Bringing in the New Year

I wanted to start this new blog in the beginning of the new year.  As always, I'm late, but I think it's definitely better to start now than not at all.

2008 was brought in here in Aussie Land at a great party hosted by friends Richard and Ash.  I think it was the best way to bring in 2008, with good friends at a house party. Call me lame, but I detest the idea of going out to a bar on New Years Eve, where it's crazy, crowded and expensive at the bars just because of the date. I mean, $50 to get into Luxe, our local cocktail bar New Years Eve, free any other night. Anyway, I digress. ave and I made Absolut Pear and grapefruit martinis and the whole gang danced brought the year in with Champers and danced the night away.

Dave and I went into the New Year with the same jobs - Dave's a sponsorship manager at RTR FM, I'm at the book shop.  There's a possibility that I'll be going back to school this year - I want to be a high school teacher. It's a bit daunting, but I welcome a challenge at this point.

Unfortunately, the New Year is not without a lot of sadness.  On January 14, around 4AM, Thomas Logan, my lovely Grandpa passed away.  He was such an amazing man, and was loved by a wife of over 50 years and 4 children, my mom Maureen, Kevin, Peter and Ann-Marie.  Kevin suffered with MS, and Papa looked after him in the hospital every day with hope and without fail until the day Kevin died.  I had hoped to have many more conversations with Papa when I next visited Montreal, and it was hard for me; I didn't think that last summer would have been the last time I saw Papa. But through being sad I remember that he lived a good life, and I will always remember and love him.  I will always remember a long time ago, when he used to smoke his pipe and what it smelled like. When I wanted to know something and I always knew I could ask Papa because he knew so much. How he always cleaned his plate immaculately (I never knew quite how he did that). I remember he loved the fajitas Tara and I made. In later years, how he gave me his car, and how protective he was when I met Dave. He always wanted the best for me. There are countless memories of Papa and I could go on and on.  But at the moment I want to keep them for myself, and as long as I have them, he'll never really be gone.