tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post4490364788134051406..comments2023-12-15T02:38:55.020+10:30Comments on Still Life With Cat: How to tell if it's DecemberKerryn Goldsworthyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-43215742545343771342009-12-31T10:35:59.579+10:302009-12-31T10:35:59.579+10:30Hi Karen -- wow, that's a pretty small window ...Hi Karen -- wow, that's a pretty small window there -- I'm flat out this morning meeting deadlines and making new year preparations, but I'm very flattered and will try to find half an hour today to search out something suitable for you. Is it an online anthology, or a book? This would affect what choices I made, since if it's online it can include graphics and links, but obviously not otherwise. Let me know (and send me your email address) and I'll try to find something -- KG<br /><br />PS re email, send to pavlov.cat@gmail.comKerryn Goldsworthyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11270814460793882309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-28310272870764505222009-12-31T10:17:09.502+10:302009-12-31T10:17:09.502+10:30Dear Kerryn
I'm currently compiling an Austra...Dear Kerryn<br /><br />I'm currently compiling an Australian Blog Writing anthology, and submissions close tonight (31/12). I'm writing to ask if you would consider submitting some of your posts from this year? Yours is a blog I would love to have represented, with many posts to choose from, such as this one, or the 'Where's Bruce Sprinsteen when you need him?' - and many others. It's hard for me to narrow down.<br /><br />I apologise for contacting you here via the comments section, but I was unaware of your email address. <br /><br />If this doesn't interest you, then I do understand. Thank you for your attention, and sorry to have bothered, if I have.<br /><br />Best Regards, Karen AndrewsKaren Andrewshttp://www.miscpress.com.aunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-35096943484116194812009-12-08T15:30:49.912+10:302009-12-08T15:30:49.912+10:30I'm staying in Melbourne this year. Family wil...I'm staying in Melbourne this year. Family will be 80% in Perth, and 20% in San Francisco, so if my calculations are correct, this is bound to please everybody.FDBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01385030143419850595noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-70543488508150797502009-12-08T14:47:47.076+10:302009-12-08T14:47:47.076+10:30On divorce: my family felt sorry for me the first ...On divorce: my family felt sorry for me the first Christmas I spent without my ex. I *loved* it. I spent as much time as I wanted with my family, including beloved Grandma, without Mr hovering around my elbow saying, "Can we go now? Can we go now?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-45877236000563970332009-12-07T20:02:37.484+10:302009-12-07T20:02:37.484+10:30I always felt that Christmas was for children and ...I always felt that Christmas was for children and they got to say where they wanted to go, everyone else got before or after or fell in with the kids.<br /><br />Now after 9 blissful years of doing my own thing, I will be down at the nursing home having lunch with Mum which I will enjoy not having to cook it myself. I will then tiptoe out when they all fall asleep in the pudding.JahTehhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02007730071564639411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-85530185104195733052009-12-07T16:27:06.969+10:302009-12-07T16:27:06.969+10:30It's just an incidental point raised in this p...It's just an incidental point raised in this post, but it's interesting how modern technology - mobile phones and the like - make seemingly ordinary people behave in ways that would, a decade ago, have been viewed as a sure sign of insanity. Shouting in a supermarket at no visible presence? Bizarre.TimThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333303180015967125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-38279350754210337202009-12-07T11:34:22.614+10:302009-12-07T11:34:22.614+10:30Word verification here is actually 'nations...Word verification here is actually 'nations' - is that even legal. My family is blissfully divided by oceans, not just Prudence's handy continent, so you're in one country or the other, and if there are some ring-ins from the other country, they get the same treatment. However, this year partner from across the ocean thought we might take his visiting mother and flee to the beach, possibly to visit my sister who might invite us as she's never hosted christmas because she's 'too far away'. But alas for him, my whole family is following us to the beach, and the non-host sister has offered to bring a ham to the barbecue which I am now magically hosting in an unseen house unlikely to hold 13. <br />Nevertheless, it is actually always fun, and I expect to have fun. Partner can always flee to the actual beach...<br />TyaakinaAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-4848553574107830302009-12-06T17:07:57.526+10:302009-12-06T17:07:57.526+10:30Thank you everybody for affirming for me.
