April: wedding and travel!

The first half of April was apparently nothing worth taking a photo of! It was busy with work, pilates, getting pre travel jabs and so on. Easter, with its long weekend and special church services — my 6pm band did music for Praise and Passover so that was a load of work too.

And then finally it all started! 

Thursday night was Ginny's hens, with actual handbag making. A great idea, notwithstanding issues with the instruction videos. Heather and I finished ours on our trip, I used mine at the HK reception!

Friday night was a catch up dinner for any family in town at the Yacht Club, which was lovely, and we met some of the other side.

Saturday was a pretty casual day, all the travel stuff was really done by then, so we had all day to get ready for the wedding! It was in the afternoon at Medowie I think, a golf club.

It was a lovely ceremony, and a fun casual reception.

The speeches were great, I always enjoy good speeches.

The holiday photos won't be in order or fully represent the trip, it was all in my instagram and there are too many photos to sort through again!

One unfortunate thing was I had 4 bad nights sleep in a row, either stomach cramps or hip nerves. So by the weekend I was already sleep deprived, and my hip woke me up at 4am on Sunday morning well before the airport alarm. So I was headachy and exhausted for travel day. I drove us to Sydney, we left my car in a carpark and they shuttled us to the terminal, we were nice and early all smooth. As soon as we were on the plane I put on my mask and collapsed. We were delayed on the tarmac but I didn't care because at least I could close my eyes. The rest of the day was just about resting as much as possible, and then at the other end it was Heather's job to get us through Seoul to the hotel by midnight.

So we ate our packed lunches on the plane, and landed in Seoul, H helped me get a Tmoney card, the AREX was not running much because it was so late so we caught the regular train, but Heather was very confident and we made it to Seoul Station and then to MeyongDong, where Elsie met us with gimbap sushi for dinner. It was super late at night but we made it!

Our first day we took it slow. Had an unexciting breakfast, got cash out, went makeup shopping, had a sleep. Might have then gone to the shopping district with the buskers that night too. We realised that Korea doesn't have a lot of fruit and veg. But the street food markets near our hotel were cheap and tasty. And the strawberries were delicious, Korea is into strawberries.

Our second day we went to a palace with a garden. It was rainy and cold but that didn't matter much.

We then went to the Insadong area, found somewhere downstairs to have a hot lunch and warm up, we had beef hot pot Bulgogi, and a fish called pollock. 

We bought some cute hats and I really liked the shops in this area, they were less tacky stuff more cool stuff. We had afternoon tea of cake and drinks in this upstairs cafe with hammocks!

We picked the best weather day to go North to the Odusan Unification Tower and look over the river at north Korea. We caught the bus, then walked 23 min uphill, then walked through the small museum in tribute to the hope of unified north and south Korea one day, then looked through the binoculars, to my delight you can see tiny people. Remy later said its a fake village which makes sense because some of the apartments had no roof.

We had a sleep at the hotel, then went to Dongdaemun, unfortunatly too late to see many shops open at the fabric market, but we walked around it anyway. We had a drink where you buy a cup of ice and a sachet and mix the together, sitting in hillside garden below a section of old city wall. There is an original gate below, right at a busy city intersection. The contrast is fascinating.

We had fried chicken dinner on a rooftop with Hs Korean friend Grace, she ordered for us because the menu had no pictures or english. It was TASTY!! Another goal achieved for the holiday.

Then Thursday we did our hike up Inwangsan, which follows the city wall up and over. A great walk, really challenging though. We started from the city so it was interesting to see the houses and electricity lines.

 

We were super tired after that, and we had vague idea to see a comedy show called Nanta, but that seemed too much, so we didn't end up going. But we did see Remy! And she took us to a cat cafe. 

For our last dinner we spent the last of our cash on all the tasty food we hadn't yet tried at the street food market!

Then Friday was another travel day, H and I caught the trains back to the airport, and by the way we timed it pretty well with our Tmoney cards too! Then we flew HK Express to HK, which was a super organised and efficient flight, left on time to the minute. Check in at the hotel was hectic because apparently there was an EXPO of some sort, so we were numbered and called in groups, took us 45 min total. Then our room stank of cigarettes. Amazing views, 35 floor, but unbreathable. STRESS. Decided we needed dinner and then face the desk queue again about it. We had KFC, which was a lame choice but at least it was foreign KFC, with rice instead of chips or mash. Then I asked for a room swap and we got moved to 16th floor, and it smelled clean and we had a great time in that room. The beds were firm, and my hip stopped waking me up!

