Christmas, let's set the record straight

Okay, so my previous post may have been a bit 'Bah humbug' about Christmas, so to set the record straight, there were some good times too!

Christmas Eve was an excellent night! Katy came to stay, and she baked up some excellent chocolate chip cookies and let me eat half the mixture before it was cooked.



Jess didn't come over, but she was still present by phone!



Then on Christmas Day we went to Dad's place for breakfast first, which was so much fun! Dad's partner Meg and her three beautiful daughters and their partners were all there. We had a great time, it was only a pity we couldn't all stay longer!



Hayden got a Buzz Lightyear pool, and the look of sheer joy on his face when he saw it was such a blessing! He hung out with his breakfast in the pool - total luxury...



Great food, fantastic company, beautiful presents, and a lovely garden. It was so wonderful!

After that, we hightailed it back to mums place to help get ready for Christmas lunch and open a few more presents! (A few! Did I say a few?!)



Adam scored a few great presents!




We were taking bets on whether Luke would cry or not when he opened his present from mum and Gary. Luke is a total LOTR geek, and they gave him a real life replica of Striders sword. Not my cup of tea, but Luke got quite emotional!





I was forced to recant my earlier 'pink stinks' declaration, as I received an almost entirely pink collection of presents! Which is cool, because pink is totally the new black. (Check out my cute little hot pink hand weights!)




Katy whipped up the most delightful looking trifle that I have ever encountered! (And boy, did I encounter it!)




My fabulous cousins came over, including the lovely auntie Valerie, and the ever amusing uncle Phil.



Jessie, Katy, Dan the man, beautiful Lisa, Simon the tallest cousin around, and me (I was bending down to make everyone else feel tall, honest!)

And we ate a lot of great food, told some very bad Christmas-cracker jokes, and then everyone buggered off to their next stop while we had an early night!

Welcome to the Stage!

Here's a quick shout out to my number one fan!


Yay, by popular demand, it's Sonia! (Otherwise known as 'Sonnie', but not as 'Bomber' because we grew out of that one a long time ago apparently, sorry about that Sonnie) Sonia thinks my blog is brilliant and remembers my birthday, so for those two reasons she is my current favourite person! (Bonus favourite person reasons are that she's like my 3rd little sister, is always fun to be around, fantastic to have at parties because she's so friendly and funny, and is excellent at charades!)


Sonia and her talented boyfriend Matt.



And a picture of my beautiful mother, because she thinks there aren't enough pictures of her on my blog. Hi mum! (Mum doesn't usually stand in gardens, but this was from the everlasting game of Boxing Day charades... see previous post!)

I'm back again!

Okay, so Boxing Day has totally restored my faith in the Christmas Spirit! We had an excellent time. Our wonderful family friends came over, plus some excellent hangers on. We opened a few presents, had a great dinner/late lunch, polished off the trifle, and just had a great time hanging out together!

It was so great to be around good friends! Everyone had a wonderful time, I think we must have kept the whole neighbourhood up with our talking and shouting and laughing! It was such a change from the day before. No worrying about is so-and-so offended about something, or does that person have someone to talk to, and is whats-their-name being nasty to everybody and etc. etc. What a great bunch of people! I love how some friends can be around so long and be so wonderful that they turn into family!


Di and Cliffy won the 'Most in Love' award again!


And then we had a ridiculously long and hilariously entertaining game of charades...

The Naked Chef

Bob The Builder

Rebel Without a Cause

Something blue...

I need some help with this one!

I can't think!

Too much pressure!

You're so close!

It's so obvious!

Yes! You got it!

So, I'm sorry about my depressing post yesterday. But in the spirit of journalistic integrity, I've decided that I won't ever go back and edit or delete past posts, execpt for the following exceptions:
1. To correct spelling or grammer. (feel free to jump on me hard if you spot an error!)
2. To add links or pictures.
3. To remove someone's name or picture upon request.

and, let's be honest now

4. If I really, really feel like it. (well come on, it is my blog after all!)

Another Christmas over (Praise God)

So what's that old saying? You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family? Yeah. My friends are amazing, I said that a few posts ago. My family are wonderful too, and I really missed them while I was away in London.

