A list sort of...

Watching: Season 3 of Frasier. Love Niles, so quirky and funny, he made that show what it was.

Listening to: Still Adam - acoustic versions of his songs and trawling youtube for vids I haven't seen yet. Nothing else is satisfying, no-one comes close to his passion and range - not for me anyway. Occasionally listen to the radio in the car. No talk back radio here, just copies of stations from (strangely enough) Australian radio stations. Hitz.fm etc. Even the voice over station promos are in an Aussie accent.

Reading: The Art of Happiness: A handbook for living. by Howard C Cutler MD and the Dalia Lama - The Dalai Lama's take on how to achieve the big 'H'. Interesting seeing life through His holiness' eyes. His advice? become compassionate, see the world from another's eyes. Put your life into perspective.

Eating: anything without eggs. This rules out any commercial fried rice and some noodle dishes, which doesn't bother me. I did crave an egg the other day but got past it. The consequences are just not worth it. Apparently a late onset allergy to eggs is quite rare, or so they say. Lucky me. Also, chicken and roasted pork with steamed rice, chilli (just a smidge) and hot tea which we go out for every Sunday lunch. It's our one family thing we do each week.

Drinking: Teh Tarik - hot and strong - so good, for supper, but only one or two nights a week.

Concerned about: My daughter has a strange lump under her skin, directly over her spine. It's probably a cyst, though it looks like a bruise from the outside. You can't see it , only feel it. It's been there for a couple of months and because it's still there, we are off the to doctors this week, tomorrow in fact, to see Dr Foo, who is an excellent doctor. I hope he continues to be and can get this matter resolved.

Happy about: Getting back into my dancing class. The class is down to 3 now, so I have the instructor all to myself for almost all of the class. It's good fun, he's patient with me and never flinches when I step on his toes, which I try my best to avoid, though I'm not always successful. He smiles when I tell him I can't do the steps and talk at the same time. He could dance, cook and talk all at once if he wanted to. My friends are there. It's like stepping into another world.

Cooking: I made lasagna for the second time ever. The kids loved it. Ex can only eat a small amount because of all the fat in the cheese - his gall bladder does not handle high fat foods well at all, ever since he did the gall bladder flush about 2 years back.

Semi - adopting: the two stray kittens which are now on their way to being full grown cats. Blackjack and Muffin (formerly known as Pixie2) hang around the house and keep the mice and rats in check. I feed them meat scraps and bits of chicken when I have it. Muffin is already pregnant. Both cats seem intent on exploring the inside of the house but I can't let them so we have to scare them back outside. I'm not good with animals. They are icky sometimes. We'll get a dog or something when we get back to Melbourne. My boy needs a dog. My daughter likes cats, so one of each will be the way to go.

Thinking of: Nicola, who by now will be back in her home country, England, with her two boys, preparing to start the next chapter of her life. What a journey she's been on. I can't wait til she updates her blog.

Preparing for: Chinese New Year. It's just around the corner. With that comes some spring cleaning, putting up lanterns, red and gold decorations, the supermarkets are playing the old style Chinese New Year songs (not good) and tons of sparkly, new chinesey clothes are adorning the department store racks. It's the year of the rabbit. Must look up what kind of year I'm going to have.

Hope it's a good one.