These are some ridiculously expensive presents that no one will ever get me because they are too expensive. Like Jem, they’re truly outrageous! But only in the monetary sense, because in every other sense they are just plain awesome.

1. A new Nintendo DS Lite
Yeah. now you totally see what I mean. “But Cass,” you say, “I thought you already had a DS! You’re completely DS-CRAZY!”
Well, you see, the sad part is that I am a DS-o-phile, and the even sadder part is that my DS broke a while ago (maybe a month now?) so now I am unable to finish Zelda, and also I’m getting more and more afraid of the weeding I’ll have to do when I eventually get back on to Animal Crossing

2. DVD: Nadia and the Secret of Bluewater
Don’t even try. You’re so not going to find it at JB. And no, it’s not a porn, it’s an anime. And no, it’s not hentai.

3. A new mobile phone
I’m currently using Tim’s old mobile. I would dearly love to have a phone which can use realtones and also has other fun features.

4. A drawing tablet for the computer
But not the one that’s on display/demo at Harvey Norman Indooroopilly, that one has not worked once in the million times we’ve been there.

5. Anything with mermaids
Okay so this might not be ridiculously expensive. I pretty much mean movies or tv shows. I already have the first two DVDs of the first season of H2o – Just Add Water. Yay!

6. Those little trading arts final fantasy figurines
They are so cute. And awesome.

7. Several out-of-print books, as follows:
* After the Plague – Jean Ure
* Z for Zachariah – Robert O’Brien
* A Gift Upon the Shore – M. K. Wren

I’m not sure about the second and third book, but I am a billion percents sure that the first book is out of print. And I waaaaaaant it

*Edit: I had to cross out the Z for Zachariah book, because Tim bought some books online from fishpond.com.au, and he needed another book to bring up the total for some reason. I was happy to oblige. Thanks Tim!

I had to write a blog entry because of the awesome latin (above) on my Google Homepage at the moment. I have these little Latin phrases displayed, and they change every day. Sometimes it’s not a Latin phrase which is displayed, but a boring quote about something or other from someone like C.S. Lewis, or other known paedophiles. Okay, so it’s only him that I know is a paedophile. Most of the others I know hardly anything of at all.

Btw, everyone needs to check out the updated RSPCA World for Pets online store - if you look carefully, you might see someone you know on the cats page! It’s also a really convenient place to get presents for your animals and humans. Not that Napoleon needs any more presents, mind you. But it’s not about Napoleon, it’s about helping all the other animals. The animals! But it sort of is about Napoleon, because whether he needs more toys, bowls, kitty litter trays, or collars, he’s gettin’ ‘em. And he’ll damn well like it, too! Also, if you go to the About us page, you can check out some of the site content I’ve helped provide.

The little purple light on my wireless broadband is flashing, and it’s very distracting! I’m not connected to it at the moment, and it’s purple because the little wings aren’t out ready for flight.

Anyway. Here is proof that my Napoleon’s legs are too long. I still think he’s beautiful.

Also today, I got to play with Neo on the stairs:

And I got a 1GB mini-SD card for my phone, with an adaptor so that I can put it into the SD slot on my computer. I originally wanted a 2GB card, but the 1GB one was cheap cheap! And probably more space than I’m ever going to need anyway

This is Benyamin’s interpretation of Sin City:

Anyway, is it just me, or does it not feel like Christmas at all? I’ve done almost no Christms shopping this year. It could just be me, because I’ve been so preoccupied with work and everything going on there, and being stressed and feeling crap and everything, I’ve had no energy for Christmas spirit or cheer. What a sad state of affairs! Christmas time used to be my favourite time of year – no matter how many bad Christmases I’ve had, I’m an eternal optimist when it comes to Christmas.

Seems like this year, things have just gone way too far with the consumerism. It had to happen eventually. What’s with upside-down Christmas trees, for example? I’ve heard quite a few people talking about them, but I’ve never seen one in real life. If you’re wondering, this is what they look like:

And the whole reasoning behind them is so that you can fit more presents under the tree.

