HAPPY YEAR!!!

No hangover for me! So how was your first day of the NEW YEAR? Last night I went over to my brother's house for a family get together, to welcome in 1998. Vast amounts of meat, chops, sausages, rissoles, steak...etc etc..all marinating in either Tandoori or Kebab and a lemon, herb and garlic in fish sauce marinate, waiting for the BBQ. We all brought salads. I made two pasta salads, mum made corn and pea salad, sis made green salad. Always more then enough food. We provided the Champaigne. Guess how much I drank?

The conversation over dinner, after we 'oohed and aahed' over my brother's cooking skills ("he should open up a resturant" we all suggested), we discussed the movies and stock market, milenium project etc. I told Dad how we had watched 'Yellowbeard The Pirate' with its great cast (John Cleese, Marty Feldman etc), but it wasn't a remarkable comedy. I remarked later (on the way home) to hubby, how most of the comedies I watched as a child, were English comedies. For example, Fawlty Towers, The Goodies (Goodies, goody goody yum yum!) Some Mothers Do 'Ave Them, Dr Who (okay so when I was small It wasn't a comedy), Dave Allen, The Young Ones (to quote Neil "Morning has broken, I am still sexy, thank god for me", sung to the melody of 'Morning has broken'), Mr Bean (well these two where later into my teens). Nowadays, there hardly is any English comedy programs on television. The other topic of discussion was what experiences we had going to a private school. To see the looks on my parent's faces!!! My brother had gone to school with the older brother of the 'Snow theif', who was just recently caught with 3000 pairs of ladies undies!!! Apparantly, some of the undies (which he stole of their clothes line) belonged to an 85 year old lady.

After dinner, hubby and I went into the jacuzzi (about 11pm), my parents fell asleep on my brother's waterbed (they needed to be woken up at 11:40pm) and my brother and sis'in'law, after waking my parents up, organized a flare show for midnight. Dad poured the Champers (aka champaigne) after spending about 5 minutes trying to get the cork off (it was very amusing!). Most families have plenty of champers for New Years, but we were so tired, we only decided to have one bottle amongst the six of us (Sis went home with the children after dinner). Hence, I only had 1/2 a cup of Champaigne. Poor Soosh, you might think. NO..Unless it is real champaigne, from the vigneron's of France, it isn't worth having. Spoiled, yes I am, but anything less is like vinegar to me. You wouldn't drink vinegar for fun, would you? Besides, I had some Grand Manier with dinner and some Galliano (Amaretto) with dessert. So I had my fill! HIC! (pardon me).

The jacuzzi was wonderful, especially drinking bubbly amongst the bubbles, as you bring in the New Year and hear all the firecrackers in the neighbourhood, shoot up in the sky, flashes of bright colours amongst the black of night. This jacuzzi would easily seat 16 people, in the main section (there is an additional section which could seat 2 comfortably) the additional section pours water into the larger section. Best place to sit, is directly from where the water pours in hot from the smaller section. Nice way to bring in the New Year.

Driving home was like a ghost trip. Hardly any cars on the road, no police cars either. All I saw was a few staggering people and nothing else. Apparantly, there was a huge turn up at Southbank, for the family concert, to welcome in 1998.

Thursday (1st January), hubby and I slept in till 10:30am, then lazed in bed till 1:15pm. Hubby made us a lovely brunch (more like lunch) and we then watched Alien 3 in bed. At 7pm we went to the movies...to watch...yep you guessed it...Alien Reserection. We both enjoyed the movie, despite having to que in line for 20 minutes (like we were really in a hurry to get somewhere! ha!). Both of us are wondering how they are going to develope the plot for Alien 5.

