful and Rock DJ before their pained expressions forced me to accept that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

There was also some gorgeous Pandora earrings and a new charm under the tree from my very generous family. A fantastic new glass mixing bowl for my KitchenAid from my sister's main man M (who is now forever more known as the Gift Whisperer). A fabulous new Sheridan quilt cover set and pillows from mum.

The Entire Beast cookbook by Chris Badenoch (from the first series of Australian Masterchef) which is a book I've been coveting since I first watched Chris cook on the show (who can forget his Roasted Half Pig's Head?). I have to say that this book is worth the price of admission if only for the fabulous, darkly quirky styling and the great Introduction by Chris which really resonates with me. The recipes themselves are simply an extra bonus. Thank you JB for this special gift.

Lots of other bits which have escaped me right at this moment. As always I was very spoilt as was everyone in the family. We're a generous bunch, if I do say so myself.

Boxing Day entailed more entertaining, more eating, more gift giving and receiving... as well as a game of Sticky Wicky (a cricket game invented by one of the families at our school, so I'm giving them a plug). Despite the heat and my general abhorrence of anything cricket related it was really fun and even mum had a go. We cooled off in the pool to finish off a really great day.

The Monday public holiday was spent relaxing (a little), cleaning up from the two prior days and getting ready for more entertaining. That evening Big Jay's birthmum, uncle and friend came for dinner (as well as his brother, SIL and their little son who were here for the whole holiday period). So yet more cooking, cleaning and overeating. Let the good times roll.

Tuesday we hit the city for some sale shopping (I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment) with my gorgeous, super stylish SIL and my best ladies C and M. Finishing with a big family dinner (all the dads and kids joining us) at Wagamama at King Street Wharf. The big surprise for the evening was bumping into a friend from the dim dark past fondly remembered as the Fitzroy Street Squat days. Mark (aka Woody) has certainly made something of himself - not that you would have predicted that back in 1982 - and now has a gorgeous wife, four kids and an important job with the Bank of America. Go figure!

So where are we? Yes, Tuesday the 28th of December. I worked the next two days (oh, the bliss of a quiet office, a nice cup of tea and no meals to cook for the hoardes).

Friday Big Jay was working and I wasn't so I took the kids and our visitors to Paddington and Woollahra to visit Victor Churchill (it's like porn for carnevores) and some more fashion for the SIL. We finished with a late lunch at the Seafood Markets (note to self: avoid Doyle's at all costs... they should be embaressed by the crap they dish out, have been coasting on the name for too long now).

Which brings us to NYE. When Big Jay came home from work we settled in for some eating, drinking and fireworks gazing on the deck of the apartment his brother and SIL had rented in the building next door to ours. Their apartment was on the top floor and while the apartment itself was quite ordinary the deck was magnificent. It was not only huge but afforded 320 degree views of the Sydney skyline, including the city (or at least some of it, the main part of the Harbour Bridge was obscured by some buildings). Anyway, we were able to see not only the big city fireworks but also the many and assorted smaller ones going on all around the greater Sydney area. Cool!

New Year's Day we sat around the pool all morning which was not only gorgeous and relaxing but meant I finally finished Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing (the first of the Tony Hill novels which became the Wire in the Blood series). While I like her writing the book didn't really blow me away because I am so familiar with the show and particularly with Robson Green as Tony Hill and I guess there really wasn't any suspense factor because I knew what happens in the end. I'm just glad I finally got through it because it feels like I've been reading it for years. So then I started straight onto Thousand Splendid Suns (love my Kindle, finish one book, download another) which is the book for January for the local book group I'm thinking of joining.

Oops, just realised I'm technically into 2011. Better stop now. Some photos to post and then let's roll in the new year. Twenty Eleven will be a big one.

Happy Non-denominational Festive Season

Life is super busy right now. Marianna has her ballet concert tomorrow and Sunday sees us at yet another Wiggles Christmas Concert (I'm going to miss those damned Wiggles when the kids turn 20 and don't want to see them anymore). The next week is going to disappear in seconds.


It's a week to go until THE DAY.

The day the big fat man in red visits this heathen family. You all know what I'm talking about.

So I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a happy and (hopefully) relaxing Holiday Season and all the good things in life (like love, health and happiness) for 2010.

I hope we can all take a moment to remember that Baby Jesus died so that we can overspend on overpriced plastic crap toys for our children and eat way more than is good for us. [I'm no biblical scholar but I'm pretty sure that's how it goes.]

