One week down in 2017

This year I am not going to keep myself to a daily or weekly blogging schedule – somethinged life just get away from me. So sometimes it will be daily and sometimes weekly and sometimes less often. If you really want to see an every day perspective check out fralafontaine on instagram.

It was a good first week of the year though – starting as uaual with Jasmin’s birthday celebrations, including seeing Lala Land.

Sebastian baked.

Zac busked.

Mum and Dad visited for a few days and hung out with the boys during the days while James and I worked. We played games, ate out and in, drank wine, exchanged presents and enjoyed being together.

Sebastian and James tried out new cooking methods and we got delicious tempura as a result.

I spent some quality time with George.

And we went to Ikea and tried to infuse dinner with a touch of the Scandinavian.

And there is always time for a sunset walk.

Happy 2017 everyone!

 

  

A year in the life 2016 #359: George finds a resting spot

Here is George looking his smoochiest. He does rather like having us at home to mooch all over. Lazy days are perfect for cats.

A year in the life 2016 #354: george

George is home and has reasonably quickly settled in. Here he is, reclaiming his place on my lap.

A year in the life 2016 #236: Sunday

While Sundays start with computer game playing for some of the non-Sunday sport players of the household, it isn’t all that happens.

We went and visited George today – and Helen, Sean and Alice. Always lovely to see them all. 

Particularly nice to see George who we do miss.

After that, we stopped off to see progress on the house.

Progress has definitely been happening – there is even a roof on now!

A year in the life 2016 #191: going home

Day 2 of the road trip home went well. More Mr Floppy Legs adventures, more Pokémon hunting and a lot of driving. 

We were amazed by how green it was along the way. And, in places, wet.

We got back to Canberra eventually where it was lovely to see Sean and Helen and, most especially, George.

2015 weeks! #44: other stuff then MEN IN PINK ON SKATES

Herbs and greenery ready for a Monday night dinner of rice paper rolls.

Luminous juice for a quick breakfast stop with James.

Hairdresser time out.

hairBeen feeling very borderline. With an incredibly busy weekend and week ahead, felt I needed to stock up on the drugs.

One of the boys stuck a toy-thing to the ceiling. This was an endless source of fascination for George.

Tired out the new version of Study in Emerald. Not entirely convinced…yet.

Time to fly – all the way to Hobart.

Finished this en route. Super fun read where I think the predictability was a deliberate part of the charm.

A trip to the Sandy Bay Coles allowed us to stock up on beverages for a weekend of roller derby – for us and for Copter who was arriving on a late flight.

Our first Air BnB experience was a delightful terrace in Sandy Bay. Extremely cute and a great location.

A fortifying breakfast is needed for the first day of the Australian Men’s Roller Derby Nationals.

Last year I was a spectator at Nationals as we came 7th in Australia. This year, after a lot of hard work by the team leading up to it, I was there as benchie and we were determined to come home 4th – or 5th at worst. we had a great first day – took it to last year’s champions, the Brawlers, and did all right; comprehensively beat the Tweed Valley Vikings and then took on BCR and beat them more effectively than we had expected. Coming second into the pool took us to the semi finals – and a minimum 4th! We all went home happy that night.

There was time to smell the roses and eat burgers and feel good before day two.

And the upside of being in the semis was that we had time for a relaxed breakfast.

Our first game was against Vanguard – if we beat them we’d be in the grand final. They are an amazing team. Great discipline and teamwork and some brilliant individual players. We didn’t win, but we did ourselves proud – Vanguard were the only team in the country we hadn’t played at this point, so it was great to get the chance.  We had some great moments…maybe one day!

Cthulhu came out to watch HP Shovecraft play in the 5-6 play off versus Tweed. it was good to see BCR win that.

Then we played off versus the Brawlers for 3rd.  There were some moments during the game when I genuinely thought we could win – then a couple of jams let it slip away from us. But we didn’t expect to get third – fourth in the country was more than good enough for us. We’d achieved our team goal for the year, played well, improved and had fun and we were all super happy about it. The best thign too is that Carnage’s strength is its teamwork – that was what got us 4th.

Then it was all over except for the after party!

2015 weeks! #42: constant motion

Managed to get some walking to school in – this time with Zac.

A busy day of running about all over town. Had a half hour between things so managed to do work while refreshmenting.

This is what my hair looks like when I have put my bike helmet on and off about four times during the day.

Dinner at the Elk & Pea. Jude took the opportunity to go and chat with the chef to compare notes on the almond sauce that goes with the jerk chicken. Jude made his own version while I was in Manila, and the sauce wasn’t quite right, so he needed to compare ingredients and approach.

It is full spring at the moment. Flowers everywhere.

Friday night cricket with Jude. And my laptop briefly to finish a few work things. And a lovely sunset.

Saturday it was Turner fete and Zacky singing in the Trebles. I think maybe the performance was a bit high concept for a fete, but lovely singing at any rate.

George selfie time.

After a few weeks of trying to line up a time, Zac got to skype with Sienna his best friend who has moved to Jakarta. Small children are weird to watch talk to each other.

Flew to Adelaide Sunday night. But not actually back to the 1970s.

The beach at night – I was staying with Natasha so saw the last of the sunset.

On the flight over I finished this. Strange and thoughtful. I thought the lead character was a bit of an idiot at times, but then I think you are supposed to.

2015 weeks! #34: life, Cthulhu and death

Usual Monday morning walk to school with this guy. Jude is a very chatty walking companion. Often I get a fairly continuous stream of chat about things he has recently learned – Zac got a big book of facts about stuff for his birthday and Jude has been reading it in between voracious consumption of Skullduggery Pleasant books. But Jude always remembers to ask me about what my day has in store.

