crazybrave

A seasonal meme, from Pavlov’s Cat:

1) Do you have a tree, and if so what is hanging on it?

We bought a very fine pine tree from the Farmers’ Market a few weeks ago; the smell for the first few days was enough to justify the purchase (not that it was expensive – $30 I think).

As for decorations, there are a few red and gold ones, and some tiny blue disco balls. All the decorations are at the top. This is why:

Note evil eyes.

2) What’s the most successful bit of Christmas cooking you’ve done so far?

I glazed a little ham for a pre-holiday supper with Ampersand Duck and her family. Mmmm. (Glaze is described at my flickr page for the keen). Much to Owen’s amusement I often take pictures of me dinner. We had it with baguettes from the French bakery, endive from the garden, sharp cheese, mustard and a great deal of Duck’s husband’s sour cherry relish.

I also made Pavlov’s Cat’s Fresh Cherry and Toasted Almond ice cream. It was sensational.

3) And the least successful?

By virtue of being due to have a baby in two weeks, I have done nothing else.

4) Which bit of your Christmas shopping are you happiest with?

Sage is thrilled with his “Lightning Bequeen” play tent. He spends hours in it, so I am thrilled too. Owen loves his three volume Woody Guthrie collection.

5) Have you opened any of your presents yet? What was it / were they?

Running a bit late with this meme, obviously. Perfume (two kinds!), book vouchers and cash. I may also have bought myself an exceedingly expensive saute pan. May have.

6) Do you have any bad Christmas associations that will have to be tackled?

I like to call them my family ; )

7) What’s your favourite carol? Why?

Not a big carol person. Amanda from Flop Eared Mule sent me a fantastic compilation of Christmas songs, and the Sufjan Stephens songs on it have blown me away. I’m off to buy his Christmas record when the shops settle down.

Which part of your Christmas plans is most likely to go awry?

I had feared point (6) may create iss-ewes but all was well. Yay.

9) What’s your most favourite thing about Christmas?

Watching my son’s pleasure.

10) What’s your least favourite thing about it?

That it occurs when the sun is in Capricorn, because I am a Cancer and more than usually prone to overemotional ridiculousness then.

11) What Christmassy thing have you seen or heard in the street or on the teeve or in the blogosphere that has

(a) touched your heart

A group of Muslim people in Sydney who spend Christmas day cooking and delivering food to street people on behalf of a Christian charity so the usual volunteers can spend Christmas with their loved ones; an article about drovers who can’t celebrate Christmas because there’s nowhere with enough feed and water for the mob to stop.

(b) hit a nerve

I have remained un-nerved this year.

or (c) made you want to barf?

Standing in the toy aisle at various shops was a bit rough.

12) Who do you wish you had contacted to say Happy Christmas but haven’t so far?

Oh dear, I’m not so good at that sometimes. Many.

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable time and that they and their loved ones are well. It was a very good Christmas.

I was excited to hear Paul Barry on RN this morning* saying that the Summer Breakfast show would have a blogger on each morning to blather on about their particular thing.

Ooh! Who’ll be first! How interesting! How will the wonderful diversity of excellent Australian bloggers be portrayed?

I WAS WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.

Their first “blogger” was Jack Waterford, a name some of you may recognise as belonging to the editor at large of The Canberra Times. He has been a journalist since 1972. I don’t care if the man runs some bloody jumped up page he calls a blog. IT’S JUST THE SAME FECKING DAY, PEOPLE.

A man with a web page perhaps; not a blogger.

</rant>

*although not as excited as I always am to hear Fran; I totally ♥ Fran.

I just started to write a post in response to the call at Club Troppo to develop a list of the best of the year’s “essay style post” to be republished via Online Opinion. I agree that there are brilliant essays published in blog form – but I love what’s different about blogging.

So as not to be a whinger putting down people who are going to considerable effort for no reward by criticising them for something they never set out to do in the first place, I shall offer up an old post of mine that I’m fond of, and a few more that give you a flavour of some bloggers that I really admire for their originality:

Mine is from Australia Day (which was a long time ago, wasn’t it?)

ThirdCat – the Lavender Lady. I love her acuteness; there’s almost no other form of writing where an observation or a single sentence can be so powerful – graffiti maybe? But look what happens when she stretches out a little.

Ms Fits – it’s not just teh rude, people, although I do love the rude. The woman exploits the blogging form beautifully – just see this. Although you might want to see it at home unless you have a very open minded IT policy at work.

I would like to bask slightly here, having encouraged the lovely Ampersand Duck to post about printing and bookbinding, which she thought would be boring. She was wrong. And here she is having a weekend away .

I used to live near Meredith, and I love her photos of the Fedeterranea of Marrickville.

Laura – pretty much any post at all at Sorrow at Sills Bend will do you, but this one is a real fave.

Tim Sterne – on citizenship, and the thrust taken by Victorian cops. Tim and Jon’s blog was also host to one of the bestest comments threads all year, the hijack by illiterate slagging schoolboys which I could not find. Please leave link if you can remember where it was! (Yay! Thanks to Tim, it’s here. LOL111!)

The comments thread on Teh LP Feminist Hivemind does chicks with guns may melt dial-up connections, but is worth it.

Also, Scott, to be Certain is the best blogger on Australian Idol bar none, and Ken Parish is right to call Sublimely Gothic Cowgirl a black belt in photoshop.

It’s not just the pictures or the pithy, of course – Cristy from two peas no pod has reminded me of the intricate webs of friendship we weave through our blogging – the way that Kate riffs off Duck’s post about her furry parts is an example.

To really see a community knitting itself together, read the beautiful post and links list at Pavlov’s Cat. Then read Cristy’s, then Georg’s … it keeps growing, you see.

This post was supposed to be about how I am so enormously tired and vastly pregnant I probably won’t be around much for a while. Instead, I shall make this my excuse for stopping here, well before I’ve mentioned all the things I’ve loved reading and looking at this year (why is there no Jellyfish! Or Mel? Or TJ Gah!!).

Help me out and leave some links to your own favourite bloggers/posts of innovation and connectivity in the comments.

Had to update to add – go read Audrey’s continuing campaign to make Caroline Overington see some sense.

Owy has sent me a text to say that he has taken out the work Christmas party “red faces” competition with a violin recital. You remember the violin, right?

He won with a perfect score, but found a more mixed response when he announced from the stage that his cash prize was being donated to the your rights at work campaign (the negative response being the pained cries of his friends who’d thought they could persuade him to put it on the bar).

heh

PS – blogging at work is fun and easy when your boss has had to go and have a quick nana nap