Well the background says it all - where did the year slip by so fast like sands thru the hourglass ??
I spent last christmas day on a plane - with the highly entertaining Virgin flight crew. I landed in Sydney and reached Keiths to find a yummy xmas roast awaiting me.
Spent a few days catching up with friends and seeing movies like The Incredibles, Oceans 12, and Phantom of the Opera. Also spent a lot of time watching the unfolding vision of the Tsunami disaster in the Indian Ocean. New years eve was Keiths 40th birthday so we celebrated with a nice meal and even nicer mudcake at Star City followed by games of drunken Uno then up to the roof to see the 9pm and Midnight fireworks. Spectacular.
On Australia Day I watched the Perth Skyshow fireworks from my balcony (I missed them last year as I was in Melbourne).
February bought the new TV shows Lost and Desperate Housewives. Both were so different to past shows that they made a real refreshing change. Intelligent - no less. Of course my reality addiction was fulfilled in 2005 with the usual Big Brother, Survivor, Amazing Race and The Apprentice. For more culture I went to see hunk Marcus Graham in an outdoor play "Zastrozzi". Feb also proved the people of Perth wanted to stay in the dark ages when it came to the shopping hours referendum. So no 24 hours or sunday shopping heading this way YET !
In March I was saddened to hear of the suicide of a favourite musician, Paul Hester of Crowded House.
In April I bought some new sofa's (and donated the big silver modular to a friends grandmother who lost everything in a housefire). Naturally the new additions were PURPLE. Really nice dark purple that went nicely with the purple apartment.
Most of my weekends this year were spent building websites. I rebuilt my entire John Waters site, built a site for Ben Elton (not yet published), built a site about a ship called the Netherby which one of my ancestors was shipwrecked on, my Uncanny X-Men website grew and friendships grew from old fans visiting it ! I also built a photo album site which is where all my photos will live - if you fancy checking them out the link is at the bottom of the page.
In May I went to Sydney for opening night of The Producers. An uttertly fabulous night of celeb spotting, and the chance to finally met long time fave Tom Burlinson. The show was hilarious - side splitting in fact !! Fabulous sets and costumes and wicked casting. I caught up with friends during my week there and squeezed in some shopping. On the way home I stopped off in Adelaide to see John Waters in the David Williamson play Influence.
In late August I watched along with everyone else as a hurricane destroyed most of the historical city of New Orleans and the world discovered there was a "third world" right there in the richest country in the world.
In October there were more bombings in Bali, taking yet more Australian lives. Much as it is "our favourite playground" I think its time to accept its just aint safe there anymore.
So here it is - December already. So far mum and I have done a Jamie Durie style makeover of the balcony - from beige and terracotta - to charcoal and pink. It looks so cute and the photos will be in the photo albums real soon. I have bought a DVD recorder with hard drive and plan to spend my christmas break trying to work out how to plug it in. I have been assembling IKEA storage thingys and pantrys - and man it was hard ! Next job is to paint the pantrys (purple of course) to match everything. As a thank you for her hard work - I took mum to see Dirty Dancing the Musical. It was EXACTLY like the film !! Gorgeous.
Things I did for the first time this year: Learned to make risotto and discovered it was a great dish to make in bulk so I have been taking it to work for lunch most days! Watched To Kill A Mockingbird. Learned to live with sciatic pain. Learned to take my career into my own hands and realised I didnt have to tolerate bullying in the workplace. Started wearing BROWN ! Yes the purple and black girl discovered brown clothing for the first time. It started with a couple of pairs of 3/4 trousers and ended with no less than 3 chocolate coloured tops.
Things I didnt do: Didnt kill my noisy piano murdering neighbour - no matter how much I wanted to. Didnt go on as many holidays or saw as many shows as last year ! Didnt win a million bucks (I really need to start buying lotto tickets !!
So I hope everyone had a great 2005. I look forward to hearing from you during 2006.
Happy holidays and HAPPY NEW YEAR. Luv Karina xxxxxx
