Remember to Breathe

Around here ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 04:48:00 +0000

Celebrating the Little Girl's 18th birthday with lunch at The Epicurian. Shared plate of calamari to start, gnochhi with wagyu ragu and Eton mess ... yum!.

Listening to the rain on our roof. After some gorgeous warm spring weather this week, the rain has come which is good for the seeds planted out in my veggie garden.

Eating the last of my framer's market rhubarb. I can't even begin to describe what a pleasure eating it was. If you have a bunch of rhubarb try this recipe. You will not be disappointed. Just make sure that you leave it in the oven long enough to get very soft which, for me, was longer than the recips said. We also had Matt Preston's Indian Aloo Gobi try bake while Hubby was away because he hates cauliflower and we decided that we may need to ignore Hubby's aversion to cauliflower because this dish was seriously good.

Exegeting my text for my thesis. I've nearly finished my initial work on the Greek, hopefully I'll be done this afternoon, then I'll need ot hit the library in a more systematic fashion.

Waiting to pick up The Boy who gets home from youth group camp this afternoon. They've been away since Tuesday, I'm sure he'd prefer to stay on camp indefinately.

Planning a big day of shopping tomorrow. The Little Girl has finished her practice exams and has time to find a dress for the valedictory dinner, plus we may look for a necklace ... her 18th birthday present.

Reading The Hero of Ages the final book in the Mistborn trilogy.

Watching Travelers, Blindspot and we just finished watching season 3 of Lethal Weapon. Also the room reveals for The Block.

Listening to Freakonomics Radio and The Next Right Thing.

Wondering whether it's too late to join in October CY365. Maybe I'll just do a 3-4 each week.

and some links ...

1. We've reached peak Wellness. Most of it is nonsense. Looking after the basics is where it's at.

2. Gardening Could be the Hobby that Helps you Live to be 100. Well since I'm currently planting out the veggie garden after it lied fallow over the winter ... come back in 50 years and we'll see.

February Books in 25 Words

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 05:26:00 +0000

I only got two books finished this month. I've got a little bogged down in Middlemarch and The Habit of Being which I should finish in the next week or so.

Non-fiction:

The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel

Women employed as cheap computing and recording labour for male astronomers end up leaving a significant legacy in the early photographic exploration of the universe.

Fiction:

The Legacy by Gemma Malley.

Peter and Anna’s hidden life is interrupted when a deadly virus sweeps the country. Identities are finally revealed as the trilogy comes to its conclusion.

January's Books in 25 Words Each

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 05:15:00 +0000

Last year I read about 40 books but it feels like sometimes I forget what I’ve read as soon as I move onto the next book so this year I’m trying a few different things to get more out of my reading. One thing I will be trying is to write 25 words about every book I read. Here's January's books:

Non-Fiction:

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch

The post-Christian church faces a number of challenges. It needs to rediscover the latent "Apostolic genius" that powered the growth of the early church.

Messy Church Theology. Ed by George Lings

A series of essays and case studies exploring discipleship, church and mission in the context of Messy Church. My focus: working the text, further discipleship.

Draft No. 4 by John McPhee

Lessons and anecdotes from a long career in non-fiction writing. Lesson learned: The importance of the lead. If the structure eludes, write the lead first.

Habits of Grace by David Mathis

An in depth look at a variety of spiritual disciplines from contemplative to communal - the means to ready ourselves to receive the gifts of God as he chooses.

Stasiland by Anna Funder

This creative non-fiction weaves Funders' investigative reporting experience in a post-wall Germany with the stories of her interviewees- victims and perpetrators of the Stasi tyranny.

Fiction:

Never Let Me Go by Kazo Ishagawo

The gradual revelation of the horror of their dehumanisation plays second fiddle to their mundanely familiar humanity and frustrating acceptance of "completion."

The Declaration by Gemma Malley

Indoctrinated since childhood to consider herself surplus, the arrival of Peter at the Hall challenges everything Anna believed. Together they will find a new way forward.

The Resistance by Gemma Malley

Continues the story of Peter and Anna who join the Underground to fight the authorities and put an end to the inhumane use of surpluses.

