A Disjointed Catch Up

I can't help but notice that my lack of blogging seems to stem from just after Gene & I broke up last year. It's almost as if when we broke up I couldn't find any words to write. No way of really saying what I thought and I really didn't feel a need to share how I felt as frankly that would have been boring.

So almost a year on I guess I'm still trying to find myself. Not so much remember what it's like to be single, but discover my independence and learn to enjoy it.

Okay, random burst of self-reflection over (phew!).

Let's just say that there wasn't a great deal of reading in May & June... Combined reading list for those months include:
1. The Dragon Queen
2. Pardon My French
3. Growing Up Asian in Australia

If only event management plans counted in the list... but as thick as some of them were, they're not quite books.

June consisted of many weekend trips from Brisbane to Melbourne & Sydney. Visiting family, farewelling friends and celebrating a birthday. It's a good thing I don't mind flying really. After the last weekend away the Festival really started to ramp up production. Defintely my favourite part that's not the actual Festival.

July saw the start of the Festival. We worked hard, we played hard. There were many opening nights and closing nights celebrated. It was good. Was lucky enough to see some shows which was rather novel. It was all over in a haze of beer, gin & wine and before we knew it we were bare-foot bowling on a beautiful sunny August day.

It would be hard to believe that only a fortnight ago I was sitting in the sun watching people bowl... except that I landed back in Melbourne on Saturday. It was not sunny. Luckily it wasn't too cold either. I keep telling myself that it's "the same temperature as Brisbane at night... but brighter".

Right now I'm in Sydney enjoying the sunshine and 20˚C days... well I was, it's supposed to storm tomorrow. Still trying to work out what I'll do tomorrow... am thinking it could be a good day for a museum or possibly the aquarium. I may yet fit an antique fair in.

I must admit I'm in a bit of a strange mood tonight. It's been a bit of a odd day. I woke up with a migraine and feeling a bit out of sorts. Did a bit of shopping. Had a nap. Woke up when my phone rang. It was Dad. My grandma in Singapore has stage 4 cancer. I pondered the fact that my Mum's family has had and excellent health history until now when both my Mum & Grandma have cancer. I'm starting to think that my random (morbid) thought that I'll die in the water is possibly incorrect and that it's more likely to be cancer. Strangely I'd rather the water but I'm trying not to dwell on that as I don't particularly want to die at this point in time. When I get bad news that I can't do anything about I turn to depressing music to soothe my woes. So after a good hour of depressing tunes I headed out to have cocktails with a few friends. Dinner followed the cocktails (although perhaps it should have been the other way around) and I must say I'm in a much better mood having gone out.

So to summarise... I had a fabulous time in Brisbane and miss the lifestyle up there although it's still not really my city. Am restless, reflective and honestly I think I'm a little angry with myself. Akrasia, what can I say? Do better. Rocks. Anyhow, no point dwelling on that, just have to keep moving forward. Right?

Less disjointed post next time, I promise.

Life Lessons in Scrabble

Today was a very domestic day. Clean-Up-Sarah's-Act Day. Well, clean up my room & bathroom anyhow.

Three loads of laundry (I actually bothered to sort out my clothes into coloured and dark) and I was well on my way. Several boxes of books have been unpacked and others removed from the bookshelf and packed into boxes in a [moving] deckchairs-on-the-Titanic-esque manner. After slipping in the bathroom while mopping the floor and hitting my head on a shelf while dusting I decided to retreat to the safety of the bedroom. After a few hours I was happy to rediscover my floor under the myriad of boxes I headed downstairs for dinner.
THUD
What was that? Mum askes.
I wander upstairs having quipped that it was probably my bookshelf.
Turns out it was my bookshelf.

I may have gotten a little upset. Just a little.

The floor had disappeared under a mound of books that had also dismantled my clothes rack.
Just a little upset.

Three hours later and I had reclaimed the floor, fixed the rack and precariously stacked the books on the chest of drawers. I needed a break from the domesticity.

Clearly a game of Scrabble was in order.

Dad & I had bought Mum the Deluxe Scrabble board for her birthday.

The christening game reminded me of a valuable lesson. Greed is not good. I could have finished the game but decided to hold out by one more move in order to score more points. If I'd put the original word on the board I would have won. Instead Dad took line honours for tonight's game. Ah well, there's always tomorrow. Anyway, I have a floor. I need not for winning Scrabble.

