Dear everyone in my life,

Can a year have already passed us by ? How does it happen so quickly ? I barely had time to make plans and put them into action !

I hope you all had a lovely year and achieved all you had planned to, and more!

The majority of my year has been spent actioning my new years resolution of owning less stuff and having better storage solutions for the stuff that I want to keep. I was able to get started straight away in January with the purchase of a series of stackable drawers that fit in my main and spare wardrobes. A great way to sort and organise stuff and I was glad to discover that even quite large items like my sewing machine and drills and tools etc all fit into a drawer of their own. Less stuff on the floor !

I have also considered, and put into action, solutions for reducing the kind of stuff I collect and cant bare to part with. I love collecting calendars but I generally don’t hang them up anywhere. So I have scanned all my favourites and stored them on a hard drive and thrown out the actual calendars. I plan to do this with all my favourite letters and greeting cards too. I collect newpaper and magazine articles on just about any topic you can think of. So all of this will be scanned too and then binned. This will eliminate the need to store so much paper and cardboard.

I have been busy transferring all my favourite video tapes over to dvd so that I can throw out all the bulky tapes and also my many video players ! Meanwhile, following the purchase of a negative and slide scanner I plan to start scanning and preserving all the negatives and slides from my childhood. These projects are basically ongoing each weekend until all is finished. The end result will be some rather large spaces where boxes use to live!

Another big space saver was the moving of all my thousands of photos from their big bulky photo albums into nice neat compact index card boxes that fit on the bottom row of my bookcases. Wish I had thought of that years ago !

I have also been holding a never ending garage sale to eliminate a lot of other possessions. Ornaments, glassware, the endless handbag and hat collection, picture frames (no less than 70 of them !).

So, all this kind of everyday stuff has kept me busy most weekends. Meanwhile – what has been entertaining me.

In February I was able to get a sneak preview of the Police concert the night before the concert I was attending. They were playing in a stadium just a block from my house and it was so loud I could hear and feel every lyric and beat and even every cheer from the huge crowd. My walls shook and my windows rattled! The next night I sat in the middle of the front row wearing my “Life is … front row centre” T Shirt made just for such an occasion, and was utterly thrilled to see my 3 favourite boys from the 70s and 80s back together on the big stage rocking their hearts out. It was a fantastic show and worth every scary cent that I paid for such a prime seat! I was also thrilled to discover just how good a concert photo I could take on my Canon S2is. Some stunning shots if I do say so myself.

Also in February I had a week in Sydney where I enjoyed a day out at the Gap watching giant cruise ships make their way into the harbour, lunches and dinners with dear friends, seeing John Waters in the new production of Rocky Horror Show twice, and seeing the very fine production of Billy Elliot.

At the end of February I got the promotion I had applied for some 5 months earlier.

In March it was another concert at the stadium down the road. This time it was the lovely Rod Stewart who I had not seen live since 1985 and he has not changed one iota since then ! He still gave a totally rocking night full of new and old hits and great singalongs and stories. He was supported by the extremely legendary Ian Moss from Cold Chisel. An honour to have seen him perform.

Also in March I went to see Absolutely 80s, a band made up of my favourite Aussie artists of the 80s. A great night of flashbacks and bad 80s dancing!!!

In April it was time for another holiday. This time to Melbourne for a week of theatre and friends. Priscilla was closing there so we enjoyed the four final performances and I was pulled up on stage to dance at two of them including the finale !!! Later in the week I also enjoyed Marcus Graham’s talents in The 39 Steps – quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever sat through, then a good old fashioned musical Guys and Dolls starring Marina Prior and Garry MacDonald.

The next few months were quiet but filled with stress for various reasons both work and personal related. The bully at work whose personality will never change, and the relative whose personality totally changed, were the cause of much angst to me. I honestly can’t see either situation improving and that saddens me.

In October my friends cheered me up by organising a 10 day long 40th birthday celebration !! It began on Sydney Harbour in a lovely boat with a 3 course meal and cake and copious cocktails, surround by dear friends that I treasure. To those who organised, attended and travelled from afar – I thank you. We were entertained by one of Sydney’s more stunning natural skyshows – lightning in every direction for the whole night.

Then two friends took me to Jenolan Caves for a weekend of exploring, dining and more cocktails.

I then spent the week enjoying 4 previews of the encore season of Priscilla, with Todd McKenney taking over one of the lead roles, before the exhilarating opening night.

During the days I dined with friends and relaxed and squeezed in a morning theatre trip (a surprise from a friend) to see Cop Shop and GP favourite John McTernan in a Garry Marshall play called Wrong Turn at Lungfish.

I returned from that holiday in a lot of pain and was later diagnosed with heel spurs – arghhhhh.

In November I treated myself to a new TV and DVD recorder and am enjoying the world of widescreen digital for the first time. I also had the pleasure of listening to Billy Joel performing at the nearby local stadium. The sound was crystal clear as it wafted through my windows all night.

The entertainment world lost some real favourites of mine this year. Some far too soon, and others at the end of a long and successful life. The ones that hit me the most were the premature deaths of Heath Ledger and Mark Priestley. I had the pleasure of seeing Mark in his first stage role in The Graduate in 2001 and had watched his career bloom in the years since. His performances in All Saints this year were some of his finest acting and were worthy of the awards he will no doubt receive next year but will not be around to collect. I have no doubt Heath will be receiving a swathe of posthumous awards over the next few months and they will be well deserved.

We also lost Paul Newman in September at age 83. A man that was beautiful inside and out and who gave so much more to the world than just his acting. And the theatre world lost Rob Guest very suddenly in October. I saw him star as the Phantom in the 90s.

December has been quiet at home but busy at work. I continue the decluttering task each weekend and feel like I have achieved a lot of it this year. Always more to do but every little step helps. I have Dec19 to Jan19 off work and am actually not going anywhere!! So it’s a nice lengthy period to be at home and achieve even more of my goals.

My online photo albums are here http://albums.phanfare.com/karina if you are not already a member of my phanfare pages just send me an email requesting to be added so you can view the albums. I have recently been adding some photos from the 60s and 70s so drop on by for a real flashback!

My online journal is here http://bajaclub.homestead.com where you can read my thoughts and tales during the year.

My email address is karina1968taylor@yahoo.com.au so do stay in touch !

I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. I hope 2009 brings you all that you ask for.

Love and best wishes

Karina xxxxx