May was a little bit calmer. I had to pull back on a lot of activities to try to recover.
This is the armour I put on to go out into the real world. Why is the real world so loud and bright.
We played a bunch of crokinole until Scott got too good at it and I had to put it away again.
We went to Noah’s 21st birthday party (Part 1) and got to meet their new puppy. Then when Part 2 began and all of Noah’s friends started arriving we all GTFO’d and left them to it.
Went out for dinner after pickleball with a few new friends and had a Korean junk food feast! Fried chicken, seafood pancake, two types of stew, tteokbokki, and banchan. It was great!
We saw Kooza. i thought it was great. We loved the big wheel thingy of course. I would love to try it (just the inside part).
New Holland HoneyeaterNankeen Night Heron
I went on a bird photography outing to Blind Bight. We saw lots of birds in the morning and got plenty of good photo opportunities. I stayed for lunch and then headed home after that, and ended up getting called into work that evening!! A big day.
Scott organised for us to go to Dingo Ate My Taco which involved him leaving work early and lining up in an alleyway for an hour. I got to show up right at opening time and skip the line. :D Good work Scott. Love sitting at the counter where you can see into the kitchen.
We had escabeche and a bunch of tacos and a spicy margarita. Very tasty.
And then Kariton afterwards for some soy soft serve. The first bite tastes like tofu and then it tastes like regular ice cream after that. I love it.
I could see on the website that there were a lot of ladies signed up for the Saturday intermediate tournament at MPC for once, so Scott and I signed up, but then they put us in Pool A with ALL MEN!! And all the ladies and mixed teams were in the other pool. I was so annoyed. It’s not fun for me to play against all male teams, I just get smashed.
I finally made it to a crafternoon again. My margarita was extremely delicious and we had a variety of pickle flavoured chips to nibble on. I liked the venue (Nubilum), it was chill in there and the chairs have backs.
Finished my newspaper mittens! They are very soft. And chugging along on the confetti sweater.
We went to see Book Of Mormon. I am not a big musical person but it’s pretty unique, we enjoyed it! (Maybe not as much as the lady next to Scott who was laughing hysterically the entire time lol). I wore my knitted cardigan that I made two years ago and never wear.
Momofest was the best day out I’ve had in ages. I LOVE THIS FESTIVAL. There were at least 30 different stalls selling all different types of momos. We went with a group of friends so we each would go buy a plate of momos from a different place, and then regroup and share everything, so I got to try sooo many different types. Everyone was super friendly, it wasn’t crowded, and the lines were very manageable. A dude explained every single item on the menu at a dessert stall for me, and we decided to try one that was made of carrot, almonds and raisins. Always neat to try something new. Excellent day.
Jen organised for a bunch of us to go to a watercolour workshop where we painted some muchrooms. I haven’t used watercolours in agesss so it was great to get a bit of a refresher. We went out for brunch afterwards as well.
We went to watch the Melbourne-Brisbane game at the MCG. We sat with Scott’s Brisbane friends in the Brisbane section, so I felt even more weird in my new EXTREME PUFFY Melbourne coat but Melbourne won and also I was very cozy so yay. :)
Priz and I did an outdoor evening tournament in Noble Park. I forgot how nice it is to play pickleball outside. It’s way quieter and if it’s not windy it’s really calm and serene. I think I will try to play more pickleball outside this summer. We didn’t make it to the finals but it was still an enjoyable evening.
We got our travel vaccines for Borneo and went out for laksa afterwards. We have sooo many anti-malaria tablets.
I felted my slippers! I thought they came out too small but after squeezing my feet into them they actually sort of molded to my exact foot size and actually they are sooooo cozy and I never want to take them off any more. Some people put grippy stuff on the bottom of their slippers but I love to slide so I’ve not bothered. I don’t get to slide in pickleball any more so at least let me slide into the kitchen.
I also started making a pair of mittens with wool from last years Bendigo Wool Show. It’s 4 ply held double and I love how the variegation came out! It reminds me of newspaper.
I realised I had made a mistake on my cable knit blanket and had to undo several hours worth of knitting. Devastating. All fixed now though.
I think I’m about 70% through. Getting there!
My favourite dairy-free soft serves in Melbourne at the moment. Miguelitos ube soft serve Oreo sundae sub vegan coconut drizzle. Not so sweet, vaguely healthy. And Kariton soy soft serve Biscoff sundae. Super rich and satisfying.
