Once Upon A Christmas Story

Once upon a time is when this story starts.  And once upon a time, in this case is about 365 days ago, and for the purpose of this story we shall call it a year.  Now once upon a time there lived an eccentric spinster.  This amazing spinster lived in a gorgeous two-bedroom unit in the magical city of Hastings, located in the sunny Hawkes Bay.  Although The Spinster hadn’t ever pictured herself living in a sunny location she found that she was loving her new home and that she didn’t want to leave.  She had some very good friends here and her brother was closer than when she lived on the other side of the island (and the other side of the world but that is another story for another time).  She also loved having her own place, and she loved the freedom to do with it what she wished.  Of course being the eccentric spinster she was, she did have a few slaves that helped her as she required, as dreams for a place of your own are not always as simple to carry out as one would wish.  She had a favourite slave, Doffy, who got most of the jobs and responsibilities. Between The Spinster, Doffy and the other slaves, the small unit began to look more and more like her home.  Now don’t underestimate The Spinster and assume that she delegated all the hard work to the slaves, she did do some of it herself, but also don’t overestimate her, she didn’t do that much of it, especially not if she thought a slave would be willing to do the job.  And the slaves did get fed, and Doffy got multiple nights’ accommodation when he visited, so please don’t feel too bad for them either.  Overall it was a perfect arrangement which everyone seemed rather happy with, especially if you didn’t dig too deep into things.

The Spinster saw the start of the year in with her friends who had come to stay and explore this lovely sunny place she was now living in.  They went to the early fireworks the night before so that they would be not too tired to get up for a sunrise.  Now The Spinster was still used to seeing the sun rise over the land and not the ocean after many years living on the other side of the island so she really enjoyed sitting on the beach with her friends and her coffee early that summers morning to watch the sun rise.  And Mother Nature put on great weather as she knew how much it would mean to The Spinster to have such a magical morning.  The rest of the visit with her friends went like a blur, and it was not because of the wine they drunk, it was surely because of all the fun that they had.  The Spinster was sad to see her friends go but knew that there would be other visits with other friends in the upcoming days and also that she would be going to see her friends at times as well.

Not too far into the year, The Spinster had to swap her trusted ride and good friend Spartacus with another named Cleo.  This was one of the sad and happy moments as while she was very sad to part ways with Sparty she was also very happy to be getting a new friend, and being awesome like The Spinster was she loved to make new friends.  Cleo and The Spinster hit it off right away and they have become fast friends.  Cleo can be a tad lazy during the week and often makes The Spinster find her own way to her job but The Spinster does not mind this as it means Cleo has lots of energy in the weekends when The Spinster wants to go catch up with friends that live further afield or go exploring.  Cleo and The Spinster enjoy driving around with good music pumping, sadly the only thing stopping them doing this more often is the cost of Cleo’s food.  If Cleo could find a way to feed herself at no cost to The Spinster, The Spinster is sure they would be off exploring more.

Because she was an awesome independent spinster she worked and did not need to rely on a man to help her pay the bills, however there was one big issue and that was with her job.  She was loving the rest of her life but her job was making her feel not as awesome as she was, so The Spinster decided to look for something new, something better, something more her.  She wrote out what she really wanted from a job and she came up with three main things that the new job needed to include if at all possible.  First she wanted to be able to walk to work, not to save the environment as The Spinster wasn’t that selfless but because she liked the walking to work and not commuting, and as stated before Cleo had become a tad lazy and didn’t like getting up just to take her to work each day.  Second she wanted a challenge, The Spinster was bored of the humdrum of her current job and wanted something that would force her out of her comfort zone, but not all the way out of it as she liked part of that comfort zone, it was nice and cozy and warm.  Third and lastly if she could at all swing it, The Spinster wanted to work for a charitable organization as she wanted to give back to the community, but since she was awesome and independent she needed to get paid while giving back.

            Magically a job that fitted all three of The Spinster’s criteria appeared on her radar and she applied for it even though she wasn’t fully qualified for it, in fact she was barely qualified for it but she was hoping that the big important people would see past the qualifications and look at the heart and passion in her application.  The Spinster was extremely lucky as the big important people did look at the heart and the passion, and at the eccentric, and possibly crazy (it has never been proven hence the possibly), in her and they took a risk and offered her the position so it was that on a bright sunny day in the second month of the year The Spinster walked to her new job at a small community-based radio station which caters for all the minority groups in the sunny Hawke’s Bay.  