To blog or not to blog ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 06:35:00 +0000

Each year in January I like to take some time to consider the coming year. With holidays I have some time up my sleeve to think about things. On my list this year I wrote "what to do with the blog." I feel like it's been limping along the last couple of years as I've prevaricated over what this space should look like. Why Blog? Should I even keep blogging? While considering the question, I have also been cleaning out my bookmarked posts from feedly and came across a post by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks about maintaining a Long-term blog. She writes:

" Here's how I approach this site, and have for a long time. I think of it as my practice. ... Contributing something new each week helps me develop in areas that I find important creatively - cooking, writing, taking photographs - and the only way I'm able to grow is through experience, experimentation, and regular practice."

The majority of my words over the past few years have gone towards my assessments for uni, and lists and notes in my diary. To be honest, a lot of the time I previously spent on photography, scrapbooking and writing has been sucked into time-wasting internet, facebook, juicy comment threads. I want to reduce that and replace it with activities that are meaningful to me. As I considered Heidi’s thoughts on her blogging I realised that this space offers something unique in my life:

A place to practice writing for a non-scholarly audience.
A place where I practice the discipline of shaping the unruly thought in my head into a coherent form that is hopefully understandable to others. Learning to connect the dots between related ideas and practice the discipline of appropriate word selection and structure.
A place to work through what I think, as I often find that it only as I write about something that I work out what I really think.
A place to practice story-telling as an important aspect of how we understand ourselves and the world.
A resource to draw on in conversation, writing and speaking.
The impetus to notice, the everyday, the conversations and what I’m reading, and to think more deeply about these things.

I’ve decided to keep this space and be more diligent in my practice as the benefits above will only come when I make use of it.

Some links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 26 Jan 2019 07:25:00 +0000

It's Australia Day today. This morning I went running with Hubby and The Little girl at The Tan with our running group, followed by a yummy brunch. They were preparing for the RACV Australia Day festival at the domain so we got to see the vintage cars all lined up along Birdwood Ave. We realised afterwards that we should have popped over to Government House which was open by the time we were finished. Maybe next year. Here's some links for the long weekend:

1. Australia Day is becoming increasingly controversial. Australians Together offers some perspective on the issues.

2. An easy way to reduce Greenhouse gas emissions and save yourself some money? Waste less food. 23 Simple Ways to Reduce Foodwaste.

3. I'm not terrible with my technology use, I charge my devices downstairs overnight but I do find myself getting sucked into the rabbit warren. It's something I'd like to improve this year, read this article interviewing Cal Newport on Digital Minimalism

"Digital minimalism is a clear philosophy: you figure out what's valuable to you. For each of these things you say, "What's the best way I need to use technology to support that value?" And then you happily miss out on everything else. It's about additively building up a digital life from scratch to be very specifically, intentionally designed to make your life much better."

4. 25 simple Resolutions you can Make to improve your city in 2019.

5. I listened to Anne talk to Jim Mustich, author of 1000 books you should read before you die. Great conversation about books.

To instruct myself ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 01:22:00 +0000

Do you ever find yourself, like me, at the end of a week, where the moments are blurred together into a familiar, mind-numbing routine of ticking tasks from a never-ending to do list?

And have you noticed that the things that clamour most insistently for our attention, are the worst things, the life-draining things?

An antidote— to practice the discipline of recognising the good, the true, the beautiful. In the words of Mary Oliver, who died last week, “to instruct myself over and over in joy.”

“Mindful” by Mary Oliver

Everyday

I see or hear

something

that more or less

kills me

with delight,

that leaves me

like a needle

in the haystack

of light.

It was what I was born for —

to look, to listen,

to lose myself

inside this soft world —

to instruct myself

over and over

in joy,

and acclamation.

Nor am I talking

about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,

the very extravagant —

but of the ordinary,

the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help

but grow wise

with such teachings

as these —

the untrimmable light

of the world,

the ocean’s shine,

the prayers that are made

out of grass?

50 Things that Made my 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 04:37:00 +0000

Inpired by Austin Kleon. A list of the big things, the trivial things and the in between things that shaped my 2018.

1. We begin the year with summer holidays, 3 weeks of beach holiday with my family.
2. Deciding to embrace some new experiences. The first one being a BIG BASH cricket game at the Geelong stadium.
3. Then White Night Melbourne.
4. Our trip to France with The Little Girl. This was her year 11 trip. There was some trepidation on booking as she was going through her difficult phase but she got over that in the year and was back to her friendly, happy, younger self by the time our trip came round.
5. France produced a number of highlights the first being our Food tour in Nice, which stretched from the promised 4hrs to 6+. Good food, drinks and great guide and group made for a wonderful start to our France holiday.
6. Spectacular mountain (above Saorge) and coastal (Calanques near Cassis) hikes.

