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 |  is paved with good intentions... |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Hi, I'm Elle. I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand. I'm the mother of two young adults, the wife of an entrepreneurial gamer and the Queen of Unfinished Projects. This blog will contain poems, short stories, possibly photos and book reviews if you're lucky, and my thoughts on a variety of topics. Hope you enjoy it. |
| Despite a stumble in my blogging at the end there, 2019 was a pretty successful year for me. The biggest change for me from 2018 was working a job that made me happy. When you spend most of your waking life at work, that makes such an enormous difference. Let's take a look at some of my stats from 2019... Wordpress 139 posts and 232 followers. Not big by some standards, but I'm plenty happy with that. Livejournal 579 posts. Livejournal is my private blog, my journal if you will. I'm pleased by that number as it means I don't have any long blank periods for this year! Writing.com I wrote 27 poems and no short stories. I haven't written a short story since 2017! I need to write more poems and short stories next year. Books I read 160 books in 2019! Wow! That's the most I've read in years, and kicks ass on my goal of 120. A goal I didn't reach in 2018, I might add.  Longest book: Cake by J Bengtsson Shortest book: The Gig by Kim Feilding Most hyped book I read: Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston Book others need to know about: Threatening Sky by S Jade Castleton (aka Osirantinous  ) My average rating for 2019: 3.8 stars Favourite series of 2019: D'Vaire by Jessamyn Kingley Favourite authors of 2019:- Jessamyn Kingley - Cara Dee - L A Witt - Aly Martinez - Lily Morton Authors that disappointed me in 2019:- Piper Davenport - A E Via I started listing some favourite quotes from 2019, but they were too many and too long for my bulleted list. So here you go... “Russ, you’d need a medium and a séance to bring my dick back to life tonight.” ~ From Gideon by Lily Morton "Ow!” My brother retracts his fingers from where he just pinched me. “What did you do that for?” “Because I love you.” “Can’t you buy me a card like normal people?” “No, because Hallmark doesn’t have anything to rhyme with ‘you’re behaving like a total wanker,’” he says firmly. ~ From Gideon by Lily Morton The sounds of the late afternoon poured into the car. Crickets and birds talking shit about one another at top volume. ~ From The Wolf at the Door by Charlie Adhara “How do I look?” he blurted as they approached the car. He couldn’t help it. “Like you’ve seen some shit,” Park said. “Oh, good. I like to stay on brand." ~ From Thrown to the Wolves by Charlie Adhara People passed me huddled under umbrellas. Fragments of their conversation left vibrant confetti in the air while the passing cars dragged out streaks of gray. ~ From Complementary Colors by Adrienne Wilder The hosts of This Morning are agonizingly British—a middle-aged woman named Dottie in a tea dress and a man called Stu who looks as if he spends weekends yelling at mice in his garden. ~ From Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston I started to think of myself and my life and my whole lifetime worth of memories as all the dark, dusty rooms of Buckingham Palace. I took the night Bea left rehab and I begged her to take it seriously, and I put it in a room with pink peonies on the wallpaper and a golden harp in the center of the floor. I took my first time, with one of my brother’s mates from uni when I was seventeen, and I found the smallest, most cramped little broom cupboard I could muster, and I shoved it in. I took my father’s last night, the way his face went slack, the smell of his hands, the fever, the waiting and waiting and terrible waiting and the even worse not-waiting anymore, and I found the biggest room, a ballroom, wide open and dark, windows drawn and covered. Locked the doors. But the first time I saw you. Rio. I took that down to the gardens. I pressed it into the leaves of a silver maple and recited it to the Waterloo Vase. It didn’t fit in any rooms. ~ From Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston He started spinning his storm again, voice rising up and down, words forcefully punctuated without pattern. “Mom! Mom. You have to smell him! It’s like… like… I don’t even know what it’s like! I was walking in the woods to scope out our territory so I could be