Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!

(Is there a name for it when your fingers seem to be dyslexic? I know what I want to type and how I want to spell it, but my fingers sometimes come down in the wrong order and I seem to be unable to stop them.)

I've had a pleasantly quiet few days this week, unfortunately slightly marred by a throat infection. On Tuesday I visited my grandparents for lunch and a read through of my Grandma's cook book. This book is amazing, it was in her glory box growing up, so it's at least 55 years old if not older. I copied out some of the jam and marmalade recipes and a few of the desserts too. Then I went through her own recipe book, which has things she's written down, recipes from friends and recipes she's cut from magazines. I found the magazine recipes fascinating, if only because of the advertisments around them, apparently Fletcher Jones' new season coats were $15 once. She's also promised me the recipe for pickled cucumber soup (I know it sounds revolting, but it's a Lithuanian dish I grew up eating and it tastes like childhood and is actually quite yummy.) The very best thing was getting Grandad's tomato sauce recipe, another thing I grew up with which he hasn't made in years, I'm looking forward to recreating it come tomato season.

On the frugal front I'm trying to train my hair to need less washing. Right now I've gotten down to once every five days. It looks pretty bad by the last day but it's getting better. I'm hoping to get myself down to once a week and then hopefully after that only doing it once a month or so and whenever it's actually dirty. We have giant bottles of shampoo and conditioner at the minute which we bought from the natural soap place in Castlemaine, but once they run out I'm going to try the bi-carb soda and apple vinegar route.

Another lifestyle change we're trying at the moment is no more veging in front of the television. We've put a throw over the tv to hide it from view. The idea isn't to never watch tv again, but instead to be unable to watch it mindlessly. I actually have to have something in particular to watch in order to go to the effort of pulling the throw off and loading up the dvd player. So far this is actually going amazingly well. I've cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, re-organised the laundry cupboard (which was in desperate need of organisation) made mulled-wine jelly (with partial success), hemmed new work trousers, gone for a walk, read several interesting books, had a nice relaxing bath and have been in bed at a very reasonable hour, all this in the evening hours I usually spend zoned out in front of the television. Now if only I could convince Seamus to get off the laptop as well ;-)

Hmm, what else? I have lemons! One of the Flight Coordinators at work brought me a bag of them, so sometime over the next few days I'll have to make some marmalade. It will have to be done before Tuesday, because on Tuesday I'm flying to Adelaide! Hmm, actually I'll re-state that, I have a ticket to fly to Adelaide on Tuesday with Tiger Air, so I hope I'll be getting to Adelaide on Tuesday!

Oh, one last thing, I'm reducing my medication at the moment, so if there are disruptions to your regularley scheduled Chris I do apologise for the inconveniance and will hopefully be up and running again soon.

Work: I am enjoying work at the moment. I like most of the people I work with and even those with whom my personality clashes I can respect and work with well. I still feel like I am doing something worthwhile and while this is definitaly not a career job it is a great job to have in my mid 20s and has given me a stable background and foundation from which to work out what I do want to do as a career.

Study: At this stage I think I will give up the Masters in Social Work. I dislike the course, in particular the teaching, and I didn't get along with (too) many of the other students. If they are indicative of the kinds of people and personalities I'll be working with... no thank you. Also the hours were becoming impossible to combine with my job.

Sometime tomorrow today I will hear from a representative from SEEK education who will be checking whether I want to enrol in a Graduate Diploma of Counselling at the Australian College of Applied Psychology. I will tell her I want to enrol in the September term. I've asked Melbourne UNi to send me my academic transcript and sometime this week I will suspend my Masters.

Married Life: I am really enjoying it so far. I'm not sure how much has changed. We've used it as a motivator to get our lives sorted out, so we've opened a new joint account and written up a budget and have a rough five-year plan that involves a house and a dog and hopefully a baby.

With the death of Seamus' father the meaning of our vows has really been brought home to me. Through no fault of ours (or anyone's) and without our marriage being "in trouble" we are definitely experienceing the "worse" in the "better or worse" and the "bad" in the "good times and bad." Without being married we'd be going through the same thing anyway and reacting in the same way, and it would still be my role to be supportive and loving and do all I could to help, but it feels good and right that we were willing to stand up in front of our friends and family and promise these things and that we are now following through on them. It's one of the few things that feels good about the situation. It means they weren't just words, and the wedding wasn't just an excuse for a party.

I was overjoyed when Seamus decided to hyphenate his name. I really love that we now have the same surname without either of us having to give up our name. I also love that we acknowledge both our families with our name, and yet we are definitely our own little family. We are not the Magees, we are not the Curtains, we are the Curtain-Magees, simultaneously both families and specifically our own. Symbolically of course, but it's a symbolism that makes me very happy.

