Let there be lights

I'm having a lot of trouble with Christmas tree lights. So far I have bought 4 strings and none of them are adequate - even when all used at the same time.

My troubles are two-fold. Firstly, the domestic indoor tree lights at the stores and hardware stores have been stocked in the same place as the domestic outdoor Christmas lighting offerings. So, it's not just a matter of picking up a box of lights, it's become a time-confusing exercise in discovering that I don't need a 'starter kit' or solar lights, or many of the other components of elaborate outdoor lighting complexity, which by far out number the simple indoor plug-in-to-a-power-socket-to-illuminate-a-tree variety. When I have found one lone box that sounds like the thing I need for my tree and decide that 200 lights might be a good number for my indoor tree, the bulbs turned out to be so soft and gentle candle-light like that, while giving the tree a romantic effect, are in no way bright enough. No. Way!

Back to the store again, this time picking up a string of 200 (already learned that this number of lights give a couple of metres of bulbs, right?) bright, white lights to get home and find that the string of 200 lights aren't in a row, but clumps and clusters so the length of the string of lights is only about a metre long. Not long enough to do much on a tree except compound the problem of not enough of the right lights in the right places. I had also picked up a string of multi-colour globes, and while they are really nice, again, the string is only about 1.5 metres long and fairly useless on a 6 foot tall Christmas tree.

Far out. I just want four or five metres of bright, white Christmas lights for flipsake!

So now I have a tree that looks like it was dressed before dawn in items it found at the chariety shop and basically lit ooks like a hobo tree.

Now today I think, "I shall go and buy more lights!" You know, just keep throwing more lights at the tree until it's beradient and blinding and luminated! But then, looking at all the cords, wires and asscoated transformers, I have a new worry : what if I set the tree on fire? I mean the Mythbusters proved you could set a tree on fire this way. It already has four strings of lights wrapped around it and a corresponding plug for each string in the power board - am I going to end up burning down the house in my quest for illumination.

I am suffering tree disappointment and general dissatisfaction while Willo is gleefully eyeing the up tree for burning before Christmas Day.

Tis the Season

I've had a pretty good run on the rabbits. Even on a slow day, I see three and my personal best was eleven. That was, until today.

The rules of Train Rabbit Spotting are simple: keep your eyes peeled for fluffy bunny-kins, and be really sure it was a rabbit that you saw and not a clump of grass - they can look remarkably similar. Rabbits are very blendy. If you recognise a whole ane real rabbit, it can counts as "1" and is added to your total score.

It's not as easy as it sounds, mind you - there's quite a bit of skill involved not to mention the aforementioned maths and remembering your score. From the window of the train, you're quite a long way from the ground. The train is pretty quick too so you really do have to keep your wits about you. Rabbits are notoriously small when compared to trains moving at speed so you can't look too far into the distance because there is no way you'll see a rabbit, but if you look too close to the train you'll get all squiffy and it'll hurt your eyes. There is a sweet spot, and with practice, you'll find it and then you'll be away! I've discovered that the 6:17pm train to Swan Hill is the perfect service for maximum rabbitage, and it was on that service this evening, that I smashed all previous records.

Today was spectacular in cementing the Swan Hill train as the Number One service to great rabbit counting stats. Tonight I saw more rabbits than I could count! My best effort was 27 rabbits - the counting being the limiting factor in this particular session. There were rabbits everywhere! Seems rabbits like this hay season, and the long, golden sunsets that bathed the evening most of the way home. While Willo is a much sharper rabbit counter than I am, he was not on the train this evening and I was also pretty confident he had never counted as many as 27. So it was with haste and glee that I blatted home in the Mini, wanting to burst in and hit him with these new benchmarks. I mean, what a great day.

Crashing through the front door my 27 rabbit smile was knocked off my face by wonderment by what greated me. The gorgeous pine scent filled the room, and the great, fat Christmas tree filled the alcove in the lounge. Willo had set up a Christmas tree!

It's so beautiful and so green and smells amazing.

Willo says there are rules with this tree. He had hesitated last evening when I asked if we could go get a tree this weekend - the hesitation before he answered me sounded more like he didn't really want a tree than he was actually thinking about it. Not a man to muck around, Willo got the tree into the house today and now he says, I have to decorate it and if the results of that aren't *amazing* he gets to burn the whole thing. He will judge the tree when I'm done, and I have about a week to get it done.

How exciting!

So we seem to be mashing up Easter, Christmas and Guy Fawkes around here but all and all - today was a pretty bloody brilliant day. Worth 27 rabbits and a fir tree anyday!

Do you have a tree this year? How are you decorating it? If you don't have a tree, do you have any central symbol of Christmas in your house?