Saturday was another rest day. We walked around Tseun Wan to find money exchange and a supermarket. We got lost twice but eventually we were oriented. The supermarket had some good staples so we could set up our room with meusli, milk, bread, cheese and ham, and 2 minute noodles, which is both cheap and restful when you're travelling, to just eat in hotel and not always be looking around at foreign shops making decisions what to eat. Noodles in your PJs is a big energy saver.

We stayed in bed in the arvo and sewed our bags and read books. Then we went down a few floors to the reception! We had good chats with some of Ginny's fam who speak English, and have interesting jobs and such, and with Jason and Irene, and Maya and Mel. I took part in the tea ceremony as Matt's older sister! But was unprepared with gold gifts.

The night was basically a long family photo shoot, with 5 dresses for Ginny, and a 12 course banquet, we had a great time!

Sunday we all met for buffet breakfast and filled up! Then Heather and I went to St Andrews church, we loved it. A warm meeting, singing, communion, Romans, felt at home. Then we met the others up at the street markets, the puppies and kittens and fish in bags for sale, and the everything on the street. Then we went and explored a mall which was much more chill, and a japanese supermarket, and we had a late lunch of snacks and food court drinks.

H and I went back to hotel for a rest before meeting at the taxi rank to go out west for seafood dinner with Ginny's parents and the other Australians. Ginny's mum picked out the seafood at the live market downstairs and then it was all cooked for us in the restaurant. Some of it was sashimi style, some was battered, some was in sauce. Amazing experience!

The next day H and I went to the Palace museum, which has a lot of things from the Forbidden City. I enjoyed the history of ceramics, seeing the craft develop from earthenware jugs 2500 BC, to amazing coloured glazes and fine porcelains. The royal courts placed great value on design and craft, pride in creating better and better designs. 

We had hotel dinner but added some KFC egg tarts.

Wednesday H and I walked up the peak and met Matt and Ginny at the top. It was a nice bushwalk, but obviously much uphill. I have lost some weight after so much walking! Due to the rain and fog, no views, but it was cool at least for the walk. At the top, there was a shopping mall! We bought some gizmos and gifts, and had a nice lunch of wonton soup and noodles. 

We went back down on the tram, and then walked to the ferry, and took the ferry.

We explored the shopping mall at Harbourside, enjoying expensive Godiva ice cream, and gawking at the luxury shops that had ropes in the doors to stop the povvos going in.

Thursday morning H and I checked out and caught the trains to Disney! We checked in, and were entering the park at 10.45 or so, shortly after it opened and it was already crowded!

We had a lovely day. The weather was perfect! Sunny, low humidity, comfortable. Being mid week the queues were relatively OK, 15-20 minutes at most. We did queue 30 min for the lion king show to make sure we got good seats, but we only stood 15 min then we sat. in fact the queues were all very well planned so you moved fast, had things to look at, they set the scene. We did all the good rides, the 3D theatre ones, the roller coasters, the river cruise we did in the day with chinese guide and at night with the english language guide. We had packed sandwiches for lunch, but bought pork and rice for dinner. We stayed for the 8.30 fireworks and it only took us 30 min to walk and shuttle back to our hotel, where our bags were already in our room.

Explorers hotel was super comfortable and so much fun design! It was a shame we couldn't stay longer. The next morning we had a quick walk along the coast, snooped on the other hotels a bit, and then bought a souvineer for Julia and got Uber to the airport.

Then I spent all day at the Airport, half outside the checkin half inside the check in. I broke up the day well though, I read, went to bathroom, instagrammed, had lunch, sat around again, bathroom again, sat around more, finally checked in. Meanwhile my throat got sore. I did a rat, negative, and I bought cold and flu things at the chemist, so I wouln't be snotty on the plane. My early check in meant I got a recliner at the gate! Then J and I found me and we boarded a bit delayed, I got an exit row (I paid $25 for a window seat at the front and luckily it was exit row) and had an interesting chat with other passenger and the stewards. 

Then I rested, it was qantas so it was more comfortable then jetstar, but throat meant not really sleep, then we got out of the airport eventually, our bags were last on the carousel, then I got the shuttle back to my car and drove home. Park and fly worked well.

And JK had made soup, and sweep was happy to see me! I slept and unpacked and washed and slept and unpacked, and luckily my cold isn't too bad and I did another negative rat, so it isn't likely covid. 

A really wonderful 2 weeks, the joy of the wedding and the adventure of travel! 

A flash of March.

March has gone by in business. Cello, home group, workouts, home group, music practices, life admin. Work, things after work, things on the weekend. My mantra now is 'I want to be left alone'. Too much of a good thing. Here are some lovely highlights.

I was waiting for proper Autumn, but I did enjoy some really pleasant evenings. If I actually had nothing on after work, the best thing was to take a quilt into the back yard and read with some calming piano music. A quilt is a lot nicer than a picnic blanket. Highly recommend.

