Girls Days

When the workbook asked me who I wanted to spend more time with this year, my answer was easy: The girls in my family!
I am so lucky to have two beautiful sisters and a mum that all live close by. My sisters and I have five kids between us, jobs, husbands, commitments and enough white noise to drown out inner thoughts for all of time.
Yet once it was written down, I knew I could cut through the teething babies and school parties and make it happen.
So we started scheduling in Girl's Days. We carve out time on Sundays with only one rule: No husbands or kids allowed. Oh, and if it involves alcohol, then you get bonus points.


Dandenong Cultural Tour, Beadil jewellery making workshop and Peninsula Hot Springs.
 

Usually someone can't make it-a kid will spew minutes before it's time to leave or one of us will go down with a lurgy (we had to break the rules when mum had the flu and have dad along instead) -but we've had a couple of times when all four of us get there and it's always gorgeous and we always have lots of fun.

What I love about it the most is spending time with my mum. Mum has a bit of dementia so I guess all three of us are feeling the squeeze of narrowing time. She's honestly really cute and loves our days so much. That alone is incentive to keep organising them!

This month, one of my sister's is in France and my parents are in South East Asia so my eldest sister and I are going together to a weaving workshop. I am so excited about it!

Weaving workshop ideas, getting a bit smashed at High Tea at the Windsor, an event in the city that I've forgotten the name of (but I remember they had ice-cream in tins!) and a birthday lunch in the city.

Number 53: Get a new job

Today, my first invoice as a freelance writer was paid. Whoopie!
I say "freelance writer" because what I do is technically writing but I think my actual title is "Consultant." I like to think I am a writer though!

My gorgeous friend and social media strategist extraordinaire, who also happens to be the person who gifted me Leonie Dawson (and her work book) has started her own digital media company. She came over for a wine one night and the convo went like this:

Her "I need freelance writers to create and post content."
Me (internally) "Pick me! Pick me!" (externally) "That's amazing that it's growing so fast."
Her "Would you be interested in that? I pay double what you make at the moment."
Me "Oh yeah, I mean it would be a dream come true, just casually."

We actually worked together in the past so the slide back into that collaboration was really simple. It's been a month now. No hiccups. She's the best boss in the world. Our work in progress meetings usually take place on a bed and involve wine or tea and biscuits and a pre-school aged child or a cat. Our emails are work queries sandwiched between chatter about sick kids, holidays and husbands. I really love this job. Thanks universe!

This fits in nicely with my other paid role and means I can have more income without paying for extra childcare as it's a work from home/café/hairdresser deal.  

This is definitely the biggest tick so far from my list and probably the reason why I have not had time to blog this month!

Art, part three.

In my attempts to create and see more art this year, I've been looking for different opportunities to explore this.

We just moved to this new area and I've been trying to put down a few roots and make some friends for the smallest member of the family. Welshy is much better at living in the community. He grew up in a rural village so he's all about knowing the neighbours and having a beer with a random. He got a hug from our elderly neighbour before I had even had a conversation with her. He knows exactly what renovations are happening across the road and how much the house two doors down will be rented out for next month.
A few weeks ago I was trying to get out of the house to go to Ikea to buy some pots for some plants that Welshy had dug out of our neighbours garden for her, when he appeared from another house and waved me in. That particular house had belonged to a lady called Bunny apparently but she had recently died and her family was clearing it out.
They were getting rid of some furniture and wanted to know if we wanted four dining chairs. I saw them and had an artistic vision of blue spray paint and...well that's all really. I just knew that they should be blue.

While spraying one of them on the front lawn (because that's what you do right? No point in getting my own grass dirty) a mother and child walked by. They came to investigate what I was vandalising  restoring. Within a minute, the girls had invited each other for a sleep over but we settled for a play in the park instead. Our new friends moved from China just a year ago. The little girl has just started school and told me that she doesn't have any friends. I told her that she could knock on our door whenever she liked and come for a play.

So last night, that's exactly what she did! It's our first local friend and even though we can't really communicate very effectively, we have organised our next playdate. (I think. When you're using a 5 year old as a translator, anything is possible.)

So even though this one was about making art, it was also about making friends.

Number 50: Watch season three of Girls.