My mum has a very big family, she's one of NINE children, and they're all married and have kids, it's a huge crowd. I remember when we used to all get together we would say that it was 'the family... and the hangers on'! (Ie the inlaws and etc random people) Just as a joke, no offence meant, as we all loved everyone and it was all great. But today - well today, I had a few problems with the hangers on who came round for Christmas lunch. And inspite of me trying every freaking trick I knew to be nice to people and to keep smiling and be happy and not let other people's negativity and rudeness get to me, it really ended up spoiling my day. There's only so much you can do, you know?

And then I go back to one of my previous posts and I remind myself what my faults are, (you can read it too) and I try to remind myself that I might not be a dream to get along with also, so I keep second-guessing everything I say, and trying to remember that not everyone's love language is words so possibly they don't realise how they are hurting me, and maybe they have parents that were like that so they think that acting like that is okay, and possibly I'm being overly sensitive in expecting them to be making an effort to be nice to me, and trying to also just get over myself so that I don't let it hurt me that these people have no interest in being friendly to me or making me smile, but still trying to smile anyway because in a way they are family and isn't family what Christmas is about, and thinking that if I just smile it off again and don't make a scene about it the day will go much more smoothly for everyone else, but then if they don't care how I feel why should I be caring for how they are feeling...?

It's exhausting. I'm exhausted. I thought Christmas was also supposed to be about fun. Am I the only one who thinks it's important to make sure that people around me are having fun? Where are the people who are making sure that I'm having fun? I felt lonely, sad and frustrated today. I hope I did the best I can.

Two bible verses that I saved on my mobile phone have kept me afloat today. Kept me from totally losing my cool and telling a few people what I think of their stinky Christmas attitudes! I kept grabbing my mobile and reading them whenever I started to feel a bit shaky!

Isaiah 41.10: 'Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my glorious right hand.'

Psalm 5.12: 'Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them sing joyful praises forever. Protect them, so that all who love your name may be filled with joy. For you bless the godly, O Lord, surrounding them with your shield of love.'

Last Christmas I felt totally surrounded with a shield of love. In fact, while I was with my beautiful church friends in London I always felt surrounded by a shield of love, I think that's a beautiful way to put it. I so totally believe that we're here to make other people feel good. I believe that in every interaction you have, you need to be asking yourself - what do I want to get out of this? Do I want to accomplish something for myself, or do I want the other person to walk away feeling happy? And the answer should always be 'make the other person feel happy!' Put a smile on their face!

I run into problems when I come up against other people who don't have the same attitude. But I guess the only way you ever grow is by coming up against problems. I really hope that I grew today.

De-Lurking day!

Have you heard of lurking? You might just be doing it now!

Lurk: intr.v. lurked, lurk·ing, lurks
1. To exist unobserved or unsuspected

2. (jargon) The activity of one of the "silent majority" in a electronic forum such as Usenet; posting occasionally or not at all but reading the group's postings regularly.

So a de-lurking day (you won't find de-lurk in a dictionary) is where you shed your lurker status - if only for a day - and leave a comment to say hello! I like the way blogspot does things, you can leave a comment and stay anonymous if you like, but it's more fun if you tell me your name or at least give me a good hint so I can guess!

My last guestbook suffered from comment spam, which was a sad affliction, and is why this one has a beautiful word verification feature, which I know you'll just love! (Btw if commenting is altogether too traumatic, feel free to drop me a congratulatory email at clovergirl (at) gmail.com)

Else hit the link and give me a hollaback!

My Church

I never went to church when I was younger. Or, okay, maybe once or twice with Grandma when we were staying with her at Christmas or Easter. (She is Catholic, and I remember asking her to bring me back one of the 'presents' that she got from the priest when she went up to the front!) The impressions I remember were of cold, stone walls, droningly boring speeches, keeping quiet or people would look at you, and being desperate to leave. I always thought it was boring, and irrelevant, and useless, and totally not for me.

And, anyway, that all changed. I won't go into what happened to change it here, maybe another time! When I moved to London in 2003, all I knew was that I needed to find a church. I was excited about being in London, excited about starting a whole new life - both in the fact that I was half a world away from everything and nearly everyone I knew, and also that I was newly Christian, and was learning about a whole new world view. A friend of a friend took me to Hillsong in London. We were running a bit late, so we ran in through the doors. The first impressions I had were of noise, loud music, lots of people my age, everyone smiling, and - most beautifully - a sign on the wall saying 'WELCOME HOME'. I was almost overwhelmed and had tears in my eyes - and that was only in the foyer!

