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We started the month with a belated #SMAJ. He took me to the Accidental Wes Anderson exhibit in the city, which is an art exhibit with lots of people’s pictures that look like Wes Anderson. Like, wide angle, colourful, symmetrical. It was cute. I was really really tired that night for some reason. We had ramen for dinner.

We went to the one year anniversary Palestine rally, which had a nice big turnout. Can’t believe it’s still necessary. At least we get to catch up with some friends at the same time.

I went to the Finders Keepers Market and spent too much money on cute things. I got an olive oil bottle, some bird pins, a beeswax sandwich bag, a patch to put over the pepperoni oil stain on my favourite hoodie, and a bunch of random stickers.

I was really craving a big ass sandwich (BAS) afterwards. It took me a while to find somewhere that was open for lunch on the weekend but eventually ended up with this rare beef sandwich from Hector’s Deli, which really hit the spot.

I was planning on competing in the Ian Laurie Cup in November, but it ended up being cancelled and instead I ended up doing Victorian Championships. Normally I wouldn’t even have qualified for this competition, but this year they decided to not have any entry requirements so it was kind of a special opportunity, which made me feel excited and nervous and also awkward. They were running quite behind schedule so I had a really long time to wait after weighing in before my session would start so I lay outside on the grass for a while. The ear of my headphones broke off, which was annoying.

Anyway despite having a shortened prep and a week or so off while I was sick, the competition ended up going well for me, nearly perfect really. My friend Pitty came to coach me and he was great. I didn’t really care how I performed in the snatches so of course I got all three attempts easily (45, 48, 50). Not a PB but very happy to get 50kg again.

I clean and jerked 55 and 58 pretty easily but missed 60kg for the millionth time. Frustrating. But that’s still a 1kg PB total so yay. And I got to have these cool photos taken so that’s neat as well.

The next day I went back to volunteer/watch Steph/help Nic. Big weekend.

I actually haven’t been back to training since the comp. Instead I’ve been playing tons of pickleball and swimming and doing some quick squat sessions in the garage. Still just as busy as before but it’s really nice not to have to be so strict with everything, and it’s feeling fun.

I finally cooked the frozen garfish that Doreen gave me a while ago. They were already cleaned so all I had to do was roll over them with a rolling pin, pull out as much of the spine as I could, then I breaded them in flour and panko and shallow fried. They were delicious. It’s great that you don’t have to worry about the small bones, they’re soft enough to eat. Served with some dense bean salad.

This is my lunch time knitting project. Jellyfish socks! I usually get to do about 20-30 minutes on it per day and it’s a nice calming part of my lunch break. Socks are the best portable project.

Two of my coworkers have the same birthday and we ended up with three cakes at work!! Best day ever.

Unpictured stuff:

  • A few of my coworkers and I went bowling one night. It was something ridiculous like $42 for 2 games of bowling or $44 for unlimited bowling so of course we picked unlimited and REALLY tried to get our moneys worth. I think I played 7 games? And two of them stayed for ages and played 15 games hahahhaa. I was truly terrible at it, like mixing up which arm is supposed to swing with which leg.. but it was a good chance to try and work it out. We were all very sore the next day.

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Feels like ancient history at this point but here we go…

Jen had a birthday party in Bis’s common room where we all got to make our own books! She brought tons of supplies and helped us put them together. Very cool activity. We also played games and had a baked potato bar, and tried all sorts of crazy Kit Kats.

Ben & Jerry’s free cone day. Only had to wait 2 minutes in line too. I quite like their vegan cookie dough ice cream.

Jess told us about this art exhibit called DISH at Boroondara Town Hall. It was pretty neat! Scott appreciated the crochet stuff now that he knows how it’s done. There was a bunch of ceramic foods as well. We liked the banh mi the most.

Rally + Crafternoon combo day.

(This is what I was working on.) A gigantic beanie. It’s extremely warm because the band is like 4 layers of 8-ply wool. Scott has been using it inside the house. :P

I was a bit apprehensive about our April #SMAJ because it was in the exact same place that we’d gone for a previous SMAJ that was a bit meh. But this one was better. You basically just watched a BBC documentary about animals from all around the world on all the screens all over the place. Then we did the photobooth and got burgers for dinner.

Michael and Gina had us over for a delicious noodle dinner and to play Inis, Michael’s new favourite game. I found it a bit confusing, but we mostly got it by the end. Gina won twice. :D

Big Salad, and doughnuts from an appreciative patient. Balance.

Unpictured Stuff:

  • I competed in the Victorian Masters Championships. My first actual Masters competition. I didn’t have the best snatch day (45x/46/49x) and STILL couldn’t get a 60kg clean and jerk (56/59/61x) but at least I did 59kg which is technically a comp PB. I dunno. Weightlifting is annoying sometimes. Anyway I still got a silver medal (there were only two people in my category). Pretty much everyone there got a medal. I don’t have plans to compete again until the end of the year.
  • We went to a different brand of trivia one night with a couple of Scott’s friends, and even though there were approx 50 teams there, we won!
  • We started playing pickleball twice a week. There’s a new session that started up on Thursday nights that is all levels so we’ve brought tons of friends to come try. It’s been fun.