My lack ...Thank you everybody for affirming for me.<br />My lack of religious affiliation has me insist to one and all that <b>Christ</b>it's<b>Mas</b>ochism is about the birth of Jesus Christ and not my concern at all.<br />I do less than 10 gifts where they absolutely must go; and I ignore 3 children and 6 grandchildren completely because they have wretched excess all year.<br />I will be 6 kms from anybody on the day, as I am now. Blissful.<br /><br />This comment from Seepi -<br />"Add divorce into the mix and things become ridiculous. We have four competing options for Xmas day." is the too-common case for most people clogging the roads on 25/12. <br />The cult of St.Commerce on The Feast Of St.Retail.BwcaBrowniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11500142856655553009noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-30067207597673337902009-12-06T14:22:46.209+10:302009-12-06T14:22:46.209+10:30Again, Jewishness is weighing in heavier as blessi...Again, Jewishness is weighing in heavier as blessing rather than curse: we weigh the where-to-go for shabbas every Friday night/saturday, and then come the eating festivals of Passover, New Year and post-Yom Kippur feast. Having the pressure placed on Christmas alone would be unbearable for me. Spreading the mixed guilt and loyalties over a year full of partially achievable family obligations makes things manageable. I wonder if other non-Anglo multi-festivaled cultures feel the same? <br /><br />Fantastic post, SLWC, it reads like an 'ear2ground' in The Big Issue or similar.M L Jassyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13918911547104202603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-5055398590959753222009-12-06T11:22:31.289+10:302009-12-06T11:22:31.289+10:30I am working on Christmas Day. Hoorah!I am working on Christmas Day. Hoorah!Henrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-79069607854212858902009-12-06T09:33:23.116+10:302009-12-06T09:33:23.116+10:30My Mum can sulk for Australia too. And she starts ...My Mum can sulk for Australia too. And she starts with the Christmas invite to her place every year in about November.<br /><br />I might try the line 'Mum we're all old enough to take turns' on her and see how it goes. Then again after one Xmas debacle she wrote me a letter saying perhaps it would be best if we had no further contact, so I will probably wimp out on actual confrontation.<br /><br />Add divorce into the mix and things become ridiculous. We have four competing options for Xmas day<br />. But yes - it is the women who push the hardest and refuse any forms of <br />compromise.<br /><br />Xmas - Family fark indeed.seepinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-56684273741220356412009-12-06T08:31:04.356+10:302009-12-06T08:31:04.356+10:30Same as it is with some men, I think, Gae -- some ...Same as it is with some men, I think, Gae -- some women are simply always spoiling for a fight. (I have a sister a bit like this, and expect her to start a family brawl on Christmas Day with the words 'While we're all here, we should talk about ...')<br /><br />Men and women pick different battles. My (extremely and visibly fit, straight, rather tall, maybe 30-35ish) hairdresser was telling me a story the other day about getting into a shoving match with a complete stranger over a minor question of plumbing supplies.<br /><br />Elisabeth, trust you as a psychologist to put your finger on the real problem, which to my mind at least is the gap between our expectations and what actually happens. And by the time we actually get where we're going on Christmas Day, we've had three weeks of conversations like the one that poor young woman was having in the supermarket and you already want to kill half your famiy before you even arrive. Spare a thought for Lauren and John: how are they going to cope with a guest as resentful, bolshie and, erm, uninhibited as that one? Apart from anything else, she looked as though she could sulk for Australia.Pavlov's Catnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-84303224409446494922009-12-06T07:03:29.864+10:302009-12-06T07:03:29.864+10:30This is (only) one reason I am so glad I married a...This is (only) one reason I am so glad I married a German - his sister tried the pressure on our first Christmas as a couple, and was actually MIFFED when I told her it was fine because my family's 'do' is on Christmas DAY.<br /><br />Years later, when our Son's first Christmas as a married man came up his M-in-L tried the same trick, with the same result.<br /><br />And the bit I used to love about celebrating on Christmas Eve? No over excited kidlets bouncing on your stomach at 4 am.<br /><br />What got me was the actual let-down in each case, when they tried to set up a conflict, and were *sweetly* told there was no problem. What is it with some women? <br /><br />Gae, in Callala BayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-85362232939950940112009-12-06T00:54:25.609+10:302009-12-06T00:54:25.609+10:30What is it about Christmas? Not the Christ part, ...What is it about Christmas? Not the Christ part, I'm sure, more this residue for all of us from childhood that Christmas was such fun, with family and all. Why can't we keep it like that.<br /><br />I say to myself: be flexible about ritual at Christmas. Don't get too tied down with the idea that this is how we do it, be flexible. <br /><br />Mostly it works, but even then there's still the old hankering for something primeval, some fantasy from the past that Christmas Day was such fun and this year it will be just as good, again.<br /><br />Ahem.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04015624747225433940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-59357370706705806252009-12-05T22:24:19.585+10:302009-12-05T22:24:19.585+10:30Which serves to remind one of the advantages of mo...Which serves to remind one of the advantages of moving to the other side of the country. One phone call suffices and one doesn't have to share the Veuve!Prudencehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04348998112942635835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-19615923406341039862009-12-05T16:11:43.528+10:302009-12-05T16:11:43.528+10:30I have been that woman. And once she and Darren ha...I have been that woman. And once she and Darren have a baby, it will be ten times worse. The horrible thing is that it's usually women who put pressure on (not to mention guilt trips) each other at Christmas.Meredithhttp://thecarriageheldbutjustourselves.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-82439914882708662772009-12-05T16:09:06.841+10:302009-12-05T16:09:06.841+10:30yes, the reason (s) why I can't stand December...yes, the reason (s) why I can't stand December.librarygirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08417889399020548301noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7459693255389523642.post-5924226211541836802009-12-05T13:04:21.562+10:302009-12-05T13:04:21.562+10:30Tis the season for online shopping...
Every year ...Tis the season for online shopping...<br /><br />Every year I find myself having to explain to someone who is well and truly old enough to understand the concept that the thing about taking turns is that sometimes it's not your turn and no, we cannot just pop in or make another day, we will celebrate Christmas with you next year. Every second year we have three celebrations, every odd year we have four. Last year I was ready to kill someone by Boxing Day.<br /><br />Tomorrow is the first of our Christmasses. I will be doing therapeutic gardening this afternoon to prepare.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com