I think the thing that became obvious quite quickly over the next few months, was that the people at this church just wanted to love me. Not in a freaky way, as I've seen at other places. One church I attended once seemed to only see new people coming in as numbers, or notches on their belt to prove how good a church they were. I didn't like that vibe. At Hillsong new people are celebrated! People were honestly happy that I was there, and keen not only to answer any questions I had, but also to hang out with me and invite me places! People who were like me, who liked my kind of books and movies, people who were funny and fun to be with, people who could laugh with me and make me laugh, people who honestly took joy in being with me.

The senior pastor, Gary Clarke, preaches a great message about enlarging your world. I remember him saying that if each person in the church made room in their life for one more person, we could double every year and not miss anyone out, not have anyone feel left out. I loved that. The great thing was that I had seen people do this for me. One of the first people who met me at church (at a 'New to London' night) was one of the busiest, but she always made time for me when I needed her.

Amy and Caryn after a service in 2004

After I'd been at church a few weeks I joined the host team. I was lucky to get Vicky as my team leader, she was the first 'leader' that I had at church and has remained the most influential and inspiring person I've met. What I learned overall from serving on team at church? Giving truly is better than receiving, and a servant heart is the key to unlocking the riches of Gods kindgom. So many times we would be at church from 8am til 10pm, actually lots of times even longer than that. For conferences we would serve over an entire weekend. But it wasn't like you wish you were home in bed, or out drinking or doing something else - as this is where the action is! This is where lives are being changed and the kingdom is being built! What better joy or privelege than serving on the front line?

Old school hosts! Andrew, Sandrine, Vicky, Mish, me, Shirley

I was in London for 2 years, and only missed 3 or 4 weekends at church over that time. I didn't want to miss out on a minute of it! I made the best friends I've ever had there. People who I know will stick by me through thick and thin (because they already have), people who love me for who I am and who they believe I can become, people who are not afraid to give me honest and sometimes critical feedback, or call me out when I've got a stinky attitude, who don't demand anything of me - just love me, friends who admire me and seek out my opinion or my company, beautiful friends who continue to love and support me now even though I'm on the other side of the planet.

Picnic fun: Vicky, Mish, Shelley, Dean

But most of all, what I took away after 2 years planted in church in London, was a feeling of undeserved love. These beautiful friends who opened their lives, hearts and homes to me; who I truly felt loved by. Beautiful friends who truly showed me that just as God's love is undeserved, we are here to mirror that love for other people. Even when we're tired, when we're broke, when we're missing our family so much that it hurts, when we're unemployed and not sure how to pay rent, when we're finding it hard to communicate with people from other cultures, when we're hurting because of something someone else said, when we're facing disapointment or disillusionment, whenever. Circumstances don't matter to God, He just loves you anyway. I love that I learnt that message through watching my friends.

Cheers!

Transitioning no more!

Excellent news today, and some more great news, a good accomplishment and some bad news as well - but we can't win all the time can we!

So, first good news is that I spoke to Grace, the company who are delivering my boxes from London. They say that they are through customs, and through quarantine, and are now just waiting for the delivery driver to fit me into his schedule! Yay! After 3 months I can have my things again! That's really going to be a relief. Luckily I'm moving soon too (approx 4 weeks) as there is definately no room here to unpack things!

Second good news is that I was offered a job! It's a great package. The job sounds very doable, and the salary + bonus + super is superb. I went down and saw the office last week, and it's a beautiful office, great location. The people seem really friendly and fun, the desk looks nice, the work seems fine... YAY! It will be so good to have a bit more purpose again! Now, since it's a medical supply company, Christmas is their slow period - which I found very interesting, as every job I've ever had has been retail driven and ths Christmas is the busiest time of year - so they want me to start straight away so that I can start learning the ropes. So next Wednesday I start! (I hope my boxes come before then so I have some corporate clothes to wear!)

The accomplishment was that I finally sent off all my Christmas presents to London - very very late, I know! The Post Office lady told me that I have a chance of them being there by Christmas... sorry if they're a bit late girls, but there are now on their way anyway! I was up til 3am last night wrapping, and then spent about half an hour queueing in the post office line, not my favourite place to be, but it will be all worth it when they unwrap the presents and know how much I love them! (Yes, have you read 'The Five Love Languages'? Can you guess which mine is?!)

