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Pat turned 70 and the whole family got together for a succulent Chinese meal in Boronia. It’s always nice to have the family together (only missing Michael and Luca), and I think Pat really liked it because he teared up a bit when he thanked us all for coming.

We had the girls over for a sleepover before Ava and Jess’s flight back to Sydney. We played some games and watched a movie and had snacks. I heard a lot of thumping and bumping coming from the living room over night!!

An elder millenial giving up her skinny jeans (for now). Ava is my style inspiration.

Geared up for an excursion into and onto the roof. A lot of the insulation had been thrown around during the renovations so we spent some time nestling them all back in place. It felt like doing every single hip mobility exercise in a row. I think it’s worked though (along with some of our other draft reduction projects) because this winter hasn’t felt quite so miserable as the last few.

Michael and Gina had us over for an excellent lunch. I felt like we were at a Japanese restaurant! We played Critter Kitchen and Nekojima. Critter Kitchen is really fun! Lucky that we won that from Sonika’s raffle.

Dumpling dinner in the city. Scott was very brave wearing his brand new hoodie, I definitely would have dropped something on myself.

Scott organised for us to do a printmaking class in the city for one of his #SMAJ activities. It was fun, although I felt very rushed, but maybe that is good for me, to not try to perfectionize every activity.

Scott and I did a pickleball tournament at Eastern Indoor Centre and managed to come second! The tournament ran very far behind schedule and we had to wait AGES in between games so it was a weird evening of warming up and then getting cold and having to warm up again. We only finished second in our pool to make it into the semi finals, but played very well in the semis to make it into the final! And then we got smashed in the final, haha.

We had a family birthday dinner at Jemma’s. Myles and I made lots of origami shuriken, which he later combined into a ULTIMATE SHURIKEN. Love it.

Tiny bit of progress on the cable knit blanket.

Unpictured stuff:

  • So much pickleball. Social sessions, drills, and private lessons. I also did a DUPR session at Eastern Indoor with a random old man partner to try and get used to the courts/balls before the tournament. Good thing I did because I was hitting everything out of bounds that day. Sorry partner.
  • Scott worked hella overtime running exams. Very long days for him. He has a lot of TOIL.
  • I went to a Discord meetup. Was nice to see everyone again and meet a few new people as well. The highlight was the apple caramel slice that one person brought. Delicious.
  • I started doing Bodypump classes at the gym near my house. It’s a bit silly and I spend a lot of time flailing around, but it’s also fun and at least I am doing something. Gym motivation is very low these days.

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    Another one! Here we go!

    I voted in the Australian Election! Very different than the Canadian ballot, haha. We went in the afternoon and they did not have any democracy cake left.

    After six long months, Scott was finally allowed to play sports again! It was very exciting and he managed to come back to pickleball without immediately hurting himself, something I was very worried about. He is now back into everything, and doing well.

    The Friday night pickleball crew has started going out for dinner together afterwards sometimes. We actually went out for dinner twice in May! The first time we had DIY hotpot, and the second time we had Korean fried chicken. Delicious and fun. There’s a whole strip of great cheap Asian restaurants nearby which is very handy. Always great to hang out with new friends in a different location and get to know them a bit better.

    We went over to Scott’s friend Kerry’s house for dinner and games. We played Azul with Sophie and Wingspan with the grownups. (She started off helping me but lost interest.)

    We went to Sonika’s board game charity event that we went to last year as well. It was a very fun and successful afternoon. We played two new games with Bis, Lara, Jen and Robert: Verdant and Micropolis, which were both simple and strategic games. And then Scott and I did very well in the raffle! We ended up getting three of our tickets pulled, including one very close to the beginning, so I got to pick off the best shelf. I picked a game called Critter Kitchen, which we have only had time to play once so far but seems cute and fun. We also got a dexterity game about cats, and a cooperative game (oops, lol).

    I went to a big nuclear medicine conference (in Melbourne). It had been about 12 years since I’ve been to a big national nuc med conference (the last one was in Vancouver). I found this one pretty good and useful… sometimes they can spend too much time talking about experimental PET tracers and theranostic stuff that we will never get to see in real life… but this conference had a lot more common day stuff. I learned some new things and got reminded of some things I had forgotten, and caught up with some old pals from other hospitals. The food was pretty good too!

    The craziest thing was one morning I was going up the escalators for an early breakfast lecture, half asleep after going to the sponsored event the night before, and I really recognized the person in front of me, but it wasn’t making sense. I was so confused. I followed him into the session and went to the same table and took a peak at his name tag… aha… it was the doctor I worked with in Vancouver!! I told him who I was and asked him what he was doing here and he said he came to visit his daughter who lives here now/come to the conference! We got to have a really nice catch up and he took a picture of us so he could show it to the team back at VGH and it was all really random and cool!

