It’s Done

So this is it. The very last post of 2013. The last in my blog every day challenge. And perhaps the last ever (though probably not, because honestly I love talking about myself, who doesn’t?).

And so it is time for resolutions (I’ve had to type that sentence three times suggesting one of my resolutions should be learn how to type, but all the cool kids tell me that’s what autocorrect is for).
For the coming year I only have two.

1. Stand up straight.
This is as simple as it sounds and also a lot harder than it looks. I hunch. All the time. At my desk, in the car, casually standing around. And it’s terrible. So this coming year I am going to do something about it. I am going to make a concerted effort to stand tall and sit up straight. I am going to have to work on my abs, as half my problem seems to be that I don’t have muscles strong enough to keep myself upright.

2. Do.
This one is a little more abstract, and I know all the lifestyle magazine articles tell you you should have SMART goals at New Years, but I know what this means and I’m sticking to it. It means do what I say, do what I intend to do. You may not realise but I am inherently lazy. I always have these grand plans for things and I just never end up doing them because I can’t be bothered or because it doesn’t fit in with my tight and anxiety inducing routines. This is the year of the follow through. It’s the year of flexibility. It is the year of getting things done.

Coming up on my next blog: When will it be? Will there even be one? Soon and probably.

It feels like (Friday Book Club)

101. A tale for the time being by Ruth Ozeki
102. The Embassy of Cambodia by Zadie Smith
103. Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger
104. Twitterature by Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin

So I ended up just surpassing my 100 book goal for 2013. It is probably a good thing that I have read these last few books, because there are some naysayers out there who say picture books don’t count (even though they do, they even have the word ‘book’ in their title and therefore must count to a book list).

I bought A Tale for the Time Being in Tokyo.

It is a book I wanted to read before going to Japan but I couldn’t find it in any local book shops.
It is a pretty odd read. Odd in that distinctly Japanese way, like only Japanese things can be. It did make me want to convert to Shintoism and Buddhism even more though, though it did put me off living in Japan a little.

While The Embassy of Cambodia was given to me by a friend trying to help me get over my Zadie Smith aversion. It was the perfect size. And I do think I like her writing style. Maybe NW just wasn’t the right one to start with.

Coming up on my next blog: the last one

Ringing it in

Coming up on my next blog: The last books of 2013

Trust Me

Everyone must play the game Hackey Cat.

It is the most fun ever.

Stop reading this post and go buy it now!

Coming up on my next blog: Three to go.

Backward Tech

So I got a new phone for Christmas.
It’s a flip phone. It doesn’t connect to the Internet. It doesn’t even take photos. I don’t know if it can receive them either. I don’t think it can. And I am so excited.
All I do with my phone is text and make calls. I am so sick of my touch screen phone, I needed to go back to basics. It’s funny though how ‘back to basics’ is still a phone. If I was really shunning technology I would just stop having a mobile at all.
It’s just that I don’t need a phone to do all those things. I have a camera and an ipad and so don’t need my phone to have those functions. I guess there is an argument to having one device that does all these things but I don’t know, I don’t need to be that we’ll connected.

I realised today that I only have five more blog posts to go. I am slowly extricating myself from the web and I feel a little relieved about that. I do think I will keep blogging but not every day.

Coming up on my next blog: four more

Bagging Day

Right now I have been awake for 12 hours.

As the new tradition in my family is to go to the Boxing Day sales. It used to be that we would go to the movies, but there was a long hiatus between Peter Jackson films and 3D Avatar made us feel sick so we stopped going (I will see The Hobbit this week, but just not today).

We catch the first train into the city, walk down from Martin Place and start our shopping in David Jones. I find that most things in David Jones have the most per cent off, but in Myer there are just more things on sale and they have some ‘crazy’ (their word, not mine) offers for limited time periods throughout the day.

In David Jones I always look at French Connection first, and today I scored a top and skirt for twenty dollars each. I also bought a Country Road top that was on sale and then an extra 20% off. I am really sad that I missed out on some Kate Spade shoes though. They were too big, and too expensive just to buy anyway. But I will be on the lookout for her shoes from now on.

After David Jones we go to Myer. Today we decided to have breakfast first. This was at 7am. I had a Portuguese tart and iced chocolate. It was too got for tea. I don’t think the air conditioners start early like the rest of the store does.

Then I headed to the children’s section. I have been looking and looking for denim shorts everywhere but I can’t find any that aren’t cut like undies. So I was trying a pair on when a store announcement was broadcast – basically a whole bunch of kids brands, including those of the shorts I wanted, were half price between seven and eight am. It was five to eight. So I sent my sister to the cash register with them, got dressed and ran over. We made it and my shorts only cost me seventeen dollars. Bargain of the day.

