As 2009 draws to a close, I have decided to ask myself “what did I learn this year?”.
My first thought is, I should have done this before all the boozy Christmas parties of the last week or so, as now as large portion of the memory section of my brain is missing in action. But I’ll have a go anyway.
1) The orange colour in cheese is natural. As a lad from a land where all cheese is a shade of creamy white, occasionally with blue bits in it, orange cheese came as a surprise to me. Now if only I could remember what the natural colourant is, or who told me this news…
2) Running at work is a bad idea. It is especially a bad idea if you have a history of breaking your ankle, your sister and her family just happen to be visiting your workplace at the time, it is your last day of work, you are about to start a new job overseas, you have a long haul flight scheduled for two days later, and you haven’t even started packing yet.
3) Flying long haul with a freshly broken ankle is also a bad idea.
4) Cats are resilient animals. After a 3 day trip from New Zealand to Toronto (with a stop over in Honolulu I might add), my ginger cat Manchego showed no signs of jet lag. He spent the whole drive home from the airport purring loudly, taking in the view out the passenger window. At one stage he was smiling directly at a highway patrolman driving next to us.
5) Canadians are the most optimistic people on the planet. Yes, I have met a few Leafs fans.
6) The words ‘a bunch of stuff’ are an acceptable answer to almost any probing question, and they usually eliminate the need for any further explanation. For example – What have you done today Ross? – A bunch of stuff!
So there you have it, I learnt a bunch of stuff this year. I’m looking forward to remembering more as my brain returns to normal function in the new year.
Now I can relax and enjoy Christmas with my adopted family here in the upper hemisphere. I am having a hard time convincing them that a BBQ at the beach is a good idea though. I am also struggling to find any ripe strawberries locally to put on top of my Pavlova. And a game of backyard cricket seems to be out of the question. Christmas in Canada does have advantages over the mid summer Christmases of New Zealand however. Santa hats are more practical for one. And if you want to drive around and look at Christmas lights you don’t need to wait up until 11pm.
Merry Christmas Earthlings, I am looking forward to sharing a glass of The Good Wine with you all in 2010!
Cheers,
Kiwi Ross