well, i read somewhere once that obsessive people keep blogs, and for once i'm impressed by the accuracy of a generalisation. well, that's not the only time actually - my horoscopes tend to describe me pretty well. though according to penny thornton, i was supposed to hear some pretty big news in december. predictably, i convinced myself that this news would be from penguin. damn you penny thornton and your weekly forecasts! though i must admit i love the way her weekly emails start off 'HELLO, SCORPIO'. whenever i read that, the big band brass section in my head goes off to the tune of 'hey, big spender'. that aside, if nothing astounding happens between now and midnight, i might finally buy myself a magic eight ball.
indeed.
final day of the year, and what a year it's been. i've had the most fun ever this year, i've forced myself to just get over it and do stuff instead thinking about it so much it's actually hurt - and it was all worth it. here's to more bouts of stage fright, more free beers, more rounds of applause, more anxious hours waiting to hear back from publishers and editors, more writing, more writing, more writing. bring it on!
happy new year, all!

it was nice having my family over at our house over christmas. as i suspected, we had too much food - we ate and ate, and the fridge is still full of leftovers. today i bought some rice paper and vermicelli so, in case we actually get hungry between now and new years, we can make rice paper rolls.
are scrolling marquees cool or irritating? only time will tell.
i got my brother to read my short story to the family when we were all here on boxing day. they seemed to enjoy it - but i can never tell with family. especially my parents. i do the whole 'disclaimer' thing - the 'this is fiction based in fact' thing, like when i knew my parents wanted to come see me do standup. they've come to see me do debates and public speaking in fiji but that was different - because there was no real creativity involved there, i was just responding to whatever topic we'd been set. but with creative writing, with my 'faction', i feel bizarre if i know my parents are part of my audience. if my book ever gets published i'll obviously have to deal with that, but as long as they don't read it in front of me, i think i'll be okay.
i got an idea for a short story to enter into midsumma's competition - now i have to work out how to write it so my subject won't be able to work out it's about them. hmm.

christmas eve. i've marinated the quail, cooked the prawns for the cold salad, and baked the pavlova base. maybe now would be a good time to give one of the planned cocktails a trial run - all in the interests of quality, of course. hmm. not a bad idea.
i did a final-final edit on the story i wrote for meanjin. i love that story so much, and i hope they do too. a reader who shall remain nameless told me that the last paragraph made them go all teary and emotional (in a good way). this is great to know because to date, i think i'm the only one my writing has made cry, not always in a good way - or for the right reasons.
i have a casual job at the zoo over summer which is turning out to be a lot of fun. it's a 'meet and greet' customer service role. my first shift yesterday saw me saying hi and answering questions as people arrived at the front gate, and wandering around the zoo, chatting to people. not a bad way to earn a little extra holiday money. and the people are really nice. i hope they keep me on the roster past summer though - that would be ace. my next shift there is for twilights on jan the 3rd - and an abba tribute band (apparently they're quite popular) called 'babba are playing... should be fun!
anyway - to all my readers, merry craziness, and a happy new year. i have a feeling 2004 will be a blast!

nine sleeps until christmas. and this year for the first time, it's at my house - and i'm hosting the indians. [well, i say 'the indians' more for effect, really. it's mainly my mum and dad and brother - though there may be some aunty&uncle&cousins action, too]
apart from the indans, we have the mum-in-law, the husband's brother and sister-in-law, and hopefully hopefully some mates of mine who i've invited to join us. it's going to be food galore with everyone bringing a plate, mum's bringing curry and dad's special spiced pork roast, we'll have cocktails and champagne and cold entrees and bbqs and waaay too much to eat. family's crashing here, and dad is getting all excited about having a percussion jam session on christmas night. pretty colourful family picture, huh? my family. who'da thunk it?
at christmas in fiji, we'd have a lovo. dig a hole in the ground, pile in river stones, then light a fire. then put in banana leaves, then all the meat and vegges wrapped in foil, then more banana leaves, dampened hessian sacks, and cover it all up with mud. four hours later, it'd be done and you could smell it for miles, the grumblingof stomachs would echo through the valley. all the food would be set out in platters on mats in the middle of the lounge room floor; we'd all sit on the floor & eat till we couldn't eat any more, then find somewhere to snooze. then wake up an hour later and have dessert. that was our tradition.
back when i used to live in fiji, you knew it was an extremely important occasion if the dinner table was set with actual cutlery.

oh my god. i've just spent the last hour having the biggest dramas with my website. shalini decides 'ooh, i might try archiving my blog entries', then proceeds tototally stuff up her blog template. good one! but then again, we know shalini. she sat here, occasionally correcting her posture, until it was fixed (i think). you'll notice that you see less on the main page and have to click on the months to see the older ones. i did it cause i noticed that the ones from march had fallen off the end of the page. so, even though you probably didn't care in the first place, nowyou know what started this madness.
whew.
going to dinner at my brothers restaurant tonight, as he is closing forever this weekend. must stuff face with naan and tandoori. must bring doggie bag home. mmmm. curry.

i wrote a short story yesterday, kind of based on a theme of one of my standup acts, but not as piss-take-y. i'm going to have another read/edit of it, then get it ready to submit to the asian-australian edition of meanjin. would be a bit of a boost to get something published in there. i think it's quite a good story - the main character is so strong that she made both myself and a friend i had read the story go home and cook what she had for dinner that night, for ourselves. evocative, no? hehe
uni results came out last week and for the first time in my life, i got hd's for whole units - both of them, even. quite happy with that! though i wish uni were still on, it's getting frustrating sitting a home with no extra job. working two days a week is fine during semester, but it's pretty painful out of it. and no, i never thought i'd be saying this. i think i will do three units per semester next year and try and finish the grad dip in one go. seeing as i have no idea what my employment sitch will be, i might as well make use of the time.

view from my office desk:
imagining i am sitting at six o'clock, we'll work our way from my right shoulder around to my left.
five o'clock - honesty snack box, water cooler, coke machine. three o'clock - the security entry from reception. the door is open. there is a a4 page taped to the back of the door with the words 'keep door closed at all times' printed on it. at the bottom of the sign, someone has scrawled 'like now for example'. two o'clock to twelve o'clock - the ceo's office. twelve o'clock to eleven o'clock - director's office. eleven to about nine o'clock - finance managers and my managers office. nine to eight - stationery room. eight to seven - hall to the back office where everyone else sits. seven to me - wall. from here, i can't actually see one other human being, but i can hear voices. i think there might be life in there somewhere.
i watched a new show called 'the o.c' last night and all i can say is 'hello, addiction!'. it's *just* trashy enough for me to get hooked to it. and here i was getting all sad because foxtel finally realised that no one was paying for our pay tv connection, thus depriving me of my morning hour of the shenanigans of my favourite flakeouts at the peach pitt. *sniff*. i miss dylan's hair and his so-not-masculine voice, i miss steve's cheesy grin and comb over, i miss kelly's pouty tartiness. but most of all i miss andrea, because she was pregnant and just about to have her inter-racial baby. trust aaron spelling to make the square, studious one to end up pregnant and to cast his own bug-eyed offspring as the blushing virgin. ha!