    Because I went to a conference on the weekend I got to have two days off work later on (pretty sweet eh). I used one of them to drive to Brunswick to get tailored jeans at Dejour Jeans, and vegan ice cream. I got two pairs of wide leg jeans and the ice cream was toasted almond caramel flavoured from Luthers Scoops. Delicious.

    Do you like the onesie that Scott got me?

    Knitting Updates:

    I finished the mohair fingerless gloves and then realised that mohair gives me the ick. It doesn’t bother Scott though so he has claimed them.

    PS I don’t like how it is really obvious where I’ve caught the floats in the middle of the light squares and blocking didn’t really help get rid of it… any tips?

    I also finished the drab sweatshirt! I think it’s my favourite piece of clothing I’ve made so far (although Rosemarie’s sweater is also really nice). I’ve been wearing it a lot, it’s nice and warm.

    I started a cable knit blanket. It’s going to be couch sized, so this will be a long running project.

    Unpictured stuff:

    • We had a Mothers Day dinner at Brett’s house with erryone.
    • We signed up for the Fitness Passport program through my work so now we can go to tons of different gyms. I’ve tried a couple metcon classes and Bodypump, and Scott has been dabbling in pilates.
    • I got called in to work. Very rare. Cha ching.

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    A busy month, but I mostly only took food pics? Oops.

    We went out for gnocchi for my friend Jen’s birthday. Our group took up almost the whole restaurant. I had vegan gnocchi and it was a fun and delicious evening.

    One of Scott’s #SMAJs was to take us to the Werribee Open Range Zoo. We walked around a lot and saw lots of stuff, like the elephants, hippos, zebras and gorillas… but we didn’t go on the safari bus! Which is apparently like the best part of the zoo!! Because we didn’t know that it was free!!!

    (The key part of SMAJ activities is that Scott is supposed to do all of the planning and research and I just get to show up, so I had not talked about the zoo with anyone ahead of time because I didn’t know we were going.)

    So a little bit of a SMAJ fail. We still did have a nice enough time, but maybe didn’t see everything there, and definitely not as close. It did make for some funny conversations at work the next day when they told me that the bus was free. I guess we have to go back some other time.

    We went to see the Crash Test Dummies! I thought it was funny when they asked “Who listened to us in the 90s??? Who are the adult children of people that listened to us in the 90s???” (Me.) The dude still has a super low voice. They are one of the few bands that I know most of the words to their songs.

    I voted in the Canadian Election. At least I think I did. The envelope has one of those Postage Paid printed stamps… I don’t know how high priority that gets sent through the postal system.

    I woke up on a Saturday morning desperate for a cold cut sandwich. So we headed to Saul’s Sandwiches for lunch and had a lil picnic in the sun. It hit the spot.

    Damien cooked up an epic Easter lunch for the whole family, with lamb and potatoes, and we all brought salads. Jemma made a delicious carrot cake. I feel spoiled.

    Another #SMAJ! This time he took us out to try Burmese food, under recommendation from his new Burmese coworker. We just ordered things that we hadn’t heard of before. Everything we tried was tasty!

    We had a very spontaneous afternoon games sess with Michael and Gina. Maybe it’s better to do it this way? Short and sweet and no pressure to clean and prepare everything perfectly. We played Finspan.

    KNITTING UPDATES:

    I started a pair of fingerless gloves because I wanted to try knitting with mohair, and finished the pair of slightly tweedy ribbed socks. I really like how the mohair looks, and how the socks turned out.

    I nearly finished the drab sweatshirt, and then ordered a bunch more wool for a blanket and a cardigan and realised that maybe I am always drab.

    Unpictured stuff:

    • Between Scott and I, approximately one million medical appointments. There was some concern that my heart was going too slowly but turns out everything is fine, I am just healthy.
    • I went to Hawthorn to watch the Oceania weightlifting comp. Enjoyed how supportive (aka LOUD) the Samoan team is of each other. Nice to catch up with a few of my old weightlifting buddies, but they did not manage to convince me to start weightlifting again.
    • Scott started working!!!!!!!!! He is enjoying the job and they seem really good and organised!
    • We planted 50 bulbs of garlic. If they grow properly, you may receive garlic as part of your Christmas gift.
    • I started going to pickleball drill sessions where we just do drills for two hours. Some might find it boring but it’s been really helpful for me and it’s very physically and mentally challenging. Ana is very strict about technique. I now do 2-3 social sessions a week and one drills session.
    • We went to watch the movie Sinners which I enjoyed quite a bit! I think it was good that I went in blind as well.

