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So late. Oops.

January 2024

Scott’s school friend Jono came to visit and they got the whole gang back together. This picture makes me laugh because Scott looks so short.

Jono’s daughter really like the budgie that Scott crocheted for her.

Our January #SMAJ was going out for dinner and watching a drone show put on by the Aquarium in the city. I don’t know how well you can see it in the picture but they made different shapes like penguins and sharks and stuff that moved up and down the Yarra. It was kinda neat, although short.

And then (vegan) ice cream on the way home. I like Piccolina vegan pistachio ice cream because it’s actually a bit creamy, rather than most of the other dairy free options around here which are just fruity sorbets.

For the Australia Day long weekend I went to the Phoenix BBQ and then headed straight from there to meet my friends in Phillip Island where we just played games and ate food for the entire weekend. It was extremely chill and nice.

Still going to trivia about once a month. We had a really good run where we kept winning and didn’t have to pay for our dinners for quite a while. The venue is very cold though haha. Can’t believe Scott wouldn’t give me his sweatshirt.

Unpictured things:

  • This year was a Small Christmas, but Jess and family came to visit in early January so we did the whole Christmas again with them. Actually it might have been bigger than actual Christmas. I enjoyed making friendship bracelets with Ava. I did not enjoy having to go to work the next day.

February 2024

I organised this Big Day where I got to eat a delicious Cubano sandwich for lunch, then go to a crafternoon with my friends all afternoon. Then Scott came and met me and we shared a vegan banh mi pizza, then went to pickleball, and then got vegan ice cream on the way home. FUN!!

More Palestine rallying with Pitty and Rob. I enjoyed this poster.

We were lucky to be invited to Doreen’s house for Lunar New Year. It was SO DELICIOUS. We did that tossing salad thing for luck (the higher you toss the better!) and her husband and friends made an amazing spread. My favourite was a Singaporean dish they called Carrot Cake which is like taking the turnip cakes from dimsum and stir frying them with eggs and sauce, making it even more delicious. There was also pork belly, wings, noodles, bao, desserts, and a million other tasty things. I am so spoiled.

I went on a Birdlife photography outing to The Basin. We didn’t see that many birds but the Nankeen Night Heron was a new one for me.

We went to Kathy and Mischa’s to have dinner and play games. It was the first time we’ve seen their house that they’ve been building. It’s really nice! They made delicious homemade ravioli for dinner and we played two games: Portrayal, a game that someone has to describe a picture really fast and everyone else has to draw it, and Welcome To. Kathy was a pro urban planner.

February #SMAJ was going out for peking duck on a very very hot day. Was tasty. I made Scott reenact this gif which made me cry-laugh.

I went to the button shop and a 90-year old salesman helped me pick these buttons for my cardigan. It took a long time. He kept rejecting all the ones I pulled out and he moved verrrrrrrrry slowly. However, in the end, I think we made a nice decision.

Unpictured things:

  • We played pickleball at like 4 new locations. Every location has its pros and cons. Location, parking, temperature, scary ceiling fans, confusing floor markings, weird people, etc. Luckily pickleball is really growing here and new venues are popping up all the time, including one extremely close to our house.
  • Scott did about 15 interviews for different jobs. Things really picked up a lot once the holidays were over.

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The Myer Christmas windows are Bluey themed this year. Adorbs. Scott planned a relaxed #SMAJ activity of Vietnamese food in the city for dinner, and a stroll past the windows. It wasn’t busy at all, which was nice. I’m doing it! I’m doing a handstand!

Robert and Jen picked me up to bring me to Maz’s for chill hangs. We played Isle of Skye, which I liked a lot! And Colt Express, which was a bit silly like Camel Up.

Another weekend we went to Meeplecon, where there was a marketplace (picked up a few cheap simple games), demos, and you could play anything from their huge collection. We picked Scoville to try because it can have up to 6 players, and had fun playing it. You cross breed chilies to make fancier chilies that you can make into recipes to get points. Unfortunately it looks like it will be hard to get a copy as the company has gone out of business.

We’ve been going to the Free Palestine rallies in the city every Sunday that we can. There were over 100,000 people there the first few weeks. It helps ease my despair a bit. I just hope it’s helping the cause.

Cardigan WIP. I had to wash and block it before I could attach the buttonband.

I made tres leches cake for the Medical Imaging Bake Off. I won second prize for taste! (Definitely wasn’t gonna win for presentation, especially by the time it got to work). I just made it full lactose cuz I wasn’t actually going to be eating much of it. It was a great event, we got to eat so many delicious things.