In case you were worried, I also purchased items from the adult section and I got a couple of great Marcs things. They were my most expensive purchases of the day, but they are gorgeous and worth it.

I also bought two pairs of Melissa shoes because I just couldn’t help myself. Now all my Christmas money is gone.

Coming up on my next blog: I had an idea but it’s gone now.

Picture Perfect: It’s Time

Coming up on my next blog: Stuffed.

Give and you shall receive

I have received a second amazing gift this gifting season.

It even has my initial on it!

It seems my friends know me exceedingly well, and this one in particular has also added considerably to my 2014 reading list.

I love this time of year because of the gift giving. I would be happy to get nothing but just give people I know all the things I know they like and want. Well, maybe not nothing, for

nothing will come of nothing

It’s all about the exchange I guess. What you’re saying is

I’ve thought about you and I’d like to show you that

In my family presents are a way of showing that we care and a way of making each other feel good.

Sometimes though, I find gift giving a little daunting.
I love doing it. Love taking the time to find something I think the person will really like. Love buying complimentary wrapping things, ribbons and paper and cards.
The worry comes after. Sometimes I buy presents months in advance and so that gives me time to formulate the worry. Usually my biggest worry is whether I have given the gift to the same person before. This usually happens with books. I often give books that I love to people that I know, which means they feel very familiar and I get a bad feeling of déjà vu when gifting them. There is also the worry that the person will not like what I am gifting. While I do take care to choose carefully, sometimes I pick things up because I like them, and because I don’t often buy things for myself I think I subconsciously do so when buying for other people. But I guess that means I can have it if they don’t like it.

Coming up on my next blog: The big day.

Planning Ahead

I have a feeling this is going to turn into a book blog next year. As you know, I like reading and I like making lists, and here I have a great outlet for showing off both skills. I’ve already started a list of the things I want to read in 2014.

Ann Patchett
Remains of the day
The rest of Jane Austen
Margaret Atwood again
The rest of David Sedaris
Eleanor and Park
New Veronica Rossi
Next Keira Cass
Next Maria V Snyder
All the truth that’s in me
Love in the time of global warming
Death in the cathedral
Burial rites

That’s probably already got me to the half way mark of my 100 book challenge. And doesn’t include what I’m reading at the moment which I might stretch out to be the first book read in the new year.

I need to make lists because I am incredibly forgetful. I don’t even know if I’ve listed here everything I said I would read in the posts I have made over the last few days. And I can’t remember how many times I have written to you that I am forgetful. I’m pretty sure that’s irony. It’s another good reason to write my blog, because then I can look back and remember what I have said (and done).

This blog is also great motivation for me to do what I say. So expect a resolutions post sometime soon too.

Coming up on my next blog: I’ll let you know if I don’t die today at treetops adventure park. Chances are 50/50.

Playing Grown Up

I’m going to pretend to be an adult today (it will probably be a nice change from the norm).
I think in the past year I have only really read a half a dozen or so books that were written for those over the age of eighteen in mind. And even then, a lot of them a genre fiction and perhaps not what many would call Literature with a capital L (I feel I have had this conversation before, about literature at least, or perhaps I have only had it in real life, I can’t remember).

If I had to choose my favourite Literature with a capital L book of this year it would be Norwegian Wood, I was so surprised with how much I enjoyed this book, how well it was written and how intriguing it was. It reminded me a lot of Never Let Me Go in style at least, and has inspired me to read The Remains of the Day, even though those last two are by a completely different author.

I guess I don’t read a lot of adult fiction because often the conclusions are so unsatisfying. Unless they are of the fantasy of speculative fiction genre, like my next choice, you just don’t get to see how things pan out. Young Adult writers know that there has to bean end, I guess it kind of mirrors their readers’ end of childhood, and even if the ending is bad, you still know where you stand.

So my second favourite adult book this year was Maddaddam. At the moment Margaret Atwood is my favourite adult writer, even her non fiction stuff is pretty good, but it is her speculative fiction that I enjoy the most. Her back catalogue is something I will be reading (and re reading next year too).

And you know I can’t always read serious things, so the third winner today is Let’s explore diabetes with owls. David Sedaris is just funny, full stop. Each of his books just gets better and better, and this one is my favourite by far. I hope his wit translate to real life as I will be seeing him perform (I don’t know if that’s the right word for a writer on stage at the opera house but what else can I use) in the new year. I can’t wait. I might have to read those few of his books that I haven’t got around to in the new year as well.

Coming up on my next blog: I guess I’ll also have to get around to talking about Christmassy things soon seeing as its only three sleeps away.