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Didn’t have time to write this before my yearly wrap up post. Ah well. This is gonna be a long one, it was a busy month!

I did a lot of walking this month. I said I was going to do 10k steps every day in December, which is a lot for me! (Some days I get like 400 steps…)

We went camping at the free campground at Beauchamp Falls in the Otways. The campground was alright, the grass really needed to be cut, it was hard to walk through, but it also made the bottom of the tent really squishy and plush. There was a big Nepalese family there making lots of noise as well. But I saw a female Satin Bowerbird! I thought it was a pigeon at first, glad I decided to actually take a picture of it.

We drove down to Apollo Bay and I got to have Nerds sorbet! That’s pretty much my dream ice cream flavour, and it was dairy-free, like they knew I was coming.

Kookaburra
Australian Wood Ducklings
King Parrot

We also went to Kennett River in search of koalas but didn’t see any. There were lots of good bird photo opportunities though and I got lots of steps in.

Then we went home early because Scott’s work kept calling him and he had to go in and work on the weekend. :/

I made Scott promise that he would at least help me get my steps done somewhere interesting the next day so we walked around Albert Park lake and had enormous burgers and I had a dairy free gingerbread ice cream that was really nice.

Fancy new pickleball paddle. :D

I got Scott the Wingspan nesting box for his birthday. Rosemarie thought it was a lame gift but he loves it. It fits all the expansions (including future expansions!) and makes things super organised. It’s extremely satisfying.

We tried to go our for birthday brunch at a Thai brunch place but they didn’t actually open when it said they would and we ended up having to go to McDonalds instead!! LOL. Then Scott played bowls all day and went to a concert with his friend in the evening.

Our new PET camera got installed at work and makes me feel like I work in a space ship or submarine. It’s pretty fancy! We didn’t get to start using it until January though so December was a very slow work month. I had a lot of time to walk the hallways and get my steps up while working, which was great.

I spent a couple hours pulling apart the lead pots that things get delivered in so we could bring the lead to the scrap metal recyclers. We harvested 60kg and got $120 for it! (I wore gloves in case you are wondering, dad.)

We never remember to take a proper picture but Maz and Ty cooked everyone an epic UK-style Christmas dinner a few days before Christmas. Their turkey was SO MOIST and the roasted parsnips were incredible. Everything was great really, except the bread sauce… England you can keep that.

They also have a carpet python.

Actual Christmas was quite chill this year, relatively speaking. It was Small Christmas so there weren’t that many little kids around. The nephews are all pretty much adults now!! We had cold chicken and ham and tons of different salads. There were many presents, and many balls accidentally hit over the fence.

We went for a walk around Jells Park afterwards so I could get my daily steps. I was surprised how many other people were out doing the same.

As is tradition, we crashed Donna’s family campsite in Walkerville for a night. It was great, it’s nice down there and we love spending time with the cousin-nephews. We splashed around on the beach, talked about birds, played Uno No Mercy and Bananagrams, built a dam, ate cheese, went for walks.

I even got to go tubing!

Our December #SMAJ was making mosaic coasters. We got to put as many designs as we wanted together and then at the end you pick your favourite two to grout. It was fun!

We had too many tomatoes so I made salsa for the first time. I can’t believe I haven’t done that before, it’s so easy! And delicious! We had epic nachos for dinner.

Bis’s apartment faces the city so they always have NYE at their house so you can see the fireworks. I don’t normally stay up for New Years but we decided we would go this time and I’m so glad I did because he also prepared the most epic hot pot meal I have ever experienced. It was like being at a nice restaurant and also unlimited, because any time we got close to finishing something he brought out another!! Lara also got a HUMONGOUS honey cake. We are so spoiled. I ate so much I had to lie down from like 9pm to 11pm.

One of the final fittings to check the length. And pastel tank top after blocking! Thankfully blocking relaxed the armholes and top part so it’s not so tight any more. I haven’t actually worn it out yet.. I was planning on wearing it on New Years Eve but then it was like 12 degrees that day.

Lauren’s Musselburgh hat. Finished! No Mike & Ike’s trapped inside this time, pretty sure.

Unpictured stuff:

  • I did manage to do my 10,000 steps every day. I don’t know why I get so many less steps than Scott even when we spend the whole day together. I ended up having to do a lot of extra laps around our neighbourhood and house sometimes. One time I had to bail out of the car at a red light and walk the rest of the way home. I didn’t really notice any changes to be honest. I haven’t been doing it now (in January) but I am considering doing it again in February. Maybe every second month.
  • Scott worked A LOT. He racked up an extra like 40 hours of time in lieu. Crazy. It’s because in December there are graduations AND supplementary exams. At least now we know not to plan any trips in December next year, too busy.
  • Our pickleball friends put on an awesome Christmas party with pickleball (of course), games, door prizes, and awards. It was lots of fun!
  • I got to take a full two weeks off from work over Christmas which was so nice. I had a big list of things for us to get done around the house but we only did like a third of it. But I’m not mad because we filled every day with a lot of fun things, like playing games of Wingspan with Rosemarie AND Lauren, getting together with friends, playing pickleball all over the place, watching movies, helping our friend build a shed, hanging out with family, and more. We did also do a big garage clean out and pantry reorganisation, so at least we got a couple big jobs done.

