Happeeeee New Year

Well folks (both of you), it finally happened. After circling the drain a few times, the congealed mucous-like mass of 2007 squelched its slimy way down the tubes of history and into obscurity and good riddance, I say!

At the same time, the lambent bulk of 2008 hoisted itself over the horizon and plonked itself directly and unmoving in our collective path. Ain't no way around it, we just gotta go through it, so here we go. May 2008 be the good one, the one you've been waiting for, the one about which you comment as you sit comfortably on your stoop sucking contentedly on the oxygen bottle "now that was a flippin' good year".

Much is likely to happen, as is the case with most years. Although it is a scientific fact that in some years in history, nothing actually happened. Nothing, zilch, zip, zero. In some years the nothing grew 6 feet high and enveloped people. Some of us will experience much joy, some will see pain. Some will reach new heights and some may reach new lowts! (Lowts = the opposite of heights. Ya just never can tell. Here's hoping that we all fall into the joy/heights categories as opposed to the alternative.

Christmas was pleasant but fairly quiet in the Ball household, notwithstanding the presence of our mothers. Father Christmas was his normal jolly and generous self, with a drum kit materialising for Greg and a laptop for Casey. FC was sensible enough to procure an electronic drum kit, requiring the drummer to wear headphones to hear the tumultuous cacophony. Lucky for the neighbours the fat man was in a good mood!

The humongous turkey procured by Janene and lyrically mentioned in the previous entry was, in fact, sold to our good friends (and home cell leaders) the Cawoods. Instead, Janene, on the advice of another good friend, sallied forth unto the marketplace and procured 2 American butterball turkey breast roasts. I don't know how Messrs. Butter and Ball quite manage the turkey breast roll. I was expecting some minced up turkey compressed into a roll but instead was pleasantly surprised to find that said roll was actually real breast meat done up roll style. It roasted to perfection and tasted incr-edible. Mmm - mouth's watering as I write. Oops - just drooled on the spacebar! Potatoes, the much maligned sprouts of Belgian origin, cranberry sauce - stunning.

We also had the pleasure of our good friend Carol's company on Christmas day. Carol's husband Brad is a pilot of one of those winged beasts that soar through our skies creating tons of greenhouse gases. He unfortunately had to take the greenhouse gas generator to some foreign shore, so Carol was orphaned for the day and became our guest. We had a wonderful time sitting and talking good stuff and rubbish all afternoon, which made a pleasant change from the usual eat-too-much-and-slip-into-a-stupor kind of Christmas day. Carol brought biltong and champagne. The biltong was great and duly squirreled away by your favourite blogger. I still have some left. The champagne, on the other hand was, shall we say, a tad dry? It was called Andre. Normally, champagne is called chateau something or Le Grand something but this one was called Andre. I had previously thought champers named after a deceased water fowl to be in somewhat bad taste but bubbly named after some gay bloke from California takes the (dry) cake.

Note to Carol: Champagne descriptions should include the words "doux" or "sec". Brut is what keeps lumberjacks dry all day.

Needless to say though, it was a nice day and thanks to Carol for being there.

My 2 weeks break felt like 2 days and I have today rejoined the hades that is work. What a shock! Please pray.

I am happy to report that I sold the Dakar yesterday for R6,000 less than I paid for it 2 years ago. Can't beat a Beamer for resale value. I did in fact mount antlers to the GS and ride it around - I felt like a biker Santa!

In case you actually read the last episode and wondered what FC got for Janene, it was a 22" monitor for her PC. She also got a bluetooth headset, new speakers, a whole bunch of time on the ski slope and a few other bits & pieces.

New years eve was spent at home watching the TV, playing games and generally chilling out. No big parties or us. One of our neighbours let off a few fireworks on a piece of spare land opposite us. After his pops and bangs, I let rip with a good old South African Indian Foil Bomb and basically blew the competition away. Don't know how the movers managed to pack fireworks when we moved but they did. What a blast. Literally.

The day is waning, the creative muse has taken flight and so I sign off this first entry of 2008 a wiser, happier and hopeful person.

Have a good one and please write and let me know if you read this.

Cheers!