Not very photogenic but radish cake and shrimp rice noodle roll. Really nice.
We had some nice food at home this month too. I roasted some pork for cubano sandwiches. Doreen messaged me out of the blue and asked if I would like some freshly caught tuna. UM YES. It was soo nice, really melted in the mouth.
Finally figured out how to make Fannie Farmer cookies in Australia and not have them spread out too far. It’s my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe but I don’t know if the brown sugar is different here, or if it is the differences in measuring spoons, but it took a while to make them work again.
Unpictured Stuff:
We had a casual Easter lunch in Boronia.
We went to the craft cinema with Ash and watched Muriel’s Wedding and My Big Fat Greek Wedding whilst knitting.
We went out for dinner with Michael and Gina while Gina was about the pop with babby. It was a nice dinner except for when I thought I’d put our order through on my phone but it actually hadn’t gone through and actually Scott was eating Gina’s meal. LOLOLOL.
We planted garlic in the garden boxes again.
This month looks really fun on reflection but actually rapidly went downhill and I ended up in burnout and ended up feeling absolutely horrible at the end of the month. But I learned a lot from this and am doing much better now.
Scott took me to the night market at Queen Vic for a #SMAJ. We had a Sri Lankan roti stir fry, a lobster roll, some Filipino skewers, and a strawberry lemonade. It’s kind of fun to be able to have so many different cuisines at the same time, although it wasn’t cheap! We went at 5PM so at least there weren’t any lines.
We had a big weekend of pickleball at the Pickleholic Autumn tournament. On the Saturday Scott competed with Jarrod in the morning, and then I competed with Eloise in the afternoon. We went up a category so it was pretty hard!! Especially because my OG partner got injured the day before and Eloise and I only got organised at the last second. But fun was had. Then on Sunday Scott and I competed together in the lower division and we made the finals but lost both final games and finished 4th. We were happy that we played pretty well together that day though (doesn’t always happen).
A couple weeks later I did another tournament at Pickle Play Dingley with Priscilla and we crushed it!!! We squeaked into the finals, but then won both final games and came home with a gold medal! The final game was our first time playing with an umpire and a bunch of people watching, which made us very nervous at first but eventually we remembered to talk to each other again. It was a very fun day with lots of laughs and making friends, as Priscilla is very friendly.
Scott won a different tournament with Jarrod that evening as well, so it was a very good day of pickleball for our household!
We went to the Melbourne – Carlton game with low expectations, as everyone expected Melbourne to lose every game this season, but we won! Also, Scott stood up and caught the ball in a perfect mark and it was very funny and exciting. Everyone around us cheered.
I got drenched in a surprise Melbourne rainstorm while pumping gas and had to show up to my hair cut appointment looking like a drowned rat, haha.
I think my team might have a bit of a sugar addiction…
Chocolate is too expensive so I decided to try and make marshmallows for the nieces and nephews for Easter. It was pretty sticky and messy but they came out great and the kids seemed to love them!
I also tried making homemade pasta for the first time. We’ve got a pasta roller attachment for our stand mixer but not a cutter yet so we have to slice the noodles freehand. I also made a slow cooked beef ragu and it all turned out extremely delicious if I do say so myself.
I finished my scrappy stripey socks while on our Guildford trip. As per usual I am not that happy with the way the variegated yarn worked out. I probably should have just skipped over the weird brown section of the wool.
I used duplicate stitch to stitch two loons onto the cashmere gloves. I designed the loon pattern using my old cross stitch software, with the grid modified into rectangles instead of perfect squares. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out although it was not easy to do on a pair of gloves! I had to use a cookie cutter to keep the wrist opening open enough to be able to reach inside. I am planning on using this technique in the future on some kids sweater designs. Eventually.
I also worked on a pair of felted double layer slippers using chunky 100% wool. It was kind of a fun project although the (free) pattern sucked. I should probably write my own version.
Unpictured stuff:
Jono visited from Scotland and they went golfing and he came over for a very impromptu dinner.
April interviewed me for a school project about growing up in another country. I talked about having to walk to school uphill both ways in the snow of course.
We saw Project Hail Mary. Both of us enjoyed the audiobook. The movie was fun too.
Went to Braeside for a bird photography outing with my new lens and saw enough birds that I’ll make that it’s own post.
We went to Guildford for a #SMAJ weekend! I’ll write it up in another post too!
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 DucklingsKing 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.
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.