Happy Birthday Mum

I'm sitting here wondering what to write for Mum's birthday card. Something that not only expresses how much I love her but how incredibly lucky I feel to be her daughter. The thing is, I don't think that it's quite sunk in that she's in remission and quite possibly going to be okay. Just eight months ago, we were told that her cancer was to be incurable. We were going to have to wait and see if we could prolong her life after 18 months of treatment. I can't speak for Mum or Dad, but for me the last 8 months has passed both quickly and painfully slowly. Having looked into the general statistics for pancreatic cancer patients, the odds weren't looking good. Less than 1% of patients go into long term remission.

So here we are. Full radiological and biological remission.

Amazingly good news and funnily enough I'm still having to tell myself to just breathe.

I started to look at my posts from when we first found out that Mum had pancreatic cancer. Sure that I would find some poignant or inspired words from the time as I never shared those with Mum at the time. Reading posts from the two blogs that I write, I found myself in tears. The emotions are still raw. I suppose I've been spending the last eight months trying to live from day to day and not think, not to feel. I almost lost my Mum last year. If she'd been like many pancreatic patients then she would have most likely passed away around September. I still can't find the words to say how I feel now that the outcome is what we'd been hoping for.

It would seem that I'm still lost for words. So I think, for Mum's birthday, I'm going to say:

Happy Birthday Mum. Thank you for staying positive and fighting against the odds. Thank you for ironing my dress for me before the party even when you were tired because you knew I'd do a terrible job and take twice as long doing so. Thank you for holding me and telling me it was going to be okay when we found out you had cancer and when we found out you were in remission. You truly are an inspiration and you handle what life brings you with grace and poise. I love you. Thank you.

:)

Mum's in remission. There's no cancer left in her body.
Words cannot express how I feel right now.

:)

End of a Fairytale Season

Today was the last day of the show I've been working on for Summer Fun in the City, Fairy Factor. It was looking pretty grim for our first show of the day as it was raining incessantly until 9:30am when paused long enough for us to set up the show on the stage that's normally used for Twilight Rhythms. I'm glad we did because despite the inclement weather we still had over 100 people show up to brave the weather. Happily for all it didn't rain at all. In fact it cleared up to a bright sunny day with cloudy patches. By the time we finished our second show for the day and final for the season it was quite muggy!

Sadly Mum had to go back to the hospital today as she's been feeling rather under the weather and started to develop a high fever (the only lucid memory she has from this morning is telling Dad she didn't want to go to the hospital). She's doing much better, although she's feeling very fatigued. Her temperature is down which is the important thing. Now we just need to work out where the infection is. Hopefully she'll be home in a few days.

Anyhow it's almost bed time. Just a couple of job applications to write and then early bedtime before an early rising to Set Sail tomorrow!

Midnight Cakes

Not only am I nocturnal, I'm beginning to make a habit of baking cakes at midnight. This is of course totally in line with Dad's nocturnal habits but I'm sure it's not good for us!

Tonight's cake was a simple pound cake made with a recipe that I've altered a bit and am still tweaking. Perhaps a little less egg but otherwise a delicious cake that will be perfect with my morning (ha!) coffee.

Speaking of coffee I don't think I've mentioned how in love I am with our new espresso machine, which in all honesty isn't that new any more as we've had it for almost a month... Purchased the day after the dishwasher caught fire which I also seem to have failed to mention. I guess that's what happens when I write while I should be asleep.

I have had a fairly productive day today despite only making it out of bed at 13:00. I've achieved 80% of what I wanted to do.

Tomorrow I'm aiming to:
- do at least one load of washing
- clean the bathroom
- head to the post office and post my international mail
- head to the supermarket to pick up some supplies for further baking adventures
- have a cup of coffee with a slice of tonight's cake
- read another chapter of The Pleasure of my Company and one of The Ghost's Child (apparently children's fiction and literature have captured my attention from the stack of sci-fi/fantasy that's sitting by my bed
- write a few more cards
- finish the entrelac scarf that I've been making out of Noro's Silk Garden yarn.

We'll see how I go... first I need to get out of bed before noon! Excellent practice for Tuesday when I have to be at work at 09:00. Wish me luck!

Failure to Write

In the wee small hours of the morning, when the whole wide world is fast asleep I'm lying awake wondering why it is I've got Carly Simon stuck in my head when I've been listening to Edith Piaf's rendition of L'accordéoniste on loop all day.