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    Just a quickie little post.

    Scott made chocolate shortbread cookies with the wombat cookie cutter he got at the Lost Trades Fair. He made them again another time with a shredded coconut “fur” as well. Adorbs.

    I continued to play pickleball three times a week.

    And I continued to minorly injure myself at pickleball. This was from my partner crashing his paddle into my hand when we were both going for the same ball. Lesson learned: remember to call the ball.

    PS the bruise is gone but there is still a lump underneath the skin from this… several months later… should I be concerned??

    I finished one ribbed sock. I think they look quite professional if I do say so myself. My most successful socks so far.

    I continued working on my drab sweatshirt. Pretty happy with this one as well.

    I went to a board games night at Bis’s where we played Rosemarie’s copy of Finspan. For a first time playing, five player game, it went quite well, it didn’t drag on too long. Finspan is simpler than Wingspan.

    Unpictured stuff:

    • We did a barefoot bowls session at Scott’s club with my work team. Scott came and helped. We had a good turn out and the bbq was great and everyone enjoyed the cheap prices at the bar.
    • Scott had an interview at UniMelb and ended up getting the job! Hooray!!

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    It was a busy month, this is going to be hella long!!

    Carrying on the gingerbread house tradition with new friends. :) Carrying on the tradition of having WAY TOO MUCH candy! Building gingerbread structures in very high humidity is not ideal.. there were some struggles. It took a while to figure out which icing would work. But in the end we got there, mostly. Fun was had.

    Poor Ash’s house already collapsed by the next morning due to moisture issues.

    Scott and I decided that instead of getting each other Christmas presents we would finally get ourselves a stand mixer. I did some extreme couponing and we ended up getting a great price on a fancy Kenwood mixer on Black Friday. It is AWESOME. It has a scale built into it!! I made strawberry cupcakes to break it in.

    We had our work Christmas lunch at the Espy this year. There was so much food this year it was ridiculous. I screamed when they brought out an entire dairy free pizza for me as a substitute for the little pieces of deep dish pizza, hahaha. We all brought so much stuff home.

    I went to SO MANY Christmas parties. They were all great! Christmas BBQ at Sonika’s, Christmas pool party brunch at Naomi’s, Christmas dinner at Scott’s bowls club, and English Christmas lunch at Maz’s. So much eating. So much fun. I especially liked playing in the pool with Sonny’s kids, and duck fat roasted potatoes at Maz’s.

    Some delicious party meals.

    Pre-Christmas crochet time with Ava. #summeroflyingdown

    Maybe a new Christmas tradition… cinnamon buns for Christmas morning. Next time I’ll use yeast that didn’t expire 4 years ago. They still turned out pretty delicious though!! I stood next to the dough being kneading in the mixer in awe for the entire 8 minutes.

    Luca seemed to like the mimic that Scott made for him! He was going around chomping everyone’s limbs.

    Christmas Day was the usual in Boronia, an insane amount of presents, an insane amount of food, backyard cricket, chats with family, pictures. No waterslide this year as Shaun’s family had gastro and no one wants that combination. :D

    Our December #SMAJ was going to Day 2 of the cricket with Da Boys. I did enjoy the Boxing Day Test this year but I found it hard to see the ball and follow what was happening in real life. Plus it was very crowded. Scott did bring us thermos hot dogs though! We lasted four or five hours before both of us really needed to leave, and we got to see both teams batting and several wickets, so overall a successful outing.

    Still playing heaps of pickleball all around the city. I checked out the Eastern Indoor Sports Centre which has actual pickleball lines, for a drills and structured play session. It was good!

    Churning out Lake Reed cable knit hats. Fun to learn a new technique! I finished the pink/burgundy one in 2 days for a Kris Kringle gift.

    Lake Reed cable knit hat, before and after blocking. Makes a big difference, doesn’t it?

    Rosemarie’s sweater, finished! Before and after blocking. Really pleased how this one turned out.

    Vacuum packed Bingo and sweater for travel to Squamish. I don’t think Bingo has fully recovered yet.

    Unpictured stuff:

    • Scott has had many MRIs and doctors appointments. The good news is that he’s not concussed and at least we know what the problem is now, and it’s fixable, the bad news is that it’s going to take a little while to get through all the steps, and he might need surgery. He’s still uncomfortable but I guess he’s learning more how to balance lying down time and doing some activities. We’re hoping that we’ll get some updates this week or next week, after all of these public holidays.
    • We went to trivia at a new place, which is always a novelty, but it was very loud and the seats have no backs and my (vegan) pizza was very wet.
    • Our belated November #SMAJ was going to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie at the theatre with the Lonard’s. Ava was giggling the whole time. I loved it too.