Is it ridiculous to have a T.V season on you 2015 Goals To Do List? I think this one, for me, is more about carving out time and space for my own indulgences. I can't watch ABCKIDS every single day of my life, can I? (By the way, I've started following Jimmy Giggle on Insta. He grew up in the area that we are living in and it makes me feel better about sacrificing big city living for the charm of the peninsula.)
Where was I? Oh, yes! Season three of Girls. Look, I didn't love love it but I did enjoy it. I think I am a bit disenchanted with the characters. The riverside cottage scenes were a bit too over the top, the women so type-casted that they almost seemed like caricatures of themselves and Shosh's bloody over use of the term 'obvi' has become grating. I didn't feel surprised or shocked by any of their life choices but I must say I was mildly grossed out in certain parts and I really felt like adopting Jessa from episodes 1-4. Maybe I am no longer the target audience. I did get on board about 10 years too late. I guess maybe it's just become a bit more.........commercialised? It's lost some of the grit. Maybe as Lena has stepped further and further away from the writing and direction it's gotten more polished. I preferred the grit. The grit was more subtle-like the slow burn of tension between Jessa and her employers. I think series one introduced us to the women and I really enjoyed getting to know them. You know when you first make friends with someone and they are so fascinating and hilarious and you connect on different levels and it's great? And then once you know them you talk about what your kid did at kinder that day and the fact that your shampoo is giving you pimples and even though it's still great, it's not really inspired? Yeah well that's season three for me.

The vodka made it better though.

 

Number 13: Meet Elizabeth Gilbert.

I read Eat, Pray, Love before it was popular. For realz.
I sat in a garden near my house and read it and I was all like "OMG, I need to go do some shit." So I booked a flight to Europe and ate pasta and pizza and gained a few Kaygees, just like Liz. I didn't do the other two parts because they seemed, like, hard and stuff.
And like the other eleventy billion chicks that dug that book, it GOT to me. Why I wonder? What is it about a woman taking control of her life and stepping off a trajectory to seek happiness that stirs us? I am not sure, but stirred I was. Go back to bed Liz.
My own path changed a few days after I flew back into Melbourne and by the time 12 months had passed, I had stepped off my own trajectory and into No Man's Land. Then just like Liz, I got divorced, travelled, had a love/visa wedding and got a book deal! Oh, except for the last bit. That didn't actually happen.
Anyhow.
I decided that 2015 was going to be the year that I met Liz (I call her Liz, we're friends.) I was a bit reluctant to put it on the list though because how on Earth was I going to get to the U.S.A? But I put it on anyway because that's what you do when you dream big.
Then one morning, I was on Instagram and I saw THIS:

In case you can't see that properly because #technologyisstupid what it says is #australiabound. Now I'm not sure of the details and I did read something about her cancelling a trip somewhere else because of illness but then getting the all clear and coming to Aus instead BUT obviously, what I think happened is that the universe heard about number 13 on my list as was like 'Get on a plane Liz.'

So after checking her website and doing a quick google of just how far the venue was from my house (2.5 hours) I booked two tickets. How much is the price of my dreams? 20 bucks. Excellent. So then I got this:

Which says that all my dreams are coming true.

Finally the day came and it was amazing. We loved it. The highlights were:

• Everything.

It was so much fun! And check this out:

 

Totally met her. Tick.

 

 

 

Nothing But The Tooth

For this item on the list, we need to go back to 1990, a basketball court in a small primary school, an accident, a mishap leading to life long consequences and a strangely blue tooth. End scene.
i think I was 9 or 10 when i copped a basketball in the face by a kid called Jerome. It effing hurt and the result was a root canal and a veneer and a humongous bill and my parents telling me off every time I opened a bottle with my teeth.
Fast forward 15-20 years and my little old tooth was looking darker and darker. Mum periodically  encouraged me to get it fixed, Welshy nicknamed me Bluetooth and made up a whole story about how I was a mum by day but a superhero by night who could send and receive digital information through my tooth.
Finally I made an appointment with a dentist citing vanity and the fact that with wrinkles, baby tummy left overs and failing eye sight, my teeth are all I have left.
God, this is a really long and boring story isn't it? Not like Captain Bluetooth. She does loads of cool shit.
Anyway, dentistry has advanced since 1990 and the dentist was able to inject bleach into the tooth and make it prettty. I had it done twice. Well three times actually as the second treatment came out when my temporary filling fell off while I was running. Oops.
So basically, I think it looks awesome.
And guess how many people have noticed? One. My mother. I guess because she spent the equivalent of a European cruise on my smile when i was a kid, it would be hard not to stare at it all the time.
The photos are from during the period of treatment. The left two are the end result.

