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Good things that happened in 2024:

  • We saw the Aurora Australis twice, kind of.
  • We saw the Cirque du Soleil show Luzia and was shocked and awed, mostly by the contortionist.
  • We went to a restaurant where you could eat unlimited pierogies, what a dream.
  • I went on an epic trip to Christmas Island where I saw amazing wildlife and learned a ton about photography.
  • We went on a pleasant weekend away in Torquay.
  • I saw a performance of Wallace and Gromit Wrong Trousers with a live brass band and it made me cry with happiness.
  • I competed in the Victorian Weightlifting Championships and nearly had a perfect competition.
  • I played a heck of a lot of pickleball.

Favourite Books:

I watched a lot less TV this year and instead started listening to audiobooks, which works a lot better with knitting as I never used to look at the TV enough to follow what was happening. That plus bed time reading.. I got through a lot more books than last year! These were my favourites:

  • Solito by Javier Zamora – intense true story of a little poop-obsessed kid trying to get from El Salvador to USA
  • In Memoriam by Alice Winn – man, WWI really sucked
  • Know My Name by Chanel Miller – the world is so exhausting and unfair
  • Five Little Indians by Michelle Good – another pretty sad book about kids that had to go to residential school in British Columbia
  • Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin – at times frustrating, but interesting story about friends that make video games
  • Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi – multi-multi-multi-generational story about a family from Ghana to USA, my favourite part: when they said segregation wouldn’t have been so bad if the white people just left them alone
  • Greenwood by Michael Christie – another Canadian book, makes you grateful for nature
  • Educated by Tara Westover – shocking, fascinating story of a girl with insane Mormon parents

In summary, the more depressing or disturbing the better, especially if also set in Canada.

Board games:

I played 21 games this year, with 26 different people, in 11 locations.

14 were new games! Everdell, Unfair, Empire’s End, Scribbly Gum, Inis, Pollen, Brass: Birmingham, Disney Villainous, Portrayal, Quadrapolis, Habitats, Vivid Memories, Zoo Vadis, and The Fuzzies. Definitely not all of those new games were good. Brass was so confusing, Villainous was torturous with 6 players, and Zoo Vadis was SO annoying as a quiet person. But I really enjoyed Empire’s End, Pollen (going to make my own travel version), Quadrapolis, and even The Fuzzies (Jenga with pompoms).

Our most played game, by far, was Wingspan. Mostly on Steam with Scott and Rosemarie on the weekends. I played 39 games with Rosemarie over the year! (Of which she won 48% of them!!!)

PBs:

No snatch PBs. Clean and jerk 58kg -> 59kg in comp. Total 108kg -> 109kg. No other PBs on squats, deadlifts or presses. No wonder I felt like retiring.

Pickleball game has improved heaps but not as easy to measure.

Great new recipes:

  • Everything that you can put in an air fryer
  • Brussels sprouts are actually tasty!
  • Dumplings like you can get in Chinatown (I used peanut butter instead of sesame paste)
  • Dense bean salads, like this one

Favourite bird pics:

Because it was HARD WORK to get this picture.

Because it looks like a moody painting.

Knitting:

Year of the beanie, apparently! Learned colourwork, continental knitting, intarsia and cable knitting.

2024 goals: Use camera more!!! (That dusty thing in the corner?) Design bird sweaters. (Started this, then abandoned after I realised designing clothing patterns is an extremely difficult task due to people coming in many many different sizes.) Be more comfortable being me. (Maybe a bit TOO comfortable, jk.)

Last years thoughts: “Hopefully Scott ends up getting a new job soon so that we go back to traveling and doing more fun stuff again.” HA HA HA. :(

This years thoughts: While it mostly didn’t seem that bad at the time, upon reflection, 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.

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We started the month with a belated #SMAJ. He took me to the Accidental Wes Anderson exhibit in the city, which is an art exhibit with lots of people’s pictures that look like Wes Anderson. Like, wide angle, colourful, symmetrical. It was cute. I was really really tired that night for some reason. We had ramen for dinner.