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You’ve probably already seen most of these pictures on Instagram/FB but I still wanted to recap the trip again for posterity. It was super fun!!

July 12th was a mammoth day. I went to the gym, then knitting club (Scott came too! The old ladies thought that was a hoot), and then we headed to the airport the cheapskate way via walking+train+train+bus. There was a horrifingly outgoing singing tween at our gate who of course ended up directly behind us on the flight. THANK JEEBUS for headphones omg. I requested vegan food on the flight to avoid dairy and it was ok! Lots of snacks! I only ate one of my emergency pepperoni sticks. (However it sounds like Qantas does it better than Air Canada, from Rosemarie’s report.) I quite enjoyed getting my food first too. I watched three movies and slept a bit.

We arrived in Vancouver still on July 12th, picked up our rental car, which was thankfully not as tiny as I paid for. Stopped at Duffins Doughnuts as per tradition but accidentally got PLAIN DRY old fashioned doughnuts, rather than PLAIN GLAZED old fashioned doughnuts which made me very sad. Thankfully the sadness was short-lived because we had THE BEST YAM ROLL OF MY LIFE in North Van at a randomly picked sushi restaurant. It had two layers of yam!! Everything else was great too. We over-ordered because we forgot how cheap Vancouver sushi is. Then we finally arrived in Squamish and hugged Rosemarie and finally got to lay down horizontally and sleeeeeeeep.

We crammed a lot into the next day as well. No meal left behind, so breakfast sausage and bagels for breakfast, Kululu for lunch. Check check check. Rosemarie and I went to the gym. We hit a wiffle ball around. And tried to stand up paddle board but it was too windy. Scott made it exciting by dropping our waterproof camera into the lake and later finding it.

The next day was big as well. Sense a theme here? We all got up early to catch the ferry to Nanaimo and then drive the rest of the way to Victoria. It looks like a highway on the map but actually it has 900 stoplights and isn’t the most fun drive. We ran a few last minute errands and then finally made it to Leslie and Kyla’s out-of-towners BBQ at their house. It was the first time the Ace Gang had been together in like a decade. It was so fun to hang out with Cassia, Helenka, and Leslie. And tons of others I hadn’t seen in ages like Catty, Monica, David, and their families. We used to spend so much time together.. it still feels so comfortable to hang out even now. We had hotdogs and sorbet and then later a few of us went out for sour beer slushies in the city.

PS Happy 13th Anniversary to Scott and I.

July 15 – Wedding day! We went out for brunch with Cassia and Helenka, then Rosemarie and I got blow outs while the others went sightseeing. We got Korean-Chinese dumplings for a pre-wedding snack and then we headed out to the venue. The ceremony was in a very pretty garden. Again it was fun to hang out with old friends and get pictures of everyone dressed up all fancy. Dinner was delicious and the wedding cake was lactose-free!! Scott and I bailed a little bit early because we are old lol. But Scott got MVP status because he still went to pick up Rose and Lauren later. Best bro-in-law.

We still hadn’t managed to play any pickleball yet so we squeezed it in before post-wedding brunch. Canadians are so lucky that there are free courts everywhere!! Minus one star for these courts being a bit slanted, but plus one star for having a splash pad right next door to cool down! Brunch was massive and it was great to spend more time with Jinnie, who I’d not actually spent much time with in person ever, but still feels like a long-time friend. Rosemarie and Lauren had to head back to Squamish after lunch, and Cassia, Helenka, Scott and I spontaneously decided to check out Butchart Gardens. I thought it was nice but expensive!! On the way back we heard that Leslie and Kyla were having one last gathering by the water near their house so we dropped by to chill and eat more wedding cake. Then finally Scott and I got takeaway Red Fish Blue Fish which we ate in our hotel bed before passing out from exhaustion.

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I started going to the local knitting club at the library on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are my day off and the house was full of builders so I was trying to find ways to kill time outside the house. Knitting club is great. I’m not even the youngest one! There is a mix of ages and everyone is extremely nice. It’s also cool to talk to people that are extremely local and know all the stuff that is going on in the neighbourhood.

One of my coworkers moved to England so we had a good bye dinner for her at Pizza Religion. It was good. Funny, no one wanted to try my vegan cheese pizza…

Picture by Tristan

Scott and I went up to Bendigo for a day to go to the Lost Trades Fair with some Discord friends. The fair was huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!!!! I don’t think we even saw everything. There was blacksmithing, wagon wheel making, wood turning, rocking chair making, weaving, watch making, lots more… all sorts of stuff. It was pretty cool. We didn’t end up buying anything from there, although I was tempted by a forged metal bottle opener.

We did buy stuff from Bendigo Woolen Mills though!! Scott got wool to make his crochet cardigan, which he is nearly finished now, and I got wool to match the speckly orange-red wool I bought during lockdown to make a knitted cardigan some day.

