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ELIMINATION FINAL – Melbourne Demons vs Geelong Cats

As I said at the end of my last update post the Melbourne Demons qualified for the finals (for the first time in 12 years). This was extremely exciting. Of course the first final game was on the same night as the Queens of the Stone Age concert that we already had tickets to. I decided that I couldn’t miss the footy so I sold my concert ticket to Jessie who just happened to be visiting that weekend.

My coworker said he would go to the game with me, and lucky for me he is a MCC member who could get a guest pass. We had reserved seats but I wanted to get even closer to the action so I went straight after work and lined up in a MASSIVE line for general admission. Because why not. For some reason everyone was rushing up to level 2 and 3 so I headed straight for the front. With the help of a fake friend (long story) I managed to get Connor and I seats eight rows back from the field. AWESOME.

I had a lot of free time after getting our seats so I hung out at the race* and high fived all the players as they came out for warm ups. JONESYYYYY.

I also chugged a cider by myself in a bar. That was odd. Then Connor got there and we had a couple more very quick drinks in true MCC fashion (you can’t drink at your seat because they fancy).

It was so great. I’ve always wanted to go to a full MCG game. The place was packed (91,767!!) and it was almost all Melbourne fans. SO COOL. Amazing atmosphere.

Melbourne played very well at parts, and not so well at other parts, but thankfully Geelong played bad the whole time, so we won. 75-46.

*The race is what they call the tunnel that goes from the change rooms to the field where the players run out. I have no idea why it’s called this and I can’t find any evidence of it on the internet. It is really really hard to Google, haha.

SEMI FINAL – Melbourne Demons vs Hawthorn Hawks

Round 2! This time Scott could come. He did very well at getting online right when tickets went on sale and we managed to get seats fairly close to the front of the upper level. Not quite the same as the week before but still good.

Again, a 90,000+ crowd. Bit more opposition supporters this time but I would say it was still majority Melbourne. I think because it was the first time Melbourne had made the finals in so long everyone was really trying hard to get to the games.


Maybe you already saw Scott’s photo series on Facebook, haha. This is what the goal umpires do when there is a goal. If it’s a behind then they only do one arm.

Melbourne played very well again. They kicked a bit more accurately than the week before and they tackled hard. Besides a stressful Hawthorn mini-comeback at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Melbourne was just pulling further and further ahead. Melbourne won 104-71.

PRELIMINARY FINAL – Melbourne Demons vs West Coast Eagles

No pictures because the game was in Perth. I didn’t go because plane tickets were $700. Also I was on call.

Let’s not talk about this game. 😫

Melbourne lost. 121-55. 😭

My work department is all either Richmond or Melbourne supporters. Richmond also lost this weekend in spectacular fashion, despite being premiership favourites. It was a sad weekend for the nuclear medicine department.

GRAND FINAL – Collingwood Magpies vs West Coast Eagles

Really not too interested in this. Collingwood is the team that everyone loves to hate, and no one cares about interstate teams. And we were all still a bit sad from the week before.

We did watch the game at home, and it was a good close game… but meh.

Collingwood lost so a lot of people were happy. 79-74.

 

Footy season over! Bring on cricket! JK.

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I think the two things that sum up winter in Melbourne are footy, and being able to see your breath inside your house.

What have we been up to over the last few frigid months? A lot!!

Big news #1: I got a new job. A permanent full time job. FINALLY! I’ve been there about six weeks now and it’s been great. It’s much busier than my old job but everyone is very nice and I’m really enjoying it. Plus I don’t have to drive to work any more and have gained back about 2 hours a day with the shorter commute and shorter hours. YAY!

Big news #2: We moved! Our old apartment was for sale and the constant viewings and uncertainty were driving us nuts. We decided to take charge of our lives and found a new place that’s within walking distance to work for both Scott and I. My walk is about 25 minutes, and Scott’s is about 45 minutes. It’s one unit in a group of six on a block.

We love having a lot more space, and being able to hear the rain on the roof, but it’s been FLIPPIN’ FREEZING in here this winter. I don’t think it has any insulation at all, so in the morning when it is 6 degrees outside, it is also 6 degrees inside. There is a very nice gas fireplace in the living room but we obviously can’t run that all night, so it makes for very uncomfortable mornings. Thankfully it’s starting to warm up now so we’re past the worst of it for this year.

Sparkler fail for Jemma’s 30th birthday cake. The Tres Leches cake turned out pretty delicious if I do say so myself, but we could not get the sparklers all lit at the same time and also set off the smoke detector in the process, haha. Forgot to take a picture of the cake in the frenzy. :(

We’ve been skating a few times. Scott is trying to get ready to sign up for the next term of hockey academy. I just skate around in circles and shout things at him every time I pass by, hahaha. BEND YOUR KNEES!!! He is getting better though.

