It's beginning to look a lot like (a budget-friendly, sharehouse) Christmas...

I'd like to say, 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas' in an appropriately sing-songy tune (when else can one be so cheesy as at this festive time of year?), but as the shopping centres have been all over Christmas since October that would be a lie. Instead - and for your benefit I'll just write it rather than sing it - it's looking rather like Christmas in my living room.

This will be my third sharehouse Christmas. The kind of Christmas where no one is actually at the house, because they've all gone home to families, so a tree is probably an unnecessary cost. I took this attitude for my first Christmas out of home - rather than going to the trouble of a tree I set up a Christmas staircase. I still do this for novelty value, just a little more pared back now that I have a tree as well. You can wind tinsel or lights or something similar - I have used a wrapped and beaded wire - around the bannister and then hang decorations from that. The little wiry twists that come with garbage bags can be used to affix decorations directly to the staircase - just put one of the wiry pieces through the loop on the decoration.

As I said, I have a little tree now, just a plastic one bought from a homewares store a couple of years ago. It seemed a tad ridiculous to buy one of the 8ft trees when there would be no one opening presents underneath it. I suspect trees of that stature have to be earned, you would need to prove to the sales person that you had enough people coming to your Christmas to justify that amount of tree. I have to admit that I miss the smell of the pine, but am forever scarred by an image from my childhood of a grand and beautiful green tree taken down in the New Year and left by the house to wither to a sad brown. It turns out there is a service for people like me (besides therapy) - a great business in Melbourne called Eco Christmas Trees that rents out living, potted trees to those that want the best of both worlds - a lovely scented tree that doesn't die AND can be delivered to your door. It's up to you whether you keep the tree or return it after Christmas, and if you're the sentimental type you can even have the same tree back year after year.

Once you have the tree sorted, you'll be wanting to light it up all pretty. If you're feeling green, LED lights are apparently the most friendly and least energy-sucking. They aren't the most attractive Christmas light, but you could make it fun, like this rather handy, design savvy person did. For those still stuck in an 80s/90s glitter nightmare, tinsel goes on next, as chunky and lurid as you can possibly make it. Decorations next. If you like the luxe look for your tree but have a sharehouse budget, buy brightly coloured wired ribbon and tie the ribbon into bows and affix them to the tree. If you like to update the look of your tree each year, but don't want to waste last year's decorations, you can change the colour of the ribbon. This year I've used red ribbon with gold edging.


The Christmas warehouses can be a good source of inexpensive decorations, although I would suggest limiting your time in those places as they tend to divide people into die-hard elves and Scrooges. Alternatively, if you're feeling organised and perky, pack your best armour and pushiest friend and hit the post-Christmas sales at a department store like Myer in preparation for the year to come.

More Christmas posts to come.

2010: the year of living recklessly

After careful consideration, I have decided that 2010 will be the year of living recklessly (obviously the careful consideration and reckless bits are somewhat at odds, so reckless behaviour will commence after that last careful consideration).

I've taken the first step. My contract at work has just expired, and they kindly offered to make me a permanent member of staff. My stomach sank, my marrow screamed 'no'and two weeks later I said no - somewhat less emphatically than my marrow had. Significantly less emphatically, actually, as they weren't quite convinced that I had resigned. It took two tries and that letter to leave.

I don't ordinarily follow/pay attention to/place significant weight in the words of horoscopes, except, of course, when they match up with what I want. But a colleague, upon hearing that I was departing, emailed me a rather detailed description of which moon is moving through which sign, who is orbiting who and so forth (all sounds a bit rude really), the short of which is that apparently this is a time when we can expect radical change. Rather accurate really. And not just for me, either. The fortune of Mr Anti Choice himself, Tony Abbott, for example, has vastly changed. Those ears were just meant for politics and newspaper caricatures.

So, universe, I have opened up a giant and expensive chasm in my life. Now if you could please oblige by sending something radical my way, I'd be most appreciative.

Since it's not quite 2010, the recklessness is quite tame at this stage. This weekend's act of recklessness is to pulp three perfectly lovely mangoes and risk spoiling them for the potentially happy outcome that is sorbet. The other potential outcome, of course, is sad and ruined mangoes that would have been wonderful just as they were until I got all reckless on their loveliness. On reflection, this could be a terrible allegory for what I have just done to my employment prospects: pulped.

If you would like to pulp things I would recommend starting with mangoes before chucking in your job.

This is pretty much a Tessa Kiros recipe, from Apples for Jam (I've just used a little less sugar).

What you'll need...

2-3 ripe mangoes
1/3 cup caster sugar
juice of 2 limes
grated rind of 1 lime

The how to...

1. Peel the mangoes and chop the flesh into small chunks.
2. Tip the mango into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, then stir and cover. Leave overnight - this draws out the mango juice.
3. The next day, blend until smooth. Sieve the mixture if it is stringy. You can add sugar a little at a time if you like, for more sweetness.
4. Top up with water to make about 2 cups of mixture and then pour into a container with a lid. Stick it in the freezer. After an hour, pull it out and give it a whisk then put it back in the freezer for a couple more hours, before pulling it out to whisk again. When it is nearly firm, pull it out for one last whisk then leave it in the freezer to set. If you have an ice cream maker you can circumvent the in/out/whisk thing.

Will post a picture tomorrow if it turns out pretty. This is supposed to serve 4-6 people, but I'm inclined to thinking that on a hot day it is enough to make one person very happy.