Belated Happy New Year

After what seems like an eternity I am back from holiday and starting to get used to the new year. I had a holiday this year before and during Christmas and set myself a goal to leave the computer behind and concentrate on relaxing and letting the festive season wash past without stress.
2010 will be  quite a year for me on many different fronts - work, family and hopefully personally. My perennial NewYear resolution - to lose weight and exercise more is looking promising, so long as the weather stays reasonably mild.
I have now gone back to work, pool and exercise bike. But still the christmas cake effect lingers around the waist and hips.
I have instituted family meetings to try and bring some sort of order into the doings of the family. All these targets and requests will need some work to succeed but perhaps the idea of setting goals may create a sense of getting things done and family spirit. Thats the idea anyway.
My garden produced a ton of beans over the Christmas period. They are now finished but soon we will be inundated with zucchinis and cucumbers.(so long as they survive the hot weather). And as the rain fell in large amounts up til the end of December our water tanks are again full and being used instead of Melbourne's precious water supply. The kids wondered how I could eat beans directly from the garden - nice sweet, crunchy beans - can't beat them!
My Solar Panels are installed and working well. We are surprised at how much power is generated on cooler, lightly cloudy days. However, to be truly effective we would need double the generating capacity - something that is not likely to happen again soon.

Happy New Year

Fireworks, parties and drinking are the hallmarks of a Melbourne New Years Eve party. The city is alive with people and the police are out in force looking for action. The public transport system runs late to take the party-goers back home en-mass.

Around the suburbs, individuals let off illegal fireworks and numerous local parties are held. I pity the emergency services as inevitably the unlucky and stupid make the doctors, nurses, ambulance people and police lives hell. So here's to all our service personnel. May they have a relatively quiet and peaceful end to 2008

Lets all celebrate the coming of the new year. This year it is time for belt tightening and a reassessment of investments(ie bemoaning the losses and hoping the companies will regain part of their value in 2009).

In Melbourne the hot weather approaches, though this year it seems that New Years Eve will not be a scorcher unlike previous years. Perhaps it will rain and refill the water tanks that are being increasingly needed for the vegie garden.

So to anyone who reads this post, may you have health and happiness. Wealth and "interesting times" as per the chinese proverb can wait for another year. Cherish the small things in life that make it sweet - chocolate (free trade stuff of course) and a good book to read while sitting on the beach. Cheap (if books is sourced from your local library) but worthwhile. Also keeping me employed for the coming year