Oh my God, what has happened to my life?

I seriously feel like I disappeared from the world for about two weeks and I have no idea why. I've not been writing AT ALL and I JUST got back on the treadmill this morning. Not metaphorically. I LITERALLY ran on an ACTUAL treadmill for 50 minutes today. What I have been doing is laying on the couch. A lot. Maybe it's the heat or my iron levels or just a general blah-ness attached to this time of year which is notoriously sensitive for my whole system on account of it being the time I year I got married once to someone who broke my heart and also before the breaking of the heart bit there was the death of his mother bit, also at this time of year, which involved suicide and just a general negative vibe. So I always try and perk myself up around about now and all the presssssure of not letting it get to me is like, getting to me. So it's probably just that. I guess. Sometimes I try to do something significant on the ACTUAL day like...oh.....hmmm...spend it in London, alone, expressing milk meant for my 5 months old into a public toilet and missing my train home because I'm perusing shampoo in the newsagency. Other times I just consciously decide to not acknowledge it like last year and I wear a hideous hairstyle and pants to work and then my ex husband comes in unannounced and I feel like a troll and like he's thinking "bullet successfully dodged" and all manner of unflattering other thoughts. This year, Sunday, I might just run around a lake and buy a new dress and donate money to some anti-suicide, anti-marriage, anti-London organisation because THAT'S WHAT THIS TIME OF YEAR MAKES ME FEEL LIKE DOING.  And then I plan to sleep.

Asides from alllll that, my list is going swimmingly. You guys, it seriously makes you get your shit done. I will tell you all about it in my next post once I muster up the energy to attach photos to emails and email them to myself and then save them and attach them to this blog. The end.

Running update.

Morning!

So after a month of running, I have progressed from nothing, to 4km in 30 minutes. To be honest, some of the 30 minutes is not strictly 'running' (it's more like walking really) but I feel that I am working up to it and isn't interval training a thing? My next mini goal is to move 8km in close to an hour.
I think it is making me fitter. For example, on Saturday night I hung out with my niece and nephew and played 'catch me as I jump towards you in a pool and then spin me around and around and don't let me drown' for what felt like hours on end and I didn't feel puffed out or achy in the morning. That means something right?

The last time I started running seriously was during a break up and so this month, it has stirred up some questions about what I am trying to run away from this time. It actually does feel more like I am running towards change instead of escaping something though. I have changed so much since the last time. Especially in terms of being comfortable with pain and feeling motivated to push myself.

I still have this point to prove to myself though. I set a goal all those years ago. I set a goal and I wanted to work towards it as a distraction from all the bullshit that was going on with the divorce. But I never achieved it for one reason or another. So here it is. I'm going to do it, just to tie up another of those pesky loose ends.

I'm going to run a half marathon. This year. Even if it takes me 4 hours. There.

Art

There are quite a few vague things on my list like "See more art/do more art/be around art. Art." for example.
When I break this one down I think what I am trying to say is that I want to be near beautiful things. Man made and otherwise. What is art anyway? Why is a copper pipe sticking out of a hill 'art' but then a copper pipe sticking out of the road 'a liability?' I think it comes down to a)Intention and B) Interpretation. But you don't necessarily need A. Although it helps. Anyway.
Having a three year old who joins me on my every adventure changes the way I do stuff. I took her to the Monet exhibition and she tore off her shoes and socks and threw them at a wall. She breaks stuff. She wants to interact with the world. She is not an observer. She's quite artistically inclined and I fear she'll grow into a torture artist in time, especially since she had to go under general anaesthetic to remove some playdough from her ear. But painting and drawing at home is rather boring for the adults in the house and I usually use that time to go on the treadmill (however, I was not on the treadmill that time that she shoved playdough in her ear. Let's make that clear. I was in fact reading a book in another room while her father watched her. Good watching, Honey.)
So, to continue my explore my own artist urges and to avoid any more encounters with emergency room staff we've been doing our art adventures together.
Last weekend, we went to the McClelland sculpture park where Junior could run around and I could ponder massive sculptures set in bushland. We also went to the Romance Was Born Exhibition at the NGV which although is aimed at children, I really liked (you got to make necklaces and beards.) Mostly because my sister took me and I drank coffee and kissed her toddler AND got a temporary tattoo.
I think we're at a good stage for doing this sort of stuff though. And I do get extra inspired when I am around arty things.