Canada Day was fun. We started the day in a very un-Canadian way with an afternoon footy game. We got free tickets in a promotion where they were trying to introduce the game to newcomers to Australia. I also got two free hats and a scarf! Noice! Melbourne lost by two points though. :((((((((


Then we went to a pub that was throwing a Canada Day party. They had Canadian pizza and wings and poutine, and Canadian Club and Molson and lots more. There was a live band too but they weren’t playing Canadian music?!! I was a bit disappointed in that because I think there are a lot of good Canadian music options. I easily made a ten hour playlist for Scott’s citizenship party back in the day!

A couple weeks ago I cobbled together a porchetta with a giant piece of pork from Costco, and a slab of pork belly. It ended up being ridiculously large so I cut the thing in half and froze half for another time. PS this is our new kitchen. So much space!

It turned out ok but not quite as good as the ones I made in Canada. Perhaps the cut was not really the right kind, or it was just too big. The crackling on top was good, but the inside got a bit dry. My yam fries were extremely limp as well even though I roasted them for ages. Ah well.

Speaking of Costco, I bought a secondhand freezer off Facebook Marketplace so we could buy some stuff in bulk. We put it in the garage. This lot of meat should last us a while!!! :D (Another view of part of the new house btw.)

No pictures but we went out to a really nice sushi place called Shira Nui for my birthday/celebrating getting a new job. We got the omakase which comes with two pieces of nine types of sushi. Everything was very carefully put together and truly yummy. I liked the salmon wrapped in a weird thin transparent seaweed the most. We left stuffed. We’ll definitely have to go back there again some time.


We spent our anniversary weekend cleaning our old apartment. FUN TIMES. Then we went to Crown for dinner, which I already wrote about. We put $5 in the bouncy dice machine thingy and I won on the first bounce!! CASH OUT!!! I am really not a gambler.

Scott went to Sydney for a weekend to set up servers (???) at a new Betty’s Burgers restaurant. He got to extend the trip a couple days and visit Ava and fam, which is nice.


Weightlifting has been… a journey. Months of not very much progress. Then my back started hurting. Debated quitting. Started seeing a physio who is also from my club. Lots of rehab exercises. Back still kinda hurting but he started helping me with a few technique things at training too. Had MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT. Lifting started improving dramatically. Temporarily stopped squatting. Back feeling better. New training PBs. Competition coming up next week!!!

Feeling pretty good going into this next comp, although we’re going to be pretty conservative. I think I’ll be powering everything. I might not get any PBs but that’s ok.

(Pic is a result of doing one million actually ok power cleans with a bar with knurling in the middle.)

Jill and Joe came for a visit the other week from Adelaide. We met them for lunch at Milk The Cow for a delicious cheese feast. We had raclette, a cheese board, and the most delicious Grundlegend fondue that came with fortified wine to dip the bread in first. YUMMMMMMMM. Delicious food and great to catch up with them again, as usual.

The Dees had (have??) a fairly good chance of making the finals this year, they just had to win one game out of the three left. Thanks to one of Scott’s friends we got to sit in the MCC section for their best chance, vs. Sydney last weekend. It was a fun day, but unfortunately, Melbs blew it. I am currently watching the second chance game at home, against a much higher ranked team. Melbourne is winning at the moment with one quarter to go but it’d be pretty miraculous if they pulled this off. I think I will have to try and go again next weekend for the last attempt. I really want to see them in the finals for the first time (since I chose them 9 years ago)!!!!!

My allergies have kicked in hardcore so I haven’t done a lot this weekend. I was on call yesterday for the first time at my new hospital but didn’t get called in. Spent most of the time curled up under my enormous blanket in front of the fireplace and tv. It’s hailed about ten times this weekend. #winterinmelbs

**ten minutes later** OMG!!!! DEES WON!!!! Melbourne in the finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Not dead, but yeah…

I’m just going to do a point form recap of the last couple months.

  • We went to Ballarat for an afternoon to hang out with Jono, and two fellow KJ’s, Kirsten and Kiera, who were visiting from Scotland. Was fun.
  • Jess and Michael and Ava came to visit. Twelve of us went to go see the Lego Batman movie. We took up an entire row and the movie was actually really funny.
  • Scott got his sleep apnea machine and now he doesn’t twitch every 30 seconds while sleeping.
  • Scott and I, and Jemma, Damien and April drove to Sydney for Easter weekend family shenanigans. We ate lots of delicious foods, did some touristing, lots of playing in parks, a bit of shopping. It was a fun long weekend.

A & A on the ferry to Manly.

This statue was actually burning hot.

