Headlines for 2005

Courtesy of The Age.

http://www.theage.com.au/flash/1year/1year.html

Memory joggers

Pictorial representation of the year coming to an end.

Frankston Beach, late autumn 2005.

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 2005.

Fruit picking on the Mornington Peninsula, January 2005.

Therese. Red Toyota Corolla, sedan.

Ingrid. Laptop

It's been a year of acclimitisation, a year of trying to understand how I fit in this place I've found myself in. A process that is, still, uncompleted.

I have accomplished nothing stupendous, I've not visited anywhere terribly exciting, I've not made brilliant discoveries, I have not contributed to society. I am an ordinary woman, leading a very ordinary life. Right now, at this very moment, I want nothing more than this very mundane life. It's less complicated, and it is relatively painless.

Was it Shakespeare who coined, "Woe is me"? I can never recall. Perhaps a better phrase to describe this moment is from that old nursery rhyme which describes, "Wednesday's child is full of woe."

I was born on a Wednesday.

a cure-all in chocolate

There is this dull well of black, somewhere in my chest.

Waiting is the last thing I want to do right now, but I promised myself that I will wait, and that is what I will do. I promised.

Meawhile I smile prettily at the world. I can even manage coherent discussions about work schedules, feral kids with grubby fingers and the avian flu.

No-one watching me should ever guess that I'm eating chocolate in an attempt to disguise that well. All they should see is the bar of hazelnut chocolate on my desk, because doesn't every girl have a weakness for chocolate?

Chocolate helps me prepare for the worst, and it will deaden most of the pain, when .. if .. it comes. Chocolate will help hide the despair, and help me fool myself into thinking it doesn't really matter, I don't really care. Chocolate will help me deny the emotions and help me not feel.

Chocolate - it is good.

From the rooftops, did you say?

I am in love, have I mentioned that? With a gorgeous, sensitive,thoughtful, funny, taaaaaaallllll boy with glorious fuzzy wuzzy hair.

"Three years since you tapped me on the shoulder, honey, and picked me up."