Processing Time

I've just noticed that this is my 700th's post.

Hopefully, but the time 2016 the count will be over 1000. I've made a new year's resolution to write daily.

Anyway, I'm home after a week in Adelaide. It had to be done. Rather than spending Christmas with friends in Melbourne I drove the 800 kilometres back to Adelaide to be with my family over the Christmas week. It had to be done. I think it's the first time I'm been home for Christmas in well over five years.

See, my niece, my sister's daughter passed away on the 16th. She would have had her sixteenth birthday on the 20th. Her funeral was held on the 29th. I drove back to Melbourne on the 30th.

It's the longest time I've spent back in South Australia since 1991.

Despite the circumstances, Christmas was a lot better than expected. After we all had a cry over a song, we got on with having Christmas as a friend of my sister's hosted our family. It was a good day.

The week at my parents' place was nice. I got a lot of reading, crochet, went and saw a few friends, took my little niece to see Star Wars on Boxing Day, acted as my parents' designated driver for the week - I'd have one, they could have a bit more to drink and I would have a gin and tonic when I got home. Worked for all concerned.It also ensured my mouth stayed in control. Alcohol and my mouth can be a dangerous combination.

The funeral was a lovely celebration of a very young life cut short. My mum, my sister and a school friend spoke. The celebrant, dressed in a colourful, floral dress had known my niece since she and her son were in kindergarten, which made the ceremony all the more special.

I'm still processing a lot of this at the moment. A hell of a lot. I think I have my first novel out of this last two weeks  - that that it was overly fraught, but it there was a lot to come out of all of this.

So now I'm back, and have been back for 24 hours, after the long drive back, with a good stop at my cousin's place at Ballan to drop off some Fru Chocs and to have a cuppa for an hour or so.

And now, it's me time and processing time. Time to get my head around a lot of things. Time to start thinking about the new job. Time to get the flat organised thanks to Marie Kondo. Time to lose some weight and get running fit.

Time to write.

Time to do all the stuff I haven't been able to do in the last year because I've been working.

I'll talk about Marie Kondo next year.

Which is an hour away.

Time to get myself off to bed.

Here's hoping 2015, as good as it was in some respects, is nowhere near as fraught.

Happy New Year.