And here we are again …

Well here we are back in another year (they just keep rolling on don’t they?).  I have a spooky feeling in my waters about 2012 and I am confident enough to predict a good one (either that or I have a urinary tract infection).  It is going to be Year of the Dragon after all and that can only be a good thing.  There’s a reason why the Chinese regard themselves as descendants of the Dragon and have Dragons all over everything – apart from the fact that they are beautiful.  This year is going to be one of happiness and success.  Bring it on.

Now I know I alluded to big changes to my blog site this year but, as you can see, it hasn’t happened.  In fact I can report that absolutely nothing on my to do list got done over the holidays.  I had so much on that list it was starting to feel a lot less like a holiday than I had intended so I basically ignored it and just hung out with Nos1&2.  I am pretty sure I won’t be on my deathbed looking back and wishing I had re-arranged my sock drawer more often.  At least this gives Nos1&2 a few happy memories of their mother not being a whirlwind of stress and activity and can use those memories to get them through the dark days ahead (let’s face it, in the not too distant future I will have two teenage girls in my house – dark days indeed).  We did the whole family beach holiday thang and went to Bryon Bay – along with around 10,000 other holiday makers, including Elle McPherson and Lara (who the bloody hell are you?) Bingle.  Clearly they heard The Chop would be up there.  I firmly believe Byron council should have a quota for visitors and close the gates once it has been reached.  The traffic up there was enough to send me back to Sydney – at least we have alternate routes.

I have to say that after a week of packing 5 children, 3 adults, 75 surfboards and enough water and snacks for a small battalion into two cars every morning, and then unpacking it all at the beach every day, then putting it all back into the cars every afternoon, then taking all of the above plus 25 kilos of sand out of the cars again, and washing out 8 swimming costumes and towels, and organizing 600 showers and a daily feast fit for a pack of sumo wrestlers, I did start to wonder who this was a holiday for exactly.  Because it didn’t feel like one for me.  I am fairly certain that Elle and Lara had a different experience of Byron Bay to mine. But, complete and total exhaustion notwithstanding, I did have a lovely time and got some new ink work on my shoulder courtesy of one very talented Tom Denholm at Creative Tattoo.  I had a competition with a 19-year-old bloke about who would say “ouch” first.  Needless to say I won – I have given birth twice after all.

However, I don’t want you to think that my lack of achievement this holiday season is indicative of a deeper and on-going malaise.  I did find time to make some commitments for this year (I don’t like “resolution”, it sounds too wishy-washy).  These include a training plan for the SMH Half-Marathon in May (I am already in week 2 of the plan and so far so good), bringing more music into my life (all three of us have committed to at least 10 minutes music practice every day and I now have 5 guitar chords under my belt), a draft of my first novel (and no I haven’t started it yet, it is still in my head where it has been for the last 10 years), and, most importantly, I am deeply committed to my ongoing struggle to live in the now.  I want to be right here, in the moment, every day.  No regrets over yesterday, no worrying about tomorrow.

I am also tremendously grateful that all the Christmas and New Year festivities came and went without incident and I sincerely hope it was the same for you.  Welcome back to the Chop and I’ll see you here every week.

B

The Management of the Burnt Chop would like to acknowledge that, under sufferance, we will continue to try to manage the Chop the best way we can in difficult circumstances.  There’s not a lot you can do with an artistic temperament.

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