Project 289 - Day 275 : On The 4th day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

So I am a pop culture addict right? Like those wackos on the Crunchy Nut but obsessed with pop culture anything..... well almost anything... anyway, one of the shows I absolutely adore for it's wit, extreme boundary pushing (they go so far outside the box, they're nowhere near the packing plant anymore!), and great sense of fun is The Family Guy.

Not everyone's cup of tea granted, and it can be a mite controversial (massive understatement of the day!) but I love it, and so it made great sense to give Peter (the Dad), Stewie (they very gay highly articulate baby) and Brian (the anthropomorphic dog and voice of reason) a place on my tree. 

Project 289 - Day 274 : On The 3rd day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

From the moment I saw them on Sesame Street, I loved the Muppets, a love affair that only intensified when The Muppet Show debuted on Aussie TV in the late 70s. The Muppets were, and are, hilariously fun and irreverent (which makes the fact that Disney now owns them - and Pixar for that matter, another run-against-the-grain entertainment powerhouse - all the more remarkable!), and just gosh darn cute!
They fit the theme of my tree perfectly and so today for your viewing pleasure, here's Animal, Gonzo and Fozzie doing their thing on my tree!

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Two very cool Christmas-oriented things happened at work today - yes note the weird unsettling juxtaposition of 'cool and 'work.... almost Twilight Zone in its eerieness right? - the first being that I won the decorating competition at work! Well, strictly speaking the Commercial team, but since I pretty much bought all the ornaments and put them all up - at great anti-OH & S risk to myself by teetering on chairs to reach the roof panels -and came up with the overarching theme, I figure that it's my prize after all! I was magnanimous in victory however and gave credit to my colleague Bill who drove me to the local mall twice, and helped me with an idea or two. I also, quite selflessly, gave up the prize of two boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolate to the entire team entire the Scrooge-like Bah Humbug group who didn't contribute any money at all (but who then bizarrely rapturously congratulated like I had placed a man on the moon with their help!) so I got bask in all the creative glory and feel like a fabulously giving human being. Score!

The second cool thing was that I got to sit on Santa's lap for the first time in 40 years - well the Marketing manager's lap but for the purposes of Christmas he is Santa and dressed as such - to get my Kris kringle present. I could have just jumped onto him like a fellow gay boy at work did and try to French kiss him, but I figured that may place me on the naughty list - or maybe not.... Santa may be in a very large bear-like closet - and I couldn't risk it. Not just over a week out from Christmas!

Project 289 - Day 273 :On The 2nd day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

Today's look at Andrew's pop culture-laden Christmas tree features some of my fabulous Grolier Sesame Street ornaments, all bought on Ebay some years back (although I did just pick up Big Bird a few days back, which was exciting.....yep, I know I need to get some semblance of a life....but till then....), and evoking all sorts of lovely memories for me.
While I adore Bert and Ernie (top), and Oscar the Grouch (rendered here as one of the ghosts of Christmas), my favourite Sesame Street muppet of all time is the ever adorable, funny, goofy Grover. I was given a large puppet of him in my pillow sack as a child for Christmas, and the Golden Book I treasure most is one featuring the ever heroic, Super Grover, so it's only natural that the Sesame Street ornament I love the most is one of Grover.

Project 289 - Day 272 : On The 1st day of Andrew's Christmas, I Decorated the Tree With....

The Twelve Moose of Christmas.

Modeled on the Twelve Days of Christmas, this wonderful set of... surprise, surprise!.... twelve moose ornaments is delightful and an ongoing sign that I, for reasons I can't even fathom, am obsessed with moose at any time of the year, but especially at Christmas.

Ah, why question it.... they look cute, capture an aspect of Christmas, and have given a certain whimsical quality to a tree that is not short of pop culture eccentricities. I love them.

Project 289 - Day 271 : If You Go To The Woods Today....

..... You're in for a big....well in Sydney Park, it could be anything really!