The bad news was about the BMW. It;'s been okay to drive around the place lately, but Lance the Mechanic tested it today and looks like the head gasket is definately blown. Yes - that means a whole lot to me too. Apparently it was weak already so it wasn't entirely my fault - good to know, and also apparently there might be some chemical solution to fixing it, but I'm leaving that to the grown-ups to decide. I can't wait til I can buy a car of my own! It's going to be one that is significantly younger than me this time, as opposed to these cars that are nearly the same age!

So three wins and one loss, I think that averages out into a pretty good day! (Don't tell Gary I said that though!)

The Cottage

I spent the weekend down in Sydney at my lovely friend Shelley's house. It's such a gorgeous old house. Shelley insists that it is called a cottage, and so, it shall be known thus ;-)



On Sunday night, after church, we just crashed. But on Monday - which was interview day for both of us - we got a girlie dvd, and had chocolate icecream and fairy floss til we made ourselves sick. Very sick! How decadent! Shelley is not only one of the most beautiful, generous and gentle people that I know - she's also extremely creative! I love the lovely things she has everywhere, all beautiful touches.





Shelley and I met in sunny London, and one of my biggest consolations in coming back to Australia was that I would be able to spend more time with her. The very exciting news is that in late January, one of the other girls from the Cottage (lovely Kiwi Lynne) is moving out, and I'm going to move in! I've had a few interviews for a great job lately and even more beautifully - it's only 10 mins drive from the Cottage.



The Cottage is right next door to a church, and used to be the Vicarage, or the Ministers house - whatever you want to call it. On Sunday mornings, all the congregation park their cars all over the lawn. Right next door to a church! Now how could you complain about having God as a neighbour! (I guess unless He parked you in!)

Some random things you might not know about me

* I love happy, smiley music, and am supremely unconcerned with whether it's cool or not: early Beach Boys, Everly Brothers, Spice Girls, Hi-5, Queen, recent Ben Lee...

* I still have never figured out what colour my eyes are.

* When I was little, I used to be terrified of being the Last Person Awake in our house. My dad gave me tapes of classical music to listen to, to relax me to sleep. Since then I've always associated that particular music with being tense, and terrified, and being the Last Person Awake. When I was 21 I worked in a phone company store, where we had to call the head office all the time and were regularly put on hold for ages. That same piece of classsical music was on repeat on the hold music. Total torture.

* Hair colours I've had: brown, black, orange, red, blue, green, yellow. Current piercings: 5. Tattoo: 1 (and it's a cutie!).

* I have an enormous and immediate affinity with anyone who has the same first name as me (even though when I was in high school I hated it!).

* I seem to be a magnet for random drunk people, especially on public transport. (Oh the stories I could tell!)

* I cry helplessly in happy movies, and thus refuse to watch sad movies as I'm a little afraid of what my reaction might be!

* I used to want to be a filmmaker, and spent 4 years at university studying film history, filmmaking and digital editing. I am now a repressed film snob.

* Someone once described me as revolutionary, and I'm so so so inspired by that!

* I love my cat! She loves to be hugged and talks a lot - which I think is unbearably cute!

* I've always had big dreams, but I wasn't going anywhere good at all until I met Jesus, and now my life is all about His glory and His plans, which I know will be amazing!

* I pride myself at being eloquent, yet I am astonishingly bad at Scrabble!

* I changed my last name when I was 21, and I love it now. I'll be sad to see it go when I get married.

* I worked at the Sydney Olympic Games in the main stadium. The major Australian rights holding broadcaster wanted an interview with Cathy Freeman and her husband after she won her gold medal, but I had been told not to let anyone in to the mix-zone area, and I didn't know who he was so I wouldn't let him in. I don't think they ever got the interview, which would have been a total scoop!

* My friend Mish in London is the second part of my heart.

* I've always been a very shy person, but I love public speaking. The more people in a conversation the better I feel!

* When I was a teenager I thought about suicide a lot, picked out the song I wanted to die to, and even wrote a suicide note (which I still have).

* In highschool I was a cheerleader for the local football team!

* I used to wear a WWJD band, but found myself asking more "What Would Vicky Do?" (a friend from London who is astonishingly graceful in every situation).

