Sunday again, and raining again. It’s quite possibly been the dampest Christmas period ever, well, as far as I can recall – I’m sure some weather boffin will dispute that but, seriously, can we just have some sunshine now? The pool still hasn’t been used – this time last year we were swimming on Christmas Day fer cryin’ out loud!

It’s all very quiet here too; the Other Harf has taken Miss 11.3, Niece T and Nephew T into town to the public hot pools. They do love the hotpools so, but (and you may have heard this before if you’re a long-time reader) since that incident at Waiwera Thermal Pools involving my hair and somebody else’s gob of (very extensive I might add) snot, I stay well away from public pools!

And I’m not feeling the flashest either – a nasty sore throat is brewing and I’ve got a stockpile of Strepsils on hand to calm it down.

In other news, I have made a wee pact with my Dad; we are giving up drinking till my cousin K’s wedding in a month’s time. I shall put my hand up here and say I do like to indulge in a few glasses and over Christmas I have plain just overoverindulged. Dad, well, he just wants to lose a few kilos so he doesn’t  to up another size in a wedding shirt.

This all coincides really well with me joining the gym and starting back at derby next week. Not drinking (which I’m going to combine with some really healthy eating) is going to make me a different person in lots of ways.

I’m really excited about it!

Monday morning and I had to go into town for jury service call-up. I had this sneaking suspicion the whole weekend that I was going to get picked, and yep…out of 150-odd people, later that morning, I did get selected.

The case? It’s of a serious nature, on the scale of things.

But it’s also about something that happened almost 30 years ago.

So this makes it… really tough.

Greetings to you on a damp, grey Sunday afternoon. It seems to have been drizzling non-stop for the past 48 hours but fortunately there’s lots of rugby, not to mention rugby league to keep the household amused. I’m keeping up with the All-Blacks vs Canada game on Facebook but I reckon I’ll go and watch the other half once I finish this!

In other news, I’ve had a bit of epiphany (what a great word. E-piff-a-neeee…) about the state of my health with this torn ligament episode and started weighing up the what if’s and why-fors and had a full-on discussion with myself in my head. I basically came to these conclusions: if I am going to continue with roller derby I a) need to lose a lot of weight, i.e. a good 15 kilos, b) I really need to strengthen up, particularly my right leg, which, as well as my newly weakened ankle also has a weak knee from being operated on three years ago and c) I can’t wait for the right time to start doing this, as I am 42 years old next month and time is NOT on my side if I want to become an advanced player and play an actual game.

Plus, and judge me as ye may and call me a vain old tart -  we are going back to the UK next August/September year for a visit and I really, really don’t want to look the way I look now!

And I have an opportunity to join a gym in town with no joining fee, and at a really low weekly price. Some of the derby girls work there as Personal Trainers so they’ll be able to set me up with exactly the right programme to achieve this. They also have some fantastic new work out equipment and on-site physios too.

However, there is one thing that is against me: we live 27 kms out of town, and if I am to join a gym it means a trip into town most days, which means petrol and money to pay for petrol. Money which isn’t exactly growing on trees round here at the moment.

Now, if it would only start drizzling petrol vouchers for 48 hours, I’d be sweet….

Dearest blog, I have forsaken you. I confess that not only has my attention been dragged away by other tempations on the internet (Facebook, we need to have some time out, seriously) but my other passion, roller derby, has taken hold of me. And there is a ton of wonderful stuff on the inner-net about derby which I just can’t stop soaking up, sponge-like. Squeeze me and I’ll drip derbyness!

I’ve also created a website for our league and now look after their Facebook page.

Yes, that’s what I’ve been doing; that and DIY. Lots of it.

For years you have been my focus, my hobby, my passion. We have been together for many, many years – in fact, Kiwifruit came to be in September 2004 so you are a whole seven years old. I spent hours blogging, or reading blogs back then. Then it was photography, after buying my first DSLR in 2008. My spare time was taken up with taking photos, which I could share with you. It was a perfect combination.

Now, with this new passion of mine, you and it don’t gel together so well. I consider my rural, farmyard, gardening, photography self so different to that roller derby diva.

To be honest, I was going to give up on you and walk away to become the Diva totally. But today when I logged in for the first time in almost a week and I had a comment from one of my newer blogging friends duchess_declutter – asking her to pop over to her blog. She had given me a Liebster Blog award (thank you duchess!) and had nominated me in her 5 picks, saying: Kiwifruit: What is not to love here.  The beautiful photography, Flopsy, Roller Derby Queen and the stunning scenery.  Love it all! 

What I now realise is that I still love all those passions that have come before. I miss my blog. I miss taking photographs – well, I still take them, but much less than I used to. Sunday afternoons were photography and blogging time, now it’s practice.  I have become immersed in roller derby and I have to, need to let it go, just a little bit, and come back to you. I don’t have to go to every Sunday practice. I’m not that important to the team…yet!

I realised then that I can gel all my passions together. They are all me. I’m not going to give up on you; I need you to make me whole.

Fi

xxxx

It’s a very quiet evening here at the Kiwifruit residence as I am home all alone as the Other Harf and Miss 10.7 are away up north on Miss 10.7′s school camp.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are definite upsides and downsides to this which are as follows:

Upsides

1) I can watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it (I hereby confess to watching complete rubbish on E! Channel and repeats of Extreme Makeover)

2) I can eat what I want to eat when I want to eat (tonight Chinese takeaway!  Scheduled to be eaten @10pm! Woop!)

3) I can sprawl sideways across our King-sized bed and not have my sleep interrupted by the OH’s nocturnal snuffling/snorting/sighing

4) I can spend all evening on the internet if I so please without the OH hassling me as he wants to go online and check his email/bank account/genealogy guff

5) The house is very tidy and clutter free, for some strange reason

Downsides

1) No hugs from Miss 10.7

2) Nobody to make my lunch in the morning (the Other Harf makes our lunches. Yes I know, lucky us!)

3) I have to unstack and restack the dishwasher (Miss 10.7′s chore)

4) No hugs (or kisses) from the OH

5) It’s quiet and lonely and empty without them.

6) Dinner for one is just depressing, even if it is Chinese.

Mmmm…

I’m  thinking that the upsides don’t quite cancel out the downsides…

This coming weekend my good friend Shelley and I are holding a garage sale at her place to raise money for the Cancer Society Relay for Life.

While I know there is a pile of tat lurking in the attic and in certain cupboards round the house which would be perfect for the garage sale, I also know that our study is full of hundreds of books (99.9% of them mine; the Other Harf has only three books to his name: Manchester United: The Complete Almanac, Monarchs of Britain and Introduction to Book-keeping)  – books that even if somebody paid $1.00 for them would mean $1.00 more to the Cancer Society.

But every time I think about pulling them off the shelves and stacking them in boxes to sell a tiny little wave of sadness washes over me. Selling them? My beloved babies? The thought of empty shelves where they used to be…all those stories and pages and the memories of where I was, when it was and who I was when I read them…

*Sniff*

Not that it would take me long to fill the shelves up again as I am a voracious reader – give me a great book and I’ll finish it in a day easily.

I will do it, as no, there is no point in hoarding books that you know you’ll never read again. I’m going to keep my favourites and the classics too, but the rest I’m giving up.

It’s going to be for one of the best reasons ever, after all.

Can you believe it? One whole decade of the New Millenium over and done with already…

At this point I really should be making some very earnest, well meaning sort of resolutions, but I am still feeling a little jaded from too much Lindauer and dancing round the lounge room last night.

So I will save the resolving for tomorrow…

Anyway, here’s hoping that the road rises up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields in 2011.

Happy New Decade!