Little sackboy unlimited

My resolution for 2009, since I couldn't resist finding one, is to cultivate my own garden, in the Voltarian sense of the term.

Step one, of course, is to make sure I can actually fit into my wedding dress, so Krusty (the very essence of a skinny Irishman) has put me on his very scientific Skinny Irishman diet, which consists on eating... well, nearly nothing. I was excited when he first told me the name, thinking I could more than handle what I usually see him eating, but his holy trinity of peanuts, pretzels, and potato chips were absent from the new plan, and eating a maximum of 2/3 of every meal has replaced them instead. Anyway, we'll see – at this point, after 28 years of dieting, I am ready to try anything. The first few weeks though, according to the diet's creator, consist of being as hungry as possible to make the body stop wanting huge portions all of the time, and so far I am not loving that horrible gurgling feeling.

Step two is to stay at home more, and, after a VERY embarrassing New Year's Eve that resulted in many unexplained leg bruises, to stop drinking alcohol, at least for a month or two. Therefore I need to find activities that pass the time and prevent me from going through the entire address book of my mobile phone to find someone to go to a bar with. So far, that activity has been knitting, and I have become quite obsessed. Babymomma sent me a request to knit the sackboy from Little Big Planet, and I have been knitting ever since, relentlessly putting the little man together. So focused am I, that I managed to tune out Krusty's infuriating piano scales in the background to finish the little guy last night, and when I looked up to see the finished result, I noticed that it was 4am... I am totally exhausted today.

And so, after four days of 2009, I have become a sleep deprived old maid and a food addict who's gone cold turkey (mmmmm, cold turkey.... With some salad cream... And crusty bread....).

Cultivating my garden also means putting all of my affairs in order, so as well as frantic wedding planning, we went to Macau yesterday to validate my brand new working visa. While we were there, I treated Krusty to his birthday present – tickets to Cirque du Soleil's Zaia show. It was magical, as usual, and as we were discussing its lack of impressive circus acts not mattering because of the prodigious costumes and imaginative storyline, we bumped into four of our friends, who had been to the same show! I thought Hong Kong was small, but even when you leave the country you can't escape meeting someone you know!!

We joined the foursome for drinks before heading back to the ferry with them, and at the other end, they all had to watch me as I was dragged away by the immigration officer because I had stuck my visa in the wrong passport. Doh! (mmmm, pizza dough...) After a good telling off and me explaining that the new visa expires in a month anyway and that I promise to stick the next one on the right page, we were off and home to... more knitting.

And planning – we are having a collective birthday party next Saturday, and the theme is J. I plan to go as Jessica Rabbit. But a Jessica Rabbit that has murdered her husband and is wearing him around her neck. Now where can I find a white Roger Rabbit to drape around a red sequin dress...