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These monthly updates seem to be the easiest way for me to semi keep up to date with blogging so I think I’ll just keep making them.

We have officially started looking for a house to buy. We went to a mortgage broker and have been watching auctions for practice. We went and looked at one place but it wasn’t quite right. I’m a bit picky, I want a bath tub, ducted heating, a garage, and hopefully still walking/biking distance to work. We are trying to stay calm and be patient. There’s another one posted right now that gets an 11/10 on location scale, but we haven’t seen it in person yet.

We saw Tom Gleeson at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. We’d only just seen his TV show Hard Quiz for the first time a week or two before but found it quite amusing, so when I opened the comedy festival brochure and saw his show ad it seemed like a good one to go to. It was good. I wish I could think of the right things to say as quick as he can.

Twinsies! Volunteering at the Victorian Championships. I did the computer job, which is typing in the weights that the coaches/athletes want for their attempts and then marking them good or no lift. They can increase the number several times per attempt so you have to stay alert. It’s a good job though because you can see everything. My big goal is to qualify for this comp next year. I hope they don’t change the qualifying totals.

Was cleaning up my platform one night and realized I used every single change plate possible in one training session, hahahahaha.

I went to the footy three times and watched Melbourne lose three times. Depressing. At least the Melbourne v St Kilda game was kinda fun because we met up with my friend and sat right behind the interchange where we could see all the players up close.

And the Anzac Day Eve game was cool too when they did the lights out ceremony thing. Then we found out we were sitting in the wrong spot and had to move up to the real general admission which at that point was very full so we had to sit in the second last row. Much nosebleed.

After that game I decided I was going to stop paying to watch Melbourne lose. (I would still go if it was free of course, haha). Then they won the following two games! I don’t think they look very good as a team this year though.

We played a few new games. First pictured: Puerto Rico. I got a good deal on this on Facebook Marketplace. One of the other couples in our game group loves the game so we got them to teach it to us. It seems fun, not as complicated as Agricola, some depth. I like that you’re constantly doing something, even when it’s not your actual turn. But it needs 3+ players so we haven’t played it again yet.

Second was Terraforming Mars. We played this once before with Other Scott, but over Easter we played it a couple times on our own. It’s complicated and hard to be strategic/offensive, but really fun to just play because there’s lots of stuff to do. I would like to play this more.

And lastly, Camel Up. My coworker raved about this game, and it delivered. It’s quick and silly and probably 50+% luck, but very exciting and fun. It’s been a hit with every group we’ve played with. Da Boys caught on quickly and liked it too. The dice rolling pyramid thingy is 100% gimmick but it does legitimately make it more fun, haha.

We had a very relaxed Easter. Watched a lot of TV and movies and caught up on chores. We didn’t go anywhere this year. But two of Scott’s uncles came to visit which was exciting. I hadn’t met either of them before. Pat was so excited for bro time.

Approx $1K worth of Lune croissants. :’) They made a special ANZAC day kouign amann, which was (unsurprisingly) delicious. Everything they make is amazing.

My old trivia group finally coordinated a reunion trivia night and then as usual everyone bailed one by one except three of us. UGH. At least once Game of Thrones is finished the more reliable trusty trivia sub-group will restart.

Scott’s Monthly Activity Jaunt (#SMAJ – hashtag still in development) for April was going up Eureka Tower, but I think I’ll make that its own post because this is getting long enough already.

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We had a good March. Many activities. Yet didn’t get burnt out. Success.

Visitors! Jess and Michael came to visit, at different times. And Jonno, Scott’s friend from school who lives in Scotland, came to visit. We met up with him on the floating bar Arbory. I took no people pictures, whoops.

Weightlifting! It feels like ages ago now, but I had a pretty good comp last month. It was at a new location with my new coach, which added a little extra stress, but it went well. I snatched 38 kg, 41 kg (equal PB) and then nearly nearly snatched 43 kg. I did all the hard part! Got under it, and even stood half way up but then dropped it behind me. Bummer, that would have been an excellent PB. Then I clean and jerked 48 kg, 51 kg (2 kg PB), but couldn’t even clean 53 kg. Ah well. 2 kg PB C&J and total is good.

I don’t have another comp for a while. That’s ok. I’m on week 3 of 4 of a new training block right now and it’s going so well! I think I’m actually getting stronger!

Bouldering! I channeled my inner-Rosemarie and joined my coworkers for a climb. It’s been ages since I last went. Was fun. I think I would like to do this more often.

Gains! From Sundae School Ice Creamery. I had mango lassi. It 100% tasted like mango lassi. Scott had raspberry rhubarb sorbet.

Crafts! I finally finished test stitching a new cross stitch pattern: I Love Board Games. I had a lot of fun designing and stitching this pattern. I tried to squeeze in all of my favourite games, like Azul, 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, and plenty more. Recognize any obscure ones?

