I am not dead yet! But been too busy (plus have temperamental laptop) to blog or even come online.

I am fine. My laptop is more or less ok too. Its a bit like having to deal with a person, can't hit it, can't yell at it and needs constant love and attention. But less now, for the time being at least.

I was mighty glad to have Tor around for three weeks around Christmas. Now I like pretending that she doesn't live across several continents but rather an uncomfortably long train ride away. It makes me less sad, that way.

Christmas was both ok and an accident at the same time. We had turkey for the first time! No one knew how to carve it until my sister said that she'd seen a picture in the papers once. To go with the turkey my aunt had made paste from this nut thing, you could call it the Indonesian version of truffles. Usually its made into curry but she turned it into this wonderful smooth gravy to go with the turkey. And then we all fell ill. My dad threw up twice that day, my aunt got hospitalised and I thew up a day after. Apparently it was gastric something or other.

For those of you who didn't know, my sister has a cataract in her left eye. She is ok but it's bloody stupid to have a cataract operation at her age so she's going to wait til it gets bigger, say maybe at 40 or so. On the other hand, my mum is going to fix her right cataract in two months.

Eldred is back for Gerri's wedding. A tight fit, since he's leaving a day after the dinner (me too, for that matter). But it should be fine. In the meantime, I am learning life skills from this episode, like being able to tell what's none of my business.

I have been eating a lot of nice fu:d! Only fell ill once, thankyouverymuch. And why is it that all Chinese New Year goodies are heaty? Heaty as in, you will come down with sore throat and fever and all that. How you feel like eating too much chocolate. Or too much ba kwa (yes Jenny muchly thinking of you), or prawn rolls or love letters or that soft white cakey thing that crumbles and melts in your mouth. Well, on the other hand I think oranges rather offset that.

So I have finally got Matt on facebook. I have a picture of myself and Justin on my profile, so all his friends who poked around asked if he'd had plastic surgery. And to watch out because apparently me taking pictures with other guys I'm fond of and posting them is a bad thing? What rubbish.

So like that. I have read lots of books during this holiday. I think I might be overdosing on the military science fiction also. I am now sad that Starship Troopers was such an astoundingly awful movie.

Ok have to go eat dinner now.