
Now three months into moving in with Neilee and he's surviving the "mantrap" as he calls it. My efforts to gain the "Domestic Goddess" title were slightly strained after only Day 3 when I had already run out of healthy options to cook that he might eat! The struggle is real!! How do people do it?? This title has since been put on hold for when I am less stressed and have more time...
St. Kilda is the place to be in the summer and once you look past the syringes
and human faeces outside our door in the lane way, it's great! Lovely
neighbours who presented us with some muffins when we moved in and another who
told us the "trick" about living in peace was to be nice to the drug
addicts and homeless alcoholics and they would leave you alone... Noted.



And so, after a three hour sleep, I was up and prepping the apartment for the house-party; whilst still wearing my sunglasses indoors, as it was “too bright”. Cut to a few hours later and we have a DJ at the apartment, the bath full to the brim with bottles of beer and it has the makings of another messy night ahead.
This one ended at 6am again, with my having to “cut the night short” as Neilee was asleep standing up against a pole in a less-than-classy establishment on Fitzroy street! Again, a few hours of sleep was squeezed in before we got up for the McGregor v Aldo UFC match that we had ordered on FOXTEL, and invited a few more people round to drink the remaining bottles of beer.
Ireland lost to Argentina in the Rugby World Cup, which
wasn’t ideal considering the Head of Platform is an Argentinian and a huge
rugby fan (fully equipped with cauliflower ears). If that didn’t end my career,
him telling the Global Head of Fertiliser that a work colleague and I were
calling said Senior Manager “Fabio” because he “looked like a Fabio” probably put the nail in
the coffin. Especially since he announced it on a Global call; naming me in
person. I might as well start updating my Linked In…
Bhany and my niece Izzy come down to visit Luke, who has been stationed in Victoria for a bit, for a weekend in July and Neilee and I went to spend Christmas with them. They are moving back to Ireland next year and it’s beginning to dawn on me how much this will impact on me now. I know she’s a three-hour plane ride away, but even having my sister on the same time-zone (give or take an hour at Daylight Savings time) makes things easier. Being the only one left in Australia will change things I’m sure.






Finding this photo then started hours’ worth of conversation threads on Whatsapp with some friends who dug up their own old photos of us all and kindly shared them. To think we were allowed out in public like that is terrifying and down-right bad parenting in my opinion. They should have known better – clearly my friends couldn’t see straight enough seeing as though they themselves were equally as bad!! The fact that I even had friends in that state is a miracle in itself; probably best not to push it!
It was lovely to have the unexpected Christmas for this year, even
if it was a month early. To the Aussies who don't understand when we say their
December 25th isn't Christmassy: Christmas to me is a time and a feeling. It’s
about friends and family and cold winter nights. It's that feeling you get when
everyone is together, it's the sitting beside the fire to keep warm, the silly
Christmas Carols in the background, it's the Die Hard and Home Alone on the TV
and watching them for the 50th time together. It's “The Late Late Toy Show” on
TV, the boxes and boxes of chocolates, the big dinners followed by dessert as a
treat. It's a time to appreciate what you have and who you have with you to
share it with. December 25th in Australia is the same as any other day in
Summer for me; hot, spent drinking beers on the beach or having a BBQ. It
couldn't actually be any further from my family and many of my friends if it
tried and this distant “second life” I have keeps me in a bubble that doesn't
allow me to share it with those at home in Eireann nor does it allow me to
fully appreciate what I have either.
Saying this, Christmas also has the power to be the loneliest time
of the year, or the saddest. A time when others who are alone are made more
aware of it, or those who have lost someone in their lives are left with that
empty seat at the table; the one dinner less to make, fewer gifts to buy. I
thought of how hard it would be for Ita’s husband Francis and her beautiful
family and friends without her. How it would hurt each time they took family
photos and she wasn’t there and how they would see something in the shops that
she would love, but they had nobody to buy it for anymore. I took a moment to
drink in the scene at home, with my family all in the festive spirit and
together again; acknowledging that I am more fortunate than others and making
sure I was appreciative of that fact.
And so, we took the opportunity to have a full-spread Christmas
dinner at home because the whole family was together again – what a treat to
have since I had written off having a Christmas this year! Michael Buble
playing in the background, the heating on to counter the outside sub-zero
temperatures, the “good cutlery” being used, Mam stressing over the turkey
being “too dry” when it was always perfect, the Christmas hat ripping on Dad’s
head as it was too small, being so full that you feel like you are ready to
burst (yet you still manage to eat half a tin of Roses) – now THIS is Christmas!!
If any of the neighbours had come in to see us eating turkey and
ham, wearing silly hats and Christmas jumpers and pulling Christmas crackers on
a random Tuesday in November they would have thought we were insane...although
looking at the photo below I would probably have problems trying to defend
ourselves against that judgment...
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
What a year!
2015 has been and gone and I don’t even know how.
I have changed jobs, moved apartments, watched my little
sister get married in Thailand and spent time working in Singapore. I have been
home, have had some good injuries and witnessed my country step forward and
lead the way in Marriage Equality.
And how it flew by – a year gone in what feels like a
moment! Looking back on it, this year taught me that I should cherish the moments you have with each
other and make the most of everything that you do. I can make the trivial New Years’
Resolutions we all make, but I should remember to live, laugh, love and learn from the
mistakes that I am inevitably bound to make. But I know at times I will forget; I'll complain about things, I'll bitch and moan about my bad day and I'll wish the weeks away as I look forward to a particular date in time. But sure if I didn't, then I'd have nothing to write about...?! :)
Next stop; 2016…