anyresemblance

View from the top?

Well, there is none.  Sydney is covered in a thick fog this morning.   Let's hope it burns off in time for this evening's fireworks off the harbour bridge else all that boasting will be for naught.  "oh, come and admire the distant hoot of the fog horns at midnight".

I had a cruisy day yesterday with my friend, idly looking at cars (I think it is time to replace the mother ship).  I drove one which defied my prejudices but I can't get past thinking I'll look too much like an eastern suburbs mother dropping her children off at school - which, of course, I am, I just have to combine that with being a full time professional.  We went to the beach late in the afternoon and I swam and the water was warm and clear.  After that I came home and showered then headed out to the airport to pick up A returning from Melbourne.  Fortunately, her sunburn has faded to a gentle blush.  We ate fish and chips and cold greek rice pudding with cinnamon on the deck.  A giant cricket attacked us.  The cats helpfully chased it inside so it was left to me to capture it and tip it off the deck.  "You realise that was only the baby and the parents are now scaling the sides of the building with grappling hooks?" A helpfully commented.  We thought we'd be on the safe side and go inside.

Sometimes

Sometimes I wonder if I am doing the right thing.  I'm staying in my old house in Canberra where my ex now lives.  He gets back from Canada tomorrow and the children are staying with him.  In the meantime I am wandering the rooms remembering how much I loved this house, envious of the space he has, sad about the destruction he has wrought on the garden, wistful at the delight the children have in being in a very familiar space.

It's not that I want to live here again but I would like a place to call my own and a bit more space please.

The humane preparation of lobster

I have a liking for crustaceans and here at the beach it is customary to eat seafood for lunch.  I wasn't expecting to entertain a lobster for christmas lunch but there we go, I forgot what happens to lily white skin when exposed to Australian sun on a christmas morning.  Despite this mishap, it was a lovely day to be sitting on a quiet beach and reading a novel of immense tosh that my sister had bought me for christmas.

Today it was fortunately cooler so the radish coloured one was able to cover up and suffer a fit of the vapours at being asked to enter K Mart. I was in buying Bonds t-shirts and new flip-flops.  I also bought pedometers for the children as they have been fascinated by the visitor's one.  She may be a teensy bit obsessed by it but has successfully passed that obsessive streak to the girls.  We had lunch in Mogo and the granny and grandpa serving the cafe where we had lunch were very solicitous of the be-braced one's inability to eat her lunch.  In the evening we went to see Narnia which I found immensely enjoyable having adored the books as a child.  The older one lost her pedometer in the cinema.  I was grumpy about it but while she and I went back to look for it, younger daughter marched around the car park to get her steps up and wrote the result in her new diary.  Sometimes I wonder at the lessons my friends are teaching my children.

PS - the humane way to cook a lobster is to put it in the freezer for an hour to stun it, then put it lots of boiling salt water.  I do not recommend this as a treatment for sunburn.

peace and quiet

We are at the beach.  Up late,stuffing stockings, emptying dishwashers.  Went to midnight (alias 9pm) mass with children and the house guest.  We already received a beautiful danish paper mobile on a christmas theme as a gift from her.  I am sulking that I forgot to bring the scrabble and thrash her at it.

Today was so low key.  Batemans Bay was deserted which seemed eery for christmas eve. I already met someone I know from Canberra in the greengrocers.  I am looking forward to doing not much at all.

I wish you all a peaceful christmas.

Sugar heaven

A friend of 25 years is staying with us.  She is an ideal visitor, especially after a rather bruising family encounter of a couple of weeks ago.  She understands public transport timetables, takes the children on walks and regales them with stories of her childhood.  They are no better or worse behaved than usual and are delighted to have her around.

The house is full of sugar.  I am currently making lemon poppyseed heart cookies for someone special.  I'm feeling warmly disposed towards this person and want to show my affection with a gift of sugar.

I am daunted by the amount of wrapping to be done.  Of course, everything is awkwardly shaped which will add to the stress levels.

I bought the PAs at works beautifully red chenille like flowers.  I have forgotten what they were called but they are quite beautiful.  The florist said they are sometimes called coxcombs.  My colleague muttered that I would get lavish PA support for the next year as a result of my largesse.  Yes, that was the idea.

Older daughter gets braces fitted tomorrow.  She was adamant she wanted it done before christmas though I expect to be feeding her spaghetti oops and mashed potatoes as a consequence.

Good advice comes from surprising sources

I had a small moment of coolness with my friend yesterday since we had crossed wires on a visit to the beach and I felt in a bit of a snit and not up to being understanding and accommodating about it, so I hadn't talked to him until this morning when I told him that my boss had resigned.  So are you putting forward for his job? he asked me.  I found myself giving my excuses as to why I was not qualified to do my boss's job and maybe didn't want to and a litany of whining.  He listened in silence while I went on then said, if you don't put yourself forward you'll always regret not having a go and what is it that you're afraid of.  So I stopped myself, and now I am writing myself a list of why I can do this job, and if it's not one I want to do, then it will help me to focus on what else I should be working for.  Sometimes you have to catch yourself on.