7. Cheering Geoff in the Paris marathon.

8. Dinner at the Eiffel tower.

9. French desserts cooking class.

10. Introductory Hebrew and Greek. Memorising Hebrew vocabulary certainly tested the old brain cells.

11. Running 1517km, 148 hr.

12. All that running meant I explored more of Melbournes excellent network of trails.

13. Sub 50 min 10km. I finished Gold Coast 10K in 49:03,

14. Lots of running also translated into lots of socialising with our running club mates.

15. First half-marathon at Melbourne. Geoff completed his second marathon and THe Little Girl her first 10K.

16. Holiday in Noosa.

17. Noosa NP walk.

18. Gelato at Nitrogenie.

19. My second subject this year Mission in the Australian Context which was really relevant to our work with SHBCC faith community.

20. We also enjoyed seeing some of our dreams for our house come to fruition this year including Big Group BBQ's.

21. and hosting an international guest.

22. We were also heavily involved in our new Messy Church.

23. and a post-Alpha group.

24. Parkrun. The Little Girl and I did our first in 2017 but we became more involved as the year progressed now that there is a run closer to us. I also volunteered three times.

25. The Big GIrl turned 19, The LIttle Girl 17 and The Boy 15.

26. The Big Girl completed her first year of Science/Arts double degree at Monash.

27. The Little Girl very successfully completed Maths Methods 3/4, so one subject down for her VCE.

28. Working through a community exegesis for our SHBCC faith community for my uni subject.

29. Renting a house after Christmas at Ocean Grove for the first time.

30. My sister's wedding and the dress shopping, fittings, hen's party that goes along with that.

31. Awakening Australia with Ethan. His choice for his birthday weekend.

32. Skipping out on both the kids speech nights to go out for my birthday dinner.

33. Hubby started taking the odd weekdays off which meant fairly regular weekday lunch dates,

34. QV Melbourne Flickfest.

35. Connoisseur Kangaroo Island Honey with Honeycomb ice creams.

36. Ditching the squishy heavy running shoes for a rotation of very light shoes.

37. On our regular meal rotations for running night: Crockpot Thai Chicken Curry, Chicken Fajita Soup, Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli with Jamie Oliver pasta sauce. We get home at about 8pm and need something quick smart.

38. Coles opening down the road. Discovered their fresh flatbread, plus easy access to Stone baked Pane di Casa.

39. We had our new finance manger start before Christmas.

40. Switching to XERO in June took a fair bit of my time.

41. Rediscovering Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies.

42. Reading 39 books.

43. Finally completing Raymond Feist's Riftwar Saga.

44. Starting to reread Katharine Kerr's Deverry Cycle.

45. Australia Re-imagined and The Hiding Place. Stayed with me after I'd finished reading.

46. The Boy had two broken fingers plus a Saturday night trip to emergency to check another hurt finger before his 7:30am departure to wilderness camp the next morning, luckily that time the finger was not broken.

47. Watching The Handmaiden's Tale series 2, Outlander Series 2, The Crown, Brooklyn 99, Lucifer.

48. Finishing a photobook for our 2017 Anniversary trip to Vietnam.

49. Uploading photos to our online albums back to 2011.

50. Family boardgames came back into our lives in December and we added a new one to the collection for Christmas - Space Base.

3 things I learned in my first half-marathon

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 06:22:00 +0000

I completed my first half-marathon race in Melbourne last month in 1:57:45. It wasn't what I hoped but at least it was under 2 hours.

Three things I learned:

1. If it's hot and windy adjust expectations.

2. Don't be afraid to let the pacer go if they go out fast. The one I was running with did the first 5km 10-15s/km faster than pace then pulled out with a cramp at 12km ... so not that helpful.

3. For optimum performance minimise activity before the race. I had a bit a walking as we saw Hubby start the marathon, then walked back to where the Big Girl could warm up for her 10km, then I watched her start, then I did my warmup. My legs were heavy from the start of the race which makes 21.1km hard.

Note to my younger self ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 04:57:00 +0000

Don't buy the cheap roasting pans ... splurge on the good pan and enjoy the gravy.

Last year for my birthday I requested a good roasting pan that I could use on the stove and turn all those lovely juices into even lovelier gravy. The good old roast has hit a whole new level this year.
I should have put that roasting pan on my wedding registry and not had twenty gravyless years.