Firstly, putting your tree upside down is only going to add more available room for TALLER presents, not more presents. Secondly, could I be forgiven for thinking that the people who go in for this have missed the entire point? They’re going to spoil their kids by giving them an excuse to expect MORE this Christmas. Actually, seems these Christmas trees have been around for a while, in America (oh America! America, of all places!), and like the good little bitch of America, we’re running along behind them, desperately seeking to emulate their warped consumer-driven society. But all modern society is consumer-driven, Cass, that’s just the way things are!

I, for one, am not going to buy into the whole “upside-down Christmas tree” mentality this year, or any other year for that matter. And yes, I do realise that I am part of the consumerist society (I have no illusions about that). But for now I’m going to believe that I still have a few ounces of integrity.

Today I announced to my team leader my intention to leave work. Or rather, my intention to seek alternative employment, while remaining at current job until I secure said employment. They need me, I need them. It’s a good situation while it lasts, but hopefully it won’t need to last too long.

This weekend I’m going to go through and write up answers to the selection criteria of a whole lot of Govt jobs. That’s what I’m hoping to get into – the Government. I feel like this is my opportunity to make a change, branch out, get out of banking & finance. I’m going to make the most of it. It’s scary, but in a positive way (if that makes sense, or is even possible in the real world and not just the imagined one in my head…)

We were helped out this evening by some of the people from another department. I said to them “Have you reevaluated your perception of the degree of difficulty of our jobs?” and they said, “We always knew you worked hard!”.

I put up the Christmas tree on the weekend. Napoleon enjoyed it for a little while, then quickly lost interest. Unlike Christian’s cat, Neo, who has made the Christmas tree his private retreat. Napoleon is more interested in chasing the baubles he batted off the bottom branches of the tree.

Today is a memory day.

* I remember having blond hair and brown skin and going to the beach every single day

* I remember going for a drive with dad out to the Point during a hurricane. I was afraid. Dad told me about how when he was younger and lived in Sydney, he’d go down to circular quay when big storms came in and ride the ferry just before they cancelled it due to bad weather, because it was fun being on the ferry in the huge waves and pouring rain. I remember thinking that our car was going to be blown off the road, and not being able to see two feet ahead of us, and everything was grey. We went home.

* I remember church on Christmas Eve being so crowded that people lined up outside, and all the kids were outside running around in the yard and everyone was friends with everyone else, and it didn’t matter if we all ran off to the park, it was still counted as being there because we showed up and couldn’t get in, and all the parents stood around outside talking about parent type things.

* I remember when the circus was in town, standing out on our balcony late at night and seeing a drunk guy passed out in the church yard across the street from our place, and hearing the circus music in the background.

* I remember going to the library almost every day after tafe (NERD!), or going to the library in town every second weekend and sitting on the beanbags in the kids section and reading the new kids books, until I turned 11 and started reading from the adult section (and got told off by the librarian – “you can’t read that! Your section is over there —>”)

* I remember going to a party with Chris, and Noelle came too because she was staying with us for the holidays, and we left and met some random guy called Dan, which reminded Noelle and I of an ad for prune juice (Dan Presser, managing director of sunraysia natural beverages, is talking to his mum ruby about a new drink he’s created…) and then we walked down the main street of town and a girl was walking along with a guy, and he was drunk. He pushed Chris into the wall and said “Watch where you’re f**king going!” and the girl who was with him said “Go. Just run.” And we did.

* I remember using the metre-rulers from the blackboard as skis in year six, just before we went on our holiday to the snow, and being strongly reprimanded by the teacher for it (”these aren’t skis! they’re school equipment!”)

* I remember a boy from my class going missing at sea during a storm just after we had started high school. His own father found his body two weeks later at the docks. We had a memorial for him at the church behind our old primary school, and they arranged for all those who had known him to take the afternoon off school and provided a bus from high school to the primary school. It was a sad start to the year.

* I remember going up to the sports field of our village one night, and seeing glowing lines on the ground. One of the parents told us that the glowing stuff was left behind by slugs. I never actually saw any of the slugs.

