Fave song- Skinny Love by Birdy

I will never get sick of this song. The original by Bon Iver is also soo lovely.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Where to start? Christmas has jogged up, sped by, and gratefully limped into Boxing Day. Perhaps a summary of how things went down might help- although, being in holiday mode, my brain's not all here, so you might need to fill in the gaps yourselves.

On Friday, as the last day of work drew to a close, we all went a little hell bent crazy and roared into party mode by bringing in the sauv blanc and bringing up the YouTube on the big screen tv (ordinarily reserved for video conferences). It was officially P.A.R.T.Y time!!!!

We danced rocker style to Bon Jovi, Cold Chisel, watched Mr Jujitsu's weird heavy metal clips, ballet spun to Birdy's Skinny Love and had an incredibly fun disco dance-off. We were classy in an unclassy way if you know what I mean (we got totally tipsy in the privacy of our office, no mess, no embarrassment-- even if a bit nerdy), cheap, and so very memorable. Best final day of work ever.

Then it was Christmas Day and my sister and I cooked and cooked and cooked. We had:

• snapper that was baked in a salt crust
• brocollini panfried with garlic and anchovies
• seafood salad with prawns, rocket, avocado
• baked sweet potato
• baked regular potato
• mango, capsicum, tomato, and rocket salad
• berry and apple crumble with vanilla icecream

Most tiring cook off ever. But really really yummy:

And then it was today. We watched The Iron Lady while gorging on popcorn (see below). One of the best movies I've seen in ages. Meryl Streep is amazing- in the words of my sister: "She's old school good".

The laidback crooner...

Last night, I had dinner with Miss CalmFarm and as always, it was spiritual, enriching and contemplative.

We had Thai in a cute little Thai spot on Pitt Street.

Then we walked through to park en route to Central station, where we came upon a man who looked a little like a hippy, chilled out, blonder version of Julian Assange. He was seated on a bench, with a keyboard mounted on a stand and he was pressing down a bunch of chords while singing in an in-tune, nasal and easy listening version of Kelly Clarkson's "Because of you". He was smiling, nodding affably at us, while the wind ruffled his floppy mop (like Hugh Grant in Notting Hill) and not at all putting in the angst that Because of you requires. It is a break-up song after all.

Think the beginning of If God was one of us by Joan Osborne-- before she launches into the song-- but ten times slower. That's how he was singing.

As compared to:

It was hysterical.

CONGRATULATIONS PONY!

On Sunday, Pony and Manly got engaged!!!!!!

I'm super excited for them. Together they've conquered distance, life's challenges, dashed dreams (don't worry Manly- you'll get it next year!), and continued to support each other in that steadfast, constant way that solid couples do.

I can't wait until they have exotic Eurasian babies with olive skin, hazel eyes and long long limbs.

Happy wedding wishes Lamington Shipp!

As I catch up on the hectic Friday & weekend that was, I come to Saturday.

On Saturday, I had lunch with my sister, had a manicure in her office, met her cute and hugely entertaining lawyer buddy Miss DimiPheebs (because she's diminutive), analysed the death out of a couple of email chains in an attempt to help Miss DimiPheebs decipher the double meanings in the many emails exchanged between her and Mr Desirable ("do you think he likes me??"), concluded that it was just too early days yet, before meeting up with Pony to come together for Lamington Shipp's fiance's birthday.

We enjoyed Vietnamese wraps, Vodka Cruisers, a brilliant lunar eclipse and some plain old good conversation. One of the nicest evenings of the month.

[Mr Shipp (furthest left), Lamington Shipp (third form the left) and the rest of us:]

[Amazing lunar eclipse that hit at around 1 am]

[The happy couple at the end of a long, lovely night:]

It smells of Christmas, Grass and Alchomohol!

It feels like a lifetime ago now (I've just had the chockest weekend known to mankind and I won't be able to fill you in on it today- there's just too much), but on Friday, it was our work Christmas party.

Theme: 1920's

Weather forecast in the week leading up to it: Dubious, swirly and grey at best, torrentially rainy and wintry at worst

Weather on the day: Miraculously phenomenal. We couldn't stop stating: "We were sooo lucky with the weather"- as if we had anything to do with it

Sport of the hour: Lawn bowls

Food of the Friday: Snags and rolls

Final hour: Lowenbrau

It was the loveliest Christmas party of my life. Flouncing around in our outfits, taking the train to Erskineville for an afternoon out on the greens, ignoring curious bystanders and posing like we just didn't care-- Could you ask for anything more from a WORK Christmas party?

[Smart and suspendered:]

[Gloriously attired:]

[Waiting for the train like Miss Daisy:]

[Miss DB, Mr Funky Glasses and I:]

[Walking to the Bowling Greens:]

[Miss DB: the best of the bowlers:]

[Me and Miss Tiny:]

[The absolute definition of four eyes:]

Happy Birthday Pony Express!

