November challenges

November was fairly busy with a couple of extra little pushes. Overall my energy was good and I enjoyed making the most of this month! I am finishing the month sick with Covid though.

First of all, I got my teeth stuck into a pilates challenge, 16 classes in Nov. I had to push very hard to fit them in, I did 5 classes in one week, and I would have finished it, but for the last 2 classes and Covid. But I did feel the benefit of pushing myself harder for a week or two, and I will aim to do that again. Get away from the maintenance rut.

I went to Woolies especially to get some goats cheese on special, and because the tag price was different, I got it for free! Over $20 of free cheese!

I challenged myself to finish the children's book because I actually did have time if I prioritised it, and it is currently at the printer!

I played cello for a piece in an ensemble of school students at a performance of the counterpoint choir, which is an amazing local choir. I will be playing again in December.

I bought a foil balloon for Lucy for her birthday, which was just fabulous, and Lucy has wonderful manners.

Zinnias have started flowering already, the weakest died and the strongest survive, so that means I have a lot of orange which I did not even buy, but there you go. Oh well, it is a vibrant fun mix!

I decided to go to the effort of hanging my fairy lights up this year. Last year we had JK's lovely tree, and I still don't feel like owning a tree, but I do feel like little bit of ambience around the house. And I found some tiny clear 3M hooks specifically for decorations, so I don't have to put holes in my painted walls again. And if I take the lights down, the hooks are invisible. They go around 3 rooms! 

I couldn't resist going to TK Maxx and smelling the christmas candles, and I had to buy this one, because it hit a nostalgia nerve TWICE. It hasn't triggered me when I've burned it at home, but it's a nice subtle smell and just the jar itself counts as a nice Christmas decoration.

I've got out my Christmas cup and plate for breakfasts. And that is all!

I had a Friday night with nothing and nobody so I decided to catch the Taylor Swift movie before it finished, and I am glad I did. A very fun concert movie.

I also organised an Austenland viewing with the church gal pals, at another girls house who has the room for it, and I made a lemon GF cake from recipe tin, highly recommend, quite easy and very light and yum.  Like a tea cake.

And even MORE socialising, there was a dinner at Honeysuckle with friends on a Friday night, I even put on special earrings and a going out shirt. It was horrendous finding a car park so I won't be doing that again in a hurry.

Back to my happy place, my home, and my current obsession, interior design. I often get an obsession for organising, but never for decorating. I'm loving watching Caroline Winkler on youtube, and some others. It has inspired me to get out some the paintings and things I've had stored away, and hang some up. I still have a lot of large blank walls which I enjoy as white space, but I've copied her way of clustering smaller groups of things in corners and narrow walls and also been encouraged to layer things. 

I had a day off to go to the oral surgeon and podiatrist. It was an exhausting day, and I discovered more horrendous parking situations in Newcastle at Charlestown, but I got my weird gum lesion biopsied, got my feet scanned for new orthodics, and then after a little rest I took my newly finished x stitch and the one G did that matches it, out to the framers and chose frames for them. 

I also got a few wee small frames and for now I have filled them with some native bird cards. 

I also went to a 2nd hand furniture place, so that was fun. I am obsessed with facebook marketplace so I'm trying to get around to the vintage shops as well. I have been avoiding excess furniture but if I can fill some empty gaps at a good price, that would be nice.

And then late in the month I suddenly settled on a couch I liked. On the website it had a lot of different small sizes which helps me a lot, so I could get a half sized ottoman for example, or a 2.5, 3 or 3.5 seater lounge, because I do not have the space for a big modular thing or even a large ottoman. So I went in to Nick Scali last saturday and sat in it, and I have to say it was comfier than I expected.

It is not the MOST comfortable, but it is one of the cheaper ones there so you get what you pay for, and the sizes sealed the deal. If I had the room to be generous, I would have bought the Iva, it was supreme comfort plus ticked some of the same boxes, but for small rooms, the Atlanta fits better and has the price. An insta friend recognised it as the model she is looking at which her SIL also has, so it seems to be the pick for small rooms. It was black friday sales so that helped, I spent $2550 on a 3 seater, armchair and small ottoman, which is now priced at $3300.

On Sunday I was tired and had a headache, but it wasn't a surprise bc it had been a very busy week, and I probably forgot to drink water on Saturday. I had a bit of a weird throat but that is not unusual, and the headache was the main issue for me.

On Monday though, after singing on Sunday night (we sounded great though!), my throat was WHACK!!! So congested and raw and kind of lost my voice. That was a surprise. I've had a raw throat before after singing, because as I said, bad throat is not unusual. I didn't feel sick, but I did a covid test, it was OK, so I went to work thinking I just sang too hard.

Started to get tired around lunchtime so I went home and slept. Had dinner and it tasted bland and weird, I thought I better get some more RATs. Parents dropped me over a few on Tuesday morning, as I was definitely sick, and they were positive.