Ho Ho Ho! (which will be the name of my proposed brothel... stay tuned for further developments)

This time of the year we start getting these Christmas Hamper catalgoues at the office. You know the type, baskets full of cheap grog and crappy crackers packaged with some cellophane and a ribbon and sold to corporates for premium prices. Nothing says "thank you for your custom" more than a basket full of Jacob's Creek and Nobby's Nuts (nibble Nobby's Nuts before Nobby nibbles yours - cracks me up every time!).


Anyhow, a catalogue arrived today and it made me think "this global recession thingy is really hitting some people hard". Amongst the $75, $150 and $300 baskets were a few new additions. The enticilingly titled Blitzen's Bon Bon (what mental image does that invoke?) is a mesh bon bon shaped gift bag containing, wait for it, 80g of chocolates - at the budget conscious price of $7.50. Then, if your business is really counting the pennies, there is the small gold box containing 100g of shortbread for $3.50.

Personally, I'm thinking if your business can only afford a $3.50 gift for their customers and/or staff, don't bother. I know they say it's the thought that counts but that's blatantly not true. I can't imagine anyone opening their box filled bountifully with 100g of third rate shortbread and thinking "woo hoo, they love me, they really love me" nor "this is a shithouse gift but it's the thought that counts". More likely they would be thinking "tightarse bastards!".

Seriously though, if a business is that tight and/or broke, a much better way to spend limited funds would be to donate some money to charity and then send out Christmas cards or emails with a small mention of the fact. I would certainly appreciate that more than receiving Blitzen's Bon Bon from a grateful supplier.

So to recap... Christmas and surrounding days were busy, really busy. I'm fairly sure they were fun but I was too busy to notice. I just remember a whole lot of cooking and washing up, a whole lot of shopping in days prior and a rabbit. Yes, we have a rabbit. A cute dark gray dwarf lop earred rabbit. His name is Jasper (as opposed to Bum Bum, which is what Will wanted to call him). Any bunny rearing tips gratefully appreciated at this point.

Anyway, Santa came and went, as he does. Lots of pressies all around. As usual it's the presents you least expect to be popular which are. In our case the last minute game of Mouse Trap, purchased as an afterthought, has proven to be a big hit. The kids don't want to play it but they love setting it up and making the trap work.

The Guitar Hero PlayStation game which I thought Will would go crazy over has proven to be a little too difficult for him (and me). Only Jason has the interest and patience to master it at the moment. Maybe it's just us but this is how hard the game is: after spending a great deal of Sunday afternoon playing it Big Jay can only manage around 50% accuracy at the EASY level. God help me if I ever hear Pat Benetar's Hit Me With Your Best Shot again!

I can't believe that as of this morning (8 December) I have not only sent out our [personalised] Christmas cards but have also bought, wrapped and hidden pretty much all the pressies. I even mailed the annual family photo book to Jay's grandmother in England last week! This is not like me at all, well not in recent years anyway. I used to be super organised Christmas-wise but the last few years (the "children years" I like to call them) things have slipped somewhat.

But somehow, and really it hasn't been through any super hard trying, I've got my Christmas mojo back. It's such a relief to know I can stop thinking about pressies and throw myself into the next couple of weeks of festivities with a relatively clear, guilt-free mind (just don't mention the ACC newsletter and no-one will get hurt).

Ho ho ho!

Nothing says Christmas like Chrisco and you all know how I feel about these thieving scumbags. So it's sad but not suprising to learn that Chrisco has screwed numerous of its poor white trash customers by not delivering many of their overpriced hampers of crap as you can see here.

So while I do somewhat feel sorry for the poor schmucks who have sent away their regular payments, scrimped as I'm sure they were from their weekly fag and slab budget, there's a mean, Scrooge-like part of me which thinks "if you're buying shit from Chrisco you deserve everything you get".

And that isn't very Christmas-spirited of me, is it!

Well, another Christmas Day has come and gone and we've all survived with our sanity intact. More or less.

Despite our best efforts at restraint the kids did very well with their pressie hoard. There are all the gifts from grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins to consider. Right now they are watching the Spy Kids 2 DVD which seems to be Will's favourite thing at the moment.

My communal pressie from Big Jay and my mum and dad is "THE BEASTIE" (as I like to call it). My gorgeous bright red 3 wheeled bike, with the giant white basket on the back. As you may know I had my sense of balance surgically removed as a child and, as such, riding a normal bike is a skill I simply can not master. Since we've moved here and the rest of the family have been enjoying bike rides on a regular basis I have been the odd one out. Thanks to the wonders of the internet and Google that is no longer the case. I haven't taken a picture yet but I'll do that this morning and post it later. Tour de France, here I come!