House warming :)

This ol' house has never seen so many people before. So good to see the brekkie people past, present and some with spouses or partners making our usual lively commotion within these walls. It's the last opportunity for us to meet this informally before they make good on their vacation plans this year and I'm thrilled we made the best of it. Even Mel Skyped in via Amy's Mac and got a real tour of the place including a virtual staring contest with Maui whom we happened to catch 'live' on webcam.

June was very efficient in getting the salad and punch operational as soon as she got back from work. M-i-L pulled out all the stops helping us with the fried noodles, a vicious red curry chicken and a bonus banana bread. Everybody brought a little something: KL made a green chix curry, Jo-jo with a sushi platter, Amy and B-lo combining with a pair of Sarpino's, Wayne brought two bottles of red, and lots of dessert items including Sha's fabulous trifle, NBS's cheesecake and Fen brought the birthday cake for the December baby among us.

Even with the help of Derek, HP, Sheikh, Vince, Linc, and KL's family, there was too much food! We really missed To*ny's appetite last night! Eventually many of our guests had to take home almost as much food as they brought, and we still have a stockpile that would last us a nuclear winter, if only it wasn't perishable within a day. As hosts, we'd better start estimating our rations better.

Hangin' with the guys really helped lighten my mood considerably. See? No pix! Too busy flitting from guest to guest to bother with the cam for once. Sometimes, the best images are the ones we store in our brains.

Downhill slide

Entries have been rather erratic lately. It's a case of too much happenning that isn't exactly worth writing home about. Even when there are days I can spot blogging potential, I'm like, whatever, I'm on vacation.

So yes, there's been a downhill slide into the doldrums, though I can't put a finger on a direct cause.

One big factor, I suppose, is the big move up north. Yes, I have a lovely new house and all, but the transition to get here has been month after month of additional stress dealing with financial, legal and housing authorities, agents and the people they represent, our renovation works and making sure every little detail is tweaked to absolute perfection. The sad thing is, all these details actually went smoothly, everyone was nice, and everyone did their best to either accommodate or help us, and I still got my nerves frayed over it.

Through it all, some routines that I use to keep myself sane like blogging and breakfast have been disrupted, there have been some unexpected changes in staff deployment that have been rather distressing, and now that I've moved into the new place I have to get used to some new routines that are going to make it difficult for me to recover my old ones.

Without going into detail, it's like this: Living this far north, it feels like I've been cut off from everyone, everywhere and everything. There's no reason to drive anywhere because everything's here: food, entertainment and public transport if I want to go anywhere further (though why would I want to?). It's a self-contained enclave, up here.

The other thing is, I'm kinda' used to living in a rat hole, basically, and the supplier of our flooring summed it up best by remarking that the type of laminate we chose "is meant for high class people, you know?" When others are talking about the collapse of the economy being due to people living beyond their means, I can't help but think they're talking about me.

Currently undergoing "Fallout 3" therapy, taking it all out on those poor Super Mutants and their ilk, though I'm pretty sure this form of treatment is not a very healthy way to deal with my baggage.

Hopefully, I'll get used to life up here soon. Then hopefully I'll recover my good humour. Till then, somebody sing me a Bob Marley tune, please?