Procrastination to the power of 25

Tags

25 random things, About a Boy, blog award, Butt cheeks, Catatonic Kid, Fake ID, Horses, Malicious Intent, Meme, molè, Muriel's Wedding, Santa, Sixth Sense, Sleep talking, Synchronised swimming, Tea pots, Toni Collette

Despite having plenty to do right now, I can’t even be bothered hanging my washing out (although I’m gonna, I promise, just not right now).

The lovely Catatonic Kid is writing again (some beautiful posts as always), and so she memed me (don’t care if that’s not a word, I’m making it a word). Which I reckon is somewhat akin to mooning someone… ‘cept without the butt cheeks.

And instead of vacuuming or sending out résumés (things I really need to be doing), I present to y’all my list of utter randomness:

1. As a child, I used to act out cereal commercials at the breakfast table. Y’know, pretending to be one of those kids eating Coco Pops on TV and talking about how yummy they are (especially when the milk turns chocolatey).
2. I shouldn’t be allowed to sit too close to anything made of sandstone, coz I might just have an orgasm (I have a seriously weird fetish for the stuff).
3. I have two common recurring dreams, always a little different of course. One is about sharks and swimming with them, unafraid. The other is about vampires. Usually I get to become one and then I have super powers, like the ability to fly. And that rocks.
4. The beguiling Malicious Intent (you need to request access to read her blog) recently awarded me with a blog award. Many thanks, MI!! *blushes*
5. I’m feeling a little embarrassed about the recent spate of blog awards I’ve received. Is there somewhere I can donate them for charity? Actually, if you feel like it, go pick one up from my awards page and tell everyone it’s from me (I’ll back your story up). If you want it, it’s yours…
6. I collect tea pots. Sorta. I’m kinda against accumulating too much ‘stuff’ which conflicts with my desire to collect tea pots. So I only have four. Which isn’t too bad. And I use them all, since I’m a fan of brewing large pots of tea.
7. I was a synchronised swimmer for around nine years of my life, starting at age nine. Yep, glitter, sequins, gelatine (used to keep the hair out of your eyes when performing), wearing make-up in the water – all of that.
8. Synchronised swimming, whilst looking rather camp, actually requires a great deal of strength and skill. Not to mention the ability to hold your breath for long periods of time. So don’t diss the synchro swimmers!!
9. Gelatine, made of horses’ hooves or something revolting like that, actually makes one’s hair very soft. So, each time there was a competition, we’d all looked forward to washing our hair at the end of the day for our ‘hair treatment’.
10. Speaking of horses, I always loved them but was never allowed to have one. Dang! I had a horse poster above my bed for years and used to imagine he was real. A lot.
11. I once sold Toni Collette (of Muriel’s Wedding, Sixth Sense & About a Boy fame) a futon, when I worked in a futon shop. It was for her mother’s house. She was super-nice and very grounded. It was before she was super-famous, although she was definitely well-known by then. I decided to play it super-cool, so I didn’t gush, didn’t say hey, aren’t you… (I knew it was her when she handed over her credit card).
12. When I worked out Santa wasn’t real I used to ransack my parents’ bedroom just before Christmas. One year, I found three albums and knew mum and dad would give us one each. So, I dropped hints about the band I liked, and received the one I wanted (teehee!!).
13. I used to make fake ID for myself and my friends. That was back in the days where a birth certificate extract would suffice! I found a way to fuse together blue and white paper (like the real thing) and with a bit of white out, a typewriter and the school photocopier… I’d run up very realistic looking birth certificate extracts.
14. As a result, my friends and I went to way too many nightclubs in our last year of school. One of those times, I passed out drunk in the toilets. My friends thought I’d gone home and left without me. I had to make my own way home at 6am or thereabouts.
15. I was a vegetarian and/or pescatarian for oh… a good nineteen years of my life. I do eat meat now, but prefer white meat to red.
16. Although, when it comes to wine, I much prefer red. Almost exclusively. Mmmm, one way to my heart is with a very nice bottle of red!
17. Something else you can feed me if you’re trying to seduce me is molé. Oh god, how I love, love, love molé!!
18. Whilst my hair is reddish-brown, I haven’t seen my natural colour in years. Before I started dying it, my hair was often described as ‘strawberry blonde’ – whatever the hell that means – and its been various shades of red ever since. Right now, it’s kinda natural-ish but I’m getting a little bored with that…
19. If you come to my house, I’ll ask you to remove your shoes. I’m anti wearing shoes inside that you’ve worn outside, getting who knows what all over them. Eeew! I’ll offer you slippers or socks to wear instead, so your feet don’t get cold.
20. My parents never, ever respect my take off your shoes rule, even when I ask politely. Neither does my sister.
21. I’m incredibly visually oriented. Often, things I want to say, write or do appear to me as pictures, way before they become anything else.
22. One of my many skills includes the ability to raise my right eyebrow independently of the left. It’s something I practiced for years in front of the bathroom mirror. My mum can do the left and the right, but I only ever learned one side, damnit.
23. Speaking of skills, I’m very flexible. Have been all my life. I can still do the splits and most of my joints hyper-extend. When I have my leg straight and not over-extended, it feels bent.
24. I thought I’d outgrown my sleep talking habit, but in Thailand last year sharing a bamboo hut, my room mate reported my nightly mumblings each morning. Apparently, sometimes you can have a conversation with me while I slumber!
25. I’m fairly certain I know what I’m gonna write my first book about. Hooray! But it’s still a baby seedling of an idea, protected from anyone else for now.