* I have an irrational fear of spiders and crawly things which I am trying to conquer! (This is very relevant as an enormous stick insect is taking flying leaps across the wall next to me as I type!)

* I think my sister Katy is the most hilarious person I've ever met, and I aspire to be more like her!

* Foods I love: brie cheese, fairy bread, peppermint chocolate, avocado, pistachio nuts, apple crumble and snow peas. What I hate supremely: cooking.

* When I was young we had cartoons on video, and one of the cartoons was a love story where the princess sang a sad song to her lover. It's been 17 years and I still have that song in my head.

* I feel much more comfortable wearing shoes than going barefoot.

* My blood-type (and my motto for life!) is B positive.

Those crazy sisters of mine...

On Saturday night we went for a bbq at my uncle and auntie's place. In spite of (what I considered) a minor fiasco about how many trips the Clovergirl taxi service had to make because everyone besides me wanted to get drunk, it was a really good night. My mums best friends were there also, who she's known for nearly as long as I've been around, and both of my sisters and their partners came. I had such a great time, it really made it clear to me why it was that I came back from London: family! So nice to be eating great food, sharing lots of laughs, hanging out in the balmy weather (there, I had to say it!) with people who I love!

Katy and Jessie found my cousins old trampoline, and had a great time on it!



They are so lucky that their sister was there to document it!



And then all of a sudden they were off! I was watching the camera, instead of the rust riddled legs of the trampoline, which perhaps may have given us a bit of a warning...



Yes, it was well and truly broken! Luckily the girls weren't hurt at all, they both very cleverly jumped off in crazy directions at the right moment. Very clever those sisters of mine.



"You tell Uncle Phil!"
"No you tell Uncle Phil!"



Uncle Phil: "Yep it's stuffed!"

So after that little incident the girls picked themselves up and carried on enjoying the party with great aplomb. Very graceful those sisters of mine! Di and Cliffy won the award for the 'Most In Love' couple at the bbq...



And even though a few people were guilty of popping off to various places and falling asleep (or in Gary's case, just falling asleep in the middle of conversation, with his hands on his head!) a good time was had by all.

BMW = Buy More Wheels

I went to the beach today - it was glorious!

I loved living in London, but I missed the beach so much! As far back as I can remember, we've always lived near the beach. It's just so relaxing getting out into the salty air, I love it. I remember back in my final year of uni, I was doing an all-night edit session on a film I was making, and had been locked up in the edit suite for at least 10 or 12 hours. (Possibly more, sometimes the sun could come up or go down and the only thing that would register would be that you would have to wait another 8 hours til you could go get Burger King) I was so wired, the only thing I wanted to do was feel the air around me, so I drove to the beach in the middle of the night and sat on the sand for hours. Totally relaxed me and chilled me out!

Today seemed to be Dog's Day Out at the beach. Every man and his dog were there. Now typically I'm very standoffish with dogs, truth is they frighten me! Even little dogs worry me a bit! But there was this one, and he was so cute. He was totally having an excellent time at the beach. His owner didn't seem too fussed to be there, but the dog was certainly making the most of it!







And then on the way home.... the BMW has issues. Issues!

Let me give you some background. About 3 weeks ago, Katy's car sprung a leak in one of the hoses, she saw the temperature gauge go up, but since she couldn't afford to take it to the mechanic, she just kept filling it up with water - and eventually the engine cooked itself. As my step-dad Gary told me "The engine was so hot it could have cooked an egg in minus one seconds flat." (And that's fast!) So Katy didn't have a car, and I drove her around for a while. Then she and her bf tried to get his car registered, turns out his engine was cooked too - from being driven around with a blown head gasket. So I'm now driving both of them around, which I don't mind because the BMW is awesome, I have my Jesus fish sticker and an excellent car cd, so what more could you need really.

So we've all got it hammered into us: watch the temperature gauge kids! If it goes into the red, stop driving!!

So, today, the BMW has issues. The temperature gauge starts rising. There starts to be this horrible burny smell. I'm only about 2 mins drive from home, and I start thinking that I should stop driving, but the temperature gauge isn't in the red, it's only gone up to about three quarters, so I figure I should be right. Which, no. Not even Amy. Not right at all. When I get home and Gary has a look at it, he tells me that the water had all drained out and I should have Stopped! When the gauge even Moved! At All! As it now looks like the engine might be cooked! Cooked I say!