Number 34: visit Springvale Cemetery

Is it weird to hang out in a cemetery with a three year old? No, I didn't think so either.

My grandmother has 8 great grandchildren that she never met. One of them, my daughter, has her name and stubbornness and also her sweetness.

It's been almost 4 years since my nana died and I'd never been to see where her ashes are. I guess because I found out I was pregnant the day before her funeral and then moved overseas 3 months later, I just let the moment pass.

It was recently what would have been her 99th birthday. So we chose some flowers, drove to Springvale and then drove around the cemetery for 20 minutes. ("It's in the rose garden"  my father had said "You'll find it easily" he said.) In the end, we threw half the flowers under a man made waterfall, sat on a hill, looked at some trees and then went home.

"How was it?" Welshy asked as I put the remaining flowers in a vase on the dining room table.
"Beautiful,  but nana wasn't there."

And she wasn't.  Not really. But it's okay because she's in my daughter and father and she's in me. I thought I'd have a whispered convo with her and that I'd hear "Your hair looks beeeeeautifulllll...." on the breeze but it's just a hill with some flowers and a pretend waterfall.

She was a beautiful lady, even when she wouldn't let me cheat at Monopoly.  Happy birthday Nana.

Girls, Girls, Girls.

I don't really know how to work my T.V. There. I admitted it. I actually don't know how to use my computer either.  So until recently,  I'd go to my local video store and hire a film rather than 'downloading' it from the 'internet.' But now I've graduated slightly to a D.V.D booth in my Safeway. Don't worry about it. I'll get there eventually. In 2039.

The important thing is, I watched Season Two of Girls! I'd seen parts of episodes when I could find them during nap time on long haul flights but nothing beats watching a whole season over a weekend.

The highlights for me were Hannah's haircut, Adam's shirtless running through New York, conversations with Welshy around progressive consent anddddd getting motivated to finish reading Lena's book which I gave up on last year.

Number 70: Get Eyes Tested.

I'm a massive procrastinator.
I prefer making to do lists rather than executing them. I'm especially talented at avoiding medical appointments.  It's one of my many,  many areas of expertise.
 So of course, several little medical niggles have found their way on to my 100 list.
Number seventy is to see an optometrist . Which I did last week. Turns out, I am longsighted which I already knew on account of not being able to see stuff.
The result is this:

Yep. Glasses.
So now I can read without headaches and write my novel (did I mention that I'm writing a novel?) for several minutes (seriously,  I have a problem with commitment) and then drive without it being all blurry! You're welcome general public. You. Are. Welcome.

Run, run go away, come again another day.

I used to run.
I was going though a wonderful divorce (pray tell, is there any other kind?) and I took up running as I literally ran away from my old life.
It was always thrilling and I became quite addicted. Then I fell pregnant and even though everyone said it would be fine, I had some medical issues and it just didn't feel safe anymore. It felt scary. So I stopped.

Fast forward three years and I am back to square one. So it made it on to the list.

Number 98: Run 5km in 30 minutes.

This morning I did 3.8km in 30 minutes, so obviously there is a bit of improvement needed but I was puffed out and it felt like running again and that made me really happy. It's so exhilarating. I actually really love running. I'd forgotten.

Let's all watch this:

number 7, part 1: Lean To Make 5 Great Salads.

You know what the problem with salad is? They usually taste like boredom.
So, I've decided to learn how to make salads that taste okay and then eat them a lot.
This salad is called The Look In Your Vegetable Crisper Salad.
Ingredients:
 Whatever you have in the fridge.
Method:
1. Weigh yourself post Christmas.
2. Recover from shock, open fridge.
3. Retrieve green things. (Mine were baby spinach leaves, kale, lettuce and radish and tomatoes from my mums garden, asparagus, cucumber and onion.)
4. Prepare it by chopping and removing the spines from kale.
5. Put it in a bowl.
6. Add secret ingredient.*

*A note on secret ingredients. I've recently discovered that salad dressing makes everything better. I have no idea how to make it so I just splashed on some red wine vinegar.