P.S. I’m one of those folks who’ll happily pass on a cool email, but remove the imperative to do so or else bad luck is coming. So, if ya wanna play and haven’t already done so… then go for gold! 😉

~Svasti

Summer Christmas Wishes

Tags

Childhood memories, Christmas, Egg-nogg, Garbos, Horse drawn sleigh, Presents, Roast dinner, Santa, Seafood, Skiing, Summer

It’s a funny thing being on the ‘other side of the world’ from whence our ancestors came… and so our customs and traditions, whilst hailing from the north, are often out of synch with the seasons.

Here in the far, far south, as far away as those Brits could manage to create a penal colony… it’s mid-summer, not winter (although sometimes lately you wouldn’t know it, crazy weather).

For years, grown up Aussies have been trying to explain to kiddies why we have snow on Christmas cards, and why Santa doesn’t get hot wearing that thick coat when he delivers presents down here.

I’ve often craved a wintery Christmas experience (which might sound crazy to those of you who live in it). In fact, I still plan to bugger off to Austria or Canada one year, ride in a horse drawn sleigh, drink egg-nog, actually have to wrap up warmly, go skiing, and enjoy that hefty wintery roast dinner.

My family’s Christmas traditions for years did include the roast dinner and all the trimmings – try eating that in the heat! But in the last half a dozen years we wised up. Now its all seafood smorgasbord – baked fish, salmon, crab, mussels, oysters (eeeww to the former two), prawns, scallops – and on it goes. Fresh Australian seafood. Mmmmm…

Childhood Christmas memories are of stinking hot days tearing around in a swimsuit and jumping in the backyard pool my dad built. Splashing about, possibly with our new inflatable pool presents or diving rings or the like… or riding our new bikes out front… some years driving from one end of town to the other, squished in the back of the car, fighting amongst ourselves, probably in uncomfortable heat… visiting one set of grandparents for lunch and one for the  evening meal (leaving us very full).

For several years we had a ‘neighbourhood Santa’ – a guy sitting on the back of a station wagon dressed in a red suit, throwing lollies to the kids on Christmas Eve. Never found out who he was. Try ‘n’ get away with that these days!

All the fathers in the street would give a case of beer to the garbos [Aussie slang for garbage collectors] in the week leading up to Christmas. There was a definite sense of community… less about commercialism, more about people having a good time.

It was never (fortunately for me), a particularly religious time. Which is just as well given I seem to have been a born pagan/heathen. My family were basically without religion or any kind of spirituality.

By far, the most prominent childish Christmas memory is my excitement about the magic of it all. Before I didn’t, I really and truly believed in Santa. I was a child of faeries and mysteries. It seemed quite reasonable that a fat guy in a red suit could pull off the great present delivery once a year.

So, it was always hard to go to sleep. Then I’d wake up like clockwork before dawn, creeping out of the room my sister and I shared… to the lounge room where, to my delight, were three over-sized Christmas themed pillow-cases hung over the back of dining room chairs and packed full of presents!!

As middle child, my sack was in the center. I’d carefully, quietly unpack each new toy one at a time. Checking to see if Santa had read my letter and given me what I desired. After re-packing everything in reverse, if I hadn’t been ordered back to bed yet, I’d then systematically check my sister’s then my brother’s sacks too!

I never ever swapped anything, but I’d wake my sister up when I’d finished my investigations to tell her Santa had been, trying to drag her out of bed to see for herself. If she didn’t come, I’d start telling her what Santa had brought her! 😉

My parents always heard me at some point – get back to bed now – they knew I’d be up, like the ghost of Christmas present, haunting the goodies til it was ‘official’ get out of bed time.

That waking up early thing on Christmas day, it lasted a long time. Twas my late teens actually, before I was able to kick that unconscious habit.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, however you celebrate…

~Svasti

P.S. For a very different and very beautiful take on an Aussie Christmas… read AnthroYogini’s Deep Desert Christmas!