Tag Archives: Christmas

Whamageddon and other adventures

19 Sunday Dec 2021

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Some of you will be familiar with the game ‘Whamageddon‘. The challenge is to get through from 1 December until midnight 24 December without hearing Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’. There is no prize, I honestly think it’s impossible to do but it’s kind of fun to tell people when you hear it and you’re out.

I went out on 6 December when an artist played ‘Last Christmas’ at a life drawing session where I was modelling. Since our lockdown has been lifted I’ve had a couple of modelling jobs, it’s lovely to get back out there and see the works generated in collaboration with the artists. Melbourne’s case numbers are still sitting up around the thousand per day mark, but we’re almost entirely back to pre-COVID numbers at restaurants and bars and other venues.

I have been running around the last few weeks attending various end of year gatherings and Christmas parties, all the social groups I’ve been missing during the long winter months are desperate to catch up before Christmas, which is lovely, but after so long in my apartment not seeing anyone it’s taken some adjusting.

I have two weeks off over the weird Christmas/New Year’s period, in which I hope to do some day trips and potter around meeting people for coffee or a meal out. Time feels like it’s been moving in a very odd way – both slowly and way too fast. How is it less than a week until Christmas?

I have two books I’m planning to release together early-ish in the new year, they don’t have covers yet and I haven’t completely settled on the titles yet so I can’t tell you anything about them. I’m going through final edits on them at the moment.

I hope you are all able to take some time to spend with loved ones (either virtually or in person) this festive season, and if you can, take a break from the world. Go slowly, read books in bed with a cup of tea, or binge that thing on that streaming service you’ve been meaning to get to. I’ll be back to post my end of year wrap up and my new year goals in the next few weeks.

New Release Announcement

18 Friday Dec 2020

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Well. 2020 has been a hectic year in a lot of ways (I refuse to say unprecendented because, far out, that word gets used a lot). With all the time stuck inside I’m excited to announce I’m ready to release my new book baby, an urban fantasy/romance, Singular Focus.

A book cover, a white woman with short hair and an eye patch stands in front of a moon and city scape, in purple hues, with a raven and storm visible. Text reads: Singular Focus, Fleur Blüm.

“When Freya loses her right eye on her 28th birthday, her life has to change. Little does she know the whole world had changed too – there is magic in Melbourne. 

Visions of an oncoming storm, victims of a mystery coma-like illness are dropping around the city, and Jacob, the occupational therapist she can’t keep out of her mind.   

Time is running out, Freya and Jacob must save the world before magic tears everything apart.” 

The ebook is available for pre-order now on Amazon and other good sellers, releasing on 1 February 2021. A paperback version will be available closer to the release date.

This book is a bit of a departure from my previous work. I was influenced by a lot of great Norse mythology and stories involving a real world with added elements, like magic. I’m sure fans of my work, and fans of the genre alike will enjoy it.

I’m taking some time off from the day job and not doing work for the LMS over the Christmas period. The plan is to lounge around, catch up with friends and family, that sort of thing. I also have a small list of projects around the house to do, cleaning the car, and other boring stuff. I hope you’re all able to have a break, or change of scenery.

See you for my annual new year goal post in a couple of weeks.

End of year schedule madness

14 Saturday Dec 2019

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We’ve entered the realm of Christmas parties and end-of-year celebrations. I had my work party last Wednesday – good chicken, disappointing dessert, my poetry group end-of-year do today and my writing group Christmas party tomorrow!

As we’ve done in the past, the poetry group visited the Ian Potter Centre at the National Gallery of Victoria to view the works in the hope of inspiring something poetic.

I spent some time sitting in front of these three works by Petrina Hicks: Fertile (2010), Into the abyss (2011), and Melo malo (2019).

Then I stood looking at this work, Force (1950-54), by Roger Kemp.

Finally I sat with this impressive sculpture, Hippolyta and the Amazons defeating Theseus (1933), by Jean Broome-Norton.

I wrote the bones of three ekphastic poems today. It’s more poetry than I’ve written in a long time, since I’ve been mainly working on prose. I hope to post some of the poems here on this blog once I get them polished up.

All the artists at the Ian Potter Centre are Australian, and all the works I viewed were in the free collection part of the gallery.

I can highly recommend hanging out in galleries with notebooks and writing whatever comes to mind. Take yourself on a date, or go with friends. You never know what might come of it.

Dear Universe

12 Thursday Dec 2013

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Over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking about what I want out of life; what I would like to have in order to feel really, truly happy. I have a few things in mind that I think will help so I’ve decided to write them down and ask the universe to bring them to me. Maybe if I put them out there in the ‘real’ world I’ll get what I actually want this year for Christmas.

1: I’m ready for a new job.

Currently I work in Human Resources for a not-for-profit company. The work they do is vital and important but I don’t really want to be doing HR anymore. What I want to be doing is creating for a living. I’ve applied for one job as an entry level editor of a magazine, I’ve been looking into freelance writing work, I’ll even take up life modelling as a serious thing if that is what it takes to make sure I have enough money to live on. So…

Dear Universe, please bring me a fantastic new job opportunity. Somewhere that I can grow my skills in writing, somewhere I can make new friends,  and somewhere I can feel like I’m contributing something to the world. Love Fleur.

2: I’m ready for a boyfriend*.

I haven’t had a romantic relationship since September 2011. I understand that there were a lot of things I needed to work on within myself to get me to a place where I was ready for a relationship. I’ve been working really hard at being a better me, and I think I’m ready for someone to share that with. So…

Dear Universe, please bring me into contact with a fantastic person with whom I can have a loving, reciprocal and on-going relationship. While I consider myself straight, I will accept whoever you think is best. Please also bring me the wisdom to know that person when I meet them. Love Fleur.

3: I’m ready for some new friends.

I have some fantastic friends, they are beautiful and warm and loving, but they’re almost all in long term relationships and some have children too. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with them, but they’re often really busy and, understandably, can’t/don’t want to go out late etc. I’d like to get to know some more people who are creative, who are vibrant, and who are in a similar place to me in terms of life stage. So…

Dear Universe, please bring me into contact with some fantastic people with whom I can build ongoing, reciprocal, meaningful friendships with and who will be able to broaden my horizons. Please also give me the wisdom to recognise them when we meet. Love Fleur.

4: I’m ready to be happy.

All of the things above are things I think will make me  happy. Ultimately though, I want the wisdom to make myself happy. So…

Dear Universe, please bring me whatever I need to be happy with what I have. Please give me the resilience to weather life’s ups and downs. Please give me the strength to fight for what I believe in, for what is right. Please give me the ability to love myself, my friends, my family, and for humanity in general. Please give me the confidence to do what I enjoy and not to do what I don’t enjoy. Love Fleur.

Hopefully putting my requests out there will enable me (or the universe) to do all the things I need to do to achieve what I want to achieve in the next year. I don’t think these requests are too big, or too greedy. I think I deserve them, I think everyone deserves to be happy.