Storytime

So Christmas has been done and dusted...well except for those we catch up with a day or two, or even a week later. But the main event is over. We breathe a sigh of relief, wear loose fitting clothes from our over indulgence and fill the rubbish bins with wrapping paper and empty bottles.  A lot of people have a few days off to relax, rewind and recover. For me this is a chance to do not much but read. I am heading, as I usually do, to my sister's place in the Tambo valley in East Gippsland. There is a lot of talking, walking, checking out the garden, full on board game marathons with the boys...but I do get to read as well. This year I managed to read 52 books and listened to 12 audio books. I was late coming to the audio books and I must admit I have to find the RIGHT one. I have to enjoy listening to the narrator (and so many of them just don't do it for me) but I find if I'm not totally interested in the story, then I become distracted. Other thoughts and no...

Twas four days before Christmas and all through the house... the cat was attacking the tinsel and knocking baubles off the tree. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St Nicholas soon will be there.. Not hung as such...more like placed on top of fireplace. We do have a fire, (enclosed) and a chimney...but alas no mantlepiece. So dilemma...where to hang them? And of course there is one for George. The decorations have come out of storage, and with Little Miss doing the majority of the work, we are decorated. Her decorating technique was to simply add and add and then add some more. To a seven year old, more is definitely more. I have not changed a thing. The tree is still bottom heavy (as are most of us).  The fact is that we were two shortish people, and the tree is big. Other half did get up a ladder and add some tinsel and decorations..which is good. As George is making a good job of denuding the bottom half...her decoratin...

Sunday was the annual Nissan Family morning at Luna Park . For the past few years we have had Little Miss sleep over, with a bit of Christmas lights hunting, and then taken her in the morning. At first she was timid...unsure of the rides. But this year...she knew no fear! She went on the Coney Island Top Drop...twice...once with me, once by herself. That was fun, not scary at all she told me. She went with Grandpa on the Dodgems, while I admired their driving skills. Or lack thereof. Even though she went on the Merry-go-round last year, this year she decided she was too big. So she went on the Spider. Three times. We would get on, scream throughout the ride, then once off she would run around and line up again with a 'come on, get on with me.' Grandpa and I took turns. This year she ventured on the Silly Serpent...twice....then onto the Twin Dragon. Twice. Granpa even talked her onto going onto the Scenic Railway. They sat in the first seat ( I sat ...

Bowie said it best (didn't he always?)....Ch ch ch ch changes, turn and face the strange. There is something about change that we either love or hate. I have known people that can't stay in the same home...or job for that matter...for longer than a year. They get itchy feet. Know that there is something better out there and so they move on. Change is what drives them. It inspires them and makes them look at things differently. My work is in constant change. We are always introducing new technology and new ideas...new staff (from CEO's to those that work alongside us). We open new branches, have new policies, new procedures. We change opening hours and days, change programs and times. We are constantly changing our layout to enable us to give our best. So change is something I'm quite familiar with. I won't move house in a long while though, very happy here, but we do change things around. Paint walls, put in new carpet, new furniture. Change the layout of ...

It's that crazy pre-Christmas time when all of our groups call it an end for the year. My writing group, Lazy River Writers   meet at the end of the month so last weekend was our Christmas break up. Celebrating Christmas in November does seem strange, but trying to find another date, that doesn't clash with children / work / social activities is near impossible. You should see us try to plan a writing retreat! It is always a fun day. We lunch..we chat....we celebrate the fact that we are friends as well as writers. Serious business does get done. If I recall correctly, this happened about four and a half hours after we got together...but some things can't be rushed. Being the last meeting for the year, we had to plan the dates for the coming year, 2017. And as I work a lot of weekends, this lovely group of writers, always move things around to accommodate this. We tweak the set dates...find venues if our usual local library is unavailable (we do clash wi...

 On Sunday we had the final Poetry in the Hills for 2016. It has been a huge year and we've had some wonderful writers share their work. I'm not going to say poets because we have more than that...we've had singers and musicians, prose writers and essayists, memoir writers and novelists, bush poets and people-who-just-want-to-get-up-there-and-rant. Not only did we have the final gig for the year, we also had a feature poet and the launch (well one of her launches) of her poetry collection. We had the one of a kind Yvette Stubbs launching her collection Barbed Wire Kisses.  She is having a launch at the Dan O'connell on Saturday 3rd December for those wanting to get a hold of this fantastic work. Yvette is a born entertainer and has the great ability of holding the audience in the palm of her hand. She made us laugh out loud, then made us cringe....she made us smile... then squirm as we were witness to pain and loss. The last even for the year is also ...

I decided, since our Book Club was on my day off, I would begin picking LIttle Miss up after school and take her. It gave the two of us some Grandmother / granddaughter time as well. We would park at the library, skip  walk to the shops and have a cappuccino/ milkshake/ drink of some description...and usually a cake. Then we would wander back to the library and fun would begin. Little Miss really enjoyed them. The games, the craft activity...even choosing a new book or three to take home. This is what libraries are great at...making reading fun. It doesn't matter if your child is an avid reader or not....it's all about making books a part of everyday life and the library a welcoming space. Huge part of my job is reading to little ones. From babies to toddlers and school age. But my main sessions are with babies. Some are a mere three weeks old, some are four months old. Some are crawling, some are toddling. The whole concept is to get them interested in books and make...

On the weekend we managed to finally get around to hubby's birthday present. Almost a year late but honestly, it's so difficult to co-ordinate events into busy lives these days. Any way, a date was selected and event booked. I had given him, and included a ticket for myself of course (why should he have all the fun)- a helicopter flight to Bass Valley Estate Winery  . This included a guided tour by the owner of this boutique winery Roger..then some sampling of wines and a ploughman's lunch. Helicopters are fun! So much fun. Frankly I could fly in them every day of the week and not get bored. It's always great to see the world from a different perspective. Everything set out below in a three dimensional map. This boutique winery began as a dairy farm.  Roger, the owner, was born and bred on this land but in the late 80's when everyone was told to diversify to survive...he decided to plant some vines. Huge learning curve later... and t...