I also made homemade mint slices. You have to make a chocolate biscuit first, then make a peppermint fondant, then dunk in chocolate (which Scott helped). They were looking decent but unfortunately even though the chocolate tempered well, it bloomed and so they all have a weird swirl pattern on top. They taste good though!

Unpictured things:

  • So many allergy shot appointments. Thank goodness they bulk bill. They started off very uneventful but once I got to the full strength my arm does get a bit itchy.
  • So much pickleball. We started going to another club sometimes that’s much closer to our house. The people there are a bit younger, so they play differently. It’s interesting how different the clubs are.
  • We took April to the movies for her birthday. We saw Scary Girl, which I was not expecting to be Australian… at one point one of the characters said “OH NAUR!!” and it made me LOL.
  • Multiple trivia wins. Go team. Haven’t had to pay for dinner in a while, which is great while we’re still on single income.
  • Had to leave work early one day to take Scott to the hospital cuz he was in so much pain. Turns out he has a lil’ kidney stone. Thankfully by the next day he was nearly back to normal.

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Hehehe. Melbourne played Collingwood in the first round of the finals at the MCG on a Thursday night. I had to quickly squeeze in a training session at home in the garage after work and then rush into the city to meet Scott. It started POURING pretty much exactly when I had to walk run from the train station to the MCG. I showed up to the MCC (thanks Connor!!) looking like a drowned rat. And tried to take a selfie on the escalator. Melbourne lost. And I forgot my backpack under the seat so Scott (thanks Scott!!) had to run back up to grab it and then we ended up on the train with all the super happy Collingwood people (the worst) instead of with the sad Melbourne people.

Then we had the Ian Laurie Cup on the weekend. I did OK, I guess. I snatched 45 kg and 48 kg, and missed 50 kg. I clean and jerked 55 kg, and 58 kg AGAIN, and the missed the jerk on 60 kg AGAIN. That’s the 4th time I’ve missed 60 in competition!! So annoying. However it was a fun day over all.

I went to another Birdlife photography outing at Banyule Flats. It was a small group this time, which was kind of nice. It was a beautiful day and we saw a decent amount of cool birds. We spent a while tracking a Shining-bronze Cuckoo and a Golden Whistler by their calls and eventually found them, which was neat. I saw them well with my binoculars but didn’t get any good photos.

We saw two Powerful Owls as well. Epic. They are huge.

Tawny Frogmouth pretending to be a stick.

Met up with Donna and fam to go for a walk, and give them the GIANT box of Pokemon cards that Doreen prepared. Always a pleasure to spend time with them.

Scott and I entered our first pickleball tournament. We were in the Mixed Doubles 2.5 or Under category, aka beginners. There were five teams in our category. We won our first two games in the round robin, then lost our next two games. This put us in third position going into the finals but we lost again, so ended up 4th overall. Whatevs, it was fun!! My goals for the tournament were: to not lose every single game (check!), and to get some points from my shots (check!). I can’t wait until we can do another tournament!

Sonika had a bunch of people over on FBTAGF public holiday (Friday Before The AFL Grand Final) for some games and food. It was a nice chill afternoon. I played half a game of Potion Explosion, which was quick to learn and has a fun ball dispenser mechanism.

Check out this super strong momma possum carrying THREE babies on her back!! We could hear something rustling around in the backyard but couldn’t figure out what it was.. turns out one of the babies had fallen off and she was trying to do a dramatic rescue mission. Kinda neat, although possums can be quite the pest.

Best messages to receive from Doreen: “I have fish for you”. We were extra spoiled this time, King George Whiting, already filleted for me! She gave us 7 fillets!! What a treat.

I finished the kids jumper from Vicky. I keep forgetting to bring it when we see the nephews! It was originally supposed to have a roll neck but I didn’t like the look of it so I just did a 1×1 rib instead.

Before
After

This was such a fun project. I saw a video on Knitdiet’s instagram and bought the pattern and yarn immediately. Basically I knitted an enormous bag, then put it in the washing machine for an hour and it came out as a sturdy, normal size bag! So fun!! I’ve been using it to carry my knitting stuff around.

