As we prepare to send off the old year and welcome a new one, I sit and reflect on the finer moments of 2017 for me. It was most certainly a big one, a year that was filled with farewells but also filled with opportunities to uncover new aspects of myself and to grow as a person.
Here's my highlights, best bits and fave moments of 2017 in a nutshell:
JANUARY: Yoga mornings, Torquay, The Maticevski exhibition, Seth's 12th birthday in Geelong, Seppelt winery, Queenscliff ferry, Triple J's Hottest 100, Chinese New Year - Year of the Rooster, Long Summer Nights.
FEBRUARY: Meeting my new students for 2017, Seth starting at Damascus, Coffee dates with mates, Curry and Movie Nights kick off.
MARCH: White Night Festival, International Women's Day, My Birthday, The Lost Trades Fair, Harmony Festival, Japanese dinner with friends, The Arts Trail, Blackberry picking. 
APRIL: Easter School Holidays, Sydney Road Trip, Staying with family in NSW, eating Hot Cross Buns and chocolate eggs, Orthodox Easter, Craig's Birthday, Autumn afternoons. 
MAY: Mushrooming, Mother's Day, Wicked at Her Majesty's, Day Tripping to Daylesford, The Festival of Light at the Great Stupa in Bendigo, Fruit Tree planting. 
JUNE: Spicywatch's Birthday, Rockwiz, Winter Solstice Celebrations, Zoe's Birthday, Winter School Holidays started.
JULY: Winter movie marathon nights, Sleeping in, Yarrowee Trail hiking, All Day Baking Sessions, eating Apple pie!
AUGUST: Middle Eastern Banquet with friends, Silvers Circus, School celebrates it's Birthday, George A. Romero zombie tribute night, starting Positive Visualisation techniques.
SEPTEMBER: Father's Day, School Art Show, Getting my Colour Analysis done,  Dave Lachapelle photography exhibition, School Holiday Break.
OCTOBER: Spring Mornings, Long drunken lunch dates,  Daily Meditation Practises, Clothing Swap charity event, Getting a Job Interview, The Edith Head exhibition.
NOVEMBER: Días Los Muertos, Romancing the Skull exhibition, Zoe and Lachlainn got engaged, Got a new Job and met my new student. 
DECEMBER: Scienceworks, Staff Christmas function, Student Graduation, Farewell dinner with my work team, Cherry and strawberry picking, Summer Holidays start, Christmas Day, New Years Eve. 

