Review: other seasonal TV.

Looking at Christmas from the TV angle again, we watched 2 wonderful Jesus-centred programs. On Christmas Eve the cathedral carol service was broadcast. The ABC and the cathedral did a brilliant job. Although the song words didn't change fast enough if you were trying to sing along—the first lesson of every ppt song word guru is, change the slide while they are still singing the last words. I spotted people I knew including Elsie, and I saw my right shoulder. Also, On Christmas Day there was a show on Seven about a Bike for Bibles ride. We spotted mum a few times, and it was lovely to hear the riders talking about serving Jesus and the Bible Society and seeing them having a fun time.

Review: Doctor Who Christmas Special.

It was nothing special. There was no plot really, just a flimsy situation that barely supported the weight of all the sentimentality. In that sense, there was something for everybody: environmentalists had a forest of trees with souls in danger because they were a rich energy source, book people had the scenes and lines from Narnia ("what do they teach them in schools these days"), everyone had the strength of love and home and family and mothers, there was also the usual dollop of British patriotism (cliche WW2 family), and it was iced with "aren't humans great". Disappointing. Esp the line "Humany wumany". Really cheap, I thought. There were some other cuter lines though, and Matt Smith delivers them well.

The previous specials were more special, the Christmas Carol one at least made use of time travel to save the day, and there were cute flying fish and a love story and a growing up story and a bad father figure and so on.

But excitement! ABC are starting from season 1 and playing Doctor Who on weeknights, in order! Hurrah! My entire life is going to revolve around this. 

5 months of Jillian.

Vintage lady using exercise machine, pre Jillian.

Yes! amazingly, the Jillian fad has been sustained for almost half a year. Well done us! A medal for consistency, if not fierce intensity.

In terms of results, I wouldn't say I've got "shredded", but there are some slight improvements in some of my measurements. I'd say some fat has been redistributed into muscle, so probably my shape has changed some. I still have an ok layer of fat though, because I haven't cut down my calorie intake. Chocolate still gets eaten, that's a fact of my life. I guess there are worse habits though! I think my posture is better, because my back and shoulder muscles are stronger. When I clench muscles, I feel more muscle mass moving. So there is no radical before and after shocks, my clothes aren't too big now or anything, but I feel the difference in myself.

We hope to continue doing Jillian around 3 times a week (I manage 4 when I can) because we love the feeling. It's quite satisfying to commit to 3 hours a week (which is not a huge inconvenience) and know it's about the right amount to make us at least a little bit strong and fit.

House dress.

I'm thinking about making a house dress. I'll use cheap fabric. The idea is to have a dress that is almost pyjamas, but not, and just slip it on when I get home from work but it's not dark yet. I might use one of my next retro patterns.

I got James Valentine to say "crochet granny rug" on the radio today.

What I did on my weekend.

Saturday
I did Jillian.
I went to Bec and Elsie's Tupperware party. Ordered a mini pickle lifter for my olives.
I went to Eastgardens to do Christmas shopping. There was no money in my account because it was the day after rent. So I payed a dollar to use the internet kiosk and transfer money. I bought myself a 2012 diary (25% off kikki k) and no Christmas presents.
I went home then straight into the city to the Brandenburg, Noel Noel concert. I had a free ticket from Julia Booth. I sat with her Grandma's friend, we had a great time chatting and the music was amazing. Amazing.
Watched Miss Marple while transcribing into new diary.
Sleep.

Sunday
Watched some Miranda.
Helped friends clean their unit after their move. Oh my goodness, I've never cleaned such a filthy place. Student flat for too long. 10 years worth of black stuff on the inside of the windows. Kitchen literally falling apart. One of those ceilings as if someone has hosed wet toilet paper up into the air and it's stuck on and collected 50 years worth of grunge and you can't clean it. Carpet old and disgusting so that vacuuming is futile. And the best part is, apparently the landlord isn't planning on replacing the carpet but will rent it out for $550 a week. Two hours of washing walls and windows has left me a little sore. Jillian in the real world.
Home for quick shower and lunch then to carols practice. On the way, invented walking barefoot in the rain carrying shoes to keep shoes dry.
Back to Eastgardens for Christmas shopping attempt #2! Had a hot chocolate and a banana.
Back to church for sound-check and sausage, then played the carols event, which rocked. Made 2 real mistakes but neither were super awkward. Packed up, and left at 8.30.
Ate chocolate and yoghurt with Miranda for an hour to unwind.

Other crafts I finished and forgot to blog.

I edged my crochet rug. This was a nice project for 2011. I reused a lot of wool from a scarf I never wore, and bought $50 worth of supplementary wool (which I still have leftover—the curse of craft is useable leftovers) and learnt crochet from my Grandma and Neva next door. It is finished, and it is quite useful. It lives on the back of my armchair, as granny rugs should.

I made a pettiskirt. Some skirts and dresses need a lining, because the fabric is too thin or whatever. I used a simple straight skirt for a cutting guide, so it's basically 2 slightly tapered squares sewn together at the sides. I left one side unsewn a little bit at the top and hemmed it and put a plastic snap button on, which I found in my sewing box. Must have saved it from something. Hemmed the waist and hemmed the skirt with some lace, just because it's traditional and I had lace in the sewing box for some reason. Quite a good 2 hours work!

Going Postal.

(I'm a bit of a geek about Discworld)

 

Super excited. I went to the post office yesterday (which has a Miss Maccalariat type lady and a Stanley type young man) and felt a strong urge to ask if they were going to watch Going Postal. I expect it to be better than Hogfather, which was slow and cheaply shot. Moist Von Lipwig is one of my favourite Disc characters. The actor playing him looks sometimes like a young Hugh Laurie and sometimes like a young Andy Serkis.