We went to the one year anniversary Palestine rally, which had a nice big turnout. Can’t believe it’s still necessary. At least we get to catch up with some friends at the same time.

I went to the Finders Keepers Market and spent too much money on cute things. I got an olive oil bottle, some bird pins, a beeswax sandwich bag, a patch to put over the pepperoni oil stain on my favourite hoodie, and a bunch of random stickers.

I was really craving a big ass sandwich (BAS) afterwards. It took me a while to find somewhere that was open for lunch on the weekend but eventually ended up with this rare beef sandwich from Hector’s Deli, which really hit the spot.

I was planning on competing in the Ian Laurie Cup in November, but it ended up being cancelled and instead I ended up doing Victorian Championships. Normally I wouldn’t even have qualified for this competition, but this year they decided to not have any entry requirements so it was kind of a special opportunity, which made me feel excited and nervous and also awkward. They were running quite behind schedule so I had a really long time to wait after weighing in before my session would start so I lay outside on the grass for a while. The ear of my headphones broke off, which was annoying.

Anyway despite having a shortened prep and a week or so off while I was sick, the competition ended up going well for me, nearly perfect really. My friend Pitty came to coach me and he was great. I didn’t really care how I performed in the snatches so of course I got all three attempts easily (45, 48, 50). Not a PB but very happy to get 50kg again.

I clean and jerked 55 and 58 pretty easily but missed 60kg for the millionth time. Frustrating. But that’s still a 1kg PB total so yay. And I got to have these cool photos taken so that’s neat as well.

The next day I went back to volunteer/watch Steph/help Nic. Big weekend.

I actually haven’t been back to training since the comp. Instead I’ve been playing tons of pickleball and swimming and doing some quick squat sessions in the garage. Still just as busy as before but it’s really nice not to have to be so strict with everything, and it’s feeling fun.

I finally cooked the frozen garfish that Doreen gave me a while ago. They were already cleaned so all I had to do was roll over them with a rolling pin, pull out as much of the spine as I could, then I breaded them in flour and panko and shallow fried. They were delicious. It’s great that you don’t have to worry about the small bones, they’re soft enough to eat. Served with some dense bean salad.

This is my lunch time knitting project. Jellyfish socks! I usually get to do about 20-30 minutes on it per day and it’s a nice calming part of my lunch break. Socks are the best portable project.

Two of my coworkers have the same birthday and we ended up with three cakes at work!! Best day ever.

Unpictured stuff:

  • A few of my coworkers and I went bowling one night. It was something ridiculous like $42 for 2 games of bowling or $44 for unlimited bowling so of course we picked unlimited and REALLY tried to get our moneys worth. I think I played 7 games? And two of them stayed for ages and played 15 games hahahhaa. I was truly terrible at it, like mixing up which arm is supposed to swing with which leg.. but it was a good chance to try and work it out. We were all very sore the next day.

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Me and Italian weightlifting Giulia Imperio at the OWF International Elite Tournament. She is so smol!! A LOT of people came out to watch her compete. She snatched 80kg and clean and jerked 100kg. Was cool to see in real life instead of on Instagram.

Our June #SMAJ was going to a footy event called Dynamic Dees. I could get my picture taken with some of the players (that’s Caleb Windsor, Jake Lever, and Kozzy Pickett) and then they just talked about Melbourne stuff and answered questions. It was fun although some of the people there were like… REALLY into football. And I ordered a cob loaf that ended up being just a plain loaf of bread and that was a bit disappointing. Still have never had a cob loaf with dip.

It was really cold for a couple weeks. It makes me feel like I’m dead. Getting out of bed when it’s 8 degrees in the bedroom is not pleasant.

I started following these energy efficiency ladies on Instagram (@jenlishfixitchicks) and they suggested bubble glazing (sticking bubble wrap on the windows). The bedroom windows don’t look out on to anything so I thought I’d give it a try. I think it’s helped cut down on drafts and condensation on the windows, but it’s still very cold.