But today it was Andrew and Stephen's Fabulous Christmas Picnic! It was BIG! HUGE I tell you! And so was the portable table that we hauled into the park over the hill from the car park, along with a tent, food, esky (or a 'chilly bin' as my new Zealand friends termed it!), rugs, and a fabulous decorative piece that hung down from the centre of the food, conceptualised by my beautiful guy and brought into being in a creative workshop in his lounge room that very morning.

But all that hauling of picnic-oriented good and chattels was eminently worth it as we sat the table and covering tent up near the trees, set out the rugs (in the wonderful shade) and relaxed back for 5 hours of great food - my baby's quiche was delish! - great conversation, and the sort of languid time with good friends (and a dog, Aroha!), you rarely get any time, let alone in the middle of Christmas madness.

Yes it was a lot of work but oh so worth it!

My beautiful guy and I finished off the day with a spare mini quiche we'd made, some chilling on the balcony with cold drinks (after hauling everything back over the hill and out of the park!), and some snuggly staring at the Christmas lights on my tree. I was exhausted but very happy with a wonderful day.

Project 289 - Day 270 : Crumpets, Glebe.... and a Quiche Named Manuel

This morning when we slept in was about as chilled and relaxed as today got.

The moment my beautiful guy and I stepped out of bed, the clock was ticking FAST, and we barely had time to eat some crumpets at high speed (with juice to wash them down!) before dashing out the door, and going to Marrickville Metro for grocery shopping (served, I might add at Woolies by a sullen sick-of-life gay man who was so grating that I wanted to slap him by the end of scanning our goods!) for all our picnic goods for the next day. That delightful task done, my beautiful guy headed back to his place to iron tablecloths and table runners while I screamed across to Glebe to buy one of his Christmas gifts, some more groceries (how can anyone forget they need toilet paper? I mean seriously!!) before we reunited at my place for quiche making (which involved me dicing onions with finesse and frying them to golden perfection, and some very intense spinach squeezing by my beautiful guy... best not to ask, but no, it's not a fetish!), a power nap (super power nap as I barely lay down before I was up again!), showers and some more dashing out the door to grab some wine for a Christmas present before we dashed further afield to Glebe and a Christmas party!

PHEW!

Thankfully things slowed down nicely at the party, at the home of a delightful couple we know, Bill and Ian, where we were treated to high alcohol content vodka jelly shots, yummy food (chipolatas, sushi etc), fabulous Christmas decorations, and sparkling fun conversation with a great range of Bill and Ian's wonderful friends.

It is always a good thing when all that frenetic hummingbird-like activity yields these sorts of delightful nights with good friends..... now I just need to stop flapping my wings for a second...

Project 289 - Day 269 : The Calm After the Frenetic Storm

Today AOP, the annual crazy budget process that involves long hours and insane schedules, finishes for my division and not a moment too sooon. Managing the diaries of my bosses, a challenging task at the best of times, becames exponentially more difficult during the lead up to AOP, and I am beyond thrilled that not only has it run its course but that's its done so on a Friday when all I have to do is chill at home with my beautiful guy.....

The work Christmas party is on tonight and they have turned the campus into one large full on Summer Party, with beach balls festooning railings, brightly coloured bech umbrellas strewn artfully on the lawn and Josh Pyke performing on the main stage. I won't stay for long but I will go and at least have my two free drinks before boarding the bus for home....

I actually ended staying for 2 hours and had a ball! I enjoyed my two wines, walked around a campus thronging with people, the environment completely changed from the usual day to day ordinariness, stopped and chatted with all sorts of people I don't usually have the chance to catch up with, and soaked up a very laid back, fun Summer vibe.

Very cool, and a perfect Friday!

Project 289 - Day 268 : All AOP, all the time

AOP is the acronym for the company I work for's annual budget process. It involves looooooooooooong hours by many hard working financial people, and culminates for me and my colleague Sandra in a late night where we put the packs together in folder after freakin' folder till we are sick of the sight of A4 paper, powerpoint slides, and pulling out a slide here or there to be replaced by another newer version.