Nearly done, just needed paint.

The bathroom and laundry renos wrapped up. We had to spend a few nights in Boronia while they re-did the toilet, and had some minor dramas with a faulty laundry mixer tap. The painter came. And then done! I’ll post some before and after shots in a separate post.

Scott had a blood donation appointment in the city with free parking during Moomba, and I had just seen a targeted Instagram ad that said there was dairy-free soft serve vendor so I hopped in the car and went with him. I power-walked and people-dodged and got a cup of mango soft serve. It was nice! Especially for dairy-free!

Finished the infuriating socks. 1. They are too small once I stand up. I didn’t realise how much bigger your feet get when you stand up. 2. The colour changes!! I don’t mind the line on the right foot, because that’s just how the pattern works when you knit around the heel and then rejoin to the ankle part. But the left foot line is just because the yarn decided to suddenly change colour with no gradient!! WHY!!! All the other colour changes are nice and gradual. So it really annoys me that there is another harsh line at a different spot, and why did the entire foot part end up being boring grey. Argh.

If anyone is approximately size 7-7.5 womens.. you can have these.

I helped out at a special weightlifting comp. Not sure why I am grinning so much in this picture, maybe because Michael forgot what my name is during introductions and I was extremely uncomfortable.

My job was Loaders Assistant. Or World’s Laziest Loader. Basically George was extremely stressed out about being able to load fast enough (they were trying to make it a fast-paced competition) and wanted me to use the app and tell them what plates they were going to have to put on next and double check that they were doing everything right. I think I was helpful.

It was cool to see some high quality international lifting from up close. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone lift over 200kg in real life before. And the Samoan team did a fun screamy shouty war dance thingy that was awesome! So many abs!!

Bis had us over for wood-fire pizza and relaxed games. I made myself a mostly cheeseless pizza (I did put a bit of parmesan) and got taught how to cook it myself. Yum!! My second one was a bit more burnt. We played a bit of Project L, a simple puzzle-y type game.

Couple more tasty meals. Swedish meatballs and quick pickle cucumber. And miso glazed roasted eggplant, with soba and smashed cucumber from Recipe Tin Eats cookbook.

Unpictured stuff:

  • Pickleball pretty much every Sunday. I am improving!!
  • Holiday planning with MEP and Paul. They are coming in May. Love having visitors!!
  • We got our car back, with a fresh new radiator and bumper.
  • We picked out flooring for the house. Next we paint, then get the floors done. Then done!

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The main event in February was the start of our renovations. I thought it was very interesting to see the guts of our house. Note the complete lack of insulation!

We were pretty lucky to only have a few hiccups. The biggest one was that after they laid the new tile in the toilet I realised I hated it. To me it looked dirty and water stained… except it wasn’t. After a lot of anguish we decided to make them rip it up and switch it for a different tile. Thankfully they had only tiled that small section, the tile store took the ugly tile back (minus a %), the designer helped me pick a better one, and Serge didn’t end up charging us anything extra. They did end up accidentally breaking the new toilet while taking it back up because it had been so well silicon’d to the floor, so I had to buy another base… but ah well. I am muuuuuch happier with the new tile and am definitely glad we decided to switch it.

Multi-purpose bumper plates.

We had some success in the garden this summer. Lots of roma tomatoes, with less butt-rot than previous years. We also got a lot more Chinese eggplants than before, however they were quite small. Lebanese cucumber grew pretty well, and salad greens were all fine too. We did not have much success with zucchini this year and we don’t know why.

February #SMAJ was dinner at Parcs, a restaurant that ferments lots of stuff and makes their food out of scraps. It was pretty nice.

I went out for Filipino food with some Discord friends and was suuuper excited to order taho after having such delicious taho at Serai last year. However I should have not gone in with such high expectations because this one wasn’t nearly as good. Sigh. The fancy one made the tofu into a soft serve consistency which had great temperature contrast with the hot tapioca pearls. The cheaper (probably more typical!) one just had blobs of plain silken tofu and the whole thing was warm and kind of bland.

Recipe Tin Eats quick ramen from her cookbook, with marinated eggs. Was kinda proud of this meal!

Sock progress. These socks ended up making me quite angry. Will post the finished project later.

Unpictured stuff:

  • We finally got to have our car fixed after The Wombat Incident. The timing was terrible. We had to stay in an Airbnb for a few days because at one point we had no toilet, no car, and no train.
  • Thankfully I have a great coworker who ended up lending us his car that he wasn’t using so we could get around a bit again.
  • We’re not having great success negotiating our new EBA at work so we’ve had a few strikes. It was kind of fun getting people to honk their horns in support although I’m not really sure it accomplished anything.
  • Jess came to Melbourne for her 40th birthday. She had a ladies dinner out in the hills that was nice.. I shoulda got more dressed up.
  • Still training. Still trying to help with Phoenix… with the committee and helping out with competitions.