 

Ephemera

I'm bored with my template so am trying this one out.  I know I badly need to update my links too and promise to do so before the end of the year.

Thursday we had our client christmas party which was dull and on Friday our work christmas party which was dull.  The best thing was getting my thirteen year old to babysit both nights.  I would never leave her late but I reckon minding themselves till 9pm is not outrageous when I'm within 15 minutes of getting home in an emergency.

Today we went to the beach early wondering if there would be "trouble".  Despite the hoardes of police the beach looked much like it always did.  We only stayed an hour as it was so windy and my 13 year old was so sulky.  Sigh, only another 7 years to go.

We cooked up a storm this afternoon.  I made bread, christmas pudding, creole christmas cake, meringues and a strawberry layer cake, bolognaise sauce and a roasted tomato sauce.  Ms Ganching is arriving tomorrow and I want to assure her of plenty of stuff to go with her finest china tea.  My sister is currently in Perth and called me for a chat tonight. 

I have done all my overseas christmas shopping, thank goodness.  I forgot my brother had asked me to chip in for a present for my dad and sent him whisky as well.  Ah, well, plenty of brownie points for me.

My boss's PA called me tonight.  DB wants an urgent telecon at 9pm, she says.  Uh-oh, I know what this about as he had sort of told me on Friday.  yep, he's resigned and is going back to NZ to an offer he can't refuse, read, our company has pushed him so far he is not prepared to go further.  I feel pretty desolate about this.  He has been such a great boss and took a big chance on me.  I am sure we will get some corporate drone in his place.  My sister asked if I would like his job.  I hadn't thought about it but am not likely to be considered.  It would be a huge step change for me so i need to decide what I want to do about it, if anything.

I have three more days of work to go then am off until the 9th January.  Yippee.

Unwired

I am so channeling my inner geek.

I am about to become a mobile employee which means moving to new office building (not bad, on Darling Park) but having only a touchdown desk.  I am officially setting up my home office which means travel costs from home can now be tax deductable. I have arranged a second phone line and bit the bullet on getting ADSL via Telstra since cable is still not in my building (yes, 5 months after moving in, I still am not cabled up).  After a fruitless 30 minutes on the phone to Telstra, the operator tells me it will take 10-13 days to set up the connection even if I install it myself.  I decline the offer of this rapid service and take myself off to Harvey Norman and walk out $200 poorer with wireless modem and wireless router.

I am so cool, I am now sitting on the sofa typing this and my daughter has her iBook connected and we are so gleeful about it.  I am such a nerd.

I hear and obey

I was messaging with my boss today about a meeting we have to go to.  There was a lot of rumbling about the context of the session and I was counselling him to be a bit more conciliatory with people.  Well, when I say counselling, I said "D - if you don't want to be considered a fuckwit you might think about saying something like this..."  "I hear and obey" was his response.  Oh, the power of it all.

We are that bizarre combination mode of frantic end of financial year machinations and party time.  Personally, I would drop the endless drinks of warm, cheap champagne and trade it for one delicious lunch and a glass of good french champagne but it doesn't seem the form.

The party passed off ok.  The birthday was sweet,  she was sweet and grateful for all she received and a generous, loving little girl.  Practically perfect.

We went to the beach after and the sea was like a pond. Towards the end of the afternoon, big black clouds rolled in and in a matter of minutes the sea was rough and choppy.  We did a repeat visit yesterday and I foolishly got sun burnt on the backs of my legs.  It's made sitting down a bit painful.

I bought some buttery soft suede mocassins in a dusky rose pink at a Andrea and Joen shoe sale on Friday.  They are for my daughter, who loves them.  She suffers endlessly from painful feet and these are so gentle they are like wearing slippers.

We are moving office this week and I will officially become a mobile employee hot desking it.  I'm not worried about this as it means I will work more from my home office.  I'm only worried as I still have no fucking broadband service in the wilds of the eastern suburbs.  Grrh.

In the bleak mid-winter

Ha, yesterday was blisteringly hot (39) and today is shaping up the same.  Despite my air conditioning the apartment was stifling and we all slept badly.

It was my youngest daughter's Christmas Liturgy.  She was cross that she hadn't got to play a starring part in the story of Jonah but sang her heart out just the same.  Despite the thick stone walls the church was stifling.  I sent older daughter out to buy a bottle of iced water.  "You can't drink in church" she hissed.  Like God is going to smite me for not being able to resist dehydration. 

I have no energy for anything and have to make a birthday cake tonight.

In other news, I had a lovely lunch at Bistro Moncur with an interesting person but I think I rather disappointed them.   It seemed rather unseemly to whip my camera out to take photos of the food but it was very yummy albeit overpriced.  Iate a salad of artichokes, cos lettuce and chickpeas then crispy skinned salmon with zucchini flowers and confit of fennel.  Yum.  Yum.  I was ladylike enough not to run my finger around the plate to sop up the last of the sauce but not otherwise very well behaved.