After submission ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 04:11:00 +0000

this is what my desk looks like. This paper involved lots community information, hence the maps, neighbourhood paper and surveys littering the desk, along with work papers for shredding.

It's been a while and while I would like the sporadic nature of my posting to improve, I won't be holding my breath. It looks like I'll be needing to work full time starting in a couple of weeks while Hubby looks for someone else to fill the position. Hopefully that won't take too long.

It's been a busy few months. I ran my first half-marathon, reasonably successfully - 1:57:45 on a tough day weather wise. I've recovered now and am back to full training, looking to improve my speed on 5K.

In other news you may have noticed that I now have a view from my desk. My lap top is running slow and the kids weren't using the imac so I took it over and relocated it up into the desks in the activity room. I now have a view over the surrounding neighbourhood and can just see the tops of the city buildings from my chair.

Lately ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 05:28:00 +0000

Watching: The Handmaid's Tale. It's not for everyone but powerful and intriguing, uncomfortable and disturbing viewing. (Related: Prayer and unprayer: the practice of faith amidst the terror of Gilead.)

Memorising: Hebrew vocabulary and grammar for uni, but I had my last class this week so now I just need to do my translation and exegesis which is due next week.

Running: My mileage is increasing as I move into the last month or so before my 10K race. This weekend I will have a 20K long run for the first time ever. Luckily Melbourne has an extensive network of paths.

Also ... watching running. It's cross country season at school for The Little Girl.

Waiting: for some time to put together some photo books.

Trying: to remember to sit and stand up straight. Hopefully this will improve my back and neck which is a mass of knots that are gradually being worked out in remedial massage sessions.

Reading: Molakai and Ethics of Hope.

Planting: a winter vegetable garden. Seedlings and seeds waiting in my laundry sink as I type.

Enjoying: the first day of winter which is beautifully sunny.

Working on: reducing our waste. We're down to 1-2 supermarket checkout size rubbish bags per week plus a 3/4 full recycle bin.

Brining: olives from my tree.

Cooking: quick recipes for weeknight dinners like cauliflower chicken and peanut curry and Dumpling Meatballs with sesame green beans.

Colour monthly: February 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 04:16:00 +0000

I've begun a photo challenge for myself. Inspired by color//colour lovers the goal is to look and find a rainbow (almost ... violet and indigo get mashed together) over the month.

Red - Chinese New Year fireworks over the Yarra River

Orange - Backyard Rose

Yellow - feels too early and warm for leaves to be changing.

Green - Sweet decisions at White Night Melbourne

Blue - Le Bal des Lumineéoles, White Night Melbourne.

Purple - the purple section of my rainbow bookshelves.

If you want to join in you can link me up here or over on instagram. Hashtags: #colourmonthly; #CM_red etc and #CM_March.

White Night Melbourne 2018

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 04:11:00 +0000

Sometimes I can be lazy, but I decided this year that I wanted to have more outings as a family. Crowds aren't really my thing but sometimes they're unavoidable if you want to see something interesting and get out of a rut. So when Hubby rang me on Friday and suggested we head into the city Saturday night my first instinct was to say no. I knew we had a fairly busy day and I was bound to be tired but I decided not to let that be the last word and said yes. We can easily catch the tram in anyway and if we weren't having a good time we'd just come home.

This year Chinese New Year celebrations coincided with White Night Melbourne. Our first destination was the Hawker's Market for dinner of noodles and pork buns. A friendly security guard pointed us to the abandoned tents with a table and couple of chairs which we snagged to eat our dinner in relative comfort and quiet. By the time we'd finished our dinner the White Night festival had started and we decided to head to our nearest installations at the Alexandra Gardens. This site was relatively crowd free.

We spent most of our time down near the Yarra with fewer crowds, wandered around and perched on the wall eating churros and watching the activity on the river. At 9:45pm the Chinese New Year fireworks were on and we got a good spot right on the river to watch. The last time we went to see the fireworks we set up much closer, and unfortunately down wind where we were showered with ash. We weren't going to make the same mistake this time.

At the conclusion of the fireworks we went up to St Kilda Rd which was absolute mayhem. The road towards Fed Square was absolutely packed with people and we had to fight through them to reach our tram. After freeing myself from the mass of people I found a spot to perch and take some photos of Fed Square ...

and Flinders St station. The question posed ... "What if you forgave someone tonight?"

and the Secret Life of Buildings as we walked back to our tram.

