Yep. I’ve done it now. I have just bought two large rolls of curling ribbon off ebay. Yes, you heard me right. I know I have a wrapping addiction now on account of unless you have an addiction you do not purchase curling ribbon online. I am utterly in love with ribbon! However, I had to get it off ebay because you simply cannot acquire avocado coloured curling ribbon anywhere in Alice Springs. And it was a bargain! It would have been a bargain at twice the price! And combining postage justifies the extra roll of pastel pink. I’ve nearly run out of my last lot of pastel pink.

Okay I will stop trying to justify buying curling ribbon of ebay because I am not sure it can be done.

I have been very busy, haven’t we all been very busy, so? (can I get an ‘Amen’ from the brethren?) and so I have neglected to find the spaces of the few kind people who have commented on mine. Has anybody ELSE noticed the mass exodus to '‘MySpace" or whatever it is? How’s that for loyalty?

MSN, even if you turn us to this windows live business, still my heart belongs to you.

There have been dramas aplenty of late and I must say, I belong to a strange family. Nobody needs to hear about my totally strange family, however, so I offer only this: keep tyre levers locked away. LOCKED AWAY.

Guess what happened this weekend? I will just tell you because you will not ever be able to guess something THIS bizarre. I did, indeed, clean my room. Which really means my darling cousin Sianne came over and said things like; "who keeps this sort of thing? A HOARDER keeps this sort of thing!" and "why do you even OWN this?" and "why is this letter from 2005 on your desk?" and "how could you still have the birthday card from ryan’s eighteenth! You are a card thief!"

Which is true. But he left it in my car!!! Just like he did with the one from his nineteenth! (which I have also recently returned) And when I tried to give it to him the other night he forgot it and left it here AGAIN.

RYAN! I have your card from your 18^th signed by approximately everybody you know (except me, I read it, and I did not sign it. How odd. Maybe I hated you back then.) you have ONE WEEK to remove it from the premises or I will personally give it to Ethan as scrap paper!

ANYWAY so then Sianne found my bunch of cards from my last birthday and insisted on going through to make sure they were all actually for me. Basically she came over and made me throw a bunch of stuff out ("Do you really NEED this?" she kept asking me, for no reason, because she always ignored my anguished ‘YEEEEES.") but then she did the unthinkable… she attacked my snowman.

Now my snowman is unpopular, I acknowledge that. Julia is always telling me that it has a terrible skin disease (sometimes she distastefully specifies the disease she believes it to have) and no matter how much I tell her it is TEXTURE she will not listen to me. My snowman is a large, plastic, light up Christmas one from the good ol’ house of K, and yes, I will admit his plastic is bumpy. Nobody liked him at Christmas last year but I have kept him safely beneath my desk where he is sheltered from hatred but still clearly visible. This weekend, though, he came under fire. Sianne wanted him GONE!

‘NO!’ I said, ‘no no no no NO!’ and she had to give up. Then Nancy came in, "Shouldn’t you have that snowman away by now?’ she asked. Again, I emphasised the answer, NO. She attempted to convince me that I could maybe have a SMALL snowman, and get rid of my big one. I rapidly regressed to a six year old. My no’s became more sulky. Then Adrian came to the door. "What is THAT?" he asked. "What do you need a snowman for?" I mentioned, crossly, that my snowman, "made me who I am."

Adrian insisted that there was a mineral deficiency when I was born, that made me who I am.

He is too cheeky and cute and I forgave him.

So why did my snowman bear the brunt of so much hatred this weekend? Because previously he was obscured by all the junk I had piled up in front of my desk. Now, he is visible to the world. And the world does not love him. But I do! And what does the opinion of the world count for, if our love for one another is true and strong? Nothing, indeed, it counts for nothing.

AND IT HAS COME TO THIS! I am logged on to the Australian Idol website with my cousin’s login name to see the Hot Guy I have heard about from A Foreign Country because Imparja only showed the australian idol things at two thirty the afternoon. Tonight, though, I think we get to see the all-singing, all-dancing semis at 10.45 PM! Yay. I love a good dose of Turkish Delight chocolate and a reality television show.

Well, I must abandon you to go search for more curling ribbon (you think I’m joking, but I’m not, I found this GREAT website and I am going to order some ribbon. Iridescent ribbon, no less.) and then go watch Aussie Idol. How exciting.

And yes, my snowman is still sitting, safe and loved, under my desk, watching benignly as I type this for you!

As an aside, having seen said hot guy, it has come to my attention that S.A. has signed a deal with the devil to make all its residents hot. Almost tooooo hot. MESS YOUR HAIR UP, it will make you hotter, Dean!