M from church dropped me over some bread, bananas, chicken crimpies and lollies. Super thoughtful. This time around has been better, more like a cold than a flu. Throat congested but not tonsilitis so it doesn't hurt as much. Aches and tiredness, blocked nose. I watched a Christmas movie, some Friends, now I am checking out Murder House Flips. Sad to be missing the end of the pilates challenge and the work Christmas lunch (I get to keep my secret santa gift lol, always get something you want is my tip!). But, when I am feeling better I hope to do some little decluttering and organise some little areas, like the jar cupboard!

I have also been pretty regular with my new habit I am trying for journalling for more self reflection and bible reading and personal growth. Starting small and simple, with a notebook my Pastor gave me called Resilient Rhythms. 

So I do feel like I had a good November and had a few challenges and did my best and spread some joy. What else can you ask for.

October and the birds

 Birds were the theme this month! I spotted a tawny frogmouth nest in the trees next door, within eye line of my dining table. A couple of days later there were 2 chicks, and they quickly grew! I was away when they fledged, the nest is already empty, but I hope they will nest there again because the internet says they do get attached to nest sites.

I had a spontaneous opportunity to see the Billy Elliot musical at Newy Civic. The production was excellent. The singing was excellent. The dancing was very good. I think the simple poignant moments were my favourite - the mum's letter duet, the ballet with young and adult Billy. I also liked the grandma's song. None of the songs were memorable, they tried to be catchy but they weren't songs you'd want to listen to again and memorise the words obsessively, the 80s music from the film was more iconic.

The second half of October was holiday! I took off on Wed the 18th on an early flight to Brisbane then on to Darwin and met AM with a hire car, did a quick shop and headed to Kakadu national park. We went straight to Ubirr rock for the sunset, then to the Crocodile hotel at Jabiru for a late pizza dinner. A very long day.

The hire car betrayed us by scraping the road with some plastic next to the front left wheel. The next day we ingeniously repaired it with paper clips, only to have even more plastic fall down, so we ended up scrunching the plastic up and behind something else. This was the approach with the plastic on the front right wheel so we weren't very original.

The photos below are out of order, but basically we had 2 full days, and each day we did some short walks and a cruise. It was hot. But we took a LOT of water, and extra water in the car, and we saw amazing amounts of rock art and stunning views so it was worth it.

This was one of the cruises which was mainly looking at crocodiles, hearing about culture and the uses of trees, and stepping off onto the Arnham Land side to see a fresh water spring.

This was a walk we did where we actually got a little bit lost due to going backwards, we missed a sign, ended up on an access path, and some rangers turned us back. We were excited to show him our park passes and ID and tell him we had water. Turns out a woman was getting lost and dying in the bush while we were down there so water and getting lost isn't a joke, but we were pretty safe, it was just a bit of extra excitement.

I really liked seeing the art in location on country. Learning that they don't alter anyone elses art but they are allowed to paint over the top of it. Learning the art here is often an xray of the animals showing spines and stomachs. Learning some of the stories about lightening man and about fire woman.

The other cruise we did was a sunset cruise on the yellow river, which was fantastic for birds. So many birds! I had my binoculars, AM had a camera with a good zoom so these are her photos.

First, a great billed heron which we were told is rarely spotted.

Another highlight was the Jacanas, this is the parent with the babies all tucked up in it wings! I saw this as a photo when I was a child it was cool to see for real.

This is one of the babies.

This is the babies on my phone camera, as you can see, TINYYYYYYY.

We enjoyed the restaurant at the hotel - a lovely buffet breakfast, and some very delicious dinners. We had some afternoon swims in the pool to cool down. Ginger beers in the pool under the big shade cloth umbrella.

On Saturday, we headed back to Darwin, with a stop at a wetland with a nice shady viewing hide, saw many many other birds.

We didn't fill up with petrol in Jabiru so we had some excitement when the next petrol station had no pumps and it was 100km to Bark Hut. Some calculations on the fly around probably tank capacity and fuel economy, we decided to risk going forward instead of back to Jabiru. While the petrol light came on before Bark Hut, we were successful in not running out of fuel!

Here is the apartment building in Darwin CBD. We did another little shop, I bought ingredients as well so that I could cook and eat in the apartment, AM had a conference all the next week. We went straight out for dinner on the wharf for another sunset, we had Thai. 

We both went to different churches on Saturday morning. I caught the bus up to Nightcliff, went to a local market that was very cool, resisted buying screen printed dresses and parrot earrings, then walked to the anglican church. My friend wasn't there due to being sick, but I had a few other connections from the past and they were very friendly. 

On Sunday night we went to Mindil Beach for more markets, these were big ones, dinner and sunset at the beach. We no longer had the hire car, and it was a 40 min walk, so we decided to be crazy and ride the Neuron scooters. We made it back safely.

