Holy late post Katrina. Oops.

NYE fireworks at Bis’s apartment. It was so cold out.

Wingspan with Michael and Gina. You can see the birdhouse that Bis printed for us because our cardboard one was wearing out.

We played free pickleball in Bayswater and then got suburban Malaysian food for dinner. Scott got asam laksa and I got sar hor fun, which was sooooo gloopy but… I love gloopy!!

Bis needed some help assembling his new shed so Scott and I went over for a day to lend a hand. It reminded me of my childhood at the cottage. He had to over-engineer it to stand up to the gale force winds they get on their balcony so there are a lot of extra pieces and A LOT of rivets.

We got the strangest pizzas I’ve ever seen for dinner afterwards from a Korean pizza shop. This one had corn shaped mashed potatoes on it.

The girls came over for a sleepover! We went swimming at the pool with waterslides, watched Wicked: For Good (so much squealing at the scene with Elphaba and Fiyero in bed omg), and ate chicken nuggets spaghetti and red velvet cake (with secret beets).

We had a Second Christmas at Jemma’s house. Many presents and treats. My brother-in-law looooves Nanaimo Bars.

We went to the outlet mall and bought five pairs of shoes at once. Scott’s Vietnamese fake Salomon shoes did not hold up.

I mistakenly bought tickets to Opening Week of the Australian Open which is actually the week BEFORE the Australian Open starts. However, Jemma’s family also had tickets so we all went in together on our day off and it turned out to be quite good!! And it only cost me $5! You can do all the AO activities with no lines, and there are still some good matches going on for qualifying. You can also watch the top people practice, but I found that quite boring. I also got to see a bit of the One Point Slam which was quite funny, and Myles and Damien got a free legit tennis racket each as well. Would Opening Week again.

I spent a whole afternoon building a collapsible lightbox for product photography. Why? I don’t know, but it was pretty satisfying and it works really well. I did a combination of about 4 different Youtube video tutorials.

Then I spent another entire day taking pictures of every little bit of wool that I have and cataloguing it on my Ravelry account. Again, why? I don’t know, but It tickled my neurodivergent brain just right. So organised.

I went to Phillip Island for a night of the January long weekend. Sonika had organised an Airbnb and we played tons of board games. 12 Rivers had a fun mechanism where you get to yank a barrier out at the top and all the balls roll down into different areas. Whirling Witchcraft had the worst rulebook I’ve ever seen but was actually quite funny once we figured it out. I taught the group Orleans, which they liked. And The Hobbit: There and Back Again was fun but quite difficult for me and Bis to play with our aphantasia.

I went to the Churchill Island farmers market for a focaccia and a fruit sorbet.

Always looking for vegan soft serve. This one was half ube and half avocado in the CBD. Not too sweet. I liked it.

I got Scott and I tickets to see the Hoodoo Gurus at the music bowl. I didn’t really know the band before but it seemed like they’re an Aussie equivalent of The Tragically Hip. It was a very pleasant evening of lounging around on the picnic blanket with snacks and margaritas and live music.

Summer knit projects! Socks and gloves. I still loooove making socks, but I didn’t really enjoy gloves. So fiddly.