I'm so glad I said YES! So far this year 2 out of 2 great nights (the first was the Big Bash in Jan) that I could have spent curled up on the couch at home. Am I the only one who has to talk themselves into doing something they know will be fun?

This week's links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 05:20:00 +0000

Above: Gratuitous cute photo. Meet my sister's new Westie, Wilbur.

1. Wonderful Anne Lamot TED talk "12 truths I learned from life and writing" Love her approach to life and her realism "we're a mixed grill of happy anticipation and dread"

2. I just haven't been taking as many photos over the last year or so and it's been the non-event type shots that are missing and I'd like to change this. I like the look of FMS's photo-a-day prompts. It's unlikely I'll do every day but I'm going to try to join in some days in March. (via. Cate)

3. 21 Genius Ways to Repurpose Old Clothing.

4. Your journal ... A Good Place to Have Bad Ideas.

5. Some more recipes moving into our weeknight rotations. One pot pasta and moroccan chickpea quinoa power salad.

Where do all the spoons go ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Thu, 08 Feb 2018 21:45:00 +0000

We regularly host a Sunday afternoon BBQ for our church community gathering. It's drop in and open invitation so we never know how many might turn up. Since we're also trying to reduce waste around here we don't use disposable plates and cutlery. That means we need an unknown amount of extra cutlery so I went on an expedition scouring the local op shops. What I found was an abundance of knives and forks as well as soup spoons but no dessert spoons. It seems that dessert spoons and tea spoons are few and far between as confirmed by one of the volunteers at the Salvos. It's a phenomenon that I've noticed in our own house ... it's the dessert spoons and tea spoons that seem to go missing and that often run short.

On my fourth shop I finally snagged eight dessert spoons. I'm curious though, where do all the dessert spoons go? Any ideas?

This week's links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 22:38:00 +0000

The summer holidays, with only a handful of perfect beach days, ended this week and the kids are back at school ... well apart from The Big Girl who is now a uni student.

Our holidays were spent down at my parents place so cooking was a shared responsibility. This week I had to wrench myself back to the reality of planning, shopping, cooking so we tried a few new recipes that were winners. One Tray Hoisin Peanut Chicken I served with steamed snow peas and broccolini. Since I have a reasonable sized basil plant in the garden, a piece of parmesan in the fridge and a handful of pinenuts I decided to whizz up a quick basil pesto instead of the kale pesto in Oven Roasted Meatballs.

Since Hubby is in full training for the Paris marathon in April, good fuelling is on my mind and this recovery salad hit the spot with BBQ meat for dinner then lunch by itself the next day.

I've moved my bullet journaling from the Leuchtturm grid notebook into a Traveler's Company Notebook. Like my bullet journal this notebook functions as a catch all and combines both planning and recording, but I'd like to expand my journaling this year. 14 Ways to Make Journaling One of the Best Things You do in 2018.

Celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 04:17:00 +0000

It was my birthday this week. Does anyone else forget how old they are? I had to calculate from my birth year to remember how old I was turning which entertained Hubby. Maybe if I updated the scales that currently have me listed as 44, the constant reminder would help me remember.

Normally we go out for my birthday dinner but we went out for The Boy's birthday Saturday and we have two school speech nights this week so we decided we needed a night in. The Boy cooked Manpleasing Chicken with ovenbaked chips and green veges. The Big Girl made a ridiculously rich chocolate and strawberry tart. The Big Girl also wrote the shopping list and came to the supermarket to shop for the ingredients. I only had to give expert opinion 3 times so I going to count that as a successful day off food prep for me.

Hello ... hello ?

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 11:38:00 +0000

It's been a while ... May 19th this year in fact ... and even then I was posting to complete my Central Australian Roadtrip series. I've been umming and aahing over what to do here. The kids are older now and between respecting their privacy and the busyness of life hitting the right balance here seems elusive. I'd like to say that I didn't have time to write because I have been just sooo busy living but honestly the time I would have spent here is more likely to get sucked into internet consumption rather than creative endeavours. Writing (apart from essays for uni), photography, cooking ... I've done less of those rather than more this year. So I think I might try to revive this blogging thing, writing seems to help me work out what it is I actually think. I guess we'll see how I go.

While I've fallen into a bit of over consumption of social media, there's also been quite a lot of doing round here. The Big Girl turned 18 and is doing here final year of school this year. In fact she only has two more exams to go and she will be finished and the other two have had their own issues that have required a bit more time commitment from me. In other news ...