* I remember going into the bushland surrounding the sports field, and finding paths cut through the scrub that you couldn’t see from the outside. They led to secret hideouts and clearings, and places where other kids had dragged sheets of corrugated iron or cardboard and made shelters and stored things there.

* I remember Noelle, Anna & Clare coming down for Christmas holidays and playing Super Mario Bros 3 and Spy Vs Spy on their Super Nintendo when they stayed out at the farm.

* I remember a Christmas when all the cousins came down to visit, and we put on a show for the parents, and we had tents in our backyard because there were so many people staying.

* I remember taking a kayak out on the lake and discovering what was on the further edges. There were islands and a huge black skeletal tree.

* I remember feeling content.

I just uploaded some photos and I noticed that my profile said I am 23. I had to think about it for a minute to really be sure that I am not 23. I think I’m overtired. We just got back from Yamba. The drive back was so long. I just wanted to be home, and I thought “The first thing I’ll do when I get home is have a shower (because my hair is all beachy from this morning) + then go to bed”. But I’m home, and I haven’t had a shower, and  I haven’t gone to bed (obviously). I really wanted to check out the photos from the weekend, so I had to unpack my laptop and set it back up again on my desk (because I took it with me so I could delete photos from my memory card over the course of the weekend, and it’s lucky I did because I only took my 32MB memory card instead of the 512MB one. IDIOT!) and then I had to upload some to my blog just because I wanted to, and so I had to resize all the photos so they weren’t like a million megabytes.

So. I will have a shower to clean the salt water from my hair (though we did go swimming in the Blue Pools AFTER the beach, which are fresh water, and I did have a shower after swimming at spooky, but it was only the shower above the beach where you get to wash off the salt & the sand) so I”m not all that salty, but I’m not going to sleep like this.

Last night was funny. We sat on the headland and had a picnic and drank and watched the fireworks (random fireworks were going off from about 9pm for no apparent reason) and there were hordes of 15 and 16 year olds walking past our table, all swigging breezers or cruisers, and they never failed to say to us “Happy New Years!” To which Anna would respond “yeah… it’s not new years yet!” or they would say “Happy 2006!” and Anna would say “Happy 2005″ back to them. There was no violence around this year, which is something to be thankful for. Nathan dropped us home just after the fireworks ended, and he had to make two trips as there were too many people. When we got home everyone was hyper, Nathan had leftover silly string and a water gun, and was blasting everyone until A poured a jug of water over him. Then he took the cap off the water gun and just poured the rest of it over Anna, who came out far more soaked than Nathan. I tried to get away from the water gun and bashed my knee against the table in the process. It’s still hurting. Then Zsolti served us all some Tokaji, and taught us the Hungarian toast which sounded something like “eggesheggedrrrre!” But I was a bit drunk at the time so I’m probably remembering it wrong. Despite the fact that I had been drinking vodka all night, and then had tokaji, I woke up feeling amazingly good. We went to the beach at around 9:30am, and the water was so cold that it was hard to breathe, and it wasn’t like I got used to it after a while, I had to move constantly so that I didn’t freeze, and my teeth were chattering and I was shivering. But it was beautiful, the water was so clear, and warming up in sun afterwards was just perfect. In contrast to that, the water in the Blue Pools was really tepid. It was cooler at our feet, further underneath the water where the sun doesn’t reach, still we didn’t stay in there long, because we had to leave anyway.

We leave a week from today. This time next week we will have been on the plane for 7 hours. Or about that. we’re supposed to stay awake for the first part of the trip, and then go to sleep for the last part so that we wake up when the plane touches down in Heathrow at 6:30 in the morning of the same day that we left. I think. I’ll have to have another look at the itinerary. We still need to get thermals. I’ll be going to get those this week, plus a travel pillow because Anna said that we will really regret it if we don’t get one now, because of those days that we are on the tour, if we dont have pillows we’ll be sleeping on each other’s shoulders. So I have to get thermals, a pillow, thick socks, waterproof gloves… probably some other stuff I will realise once I’m in the store looking at everything. Once we get over there I have to get some thick woollen tights so that I can wear skirts! Oh and plus I have to get the other pair of jeans I was thinking about last week. Plus some knee-high socks. I should write all this down so I remember.

