Christmas parties

Some shots from our work Christmas celebrations...


Lunch at The Press Club with the fundraising team


Fundraising team after our desk decorating winners were announced. I still think Kylie and I were robbed!!!


During Kris Kringle... Kylie forgot it was Christmas.

welcome to the silly season!

Its been a big few weeks for The life of me... lots of fun events have been on and its been very, VERY busy.

December is a busy month at work for me, with my biggest fundraising event of the year in the first week or two. this year, my event took place on the 7th of Dec and thankfully it all went really, really well. I didn't quite make target in terms of income, but it's a corporate event and in the current environment, the result was still pretty good, with over $130,000 raised on the day. Very pleased.

Although life was a bit stressful before the event, so my lovely lovely friends took me out for a "surprise" day on the Sunday before the event. I got picked up in the morning and taken out to the suburbs where I was treated to a manicure (with a very 80s pink colour) and then taken even further into the suburbs... until we were out at the Yarra Valley where Sarah was waiting to have lunch with Jo, Bron and I :)

Afterwards we did a few cellar doors, visited the venue that Carl and Trish are getting married at next year and finally... drumroll please... the girls took me to see New Moon, where we also purchased a New Moon popcorn meal with a New Moon cup and hideous hat. Photos of the hideous hat still to come. Stay tuned!


As promised - the photo of the awful hat. haha!

So the following week was a bit busy at work with the event and all the follow up, but finally the weekend rolled around (and a day early too) and we left Melbourne at 6am on the Friday morning for MEREDITH!

There are no words. Only these three - BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.



And these three - JARVIS. JARVIS. JARVIS.



So back at work this week and I thought I would be able to catch up on sleep... ummm no! Tuesday night was our last Ale Stars for the year and you can read the Prof's review of the night here: http://beerblokes.blogspot.com/2009/12/do-they-know-its-christmas-ale-time.html



Then I scored a free ticket to Green Day from the lovely Marky Mark and luckily for me, it was postponed from Tuesday to Wednesday night (AKA last night!)

I cant believe I didn't buy a ticket - I had forgotten how much I love Green Day! They played a solid hour of their old stuff, although hardly anything off Nimrod. But for guys that are pushing 40, they have the most amazing amount of energy! I was stuffed by the middle of the gig - but then again I was right up the front in the 'pit' (arguably the lamest mosh pit ever, full of little kiddies). I was so excited during Basketcase... I think the people I was with were a bit freaked out...

They had tons of 'big show' stuff, like flame throwers and fireworks and of course their huge barrels that send out streamers at the end of the show. They set of tons of blue streamers after their first encore when they played Minority. It was awesome! I felt like such a teenager, but I don't care! It was one of the most fun gigs of the year! Photos on the way soon :)

So back at work today and got tons to do. Hence the blog update. Staff Christmas party tomorrow, another party tomorrow night, then the xmas/seaford celebration on Saturday and catching up with the high school girls on Sunday. Woot!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Busy Busy Busy

Its been busy - I'm avoiding work that is rapidly piling up on my desk to update here, which I've been ignoring for a while. And also enjoying my first coffee in a week, so all in all its a good morning so far!

Briony and Graeme have been visiting lately - they are in Sydney now and go back to the UK from there :( I got some excellent Christmas presents from them! One was a book journal to keep track of the books I am reading - such a good idea. For each book you can put down the normal details like title, author, synopsis etc but you can also add in details like what's happening in your life while you're reading it, who you recommended it to, where you got it from etc. Its super cool! Too bad the first book I put in it last night when I started my amazing book journal was the ever trashy "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare. But I love it. It now sits next to my other favorite journal type thingy things, my Simple Diary by Phillip Keel and my Wine Journal, which is very similar except you write in it when you open a nice bottle of wine. mmm wine. I think that was a gift from Briony as well, so clearly she knows me well!!! I feel so literary, keeping numerous journals like I do.

The other present was a Horrible Histories activity set, which I love! I love those books, even though they are for kids. The activity set is themed to the Terrible Tudors, which is my favorite Horrible History (one of my favorites at least!). Its hilarious. Just look at how hilarious the front cover is!!!



Finally meeting Graeme was pretty cool as well. I got to hang out with him when I took a day off work where we went to Little Creatures for lunch, then went on a CUB tour, then went to St Jude's Cellars and THEN went to ALE STARS!!! WOOOO Love Ale Stars. It was good to see so many people there, even if Luke from Epic Brewery was a total knob.

In other news, New Moon was released this month. Luckily we only have to wait 6 months for the next film, because I cannot believe how quickly I changed to Team Jacob. I am slightly disturbed that he is only 17 years old, but not disturbed enough to stop myself posting a photo of him



Its heaps better than the first film, but lets be honest, its trashy as. I love it! The best part about the whole thing was when I saw the film opening night and the power cut out halfway through. I thought people were going to riot, it was pretty funny.

But the night after that I saw The Brothers Bloom with Clare and that actually was an amazing film - one of the best I've seen this year, if not the best. I love TV and films about grifters and con artists and this one was particularly clever and beautifully shot. I loved it and you should see it if you can.



Christmas coming soon... time to start shopping properly now. Although I did get Bron and Simon excellent presents earlier this week. Its a secret thought, so I cant tell you about them!

The Pig of Happiness

ermm.. ok then. Here we go.

So anyone who knows me, knows I am not really the creative type. I used to keep a journal... when I could be bothered writing in it... and I liked to paint when I was a child. To be fair, I still like the idea of standing outside throwing paint at a giant canvas, but clearly I am way to grown up for that kind of nonsense now.

I've compensated this by recently purchasing a 'special' journal that I write in every few weeks. Its called Keel's Simple diary and its pretty good for someone as creatively challenged and lazy as me. Or someone as simple as me.

This guy called Phillip Keel has created these ready made diaries that can be written in any order as often or as little as you like. Each page is enough for one day and will ask you to answer a series or random questions about said day, then asking you to explain why your day was either 'spying', 'pushy' or 'not missing a thing'. Sometimes you can draw a picture, or colour in a picture.

I love them. They almost always make me laugh. Here, I've attached a photo for you to look at.

Despite the simplicity of the diary, I nearly always forget to write in it... hmm. Then I end up writing in it for 4 days in a row and then forget for another 3 weeks.

Anyway, the point of this long-winded story is that I am not really sure that keeping a blog will be my forte. But hey, I'm going to give it a go and see what happens as a result. And if it's no good then I will go back to writing in my simple diary and watching doctor who.