It's almost midnight here in Melbourne (which means it's not really midnight at all because of this wretched daylight saving nonsense that means Dace won't go to bed until 10:30 because he's not used to going to bed in daylight...)

Anyway, the impending approach of a new year has got me thinking about things I plan to do in 2007:

• Write Palace of Impossible Dreams (Tide Lords Book 3)
• Finish my Masters Degree
• Plot out Book 4 of the Tide Lords series, The Chaos Crystal
• Tour Tasmania
• Renovate my house
• Lose 10 kilos
• Start a book club
• Get a business I've had in mind for a while up and running
• Buy a new TV (right now the 72" Rear Projection LCD is winning the race-what with it being $60,000 cheaper than the plasma version, an' all...)
• Do lots of publicity stuff for The Immortal Prince
• Go to at least one con
• Survive my son's wedding
• And not get booked for speeding now we have speed limits in the highway in the NT.

Oh, and in the immortal words of beauty pageant contestants the world over...

World Peace.

Happy New Year!

My son's engagement party is today, which has brought up the whole question of wedding presents.

The engagement present was easy, actually. His sisters and I all chipped in to buy him a whopping great gift voucher from his local hardware store so he can get the bits and pieces he needs to build the decking at the back of his new house.

This is the son who wanted 10 cubic metres of dirt for his birthday, remember...

So, I started to wonder, what do you get a couple who already has their own home and pretty much everything that goes with it?

(No, son, the answer to that question is not a 71" plasma TV)

Anyway, I had a brainwave. I will give them a honeymoon, I decided. Airfares and couple of weeks in the location of their choice. Now obviously, it would be easier if I just gave them the money and let them organise everything themselves, but that seems a bit tacky, I thought...

I said as much to Secondborn, telling her I didn't want to give my future daughter-in-law the idea I was trying to buy her affection.

"Don't you worry about that," says Secondborn with a devious smile. "You go right ahead and give them the money, Mum. Buying our affection is a good thing. Don't let anyone ever convince you otherwise."

Methinks Secondborn is another evil overlady in the making...

I am so proud:)

So, having decided I really shouldn't buy a 71" plasma TV I decided to console myself with gadgets of the non-powered kind.

I found myself an apple peeling machine. To be more accurate, Dace found it, in a gadget shop full of groovy little things like tube squeezers (I bought 3), magnetic gas cylinder guages, (got me one of those too) and various other things like garlic peelers, corn cob holders and tetrahedron shaped ice cube makers.

And to be fair, it wasn't actually my idea to buy an apple peeling machine. Dace saw it first and announced, "Look nana! An apple peeling machine! We have to buy one of those. Now."

Really, I don't where he gets that from...

Anyway, Dace and I are off to peel more apples than it is humanly possible to consume in one sittling, and make like we're Badger in an episode of Firefly.

Who needs a 71" plasma when there's this much fun to be had:)

I got an email today, announing the arrival of the 71" plasma TV. That's right... folks, nearly six whole feet of shiny plasma screen for your home viewing pleasure. Add to that a spanking new Kaleidescape multimedia server that stores all of your movies digitally and the world is a beautiful place indeed.

Naturally, I must have both of these gadgets. They meet all my requirements in technology, in that they are:

1. hideously expensive
2. shiny
3. have lots of buttons and pretty lights
4. come with an operating manual roughtly the size of the Encyclopeadia Britannica
5. I don't need them

And when I say hideously expensive, I do mean hideous. $70K US for the the TV and $27K US for the digital server.

I am now confronted with a choice. Which is more important - all these lovely new gadgets or eating, paying my tax bill and perhaps the odd house payment?

I know what I think. I mean, I do need to lose weight. And it's not like the ATO is gonna go bust without my money. And hell, the wretched house is haunted...

Suspect the tax department and my bank might disagree, though :)

Oh well... I'll just have to wait until the price comes down to less than a couple of new cars and a racehorse.

In the meantime, I can dream...

Went shopping today (there's a shocker!) and took Dace to see Night at the Museum. Very funny, if somewhat predicatble. I would have given it 3 stars. Dace, I sure, would give it 5:)

Saw Happy Feet  yesterday. It's kinda Moulin Rouge meets An Inconvenient Truth. The animation is so good I don't think it's animated at all. I am quite convinced they just taugt all those penguins to sing and dance. This film is brilliant and will make you want to go out and join Greenpeace.

And I have to say, penguins do a pretty good job of Queen, too:)

Other than that I've been downloading...stuff. Not that I would trawl through all the Bit Torrent sites I can find and download TV shows I can't get in Alice Springs because that would be like, you know, illegal, and I would never do anything like that...

Did I mention I went shopping today?

Found a pet shop that must cater to the "double income- have pets as surrogate kids crowd". They had whole cases of bling-bling for the discerning pet owner to splurge on. They had flavoured water for your pets. Palaces for your pussy. A day spa for your pampered pooch. Seriously, nothing was too much for the four-legged love of your life.

Doctor Secondborn was in stiches over the vast range of flavours of dog treats (But they'll eat cat poo out of the kitty litter if you let them! she has been known to cry aloud , which upsets the staff trying to sell some gullible but well-meaning owner caviar flavoured dog biscuits.)

Best product we found was Iams "Multi Cat Food". Yes people, they have packaged up a food to buy if you have more than one cat.

Ponder of the logic of this for a moment and then tell me you don't agree that whoever thought up that particular gem, deserves the "Nobel Prize for Marketing to Gullible Humans" Award.

If there isn't such an award, there ought to be.

I am now going to quit writing and start a new career. I figure I can repackage frozen mixed vegetables as market them as "Multi Children Nutrition Supplements".

I am gonna be sooo rich....