It just burns, it's nice.

A tornado of cleaning, tidying and washing spread a devastating trail of happiness through the house I am sitting for the summer. No real scrubbing was involved. But a lack of food I found. So, I gallantly lead a solo expedition to the local Woolworths for supplies.

The Scooby Gang were assembling for some beach fun. However the weather decided to force us into watching Anchorman and Tomorrow When The War Began when a cold snap shook our bones into crying.

This guy was being a snobbish critical bitch during the latter movie. I've taught him well.

Later, I was confused out of my brain when everyone started switching phones and posting on other people's facebook walls. A big thank you to Pammy who straightened it out for me over a phone call from an apparently unbearable 40th birthday celebration... ladedadeda...

Fruit of the Moment: Boxing Day Car Parks

always rushing to be on schedule

Completely bummed out from the sugar hangover, my morning was a little headachey. Good to see the weather was on my side. From cold winds to sweltering heat to fierce winds- I know someone up there had enjoyed a bit too much egg nog last night.

So I pack up my bag of tricks and head out of town. Eight bags of strings and things and my little blue car was calmly working it's way down to Wollongong. Calmly as in doing a little bit under the speed limit, enraging the other drivers when they couldn't pass.

Styx was elated to see me. And we celebrated that night with Dr Who's Christmas Carol. Bravo Moffat! Bravo! Dreamy Dreamy Matt Smith shall indeed be dreamt about this evening.

Fruit of the Moment: 45-day-old-ice-cream

big girl rings

When a Muslim strokes a Buddha to celebrate a Christian holiday, you know the true spirit of Christmas is alive and well. Even when starving children in Africa are, according to older generations in the family, rich enough to look after themselves.

Mum put on a breakfast of sweets and treats and cheese and crackers and such. And for the first time in our family history, we did not have volovants nor did we open presents inside the living room. It was new, and different, and lacking in tradition somewhat. But we are in tradition transition and soon, everything will be different.

Louise hosted the luncheon after I jotted around to the Kruyer's house for a pre-xmas-luncheon-visit. Louise put on a marvellous day. And made me a marvellous Catan quilt.

Later, I slept and grew merry on egg nog. Mostly the nog part. Soon, everything will be different.

Fruit of the Moment: Shirtless Rob

MADE OF IRON

Christmas Eve is a day for cooking. For preparing foods. For working in the kitchen. For making grub. For composing cuisine. And so on. Also, for visiting the coolest person I know while waiting for the bread to rise.

I cooked pretty much from the time I woke up until around 6:30pm when I dished up. And the day was so involved only because of everything being made from scratch. I chose the theme of humbly simple for the three course meal and I think I nailed it, if not everyone's taste.

The pre dinner cheese board included ash brie, red square and New Zealand blue. And a few glasses of egg nog to liven things up.

The entrée was a tomato-less ratatouille, served with oven baked baby roma tomatoes on the side and a crispy onion & goats cheese garnish. Severed with a loaf of herbed bread, which also was made from scratch.

The main meal was a double mushroom pie with thick butter flake pastry and vegetable stock gravy. Served with a helping of boiled green beans.

Finally after a short movie interlude of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which had interrupted A Very Specky Christmas, we brought out the dessert.

A Christmas Pudding Ice-Cream Bomb with brandied caramel sauce layers and custard butter cream. Which turned out richer than I had imagined. I thought when everything got mixed together, it looked really runny and I feared it wouldn't set in time. But the 12 hours It waited in the freezer did it well.

Shame that through all the preparation and labour and hard work, the magic of Christmas Eve sort of dispersed when my Nana was picked up. And given that the conversation fell pretty much flat on all rounds, and that Dad complained to no end about there not being any meat, and Louise being sick from lunch, and that I was up and down every three shakes of the hand... it wasn't the evening of positivity that it should have been.

I guess i'm in for a lot of this in 2011. As I have painted the town beige with my lack of enthusiasm recently, I'm sure that bitch Karma will be seeing to that anything positive coming my way will be repaid in kind.

Fruit of the Moment: gingerbread house

A park somewhere; in Minto

This isn't fun anymore. Like this. All this. And by all this I mean my failures. They just keep piling on top of each other, and this duck's back absorbs water like a sponge.

I managed to scrape through the day. There was laundry to keep me pre-occupied along with christmas presents to wrap in pretentious wrapping paper. Also, I once again showed the road to Wollongong how to successfully fall asleep at the wheel while driving without inducing death.

I met up with a friend for dinner at my favourite restaurant Lorenzo's Diner. We apparently scraped in to the last day of their 2010 calendar. Lucky thing too, I haven't graced their doors this year for dinner, so it was a surprise that I was also treated to the meal.

Later, I couldn't keep myself away from the toilet having drunk about 4 flasks of their table water at dinner. I feel I could have sunk a ship with the amount of peeing going on.

Fruit of the Moment: brian's comfort candy

Managing Casual Teachers Who Are Experiencing Difficulties With Their Teaching Performance

This guy was both stupid enough to leave his phone in my car and not be awake when he said he would be. As he neglected to be awake, the only thing preventing my death from a small dog with serious intimacy issues was a seriously thin pane of glass.*

Given my lack of sleep, it was easy to snooze my way through a 2 hour car trip up to the Blue Mountains with my mum, her sister and my mum's sister's mum (who is also my mum's mum) to visit my mum's sister's mum's brother Rob, whose last name isn't Patterson but boasts more attractiveness anyhew.

My mission to track down an old boss' mobile phone number this evening through proxy failed, so we all forgot our troubles with a big bowl of fake roasted meat. Which turned out to be a major mistake, as are most fake meats.

Fruit of the Moment: Malted New Zealand

*Apologies to Ros who had to answer the door in her pyjamas.

These "twitter" things they do on TV

After this guy nearly hit a car on a short trip to acquire rolls, I got up to speed with the Jones. Who are very hard to keep up with intellectually it seems. By which, I mean they're pretty smart.

Today Angus (not Clarence) invited me round for picnic, movies, and pizza, which turned out to be brutal as we made a picnic detour in Park Central, pre Mondos visit. And by brutal, I mean awesome. Ruby and Aneesa both turned up fashionably late, both enjoying our time with The Russian.

After educating everyone in the ways of the 1980's cult flick Clue, I enjoyed an old-persons-nap during Shaun Of The Dead.

Later, we picked up Scott Pilgrim, I Love You Man, and Fight Club at the video store. Father Jones made it clear that the Christmas spirit was alive and well, in the form of pizza. And most everyone it seemed had never tried egg nog. Most preferring to drink Mountain Dew, despite its urinal colouring. We only had time to watch I Love You Man.

I now have Sean's phone as it fell out of his pocket and into my car due to his legs being too skinny. We shall later go fishing. By which I mean, we won't.

Fruit of the Moment: Cookies and bubble-wrap!