'Twas A Kris Kringle Story

Whatever happened to the simple act of gift-giving? Its apparent that life just isn’t worth a crumb off a piece of toast unless we complicate, and corrupt, distort and destroy the simplest goodwill gestures.

Whoever renamed Kris Kringle to ‘Let’s-rip-other-peoples’-presents-off-them-&-watch-them-sulk’? You know the one? Where everyone picks a number out of a box, seemingly in a normal, orderly way at first, to determine who gets preferential dip at the presents sprawled on the table. Ooo! Look! I got #9! With 21 of us in this office, 12 remaining presents to choose from isn’t so bad! Mmm…shinyyy wrappinggg paperrr…

But as quickly as you can say “Oh gosh, is that pudding flying at me??”, you realise that Christmas time was nothing but an extension of the 360 plus days of workplace competitiveness and pretentiousness and shadow conflict.

Gone are the days where the present you pick unquestionably belongs to you! Now you have to open it in front of everyone and any Kris Kringle-rer after you has the option of either picking a ‘new’ present, or taking yours! Ouch.

It’s baffling. Why is it…of all days in a year, you would pick Christmas time to look someone square in the eyes and rob them of their one, even if only just momentary happiness for the entire work year, as you walk away in slow, triumphant motion with their present in your hand. What point is there in making other people miserable, and secretly hate you for the rest of the year? No more favours! No, I can’t get your printout from the copier even though I’m on the way to your desk. No, I can’t cover for you over lunch. Yes, she talks all day and never gets anything done!

It just isn’t worth it. It just turns people ugly, and in some cases, it makes wise judgement not to amplify it! People will yield to the quality of their own luck, or lack thereof, in picking good or bad presents, but they will not accept anyone else playing God, or assuming the role of Karma. Aren’t we just built that way?

Out of all the mugs, chocolate boxes, cookie tins, desk fan, esky, more chocolate, and gift vouchers that were up for grabs, I must say I’m a stressed-out, but generally most happy recipient of a Village Cinemas gift pack with three movie passes. Stressed because naturally, the movie tickets were twice challenged and taken from me, and oh boy, the sooky smile doesn’t quite hide the evil burning eyes. (@_@) Thankfully, by the grace of loopholes in this forsaken method of KK, it somehow ended up back with me. ^_^ Sure this time it worked out, but gimme traditional KKs any day….especially…at Christmas….

This will be my last entry for the year - I’m off overseas from tomorrow afternoon! Yippee! *doin’ a dance, doin’ a dance* Merry Christmas to all of you, and have a safe new year… (p.s. only 10 days left to fulfil 2005’s resolutions too, so get on to it!)

Merry X'mas from mr.roo-dolph & I

Muahhh muahh muahh! xoxoxo…

Ivy's Birthday (& other short stories)

More hot Sahara Nights @ jonihayashi.multiply.com/photos/album/6

Midnight Arrival

Moments after checking into Carlton Crest Hotel, Brisbane. 12.15am. Enough said.

Brisbane The Finale: Random Words

King George Square

(taken with Sony T3)

Breakfast
The first breakfast was fabulous. For someone who's little of a breakfast-person, the buffet breakfast at Carlton Crest was pretty enticing! Of course, it was only wise to start slowly, so I grazed on a light portion of sausages, scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrown, roasted tomato, baked beans and grilled chicken. And when that woke up my digestive juices, I made a beeline to the continental section for toast and fruit and croissants and muffins, and washed it all down with tomato juice and tea. It was fabulous disposing all that food into oneself!

It’s my 5th morning tomorrow, and I’m not sure how I’m going to do this. I’m thinking of calling a “no-show” at breakky time, even though it’s on Uncle AA’s account. It’s weird being staying in a hotel all by yourself – I feel like a snippet of Bob Harris's life in Lost in Translation.

Dinner
Went out to dinner with Mars again on Wednesday night. It’s been insanely hot in Brisbane and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it! Thought sushi would help ease the heat, but for the fact that we were seated right in front of the deep fryer. Brilliant. After dinner, we strolled down Brunswick St and recalled the stretch at the Valley where we were first stalked a couple of weeks ago. This dude followed us, tracing us from behind or from the opposite side of the road. He stopped when we stopped. He looked away when we looked at him. Mars was probably twice his size, so I'm wondering why he picked us. I'm more wondering if Mars would have really bashed him up as he said he would have. (Mars, Mars...so violent!)

The Storms
Brisbane has some of the eeriest lightning displays I have ever seen! I know there are worse ones in the world, but I’m not underneath those so it doesn’t bother me.

The storm came very suddenly this evening. The thick grey clouds from the south loomed above us and headed north faster than the speed of traffic. Took a detour into Indooroopilly Shopping Centre for shelter but still walked around in soggy socks after the swim from car to entrance.

I didn’t realise…
HOW PRETTY…King George Square is.
HOW CLOSE…I am to Roma Parklands, but I’ll leave Brisbane not having time to see it.
HOW MANY…restaurants there are on Albert St. Only tried one for the first time this week.
HOW POOR…I’ve let myself become – my bank account had $11.55 as of today. God please let not payday fall on a weekend…
HOW LITTLE…fashion sense I have lately – thanks to the ‘how poor’ statement above, thanks to my last blog entry, and finally thanks to Uncle AA whose manufacturing- fashion sense revolves safety googles, hi-vest jackets and rock-hard rubber soled shoes.

Gosh...I really need to snap out of this....2 more weeks to my holiday...oh how i REALLY need it!

Goodnight...

Living on the Boulevard

There hasn’t been a morning yet where I didn’t wake up marvelling at the first thing I saw. I have to confess - I love the view! Love it!

Albert Park Lake. The still reflections of trees on the water. The bay beyond it blending into the sky on the horizon. The Spirit of Tasmania sailing by most mornings. I can see the masts of docked boats swaying in the wind. The street below, cars and city workers, rowers on the lake and joggers around it – busy, yet none of its noise detectable from my bedroom window on the 9th floor. It’s a live landscape canvas, and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it!

This is my 4th morning at my new apartment, and I’m still pinching myself in case none of this is real. I’m of course well aware that this is not a designer penthouse, nor a luxury mansion, nor are the furnishings antique, state-of-the-art or priceless. But I know this space that I now call home, is all my own.

I didn’t think I’d be so happy to be chin-high in debt. I also didn’t think that I could be so willing to sign away every last cent of my savings from working in Japan for the deposit. (I closed my bank account with change that jingles in my pocket. I think it was $0.75.) I didn’t think I could be so content wearing my old wardrobe, mending my shoes, making my own lunches and putting that gorgeous dress back on the racks, but I come home every day and I know why I do it. I wake up to the view every morning, and I can’t remember why it’s even a question.