CHRISTMAS! Baby, Please Come Home

[Baby, Please Come Home – Anberlin cover]

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope so far your day has been enjoyable, and I hope that you’ll remember it later on…

Anyway, I finally convinced my dad to take me driving today – he’s the guy who can’t drive but has a full license, so really all his license is good for is to take me driving – and despite him being paranoid I’ll hit every car parked on the kerb, it was actually pretty decent. MAYBE, for perhaps the 5th time I’ve said this, I CAN FINALLY GET ON A ROLL AND GET MY LICENSE BEFORE I’M 20 HAHA who am I kidding… at least I’m close to 17 hours now…

As I was driving, my phone started buzzing in my pocket – I think I should change one of my profile settings to Driving or something, and take off the vibrations (Silent has vibrations on so that if there is an emergency text/call at night, the vibrations can wake me up but not my parents – and dammit I do totally get emergency texts sometimes, but most of the time I just get woken up by Village Cinemas emailing me something at 3 am). I was wondering who would call me – twice – and I found the answer when I got home. Mom immediately told me that Dani had called – I guess this time around she remembered to identify herself before launching into a tirade like she did last time.

Turns out Dani – who FINALLY made it back to Melbourne – is asking me if I was interested in going to the Great Ocean Road with her some time this week (this isn’t for sure yet but I had to write about something). Considering that the last time I went to the Great Ocean Road, I was in Grade 4 and still had a massive carsickness problem, I said yes (hopefully my carsickness is better now. I do plan to be empty stomach’d most of the time though ha). Also I felt really warm and important that Dani asked me first. Being the favored “son” has its advantages.

Also, Lyshana. Dani put her on the phone (I doubt she still remembers me even though I was the cool 1-2-3-4-HEADBANG big sister), and Lysh was screaming “HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO” and then I heard Beep-beep-beep. Dani came back a second later and said “She put you on hold.” We agreed she’d make one hell of a receptionist one day. HELLO-HELLO-HELLO-hold.

I timed my driving very carefully – I had to be home on time to watch Eloise at Christmastime which will be on soon – that movie MAY have been the tipping point for me to want to spend Christmas in New York. Home Alone 2 was the movie that started the dream.

Anyway, quite a few interesting Christmas movies on today/tonight (The Grinch is on now, actually, but Eloise takes precedence) so I think I can even give Smallville a rest. Last week, Josh started a conversation with me on MSN asking me what my plans were for that day. I replied, “I’m going through Tumblr now, and after I’m done I’m going to watch Smallville.”

A few days later, as a matter of course, he asked me the same question. I started writing, “Tumblr now and then after that…” and realized that the feeling of deja vu was actually the ugly face of uneventful routine.

And now I feel like ice-cream. Triple choc ahoy!

Merry Christmas, again! I may not be religious but I still think this is a time of the year to be happy, generous, and try to see the good in everything.

Alex.

If I Close My Eyes, It’s All The Same

[All The Same – Sick Puppies]

Christmas Eve! I’m in better spirits than I was for the previous two years, which is a refreshing change.

So, for the past two years I have been watching Lovely Complex (an anime) at around this time of the year, and I decided to continue what is now becoming a tradition.

I’d like to have more Christmastime/New Years traditions, though. And, like the extrovert that I am, most of those traditions include spending time with another. They may or may not be significant.

I don’t exactly know what the traditions may be – I’m not an overly Christmassy person – but I wouldn’t mind doing some Christmassy things, like going shopping in the hectic last minute sales, spending Christmas morning just chilling and drinking something. Hopefully I can do this in New York (haha, still a dream but I aim to make it reality somehow), so it’s hot coffee.

And Christmas movies! Call me a sap, but I love Christmas movies. Love Actually, Home Alone, Eloise at Christmastime…

It’s weird, I’m not a Christmas person but I like doing all the Christmas things – does it make me a Christmas person? I’m just proud of myself for wanting to do relaxing and sweet activities instead of going out and getting shitfaced.

Alex.

Please Don’t Look At Me With Those Eyes

[First Date – Blink 182]

So today on Tumblr, the Daily Wh.at linked to this discussion: If you’re about to enter into a Groundhog Day loop, what would you do to prepare?

Instead of writing a lot (I did write some, but not a lot) I started thinking about it.

Granted you read around half a page of the discussion, then you’d know what I’m about to suggest is largely based from what I read – hey, they had good ideas! But, in a nutshell, this is what I’d do.

Firstly, I am going to go with the same assumption as the movie does, and say that the reset time is at 6 am. And, for the purposes of making this discussion actually interesting, I’m going to give myself a decent amount of money, and at least 2 days’ of notice because…well you’ll see why. So, let’s say that the day I will relive for the next 3652 days (roughly 10 years) is from a Friday 6am to Saturday 6am. It just so happens that Christmas Eve this year is on a Friday. I do believe I will project my repeating day for the Christmas Eve Friday (you may wonder why I don’t make it next Friday. Well, see, that’s because it will be summer in New York and I hate summer).