Today is Pony Express's birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD SPORT!

Yesterday was her party. It was meant to be lawn bowls in the sun, but this crazy Winter Summer (tops of 19 degrees today, fellas) meant that it was snags and chair dancing under the awning. Her man, who she calls "Manly" (because he is, by all accounts, manly), organised the whole do-- including the back-up plan.

It was a grand mix of exemplary planning, good food (including the rogue salad that flipped in the car, except it was okay because "most of it landed in the cling wrap!"), suitably lovely friends and those vintage happy snaps embedded in polaroid film; standing as a happy reminder of the special day that was-- Pony's 27th birthday.

Street art...

Remember last year some time, I took pictures of the alleyway across the road and there were all these babushka dolls?

Look what's there now--

It's a technicoloured zoo!!

Summer is a-coming in, loudly sing cuckoo!

After a week of torrential rain, wind and squinting through sheets of wet, the sun triumphed on Sunday and pulled out a real stunner. This unbelievable weather, combined with the street buskers, stalls and the smell of Christmas, meant that my sister and I were destined for a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day.

We started off at Circular Quay, browsing the Rocks Markets critically and pooh-poohing vintage jewellery with:

"Nah man, we could so get that from Lovisa for 20 bucks!"

We feasted on corn on the cob, tucked into pizza, thumbed through books in that bookstore with the beady curtained entrance, felt the unwelcome call of cramping bowels that inevitably follows from having had too much food and standing too still in a bookstore, rushed to my sister's work to seek solace in their beautiful porcelain thrones, traipsed back up George Street in search of the elusive Grecian goddess costume that my sister needed to buy for her work's Christmas party on Friday, found the elusive dress (60% off or something ridiculously grand like that) struggled back to Wynyard station, posed for pictures in the street (once in front of the giant Christmas tree and others just being plain silly), bid each other farewell with an exaggerated continental kiss (like we always do, so posh; so sophisticated- three kisses, not four) and finally-- finally-- got home.

A happy, simple day.

[Look how big the cruise ship is compared to the ferry and the Bridge!:]

[Jumbly jellyfish:]

[At the Rocks Markets- the guy who took the photo thought we were tourists-- until we spoke in our super Aussie accents and splendid strines:]

[Sketchers and their muses:]

[Christmas is a-coming!:]

[My sister- the Asian version of Kate Middleton-- and before you bleat: "She doesn't look like Kate Middleton!", I don't mean she looks identical to Kate Middleton, I mean she resembles her. Use your imagination for Chrissake. The wrap dress and the hair are undeniably very Kate Middleton:]

[Me being silly in the street:]

Sailboats by Brooke Fraser- favourite song of the week

Miss Louise...

Today, Miss Louise and I met up for a coffee and a yarn.

It's been 2 years since I saw her last (December 2009)- and as always, the pleasure was all mine.

We've been friends since we were fourteen, and in between her living in France for a couple of years, Switzerland for another couple of years, and now Canberra for the last three months, our catch-ups have been few and far between.

Be that as it may, every time we see each other, it's almost like we're fourteen again. Our conversation starts on a mature note: we touch on work, relationships, the banality of Canberra and other adult topics. But as the day progresses, we regress.

"I like driving over the Bridge, it makes me feel tactical!" she provides, as we search for parking at Chatswood Chase.

"Does it?" I'm incredulous. I can think of nothing worse than the stress of speed and weird merging lanes

"Yeah!"- she parks, expertly

"Omg I'm so hungry"- I decide

"Yeah, omg I want a satay stick for lunch" she announces

"You can't just have one satay stick for lunch, that's not enoughhh!" I say

"But it's yummy! I don't wanna have a proper lunch, I wanna have a satay stick!" she states

and that settles it.

Later, when we're bumbling onto the lift to ride down from the Level 3 car park to the shops, we're still a bit out of sorts:

"We have to go down one", Miss Louise instructs. She pushes the button for Level 2.

"Do we?" I ask not really concentrating- shops like Chatswood Chase confuse the hiney out of me and I'm glad Miss Louise knows where we're going.

(we ride down one floor, but you can hardly feel it because it's just one storey)

"We have to get off now" she prods me.

"Do we??" I ask again- staring back at her blankly

"Yeah, this is level 2!" -- we hurry to get off and bump into each other and the wall.

A lady who's been watching our uncoordinated efforts chuckles drily and deadpans:

"You girls have got it all together"

We shop, discover that we have completely opposite taste in fashion and homewares (she's perplexed by every single item I pick up to show her with my tick of approval: "isn't this sooo cool?" wrinkling her nose in confusion at all of them), and we have a lovely day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW, MISS LOUISE! XXXX

Happy birthday dad!

My dad's birthday is on the 24th of NOVEMBER!

I have to write out the date in full because he keeps changing his mind about when his birthday should be.

It used to be in April. Then in December. Then apparently, his big sister said it's actually the 24th of November.