Fri, 2nd Jan '98. Went for my annual physical. I went to the wrong consulting suites. That's what happens, when the physician, works in 3 different locations. Well, the first office were closed, but the receptionist there insisted, that if I had an appointment, that the Dr would arrive to see me, despite being officially closed. So I sat for 15 minutes, watching the lady from (cleaning services) vacuum the carpet, in noisy, swirly motions. Round and Round and Round..... I decided to call one of the Dr's other offices. The receptionist, coldly informed me that I had made a mistake (I can handle that..but she could have put it in a nicer way). What to do? So I drove to his office, 15 minutes away (done in 8 minutes and 35 seconds), where he was waiting for me to arrive. The receptionist hardly acknowledged me (hmm..She gave me that 'Am I a fly? wish I was', sort of look). Sitting in the waiting room, I reach over to pick up a magazine, "Psst, pssst" I turn around and this elderly gentlemen asks me "What's the time?" (I was waiting for him to say the 'Mr Wolf' bit, but he must have forgotten, afterall it would have been 70 something years, since he last would have played that game, okay Soosh, that's mean!). I told him the time and he proceeded to tell me who he was, what he was doing there and where he was going. Cute man, I thought, 'Would you like fries with that?'. Okay so back to my tale... So the Dr arrives, and shakes my hand and invites me into his office.
I get in there, when he says to me "Do you remember me?"
I answer apologetically (because he was handsome as sin! ) "No, but your name is very familiar to me".
He then says "I remeber you from Eiton and Cynthia's wedding. Wow, you were a great dancer!"
I said, "that was ages ago, I don't even remember how old I was then".
He answered "You must have been 9 or 10, but danced fantastically.."
I was thinking to myself, 'lord, he knows me, how can I get undressed infront of him. Okay what the hell, he's a doctor.' ( I have never been so silly in my life about being 'seen' by a Dr, a Dr is a Dr, is it not?)
This Dr happens to know my entire family, having shared a flat with my Uncle (now a lawyer) for many years. I stripped and he went through all the basic tests, Blood pressure 120/80, pulse 70 bpm, respirations 16 per min etc.. listened to my chest, palpated my tummy, checked my glands all over my body.. Thourough he was indeed. During his investigations, he proceeds to tell me about the last 4 years of my life. So I said to him "How do you know all that about me, I only put my name, address, phone number and private health insurance details on the form?" He chuckled, but didn't answer me. I felt so embarrassed that I couldn't remember him. Usually I am so good with faces and hopeless with names, but with him it was the other way around. How odd!

After the consult, I went with my mum for lunch at the beach, then to get my car washed. It was so filthy it had to go around for a second vacuum. Who's had time to clean the car? I vacuumed it 2 weeks ago, prior to us going to Bright. We must be such dirty people... There was a man there. I have seen him before, last time I brought my car there for a wash (about 3 years ago). To me, wearing shabby clothes and unkempt hair, he looked as tough as nails, but he when looked up at me (he was washing my car), I smiled at him, he smiled back and the transformation was surprising. All the hard lines and creases from his face softened and he looked like a little boy again. My mother gave me an inquisitive look. I was only being friendly, but I thought to myself, how so many times we look once, if we don't like what we see, we reject. How quickly our minds recognize patterns and appreciate symmetry. Look and you will see, those who are considered beautiful (conventionally beautiful) have features which are symmetrical and because of this, it is easy for our minds to process, perhaps that's one reason for the appeal.

Went Japanese for dinner. There was teppanyaki catering going on at one of the tables. The chef was asking the diners to catch eggs in their bowls as he threw them. Then he threw food and the diner was supposed to catch it in his/her mouth. Talk about noisy performing seals! Well the resturant was alive with laughter, but definitely not from the waitresses, who went around with a brush and pan, cleaning up all the cracked eggs, that fell on the floor. We went home and watched 'The Five Elements' with Bruce Willis. I enjoyed the movie. So many colourful costumes. I love colours. Easy watching.

Before I go, as promised I have a special New Year gift for a net FRIEND! It may not be what you expected but it's some of my thoughts anyway.

All the best for the following year. Wishing you all the joy, happiness and peace in the world. Take care on the roads...

Till Next Time

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go! Soosh :)

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