Gav and Aura came over to play Wingspan and Gav’s favourite game: Brass Birmingham. Scott and I tried our best, and it was okay playing it with their help, but it was pretty hard to get the hang of.

On King’s Birthday we went to Eat Pierogi Make Love to eat unlimited pierogies. They were fantastic. We were able to order mixed plates, with either vegan sour cream or regular so I got to try everything and minimise the lactose, which was great. I had 18 pierogies and the outside world started to slow down.

Nankeen Night Heron.
Female Flame Robin.
A whoooole lot of ibis (Straw Necked and Australian White).

The last Birdlife Photography outing was a bit closer to home, Dandenong Valley Wetland and Jells Park. We always seem to see lots of birds in the morning, and then not many in the after lunch spot. I spent a lot of time answering questions about Christmas Island.

I had grand plans of knitting a bird blanket, maybe selling patterns for different birds. I designed quite a few little birds using my cross stitch pattern software and this was my first prototype, a pink robin. I used a sort of combined intarsia/fair isle technique. It turned out ok but tbh it’s not that enjoyable to knit with tons of tangled balls of yarn and the whole thing gave me a lot of anxiety. Plus there are so many ends to sew in. I don’t know if I’ll bother making more.

Scott continues to crush it at crochet. He made April this Pusheen. She loved it!

Rosemarie mailed me some Trader Joe’s ube mochi pancake mix for my birthday. Delicious! Especially topped with homemade cookie dough ice cream for an extremely decadent breakfast.

I made a carrot cake to bring to Boronia for Pat and Jemma’s birthday lunch. I didn’t think I like carrot cake, but now I do. Although next time I would leave the pineapple out, or maybe blend it up so it doesn’t have chunks.

Unpictured things:

  • Scott and I did one quick go kart race with my voucher. They have new karts and I actually had to use the brakes this time! I also spun out almost immediately, hahaha. We did the worst in our group but I beat Scott and that’s all that matters. :D Afterwards we dropped by Maz’s house to sit under their kotatsu for a while and chat and eat snacks.
  • Gav organised for a whole bunch of Phoenix people to go out for unlimited Korean BBQ. So much meat. Some of the people there were like PRO kbbqers. We… were not. But it was still very fun. I ate a lot but felt less terrible than after AYCE pierogies.
  • We started getting fruit and veg deliveries of rejected food. It’s been fun so far. It seems like a lot of the produce gets rejected because it’s too small or too large, but is still in perfect condition. We’ve managed to keep up with eating it all except the oranges are starting to pile up. I’ve never eaten many normal oranges. If you have any suggestions other than just cutting them up into wedges, let me know.

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Feels like ancient history at this point but here we go…

Jen had a birthday party in Bis’s common room where we all got to make our own books! She brought tons of supplies and helped us put them together. Very cool activity. We also played games and had a baked potato bar, and tried all sorts of crazy Kit Kats.

Ben & Jerry’s free cone day. Only had to wait 2 minutes in line too. I quite like their vegan cookie dough ice cream.

Jess told us about this art exhibit called DISH at Boroondara Town Hall. It was pretty neat! Scott appreciated the crochet stuff now that he knows how it’s done. There was a bunch of ceramic foods as well. We liked the banh mi the most.

Rally + Crafternoon combo day.

(This is what I was working on.) A gigantic beanie. It’s extremely warm because the band is like 4 layers of 8-ply wool. Scott has been using it inside the house. :P

I was a bit apprehensive about our April #SMAJ because it was in the exact same place that we’d gone for a previous SMAJ that was a bit meh. But this one was better. You basically just watched a BBC documentary about animals from all around the world on all the screens all over the place. Then we did the photobooth and got burgers for dinner.

Michael and Gina had us over for a delicious noodle dinner and to play Inis, Michael’s new favourite game. I found it a bit confusing, but we mostly got it by the end. Gina won twice. :D

Big Salad, and doughnuts from an appreciative patient. Balance.