  • Scott and I did a small chunk of the Bondi to Coogee coastal walk. We planned on doing more but forgot about things like sunset and darkness. At least we got some nice pictures in the magic light and the part we did walk was very nice.
  • I had a pretty good interview for a full time job at a different hospital but didn’t get it. :(

  • I babysat April while Scott, Damien and Jemma went to the rugby on Anzac Day. We played some games and read some books and watched videos on the iPad. I got her to go to bed but she didn’t sleep. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Still getting the glitter from her boots out of the couch hahaha.
  • We bought a BBQ.

  • Scott got us tickets to watch footy in a VIP box through work. It was awesome!!! I drank all the free ciders and we ate all the food. Dees won too, although apparently it was a terrible quality game (didn’t notice/care). A+ would VIP box again.

  • It was also one of those rare times you get to go out on the oval when the game is done for a kick to kick. There are footies flying everywhere and it’s hella scary. But you do what you gotta do for a selfie, right?
  • Scott had a couple interviews and got a new job!!! He is much happier now. And he gets free juice!
  • I hosted a Stitch and Bitch at our (tiny) apartment. It went well though. I made (pressure cooker) pulled pork, and mac and cheese for lunch, and finished a few more squares for our granny square blanket.
  • We went to my friends 30th birthday party and ate her amazing chocolate cake and hung out with my new friends.
  • Many many trivia nights.
  • Many many yoga classes.
  • Masterchef AU started again so that’s television sorted every night. It’s on five days a week this year, but each episode is like 1 to 1.5 hours!!!!! The team challenge episode that we went to was on the other night but I couldn’t see myself. :(

I have a few more recent things to talk about but this is getting long so I will leave it for another post. It’s already written though so it shouldn’t take two months to post this time. :D

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Natasha takes loans seriously. She came all the way to Australia to pay back the $5 we loaned her on the last day in Mexico. Good thing the interest rate was favourable.

We did A LOT of fun things together. It was great.

We went for a swim and a photo session at Brighton Beach.

Baby’s first snot block. (And by “baby” I mean Natasha! Cripes people ;))

Melbourne has the best alleys. We did a lot of walking.

Top notch Melbs graffiti.

Our favourite work at the National Gallery of Victoria (which is free, by the way).

I tried a macaron from Maccas. It was a confusing experience.

We went to an AFL game at the MCG. The crowd was lively and Collingwood lost so it was a good night.

The view from Arthur’s Seat, on the Mornington Peninsula. You can see the tiny gap in the otherwise enclosed Port Phillip Bay, and the actual ocean in the very back.

Playing on the rocks at Cape Schanck.

At Yering Station in the Yarra Valley. That was a very cheese, chocolate, wine and cider filled day. Thank you Scott for driving us around.

All that was in the first week! The second week I kinda had to get back to my normal routines, and Natasha explored on her own. And then she found a ride to Adelaide and continued on her lap around Australia. I hope she comes back to visit again, or we are able to meet up with her somewhere!

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1. FAMJAM/#jornapalooza2015

April helping Uncle Scotty use the computer.


An extremely cute Easter bunny.

I love that the whole family likes games. Simultaneous Wits & Wagers and My First Carcassonne.


Cutest dinosaur ever (Seth).

Jemma and April.

The entire Jorna family together! This hasn’t happened in a long time. It made Pat (Scott’s dad) so happy. :’)

2. SPORTS

We went to a rugby union game. I learned all about weird things like BORING IN THE SCRUM.

Scott’s cousin hooked us up with ultra cheap tickets to the footy. The Hawks demolished the Cats. It’s one of my life goals to go to a full house AFL game at the MCG (100,000 people) (happens about a dozen times a season according to Scott), and this was close, but not quite. There were 72,000 people there, for a FIRST ROUND GAME! Melbournites love their sports.

Hawthorne cheer squad.

We even caught a Canada vs. Fiji Rugby Sevens game on TV, which made me laugh, and made Scott run to his room to put his jersey on. Canada was even winning for most of the game! But then Fiji smashed us. They seemed like they could run twice as fast as the Canadians.

3. AUSSIE FOODS

I ate 5 meat pies in 2 weeks. :D

We went out for dumplings, but they weren’t great. Should have researched a bit more about where is good these days.

At one of the spots on our impromptu pub crawl. We also went to a bar that was a little house right in the middle of the CBD, and Transport, and possibly somewhere else. Hmm.

Really expensive fancy margarita and really expensive piece of pork something. Too tipsy to remember the name of the restaurant. The pork was mega delicious though.

– we also ate lots of lamb, vanilla slices, parmas, flathead, Freddo Frogs, etc etc. And brought back an entire suitcase filled with Savoys, Tim Tams and BBQ Shapes.