For the first couple of months there were four dedicated amazing and uniquely talented individuals working for this small radio station, and then the one training her left for a life of retirement in the country and they were down to three.  Almost six months later another of the awesome individuals left, this one was off to a new adventure over the seas and oceans in a faraway country and that meant only two were left.  This did not mean that The Spinster liked her job any less, in fact she may even have enjoyed it more as now it was just her and her friend Ken it meant that she has some new responsibilities and some of these, like talking to people in the community about what they did, were right up her skill set and she liked the challenge and variety she had.  There did seem to be less hours in every day though and her communicating with a friend in the distant town of Napier was not as regular as it once was.  Now don’t get me wrong, The Spinster was still able to communicate with her friend, it was just limited to emails when they could be squeezed in rather than many per day.  As The Spinster was amazing and rather awesome the less hours in the day did not really lead to any stress or work not getting done, it merely meant that some days she would arrive at work and it would seem that almost straightaway Ken would be sending her home.

It was during this year that we are talking about that The Spinster decided she quite liked baking, she was having fun experimenting with recipes and she even started making bread.  Now the bread she was making tasted way way better than any she could buy in the shops, not that anyone else would know as this was something she didn’t share.  She often shared peanut brownies and weet-bix slice with her boss as he really liked them, as did her main slave Doffy so she tried to have baking for him when he visited.  Being the awesome spinster that she was this did not always happen as some times she just got too busy with other things.  One of her best experiments, in her opinion at least, was her cranberry and white chocolate muffins, and these were the best in her opinion only as she did not share them with any one, they were way to mourish for that.  Not all of her experimenting was a success, some were only eaten as she didn’t want to waste food, however with one batch of something she decided wasting food was a kindness to herself.  Now please do not mistake The Spinsters love for baking to mean that she started cooking as well, don’t be silly.  She did get rather good at dusting the stove before visitors arrived so it looked possibly used and she thought this was a rather good skill to have.    

The Spinster managed to get to see many friends and even some family during this year.  Some came to her, and some she went and saw.  Many fun times were had and much laughter.  She had a few regular, if you can call them that, places she visited.  Partly cos the trips there were fun or the people there were her among her favourites.  One of Cleo and The Spinster’s favourite trips was from sunny Hawkes Bay to a central place known by locals as Taupo, not that there is anything particularly exciting about Taupo and The Spinster most often continued onto Rotorua or Mangakino, however the road from The Spinsters to Taupo was one of her favourite drives.  The other favourite drive of The Spinsters and Cleo’s was the Napier-Taihape Highway.  This road would take her to the rather chilly but gorgeous town of Ohakune.

Perhaps the most exciting visitor The Spinster had all year was her old friend Jo, she is pretty sure they can be considered old friends seeing as they have known each other for many years.  Now the reason this friend was perhaps the most exciting is not because Jo does anything super exciting, nor is she super entertaining, however The Spinster did not expect to be seeing Jo anytime soon as Jo lived on the other side of the world, and The Spinster lived with her when she also lived on the other side of the world.  Now maybe Fate is not the one to credit with them both being in the same country, and The Spinster does not mind, she is just happy they are back in the same country as visiting is much easier this way.

The Spinster did many fun things throughout this year, and she is very thankful for all her family (especially those slaves of hers) and friends for making it the year it was.  She is happily sitting in her beanbag at the moment pondering how she got so lucky, well no she actually isn’t as she knows why.  She is sitting there thinking how for an impulse purchase it is perhaps her favourite seat in her house, and she is also wondering what the two bears sitting in full view have been up to as they were not there before and they are looking rather pleased with themselves, she is also wondering what she has done to end up with both of them for so long and is thinking that perhaps its’ time for one to go back to his dads, knowing full well they will do what they want no matter that Doffy just says they are stuffed toys, cos in this case Doffy does not always know everything and he is mistaken.  Anyhow The Spinster is back on track and hopes everyone out there in this wonderful world has an awesome 2020 like she is planning to do.  No guarantee that there will be a story version of that year though, just be aware that it is going to be another awesome one for The Eccentric Awesome Spinster.