Every now and then you will hear a song or inhale a fragrance that takes you back. One tweak of your senses and you are instantly transported back, way back to a place or time in your life that you don't think about very often but when your senses pull you back into those moments, you find yourself fiercely reminiscing about days gone by. 
I have a few sensory triggers that transport me away to another time. One of my favourites is the smell of onions frying in butter, whenever I smell that I am instantly in my nan's kitchen eagerly awaiting a round of freshly made pierogi. I can literally see my nana in her apron and headscarf working away at the stove, her hands moving swiftly in my minds eye as she rushes to fill our stomachs; it is such a happy memory for me. It reminds me of my preschool days that I spent with my loving grandparents in Ardeer. Quiet and uncomplicated days that were filled with gardening, collecting eggs, stealing strawberries, big kisses and hugs, neighbourhood visits, Days of Our Lives and extraordinarily great Ukrainian food. 
I am instantly returned to my pre-teens if I smell any kind of coconut suntanning lotion because my friends and I all used to lather ourselves in that stuff in pursuit of the perfect tan; a tan that I could never achieve but I did manage to turn myself into a blistered lobster on many occasions. The smell of that lotion does remind me of the many days spent lounging at the swimming pool with my friends as we awkwardly came of age. The innocent days that we spent laughing at oldies in budgie smugglers, ogling the older boys in boardies, navigating leg shaving and ways to look cute in modest one piece swimsuits whilst we indulged in too many dim sims, Samboy chips and Sunnyboys ice-blocks during what felt like the endless summers of my pre-teens. 
Any Guns n' Roses or Def Leppard songs take me back to the handsy evenings of my teenage promiscuous years when I engaged in experimentations with boys, drugs and alcohol; any song from the Mama Said album by Lenny Kravitz or the Changes album by David Bowie reminds me of road tripping with Craig in our early 20's and any music from the bands The Crash Test Dummies, Live, Counting Crows, The Cranberries and Alanis Morissette reminds me of the years that Craig I were childless and would spend entire days lounging around together listening to music and talking. A time when everything seemed a lot simpler and we didn't really need anything because having each other was more than enough. 
And some visual prompts can be so vivid for me as well. Like drop-tail lizards and daffodils which make me think of my time in Daylesford, Clint Eastwood, cigarette pouches and vintage car interiors which make me think of my dad, certain pink tones and roses in full bloom which make me think of my mum, and only around a million other things that make me think of all of the other people that I love. 
Unfortunately, not all sensory recalls are great, like for me, the smell of camomile tea which always makes me remember feeling sick because mum would get me to drink it to settle my stomach and sometimes it would just make me spew. The smell of hospitals in general which conjures memories of seeing my grandparents dying in hospital beds. Strong indoor pool chlorine smells fill me with rigid fear because I can remember a time before I could swim in early primary school when a teacher made me get into the pool at the deep end and I almost drowned, ah schooling in the seventies, those were the days!
And then there are the joy filled randoms that most people probably have, like the smell of popcorn making me think of being in a movie theatre, fruit cakes making me think of Christmas, butterflies and four leaf clovers kick me back to lying in the grass with my pet dog Penny and the smell of hay which always makes me think of the circus. I could go on for hours really, I have a lot of sensory triggers, but I just love the power that they have to take me back, back to another time....I hope that I never lose that. 

 The past seven days have been one of the biggest weeks that I have had in a very long time. It has been an absolute roller coaster of events, emotions and endings. Thank goodness that Zoe had Seth in Geelong for the better part of it all because I was hardly even home, and when I was home, I was emotional, exhausted, distracted and stupidly busy as I ran the gauntlet of farewells and also tried to prepare for Christmas. I was hitting the hay in the wee early hours and rising again by 5.45am each day, and now I am pretty burnt out. 
On Friday I said my fond farewells at work to everyone and boy was that tough. It was the most surreal feeling walking out of work and then driving out of the car park for the very last time, it is amazing how attached you get to even the most mundane of things after nine years. It is certainly a place that I have poured my blood, sweat and tears into, but it is also a place that has helped me to grow in every way, and I know that I am a much better person now than I was nine years ago because of the incredible friendships, challenges and triumphs that I have experienced through my time at work. It was certainly an extraordinary team to be a part of, I have never worked anywhere like it before and I am taking with me the most wonderful memories and friendships that will last a lifetime. 
And now I can turn my attentions, because Christmas Eve has arrived! Rejoice, it is time to put aside all worry and care, because it is Christmas time! I look forward to Zoe and Lachlainn arriving soon to share in the pre-Christmas celebrations with us at here in Enfield. A small window left now for final wrappings, food preparations, Christmas movies, festive cocktails and generally embracing all of the awesomeness that Christmas brings. Christmas Eve has a certain magical quality to it that cannot be denied and the anticipation of the season is at its most palpable and delightful on this one day of the year.
I adore getting people that I love together to share great food and company with me, and Christmas always provides those opportunities in abundance, it is just a really blissful time to spend with family and it is always a highlight and fitting end to the year for me. To all of my wonderful Spicywatch readers, I wish you all a very bright and merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy the season with loved ones, that your stocking and wine glass is filled to the brim and I also hope that you get to indulge in some good food, great company and general Christmas cheer. Enjoy every moment, may the season treat you well xx.