Family: Family are doing as well as can be expected, considering. My sister-in-law has an exhibition that I really want to see, and I think my mother-in-law is planning on selling some of her paintings soon. My parents are well, though Mum is having an operation in June and will be home recovering for six weeks afterwards. Hopefully I'll be able to drive out and spend time with her during the day when I'm not working. Dad has been really great recently. He's spoken to me a lot about what he went through when his father died and has been concerned about Seamus without prying. He also came and prayed with us at Tony's side while he was dying and then officiated at the burial a week ago. It's sometimes helpful having a Catholic deacon for a father ;-) In some ways it did more to show that our two families are now joined than our wedding did. It's one thing to be welcoming to new people on a joyous occasion, quite another after a death.

Grandparents on all sides seem to be good, my grandfather had a hip operation while we were on honeymoon but is now home and much better.

Friends: No major crisies for so long it's making me wonder if we've all grown up. I'm really looking forward to Michael and Kate's wedding next Saturday, and then for the first time in about four years I will not have a wedding invitation on the fridge. As the wedding stage finishes (or at least tapers off) the children stage is starting, at least one person reading this is expecting a child before the end of winter. I'm looking forward to the children stage in my friendship groups, even though I know it will change my social life much more dramatically than the marriage stage did.

My friends remain some of the most important people in my life. I feel very blessed when I think of the people with whom I'm surrounded.

Cats: They're shits, but they're very cute shits.

I've been having a break from work for the past few days, and that means I've also avoided the internet. A good thing too, since having four days worth of posts to catch up on gave me a way to fill in an hour this morning after completeing my work.

Christmas was great. We had dinner with Dad's relatives the weekend before Christmas, then the traditional Guzys family Christmas Eve (at my grandparent's house for the last time- next year it'll move east) which felt more relaxed than it has for a while. My grandmother has been slowly off-loading her old knitting patterns on me as her arthritis has stopped her knitting as much. This time instead of the usual jumpers and glove patterns it was toys, and baby booties. Subtle Grandma, real subtle.

On Christmas day we opened our presents under the Christmas tree. Seamus got me an entire outfit from Ecowear- one of my favourite shops- includinga scarf and bag. I got him some antique rose gold cufflinks with his initials engraved on them (and I didn't get the initials engraved- they came like that- fate!) then we had a breakfast of buckwheat pancakes, bacon and maple syrup while watching the cats run around happily with their new toy mice.

Christmas lunch was at Seamus' Mum's place with his sister Morg and her partner Doug. A very laid back meal. Seamus went on to his Dad's relatives afterwards, but I stayed home to sleep in preparation for my night shift. In the evening we had those that once were MUCAAS over for the annual Christmas wind-down party which was a lot of fun. I left at about 1130pm to go to work.

It wasn't too bad working overnight on Christmas night. I managed to get to sleep about 4am and didn't wake up until about 7:30, with only half an hour to go on my shift. Seamus and I hit Highpoint early to spend the money we'd received for Christmas (we now have a food processor!) before I fell into bed and Seamus went off to visit his Dad with his sister.

Apart from that the last couple of days have involved watching DVDs while knitting on the couch, reading, eating blood plums, having family and friends over for meals and going out to family and friend's places for other meals. It's been fantastic, and a wonderful break.

Bring on 2010!

My Christmas was lovely.

I worked Christmas Eve. I work in emergency services, so you can imagine that working Christmas Eve could be a little disheartening (I was hoping I would not end up like Turk from the first Christmas episode of Scrubs) Luckily it was quiet, so apart from feeling very sad for two young motorcycle riders it was okay.

mc_shamo came and picked me up at 11pm when my shift ended. He drove me home where he had laid out a candlelight supper on the table. There was organic stilton cheese and a spanish dessert wine and two little french puddings being steamed on the stove. By the time we'd finished it was midnight, and we exchanged gifts. I gave Seamus a pair of Etiko high-top shoes (think Converse but fair-trade with renewable rubber and organic cotton) and he gave me a truly beautiful amber and silver bracelet. It's really gorgeous, and it shows that he has excellent taste and also pays attention to what I like, as he got it to match my favourite amber necklace.

We got up on Christmas morning and had a breakfast of fruit and yogurt and cereal. I finished making the food for lunch and we drove to my parents place.

We had a really lovely afternoon. My parents live in Beaumauris, about three houses up from the beach. It was us, my parents, my brother, my paternal aunt Moira and uncle Michael and their daughter- my cousin Tess- and her husband Andrew. Small and manageable. Mum looked a bit disconcerted by my food; she'd forgotten that I was bringing the roast, but relaxed after she took the gladwrap off the salad and said , "Oh, it's cous-cous!" She'd thought I'd made a rice salad and was a bit hurt because she always makes the rice salad at Christmas and everyone always says how nice it is. I assured her that I would never have made a rice salad and was really looking forward to her one. And that there? That was the stickiest moment the entire day, for a family Christmas I believe that's incredibly good going!