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I have been wanting to go to the poop plant for a while but you need to go with someone who has a permit. I was pleased it showed up on the Birdlife Photography group itinerary on a day that I could finally actually go!

We all met up at the entrance and then merged into small groups with people with cars and keys and they drove us around all morning.

The area isn’t actually used for treating water any more (they do it in a different way now), but the land can’t be used for anything else because it still has traces of poop. It doesn’t smell though. There are rules like you can’t eat anything while you’re in the area and you have to wear pants and closed shoes. There’s a lot of standing water, which means there’s a lot of bugs, which means there are a lot of birds. It’s the best area in Victoria for birdwatching.

Brolga
Black Swan and Australian Pelican
Whiskered Terns
Singing Bushlark
Red-necked Stint
Red-necked Stint

Red-necked Stints are migratory waders that are born in Siberia and somehow make it all the way to Australia for the summer. Fascinating.

Growling Grass Frog

One pond was full of these frogs. You could hear them, and see them poking their eyes out of the water, but as soon as you get closer they duck under. They must be pretty massive.

I saw a lot more birds but a lot of the pictures we took later in the day were affected by Heat Haze, which made the pictures look like watercolour paintings (not in a nice way). The whole group together logged 107 different types of birds, in one morning!! I look forward to going again at a different time of year.

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Good things that happened in 2025:

  • Scott got the hole in his spinal canal patched up and successfully got through the no-BLT time and recovered back to normal! He also started working again.
  • Rosemarie and I ate our way around peninsular Malaysia and had the best time. We ate kaya roti twice in 12 hours. We didn’t die on the world’s longest zip coaster.
  • Rosemarie came to Melbourne and we played 4000 board games and twinned at pickleball, which they have still not recovered from.
  • Scott and I finally got to go on a real holiday together. We went to Hanoi for six jam packed days of fun and eating and shopping and sweating. I survived crossing a parade line clinging to the back of a scooter.
  • Dad and Diane finally made it to Australia! Two family visits in one year, what a treat! I won a game of Wizard!
  • I found out that I am neurodivergent. Maybe confirmed is the proper word.
  • I started going to Bodypump and pickleball drills sessions.
  • Made some new friends through pickleball. Many fun meals out and lots of laughing.
  • A lot of games days and crafternoons and trivia days with my pals. My friend Bis prepared the most epic New Years Eve hot pot party that put me into a food coma, but I did actually stay up until midnight this time!

Favourite Books:

I actually only rated one book 5 stars this year and that was The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, another sad book, I just found the way the parents interacted with the son really funny.

Other good ones were:

  • You Are Here by David Nicholls – nice story about people walking across England
  • Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy by Lisa See – historical fiction about life in China in the 1900s
  • The Women by Kristin Hannah – historical fiction about American women who served in the Vietnam War
  • Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton – a thriller that talks a lot about nature
  • The Trees by Percival Everett – a wild book that is kind of funny and also ultra depressing?
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (audiobook) – cute story
  • Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid – easy read, good story
  • The Dutch House by Ann Patchett – easy read, good story
  • Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (audiobook) – nerdy science entertainment

Board games:

I played 27 games this year, with 20 different people, in 13 locations.

11 were new games! Critter Kitchen, Finspan, Qwixx, Uno No Mercy, Deep Sea Adventure, Nekojima, Farkle, Micropolis, Wayfarers of the South Tigris, Verdant and just snuck one more new one in last night: Flamecraft Duals.

Critter Kitchen was definitely my favourite new game. It’s so cute and unique and fun! And Wingspan on Steam continues to be our go-to game, we played even more than last year. I played Wingspan 65 times and I have improved my win rate, I am now at 49% and Rosemarie down to 38%. Muahahaha.

Great new recipes: The Moroccan slow cooked lamb shoulder I made when dad and Diane arrived was probably my favourite new recipe, but it’s from the Recipe Tin Eats cookbook so I can’t really link it.

This beef rendang was also delicious. And I finally made Singapore carrot cake (black style) using a combination of this recipe and this recipe (and advice from Doreen).

Favourite bird pics:

I am not actually that happy with any of my bird pictures this year. I saw a lot of cool stuff through my binoculars but by the time I got my camera in the right spot the bird would be long gone. This is ok, I like seeing birds with my eyes too. I do wish you could just take like a screen capture of what you can see in the binoculars though.

Knitting:

I knit one sweater, one tank top, two beanies, three pairs of socks, and one pair of fingerless gloves! I just posted individual pics on my Instagram here.

I learned how to knit with mohair, how to alternate skeins to avoid colour pooling, and a new way to do really neat folded collars.

2026 Goals: I didn’t make any resolutions last year! We had enough going on. This year I’m resolving to PHONE LESS KNIT MORE. I have uninstalled all the dumb games on my phone.