 

I actually had to cut back on pilates, because I was tired, napping at work in my lunch break, really flat battery. Did some blood tests, and my iron and white blood cells are low, but nothing worth doing anything about, so I just had to rest more really. I should have rested more when I was sick in January and December, because it's probably not good to fight infection for so long. I think I've just about stopped coughing in the morning though.

Park walk friend Cass has a new puppy so there are now 6 of us on our park walks.

I was uncertain about fitting into my usual wedding dress for the wedding, so I confronted the big shops in newcastle so I could go to the Review shop in Myer. I went first thing Saturday morning, bee line to Myer, Review, Sale rack, Size 14, tried on 4 dresses, the dark blue was the winner, I was done in 10 minutes. It was $300 down to $120, so happy! After that I met up at Heritage Gardens with Kristy and JK and had a classic brunch with friends, which is lovely and actually quite rare. We looked at plants and I didn't buy any.

Cant remember if have presented my parents finished floorboards but here they are, they are a sort of matte satin finish instead of shiny polish which looks great.

We had a family picnic near the croquet club and had a little game as well. Also on this day I did pilates and had a swim at the pool with Fi and her family, so that was exhausting but it was a lovely day to be outside, and I forgot how nice it is to go to the pool, it's closer than the beach, and it's in the park so grass and trees instead of sand. The water wasn't as nice, but it's still water.

Anyway this was pizza for lunch.

This must have given me the idea to have a croquet afternoon for my birthday, so here are the friends I invited having some fun games. It rained a little at first, but not enough to cancel the croquet.  JK made a really good cake with ganache. It was pretty easy to organise, and really relaxed and lovely.

I co-organised this Easter raffle and morning tea at work. Not with enthusiasm but it went well, my circus music soundtrack was a hit with all. Work isn't very stressful, it's picking up pace but not overwhelming. I have got a role upgrade which is pretty big, I will have to apply for my job mid year but for now it is a bit more money which is nice.

So yes, life is full of good things, my plate is a bit overloaded, but it's almost the easter long weekend, and then 2 weeks of travel! And I've stopped cello lessons, so that takes some of the extra logistics out of the week. Another month blogged.

February eventually.

 I didn't get a chance to blog last weekend, and my blogging willpower is getting weaker, so this was almost the month I stopped, but it's not too late now anyway, and also I don't want my phone to fill up with years of photos. It's funny the things that overwhelm. So many random things become stupid burdens or stressors for no reason. 2000 image and video files on my phone makes no difference really but the idea is horrible. Also I realised this weekend that I manage my life so as to always be doing things at the quietest time. I do my groceries early on Sunday morning, the carpark is quiet, Coles is unbusy, nothing else is really open, it's calm. Plus I often get meat on special. Yesterday I went to the "big shops" in Newcastle and I was parking by 9:15, so that I had a calm drive and an easy park and a quiet shop to do my business in. I am more likely to go to a spontaneous Pilates class if there is only 5 people in it than if there are 15 other people in it. So anyway, anxiety of unsorted photos will probably keep me blogging forever.

Having said that February was very light on interesting photos. The year ramped up, the routine is now full of cello and pilates and home group and music organising again. Admin for the upcoming trip as well. I'm still plugging away at the Throne of Glass book 5 in my spare time. There isn't much energy for anything much right now!

Suddenly Maitland Show was on, and Ros and Naomi and I went on Saturday evening, it was a really hot day, but it was a nice evening. Unfortunately there was a storm so the fireworks were canceled. But we ate Korean chicken and saw some motorbikes jumping and went to the craft pavilion. 

Heather must have been down for some reason and we must have gone kayaking again! 

I got some Rockport shoes online, and I agonised for ages about the size. Big news, I've decided to go up a shoe size. But I'm not happy about it. When I look down my new shoes seem huge. However, they are comfortable, that is all that matters isn't it. This is middle age.

I had 2 small achievements. I put this fabric up on the wall at work. Measured wrong so it's not as good a job as how I did my old office. But it's still a win!

And I got the air plants that were hanging upside down off their ring, and glued them to some driftwood JK found for Percy, and now they hang in the ring again. 

I have been doing Korean in Duolingo and I enjoy learning the alphabet. Don't think I'll get any useful words for travel but I can interpret the word CHICKEN.

At work I have started illustrating another children's book about the horses. I've done all the sketches like this and now I'm doing the draft drawings (more detailed but still sloppy colours).

I spent a few Saturday hours in Singleton and helped Julia take the 2 youngest to the pool. 

I've been put on to an app called Lectio 365 which is an app for morning and evening prayer. It's very calming and grounding, I highly recommend. 

One little joy lately has been taking a quilt onto the back lawn in the evening when it's shady and not so hot, putting some mellow music on and reading.