Alright, so on Wednesday I’ll fly from here (Melbourne) to New York. The flight takes roughly 21 hours and 30 minutes, so I’ll say 22 for the sake of delays. If I take off at a cushiony 10 am here in Melbourne, I’ll arrive at New York 4pm on Wednesday (I’ve just taken a few minutes to factor in our respective Daylight Savings). I’ll force myself to get as used to the local time as possible (not to complicate my life, I will say that the 6am-6am works via New York’s time), and so on Thursday I will go to bed at a nice 9:30-10pm. This way, when I wake up at 6am on Friday, I will be thoroughly refreshed – ensuring that I will be thoroughly refreshed for each time that I wake up for the next 10 years.

But, wait, there’s more!

Upon arriving at New York on Wednesday afternoon, I will sort out my affairs. I will rent out a relatively cheap motel room for a night, but at the same time make bookings at the best hotel in New York for their best suite. The booking time? Thursday 6pm – Saturday 10am. I will therefore get that room for the duration of the loop, without having to waste time on check-in and check-out. Also, I’ll hire a personal chauffeur for the day.

I’ll make dinner reservations at all the good restaurants in New York, and depending on which one I feel like, I go to whichever one for Friday. I’ll load my phone with plenty of credit, have my credit cards ready to use (again, I assume I have credit cards), charge up my iPod with all the best songs (unfortunately I’ll probably get sick of these songs, but that’s okay because I’ll have my laptop ready to download new music each morning if I have to), and make sure my wallet and bag is all well packed.

Next, I will find a way to have a drum-set, electric guitar and, if possible, a piano delivered to my room. I will probably get sick of trawling the city after a while, so I must set myself some hobbies and goals I can do despite being reset. Like Murray, I can learn instruments – get the number of a teacher and see if they can’t come teach me on Christmas Eve each time when I call up. Who knows, I might even try to learn to swim!

And this was a point that was fantastically suggested on the site: Find a book series with over 3652 pages (the Harry Potter series should do nicely) and mark the page that would the 3652nd. Make yourself read a page and one page only every morning without fail. You will retain the memory of what you read the previous day. Once you’ve gotten to the 3652nd page, you will know that you will wake up tomorrow and Saturday will go on.

With all these things sorted, of course there will be downsides.

First of all, that’s 10 years of waking up completely alone. And even if you go to bed with someone, you’ll wake up completely alone. I know that I WILL get sick of doing it. I’ll get sick of the songs on my iPod, the songs on the radio, the sound of my alarm, the hotel staff, the food for breakfast, the weather, the restaurants, the fact that I have to read Harry Potter a page at a time…and most likely I will come to detest Christmas. Even if I travel elsewhere (another reason for choosing New York is that it takes around 8 hours to fly to London, and just a bit more for other parts of Europe. If anything I can get up at 6, go to the airport and go somewhere else) I’ll get sick of the routine.

I will run out of movies to see at the theater, I will get sick of making new friends each day, I will be tired of drinking til I throw up but still be fine the next day…it WOULD be nice if I had a partner or someone to spend the days with for sure, but then I’d come to be sick of them too.

Maybe Christmas Eve was not the best choice. All that bustle would be wonderful for the first week but…it will be hell traffic later on.

Hmm…

Well, what do YOU think?

Alex.

Who’d Have Believed You’d Come Along?

[Sweet Caroline – Glee Cast Version]

I won’t lie and say I have the original version.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I know I’m a few hours shy, but I simply felt the need to write it now. Not that I have much going on tomorrow.

I hope everyone is having fun eating dinner with their families, wrapping presents, getting ready to watch the Victoria’s Secret fashion parade.

I know I am.

The parade.

Anyway.

Stay safe, stay reasonably sober, and most importantly, stay merry!

Alex.

Christmas 2008

I’ve taken a leaf out of Vania’s book – at the rate I’m going, I don’t think Vania will have a book left – and am writing my blog to type up later.

So let me tell you about my Christmas, up until right now, which is 2:02 pm.

Yesterday I found that my internet capped, so under excruciatingly slow loading, I wrote my Christmas Eve blog. I stayed online for a while, complimented Jen on her raw sexual appeal – what? You think I’d drop it? – then went offline, upstairs, and started watching Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. It was…nice. I didn’t much get the fashion parts but to watch near human perfection flaunt across a runway…that was nice. After a while it occured to me that the drawing I was doing at the time became influenced by the show. I flicked to ABC and was delighted and surprised to see the Vicar of Dibley. I guess ABC bought it from Ch 7. Watched it until nearly elevent something. Replenished myself with instant noodles. Then started watching this old movie which was a rather good piece of satire. Eunice’s text message came through, then about 11:40, I decided to call her. We chatted for a while, about her recent camping, snorkelling, what I’ve done, and comparing a certain someone to a lobster. Then, midnight came and I said Merry Christmas to Eunice – because of QLD, they’re 1 hour behind – and then sent a few texts out. Vania congratulated me on my accuracy. Go me.