Unpictured stuff:

  • A lot more finals footy, but at home. We weren’t able to get tickets to the next Melbourne finals game (which they lost). And Scott’s team only played in Brisbane (which they won). Scott’s team made it to the Grand Final but it was too hard/expensive to get tickets so we watched it in Boronia with the fam. Brisbane lost.
  • Fathers Day/Myles’ Birthday brunch in Boronia. Scott made cinnamon buns.
  • Scott got laid off. Was a shame because it seemed like it was a good job, until the end.

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I was finally able to make it out to one of the Birdlife photography group outings! They get together once a month and it always seemed to be on a day that I couldn’t go. But this time I could. We went to Lysterfield Lake. I was a bit scared to go, but there were plenty of friendly people, and at least there is an activity… so you don’t have to talk the whole time. It wasn’t the best conditions for birds or photography so I didn’t get any great pictures but it’s still nice to get out and get some birdwatching practice.

Scott got me tickets to Cirque du Soleil Crystal for Christmas last year and it was finally time to go! We liked it, it was neat to see the new stuff they could do with the added ice element… like big long swooping things while hanging from ropes and stuff. And Scott liked the hockey boys doing jumps and flips. I thought the actual circus stuff wasn’t near as precise as a normal Cirque show though. The story was pretty weird too.

We had galettes beforehand at Roule Galette. Scott had beef bourguignon, and I had a potato-y one and a mulled wine. Lovely.

My friend Bis’s birthday dinner wish was for us to go out and everyone had to pick a dish to share. It was great. This was half the food.. I should have waited until everything arrived to take a picture but at that point I was too busy stuffing my face. I picked a soft tofu dish.

Melbourne was playing Hawthorn so we sent a message to Shaun to see if he wanted to go to the game together (he goes for Hawthorn). He said sure, meet us at this park at this time. We arrive at the park and there are like 20 children there and many adults. Turns out it was Shaun’s son Finn’s birthday party and everyone was going to the game together!! Cupcakes were a nice surprise!

So we ended up watching the game with Donna’s family too. A fun day. And Melbourne won.

I saw this meal on an Instagram reel. It was delicious!

Bendigo Woollen Mills sock yarn socks are done! I’m quite pleased with them. Socks are a great travel project because they’re so compact.

I learned how to do two-colour knitting by making a vaguely Melbourne-themed hat. I tried making a pom pom for it but I tied it wrong and it exploded everywhere. I didn’t really like how it looked anyway. I would like to get a navy faux fur pom pom but haven’t found where to buy that yet.

My next project was to finish up a kids jumper that Vicky started about ten years ago for Beau. He’s about six feet tall now but luckily there are two other small kids that it can fit now. It was a fun challenge for me to figure out where she was up to in the pattern and finish it up.

Unpictured stuff:

  • I went to a nuc med day conference down on the peninsula with a couple coworkers. We saw a guy with a motorized golf bag!!
  • Used the movie tickets I won from getting a written compliment at work to see the Barbie movie. I liked the movie but I was annoyed that most of the punchlines had been spoiled already on the internet/TV/radio/literally everywhere.
  • My weightlifting friend came back from Canberra/USA and it has been so nice having her at training again. We even got the old Phoenix ladies out for dinner one night too, which was lovely.
  • We’ve been playing pickleball pretty much every Sunday. Scott and I did a lot of practice together to prepare for an upcoming tournament.
  • I actually got called in to work on the weekend. Quite rare. It was a tricky case too. Thankfully my boss is very nice and volunteered to come in with me and press the buttons on the computer for me so I didn’t have to get gowned and ungowned a bazillion times.
  • Apparently we went out for dinner for a #SMAJ event but we didn’t take any pictures and I can’t remember what it was.
  • Japanese brunch. Trivia. Knitting club. Weightlifting training.

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Microwaved saline bags make great heat packs for when you wake up on your birthday with crippling neck pain.

My first macrame. Except not really, because it’s basically just making giant friendship bracelets?? I was awesome at those back in the day.

I made a wall hat holder. Rosemarie said it’s ugly AF. Thanks sis.

I still made her a headband. It’s knitted in English rib and it’s super squishy.

Unpictured stuff:

  • We went to a potluck high tea at Bis’s house. Scott and I brought sandwiches… egg, chicken, and ham and cheese. We still have a big tupperware in the freezer filled with crusts. I didn’t take any pictures but it was fun!!
  • Crammed in 85 appointments before we left for Canada. Good news, my ears are fine, my teeth are fine, my hands are slightly less shakey, my allergy shots are ordered, etc. Feels good to get all sorts of stuff like that sorted out.

Then we left for Canada! More posts coming…