What year is it where you are? It's been 2005 for a couple of hours now here. At ten til midnight we took the dog down to the beach and watched the fireworks. We could see them in three different directions. There were a hundred or so people down there, including three guys who decided to ring in the new year with a screaming naked run into the bay. Behind our house, in the apartment over one of the Greek-owned stores, a bunch of guys are still singing away.

Happy New Year to all!

In an attempt to start the new year off right, Mark and I have donated some money to Doctors Without Borders to help out with the Tsunami relief effort. I urge you to do the same, there are so many organizations that are helping you can take your pick. I know CARE, OXFAM, and the Red Cross are involved. And if you need a selfish reason, the 31st is the last day to make a donation and write it off on this year's taxes (in the States anyway, I not sure what happens here). The devastation is so horrible, and unfortunately this is probably only the beginning of what is worse to follow in terms of disease and loss of income (many of the areas affected were largely dependent on tourism which is sure to lag for some time now).
In happier news, since we had a rental car until 5pm, we spent the day trying to keep Laika happy and took her first to the Yarra Bend Park to see some flying foxes, and then to the off-leash dog beach in Brighton, which must be the closest thing to Heaven she's experienced so far. The beach was perfect for the dogs, very wide low tide area with pretty much no beach to lay-out on, so perfect for the doggies without too much appeal to non-doggy folks. There were probably over fifty dogs there, which given the area didn't seem too crowded. Laika LOVED it!! It's a shame it's too far from home to take her more often.
This evening we're planning on cooking some chicken and corn on the BBQ and maybe walking down to the beach around midnight. Should be a very laid back new year's eve.

Happy Holidays! We're enjoying our time off together. Still, my thoughts today kept drifting over to S.E. Asia and the Tsunami. I can't even begin to get my head around the number of people they are estimating died. It's just too big a number to comprehend. And cholera is expected to be a real problem in the devastated areas. My heart goes out to all the victims and their families.

Took a nice trip today down the Mornington Peninsula, all the way to Sorrento and Portsea, and even beyond to the national park on Point Nepean. We went to the beach as well, and I went skimboarding for the first time in, oh, ten years or so. I can still jump on the thing but I seem to have forgotten what to do when I get the waves. Still, I managed to show up some ten year old kids.

Though there were signs for kangaroos and echidnas, the only real wildlife we saw were some Australasian Gannets, which are common there, but still a new sighting and pretty cool.

A neat catch on TV tonight; we caught the film adaptation of King Rat. I read the book, and never even realized they made a movie out of it, way back in 1965. And they did a really good job with it, too. It's set in Singapore (in a Japanese prisoner of war camp), though it obviously wasn't filmed in Singapore (there were mountains in the background).

We're planning a getaway for later in the week. We'll probably just rent a car and take a trip down the Mornington Peninsula towards the ocean. Today was actually cold here, but it's supposed to warm up.

Laika is slightly "touched". Really, she's a nutter. Every once in awhile, about once or twice a day, she gets a bit crazy and just decides to bite us. It's relatively gentle biting usually in the form of ankle nibbles or hand chews and generally inspired by play or good petting. It's hilarious, but still a bit worrying. I've never known a dog that did this before. She's like a cat, that lashes out when they are most enjoying a pat. Crazy dingo.

Happy Holidays! We had a very low-key Christmas at home with the dog this year. It was nice to miss the hustle of traveling this year and instead just make gluttons of ourselves at home. We gorged ourselves on perogies on Christmas eve, and then on turkey, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, Waldorf salad, stuffing, and mixed green salad on Christmas Day. Plus munching on the cookies and muffins we baked, and chocolates brought into the house for the holidays.
We also managed to go to the beach with Laika as the weather was pretty nice. Then we came home and made Margaritas. Overall it was a really nice Christmas.
I hope all our friends and family have/had an equally relaxing and enjoyable holiday!