Blogger tells me my previous post was on December 16th, which was two days before I fell in love. For reals. No wonder I've not been posting, huh? It's a little bleak, but sometimes I feel like I blog the things I don't have someone next to me to tell. Well, that's probably not wholly why I blog, but there's an element to it. All that ludicrousness about getting out there and living life, instead of sitting in front of a computer and writing about it.
I've just lost 80% of my audience there, haven't I? Because we all know mostly bloggers read blogs. Sorry bloggers, I'm not generalising, it's just how I feel myself sometimes.
Anyway, here are the highlights of the end of my last decade, and the beginning of this new one:
Love
While I'm not sure I can claim it was love at first sight, it was pretty damn close. I'm forever grateful that my sloth-like nature led me to taking a 'mental health day' that day. The stars aligned, and kismet saw fit to introduce us to one another. Kismet and our iPhones. That's 21st century love for you. We shared coffee, sorbet and beer. We spent two hours together, and he hasn't left my mind since.
Reunion
A gaggle of my closest friends who had moved away over the past few years all descended upon Melbourne leading into New Year's Eve. Ironically, half of those who still live in Melbourne decided to go elsewhere for the holidays.
There were a heady few days of drinking, karaoke (of course), and generally getting reacquainted. It was interesting to note that many of us had new partners, and great to see how each one of us had grown as individuals in the past few months, or in most cases, years. There were a few dramas, but when people who naturally grow apart (a function of being apart) try to pull themselves together again, I think that's often the case.
Jetsetting
So I went to Fiji. For a day. And sat by the pool at the Sheraton and ate wagyu burgers. OK, well I only had one wagyu burger. It was an amazing time nonetheless. And it perpetuated my rather unhealthy habit of maintaining my tan this summer.
Nerdness
I completed a Red Hat Linux sys admin course that work sent me on, and managed to pass the exam (somehow). It was a hell of a week - my uncle had just passed away, and I attended a funeral for the first time in my life; Melbourne had a stupid heat wave (the hottest night on record) so like most of the city, I was massively sleep-deprived; and as a result, I re-introduced coffee into my diet for the first time in months.
Geriatric Infirmity
The result of that stressful week, combined with the subsequent weekend of non-stop boozing, evidently was a super-weak immune system. Because I came down with a case of shingles. Shingles! WTF!? For those of you who don't know, shingles is a recurrence of the chicken pox virus, which remains dormant in your body after you have it the first time. It comes back in a localised way, along one nerve ganglion, and happens when your immune system is really weak. Usually when you're over 50. Though a lot of people whom I've talked to about it seem to have stories about friends or family members who have had it in their 20s, so I don't feel QUITE so bad.
Laneway
I went to a music festival for the first time in two years (after having sworn them off since the double whammy of disappointment that was Good Vibrations and Big Day Out in 2008).
I must say I had a great day. Good weather (poor choice in outfit - skinny jeans on a hot day are a bad idea), good friends, good event management (short waiting time for toilets, even shorter waiting times for drinks) and good crowd. The vibe was relaxed, happy, and generally benevolent.
I saw Sarah Blasko for the first time, who was delightfully quirky, in her black and white polka dot dress. Her voice translates live pretty much perfectly compared to her studio albums, which is quite a feat. I totally have a girl-crush on her now. And she made me wish I had a floppy fringe. Which none of the hipster kids have ever managed to do.
The other highlight of the festival for me was the luminous Florence and the Machine. I had heard of her reputation for high energy performances, but I was still stunned with just how much more emotion, energy, joy and sensuality (often all at once) she was able to put into her music live. I also loved that, having only had one album, every song they played I knew the words to ('Lungs' was my favourite album for 2009). I do wish, however, that she'd put some pants on.
