christmas rush

About a month ago, I blithely volunteered to cater the graduation function for my class. The class made a collective decision to host a 'high tea', and I assumed that would be easy enough to organise, especially as I was planning to be at home all of the week before the Friday evening event.

Then I had a call from a publisher in Auckland, asking me to take on a short-term contract: starting next week and working until 21 December. Being the generally agreeable person that I am, I merrily said, 'Of course, I can move to Auckland for two months with only a week's notice', and gave nary a thought to the consequences until I hung up the phone.

So I have concocted a plan to both work in Auckland and cater the event. It involves lots of pre-cooking, chocolate tarts masquerading as carry-on luggage, and some frantic asparagus roll-making in the hours before the party starts. As some of my readers might be aware, however, I thrive on drama and stress. I guess choosing publishing for a career was a good way to channel this.

The move to Auckland is timely: my sister is coming back from Canada for a few weeks in December, so I will get to spend lots of time with her instead of just a few days over Christmas. And there are other family reasons why I want to be in Auckland at this time.

So I'm looking forward to the opportunity to work with New Zealand's oldest publishers, but I am going to miss Jeremy and all the pre-Christmas fun to be had. Jeremy said that putting up the Christmas tree can wait until one of my weekend visits, so I'll still get to take part in the Christmas Tree Tradition: pumping up the volume on an awful/great Christmas compliation CD I bought for $6.99 at the Warehouse; trying to find space for the tree in our tiny house; eating chocolate santas instead of attaching them to the tree; searching for an extension cord so we can plug in the lights; standing back and admiring our handiwork. Ahh, Christmas is coming, and the goose is getting fat.

I just have to get through the move, the graduation function, and the pre-Christmas rush at work. No problem. I thrive on drama and stress.