A new year is unfolding...

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~ Attributed to Bill Vaughn



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 I recently became an aunty. It’s a strange concept and one that I thought might one day happen, but had no real consciousness of. I guess this is an obvious statement given that the mechanism and the biology of it are removed entirely from me.



Those who know me, know I have no real liking for children. They are strange little irritants that, until they develop to a certain level, and then after that in a lot of cases, you can’t do anything with them. They just are. My niece though, for the little time I’ve known her, doesn’t have that same effect on me. Perhaps it really is ‘all in the blood’.


My Mum, in an attempt to help my Sister out, has gone through her old diaries from the time that my sister was born. It makes for amusing reading as I was three at the time. Reading about yourself in this biographical format is interesting and at times, down right funny. You also learn some of your personality traits were cemented from before you can comprehend them.


I learnt, that in the month after A came home from the hospital, I spent a huge amount of time at my Grandparents house having “holidays”. I also learnt that when I was home I could be naughty. Something not elaborated on but entirely unbelievable. Perhaps the most surprising, yet obvious thing I discovered was where my early love for shopping came from. Every other day I was off, out the door with Dad, an Aunt or one of the three Grandparents. The irony of this, again, for those of you unlucky enough to have been shopping with me recently, is how much I detest it now. The detestation of shopping deserves a post in and of itself.


There isn’t really a point to this post. Not that any of the others always have a point either but I wanted to make the last post of 2011 about something that I’ve been thinking about recently.


2011, for many of us, has been an absolute shit of a year. One that we will look back on without too many fond memories. I know that will be the case for me. I don’t want to go back and rehash all the bad. Let’s just suffice to say that the lowest point of my year was the death of my Grandad. A man who I thought would always be up the road, ready to tell a yarn or build something out in the shed. The highest point has been getting back to Australia for Christmas, surprising everyone because they didn’t know I was coming and meeting my niece who if I have any control over it, will have a brilliant life. But then, with the people in my family, I don’t see how this is anything but the truth.


Happy New Year to you all. Here’s to a brighter day in 2012. See you on the flip side.