CRACKERS
Release Date: 1998
Rating: PG
Running Time: 92 mins 
If you aren't Australian then this movie will not appeal to you at all, and if you are Australian you will be mildly amused by the Aussie anecdotes and behaviours. Not the best but certainly not the worst Christmas movie to ever have been made, Crackers attempts to demonstrate a traditional Aussie Christmas and enjoys a certain level of success in doing so. 
Young Joey is forced to endure Christmas with his mum's new boyfriend and son at his grandparents home in the suburbs. Joey makes fast friends with his estranged and eccentric great grandfather, who teaches him a thing or two about life. 
There are some really great moments in this film, most of them delivered by Warren Mitchell who plays the eccentric grandpa Albert, and the general feel of the film will be relatable for most Australians. Unfortunately, some of the humour is just too cheesy to take seriously and the plot is mostly built around antiquated cliques, but for a Christmas movie it is more than adequate. 
FINAL SAY: Hit me but don't shit me. 
2.5 Chilli Peppers

It is time. The time has come for me to farewell my current work colleagues and to prepare for the next league of my own personal journey. Much easier said than done that's for sure, but millions of other people have left work places that they have loved and they have all survived so it would be pretty stupid to think that I won't manage when I say my final goodbyes tomorrow. However, I would be lying to myself completely if I didn't acknowledge the lump in my throat and the tightness in my chest when I think about how fond I have become of some these said 'work colleagues' who are in fact so, so much more than merely work colleagues, they are really very dear friends and it is going to be gut wrenchingly difficult to actually say goodbye knowing that the end of the day will actually signal a farewell to my work relationship with them. 
I am preparing for a difficult and emotional day, it's going to big and tricky, but I have some plans to celebrate the greatness that I am leaving behind and enjoying every last moment with them all. I have been trying very hard to practise mindfulness at work over the last few weeks, so rather than thinking about anything ahead, I have been just languishing in the each and every given moment. It has given me some really interesting perspective and a lot more joy to just be in every moment and I plan to share those joyous findings with my lovely colleagues and friends tomorrow as I depart. There are some pretty terrific people at my work and I feel like it is my job to let them all know just how terrific that I think that they are before I miss my chance to. 
So here I am, only days aways from Christmas preparing for a massive change to happen in my life and feeling all of the mixed emotions that comes with that. And then there is the excitement of Christmas, the summer holidays and the restful days ahead to share with my loved ones. I am a flurry of emotions, a fountain of feels and a flood with fidgets, but most oddly of all is that I am all of those things in the very best of ways. 

One of the hardest lessons that we will ever have to learn in this life is acceptance. Everything that we do and the way that we function as people is derived from our ability (or inability) to accept that things will change and that life is ever evolving and that nothing is ever constant. Of course, part of the real beauty of life is that it is unpredictable. The fact that nothing is permanent and that things will constantly be thrown at us that will change and transform who we are is one of the best things about living, but only if we have acceptance of that truth. Without acceptance there is only resistance, fear, uprising and anxiety. 
I believe that developing a habit of acceptance is one of the fastest ways to improve yourself and your ability to deal with the pitfalls of life. Now don't get me wrong, I am not implying that you should just accept everything that comes your way, because we all know that some shit is just plain unacceptable and should never be tolerated. What I am trying to say is that you should not always feel the need to fight the good fight on every point, because sometimes it is not really 'the good fight' at all, sometimes it is just a chance for you to air your baggage and your narrow mindedness and your inability to accept change and differences.
Many teachers of spiritual enlightenment praise the ability to accept and receive change with open arms. They say that if you can master the art of accepting change as it arrives into your life than you will experience a state of true peace. And this, I believe is our biggest challenge as humans on this planet; we really need to accept but we feel like we are born to to fight. We feel compelled to resist, to pull back or even push back when our boundaries are tested, we are reluctant to change and we do not generally accept things that are new, different, unusual or of any inconvenience to us.
I do believe that acceptance can convert momentary happiness into enduring happiness when it is practised well, and I also think that there is great power in actually being happy and accepting things. I think that there is wisdom in knowing when it is the time to push back and when it is time to just let things happen without feeling the need to intervene or alter things. I think that we all need to get a little bit better at recognising those times for our own well being. As I said, I think that acceptance is the hardest skill to master in this life, but it may well be the most important one to master, and it could just be the key to unlocking our true happiness. 

