So, I was going to send one of my King Louie dresses back because it wasn't very flattering around my cottage cheese midsection except I forgot and found it under a bunch of laundry in my room just now. It's about a week past the return date so I guess it's mine. Being a masochist I tried it on again and ... what a difference three weeks makes!! Holy Hannah! I would actually wear that out in public today! Woot! 7kg down since the beginning of the summer vacation and it's really starting to show.

Now with added cute dog (played by Alfie)

The one where she finds her blog again.

Well. Um.

Hi?

With one week left of summer vacation I have discovered that the blog I thought I couldn't access anymore and/or had disappeared actually still exists and I can post stuff.

So.

Now I have to think about what to post.

Spontaneous idea brainstorm:

• Cropredy weekend
• My Summer Vacation
• New approach to food: no/low wheat, dairy, sugar and NO processed foods
• My adorable pets
• My adorable nieces
• Back to work ideas
• A bit of everything

I will give that some thought and get back to you. 

Going Red

Some random comments I have received since dying my hair red yesterday:

• You look like that vampire [me: do we know any vampires with dark red hair??]
• That'll take some getting used to. Uh, me not you. [I consider this a crappy comment]
• Isn't that a color old ladies go for? [No, that's blue]
• That's amazing!! It's the coolest thing I've ever seen!!
• Now I want red hair.
  
• That looks really good.
• You look so much younger now!
  
• Now I'll never be able to concentrate during the test [LOL]
• You look twelve [This isn't a different way of saying "You look younger", btw - it's just a shitty comment]
• Did you always have bangs? [No, I did not]
• Omigoodness! I totally didn't recognize you! Seriously, I thought we had a new colleague/teacher. [Got this one a few times today]
• Who are you and what have you done with Joanne? [2x]
• You should dye your hair all the time, it puts you in a really good mood [har-de-har]
• What did you do??? [I joined the circus. What the hell did *you* do??]
  
• It looks like a wig.
  
• I love sitting next to you today and watching people's reactions.
• Wow.
  

And now you get to guess which ones were said by adults/colleagues and which ones were said by teenagers. [You'd be surprised, actually].

Happy New Year!

[Click picture for larger image]

Last year in pictures. Looking forward to another year full of great pictures!

Looking back on 2009

Given that 2009 hasn't been a very reflective year (as is evidenced by my lack of reflective - or any - blog updates) I thought I'd take a moment to look back on why, exactly, I haven't had that much to ponder on.

The answer is very simple: I was having too much fun.

I have compiled a list of things that have kept me busy this year and it's made me smile all the way through:

• Went to visit my bestest friend in England in Feb and spent a fabulous week over there
• Went to LA in April and had an wonderful time there
• Was home for a blink after that and then went to Liverpool for an amazing experience with the Liverpool Habitat for Humanity. I cannot stress how humbling and exciting that trip was.
• In June I went to visit my oldest friend in Canada and had a lovely time there with her and her family. Niagra Falls was a definite highlight.
• Then I went to Berlin as a chaperone on a school trip. I hadn't been there since before the wall came down. Another thought-provoking and amazing trip.
• My dear friend Suze came over for a short visit in the summer vacation and we hung out like we live around the corner from each other instead of across the channel. I love that.
  
• The summer vacation also had a lovely surprise in a ticket for a festival I wasn't planning to go to but had a great time at. Lots of good music and friends.
• Went to England with my sister and her daughter and seeing a panto through 5-year-old eyes is a magical thing. We spent the weekend at our parents' best friend's place and it was like being a kid again.
• A dear friend of mine became the singer of a fairly established Dutch band and I couldn't be prouder of him. Mostly because he is determined to stay "normal" (not that he was terribly normal before he won - haha)
• Some amazing concerts and shows: Schudden, Oasis, Company Unwanted, Propagandhi, Lowlands [Them Crooked Vultures, Paolo Nutini, Faith No More, The Prodigy], Intwine, Di-Rect, 30 Seconds to Mars, P!nk, Marilyn Manson, Eddie Izzard and The Rasmus.
• Spent loads of time with my wonderful family and saw my friends at several great parties.
• I rediscovered my job and love it all over again.

I am a very lucky person and yes, I am very aware of that.

The day after tomorrow (good name for a movie) is going to be the beginning of the second decade in the 21st century and I am excited. I have lots of plans and lots of things to look forward to. Two trips to England, my sister's 30th birthday, a 60th birthday, house hunting in Amsterdam, more time with my family and friends and more challenges at work. Every day is a new adventure and every choice brings a new opportunity. It's all good.

So, to whomever has bothered to read through all of this, I say the following - grab someone you love tomorrow night, grab them close. If you're lucky there will be more than one and if you're only just starting out it'll be someone new. Sing a song, steal a kiss, light a sparkler. Laugh, dance and be merry (but if you're too merry, don't drive, okay?). Michael Jackson said it best: This is it. What are you waiting for? Jump into the new year with an open mind, full heart and a dollop of hope.

All the best in 2010, may it bring you health, hope and happiness. -xxx- Jo

---------
edited to add:
I just found my New Year's Resolutions from last year, thought I'd let you know how I did.

Money Resolution: I will not spend money on things I don't need.
This worked out much better than I thought it would. I did buy some frivolous things but not nearly as much as I normally would have. Am quite proud of this one.

Work Resolution: I will find a teaching job closer to home.
This one didn't work at all. I went back to my old job, even! On the plus side, though, I have turned this one around and am now prepared to move closer to my job, really looking forward to it, actually.