I went to sleep, and woke up at past 8 by my bladder. Got a few replies, and started cleaning my room because of the aforementioned dad and son coming. I went online, (haven’t updated, of course) and saw no one on. Got a bit lonely, so I checked my blog. Found a complete stranger wishing me a good Christmas, despite. That really made me s mile. So hey, maybe the Christmas spirit is in me.

Or maybe not. The dad and son ended up being nearly an hour late, and I found myself smiling at my dad’s annoyance. I watched A Carol Christmas which was badly scripted, then the son and dad came. Had a late lunch, sipped some wine, then finished watching The Grinch. And so here I am now (thank you April, for a funny reply).

And you know, unless something really awful happens between now and when I type this up, I had a good Christmas.

It is now 6:36 pm, and nothing really awful happened. Yep, my parents more or less left me alone for a solid 3 hours and chatted with the dad. Don’t know what the kid did. This morning mom bashed her foot into something and didn’t realize it until it started bruising later. Now it’s voluptiously bruised and shes got a towel stuffed with ice on it. I made the ice for drinks. I think we should get ice packs. She’s applied some heat bandage onto it now. I never understood ice then heat. But whatever suits her. Bianca hasn’t yet emailed be about tomorrow, so still don’t know if I’m to spend Boxing Day with my parents, and having my mom complain all day about the bruise, or if I will spend it with Bianca. I almost kind of want to stay home alone, but the net capped and well, that’s no fun.

Hey, thanks to GK for her nice comment, seriously. I hope you had an extra good Christmas ‘cos you did a nice thing.

Merry Christmas, to all those who read this. Have lots of fun, but be safe. Don’t turn a night out into a nightmare. The government should pay me for this ha.

De Fluffe, Out.

Christmas Eve

I like hearing about other people’s Christmas plans, because it feels very homely, and I like imagining the moments. Sure, every scenario does get twisted in my head so that everyone’s wearing a sweater, in front of a fireplace, and toasting marshmallows, no matter what it is that they do – watching American TV does that to you – but it’s still a nice image.

Like one time when I called up Bee and her mom answered the phone, saying, “oh hi, Bianca’s just laughing really hard at a joke she just told.” And I said, “Oh, is the joke funny?” and she replied, “No, but she’s laughing really hard anyway.” And then in the background I can hear Bee laughing hysterically to herself, Greg telling her how weird she is, and it was a really nice – and slightly amusing – scene to listen to.

I think it would be really cool, in the not too distant future, to wake up one morning to a Christmas with a tree that the people I’m living with worked hard on, and then open the presents, and then spend a day together just goofing off.

And, I’m pretty sure I’ve already blogged something like this last Christmas. Actually I can recall 3 pretty bad Christmases in a row (I already counted this year’s in). Hopes for a good 2009.

Last Christmas and the Christmas before, my family had invited the bunch of “family friends” over for lunch. This year everyone was busy so I thought, finally a Christmas where I’m not being yelled at by my mom to clean up and tidy up and be a slave. But instead she decided to call over another family, and they have a small son who I’d have to entertain. I don’t see how this is really helping either of us, because the son is bored by me and I am bored by him, so wouldn’t it be a better Christmas for the both of us if he and his dad went to the city or someplace fun, and I get left alone at home? Apparently, that’s a really rude thing to want, because my parents want to “have fun” with the dad. I’m pretty sure my dad hates his dad. So just my mom then.

But count on it that I’ll blog tomorrow.

De Fluffe, Out.

P.S. On the offchance I don’t, because, well I can’t imagine what…Merry Christmas.

Fourteen

(Which, coincidentally is the name of a very sad song by Hawk Nelson)

Fourteen days until you come back. Call me over the top, or desperate, but I’ve started the countdown already. I miss you already.

Wish me luck for my venture while you’re away. Like I’m going to be able to do all that Maths and Chinese in fourteen days. But maybe it will stave away the sadness.

Oh I’m such an emo kid.

See you soon, Crazy.

And, to my Euny-Baby.

Have fun in Queensland! I keep having boring summers but at least you’re all making up for it by having extravagant ones.

Don’t get sunburnt.

Keep in touch.

And for crying out loud, get MMS!

To my Princess Fudgepop (OH NO I DIDN’T!)

You’re only a phone call away so that’s at least some sort of consolation.

But a small one at that.

Have a good Christmas with your relatives.