Getting a little bit worn out now, just like everyone else, but still trucking on. I cannot afford to get too tired but I haven't exactly been leaving a lot of space in my life for rest at the moment. I haven't even been at home very much lately and I think that Craig is starting to feel like a widower; but there is not much that can be done about it. There really doesn't look like much respite on the horizon or anytime soon to be honest, so I'm just making my peace with busy and getting on with it all. Busy is just a side of effect of the season and when the dust all settles there will plenty of time for feet up and cocktails on the deck, so just keep calm and carry on I say. 
​I have pulled out all of my old Christmas movies and I am making my way through some of my favourites as the days to Christmas begin to countdown. I love an excuse to hit the couch for a couple of hours at this time of year, and a seasonal favourite can be just what the doctor ordered. 
I wish that I had a top ten of Christmas movie favourites to recommend, but I don't think that 10 really excellent Christmas movies actually exist, I could only think of nine that warranted three or more chili peppers:

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Kid Friendly)
2. A Christmas Carol (Kid Friendly)
3. It's a Wonderful Life (Fantasy)
4. Love Actually (Romance)
5. Gremlins (Fantasy)
6. The Grinch (Kid Friendly)
7. Go (Comedy)
8. The Night Before (Comedy)
9. Tangerine (Gritty)

To be fair Gremlins, Tangerine and Go are set during Christmas but aren't exactly Christmas tales, but they are totally great and worthy of a seasonal viewing; all nine of the above can be found on my genre lists if you need to see the full reviews and I have listed their genres next to them. Elf almost made the list and is a solid 2.5 Chili Peppers for me, and the rest of the Christmas movies that I have seen are, well.....meh. Generally Christmas movies are toxic, contrived crap-fests with poor and un-original storylines which is terribly annoying because people still want quality viewing at Christmas, or it that just me?
Anyway, there are lots of great vacation movies that are equally good to watch over the silly season, and one that always gets me laughing is Mr Bean's Holiday. I say ditch a shitty Christmas movies in favour of this one, what a ripper Summer holiday tale that is!

The staff Christmas event was held last Friday night and I have to say right now, that I blame it on the boogie! I cannot remember the last time that I danced that much in one evening. Pretty fair to say that I had a terrific time and that I had also forgotten how damn good it feels to shake it all out on the dance floor. I must have been shaking it really hard though, because the next morning I had aches in places that I have clearly not used in a long while; let's just say that my hips weren't lying this weekend about the amount of shaking that they endured on Friday evening. 
Dancing is so rejuvenating, and I haven't really gone out and danced for a long time, I really think that I needed it. I always danced as a child and continued to do it passionately throughout primary and secondary school. I even took casual ballroom dancing classes as an adult for a few years in Ballarat; I don't really know why I ever gave it all up. I guess that it is just what we do, we let go of things over time, we get distracted and we just move on to something new and forget how much we really loved certain things until we get a taste of them again. 
For as long as I can recall I have always loved to dance and lose myself in the rhythm, but there aren't that many opportunities to do that in the adult world.  As a kid you can pretty much dance anywhere and it is not only socially acceptable but it is also pretty fricken adorable as well. As an adult, dancing around is about as far from adorable as one can get. People will either think that you're a looney, a lush, an exhibitionist or an idiot if you start busting out the moves everywhere you go. If you aren't taking a proper dance class or privately gyrating around your own living room, it is really only drunken swaggers at local clubs and bars that allow for adults to dance freely. Hmmmm, I think that I have just spotted a hole in the market here.
I don't actually need to be drunk to enjoy dancing, I really love to dance sobre just as much as I do when I am drunk, but there are not many chances to do that without looking weird or stupid. That is probably why I stopped dancing, because when adults dance around it is considered weird or stupid, unless you're drunk and then it is totally okay. How sad that we have to get all of our jumping around with our friends out of our systems when we are kids because we just can't do that when we're adults without being judged for it. I have to say that I loved my chance to shake it all out on Friday night and I find it really sad that I won't have a chance to do that with those terrific people for a very long time (if ever) again. I think I need to find an adult dance class that will accept old and not terribly good dancers into the fold because I think that I need more of that action in my life. 