The result was pretty good.....

Okay, okay, I didn't learn a new recipe but I learnt that red wine vinegar is basically a salad dressing and that I shouldn't weigh myself.

Number 81: Hug a baby.

Babies are cute. Ammirigh? Especially babies that put their sweet, sweet babiness all over you and then let their mamas deal with the pesky stuff like nappies, mind boggling sleep deprivation.....midnight thoughts of 'What the actual f*** is up with my bleeding nipple?' Etc etc. Too far? I'm sorry...it's just that remembering the new born phase really weirds me out because how on earth do women (and lovely daddies) survive it? How? Tell me damn it! It's ridiculous.
Sometimes I love the concept and theory of having another child. Not a baby mind, just a child. So number 81 on my list is Hug A Baby. Just to double check that there's not some secret hormone fairy hiding in my uterus, waiting to ambush me and hijack my peaceful tripod.
I had planned to drop in on a friend who had her daughter just two weeks ago but she had to cancel because newborn babies eff with your plans dammit.
Luckily, on the same day, I bumped into a friends' sister who conveniently handed over the most precious little baby in the world, her daughter, who instantly grabbed my hair and snuggled me. We had a real connection.
She is adorable. I mentally checked my uterus....nothing. I kissed her tiny cheek and stroked her whispy baby-hair.(she has a better hairstyle at 8 months old than I have at 33.) Still nothing. Phew.
On the way home, my daughter told me that she loved the babies' feet. "She's so cooooot" she squealed in the back seat.
I totally agree. 😊

number 55: Botanic Gardens

When I met Welshy, we lived in the cooler suburbs of Melbourne. Cafes, bars, live music, galleries,  vegan restaurants....you get the idea. Then we moved to a teeny village in Wales with a (great) pub and approximately 7 billion sheep. Then we moved back to Melbourne with a baby tow. The cigarette covered pavement and street festivals had lost their appeal as we looked at school zoning, property prices, job prospects and all the other Grown Up Stuff that grown up people consider.
So. We moved to the suburbs. Then further out of the city and further out again, until we found our little spot at the gateway to the peninsula which we share with wineries and wineos.
In a bid to enjoy all that my little suburb has to offer, I forced myself to go to the Botanic Gardens this morning. It was really boring and felt a bit rapey to be honest but we fed some ducks, smelt some flowers and took some snaps.

Beach life.

I live within walking distance to some of the most beautiful beaches in Australia. But with the weather swinging from super hot to raining, it's hard to find the right time to get to the sea. Especially with a fair skinned toddler in tow. So it was on my list:

Number 18: Swim at the beach

It was fun! I even went under the water. Proper swimming.

Later that day, my dad shot a nail through his wrist with a nail gun so I spent the rest of the afternoon at the hospital with him. His plastic surgeon told me off for catching a bit of sun. Worth it.

For Christmas this year, I received lots of beautiful presents but there was a standout. My lovely friend Kate gifted me Leonie Dawsons' 2015 workbook. It's my first ever ebook so I did what every technologically challenged mid-thirties lady would do-I promptly printed it out so it looked like a normal book. Phew.
The workbook has loads of neat stuff in it about releasing 2014 and creating goals for this year. My favourite part though is making a list of 100 things to do over the course of twelve months. That's one thing every 3.65 days of the year. Now this To Do list is not about the day to day tasks. It's calling upon your creativity, that little voice in your head and you own intuition to come up with 100 things that are FUN or FULFILLING or just generally gorgeous.
This here blog is going to be a luscious way to keep myself accountable to keep up the work and the ticks.

Today I did number 23 on the list : Get a cool new phone.

So now, not only can I write about doing fun stuff, but I can take photos of it too! I wish I could take a photo of my new phone but of course the camera is inside it. It's like when I got a new selfie stick as a gag gift from my sister and I wanted to take a selfie with the stick but then it all became too much like a dream within a dream within a mirror. Anyway.....