“Tis the season to be jolly, fa, la, la, la, la, fa, la, la, la…”
If this is the case, then why are there so many angry people around at the moment? It seems as though everywhere I go, I see scowling faces, twisted and scrooge-like, united in their anger. It disappoints me and makes me feel a little sad. Like a lot of creative people, or so I’m told, I am a bit empathic and sometimes find myself affected by the way other around are behaving. But I refuse to let this get to me. I am going to be jolly, dammit all.
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Aren’t internal dialogues funny things? I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes I find I talk to myself like I’m hosting a television show in my head. Most of the time, it is while I’m cooking, so I’m hosting my own cooking show. What concerns me more than this habit is that I seem to know these shows so well that I can copy them. Do I watch that much food television? I guess the answer is yes.
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We’re planning on a very quiet Christmas day this year. We are actually looking forward to pleasing ourselves on the day, something we don’t often get to do usually because we’re elsewhere and are constrained by the schedules of whomever we’re staying with at the time. There is nothing wrong about this but it is nice to be planning a Christmas just for us, for a change.
I’m going to make up a big batch of our favourite cocktail, while Toni is going to make Gravlax, a lovely salmon dish we have been having at Christmas for the last few years. You might say this has become one of our family traditions. Last year, we had turkey and all the trimmings for lunch but this year, we’re going to have duck instead. Toni has sourced a great organic bird for us, along with ham and we’re planning on having salad from our own garden. All this talk of food is making me hungry 
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On the music front, we’ve had some good news lately. A number of songs we recorded a couple of years ago have been used by Fuel Television Australia in a number of productions. The production company also plans on using some of our music in further productions to be aired on commercial television next year. I don’t know whether this will mean anything but we’re pretty excited about it regardless.
The same production company is also looking for incidental music for other productions. I’ve got so many pieces recorded that I’m planning on going through and picking out a few for them to use. Again, I’m not sure what this will mean for me, but it is nice to know music I’ve written is going to have some use, even if it doesn’t make me any money.
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While we’ve got a lot of rain here lately, we’ve also had really strong winds. Being right on the coast means we do get a lot more windy weather and our back garden is pretty exposed to these conditions. While I don’t particularly mind this, especially when it is hot, our poor garden has not been so lucky. We haven’t had too many warm still days in a row.
Our first lot of tomatoes haven’t had much of a chance to ripen before being hit by white moths. I don’t mind them taking a few, but they really gave our bushes a going over this year. We’ve taken a whole lot of green tomatoes off so looks like we’re going to have plenty of green tomato chutney.
Our corn and beans aren’t doing so well. We’re still learning about the best spots to plant different vegetables. Some seem to tolerate the wind quite well while other crops hate it. We’ve just pulled the first lot of spring lettuce and are preparing to plant the next lot. We still have quite a bit of spinach and lettuce to use, as well as squash, cucumber and beans.
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Finally, I would like to wish everyone, particularly my friends here, all the best for the holiday season. I am having a couple of weeks holiday over the Christmas period and don’t know if I will be online that much. But thanks to everyone for their friendship and support throughout the year. I look forward to furthering our friendships in the new year and beyond.
Peace to all.