Have a good Christmas, dear reader (but I probably will keep saying that until Christmas). If you’re going away be safe. Don’t drink too much! A Christmas that will be a good memory is one that you actually remember.

Fourteen.

De Fluffe, Out.

On This Momentous Day

…nothing happened. I just thought I should tap in something on the first of a month. Especially such an important month as December.

December to me means:

Carmaine’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s Eve (which WILL get better when I get older, I hope) and not January, so no need to hurry to do school-set holiday work yet.

Finally, we should all remember that today is International AIDS day. (Where’s Andrew? He always yells out “AIDS!” and then Dani always yells out, “I HAVE AIDS!” and then on some invisible agreement we’d all point our fingers around like fire hoses and pretend we’re spraying everyone with AIDS…)

Wednesday is Carmaine’s 17th.

Holy shit, I can’t believe she’s 17. I still remember the day she turned 15. Apart from the Friday when Stoner brought in a blue cake because that was the only food dye color she had, on the Sunday I left Chinese school in a rush and went with her and a bunch of people to the city to go to the Southern Cross DFO. We walked along Southbank but it took us so long to get there, for we took pictures every 3 steps, that in the end we didn’t go to DFO at all. Well, I guess back then, we were Yr 9’s and 15 years old, and the time for us to get back home was a lot earlier – plus my parents had a wedding to go to.

I also remember her 16th. BRuCE and Cruzik went in late November to Mecca Bah (I’ve got a video made from that day too. Go check out my YouTube and it’s the one called “At Mecca Bah” I think.) and I remember it was REALLY hot (and I had a shit haircut). On her actual birthday I don’t think we did anything (if we did it wasn’t momentous) and I overslept my alarm at midnight to text her so I actually woke myself up at 3 am and texted her. I won’t make the same mistake twice.

Speaking of which, I might as well recount the others’ birthdays.

I didn’t really know Bianca well when she turned 15, so obviously I don’t have a very clear memory of that, but her 16th was celebrated on the 7th of July (I remember so clearly because the 07/07/07 concert for Make Poverty History was that night) and actually, in my old blog Jalix (with WordPress as well) I blogged about that day. For her 17th she took BRuCE to Bar Bosh at Knox O-Zone and I remember that day was cold and I’d just spent the whole day at Knox watching Get Smart and Kung Fu Panda with YL. I’d just got my hair cut really short so it was cold, and I wore a beanie. When I took off the beanie to show Eunice – Bee and Carmaine were with me when I got my hair cut – her response was “Oh…my…”.

Eunice’s 15th I remember Carmaine and I went early to school to prepare for her pressie, but we didn’t tell her. Eunice texted me asking me if I knew where Carmaine was, I think I replied, “no idea” as I stood next to the wanted one. For Eunice’s 16th it was a school day, and I remember being the first to hug her when she got onto the old-ass train at Syndal. She took us to Tao’s a few days later and that day was stinking hot. It was just after I got a short haircut (are we seeing a pattern here?) and I really hated it because it makes me look like a stunned chicken. On her 17th, we didn’t see her, she was with her church friends, or WCC friends (they’re the same bunch of “Eunice’s-Others” in my head) but Carmaine, Bee and I were at Mocha Jo’s and I called her.

For my 15th, I’d gotten on the train with the then Yr 10’s and they didn’t know it was my birthday until Tiff got on and said happy birthday. April and Dani gave me their present; April gave me my first hardcore music album, System Of A Down’s Mesmerize, and Dani wrote a shitlong message in a card for a 2 year old. My 16th I did a big thing, and invited about 13 people to go watch HP5 on Friday the 13th, and then went to La Porchetta’s. I remember so clearly Nug being late late late! And also how my hand shook when I tried to put the candle in the cake, and then how loudly everyone sang happy birthday and made all the other La P’s patrons stare. The pressies I got on that day is still piled in my bedroom! I never stowed them away. On my 17th, I took Dani to ACMI’s Game On exhibition, BRuCE to Fedele’s (‘cos idiot Shira Nui was closed) and then had a joint party with Bel and SonJ at April’s place, where we played Singstar and Guitar Hero and watched Zoolander and I’m pretty Damn Sure I blogged about that somewhere.

I can’t wait until Bee and I turn 18, sorry Princess, but you’ll have to wait 15 days until you have someone to party with you, unless of course you go with Fel. [insert a really really big smile here] But after mid-years we are DEFINITELY going to celebrate at a bar. I can’t wait until Carmaine turns 18 either, because that marks the moment when all of us are adults and we’ll ALL go drinking and doing adult things. Unfortunately for Eunice her 18th is marred by the looming End Of Year’s. She’ll survive.

I should probably change the title of my blog to “Birthdays” buuuuuut I think birthdays are momentous days, as well.

De Fluffe, Out.