Four more days of work to go. I don’t know how I’ll concentrate. It was that close to an impossibility to concentrate last week, though that might have been more to do with it being that stupid three day short week between Christmas and New Years celebrations, and it’s always difficult to be seriously motivated during that time.

Anyways, I’m tired and I want to have a shower and go to bed. Night!!!!

That’s some huge leap to make from holiday me to work me. I haven’t had more than two consecutive days off in quite some time… after about three I don’t know what to do with myself. And with all the merry-making, and the festivities, and the avoiding painful feelings… I can’t even say what I mean. My fingers are killing me from putting together the pump. Those metal clamps were really tough. And the screwdriver kept slipping out and hitting the tips of my fingers, including where the fan cut me the other day. Ouch. Maybe I just wasn’t made for assembling things. I like the idea of it, and I will always stick with it until it’s finished, but I don’t think that the reason that I always end up doing these types of things is because I’m necessarily the best at it, I think it has more to do with the fact that everyone knows that if they leave me to it, it will get done.

I want to leave right now. I want to be at the airport, boarding the plane, luggage checked in and departure card filled out and submitted… Agh! (that was the scream that I promised now that I’m down to the final 10.) I don’t know how I’ll cope with the monotony of everyday life for the next ten days. Anna said that the last ten days are the longest and that they feel like an eternity. Mum said to me today, “Now, while you’re over there, don’t even think about missing home. It’s too short a time, you’ve just got to get on with it and see everything and do everything and just have fun.” I don’t know if she thinks that if she doesn’t tell me this, I’ll cry myself to sleep every night we’re away and be pining for home every minute that I’m awake. If I’m thinking anything about home at all, it will be to wonder at what mischief Ro will  be getting up to.

I’d like to say that I understood what I just did and what happens next but the truth is that I don’t. (and no one will know what I mean by this!)

OH something else to think about. NYE. That takes the focus off counting down the days until we leave. And puts the focus onto something that is more worrying. There are many things I’m concerned about.

Least of these is: where are we all going to sleep? I said I’d sleep on the floor, in front of the doors to the balcony. I used to sleep there most nights when we lived in the house, I can’t remember why but I just preferred sleeping on the floor up there to sleeping in my room.

Agh. I hate when the little email reminder thing pops up and says “you have received an email from…” and it’s something boring like Australian Music Charts, or greater union, or ryanair, but never from an actual person. I mean, sometimes it is, but usually not, because why would someone email me when I’m online anyway?

The worst thing about summer is the intolerable heat, but some of the best things are:

1. stepping into airconditioning (*sigh*) this is especially good when you’re at a shopping centre and have just spent half an hour driving around looking for a park, and walking across the tar which just seems to suck in the heat and radiate it back up at you at double the intensity. Then you get to the auto doors and the air almost goes “shhhhh” as you step inside, like a science fiction movie with those airlock doors.
2. going swimming, whether at the beach or in a pool (but never at southbank. Things are never that desperate)
3. the beaaaaach
4. summer fruits: mangoes, cherries, grapes, watermelon, nectarines
5. actually appreciating being at work for the simple fact that it’s cool and you don’t have to deal with the heat and all the tourists in the mall and you can think about things other than how hot it is.
6. all the public holidays that go along with summertime
7. going for long drives with all the windows down
8. the relaxing cool that follows the darkening of the sky
9. thunderstorms (but only if I am inside!)

I wanted it to be 10, but I’m tired and I can’t think of any more. I hate Antony now, his frivolity makes me feel agitated.

You know what song is sad? That song by the white stripes… the one about having someone in your pocket. So sad. I listen to it on the bus, it always plays just as the bus is passing mountain designs, where the old man asks the bus driver, “just a little further up if you don’t mind, I got a gammy knee”.