I'm frustratingly nocturnal at the moment. Frustrating because I have two LX plots to attend tomorrow and I'd like to be awake for them please. As well as tickets to see Don Giovanni. Again with the awakeness.

Since I wasn't sleeping anyway, I figured I might as well update my sorely neglected blog.

Let's see, last time I wrote I'd just planted a mini-herb garden for a show. Well, the season went really well. So well in fact that Kat & I don't own any plants (dead or alive) from the show. Since then I've moved onto another show and am in the process of looking for more work over the silly season. Mind you I think I could do with a couple of days off to sort out my body clock and get a little R&R but we'll see. Plenty of time for that when the theatres are dark again.

Other items of note in no particular order are:
- my shoulder (which I fell on about two weeks ago after a particularly sleepless night... futons should never be underestimated for danger, can anyone say trip hazard?) is feeling much better but is at the annoying stage where it feel good but as soon as I do anything more than hold a cup of coffee in my left arm it begins to complain. Not that I've been doing anything but resting it of course... ahem

- Mum's started her next course of chemo after a week's break last week. For some reason I kept thinking it was her last course last time... hopefully this is the one. She's getting great results from the treatment but I think she's looking forward to stopping the chemo.

- I've made it further on my NaNoWriMo novel this year than ever before, but I'm still many thousands of words behind where I should be. Perhaps I should attack that instead of this blog... I should probably also note that I'm only ahead of my previous attempts by about 1,000 words... oh well, only 48,000 more to go...

Anyhow, that's all that springs to mind at the moment. I think I'm approaching the "low" in my sleep/wake cycle, so I'm going to make another attempt to fall asleep. Wish me luck!

Post-Festival Update

Tonight I had dinner with my family for the first time in a month. It's strange to think that we're all living under the same roof and our only interactions have been in passing as I waltz out the door (or stumble depending on what time I made it home from work the previous night).

The (Age 2007) Melbourne Fringe Festival was great fun as I expected. I had some fabulous shows which some of my fabulous friends came to see. It was great to see them at the festival as it was the first time I'd seen some of them in months. Plus it meant that there were people out and seeing theatre. The Festival Club was our place to unwind and you could generally find us tucked around the lighting & sound desks or jumping up to follow spot random patrons and staff as the night traveled on and we burnt up the dance floor.

As is always the case, I blinked and the festival was over and I was moving onto my next gig. It's funny being back at uni but not as a student. I'm still amused by the idea but am taking great pleasure at watching the cast working. We open in two weeks time and I think the show is going to be great. Besides, with the Spiegeltent in walking distance, I'm sure that opening night drinks will last into the wee hours.

Mum's doing well and if I'm not mistaken has one more chemo treatment for this course and then gets at least one week off (which she's looking forward to). The doctors seem pleased with her progress which is great!

I kept meaning to write during the Fringe but I could barely string a sentence together let alone a thought. You should have seen me ordering coffee...

Well, I should stop procrastinating and get back to sorting boxes of stuff. I'm gradually packing and weeding through things that I clearly don't need anymore as they've been sitting in boxes for over a year now. It's a painful boring process but I'm sure it'll feel great once I'm done.

I'm feeling a tad guilty about how little packing I've achieved as I spent most of the day browsing YouTube on the AppleTV and teaching myself Fur Elise on the piano. Yep it's been a productive day.

Fringe Family

Three tech rehearsals down, one to go and then we’re on! So far it’s looking like I’ll have an interesting mix of shows with music being a strong theme.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since I’ve been in the Meeting Room at the North Melbourne Town Hall. There are so many familiar faces around the venue. People who I still remember coming over to our house in the wee hours of the morning having paid an exorbitant amount of cash for drinks from a 24 hour bottle shop after the bar closed early one night. As always there are new faces but Melbourne Fringe will always feel a little like a family reunion in that way.

Speaking of family, my Mum’s cousin is down from Singapore for a holiday. We went shopping last night at good ol’ Knox City and Dad’s taking her to have a look around the Vic Markets today. She’s been here for almost a week but I’ve barely seen her as by the time I’m home from work she’s in bed and I leave moments after dragging my sorry self out of bed in the morning. I must admit that I’m looking forward to sleeping in on Sunday morning before spending the afternoon reading the script before Monday’s rehearsal.

It’s good to be busy again! Now if I could start sleeping well again then life would be nigh on perfect.