Last years thoughts: “2024 wasn’t our best year. Unemployment x2, injury, chronic illness, saving up for trips that might not actually happen, and leaving weightlifting. But alas, we truck along. Hopefully we can get things back on track again in 2025.” I think we did.

This years thoughts: A much better year. We are healthy. We got to travel, spend time with family and friends, eat delicious things, and play A LOT of pickleball. What more can you ask for.

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I went to a birding outing to Cranbourne Botanic Gardens. My first time there. It is quite an elaborate place.

There were plenty of birds around, including tons and tons of New Holland Honeyeaters, but again I didn’t get any fantastic pictures. Still feeling a bit rusty after not really using my camera much over the last winter.

I like the background and perch of that New Holland Honeyeater picture but why does he only have one eye??! And this galah picture really made me laugh… you want as much foreground as possible in a bird picture, yes? I submitted it to Crap Bird Photography on Facebook and got a pretty good response, hehe.

I do like this picture though.

After a pleasant morning of wandering around looking for birds I headed over to Ash’s house, who moved out to the boonies over a year ago and I hadn’t visited yet. After chatting for a few minutes I looked up how long it would take to get to my pickleball drills session and realised it started half an hour earlier than I thought it did and I only had ten more minutes to visit. OOPS. Well it was enough time for a tour and a cookie. My bad.

We played Critter Kitchen with Nick and Lara. Nick made chilli and Scott made lemon tart. We also played Wayfarers of the South Tigris which was a little bit confusing, and took us most of the game to figure out what was going on, but then was ok, but we’ll probably never play again because there are always new games to try, lol.

We watched the AFL Grand Final in Boronia with Vicky and Brett. It was a good game, extremely even until half time for excitement, and then Scott’s team (Brisbane) dominated the second half and won convincingly.

I got some new ear plugs made and spent the hour waiting time at Bonbeach. Was pleasant until it started pouring.

Post Pickleball Pizza Party. Our usual Friday night pickleball sessions at Ashburton have come to an end, so we had one last dinner out together. Fun group. Hoping they migrate over to the new session at the venue right around the corner from our house.

Good lunch, bad lunch. Diane brought me Kraft Dinner powder!! Happy Katrina. Another day I completely forgot I was cooking a gozleme on the stove until I smelled a lot of smoke… oops… Sad Katrina.

This is probably only interesting to me but whatever. My pickleball coach kept telling me that the handle of my pickleball paddle was too thick for me, but I also needed to put overgrip on it because I am so sweaty. So I took a risk and peeled off the factory grip that it came with, and added overgrip directly over the bare handle…. and it’s ok!! It took a session to get used to it again but now I feel One With My Paddle.

Finished budgie paint by numbers. I kinda want to add a little speech bubble… what should it say? Something short.

I started making a hat with the neon hand-dyed yarn I got at the Wool Show. I had to split the ball into two balls and learn how to do alternating skeins to avoid colour pooling.

Unpictured things:

  • We also had a games day with Michael and Gina but I guess I took no pictures! Scott made pulled pork for lunch and we played Crokinole and Empires End.
  • Scott came to pickleball drills sessions a couple times because they were in the evenings during school holidays.
  • We saw One Battle After Another at the theatre as a #SMAJ activity and I did not like it. Three hours of bad people and someone banging on the top keys of a piano… it gave me a headache.

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After years of talking about it, dad finally came to Australia! They spent a week with us in Melbourne, in between visiting Sydney and Cairns. Here are some of the things we got up to, in jumbled order.

We wandered around some alleyways. I took them to the Sofitel toilets, obviously, and we walked all around the CBD.

Hot jam doughnuts at the Queen Vic Market. The market looks so different to the last time I was there!! We found my old workplace, Green Leaf Produce, but it has different owners now and I didn’t recognize anyone working. The signs still look the exact same though.

It would be fun to go to the deli with $200 of someone else’s money and make the most delicious picnic lunch.

Diane found our house too cold. It wasn’t even as bad as when MEP and Paul visited. :D

Perhaps our future visitors should visit in Daylight Savings Time only.

We went to the Healesville Sanctuary. We got to listen to a few rangers talks, and the bird show was fun as well. The echidnas were extremely active.

After the zoo we did a tasting session at Four Pillars. Gin is not my favourite but it was still interesting. We also went to a bakery for lunch, the chocolate shop, and Yarra Valley Dairy, so that was a delicious day overall.

This has got to be one of the most satisfying victories of my entire life.

We had lots of nice family dinners at home.

I made a RTE Middle Eastern roasted lamb shoulder with couscous and garlic sauce and it took 4 hours but it was sooooo good.

We checked out the Brighton Beach boxes. Cute.

Dad’s CPAP machine broke so Classic Dad he took the whole thing apart to try and fix it. We found the problem eventually but it would need a replacement part, so I guess he just didn’t breathe while sleeping after that.

Scott brought us to play bowls. Dad found it interesting. We also brought him to pickleball.

It was nice to have a week off work and spend a quality week with Dad and Diane. There were lots of good chats, good food, relax time, shoulder rubs from Diane (was she just warming up her hands?), and plenty of games of Wizard. I think they found Australia too expensive but hopefully they can visit again somehow.