Wow… I’m so tired. All in all a good day, but extremely hot. The air was so heavy… for once the weather people were right in their predictions of a hot day followed by afternoon thunderstorms, though it isn’t that impressive when you think about it.. most days that are this hot and humid have afternoon thunderstorms, so to get one right the other would pretty much follow automatically.

N. gave me a stone last night, he said “I heard you were upset, so I got this stone for you because it’s dark, but it has colours through it.” It was pretty thoughtful, even though I don’t know who he heard that I was upset from. Maybe it’s just obvious. I think that’s probably more the case. The stone is really cool. I have a picture of it in one of the photo things but I will put one up in this entry. Last night was really funny. Something happened (that I can’t detail here) and Ro was upset about it and telling mum off. I said to Ro, “let her be, she’s just living her life, she is a human being you know!” and then Ro said, “that’s what they said about Hitler!”. Agh! I think our entire family thrives on melodrama. Ro, if you ever read this, I love you more than life itself.  You are my dearest darling baby sister, and very precious to me. I think you’re beautiful and growing up into an amazingly strong and fiery young adult. Your individuality and intelligence are constant and something you should be proud of, though sometimes this might be hidden behind usual teen self-consciousness and striving to fit in with those around you. Remember that you are extraordinary!

I’m going to bed soon. Tomorrow are the boxing day sales. I don’t think I’ll be buying anything, as now all my money will be going toward our holiday. We now have less than two weeks (13 days) and I have 7 working days left. Eep! That’s so soon! I know I am prepared, all I have to get now is the suitcase, and that will be available soon. In fact, I think it is available to pick up now. Not sure though so I will have to ask mum.  I was so surprised by how much we got for Christmas. Everyone was so generous and thoughtful, and I am so grateful for everything that we received. It was also a really nice, relaxing day, though I think that Ro and I were the only ones not drinking (Ro because obviously she is underage, me because obviously I’m a teetotaller… NOT!) I didn’t drink because the only thing around was wine.

Actually, I’m not sure that N drank anything either, because he had to drive later on.

Weird thing that happened this morning, dad took apart all the pedestal fans to clean them, and so I have these images in my mind of different fan parts sitting all over the place, but I didn’t ask why and so there was no reason connected with the images. Later on he was back and forth between the fans trying to figure out which part went with which fan. One of the fans I didn’t know we owned, and it was in the dining room when we ate Christmas lunch. I put my hand on it and it the blades were really close to the grill and cut my finger and  broke my nail So now it really hurts whenever I type with that finger. I am staying away from fans from now on! Once, ages ago, I reached up when I was yawning and the ceiling fan cut the back of my hand, my wrist, and my thumb I can’t remember where that was… the ceilings must have been low.

Later in the day the heat was too much and so Anna & I went swimming (if you could call it that), and then Helen came down and fell in fully dressed ON PURPOSE. So mum got in in her clothes too. They made dad get them glasses of wine, and we laughed over everything. It cooled down later on as the clouds moved in, and Anna & I got cold so we got out and went upstairs.

That brings me to now I guess. I’m nice and cool after the water, and after the storm cleared the air, and now all that is left is to go to sleep. I hope everyone had or is having a nice day, around people that they care about and who care about them. Goodnight!!!!!!!!!

Today Beck & I went down the coast. It was nice & cool, I’m not sure of the temperature, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the weather people said it was going to be. That could have been because we were close to the ocean and getting the cool breeze coming off the water. I spent more than I should have, but at least I have everyone’s presents now.

We drove out to Robina too, for reasons I won’t list here. I am never going back there again, it is the creepiest place ever. We drove down “Town Centre Drive”, and looked for Robina Town Centre. Did you know that Robina Town Centre is actually the mall? They have no main street! One of their streets, Bazaar Street, is just another entrance to the shopping centre carpark! And the houses look exactly the same. They must have had some severe covenants put over their properties.