Hubby and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary with a trip to Hoi An.

I've done two 10K races this year (Run Noosa and Melbourne Marathon) taking 6:30min off my previous best to post a 52:24 finish in Melbourne. Hubby did two half-marathons and now is way too fast to run with me and is training for his first marathon. Hubby, The Little Girl and I have also got involved in the occasional parkrun. Our local course is a killer but we've also run at Geelong which is flat and fast.

While at Noosa we enjoyed the food including and a relaxing breakfast at Noosa, the day after our run.

We got out and about in Melbourne, Van Gogh at the NGV and the Queen Victoria Winter Night Markets.

We went to South Africa, plus Victoria Falls with my extended family (all 21 of us) which was fabulous. Kruger National Park was a highlight. I expected to see animals off in the distance but you see many up close, wandering down the roads or just to the side.

It's been a good year so far, and we're looking forward to see what the next few months bring.

Day 16: Murray Bridge to Home

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 19 May 2017 02:14:00 +0000

This post continues the series on our two week roadtrip from Melbourne to Alice Springs and back during the July school holidays in 2015 (I'm determined to finish the series.)

This was our final push for home, and as we drove through the Antarctic Vortex we really did push through because the weather was not conducive to stopping. We left Murray Bridge at 7am and made it to Bordertown by 9am for a quick toilet and drink break. Lunch was in Ararat at 12:15pm at Waack's Bakery which was pretty good.

My sister was visiting from Singapore and staying with my parents at Pt. Lonsdale so we made the last minute decision to go via there, arriving at 3:23pm for a 1.5hr catchup. We finally made it home at 7pm after traveling a total of 6813km for the trip.

Lots of driving but a it's trip that I would highly recommend.

Riley was very happy to see us.

Day 15: Coober Pedy to Murray Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 17 May 2017 05:31:00 +0000

This post continues the series on our two week roadtrip from Melbourne to Alice Springs and back during the July school holidays in 2015 (I'm determined to finish the series.)

Our last day in the desert and we not only got to see the wildflowers out from previous rain we also had a couple of big rain drops land while we were driving through.

We had been very lucky the whole trip with traffic. The road trains can be three or four trailers long so you need approximately 1km of clear road to overtake. We passed plenty going the other way but only had to pass one ourselves.

We stopped again at Lake Hart and this time we weren't in such a rush so we could go down to have a better look. The path is through a pipe under the train track ... and a train just happened to be passing over when we were there. The Boy and Hubby were a bit reluctant to go through but the train was so long that in the end they came through or faced waiting on the other side for ages.

It was absolutely freezing so we didn't linger but we did walk out a little way onto the dry salty bed of the lake.

The cold weather was just the beginning of what we would hit as we drove home into the "Antarctic Vortex".

Day 14: Uluru to Coober Pedy

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 02:13:00 +0000

This post continues the series on our two week roadtrip from Melbourne to Alice Springs and back during the July school holidays in 2015 (I'm determined to finish the series.)

We got a reasonably early start, on the road at 8:00am. Watch out for wedge tailed eagles eating road kill. We stopped at one lot ... they are big birds.

Morning tea: Erlanda. 10:25am

This is the big service station at the corner of the Stuart Highway. We had been looking forward to trying the apple turnover since Geoff said it was so good ... but NO APPLE TURNOVER! Disappointment all round.

Lunch: South Australian border. There's tables and toilets and you can get a photo with the sign.

We arrived at Coober Pedy at 4:180m. Total km for the trip so far 5142.

Dinner at the shell roadhouse which was a pretty good meal.

Day 13: Uluru and Kata Tjuta

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 03:34:00 +0000

This post continues the series on our two week roadtrip from Melbourne to Alice Springs and back during the July school holidays in 2015 (I'm determined to finish the series.)

An early morning wakeup to see the sunrise over Uluru. The kids stayed in bed and to be honest it wasn't a great sunrise, with clouds in all the wrong places.

The sun did set Kata Juta on fire in the distance. We were headed there after breakfast to do the Valley of the Winds Walk, a 7.4km circuit with two lookouts.

We had lunch then checked out the cultural centre, The Boy's expedition to climb was stymied by forecast rain that didn't eventuate. Pizza for dinner, and goodbye to our friends who were flying home the next day while we had an early start to hit the road back home.