Unpictured Stuff:

  • I competed in the Victorian Masters Championships. My first actual Masters competition. I didn’t have the best snatch day (45x/46/49x) and STILL couldn’t get a 60kg clean and jerk (56/59/61x) but at least I did 59kg which is technically a comp PB. I dunno. Weightlifting is annoying sometimes. Anyway I still got a silver medal (there were only two people in my category). Pretty much everyone there got a medal. I don’t have plans to compete again until the end of the year.
  • We went to a different brand of trivia one night with a couple of Scott’s friends, and even though there were approx 50 teams there, we won!
  • We started playing pickleball twice a week. There’s a new session that started up on Thursday nights that is all levels so we’ve brought tons of friends to come try. It’s been fun.

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Good things that happened in 2023:

  • We renovated our bathroom and laundry, and spruced up the rest of the house by painting and getting rid of the carpet.
  • MEP and Paul visited us here. We got to see thousands of penguins.
  • We had an amazing holiday in British Columbia full of friends, family, and nature.
  • Spent a lot of time with friends here. Lots of meals and board games.
  • Joined a birding photography group and saw a lot of birds.
  • Went on a cool trip to the Mallee.
  • Played a lot of pickleball.
  • Knitted a lot.

PBs: Snatch 48kg -> 51kg. Clean and jerk still stuck at 58kg in comp, and 60kg in training. Back squat still 73×1, Front squat 60×2, Deadlift 88×1, OHP 34×1.

Plus 4th place in a pickleball tournament. :D

New board games: Anomia, Project L, Sabobatage, I’m The Boss!, Diner, Homebrewers, Showdown Yahtzee, Potion Explosion, Isle of Skye, Colt Express, Scoville, Gold Ahoy!, Ramen Fury, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, Sushi Roll, Welcome To.

We played 26 games with 29 different people.

Highlights included playing Welcome To with Rosemarie as a remote player, touching fingertips to make deals in Squamish, and cross-breeding chilies with pals at the board game convention.

Books (in rough order from favourite to least):

  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – put off reading it because it was so long but ended up really enjoying it and was happy that it was so long, really liked reading what she had to say
  • Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus – liked it! silly, science, feminist, some clever bits
  • The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – not what I expected at all, it’s not a poetry book! Depressingly relatable
  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – good, some overlapping characters with Malibu Rising
  • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – if I had read this before learning about WWII in high school, I probably would have been a lot more engaged
  • Book Lovers by Emily Henry – easy read
  • Every Summer After by Carley Fortune – lil bit sexy, very Canadian.. set in Barry’s Bay
  • Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – short, easy, weird book about an autistic girl and an incel
  • Deacon King Kong by James McBride – slightly amusing, reminded me a bit of The Wire
  • Wanderers by Chuck Wendig – long, more modern version of The Stand, crazy that it was written pre-covid
  • Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stewart – some weird Scottish words, sad story
  • Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney – nice easy thriller
  • The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave – iunno, was ok
  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – bit too poetic for me
  • Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann – sad history book, didn’t know they were gonna make a movie

Great new recipes: Can’t really think of anything. All we ever cook now are Recipe Tin Eats and Pinch of Yum recipes. Maybe something from the Recipe Tin Eats cookbook?

Favourite bird pics:

Year of the fairy-wren, apparently!

Last year’s goals: Use my good camera more. (I think I used it less, oops.) Become more athletic. (Maybe? I’ve started doing plyometrics in my training, and my reflexes are getting better at pickleball, however I’m getting a heck of a lot more sweaty so I dunno…) Eat more protein. (Yeah, tuna!) More knitting. (Definitely accomplished this one.) Start volunteering in migrant services. (Nope.)

2024 goals: Use camera more!!! Design bird sweaters. Be more comfortable being me.

2023 final thoughts: The first half of the year was a bit difficult to do anything because of all the renovation projects, and then the last half of the year was difficult too because Scott lost his job. Thank goodness we managed to squeeze in our Canada trip in between. Hopefully Scott ends up getting a new job soon so that we go back to traveling and doing more fun stuff again.