But anyway, it was nice walking around Surfers, checking out all the shops. Beck said that her sister would be going mad with all the half naked boys around, but I’m so not into the whole surfer boy thing. So we just checked out the shops and I got some venetian glass & malachite jewellery. I love green. It’s my favourite of favourites. The tint of my new sunglasses makes the trees and the grass look so lush and verdant. I put them on and just go “ah pretty!”, it’s like seeing what things would look like if it weren’t so hot and dry here most of the time.

Then on the way home we stopped in at Carindale for last minute things. I haven’t been there in aaages. It’s like visiting another life, and the drive home from there brought back so many memories. Also, the train I had to catch to Beck’s house was my old train line, so I had a whole day of memories being stirred up.

Dad just arrived, he and Ro have gone out for some food. I’ve felt so hungry all day, but  I’ve eaten so much! I just had yoghurt, grapes and brazil nuts for tea. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, why I feel so starving today, and with the day being so hot too!  Maybe I have alien parasites living in my stomach that consume all my food as soon as I have eaten it. That makes me feel like throwing up. Eugh.

That was like today, when we were driving, every time we saw a roadkill coming up I would close my eyes or look the other way, and B would say things like “oh look, a bird, or rather half a bird. Yeah, it had no head.” and also “Ah a blue-tongue lizard, you can see it’s guts all over the place. I can tell it’s a blue tongue because I can see it’s tongue on the road”. Though she swears she never said this last part, I am sure she did because why would I make that up? I said to her, “I’m trying so hard not to think about it and you’re listing every disgusting detail!” This was apparently hilarious. I was laughing too, but I really don’t like roadkill.

I think I can hear someone singing Christmas carols really badly. Haha. It’s funny.

There’s this noise in the background, it sounds like bells ringing. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Then I realised that the TV is on in the living room and they are singing carols, and some old man is talking about REMEMBERING THE REASON FOR THE SEASON and GIVE YOUR SOUL TO JESUS, because he needs them all to fill up some great emptiness inside. Only he didn’t say that last part, I am making up a reason because no one ever says why, they just tell you what to do but not why. So tell me why! I’m sick of not knowing reasons. It’s true what the Dilbert writer says, that we know that magnetic attractions exist but not why. Why isn’t there a reason for everything? There has to be a reason. Everyone’s keeping secrets!

But I did REMEMBER THE REASON FOR THE SEASON, I did buy religious Christmas cards, just like I always do. I’m not sure what I think this achieves, I just think that the politically correct secular humanists (I want to call them humanoids because that sounds like just a body without a soul) have been saying that Christmas is un P-C, and that we should not use our Christmas greetings, should not even use the word Christmas. My response to that is to buy religious Christmas cards, and to wish EVERYONE a MERRY CHRISTMAS! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! So to be really PC, we should take down all the Christmas trees, and all the santas (because that’s Saint Nicholas didn’t you know, and that’s a religious reference too), and everything else that has anything to do with it. So the humanoids will have to go stick their heads under the sand until it all blows over. Then maybe before next Christmas they will pass a law so that they never have to deal with it again. You can have freedom of speech but only if you don’t say these words!

Ummmmm I am bored but I know I won’t be able to sleep, since I got too much sleep last night. Rosie is asleep because she got no sleep last night. I wonder what the coast will be like tomorrow. The TV told everyone not to drink coffee or alcohol, and something else that I can’t remember. That’s not too difficult. Birdsville was 46 degrees today, wherever that is.

IE sucks. It doesn’t recognise that I am already connected to the internet (have you ever heard of Broadband, IE? Welcome to the 21st century IDIOT! Gosh!)  and so it keeps trying to tell me to connect to my dial-up provider. ’sif i’d want to do that!

It dawned on me a couple of days ago that maybe I should add a reference to the blog entry titles that are song lyrics or lines from movies etc., because that could constitute copyright infringement. I know nothing about copyright laws (I have this vague notion of something to do with 10% of intellectual property use being okay, but I’m not sure) so perhaps I should amend them all just to be on the safe side?

Perhaps I will do that right now – not having a legal advisor or representative means I should always err on the side of caution!