Footy! It’s back!! My Melbourne Demons are doing real bad. They appear to have forgotten how to catch the ball. Or kick to another person. Or do anything. Scott’s Brisbane Lions are doing great! We went to a game last week and Scott finally got to hear them play the victory song for the first time in ages.

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Well it’s technically autumn here now, although it’s currently 36°C and climbing?? But let’s just quickly catch up on this past summer.

Scott turned 40. We had a big party at our house. I greatly underestimated the number of kids in our lives! Thankfully the children entertained themselves outside by piling up all the gravel in our courtyard. We had lots of food and drinks, and lots of Scott’s family and friends from school and work and everything came by even though it was so deep into Christmas party season. Overall success, imo.

Every second year is a big Christmas at the Jorna household (the other years people go to their other side of the family) and this year was a big one. I think there was about 40 people all together? Bonkers. There was a pinata, wading pool, bbq lunch, and soooooo many children and presents.

The next day we did a very Melbournian thing and went to Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. It was… very boring. Even people that love cricket thought it was boring. Because the grass was too flat and too smooth so nothing really happened. They would hit the ball very conservatively along the ground to just get one run at a time. There were only two wickets and one of them was while we were scanning our tickets to get in to the ‘G.

Scott and I worked through the Christmas holidays and saved our days off for when it wasn’t school holidays. It wasn’t busy at work so it wasn’t so bad.

I wanted to do a “polar bear” swim on New Years Day so we went to Half Moon Bay Beach which is only about 30 minutes away, on the bayside. It was a little busy but it was a hot day and the water was delightful. Plus there is really good fish and chips there.

It has been a hot summer of training. I sweat a lot even in the winter but when it’s >30°C it’s a whole other disgusting story. My face is always purple.

Sadly my coach Rob (in the aqua shirt) decided to retire. We were all very sad. I had one last competition with him 6 weeks ago, and then transitioned to getting coached by his son Adam. It’s different, but not that different, which is good.

We got this sweet bath caddy in the Kris Kringle gift swap thingy. I’m looking forward to when it’s cooler so I can have more baths. It feels nice on my back (which is actually not that bad at the moment btw).

We went ATVing in Gippsland, but I’ll save that for another post.

We also went camping at Wilsons Prom again this summer, but I will also save that for another post.

Scott has been doing hockey lessons and swimming lessons lately. He says they are both very challenging but very helpful.

We made some new board game friends! They are friends of Scott’s coworker (who also likes games) and they know how to play Agricola!! It’s tricky to find games for 6 players though. Last night we played Sushi Go Party, Sushi No, 7 Wonders, Coup, and King of Tokyo. I found Coup really hard, it is pretty much exactly what I am really bad at (bluffing and keeping track of what cards other people have).

On my way to the Aqua concert. :D

I had heard that Aqua was coming to Melbourne a while ago, along with a whole bunch of other 90s pop bands like Vengaboys, B*Witched, Eiffel 65, Lou Bega… but it was pretty expensive and I couldn’t find anyone to go with. I debated what to do for ages until the day before the concert I decided I would regret it if I didn’t try to go. I mean I still love the album Aquarium!!

I still didn’t want to pay a lot though. So I scoured Gumtree and Ebay and Facebook for cheap tickets and the morning of the concert someone finally accepted my offer! They ended up being very friendly girls and invited me to hang out with them since I didn’t know anyone else there. It was very random and very fun!!!!

The venga bus is coming…

Aqua!!! It was so nostalgic. They’re one of the few bands that I actually know most of the words to the songs haha. The tickets were awesome and we got right up close. Very fun night, I laughed a lot. I’m glad I decided to try and go. Would Aqua again.

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We spent the Thanksgiving long weekend on Salt Spring Island.

Duffins Doughnuts while we wait for the ferry. I liked the Bavarian the most.

We tried to play a board game on the ferry but it was actually kinda rough and Rose and I were getting seasick. Instead we went outside and looked for whales.

We met up with Leslie and Kyla at the market, had falafel, and then headed off to Salt Spring Wild Cider.

The cidery was amazing! The best cidery I have ever been to. Firstly because you could get a TEN CIDER TASTING FLIGHT (for two people). And secondly because EVERY CIDER WAS DELICIOUS. They were all dry and crisp and just based on different types of apples (I hate those gross flavoured ciders that are just made with added flavourings.) I would have bought 8 out of 10 of them easily. (Didn’t like the hops one or the pear one.) We did buy a few bottles. Of course my favourite one was the most expensive one, haha– barrel aged muscat. We had a lovely time on the lawn sipping cider and watching a beekeeper work on some hives.

Our Airbnb was v cute. It had a loft! The weather started to turn pretty crappy so we spent a lot of the weekend nice and cozy in our little cabin in the forest playing endless board games and eating snacks. It was wonderful.