*sigh*

I'm feeling stressed again, I want to go back to the beach. Only... no car to drive in! *sob!*

Christmas, and how my cat was completely no help in decorating the Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree this week! Yahoooo! It's been two years since I've had a Christmas at home in Australia with my family, and if it just wasn't so DARN hot I would be enjoying it a lot more! It definately feels a lot more Christmassy now that we have our tree, which is a real one so now our house even smells like Christmas!



Mum and I had decided on a pink, purple and silver theme for the Christmas decorations, but (see previous post!) upon reflection, we took the pink out of the equation and just went with purple and silver. Mum has chocolate decorations on the tree - which are killing me, I mean come on! I'm a self-confessed chocaholic! Would you hang party sized bottles of alcohol up in front of an alcoholic? Possibly not!!



Button tried to help us put the decorations up, the bells were her favourites.



Slacker...


Mum has been busy, and has wrapped most of her presents already, and they are all already under the tree. Will have to get an updated pic! In spite of me being shopping nearly every day of the week - I still have a lot more presents to get yet. Actually, nearly all of them! I have some beautiful (but light!) presents to send over to London, but the (heavy) family ones are still to go. Here's action shots of Jess and I doing a guerilla shopping raid at Westies on Thursday.



(Doesn't it look like I'm standing in front of the Ghost of Christmas Past, or something equally spooky?)



I tell you - after my birthday, Christmas is my next favourite time of year!! I love presents! (Did you see my wish list up on the right? *cough* *hint* *cough*)

What a world, what a world

I'm melting! Seriously it is HOT! here lately! The clouds have gone away, and summer is in full swing! We've been going to the beach lately, which has been beeyootiful! I really hadn't realised what I'd been missing out on in London with no beaches to go to. Well, I did get to go to Brighton twice, but I will maintain until my dying day that that is not a proper beach!

You can't tell me that a place that you get bruised soles from walking with bare feet, is a beach. Or somewhere with no showers to wash the salt water off once you get out. OR a place that- well, sorry, I'll stop now. It's a lovely place, but I'm falling back in love with the beaches over here again!


We saw the funniest family at the beach yesterday: mum, dad and three kids. The parents were applying sunscreen to the kids. The mum was looking after the oldest, very carefully and thoughtfully. The dad was looking after the two youngest at the same time, slapping on handfuls of sunscreen from a pump pack very randomly and extremely liberally. One kid was crying because he had it in his hair, he turned around to dad and got another handful in the face! Eventually the kids ran off, of two smallest we saw a white mohawk, a completely white leg, a totally white face, and a lot of dad-handshaped white splotches! Would love to see what the tan marks would turn out like if those kids got burned!



My dad bought a back pack full of goodies and we had a very civilised picnic, of course it was full of the obligatory sand, but I hear that that just makes a beach picnic more 'gourmet'.

Half-sick of jobsearching

If the Lady of Shallot had ever had to try looking for a job, I reckon she would have been begging to go back to her tower! I had an interview yesterday with a big medical company. Sounds like a nice job. Although - it's a customer service position, and due to the fact that they have to train you on all of their four and a half thousand products, they ask for a few years commitment. Which is fair enough, as training is a big investment for a company to make - but do I really want to commit 2 or 3 years to a role which probably won't change in that time?

No!

It's great money though, and great location, and the people seem great...

Although, come to think of it, I had an administration job in London that was like that: great location, great people, but not challenging and totally boring and used to send me to sleep at my desk most days...

But can you be picky when you're desperate? *sigh* It's hard! Well, I have a few more calls to make today, so hopefully something will happen by the end of this week. I definately need progress!

The Mardi Gras was on Saturday, and we had a great time! It definately ended up being a high drama day though. When Jess was at the hairdressers in the morning, she got a call from the Council depot, where her float was parked, who told her that since her truck hadn't been parked under cover over night, the storms had wrecked it. Nice! Wouldn't you think the council would take more care of it?? Jess panicked a bit, but her girlfriends went straight down there to fix it, and they did a great job - staking the plants back up, fixing the signs, pulling off all the wrecked bits - and it ended up looking pretty fab again.