Thankfully tonight was a whole lot better that last year! For one thing we ate REAL food - salads from Rocket which YUM! - instead of grabbing chips and Mars Bars from the vending machine (because the printing time ran late due to everyone else running very late, as per usual), and we managed to get it all done and dusted (thanks to help from the business manager, Charles, who did a fabulous job fixing things in a hurry and being cheerful about it!) and be home by 9.15pm, a full 2.5 hours ahead of last year's home time.

Then I went to bed after a lovely chat with my beautiful guy before getting up at 5 a.m. the next day, going walking and being at work by 7.30 a.m. for all the changes.

But at least tonight was mercifully not anywhere near as exhausting and nightmarish as last year.... the AOP gods!!

Go Ahead and Laugh....You Know You Want To..

I just adore, love and champion the quirky hilarious humour in the Vimrod cartoons. They are just a delight and just what you need in the busy Christmas season.

Project 289 - Day 267 : More Ornaments, More Trees, More Christmas! Mwhahahahahahahaha!!

You can never have too many Christmas decorations...at work or at home!

While there is a place for restrained graceful elegance, it's not at my workplace or home baby! Actually I do go for a funky classy look but I love sumptuous amounts of colour, best described as the "Santa vomited while drinking Moet" look.....hence my tree is all dolled up in a red and silver tinsel with pinprick white lights ...so far, so high end right? Then I throw on about 70 pop culture ornaments featuring everyone from the Flintstones to Snoopy to The Simpsons, and even yes Ren and Stimpy! ITs chaotic, its over the top, but somehow it works and it looks fun and funky and everyone who sees it, loves it...... OK sweeping statement there but it has a higher approval rating than Kevin Rudd let's just say....

So at work, needing to show the same love of more is better, I managed to get the yellow tinsel up, running the full length of one half of the team and a whole host of dangling tinsel decorations that ended up looked fabulously colourful. It is edging ever closer to the sumptuous look I want but we will need another year or two of decorations buying to get to the full on look I want... patience young tinsel disciple, patience.....

After immersing myself in tinsel all day, I spent the night at my beautiful guy's place starting the construction of his abstract Christmas tree which, when done, is going to look amazingly funky. Even laid out on the floor, not yet tied together or hung up in its final glory, it was impressive and I can't wait to finish it off on Friday night and put it up on display.

The final very Christmassy, lovely part of the night was getting my very first Christmas card as a couple from my very special friend, Justin. Thanks Justin - it means a lot and I loved it!!

Project 289 - Day 266 : Where The Wilds Things Are.....and Aren't

I loved seeing this movie tonight. It is one of those movies that defies easy categorisation, and I had read reviews which essentially complained that the movie was too adult for kids, and too kid-oriented for adults. I'd have to respectfully disagree. While it is not really a kids movie as such, I think it is perfect for adults trying to reconcile what it means to be a adult with your inner kid still often running wild inside. We try to tame it, and make sense of it, and wonder why at whatever advanced age we are (not that 44 is advanced at all... why I am barely out of the teen years really!), we still feel like we're 6 years old at times. It certainly isn't easy being a kid as Max discovers time and time again in the real world, and again in the imaginary world he inhabits "where the wild things are", but you can learn lessons about what's really important, as Max does, and ease the way through just a little bit.

Beyond all the lessons learnt, the characters created by Spike Jonze are whimsical, fully formed and delightful, the visuals almost poetic and beautiful, and there is this otherworldly quality to the whole movie that captures the sense you have entered a world not your own, perfectly. I was so drawn into the special place Max inhabited for most of the movie that I forgot to drink my water, didn't notice my friend Fahmi fall asleep next to me, and I didn't check my watch once.

I did, however, manage to remember to keep holding the hand of my beautiful guy throughout, and what is any movie without some serious hand holding with your beloved other?

