August, winter to spring.

Hello readers! Spring is upon us and I have enjoyed it. 

I had a long weekend visit from E and I have no photos of us doing anything because we had a very relaxed time. We went to op shops, Kmart, Aldi, had lunch with Dad (see below greek pastry thing from Aldi), had a nice walk at Walka Water Works, and chilled at home a lot. Shared each other's online churches.

We tested out the local Vietnamese food truck that is in someone's front yard and I've never been brave enough to visit, it was really good and the owner is lovely so would repurchase, and have converted others as well.

Not much "deep cleaning" this month, but I borrowed dads gurney and cleaned my back step, freshened it up and moved the pots around and got rid of red back spiders.

I also finally got rid of my broken dishwasher! Got it collected by metal recyclers. Now I have a useful place for my bins. That took like 2 years.

This is my first public mask wearing, which was at bunnings.

My work friend A invited me and another colleague over to her place to have Raclette, which is a little indoor BBQ grill that you can put cheese in little pots underneath to melt. So everything gets covered in melted cheese. Neighbour joined us so it was a random mix. Great to see her house finally, it's a "shouse" ie shed house. A good hour drive away though, which is a beautiful drive, but I would be a hermit if I lived an hour away because I'm too lazy to go that far to see anybody. I live in the suburbs for a reason. 

My TV obsession in August was the Malory Towers adaptation on iView. Really well made, simple and authentic and happy. Good nostalgic escapism. I have also of course enjoyed the Bachelor franchise. Not that I like the actual Bachelor, it's the interactions of the rest of the cast and crew, and the recap analysis of the show on podcasts. Is someone a villain or is that just how they are presented by the edit, etc.

Health wise, I have been waking up every night and having a headache every 3 days. I thought I must be dehydrated or something so I bought a new drink bottle with hour markers on it. Finally at the end of the month mum said "what side effects does that implant have?" and lo and behold, headaches, bad sleep, hot flushes, etc etc etc. I think drinking more water helps, the headaches have decreased, but also, just good to know that I have only 2 more months of bad sleep and so on, it's not something I have to try and fix.

Tired of feeling too tired to exercise properly and full of bad habits, I decided to start going for morning walks. I usually jog a few blocks. I walk wed-friday in the morning, evenings on the weekend. Monday and Tuesday are too long to add walks, I need to save my energy. This week I was too tired on Wednesday (I woke up ok but body was achy and brain rebelled at forcing myself), walked on Thursday cos still rather flat, and walked with jogs on Friday. This is me not looking invigorated to be walking at 6.30am.

This is the lovely sunrise the first morning I walked. 

Re obsessions, I want bright clothes. I have, for the sake of comfort, worn a lot of frumpy dull clothes. Glad I bought bright comfy clothes from Birdsnest but I want more. My wardrobe has a lot of grey neutrals, which are practical, professional, soft on the eye, easy to blend and match together. What I suddenly want though is lots of clashing bold colours. I almost spent $300 on Gorman on sale. Then I had a fruGal assessment and decided I should sew something, so T found me a free pattern, and I got some orange cotton/linen on sale at spotlight, and for $40 I achieved a satisfying bright comfy dress. It has received compliments from strangers so this is something I should do more of. I will not reuse the free pattern though, it is somehow both tight and baggy. But now I've tested the style I feel better if I buy a pattern and more expensive fabric.

Finally, I saw Lucy twice! Once I rushed to my parents because she was visiting, and then last weekend I went up with my parents and had the arvo. There was chicken yard construction, and I went home with a kefir mother.

My current obsession is cutting out sugar, cos I know it made me feel better, but now it has crept back in all over the place. Honey here, fundraiser chocolate there, connoisseur because someone visits. Got some library books to motivate me. 

I'm also adding bible reading habits back in, now after work. And then after that I do cello practice. Getting habits right really helps get stuff done. But having energy helps too, it's a vicious cycle in Winter.

My garden is full of flowers, which I will post next month, although the poppies have not amounted to much sadly after all my labour hatching them from seed. Everything else is blooming though so I still have posies and the sweet peas smell gorgeous.