Adam looked great in his Whizzy the Water Drop outfit! Jess was beautiful as a Water Princess! The little girls were cuties too!

The final drama came at the end of the day, as the MC was making the announcement of who was the winner of the Mardi Gras Queen. He announced the runner-up, Jen, who was brilliant, but then he said Jessie's name. All of Jessie's supporters started screaming because they thought she had won! Jen actually had to lean over to tell him that he was saying the wrong name. Then he announced the winner and it wasn't Jessie! Everyone was a bit stsunned, but after a second or so, started clapping. Poor Jess! She looked pretty gobsmacked, but carried herself off very gracefully. I think I would have stopped to give the MC a slap as I passed him, if I had have been in that situation!


Jess was great, very calm and composed, and she won a prize for having the most supporters at each Mardi Gras event! Her friends are so beautiful, and as my sister Katy said - 'Her friends are the real prize.' Nice!

Transition coloured glasses

New glasses! I got my new glasses! I can see leaves on trees again, they're not just green blurs! I can see where my car is in the carpark without having to trip over it! I can spot a cute top from over the other side of the shop without having to trek over there! All of you non-glasses wearing smug 20/20 people will not ever know the thrill of getting new glasses and for this I feel sorry for you! Yes, I who has just spent $500 on a new accessory feel sorry for YOU!

They're really cute, and I will take a picture of them to show you... just not today, for I'm going to be a bit girlish and protest that I have a pimple so no cameras are coming anywhere near me today! (You and your 20/20 retinas will thank me for this)

I loved my old glasses, lurrrrrrved them. I bought them in 2003, the week before I left for London. I remember the optometrist told me that they might be another week being made, and asked if that was okay. I told him that of course it wasn't as I would be travelling in a week. Where to, he asked innocently? Says I, in a casual but jetsettingly weary way, "Oh, you know, Tokyo, London, Paris..." (Yes, okay, so it was only a stopover in Tokyo and 3 days in Paris, but he didn't need to know the details!)

Policeman, me and my old glasses, policeman

So the fab glasses had rather imposing brown frames, they were my 'yes, I've got glasses' glasses. (As opposed to my first pair, which were as invisible as could be and were my 'no, I don't really have glasses, what these? oh that's nothing, just an overly enthusiastic pair of earrings' glasses.) I loved them! They were my sidekicks. But the week before I left London they Disappeared. Into. Thin. Air. Which was sad and annoying! I make fun of people who lose things! And now I am one of them! It's so painful to be proven a hypocrite!

Old glasses might still turn up when my boxes rom London get delivered. Bad news for them if they do, as they have been superseded by the new 'it's all about accessorising' glasses. They have multi coat! And transition lenses! You can't get better than that, you just can't! My boxes are supposedly coming in another 2 weeks. I'm not holding my breath though, as apparently there is still a backlog at the customs in Sydney. I've almost forgotten what I packed in those boxes... I hope there's some exciting stuff!

Double fault, love all.

About 18 months ago, I was walking in Kennington Park, and I decided that although my strengths were well documented (and obvious *ahem*) I really didn't know all that much about what my actual faults were.

Seems a bit of a funny thing to dwell on, but I decided that I couldn't really overcome any character faults and go on to become a better person if I didn't know what these faults were, could I? So I decided to have a big chat to God about it, and that I would just keep walking round that park until I knew them all.



It was a long walk.

Eventually I had a list. And they're good ones too! My list consisted of: pride, jealousy, impatience, selfishness and being judgemental.

So this month I've been wondering how I've gone with working on those? And you know what? It's funny, but even though I've been overcoming and stamping out instances of all of these in my life over the past 18 months - the issues still seem to be there. (Although let's be honest, it's easy to be judgemental when you're better than everyone else!) (Kidding, I'm kidding!)

But tonight, I stepped outside my comfort zone, and overcame one of them. Happy, happy, joy, joy! I put aside my pride coloured 'but what will people think' filter, and stepped off the selfish moral high ground that I so comfortably dwell on, and decided to reach out to someone who I was worried about. And it wasn't anything major, just a phone call, and a 30 second conversation, but I tell you something - I heard heaven cheering. It was a faint cheer, and there were definately a few shouts of "Good start, now let's see you keep it up!" but a cheer it was.

My theme this week is all about not letting your fears, faults, or failures hold you back from taking new ground.