Travel Resolution: I will not travel beyond my means but I mean to travel to all of my planned destinations.
This one went very well. Watched my pennies and made things work.

Health Resolution: My body is my temple, I should treat it as such. I will go to the gym twice a week and I will eat mostly balanced meals every day.
Yeah this didn't really work at all. I've gained weight again and have stopped going to the gym entirely with no intention of going back to it. I am trying to get more fruit and veg in me, with varying results.

Happiness Resolution: I will keep my best interests in mind at all times and make choices for me.
This one I am also very proud of. I really feel like I am my own person, living my life. It's a fantastic feeling.

Cherries on top Resolution: I will give literature an increased priority. My own and that of others. I will break out the writing pad and continue my story and attempt to read at least one book a month.
This one didn't work, either. I am reading books but not nearly as many as I had planned and mostly from outside sources instead of from my own unread collection. My own story has stagnated completely and I'm not sure I can pick it up again.

Baby Steps

Trying to get back to writing on a regular basis. What I'm not going to do is make my first blog after such a long break about something deep and meaningful or thought-provoking. I'm just going to write for the sake of writing.

I have two reasons for this: 1) I have kind of missed doing this and I want to see if I can pick it up and keep it up (that's kind of two reasons) and 2) one of the things my 3rd years have to do this year is start a blog here at blogger.com and write in it twice a week. Now, if I can't get this together, how can I expect them to?

So, what am I going to write about today? Table plug sockets and appliance plugs. I actually had to look up what a table plug socket was called because, before today, I always called them extension cords. Apparently that's just a cord that extends one appliance plug, not one that gives you many places to plug in appliances. Afin, this is what has been keeping me busy this afternoon.

I have finally, after living in this apartment for nearly five years, organized the wide variety of cables and plugs behind my entertainment system. And by entertainment system I mean my TV stand. I had been living in a highly unorganized state, augmented by the fact that the wall socket where I had plugged in my previous table plug socket had ceased to work a few days ago. In other words, it had made some slightly scary crackling noises and then everything getting power from that corner stopped working. The most disastrous part of that was that my modem was sucking power from that particular socket and it took me a full half hour to figure out that I wasn't getting any internet because there was no power coming out of that socket anymore. Twenty minutes of that time was spent freaking out, to be honest. All my friends live in the internet and I panic when it doesn't work as I think it should. (My laptop sucks power from a different socket, in case you were wondering why I didn't notice that my laptop wasn't working)

So, I had to find another power source and that is on the other side of the living room, where my phone and a light are plugged in. I actually connected three table plug sockets to each other, end to end, to span the distance to the other socket and keep all of my appliances going. All but the DVD player and VCR because I only had table plug sockets with four outlets. Hey, sometimes sacrifices have to be made. In any case, the internet (and TV and phone as the digi box was also in the doomed corner and my phone connection is through the modem, although I hadn't noticed they weren't working) was back. And I was happy.

My living room, however, didn't look quite as happy as there was a very long, very unattractive snake of extention cord/table plug socket combination stretching straight through it and over all the furniture in its way. Something that was barely noticeable if you had your head tucked down far enough behind the laptop. It was still there, though.

Yesterday I decided it was time to tidy that up and I bought a two pack of table plug sockets with six plug-ins. They aren't sold individually, it seems. I didn't get around to actually using them until today, though, as I happen to be very good at procrastinating. And the internet worked again, as I mentioned, so there was plenty to keep me un-busy in the meantime.

Busy I did get, however and furniture was moved and swears were uttered. Once I got to plugging in my appliances into the new table plug socket with six plug ins I couldn't help but notice that my five appliances and one light in that corner had created a very large mess of cords that were all braided together like .. well, a braid, actually. So I spent a large amount of time (and some more swears) untangling the whole lot so that there was some order in the chaos behind my TV stand. Which is when I noticed that, even when untangled, they still looked pretty messy all on top of each other like that and I decided to get some twisty ties and bunch together the superfluous cord. Then I figured, while I was at it, I may as well label the cords so that you could easily identify which appliance they were attached to. So I spent another fifteen minutes trying to find my Dymo Tag 2000 so that I could print out some labels.

When I was finished with all of that I attached all the cords to plugs and the plugs to sockets and hit the little red POWER button on my brand new table plug socket. Voilà! It all worked and I had a very tidy area behind my TV stand ... which you can't really see because the TV stand is kind of blocking it all.

Incidentally, while moving all the furniture I discovered that one of the cats had thrown up under a chair and while tidying up all of the extra cords and plugs afterwards I discovered that I already had a table plug socket with six plug ins in the bottom drawer of a cupboard. So now I have three table plug sockets with six plug ins where I thought I had none and I don't even need two of them ... namely the two I bought yesterday.

Bit of a fiasco but I do now have all of my appliances plugged in at the same time instead of having to play musical plugs every time I wanted to use either the DVD or the VCR (and I always wanted to use the appliance that wasn't plugged in, of course) and my internet still works.

Giant leaps, in the grander scheme of things. xx

Silence

I have no words. Words have left me. Even blogging about daily activities or the many travels I have embarked on in the last few months just isn't something I can do right now. Not that any of those travels were unsatisfactory, au contraire. I just don't have the words to describe them.

The spark has gone (for now).

I do think about this blog often, though. And wish I had something to add.

xx
Jo