For lunch there were four different salads, including mine, then roast ham for the meat eaters, a huge seafood platter and my vegetarian roast, which I'm sure at least my parents and mc_shamo really liked, I certainly did :-) We did well on the present haul too. The night before was my mum's side of the family's Christmas thing, which I couldn't go to as I was working, I'd just sent cards for everyone except my cousin Emily, for whom I'd found a framed Degas print in an op-shop (which Mum said she watched Emily open and she obviously loved, yay!). Mum informed me everyone had disobeyed my "no presents please" request and Seamus and I were inundated with towels, crockery and booze. All of which are welcome. From Dad's side we were given beer glasses (Tess is teh awesome) and some gorgeous serving plates and I got some accessories to jazz up work outfits (Tess again- she is teaching me how to make one expensive outfit actually look like five for work wear). My brother gave us the entire Monty Python's Flying Circus and upped his cool points something chronic. Because we're hippies we gave everyone organic wine, except my brother, who we gave a JB voucher and a keyring of an ugly man who has snot coming out of his nose when you squeeze it. Being my brother David thought this the height of hilarity.

We sat round and vaguely helped with the clearing up and drank coffee until mc_shamo was positive he was right to drive (not that he would have got much over .05 at any point in the day anyway) then drove home along Beach rd. I was really happy. My parents both seemed relaxed and well, and everyone has accepted Seamus as a member of the family. They all like him and include him, and I'm proud of them, because it's the first time someone in this little part of our family has had a "partner" they live with as opposed to a husband or wife. We weren't treated any differently to Tess and Andrew and there are now vague plans for my aunt and uncle to visit us soon for afternoon tea (I wasn't actually sure they'd been told Seamus and I live together). So all was well, and happy. :-)

Christmas night our traditional MUCAAS party was small but cosy and chilled. We had round cows_might_fly, clappamungus, jpom40 (who quickly succumbed to the cat hair he was allergic too, poor thing!) and pseudo-Cambridge-Sam. We talked, watched Monty Python and drank. Lovely. It's a really good way to round off Christmas.

Boxing Day mc_shamo and I hit the sales. Oh boy did we hit the sales. We did Highpoint and the CBD. Our haul:

-Ipod dock
-"All that Alternative" 3 cd set
-men's short sleeved shirts from Jeep
-women's short sleveed 3/4 length summer jacket thing from Jeep
-red zirconia and silver earrings to go with my new bracelet from a jewelers
-a white bra to replace my current one which is now not so much white but grey and has little elasticity left
-two pairs Thai fishermans pants from Ishka
-womens work/casual black pants from Ishka's $10 basket (the clasp had come away from the belt, it took less that ten minutes sewing to fix and hey presto! $60 pair of pants for $10!)
-womens formal/work black pants from Myer
-work top from Myer
-summer dress from Myer (one of those awesome dresses that can be work/formal/casual that Myers is so good at producing)
-mens socks 'n' jocks from Myer
-bananaman t-shirt (whee!I have both now!)
-De Blob Wii game

I also found a perfect suit for jpom40's wedding. Unfortunately it was only available in size 10 or lower. I am a size 12-14. The nice lady at the Cue store in Myers rang around but nowhere in the CBD has it in a larger size. I was bummed, because it was so perfect I was willing to buy it even if James decided he didn't like it and I had to wear something else to the wedding, it would have been worth the suit alone, paticularley at 50% off in the sale. Ah well, cannot win them all. I then found another beautiful one at Antons, but it was $600. I am actually considering it but I'd want James' approval first! It's very nice indeed, the one at Antons, and the jacket could be worn over a dress at later formal occasions.

Today mc_shamo and I are going to his mum's place for Christmas lunch. It should be fun!

All in all, the last few days have been relativley stress free (even the sales are mostly stress-free when done with mc_shamo!) and filled with family and friends and laughter and fun. I have had a wonderful Christmas so far. I know for some people reading this this is not the case, and I truly hope you are as physically and emotionally well as possible and that things improve soon, and that next's year Christmas is better. I'm thinking of you.

Merry Christmas all.

I am at work. It was very boring until 9pm when the supervisor left and I was able to crack out my book.

The last few days have been fun, Boxing Day I braved the sales and bought new socks, new jeans, two new tops, new gym shorts (fin? Remember those navy shorts you gave me? I've been using them as gym shorts for ages, and as painting short, and wearing around the house shorts, and walking to the cafe shorts...) and new flat leather sandals that are appropriate for work. Since I've been running out of clothes that fit and are not ripped/stained/faded I'm very happy with my purchases. In the evening mc_shamo came with me to see The Golden Compass ( Very quick evaluation, contains Spoilers )

Thursday morning I worked, then went to visit the kittens, who were very very cute for the few seconds during which they stopped hiding under the fridge.