Taking stock ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 30 Nov 2016 06:27:00 +0000

Long time no blog ... over 2 months in fact, so I figured a good way to ease back into things and let you know some of the things I've been doing would be Pip's taking stock list ...

Making : a photobook. I finally finished our 2015 album and I'm eagerly awaiting its' arrival in the mail.
Cooking : Lots of new dairy free recipes, as I'm laying off the dairy for a while and simultaneously cutting down my sugar intake. We also had an Indian themed feast at the end of the September holidays ... but right now ... Salmon cakes for dinner. The microwave is beeping at me to come get the potatoes out.

Drinking : Water mainly but also coconut and banana smoothies ... and wine.
Reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
Trawling: cookbooks for new recipes.
Wanting: a new camera. I'm looking at the smaller and lighter mirrorless cameras.
Looking: at my watch, must make sure dinner is not too late tonight so we can get to the school carols.
Deciding: the menu for Christmas lunch.
Wishing: the Little girl would stop fainting.
Enjoying: hummus on toast for my snacks.
Waiting: for our reserve to come up at the library on the fifth season of the Game of Thrones.
Liking: Jamie Oliver's Everyday Super Food ... especially the bircher muesli.

Wondering: if the weather will ever warm up for summer.
Loving: the new plant we put in the front garden.

Pondering: whether to cull my to do list.
Listening: to spotify ads, the kids play it through the living room speakers but they only have the free account.
Considering: whether to look for a new dress when I go summer clothes shopping.
Buying: bulk at The Source, a new shop opened up near us.
Watching: Outlander on SBS.
Hoping: for an not too late finish to the school carol service.
Marvelling: at how talented some kids are.
Cringing: at the off notes ... but good on them for having a go.
Needing: a good sleep.
Questioning: why we let anxiety lead to persecution of the most vulnerable.
Smelling: climbing roses outside my kitchen window.
Wearing: jeans and a T-shirt.
Following: my kids around to end of year functions.
Noticing: that my pantry needs cleaning out.
Knowing: that there's only a few short weeks until Christmas and I haven't done much of anything yet to get ready.
Thinking: about doing a rewrite of an essay for publication.
Admiring: the sculptures at William Rickett's Sanctuary. We went for a quick visit on a wet day in the holidays.

Getting: a bit faster now I'm doing running club regularly. Thursday night is at the Tan but we often run to Olympic Park and do our workout around the track there.

Bookmarking: magazine layouts as inspiration for my next photobook.
Disliking: the cold weather.
Opening: a package of reusable produce bags.
Giggling: at the kids efforts to dress up Riley. He's chewing on the knight's cape.

Feeling: a bit stiff.
Hearing: traffic.
Celebrating: two birthdays. The Big Girl turned 15 and The Boy 13. It was pancake cakes all the way for breakfast. Dinner out and a small party at home for both of them.
Pretending: it's not nearly the end of the year but ...
Embracing: end of year festivities.
Gasping: that they really did vote in Trump ... I know it's old news now.

A weekend at Pt. Lonsdale

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 04:24:00 +0000

It's school holidays now and we managed to get out of town after The Little Girl's Saturday morning violin lesson. Hubby took Monday off to make it a long weekend. The weather wasn't great, a bit rainy, a bit windy and a bit cold but we managed to get out and about in between some much needed lazing about. We also took the opportunity in the worst weather to pop in to the shops and pick up a new toaster to replace our stopped working one. So it was a weekend of dog walking, open fires, rolling pin party pies, some tennis for the kids and I, jumping and swimming for Riley, a few more episodes of Game of Thrones Season 1 (borrowed from the library) for Hubby and I, wii Just dance for the kids ... and, just quietly, some digging for Riley.

This week's links ...

noreply@blogger.com (Melissa) — Sat, 17 Sep 2016 11:40:00 +0000

I'm a bit sick of all the rain this week, the kids have spent a lot of the holidays so far inside in the pyjamas, but today was warmer and sunnier before a late afternoon shower which luckily cleared before sundown so we could get out for a walk. The weather doesn't look promising but we decided to head down to the beach for a long weekend anyway. Here's some reading for your weekend ...

1. This completely blew my mind. How non-English speakers are taught this crazy English grammar rule you know but you've never heard of. (via Modern Miss Darcy.)

2. Book series for while you're waiting for the next Game of Thrones book.

3. 10 Weekend Photography Projects.

4.100 Secrets in Melbourne Suburbs.

5. Smarter to Do Lists.