Back in Melbourne

I've been back in Melbourne for a week and a half now. More than enough time to settle into my nocturnal habits once more. Luckily I'll be working nights for the Melbourne Fringe.

While I was in Darwin there were a few changes around my folks place. For one the old CRT tv transformed into a 42" plasma tv. What caught my attention though, once I managed to drag myself away from the new blue-ray DVDs was this...



It would seem that the dogs are enjoying the same fresh water that we are. It's only fair I suppose...

Nothing else to report really. My days have been spent looking for post-Fringe work, reinstating the blue streak in my hair and feeding my Facebook addiction.

It's been great spending time with my family though. Since Mum's cancer diagnosis Dad's been working from home a lot more so we've been lucky enough to have most meals as a family.

Mum's doing well at the moment. We received the latest results from her scans/tests and have been told that the cancer is now largely hard tissue and it's looking like she will only have to go through one more 6 week cycle of chemo before they can remove it. Right now she's having a short break from treatment as her white blood cell count is too low. Overall we're pretty happy with the latest news and I'll be sure to keep any interested parties posted. Many thanks for the well wishes.

Plans over the next week involve reading trashy magazines with Mum, heading to the city to see the Guggenheim exhibition as well as the Pixar showcase and of course the mundane catching up on paperwork and job hunting. I must admit I miss Darwin life, the warm walk-conducive weather and beach just moments away but it's good to be back in Melbourne. The skies may be grey but it's still t-shirt weather for most of the day and the owls nesting outside our house are much less shrill than the birds that shared my garden in Darwin.

Nothing Compares

Nothing in my 24 years of life could have prepared me for the news that my Mum's cancer is incurable. Not even my GP telling me that treatment was more likely to prolong her life than cure the cancer. Still to her credit she's still remaining positive and is ready to step up to the challenges that the treatment will set for her. To say that Mum is a strong woman would be an understatement beyond compare.

When I called Dad and he told me the news I was standing in my new bedroom watching a gecko scampering across the wall. I nodded and asked the questions that I wanted to ask and then he had to go. One minute later it hit me. A sudden feeling of being completely lost in the world. Not knowing what to do, who to call or how to breathe. It lasted for a brief moment before I realized that there is nothing I could do except to be there for Mum. The hardest thing for me (being the control freak that I am), is knowing there is nothing that I can do to fix this.

Luckily I remembered how to breathe and with that all-important knowledge remembered who to call. I deliberated calling home again as I didn’t want to disturb her rest. After all the phone was bound to be running hot tonight in the wake of the latest news. I called anyway figuring that I had special dispensation (being her daughter) for interrupting rest. I’m glad that I did because she seems to be having one of her better nights where she’s not feeling exhausted or dizzy. Just hearing her voice and hearing her describe her first thoughts (what am I going to do with all my wool and beads?) after mishearing the oncologist and thinking that she only had 18 months to live (as opposed to finding out the results of the treatment in 18 months which I believe is what he said).

Hearing her voice and hearing her talk was wonderful. For just a moment I was just on the phone having a chat with my Mum like I always do when I’m away. For ten minutes life seemed normal again.

Right now I’m sitting on my bed trying to remember what I was originally going to write. After all I’ve been in Darwin for 33 hours now and it’s a wonderful place.

The house I’m staying in is just amazing. The gardens are large and beautiful with a fabulous array of lizards of varying sizes. There are plenty of windows in each room letting the sunlight and fresh air circulate through the house. I’m staying in a quiet street that’s a mere 1.5 km from the city centre and it takes me just fifteen minutes to walk to work at a comfortable pace.

I had my first day at work today which is always exciting. It started with a staff meeting which is always a great way to start. It means you get to meet everyone and get an idea of what’s going on and where you’re at even if none of it makes much sense yet. It always feels a little slow settling in but I had a good time reading through the documents from last year and getting a feel for the information that I’ll need to gather in the coming weeks.
We ate our lunch in the Botanic Gardens where I managed to find my favourite tree from Singapore. (I’d just like to clarify that I don’t actually know where the tree originates from but Singapore is the first place that I encountered the tree). It’s a big leafy tree that has red seeds about the size of a pea. I used to go to St Andrew’s Cathedral in Singapore and collect the seeds with my Mum and she’d make them into tiny bean bags (about the size of the small high bouncing rubber balls you used to get in news agencies). Then we’d play five-stone (jacks) with them until it was time to come back to Australia where we couldn’t bring them.