The confusion arises because he was born in the midst of the Korean War and record keeping wasn't exactly a priority. We got muddled up this year and gave him his gifts and gluten free cake on the 25th of November:

"It was yesterday!" he corrected us, before tucking into his cake.

It all just gave way...

It's mid morning at work- it's cold out- it's quiet in. Nothing special, very status quo. The ushe (that's short for Usual).

Then the ceiling caves in.

The heavy air conditioning tubing and its steel box crashes through landing precisely where Ms Cosmetic Pro would've been sitting if she hadn't vacated her spot in a fit of "these workmen are driving me crazy, I'm going to go for a stretch."

A large piece of roofing slides from the roof and misses Miss Tiny's head and back by inches, as, in a moment of unbelievable timing, she happens to be leaning into her computer at the time.

A steel rod gashes Miss Master Manager on the arm and her skin screams red and angry.

Everyone is stunned but laughs hysterically because it's scary to contemplate what could have been.

There were definitely angels watching over our office today.

Sculptured to sea salt and showers...

On Sunday, my sister and I scooted bum and bus to Bondi for the final day of Sculptures by the Sea.

I say "bum and bus" because we were literally moving our bums, on some kind of bus, all day long.

I caught the bus from home to the city (trains were snoozing), and then together with my sister from the city to the beach-- and I gotta say, buses rate ten out of ten for entertainment value.

Some highlights:

The Spunky Lady

The spunky lady sitting next to me on the way to the city (who couldn't have been older than fifty), was decked out in a light denim jacket, silvery, spiky cropped pixie hair cut and super pink nails. She had her Ipod Nano plugged into her ears and she drummed her fingers on the seat back in front of her "bahm bahm bahm!- ing and belting out at the top of her lungs: "Come on baby light my firrrrrre!" in all her tone deaf glory.

The packed bus, which was dreary and silent save for a screaming baby, all looked at her, and then looked away: Crazy old lady with the crazy colourful get up, they muttered internally.

But I thought she was fabulous.

Later, she shouted at me over the din of her earphones: "My daughter got this for me from Singapore! It's an Ipod Nano, and I put all my songs on it! I'm goin-ta Sculptures by the Sea! It's the last day, but I forgot my camera, you see!"

(I've put all her speech in running sentences because, even though I was saying "Oh really! That's so great! What songs do you like! I'm going to Sculptures by the Sea too- Princess Mary was there this morning!" she didn't hear any of it because of the ruckus in her earphones-- so all her sentences really all came out as one long bumbling statement of fact.)

When we eventually got off at Wynyard, she bid me a good trip before sticking one of her earphones into my ear: "See how good the sound is!" before stalking off the bus- her skinny tanned legs tucked in her tiny shorts, and rainbow bikini peeking out from her white tank- she waved to me before she jumped off: Bye love! I reckon I have good taste in music for an 80 year old!!

Eighty years old?? I would never have guessed it-she was probably one of the most exuberant and joyful people I've ever met.

The guy with the ring in his nostrils

On the second leg of our bus trips, we jumped on a different bus from Town Hall to Bondi Beach. We stood next to a guy with dark brown curly hair, sultry lips, and a ring that had been slotted into the skin that separates each of your nostrils-- like those rings that bulls and cows have.

Every time we looked at him, we wanted to Moooooooo! because he even had those big, rolling brown eyes that cows have.

The brother and sister

On my final leg home, I sat in front of two little Indian kids. The big sister was about 8 years old. Her little brother, about 5 years old. The big sister was authoritative and teacherish. The little brother was squirming, giggly and attentive. Their conversation went something like this:

Big sister: What colours make purple?

Little brother: Red and blue!

Big sister: What colour makes red and blue?

Little brother: Purple!

Big sister: (trying to trick her brother): What colours maaaaaake purple?

Little brother: (pauses, trying to figure out the trick): Ummmmm. Red and blue!

Big sister: Good.

Big sister: What's the opposite of up?

Little brother: (silent)

Big sister: What's the opposite of up?

Little brother: What does that mean?

Big sister: (softly) Say down

Little brother: Down!

Big sister: Good!

Big sister: What's your uncle's name?

Little brother: Uncle Singh

Big sister: Good!

Big sister: What does "blow up mean?"

Little brother: I don't know

Big sister: It means get fat!

Little brother: (giggles hysterically)

Big sister: What's the opposite of no friends?

Little brother: Yes friends!

Big sister (emphatically): Good!

And so they continued- her approving his sometimes wrong answers because neither was none the wiser.

Some pictures:

[My sister with her sunhat:]

[Zebras:]

[Pensive sea-gazing:]

[Splintering the cliffs of Bondi:]

[Beauty and the Geek: Bendeguz!]

[One of my faves:]

[Magic mirrors:]

[Karate!:]

[One for the fambly album:]

[Swirls:]

[I loved this one too!]

[The red men and my sister have a staring contest:]

[Elegant:]