Then on the way to drop my beautiful guy home, we passed by this amazing house (above) that redefined Over The Top (OTT) so spectacularly that we just had to stop and take some pictures. I love Christmas and the lengths people go to (and I go to!) to celebrate it, and so I pay homage to the people of this house in Frazier Street, Dulwich Hill who found the OTT button, pressed it, and sat back and enjoyed the blindingly colourful results!

Project 289 - Day 265 : Yet More Ornaments!

Including my purchases from the good people of Hallmark and Carlton Cards in Canada, and a couple of stores in San Francisco and Sausalito, I bought home at least 20 Christmas ornaments to add to what is by any estimation an impressive collection of pop culture ornaments. So you'd think that I would have had my fill of new ornaments and would just be contentedly decorating my tree with all the ornaments I already possess, new and old.

But no, in my quest to find some silver angel hair tinsel to sprinkle across my tree, I managed to buy - completely accidentally, of course! - yet more ornaments! To be fair, they were part of a series I had one of already, they were 25% off and I had a $10 gift voucher that I had to use up before this Sunday. In my mind, and admittedly it has been heavily influenced by my tinsel addiction (I am probably just 1 step away from cutting it into small pieces and snorting it, such is my Christmas-a-holicism!) it was an absolutely necessary purchase as was the bright sequined star-shaped tree topper.

I needed them all, as did my tree. Crying out for them. Had to have them..... Really.

Project 289 - Day 264 : Down to the Markets.... and Up Goes the Tree!

I had the loveliest day today! (Yes there were bluebirds of happiness, red skinks of joy and even a reasonably chirpy wombat of cheerfulness!)

What made this day so lovely? Sleeping in with my lovely guy, a relaxed brunch at Cafe Sofia in Erskineville with my good friend Fahmi and my beautiful guy (he and I pictured above, with Fahmi in the photo above that) followed by browsing and Christmas present buying at the fabulous artisans market at Eveleigh Carriageworks (sadly had to buy my beautiful guy's ressie with him in fullsight as its not the sort of place I can come back to since it's only once a month!) and then, blessedly, a nap.

Waking from the delightful nanna nap, I got cracking and with my beautiful guy's help, I had the Christmas tree up, zhoushed, festooned with lights - what a great word..... festooned.... it just sound, you know, happy and fun - and tinsel-ed (its now a verb! Let the elves rejoice! Grammar purists not so much) in no time flat , all to the accompaniment of Dian Krall's Christmas CD.... that done, we took a walk around Sydney Park with about 1000 other people and their dogs looking for just the right spot for our Christmas picnic the following Sunday ( we were successful and behold there was much rejoicing... even the grammar purists this time you'll be relieevd to know) before I got the bejesus scared out of me by a zombie episode of Doctor Who... ugh....I do NOT like zombies Sam I Am, and only watched because I love the new Dr Who so much and David Tennant is so much fun to watch, not to mention cute as heck!! YUM!

Wisely I did not go to bed straight away but stayed up with my beautiful guy watching the history of Mills and Boon - yes really! - before he drove him, and I had to walk back in the dark through my complex watching for water-dripping Martian zombies at every turn!

The tree begins to arise from the boxes it inhabits 11 months of the year!

My beautiful guy surveys the lovely surrounds of Sydney Park

Project 289 - Day 263 (Saturday 5 December 2009) : Hair Hair I Say!

I slept in today with my beautiful guy snuggled up close to me.

I ate cinnamon pikelets with honey and drank an apple/mango juice for brunch.

I shopped at Bunnings (for dowel rods for my beautiful guy's funky abstract Christmas tree he has designed from scratch - he's so talented and creative!), bought some groceries, and finally at 5.15, found the Christmas lights I needed for my tree!

Finished a delightful day off with a lovely heart to heart with my guy, pizza and a viewing of "The Plan", the new Battlestar Galactica DVD.