Friday I went with mc_shamo, his mum, uncle and grandmother out to Bayswater for their big family Christmas thing. It was fun, his family can cook (funny that). It was nice seeing small children running around at Christmas, with one exception my cousins are now too big, they prefer sitting in the playroom and watching dvds. We didn't get home until after 8pm. I sat and watched American Dad with my brother while mc_shamo played Lord of the Rings.

Today we got up early enough to beat the heat (a bit, sort of, as much as possible) and had breakfast at Lomah's (by the way, any of you ever in the Union Rd type area, go to Lomah's, it's pretty cool) we came back and got cracking on some serious lounging. I actually fell asleep with my nose in my book until I was abruptly awoken by mc_shamo's phone. After some lunch and more lounging we went to the gym where we met vivienne_aster and all felt rather unfit (Damn you, Christmas!). Kate very kidly drove to Newmarket where I got some dinner from the supermarket, then got on a train and came in to work. Where I am now. Typing this. I'm bored.

Tomorrow there shall be yoga, then two meals out as mc_shamo's dad has claimed lunch and my parents have claimed dinner. Then Monday I'm working a full day then coming home and helping mc_shamo set up for the MUCAAS New Years party, then forgetting everything about being a good host as soon as the first guests arrive and I have a beer in my hand (at least, that is what usually happens when I help with parties). On Tuesday I have a day filled with...nothing. Nothing nothing nothing. No family stuff, no work, no errands or shopping...nothing. I'll probably read, play with the internet, try to get my half of the bedroom into some sort of order, if my brother has it back of my cousin watch Scrubs... it sounds very, very nice. :-D

Friday I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping. I need to wait til next Friday to do the rest as that is when I'll have more money, sigh. I trudged around the city and carlton for ages. laurenmitchell met me when she finished work and we had a drink together and got to catch up outside the thirty second conversations which are all we can manage at work. After she left I looked at the nice shops in the Royal Arcade and waited for mc_shamo to get to the city. He did and we bought some Christmas decorations, wandered around trying to find nice things to look at. It took us ages to find the Myer Christmas shop, mc_shamo thought maybe the new German owners didn't believe in Christmas. We found it eventually, but it was more of a "Christmas Department" than a Christmas Shop- still it was cool. I was upset that they've gotten rid of the Myer Bears, they've replaced them with a travesty caled "Baxter the Christmas Bear" Humph! Anyway, we got our decoration from the Oxfam shop and it's cool. We had dumplings for dinner after getting a beer at the Lounge and went to look at the Christmas lights in Hardware Lane before leaving the city. I like Christmas.

Sarturday turned out to not be as busy as I thought it would be. Things were cancelled. Therfore I spent a truly enjoyable, wonderful day in bed. We got up once to get food from a cafe, but spent the rest of our time lying around while mc_shamo played Lord of the Rings and I read a book about Cicero (fiction, but actual intellectual fiction- which I haven't felt up to grappling with for ages) We did other stuff as well, but you don't want to hear about that ;-) In the evening we headed over to penelope_jane and vox_diablica's flat for dinner. It was a very nice meal and it was really good to relax in their company. I know I've said it many times, but I treasure the easiness and friendliness Mark and Penny are so good at providing- I am going to miss him when he moves. fin called later in the evening, it was good to hear his voice.

Yesterday we slept in and then lay in bed talking instead of getting up when we were meant to, which meant we had to rush to get to a Body Balance class at the gym (vivienne_aster calls this class "I-Can't-Beleive-It's-Not-Yoga"). It was a good class, I found it much easier than the last one I'd taken, I'm actually not sure if that is because it was, or because I've gotten stronger and better at it- I hope it's the latter! After class mc_shamo's dad picked us up and took us to lunch with mc_shamo's cousins, Patrick and Patrick (Yes, they also have the same surname, no I'm not kidding. It helps that one lives in Canada) it was fun, there was a lot of talk about the Law. It was a rather long meal (which I didnt mind) so by the time we got back to Ascot Vale it was past four o'clock. I went home and gathered some things, then we loaded them into greenpea33's car and she very kindly drove us back to mc_shamo's (Her little brother and his girlfriend need a place to stay in January, so I'm temporarily moving in to Seamus' place while they take over my room). We dumped my stuff and I had a quick conversation via phone with _bounce_ about the stray cats who seem to have adopted our house- or at least underneath it- as home. My parents showed up and we all went out for dinner to Fraus (yum!) then I was droped at cows_might_fly and clappamungus's place to visit doesthemgkdrgn who is house-sitting. I sat and chatted with him for a few hours before coming home to mc_shamo's, watching some tv with my brother and then going to bed.

Even if they drain me now, I know in ten years it will be weekends like this I look back on and treasure. Ok, Saturday wasn't that draining, but still! :-) It was a very, very, VERY good weekend.