A good day...

After a long and exhausting day yesterday, this morning I woke up around 6am. For the first time in a few weeks I got a full nights sleep, around seven hours or so. Feeling refreshed I decided to go for a walk to the shops to buy some cream. It was a beautiful morning, and the cyclists were out in force. I began to wonder how it would be to be that fit again...

After downing a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I found myself cooking up a batch of scones. I have been itching to make scones for the last couple of weeks but have never had the "up and go" to actually do it. I used a recipe from the CWA and as expected - perfection. I have made scones a couple of times in the last few years and have never had them turn out this good. Adding Chantilly cream I made last night and some homemade strawberry jam from a "jam session" last week, I enjoyed myself a nice brunch.

Following brunch, the warm sun encouraged me to do a spot of gardening. Afterwards I spent some time soaking up the vitamin D on the balcony. Apart from some cement being laid in the park next door, it was a very relaxing late morning.

Noon - and it's rugby time. Australia vs Russia. Not the greatest game of the World Cup, but Australia occasionally displayed some of their freaky skills. Full props to the Bears on some great offense and their record score.

2pm - my first yawn of the day.

AFL Grand Final - I was studying and playing WoW for a lot of the first half, so I wasn't really paying attention. Luckily I focused on the football in the second half and saw the Cats beat the Pies. I don't really support either team, but I preferred Geelong to win.

Back to the rugby, and a great game between Scotland and England. The Poms won (unfortunately), but it was an exciting game right to the end. It was quite a contrast to how the Wallabies played earlier. England still exhibited their reckless play in the first half, but the kicking game from both sides was fantastic.

Following the end of the days sport, I whipped up a pizza and settled in to watch... me! Well, not me, but a man of the same name. And yes... bow-ties are cool.

And that was the end of my day. I put the clocks forward an hour and went to bed. So what made it such a good day? Nothing that happened made it particularly good or bad. There was nothing remarkable or memorable. I guess what made it good was how I felt at the time. I didn't feel depressed or tired (except for the odd yawn). I didn't feel lonely or sad. I felt like everything was right and as it should be. I wasn't happy, rather I felt at peace. It has been a long time since I felt like that. Whether it was a full nights rest or something else, I had a good day. That fact gives me hope that I may have a few more in store.

Another year over...

And what have I done?

Nothing. Honestly, I have accomplished nothing this year. I have spent the entirety of it sitting around doing nothing. When someone asks me what I do I respond with "I am a man of leisure", but really I am a bum. A bludger. A waste of space.

Yes, that is how I feel. Maybe it's because of Christmas and New Years (probably), but I feel more depressed than ever. I feel alone and sad. The last two days I have left the seclusion of my room only on those very rare occasions that I need sustenance or need to use the bathroom. That in itself is depressing enough, but now I have started to have those very bad thoughts that I had thought I had banished for good from my consciousness. I won't tell you what they are, some close friends probably already know, but they are not nice and I don't like it, so when I realized what I was thinking I sat down to write this blog and hopefully get it all out.

So, what am I going to do about it? Well, for starters I am going to go out tomorrow, hopefully early in the day to get myself going. If not, I'll go see some friends at a church in the evening. I'd like to do both though.

That one act in itself is not going to be enough though. I don't want to make a New Years resolution because I know I won't keep it, as I haven't kept any I have made before. Instead, I am going to make daily and weekly resolutions. Hopefully then I can do better at achieving them, and if I don't it wont take me nine months to realize I haven't and then give up because it's too late.

So my daily resolution for tomorrow - get out of the apartment.

Let's see how far I get...

... and yes I know this has been a much longer blog. As a side bar, I feel these blogs are more for me than others (as I am sure no one is reading them). Prove me wrong.

All I want for Christmas is...

I haven't got a clue.

Really. You would think that with the bombardment of advertising and the over-commercialization of the holiday that I would be able to come up with something better that I want for Christmas than... handkerchiefs.

Yes, that's the best that I could do.

My problem is that the stuff I really do want is either too expensive to be asked for as a gift, or is far too specific and/or hard to find that I need I literally need to give out the part number and vendor, meaning that there is no thought left in the gift whatsoever and making me feel guilty for asking for something so difficult to get.

To be honest, and I know this may seem very Scrooge-ish, but I really don't like Christmas all that much. I mean, every year it's the same thing - lot's of advertising making you spend more money than is wise and distracting you from the real reason for Christmas. That, coupled with the fact that having been seeing Christmas advertising/products in store since September and having the same old Christmas shows on TV as every other year has made me very... what's the word... over it (I was trying to think of a singular word to better describe it, and I know it's out there, but I just can't recall it at this very moment).

Anyway, it's already Christmas morning, though it's so early I'm sure even the songbirds aren't awake yet.

Hopefully future blogs will not be a rant like this.

Bah humbug.

In the beginning...

It's 3 am, I'm in bed, and I can't sleep.

I just finished watching Julie & Julia, a movie about a woman cooking her way through a cook book and writing a blog about it. After watching it I started having all of my opinions, thoughts, ideas etc. run through my mind. This usually happens to me when I am trying to sleep, and most of the thoughts are long gone by the time I wake up (if I have slept at all). This time though, I decided to write them down - in a blog.

A little about me - my name is Mat, 28, and I live in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. I like sports, cooking, computer games, TV, and some other stuff I'm sure I'll remember later. This is my first blog, and I have only read a few, so I guess I'll just figure stuff out as I go along.

Now that I have got the basics out of the way. I am stuck on what to write next. I guess it is too early in my blogging life to jump into such heavy issues as politics, the environment, and other stuff that matters, so I am just gonna leave it here for now and try to get some sleep.

Although that seems doubtful...