Anniversary Cake

I was born one year after my parents were married.

1991  (undoubtedly one of the best years to be born)


Every time their wedding anniversary rolls around I can remember the exact number of years they have been married (as every responsible and caring child should), just by adding one year to my expected age for that year.  I sometimes get confused and add a year to my current age and then fall short (awkward moment).

I just re-read the last paragraph and I'm not sure it even makes sense.  But since this is the Mouse Files and I'm  the Mouse I can write whatever I like!  Excuse me while I go and revel in that extraordinary power.

While I'm revelling, set your peepers on this:

Australia Day 2012

I've been pondering a mysterious question about my nation for the last couple of days:

What do Australians do on Australia Day?

My observations:

Barbecue.
Beers.
Beach.
Tennis.
Fireworks.
Day off work.
Cricket.
Family.
Sun.

Nothing too stunningly patriotic there I must say.  I can say that because I don't actually do anything very Australian on Australia Day either.  That in itself is very Australian.

I hope no one from overseas ever reads this semi-confession of an un-patriotic and confused Australian.

I feel like I've typed the word 'Australia' too many times to pass as good English so I'd better move on to some photos which can speak for themselves.

This is where I found myself this morning, on the 26th of January 2012.

Scot's Presbyterian Church in the heart of Melbourne city.

Summer So Far (Rain)

Last night I wore my winter pyjamas to bed, threw an extra blanket on the bed, and even ended up cuddling a hot water bottle early in the morning.

Oh, and it's January on this side of the globe - heart of the Australian summer, land of deserts and golden beaches, sunburnt plains, bush fires, and all.

I think I'm getting a cold.

Good news is that I'm about to leave frosty Melbourne and head north on the weekend.  Ironic news is that the weather is going to go back to behaving normally and frying Melbournians on that weekend.  Irritating news is that it's going to be four degrees colder, and raining, in Brisbane while I'm there.

Obviously the rain is following me for a reason which I have not yet worked out.  I'm watching you, weather.  You can't get the better of me.


It was also mysteriously raining when I travelled down to the beach before Christmas.  I say mysterious because that morning had been a scorcher, hovering in the high thirties, and as soon as we started down the highway to Frankston in the afternoon, huge raindrops started hitting the car.  By the time we arrived there had been a cool change.

Thankfully, we were there for more than one cold afternoon/evening.  The next day the sky was that certain shade of blue which makes me feel like cart wheeling very happy.

Here is a rare photo of me on this anonymous blog:

What?  You can't see me?  I'm the blob in the middle.  Thank you to Sam for running off with my camera without permission and taking many out of focus shots.  That's what happens when you get some males to carry your very large camera.

It was still too cold to go swimming in the Victorian waters (ie. icy waters), but who can resist jumping over the water from orange rock to orange rock.

The water was so sparkly (I love sparkles).

I should also thank my erstwhile sibling and his photo-taking sidekick for taking me to the beach after lots of whining and pleading  I asked really nicely, when they could have spent the afternoon playing PS2 instead.

Thanks guys.

A Christmas Tale

Every year before Christmas I scrummage around in the cupboards looking for our Bing Crosby 'Do You Know It's Christmas' cassette tape.  It's usually buried under a pile of redundant cassette tapes and other examples of old and even more redundant audio thing-a-majigs.  

I also scrummage around in the cupboards looking for our Bing Crosby cassette tape before writing a blog post which mentions said cassette tape, so that I can make sure I have the title right.  After wasting five minutes and coating all my fingers in dust, I have a feeling my family is constantly hiding Bing Crosby from me (but that might just be a vicious rumour).

I love Bing Crosby cassette tapes!  

The first track (is it called a track on a cassette tape?) is my very most favourite Bing song:
White Christmas.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the tree tops glisten,
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow....


When you grow up in Australia, it doesn't take too long to realise that this song was not written about Australian Christmases.  If it was, Bing would sing it like this:

I'm sweating during a hot Christmas,
Just like I sweat every year
The melting tree tops are shimmering
The pool full of children is glimmering
And we all set fire to the barbecueeeeeeeee 

Sorry, I couldn't resist (most Australian versions of Christmas carols are lame anyway, so I fit right in).

At about 4:00pm on Christmas Day 2011 we were slumped sitting around the pool trying to digest the large amounts of food which had been consumed for lunch (hard work).
There was a little light bantering about who was going to go for a swim, who was going to get pushed into the pool, etc.  No one actually moved.

At that point the sun also went behind a very large black mass of clouds, and the hot air suddenly felt even hotter and more stifling.

Summer Reads

I went to the library exactly three times over the last few weeks and came back with a nice pile of summer reads.

Oh look, one month of summer is gone already.

{noooooooooooooooooooo}

But that's okay - still plenty of time to read.

Oh, but there are some big ones in there.  Some seriously big reads, perfect for days like today, when the mercury is going to hit 40 degrees Celsius, and the human body can only collapse under the air conditioner and let the brain do all the exercising. 

Hmmm, I just realised that these are only the books I got from the library, not including books I got for Christmas or ones that have been loitering on my shelves during frantic days of textbook reading.

The rest:

   

Temperature update:

It is now so hot in Melbourne, that my fingertips are sweating and rendering the touchpad of my laptop unusable.

A sweltering start to 2012.

Ta ta, I'm off to read under the air conditioner.