like Dad and then it was like… whoa. And then he was all standing there and he didn’t see me at first because I’m getting so good at hunting. I was all like rawr and grr but then I smelled it again and it was him and it was all kaboom! I don’t even know! I don’t even know! You gotta smell him and then tell me why it’s all candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome.” They all stared at him as if they’d come across something unexpected. Mark had a secret smile on his face, hidden by his hand. “Is that so?” the woman finally said. Her voice wavered like it was a fragile thing. “Rawr and grr and kaboom?” “And the smells!” he cried. “Can’t forget about those,” the man next to her said faintly. “Candy canes and pinecones and epic and awesome.” “Didn’t I tell you?” Mark said to them. “Ox is… different.” ~ From Wolfsong by T J Klune "Don’t stick with something shitty even if the money is good, you feel me?” “I won’t.” Though admittedly the thought of walking away from this kind of cash was… well, I was pretty sure Jesse would have to be an actual serial killer who moonlighted in Nigerian prince clown porn for me to jump ship. ~ From The Husband Gambit by L A Witt But fortunately I didn’t have to pick one reason and one reason only, and I could absolutely hate him for an entire laundry list of reasons. Seriously that man could eat a dump truck full of rotting hairy donkey dicks. ~ From The Husband Gambit by L A Witt He’d draped over the bar like his jacket was made of long days and disappointment, yet when he’d smiled at me it was so ineffably bright and resilient that I kept looking back. ~ From Dedicated by Neve Wilder "Shut up before you ruin this.” I wasn’t good at shutting up. “Ruin what?” “What I’m considering doing to your cock.” I lied. All hail shutting the fuck up. ~ From Dedicated by Neve Wilder King stared at his best friend. “Surely you’re not implying what I think you’re implying.” “Oh, I imply, brother. I imply. All the implying.” Ace waved his hands at King and his general person. “There is so much implying going on, I can barely stand it.” ~ From Diamond In The Rough by Charlie Cochet When Logan entered the break room, he found Foster applying lipstick in the dingy mirror above the utility sink. From the smirk she directed at him, Logan had no doubt she’d offered herself up to Mr. Slick Suit like a vagina vending machine. ~ From When One Door Opens by J D Ruskin The nursing home smelled like horror, cleanser, and a spritz of death. ~ From Mr Frosty Pants by Leta Blake |
Christmas went well. I think we did presents with the kids about 9am. Both kids especially loved the little memory books I made of our cats that had passed away earlier this year. Caitie cried, and Jayden said he had to work hard not to cry too. They both sat there and went through them before continuing with the rest of the presents. Jayden was really pleased with all the books he got, and Caitie seemed very pleased with her haul too. I'm not sure she really knew what to think about her trip to Brisbane. Too much to process? They were both very happy though. I got a lovely digital art portrait of myself that Caitie had made from scratch. Shit, she's talented. It might be extra flattering in terms of actually looking like me, but it's a fantastic picture. I got Alien perfume (which I chose) from Caitie and Steve, and a Pinky & The Brain t shirt (that I chose) from Steve (which he didn't even know about, so it was really from me!). The kids got a $20 Whitcoulls voucher from heyxie  each too, which she'd posted up.We spent a couple of hours pottering around the house doing last minute things and making up platters of food, dips, etc. Most of the housework was done though. Our elderly neighbours and their son turned up about 2pm or maybe 3pm. Colleen gave the kids $20 each, and she gave me a beautiful crystal lidded honey pot. It doesn't have a maker's mark, but it looks like the Stuart Crystal that I collect. She knows I collect it, and thought I'd like it. So lovely of her, and it's a beautiful piece. Then our neighbours on the other side and one of their four teenage sons turned up, with three of their Scottish friends. Dad arrived, and then Steve's parents. Dad seemed happy with his lottery ticket and his scorched almonds. I also gave him some of the Rugby World Cup beers that I'd kept for him (that he'd asked me to put aside). Steve's parents seemed to like their gifts from us (a cauldron-shaped mug for her, a cat-scented soap