So all in all there are plenty of things about my first day and night in Darwin that have been really wonderful and my brief experience of Darwin has been really positive. I think it’s a great place and will rave about it as much as I planned another day.

Tonight, I’m just not in the right frame of mind for it. I’m just going to have a quiet night so that I’m well rested for tomorrow.

I’m also going to continue to curse the fact that I forgot that I didn’t have a modem and as such have no internet access at home so this will have to wait until tomorrow to be posted.

This is a much longer post than I’d planned to write. If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. It’s been really good to get these thoughts onto a page (and a half).

Many thanks!

Just Breathe

Mum didn't come home tonight. Her blood sugar levels are refusing to get off their roller coaster so her surgeon wanted to keep her in for observation. She's in good spirits though all things considered.

The good news is that they only had to do the biopsy once today to get the tissue they needed. We even have results. They're less good but at least we know, the tissue is cancerous. I think Mum will be seeing the oncologist tomorrow to discuss treatment options. Mum called to let us know just after 9pm. Dad's at the hospital with her now and I'm at home doing a call around, manning the phone, minding the dogs and just breathing.

It's not Thursday

It's always reassuring when you get a call from the hospital asking to speak to your Mum when she's actually admitted to the hospital... Anyhow, I guess they don't really talk interdepartmentally much! We should be picking her up from the hospital soon though so all's well.

Now all that remains is more me to convince myself that it's Wednesday and not Thursday. My siesta yesterday after the job interview was enough to convince my brain that it was Wednesday last night... Silly rabbit!

Temp Extraordinaire

I never sleep well when I'm worried I won't wake up in time for an appointment the next day. As a result I was up and in the car to the train station four hours after I fell asleep. Not quite the state of zen I was aiming for in today's interview but it went well regardless.

I may well be the only customer service/data entry/secretarial/admin/teller temp with a fork lift license at the agency...

All was well and by the end of the day I've got my first assignment starting next week. (The one starting tomorrow fell through). Bring on the typing and phones! I want to get my typing speed back up to the 80wpm (words per minute) I used to be at. Down at 68wpm at the moment.

It's good to have something to do again. Something to keep me busy till I find more exciting things or August comes around for Fringe... which ever happens first!

Mum's in hospital for one more night as she's having a biopsy tomorrow there. It seemed easier that way. She's definitely home tomorrow after meeting with her dietitian. No results on her blood tests just yet but I think she's just happy to be coming home again.

Eep! Got to run. Almost time to go to work again!

A Longer Post for a Shorter Day

First day back in a theatre today and it was a good feeling. Bump ins are good fun, almost as fun as bumping out...

It was a slow starting day beginning with a hot shower that I'm grateful for as Dad didn't have hot water due to a black out. I was less awake than I thought I was as I managed to stick my right index finger partway into the toaster in an attempt to retrieve my toast. Unsurprisingly this resulted in a small burn on the right side of my finger. Sadly despite my first aid training the first thing I did was swear and blow on it before thinking (quite literally) what the hell are you doing you idiot, run it under cold water! Which I did. It didn't help. Stupid burn. The chilled water made it a bit better but eh... give it a few days.

After work I headed to Knox to get a pressie for my cousin Nadia who's birthday is on Sunday and to pick up a couple of headbands for Mum. I also picked out my birthday books using the voucher from my family in Canberra. I ended up with A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon and another book who's title escapes me but has something to do with time lords from memory (not Dr Who).

Armed with a bagful of books I headed to the hospital to visit Mum. She was in fine spirits and was sure to let everyone know that she was feeling much better and was ready to go home. We're still waiting for the blood test results to come back but the specialist/surgeon seems fairly confident that she can come home tomorrow. In true Mum fashion she's already packed and ready to leave. Ever the organised one in our house!

Tomorrow is a long day of spending QT with Mum and trying to catch up on sleep, bookended by a job interview in the morning and a bump out late that night. It's good to be busy again. If only for a day!

Mum's Sad Pugs

Mum's back in hospital after a feverish night last night. They're running more blood tests to her disdain as she's a little over having needles. Not to mention how unimpressed she looked when they came up to her with a drip.

Anyhow, they're concerned that there could be an infection so she's on antibiotics while the tests are done.

She's still in good spirits though and claims that she could go ballroom dancing right now. We told her that it's a little late in the evening for that. Spoil sports I know...