But the defining event of the day? My beautiful guy got his haircut by his stylist, keeping the length but getting the sides shortened. Why do you need to know that? I guess you don't but he looked even more gorgeous afterwards and it gave me lots of excuses to gaze at him, run my fingers through his hair and snuggle into him... and that my friends, made my day.

Project 289 - Day 262 : Tinsel Up!

Today I put tinsel on six poles at back....

Yes (and please get your minds out of the gutter! Electrical poles thank you!) that was the crowning achievement of my day, and frankly I got a kick out of it. I love Christmas and taking very drab grey poles and zhoushing them up with all the fabness this gay boy can muster, is more fun than filing or moving Outlook meetings.... like that has to be stated!!

Not a bad way to spend TGIF and there's more to come....both TGIF and tinsel.....

Project 289 - Day 261 : It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like....Santa Vomited?

Christmas started at the office today.

I put the wicker reindeers out, the cute as a button gold metal Christmas trees, the Santa cookie jars....sorry, biscuit jars.... and the baskets of gold baubles.... and topped off, for me at least as the resident mooseaphile, by my fabulously gaudy $2 shop mooses that guards the entry to my cubicle with all the fervour of an elite very gay-looking soldier!

I love December because finally my drab corporate environment looks vivaciously colourful! A pity it doesn't last all year but I will enjoy while it lasts!

Plus of course I am safe from attack by any aggressive stuffed toys that may chance my way while the moose stands his ground.... and no, I have never been attacked by stuffed toys at work but there's always a first time and it's best to be prepared.

Project 289 - Day 260 (Wednesday 2 December 2009) : Farming E I E I O!

Hi my name is Andrew and I am a Farmtown addict...Hi Andrew....

Yes following hard on the heels of my Pepsi Max addiction, which is completely under control....hahahahaha.....HA!..... I am now addicted to this nifty little Facebook game called Farmtown, which by the way is innocent sweet fun, and not to be confused with Farmville. I have no idea why I find it so therapeutic to sow crops, landscape the farm etc but it may be because I get to (a) be creative, (b) get some control over things, and (c) see the result of my work..... plus all psycho analysing aside, IT'S.... JUST....FUN!!!!

So now instead of having a lunch break, I farm.... yep I am a regular cowpoke down home on the farm y'all and loving it.....

Project 289 - Day 259 : Eye Am Tired

This blurry slightly disturbing image of my eye underlines perfectly just how exhausted I was after a LOOOONG day at the cubicle coal face. I came home, made a microwave omelette - truly a height of culinary achievement! - talked to my beautiful guy, and also briefly to a very good friend, Justin (Hi Jus!) who was similarly tired, and went to bed.


Such is my life somedays....

Project 289 - Day 258 (Monday 30 November 2009) : Unexpected Sushi and an Underdressed Christmas Tree

I had the loveliest night.

Quite unexpectedly my beautiful guy, who was in the City for an appointment, called me while I was on the bus from work to the City (my halfway point home), said he was still in there and that he'd like to see me. We hadn't planned to meet so this was an unexpected treat. There was something wonderfully comforting about stepping off the bus and instead of seeing a sea of commuters (well they were still there but I didn't notice them!), I saw the smiling, welcoming handsome face of my beautiful guy. It really made my day.

We did some Christmas decoration shopping (for my work decorations) and Kris Kringle shopping (for him - he had to get a crappy gift under $5 which in the $2 shop was horrifically easy!), saw the rather understated Christmas tree in Martin Place (see below) and then had a delicious sushi dinner @ Asagao before catching the train back to my place before I drove him home.

Just seeing him when I didn't expect to, laughing at his delightfully silly iPod jokes on the drive back to his place, getting unexpected kisses and cuddles, made what had been a busy stressful day seem irrelevant and otherworldly. This is what is real, and I love him for being the type of guy that reaffirms that on a daily basis, and makes my life the rich place it is.