Now we are starting to hot up! The calendar is rapidly filling up and there is barely a free afternoon, let alone a free day between now and Christmas. This is the time of year when you truly get see what people are really made of. Some people take this busyness in their stride, grab hold of it with both hands and make it their bitch, and on the flip side of that coin you have the people that just straight up turn into whiny arse bitches that make everything a lot harder than it needs to be. 
Every year it happens and every year I say it, IT IS CHRISTMAS people, not the fucking apocalypse. Get a smile on your dial and get on board because this level of awesome only happens once every year, and it can be so much fun if you just let it! It is (as the song clearly states) the most wonderful time of the year and it is also an opportunity to think about others that are less fortunate than yourself, a time to count your blessings and a time to be mindful of others. It is a time of giving, sharing and demonstrating love. It is most certainly not the time to carry on like a twat and start trouble where there is none. Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men? Ring any bells?
I for one am loving the season and I am determined to not let anyone's crapola spoil this terrific time for me. Sure I am looking super busy over the weeks leading up to Christmas, but most of it is delightfully good busy. Lots of dinner dates and get togethers and celebrations, and there is nothing wrong with being busy like that at all. And as far as work goes, well I am loving that too. I am spending my final days at school with my beautiful co-workers and the Grade 5/6 kids, many of whom will be permanently leaving the school like me, in a couple of short weeks time.
I am most definitely not going to spend what little time I have left with these people being sour and surly because as I said, it is NOT the end of the world, it is the exact opposite of that. Right now it is in fact time to deploy your most awesome and generous self, it is time to get your Christmas happy switched on to full alert and it is time to embrace the moment, and that is exactly what I intend to do!

It's December. What what? How on earth did we get here so damn fast? This year has travelled at the speed of light as far as I am concerned, and here we are back on the threshold of the silly season whilst my head is still processing the events of the last one! Nevermind, we are here and we are alive and well, so let's be merry and get this thing started I say!
We kicked off our Christmas celebrations at Enfield this weekend by putting up the tree, wrapping a few presents and I have even started writing out my Christmas cards. Look at me go! Well, there is really no choice in the matter, I need to be organised. Craig and I don't finish work until the Friday before Christmas, which gives us a two day hiatus until the big day, so it is pretty fair to say that we need to get cracking ahead of time. The thought of dealing with manic last minute shoppers on Christmas Eve doesn't exactly fill me with Christmas cheer, so I am going to try and avoid that scenario as much as possible by getting shit done when I can. 
I indulged in some early Yuletide tipples with Helen last night as we cocktailed the evening away and attempted to watch a few Christmas/ holiday movies. God, so many Christmas movies are shithouse! With the exception of perhaps a dozen or so, the rest are just unwatchable drivel, in the end we settled for watching back to back episodes of Skin Wars and the 1980's best party anthem music clips on Channel V. The good old B52's reigned supreme with 'Love Shack' at number one, knocking out Wham's 'Wake me up Before you Go-Go' which came in second and Madonna's 'Get into the Groove' in third.
I have to admit that I do have a seriously soft spot for eighties music. I think that most people have an affinity with music from their childhood and that decade definitely takes me back. I realised last night that I still haven't gotten over my lust for Madonna's amazing jacket in Desperately Seeking Susan and every time that I see that clip from the movie it reminds me of how cool that I thought she was back in the day and how I longed to be just like her. Not so much these days, but in the 80's she was a style setter extraordinaire. 
I must say, Christmas time never ceases to amaze me, it always brings about such an intense sense of nostalgia. Every year I find myself reminiscing and reflecting on my life in some way. I think that it is impossible to not think about how things have changed in one's life at this time of the year because of the emphasis on tradition and loved ones, Christmas has a way of putting things into perspective. I most certainly do feel blessed to have so many salt of the earth people in my life right now, and that too is one of the best things about Christmas, it makes you count your blessings; and I have so very many things to be grateful for.
What else can I say? I am fortunate and all things considered, it really is a pretty wonderful life.