18.01.07

gratuitous photo of myself watching tv with baxy - for my mom, who enjoys such things.

11.01.07

i hit the op shops saturday morning and found a bit of gold - in silver form. a necklace with 10 sterling charms attached for the mere price of $9.99. the real excitement in all of this, to me, was that more than half of the charms are from canada, with two from jasper including the absolute classic, jasper the bear.



there is also one from "husky tower calgary" (stamped on the bottom) which had me a bit confused as i've never heard of husky tower, despite living 2 hours from calgary for a good 26 years and spending many a weekend there (now husky house, a cheap breakfast spot, i remember well). a little googling revealed that husky tower was name changed to calgary tower in 1971 so these charms must be quite old indeed. i love this little bit of canadian history, discovered in a random australian suburban thrift shop.

in other news, after a very quiet and luxurious period last week, work has fired up with a vengance and the amount of stuff i need to get done in the next three weeks alone has me gasping to keep my head above water (she says, as she types out a blog entry with a pile of work to her right). i discovered in the last month that i can happily spend 6 hours a day just reading blogs, listing items on etsy, leaving and reading comments on flickr, replying to emails... where is my internet time going to fit in with this crazy amount of work, damnit?

01.01.07

my buddies, enjoying a new year's day siesta.

happy new year! i'm busy drinking coffee, scratching mosquito bites and planning for the day, the year, after a last evening of 2006 in sarah and sharpey's backyard with plenty of food, good wine and dogs playing madly (and, forementioned mosquitos). new year's eve is really much more pleasurable in the southern hemisphere - none of this trying to look cute and fancy when it's bucketing snow outside and standing on street corners in -31ºC trying to catch a cab whilst your toes freeze into little bloodsicles. while christmas benefits from a little cold weather, new year's should always be outside, with a warm breeze and firecrackers in the background.

i'm glad 2006 is over, happy to shed the whole year like an old skin. it was, in all ways, the best and worst 12 months i've had yet and despite all the bad, i've ended the year feeling entirely happy with my place in the world. with a growing sense of excitement to live in this inspiring city, thrilled to fall asleep every night with my best buddie(s) (baxter must be included, of course), secure in the fact that i've made some true friends this year and i'm lucky enough to see a few of them every single day at a job that feels more like a place to hang out (most of the time).

we've got some big plans this year and a lot of things to look forward to: finally finding a house which we can fix up and make our own, my mom visiting in march for two weeks, a music festival weekend with lou, sandy, em and ben in april, possibly adding to our little household (another puppy? a baby? who knows!)... and i have many, many resolutions which i hope to stick to. i love a new year, especially when it starts on a monday - it truly feels like a fresh slate.