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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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Scott loves fried chicken so I thought it would be a good place for a quick birthday dinner but apparently when you turn 40 you suddenly lose your appetite. Everything was delicious but he barely ate anything. Strange.

We got tteokbokki (one of the things we fell in love with on our trip to Korea), chips, and boneless chicken (1/2 sweet chili, and 1/2 spicy).

This was way too much food for us, haha. And far too spicy. The tteokbokki was awesome and bouncy and saucy but also quite spicy, especially when your mouth was already hot from the chicken. The chips were good and the cold banchan was somewhat relieving from the spice.

I want to go back again soon and order better. I would still get tteokbokki but for the chicken I would get soy garlic sauce instead of spicy, and ask for the sauce on the side instead of slathered.

Gami Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Scott took me out to The Last Piece last month. They make woodfired pizzas.

Lamb Re – slow cooked lamb shoulder, tomato, eggplant, pomegranate, yogurt

Very generous with the meat!

Maradona – pork & fennel sausage, porcini mushrooms, roasted potatoes, bocconcini, parmesan

Was a bit plain. I liked the Dusty Martin pizza (tomato, san daniele prosciutto, bocconcini, fresh rocket, parmesan) I had here a couple weeks before with my weightlifting club ladies better .

The Last Piece Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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OK no more footy talk for six months. What else have we been up to?

I did another weightlifting competition at the end of August. My back wasn’t great at the time so my coach and I were being pretty conservative. I wasn’t expecting any PBs because I was powering everything, but I went 6/6 and still got a 2 kg PB in snatch and 1 kg PB in clean and jerk! I have another comp coming up in November and it will be interesting to see what I can do if I do full movements.

We got these pretty carrots from Costco. I roasted them whole for about 30 minutes. Then mixed up a 3:2 ratio of balsamic vinegar and honey with a bit of thyme, drizzled the mixture over and broiled them for another 10 minutes, then sprinkled with salt. They turned out like salty-sweet-tangy candy vegetables. So yummy. I especially liked the crispy tips.

Also the Pinch of Yum freezer wild rice soup recipe is magical. I still can’t understand how a recipe can be so easy at prep time and at cook time and still turn out so good! All of her freezer meals are so intriguing. Basically they’re a whole bunch of recipes where you cut up and freeze a bunch of uncooked stuff, and then later pop them straight into your pressure cooker frozen and voila 30 minutes later you have dinner. PS I doubled the recipe and split it into three dinner packs. Also I used brown rice instead of wild rice because wild rice doesn’t exist here. Scott said it tasted like the inside of a chicken pot pie. I will 100% be trying more of these recipes.

This is our new house btw. It’s pretty great other than the lack of insulation. I want to buy one.

The other morning we went to the Tesselaar Tulip Festival with Scott’s mum and aunt. It was alright. They must be making bank because it was very busy and it’s not cheap. I think it would be better if they planted the flowers into cool designs like in Ottawa, but perhaps my standards are a bit high, haha.

I am very pleased to report that my allergies are not a problem any more. I just have to use antihistamine eye drops, antihistamine nasal spray, and a daily antihistamine tablet. Is that too much? I hope not because this is the first spring in like 8 years that I have felt like a normal human.

I trekked out to ALTONA NORTH to go to my old coworkers 30th birthday party. It was nice to catch up with them, I do miss my old EH work pals. Also wow Melbourne is so big it’s like the West and the North could be entirely different cities… I never go there!!

I went on a work wine tour in the Mornington Peninsula with a bunch of techs and nurses and receptionists from medical imaging at my current job. It was very fun and silly. Now I see familiar faces if I have to go to MRI or CT and stuff which is nice.

Myles turned 1 and had a birthday party with 9 trillion kids. He is v cute.

A little while ago Scott’s dad won a gigantic charcoal bbq and several boxes of wine and a bbq lunch party from a liquor store contest that he didn’t even know he entered. They had the lunch on Saturday. A lady came and cooked up like ten different kinds of meat for us, and served it and cleaned up afterwards. What a treat for Scott’s parents. The most hilarious part though? The lady used the regular bbq to cook it, not the prize one hahahahhaa.

This Friday we’re going to Canada!! Just to Vancouver to visit Rosemarie and all our old friends. I can’t wait! I have a very long list of foods I want to eat: Macintosh apples, Jamaican patties, perogies, poutine, yam rolls, Blenz hot chocolate, Smartfood popcorn etc etc. I have to be so strategic about my meals. NO EATING FOODS I CAN GET IN AUSTRALIA.

All for now.

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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.