The last day of the year...

...already.

Enough said.

How can I write about an entire year?  List all the major events I've been to?  Look at my calendar (still amnesia) and check out those days I highlighted?  Summarise each month, maybe, or as some other clever bloggers with large cameras have done:  collect my favourite photos of the year and show you all.

Actually, the latter is what I was about to do, but then I jumped on Picasa and noticed a collection of my absolute favourite photos ever.  They're some of my most recent photos, taken this month...115 photos of the same thing...

2011 is the year this little person made her entrance on our planet.  She's my honorary niece and my best memory of 2011, so her slightly blurry photos (such a wriggler she is!) will mark 2011 on the Mouse Files.

A new little life is one of the most precious things ever.  Aria Heaven's birth date means 2011 will always be celebrated by those around her.

{and to her real aunty who reads this blog - give the little pumpkin a big kiss for me!}

I'd better stop before I start gushing and gurgling like someone possessed by the cute baby bug.  Major self-control happening right now!

Here's to another year of blogging sporadically and taking slightly blurry photos with my very large camera!

Thank you SO much for reading - it means the world to me!

Gingerbread

I was a little bit obsessive about Christmas this year (I can say that now, looking back).

Obsessiveness meant I actually decided to do something Christmassy, as opposed to just waiting for the presents to appear under the tree, and the Christmas lunch to appear on the table (magically).

So for the first time ever, I decided to make some gingerbread.  Gingerbread = Christmas.

I found a few recipes which looked complicated, and then changed them all around.  I do that with recipes.  (It's fine.)

I ended up with "alternative" gingerbread, made with "alternative" syrup, and "alternative" flour and "alternative" sugar.

Gingerbread generally use golden syrup but I only had Molasses.

Molasses takes me back to my horsecrazy days.  When I smell it I immediately see the old school barn, the feed troughs, and the giant tub of molasses.  When we fed the horses after school, we would slip some molasses into the chaff to make it more edible (you know, if it's possible to make chopped up grass edible).

When I say 'slip some molasses in' I mean 'use seven different implements to get the syrup from the tub to the feed bucket while making a giant mess'.  This stuff is lethally sticky.  In fact, molasses is the embodiment of the word sticky.

Christmas 2011

In the Mouse House...

Christmas is dawning

{oh yeah}

It's all happening under the tree...

My Day on Mel Ref 31 F7

'Mel Ref':  Melways Reference (the guide to Melbourne's roads)


'31 F7':  My approximate coordinates on the map for the whole day.

{Written on Wednesday 21st December}

A Day is a funny thing.  It’s impossible to properly predict one ahead of time.  You just never really know what is going to happen next.  This is either a really exciting, or really scary thought.

Take today for example.  Here I am blogging in a car parked next to a footy oval in Heidleberg.  This was not where I expected to be blogging next, people, let me tell you.  But hey, this is the week before Christmas…things are always a bit crazy and unpredictable. 

It’s official:  I mention Christmas everytime I say something.  Woohoo!

So what do I have to say to you all while I’m sitting in the car next to the footy oval in Heidleberg?

a)      I am hot

b)      I’m on holidays

c)       I can’t remember what I did yesterday

d)      I am sooo hot

e)      It’s hard to type when you’re hot

I don’t usual blog from the car (just in case you think this is a regular thing)  But ever since I snapped up my new laptop, I’ve been bringing it almost everywhere.  If I go away for the weekend, I bring it.  If I take my mum to the osteo I bring it.  If I go to Nonna’s house I bring it.  Before the holidays I was always frantically working on a paper and typing away in the car. 

I have a few started novels on this little computer and so if I know I need to kill time, I pull it out and get started.  That’s normal right?  To sit in the car and write novels?  Thought so.

Great battery life by the way.

Today I find myself with about 7 hours to kill, while my Dad has knee surgery in a hospital nearby.  I’m the taxi.  Right now, the taxi is really hot and it’s a little hard to breath.

Even a dedicated blogger can’t resist the call of the green grassy oval just outside the car.  Good thing I brought a stack of books – obviously I’ll be doing all my summer reading on the one day.

I’ve just realised that there is no particular point for this post, other than give you a little too much information about my day on Mel Ref 31 F7.  But thank you for helping me pass my seven hours.

I promise I’ll blog sensibly soon.

Amnesia [I'm back]

Hi.

It's me!

Wow, it's so nice to be blogging again.  Let's jump straight in and talk about amnesia.

Most of what I know about amnesia is gleaned from movies and comic strips (I'm not really excited by medical literature).  As far as I understand, one can get amnesia after receiving a hefty blow to the head, often with a blunt instrument.  After said blow, the one with the sore head can no longer remember things such as their home address, their last meal, or even their own identity (as illustrated by Garfield in 1987).

The last few weeks have been such a blur.  When people ask me what I've been doing lately, I'm pretty sure I must sound like an imbecile:

"Oh, well I've been very busy.  Last Friday...I think it was Friday?, I did some baking.  Nooooo, that was Monday.  Wait! I think Monday was the night I went out to dinner...but hey no, that had to be Tuesday, or maybe that was the week before...um, sorry... what day is it today again?"
*confused look and sheepish smile*

I'd like to propose a different type of amnesia.  One which can be brought on by a sudden change in schedule due to the beginning of summer break and the onset of Christmas.

Other symptoms include an aversion to writing anything that could possibly turn into an essay, a tendency to sleep in, guilt while staying up late, and an addiction to Christmas carols.

So... if you see me any time soon and ask me what I've been doing lately, don't be surprised if I pull out a calendar and first check to see which day we are actually at, and then look back to see what I've actually been doing.  It's all written down, people.

Holidays + Mouse = chronic short-term amnesia.

One thing I do know:
Christmas is in 6 sleeps and I'm actually excited for no particular reason other than I am feeling extra Christmassy this year!
This is ironic because last year I was calling myself the grinch.  Obviously I'm pretty unstable.  But more on that later...

I've missed The Mouse Files like I miss salads after a week of deep fried 'food' (teehee) - can't wait to start blogging again, people - stay tuned!