The pugs however know that something's up and were unimpressed that we left with her and returned home without her.

Sad pandas!

Staples & Yarns

Today started as many do with Mum & I on the couch knitting & crocheting. Admittedly mine started much later than hers did as I was attempting to catch up on the sleep I didn't get over the weekend.

After a quick lunch we headed back to the hospital to catch up with the surgeon for the latest round of results. Oh and to get the staples/stitches removed. Having never seen staples being removed from a wound (or surgical staples in general) it was interesting and odd all at the same time. I think the removal of stitches was more painful to watch and I'm not sure why...

So the important news is that the results are looking pretty good. Fairly normal in fact. There are still a few cells that they're concerned about but it's looking relatively good. They'll do another biopsy and try to get a few more cells but if the results are still inconclusive I think they'll just monitor the tumour. So far there's no treatment required. Mum's pretty happy about that part!

Staples removed we hit the shopping centre to pick up some wool (because clearly we needed more). I'd accidentally bought the one ball of the wrong wool for a blanket that I'm crocheting and as I'm halfway through... I've also started working on the Sudoku throw rug that Mum and I are making for the couch. Photos soon I promise!

The Little Things

Mum's looking better with each passing day and even though she had her biopsy today she was still pretty cheerful.

Dad and I were with her when her lunch arrived.



It was so good to hear her laughing again. Even if she was holding her stomach in slight pain to do so. You see, the spoon in the picture is actually a tea spoon. While she had ordered a small serve she wasn't quite expecting it to be that small.

I think she's looking forward to coming home to a home cooked meal!

Spunky Medical Staff

I spent most of the day at the hospital with Mum today. The remainder of my day was spent rushing around the house failing to find various items that Mum was after as well as the car keys. Happily the car keys were located (down the side of the couch where most lost things go). The crochet hook is still M.I.A.

She's much happier today and I think a fair bit of that has to do with her having had her first meal in four days. Mum's also been moved to the bed by the window which is a little nicer. We're considering holding the dogs up to the window to say hi to her :)

Many thanks to all who have called, visited etc. It's all greatly appreciated and Mum's in good spirits.

The specialist came to see her today (spunky dresser) and is organising another biopsy tomorrow as the second lot of tests on the tumour have come back as inconclusive. So it's back to CT-scan-land tomorrow.

Must say it was cute medical staff night tonight... rather cute nurse attending to the room opposite Mum's. Anyhoo... must go and do something productive like watch the Gilmore Girls episode that Gene taped for me.

Happy Beanie Smart Cookie

Yesterday was Gene's birthday. I was not as prepared for celebrations as I'd planned to be as it's been a big week at home. (I keep saying that but the weeks seem growing exponentially).

I started and have already failed my attempt for 1 photo per day. No matter it's the quality over quantity thing I say! I will share two photos though.

The view from my window:


Dad's first finger-knitting experience:


Dad learnt how to finger knit earlier this week and what you're seeing in the picture is a headband he made for Mum.

Further finger-knitting explorations have been put on hold as Mum went into hospital on Friday. Turns out she has a lesion or tumour on the head of her pancreas (might not be diabetic after all). So she went in for surgery on Friday where they removed her gall bladder (neither of my parents have gall bladders now) and bypassed the ducts that had been blocked by the growth. Sadly they couldn't remove it as there were too many surrounding blood vessels. So they took a biopsy and we'll know the results today or tomorrow. It's looking like she'll go for radiotherapy when she's better. Mum's still in hospital, probably till the end of the week but she's recovering well with her sense of humour well in tact.

While I'm sure other things happened this week I can't recall them. Priorities and all!

So it was Gene's birthday yesterday and I was unprepared. The space invader socks have proven far more time-consuming than I had bargained for and I had to start again with finer wool and less time. The short-row knitted beanie that I'd started for him was gigantic. It was looking a bit disastrous. I had to resort to plan B - making it up as I went along. In the end there was a large cookie cake (think two cake sized cookies with chocolate-cream-cheese icing) and a crocheted beanie. Why the cookie-cake? When I was at uni in Ballarat in one of my end of semester assessment interviews the topic of Gene came up and one of my lecturers said that Gene was a smart cookie (I was a good fish apparently). As for the beanie it was crocheted quickly in Gene colours as he said he'd lost his Barcelona beanie.

Happy Beanie Smart Cookie! I hope you still had fun even though you had to work last night!