Just some bits and pieces

The party yesterday was fine, the rain held off and a good time was had by all. The rain started again after the party and hasn't really let up since - but this is good. There ends today's weather report. If my (often silent) readers wonder if I'm obsessed by weather they'd be right. I can't help it. In winter it's because my Scottish blood craves cold and rain (and snow really but I'm not completely stupid, I know that isn't going to happen). In summer it's because I am dreading the hot days, I don't like the heat, it makes me miserable. It's worse right now in our in-the-process-of-being-renovated-so-as-yet-not-airconditioned-house. I even have a 'weather' label on this blog. God I'm sad.

Next....

This morning I looked around my (unrenovated) lounge room and wondered what the hell visitors from another planet would think if they stopped by this morning. The tree in the corner covered in lights and strange ornaments (trust me they are strange), the elf sleeping in a shoe box under that tree (long story). The group of middle easterners and livestock crowded round a baby in a water trough that is sitting on the side table. And me, still in my PJs alternately drinking coffee, separating squabbling children and typing madly on this little square thing. Humans are bizarre. Just an observation.

Also....things I never thought I'd hear my husband say....

.....'Perhaps I'll just meet him this afternoon and go for a game of golf...' Excuse me? Golf? In all the years I've known Tom I've never heard him say anything good about golf. He mocks golf. He is scathing in his attitude to golf. However today, apparently, he is meeting an old friend (who is back in town for Christmas) and they will play GOLF. When I stopped laughing I asked him if he actually knows how to play golf. It seems he knows how, he just doesn't like it and can't do it very well. How I wish I could be there to witness that. Tom playing golf is to me like the cat cooking dinner. Unnatural and unlikely.

A little about Tom's gift buying capabilities...

First, because I know he reads this blog. Tom, I love you. Now....on with the mocking. In all the years we've been together Tom has given me many gifts. The first, was a thank you and goodbye gift when he was leaving to live in Darwin, we had agreed not to do the long distance relationship thing so we broke up. After vacating his flat, he'd been staying with me in the lead up to his departure, so he presented me with a beautifully wrapped gift. I opened it in eager anticipation, this was something I could keep forever, a momento of the time we had together, so sad, so tragic would be our lost love... and in my old age I would open a box of dusty treasures and settle my rheumy gaze on.....this coffee mug. Certainly a nice coffee mug, a beautiful mug in fact, fine procelain with a naive art image on it. But really, a coffee mug as a symbol of our short romance? Perhaps not. However I did love that mug until it broke. I'm not good with fragile stuff. To cut a long story short he didn't stay in Darwin, he came back 3 months later and, well....here we are.

The years in between have been filled with gifts, some beautiful, some ghastly, some strange and puzzling and some downright disappointing. Among the beautiful are the Yves St Laurent pyjamas, the journal bound in fine Chinese paper, good quality photo albums, books and a few years ago now, my first digital camera. All of these puntucated by such presents as the 4 litre casserole dish, the cheese grater (a microplane grater mind you), the dustbuster and the winner.....the chess set (don't ask, I have no idea). It's not that he doesn't know me, it's more that we have a different view of gift giving, all of those things are items that I have said I wanted at some time or another. To him if it's practical and you have at some point mentioned you'd like one, then it is fair game in the present giving stakes. For me, unless I have specifically requested a practical item, gifts should be something I wouldn't buy myself, perhaps a little impractical even, a luxury item ...indulgent. When I say I want a big casserole dish, I mean at some stage I will buy a big casserole dish. Anyway, it is always an adventure and while I am now careful to create a wish list and leave it in an obvious place there is still always the possibility of a 'surprise'. Ahem. Roll on Tuesday - I'll keep you posted.

So there you are, just a big pile of nothing in today's post. I can now spend the rest of the day getting on with my Christmas preparations, happy in the knowledge that I have once again provided the internet with my pointless musings.