for him (just joke presents) and then a set of Samba cards, card holders and an automatic battery-operated card shuffler machine), although Steve's mum seemed a bit overwhelmed to be honest. She hasn't been well lately. They gave Caitie some Copic markers (which Caitie was thrilled with) and a Copic how-to-make-realistic-skin-tones guide which I'm sure she'll find useful. Jayden got $20. One of the neighbours had made some sangria, which we put in my drinks dispenser. The dispenser hold 7.5 litres, and it was full to the brim. I had half sangria, half lemonade, and it was very drinkable. The neighbour and the Scottish friend were drinking it straight. It wasn't too strong, just not sweet enough, that's why I added the lemonade. I drank four big glasses of it over the night, and we drank damn near the whole lot between us. I think there was about a litre left in the dispenser. Dinner went really well. Was delicious. Two slow-roasted legs of lamb, with roast vegetables, boiled vegetables and delicious gravy. Everyone really enjoyed it. The teenager son went home just before dinner but was replaced with a nephew and his girlfriend. Our neighbours obviously took 'the more the merrier' to heart! It was fine though, there was plenty of food. Then we had desserts. One neighbour had made her chocolate tart, another had bought two pavlovas, the Scottish lady had made a fruit salad, and Steve's mum had made a trifle. We didn't bother making the berries and chocolate plate that we had planned, because there was too much food already. And I completely forgot about the Christmas cake in the pantry (a gift from my boss) but we didn't have room for that either really. Steve's parents left pretty much straight after dinner. Most people left about 10pm I think, after they helped Steve do the dishes, which he was really pleased about as that saved us from a massive job the next day. It had been a total of 17 people for dinner. Dad took a couple of boxes/bags of recycling to put in his bin as ours was full, and he took a plate of leftovers. One lot of neighbours stayed for a little bit after that, maybe until about 10:30pm. He had a whisky before he left, and the Scottish couple stayed on drinking whisky and beer until midnight. Steve and I were so shattered by midnight. I mean, it was lovely that they were enjoying themselves and felt comfortable, considering it was the first time they'd been to our place, but seriously, we would have been delighted if they'd left an hour earlier! We were asleep by 12:30am. Dead to the world. Boxing Day we woke up about 9am I think. Maybe 8:30am. I woke the kids up, then used the leftovers from dinner to make an omelette for breakfast. There aren't many leftovers left really. A smidgeon of lamb, and enough vegetables for two people to have a meal maybe? Not bad. The kids took ages to get up and get ready to go, and we were on track to be at Steve's parents' at about 11am, except we had to stop and get ice on the way. And no one had ice. We went to eight service stations before we found one that had ice. Apparently the company that makes the commercial ice had broken a machine and so everyone was out. We didn't get there until about 11:45am. My nephew all liked the gifts we gave them, which is awesome. One nephew is easy to buy for because he's made for anything golf or fishing related, but we only see the other three once a year on Boxing Day, so that makes it hard. Steve's brother gave him a really nice wooden rolling pin, and the kids got chocolate. Lunch was lamb and beef, with potato salad and a green salad. I wasn't hungry, so I only had a small plate. Then there was trifle, and some little sweets (reindeer poo, snowman snot and jelly tips that Steve's mum had made), a berry and chocolate plate and a really terrible keto pavlova. I think there was quite a bit left over, but they had more people coming for dinner, so hopefully they could get rid of some of it then. We didn't stay too long. I think we left about 3pm. I was exhausted and Steve said he was too. And my mother-in-law really needed a nap, because she's nowhere near back to full health yet. So hopefully with everyone leaving (the rest left just before us) she would actually go and have a lie down. Spent the rest of the afternoon very quietly, trying not to fall asleep. Tomorrow one of Steve's business contacts is taking us out on his boat for a day of fishing, so that should be fun. |
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