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.....