On Tuesday night we went to an asian restaurant nearby called Lazy Susans. Really nice.

I did Darwin at a fairly relaxed pace. I did some stuff in the morning, then would spend the afternoon at the apartment, chill down at the pool. Some of the stuff I did was, the botanical gardens and the museum/art gallery, the WW2 oil tunnels, and generally walking around the CBD looking at op shop, book shop, boutique, cool cafe. Anything that looked interesting and cool inside. 

On Monday, my friend was feeling better so in the afternoon she picked me up, we had lunch at a cafe in the industrial area that was very good, and then back at her place she taught me how to make polymer clay earrings. It was fun, very complicated, and I was very satisfied with my creations. In the evening we walked Charlie at the beach. The colours of the rocks and caves were stunning, and the water also stunning, and a lovely sunset. Shame you can't swim.

On Thursday I was due to fly to Brisbane, so I only went to a cafe for breakfast and then went to the airport. We all got on the plane to leave at 1pm, and then all got off, and then eventually the flight was cancelled. An issue with the wing caused delay, and then the crew had no time to fly. I did pray that all decisions would be made wisely and safely, so i can't complain with this decision. And of all the flights to cancel, this was probably the best. I wasn't making a connection, or trying to meet anyone urgently. I just went back to the apartment, bought maccas, saw AM again, and then went back to the airport in the morning for an 11am flight. I didn't get to spent 2 nights, a full day, with Heather in Brisbane, only one night. So she took me to Eat Street for diner (it was shockingly cold and I only had Darwin clothes!) and we watched the new little mermaid movie.

I used some downtime in Darwin to finish a cross stitch that has been going for almost a decade. I started it some time after I moved to Maitland. It matches one that G gave me! 

I got back to Maitland on Saturday morning, did an evening shop. Music practice on Sunday morning, music at 6pm church. Pretty quiet weekend. Took Monday off too, had some appointments, went to a bad cafe, pilates, pretty chill.

I had some time to think on my break, and I coalesced some vague thoughts into some intentions. Next year I turn 40. I should take some long service leave. I would like to step back from music for a while, sort of take long service leave off church rosters. I want to do life slower next year. I want to not just have a regular quiet time, but a deep quiet time. I want a bit of a change and also to grow, and not just go through the same motions next year. I'm not leaving this to be some kind of big NY resolution that isn't achievable. I am starting training now, to see if it sticks. I'm also pondering what I should cut out, what no longer serves its purpose. I think this blog might have turned into a chore, it might come to an end. I started it before I had a smart phone, and now instagram stories have all that sort of craft and adventure updates. The older I get the less I want to express myself too. A monthly recap has been good as a way to reflect on how I'm going, but it feels more like another job I have to cram in to my life lately. I don't know if it's being squeezed out or outgrown. I'm good at persisting with things for a long long time, and sometimes you need to stop the thing and maybe other things can happen. Anyway if you have been reading along here all this time, thankyou! I'll continue another 2 months and see what happens next year - I might keep going but I won't pressure myself if I don't want to.

September serenity.

It is Spring! I haven't put much love into my garden, but I did buy a few tulip bulbs and some anemones and stick them in pots, and I grew rainbow chard over winter so I am harvesting chard galore. I will resume poppies next year. 

I did the first mow of summer and now that is a fortnightly thing until Autumn, although the drought might slow it down some.

My home-resetting has continued. After the initial push, I had a break to recover, but finally tackled the spare room and the seasonal wardrobe change. I had a splurge and HnM home where I got some new towels, a table cloth, and a linen duvet cover for the spare bed on sale. And some candles of course.

I finished the Throne of Glass series (7 books but not the prequal) which has been quite an undertaking since the Christmas holidays. I then read the sequel to Austenland last weekend. I need to stay on this roll and get another book stat, however I have restarted the wheel of time audiobooks and I can't resist audiobooks, as bad as it is for attention span to multi task.

Having wheel of time viewing sessions every 2 weeks with Dad and JK.

I made some meusli. I loaded it with macadamia nuts and other nuts and seeds, and no dried fruit.

Lots of social things! JK had a bin fire at her new place to burn the backyard branches.

We also had a pub lunch.

Hung out with church women at someone's house-cooling party. Couches in the back yard, ultimate comfort.

Had a quick trip into newy on the train last saturday arvo to meet up at a multicultual event.

And I haven't been to Singleton in a while so on the public holiday Monday I went up for the morning and had a sister date, with Johnny, and also met the kelpie pup. We walked down to the local shops for a drink and a treat.

I made this bowl cosy while on the phone to Denise!

So all in all quite a peaceful and pleasant month. Pilates, cooking from the recipe tin eats book, yoga and walks with Ros, music at church, work going well, feeling normal to live alone now and in a good rhythm again.