Today does not feel like sunday, it feels like saturday. I went shopping with Beck and Tanya, and it was so funny because we planned on seeing a movie, and the movie was on at like… 4:50pm, and we got there at 11:30am, and so we had so many hours of time to fill in, and it didn’t really seem like that long once we had done everything we needed to do and seen everything we wanted to see. So at about 4pm we headed up to the cinemas and were going to hang out in the arcade until the movie was on, but when we checked the movie times it turned out that the movie only showed at 4:50pm monday through to saturday, and the only time it was showing was 9:15pm. haha. I laughed so much. I put coins in the machine where the coins fall onto a tray and then they fall off that and into the other tray and you win tickets for how many you get to fall off. I won a lot of tickets, but I couldn’t be bothered redeeming them. I had so many bags that that was really the only game I could be bothered playing, because all you had to do was put the coin in the slot. And we were really tired by that point, so we just went home, with Beck lamenting over her lost opportunity to see a movie. She hasn’t seen one in quite a while apparently. The last movie that I saw was Harry Potter I think… I haven’t seen one in a while because there aren’t any that I want to see. I’m hanging out for Narnia.

Yesterday I helped mum set up for her xmas party. We had a helium bottle, and I was filling up the balloons. Mum breathed in some helium and talked like a chipmunk. She & Tash were drinking champagne but I just had water. Fermented grapes still make me feel ill. After a couple of glasses they couldn’t figure out the maths to put the balloons on the tables. “How many for this table?” “how many times does 3 go into 11?” “how many times does 3 go into 50?” When we had packed up mum said “Thanks for helping, it was good to have you around because we were so bad with maths”. But the thing is, I never gave them a single answer to any of their mathematical questions. They figured it out themselves. I remember once we had some people over at our house, I think they might have been our cousins, and mum made sandwiches for all the kids. Except one of the kids didn’t feel like eating, so they just sat at the table with the rest of us. At the end, everyone said “Thanks for the sandwiches!”, and the other kid said “Thanks for nothing!” Not in a mean way, but just matter-of-fact.

I ate my dinner out of the cat’s bowl on the floor. That sounds worse that it is. Actually, the cats eat out of these little ceramic bowls. We have white ones and coloured ones, but there are only ever 2 coloured ones and about 8 white ones. Lauren served up the food, and I wasn’t very hungry so I said I only wanted a tiny bit. Mum wanted only a little bit too, so lauren served up the food in one coloured bowl and one white bowl for us, and in the bigger bowls for everyone else. Mum got in first and took the coloured one and laughed that I had to eat out of the white one. Then when I got over to the lounge room where everyone was sitting, there were no chairs left so I had to sit on the floor. That usually happens, I don’t often sit on the couch. But I prefer the floor anyway. Then I don’t have to worry about where to put my water or my food, because everywhere is flat. I’m not sure why I like it so much but I do. I will never complain about having to sit on the floor.

Work tomorrow. I’ll do my usual day from last week (though I bailed on the last couple of days because I felt like crap). 6:30am start, finish at 3:15, go to gym, back to work by 5pm, work until 8pm, cabcharge home. Except Thursday. If the postie has dropped off my registered mail card by then, I’ll pick it up on Thursday morning bcause I have to start work late anyway. I think. I can’t remember. Then the weekend is Christmas, then work on Wed, Thurs, Fri, down to Yamba Saturday for NYE, back to Brisbane on Mon, back to work on Tues, work through to Fri, fly out on Sat 8th. That’s a hectic couple of weeks. I hope I get all my outstanding stuff at work finished by then. I mean, i will have to.

I hope the deliveries arrive before Christmas. It would really suck if they didn’t. I need a fallback. I have no idea what I’m getting dad. He’s so hard to buy for. I’ll call him tomorrow, because I don’t want to get him the same old thing. That’s boring. I hate boring. agh.

What I want for Christmas:

White Stripes White Blood Cells
Kaiser Chiefs Employment
GHD
PSP
Camera
Docs
A brain transplant