Here is a very striking moth we saw on a lunchtime walk. It is named after Joseph's colourful coat.

And that's really it. Feb was busy. I've wound up tired now, low iron blah blah blah. But so far so good this year.

January reading.

My goal in January was to read a lot. I spontaneously decided to do a bible reading plan to read the whole bible in January, and I also have the 5 Throne of Glass books. I managed to finish the bible reading plan, and I’m on track to finish book 5 by the end of this month when I need to return it to the library. It has been really good to make myself read print again, and also the challenge to smash through the bible really quickly was a very interesting experience. Missing things due to the speed, but getting a birds eye view and having an emotional journey through the whole story arc. I used the you version app, the NLT translation for easier reading, and I did a lot of audio, on 1.25 speed. The OT especially became one story, most of it pretty depressing, but the high points had such contrast then. I wish it had been a chronological plan, that would be interesting to do.

The first week of the year was pretty quiet, just reading and doing lots of pilates. On Friday I headed to Ulladulla for the week. Picked up Elsie, visited G at her mums place, drove in a lot of rain, stopped at wet Bulli for chips and a hot chocolate for lunch, stopped at Berry and had a lovely browse - Berry was insanely busy. Finally arrived at our holiday house.

 Our first day there it was cloudy and damp, and beach places do not look good in the rain. My favourite shop there was called SLOW, they make clothes there in the shop out of lovely fabrics. 

We also went to nearby Milton, which was another insanely busy place, more of a charming country town than a harbour town, so it was a good use of a rainy day. We looked at the shops and especially enjoyed trying on expensive raincoats. I now have a budget tracking spreadsheet so I was able to resist spending $500 on a raincoat.

Gin and G joined us, and we cooked hello fresh meals through the week, which was a great way to have proper meals without having to stock up on fridge and pantry things. 

Sunday was sunny, we walked around and checked out Ulladulla again, mainly the local marine rescue markets, and E and G bought tickets for the circus. It was time for church to start and we were right there so we went to the Anglican Church and met some nice people.

Monday We had one fancy lunch out at a restaurant with a kitchen garden, called Milkhaus, on the other side of Milton, it was a converted old cheese factory. We had some interesting drinks, delicious lunch and dessert, and a nice explore of their lovely garden.

We swam at Mollymook in the afternoon. It was hot and sunny, I wore my rashy and my swimming cap because beach hair is bad on me. I felt like a dag wearing a swimming cap at the beach, but so convenient. Then I heard a couple of teen girls commenting on it and being like, how good is that, I hate how my hair gets, lets do that next time. Mark my words, I may have started a trend among the yooths.

The house was basic but fine. We had no internet. So no streaming, and I read a lot. Our viewing consisted entirely of the Bachelors each night, which was a lot of fun.

The rest of the week was just more swimming including in the harbour pool, snoozing, reading, fish and chips one day, op shopping, there were some great vintage shops there, and Elsie sitting on the balcony researching her next holiday. On the last day I found a devilled egg plate at a vintage shop!

Drove home the following Friday, I picked some hydrangeas and enjoyed them a lot for 2 weeks after.

Then I got sick again. I basically kept coughing from my throat infection at the start of Dec right through to a sinus infection in mid Jan, so I had a little extra time off work.

I cooked a brisket! With something like the recipe from the Recipe Tin Dinners cookbook Ros gave me for Christmas. It was delicious and the Instant Pot worked great.

I took the Friday after Aus Day off and we went up to the Smiths holiday place at Hawks Nest again, did some puzzle, had a swim with the cavoodles. Sweep got dumped a bit trying not to lose us in the waves, but eventually he managed to watch JK swim from a distance.

On Saturday I had a blind date with a man from Sydney, he caught the train up and we had lunch and walked around newcastle. I enjoyed talking to him, but I'm not particularly motivated to date someone 2 hours away, so I'm not sure what will happen. It was a really hot day, even at the beach.

I had also caught the train, but due to naughty teens on the tram, missed my connection by 30 seconds and it was an hour wait to the next one. But lucky I had my book! so I went to the coffee club next door and bought cold sweet things and had a good rest. I had to head out for the evening to a home group social, also outside by a backyard pool, so it was a long hot tiring day.

Then the rest of the year dropped into schedule. I had 5 day work weeks, cello lessons started, Jillian with Ros, Park walks with Cass, pilates every chance I can. Started to plan my overseas trip with Heather and Elsie, figuring out where to go when and the meeting up and splitting up timings. It's 11 Feb because of the busy weekends so yeah, life is happening again, and I feel a little nostalgia for lockdowns and simplicity. But everything is going OK, I'm feeling healthy and strong due to meds and pilates,