We all piled in the van and headed to Kyla’s parents house for Thanksgiving (with a quick stop at the Salt Spring Island Cheese Company). Her house is pretty awesome. They have goats and chickens (and 500 roosters), and… a wood fired hot tub!! We filled it up and got the fire going… and 5 hours later we had a hot tub. :D

We passed the time with MORE GAMES of course! Mega 7 Wonders, and Dixit.

Look how much food Lauren ate!!!!!!! Hahaha. This was plate 1 of 2 (or was it 3???). :D It was a lovely Thanksgiving meal. Scott and I especially loved having turkey since it’s so hard to get here in Aus (well you can get it, but it’s pricey).

PS Lauren did accidentally run a half marathon in the morning so I guess that accounts for some of the food haha.

The last day we decided that even though it was still raining we needed to do at least one hike. We picked the one with fairy doors! It was a bit of a climb but the doors were cute. We didn’t go all the way to the top top because we wouldn’t have been able to see anything and we were all tired/lazy/damp. Still nice though, and the pictures look cool with all the mist, haha.

After the hike we had lunch in a treehouse and then headed back to the ferry. The boat ride back was a bit smoother so we were able to play games, and we saw dozens of porpoises!

I’ll leave you with another one of Scott’s sweet panoramas.

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After dropping Scott off at the airport we headed to Alberta Maple Ridge to visit Julie and Steve. It had been a long time that dad and Julie had cousin-time. I think he enjoyed the catch up. Rose coordinated the rice dish and Steve made us really nice steaks.

I took dad to the Capilano Fish Hatchery while Rose and Lauren were working. I wanted to see fish flopping all over the place. Another glorious weather day (srsly we got sooooo lucky this whole trip). We took the bus there and started at the top end of the park near the reservoir. I liked the reflections on the calm water. Then we walked down to the dam. It is a big dam. Dad said “If I come back to Vancouver in the spring, I AM COMING BACK HERE”.

We continued walking downhill till we got to the hatchery. It is free. We saw lots of salmon. There is a fish ladder with windows on one side so you can theoretically see the fish jumping upstream but they didn’t jump very often. I saw one jump and it was unsuccessful in getting to the next level. But there was another little river area with dozens of salmon just randomly flopping around. Then we continued walking downhill (I am so happy the bus dropped us off at the top of the park and not the bottom omg) and had pizza in a cute little neighbourhood before catching the bus back to Van.

Dad suggested making sushi for dinner one night so we obliged. We had shirmf, roasted yam (Scott is the deep fry guy and he wasn’t there, sad face), and the other usual suspects: avocado, cucumber, cream cheese, and sesame seeds. It was fun and yum. Lauren made the best rolls…. possibly because they were 50% cream cheese. :D

I can’t really remember what I did the next day. I think I just rested because my cough was getting bad. Oh yeah we went bowling in the evening. Rose and I are bad at bowling.

Then dad was leaving too. I’m glad he came out to Vancouver. It was much easier for Scott and I, cheaper for Rose and Lauren, and I think dad had a nice time. We all had a nice time. We probably tired him out, but he has lots of time to recharge.

This was the weather for TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT. 18-20 degrees and sunny. So nice.

After dad left I did one last errands morning where I got new skates, some clothes, and another yam roll #nomealleftbehind. This one was a mango avocado yam roll.

Thursday I met up with Kevin, my old clinical placement supervisor, and Lesley for lunch at Red Wagon. I took no pictures unfortunately. We had a great long lunch with good chatting. And then I went with Lesley back to her house for a sleepover/one last hang. We played many games of Azul. I also got to go to a Dollarama and stock up on Smartfood and Cheetos to bring home. That was the very last things on my shopping list. Success.

The last day. I headed back to Rose’s nice and early the next morning so we could play several more games of Azul and have one last dose of sister-time (she took the day off). We went to Sushi Nanaimo for lunch #nomealleftbehind and I got one last training session in. I had seen all of the old gym gang except one guy, and Al arranged for him to come in as a surprise! Came back and played more Azul. Leslie and Kyla popped in for bonus-time before heading out to see Ellen!

When Lauren got home from work we went out for dinner at La Mezcaleria, one of my favourite restaurants anywhere. I had a margarita of course and we shared spicy tuna in a black ash and ink sauce, queso fundido with chorizo, and a bunch of tacos. It was delicious, as usual. We had a little time before I needed to be at the airport so we stopped at Duffins Doughnuts too. #yolo. (Maybe this is why I gained 2 kg on the trip…) (WORTH IT.)

Then they dropped me off at the airport and I headed home. Full in stomach and spirit. It was really a great trip. My family and friends are so great.  Thank you to Liz for lending us your car and apartment. And Lesley and Kirsten and Max for housing Scott and I and Rose and Lauren. And Kyla and her family for sharing Thanksgiving with us all. Lauren for putting up with all the crazy. And Rosemarie for preparing so well and organizing so much. And all our friends for being so thoughtful and great and fun!!!