Another week of Youth Mental Health First Aid – mostly talking depression, suicide and non-suicidal self injury.

It was a good moon night to wait for James to pick me up.

James and I took some “self care” time out after my course to go and have a quiet beer and chat at Bentspoke after each session. It is lovely to have those quiet relaxed moments to yourselves. However, this time Cthulhu came too.

Off to Melbourne for the day. Ended up spending a lot more time than expected at Canberra Airport with fog. Fun though to bump into Dave Sag and provide refuge in the Virgin Lounge.

Eventually we were off. And then back in virtually no time later!

Spring is definitely in town in Canberra.

Getting the last days out of #yourtightsatwork – though there are always those mid spring cold snaps.

We did schnitzel night at Edgars for the first time in ages.

George is not impressed by your fancy wines.

Sebastian decided to wake up early and walk into Braddon for breakfast with me before my physio. I think he was mostly in it for the Autolyse croissants, but it was lovely anyway.

Cthlulhu plays Edritch Horror with us! At this point I must pause and explain that Cthulhu was crotcheted by Jackie, James’ mother after I had posted pictures of cuddly Cthulhus on Facebook. I am very fond of him. Of course, the whole family was keen so Jackie has been set to work.

Friday afternoon it was back to Melbourne for a trip I would rather not have made – my aunt, Maggie, had died, so it was off to the funeral.

An upside was catching up with the family – I stayed in Melbourne with Lucy et al on Friday night before driving out to the Gippsland on Saturday morning.

Funerals are terribly sad things. i didn’t actually know Maggie that well – she had gotten together with my uncle Andrew when I was pretty much a grown up and we’ve pretty much always lived in different cities, crossing over at family events along the way. The funeral made me sad that we had never gotten to know each other better -many of the things Maggie had done in her life were things that I think are important – fighting against a culture of domestic violence, improving opportunities for young women offenders, baking – and it was both lovely and sad to hear from those closest to her. But apart from the sadness for the inidvidual, there is all the contemplation if makes you do – of the deaths of those close to you, past and future, of your own death, of what you have achieved in your life. Of how the world continues.

At the end of the service we released balloons into the sky. Goodbye Maggie.

But as with most things, there is an upside, and it was nice to catch up with family.

I was flying home that evening, so a bit later in the afternoon it was back in the car and the two and a half hour drive back to the airport.

There was some spectacular cloud en route.

And the familiar view from the Qantas Business Lounge at Melbourne airport.

Sunday morning Sebastian was competing in Tournament of the Minds. his team did all right, but there was some line fluffing, and they didn’t manage to progress to the enxt round. After two years at the national competition, sometimes you need some setbacks to improve for next year.

I took training for Carnage and actually got back onto skates – and even better had an excuse to wear my awesome new leggings!

2015 weeks! #33: we’re number two!

One of the things I quite like about our work building is the living wall. Particularly nice when it is in bloom.

Sebastian’s high school was offering a “Youth Mental Health First Aid Course” over four Monday nights. With three boys about to hit adolescence and all of their friends and cohort, plus the young people I know through derby, I thought it might be useful knowledge to have. The presenter was very engaging but I was shocked to learn that most of my fellow course participants had never planed for the zombie apocalypse and, worse, some of them didn’t really even know what zombies are….

Walked to school with these two troublemakers Tuesday.

Some nights you need a g&t and some codeine to go with your at-home work.

George does love the new couch.

Early morning flight to Melbourne.

I love the sight of the Melbourne ferris wheel (whatever t is called) as you go over the Bolte Bridge.

Early morning in a busy week and a day full of conferencing, including giving a presentation = lots of fizzy caffeinated beverage.

I really enjoyed the presentation by Rachel Botsman on disruptive technologies and the new world of trust.She is a very engaging speaker, and her ideas about trust and the way the new economy is starting to work were really thought-provoking.

Then there was time for doing all the work in one’s hotel room before the conference dinner.

After another day of conference, broken up by having to go and do work, it was off to the airport and back to Canberra.

Time though for a quick #yourtightsatwork at the Business Lounge.

And flying home.

Saturday was a lovely spring morning for watching Jude play hockey. His team continued on form.

While we were at the hockey, Sebastian whipped up some chocolate cupcaes for the….

ROADTRIP!

We were off to Sydney for the 5×5 grandfinal – Dishonour Rollers versus S2D2’s The Force.

It was a great game by a great team but sadly we didn’t quite get there – WE’RE NUMBER TWO! WE’RE NUMBER TWO!

It was a quick drink, medals and some commiseration before we headed home again. On the road trip back, Copter and I greatly disturbed Jess and Sebastian with at least two renditions, in a row, of Charlene’s “I’ve never been to me”.

Sunday and reality and supermarkets.

…and complex lego wars!

2015 weeks! #31: views from the 40th floor and other glamourous places

I started the week with three days in Melbourne, staying on the 40th floor of the Sofitel. The views were spectacular.

On my second night in Melbourne I had no official functions so was lucky enough to catch up with Jess, who has recently relocated. We began at the Gin Palace…

 

…then moved on to the exceptional deliciousness (and large serves) of Ombre.

I was still feeling full the next morning when I caught up with Melanie aka Scary for breakfast, so hipster crumpets did me.

I was in Melbourne for the ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council) forum to talk about our international work. I enjoyed the discussions in the Connectivity Working Group, particularly about the oysters who are connected to the internet.

I managed to finish the wonderful SevenEves shortly after I got home. It is a fabulous book, I loved it, even if occasionally Neal Stephenson got overly explainy about things in the way that he does. It is definitely worth it.

Time for some red fishnets.

I spent much of Thursday at Parliament House, most of it at the Roundtable on International Education. There were lots of people there with whom to catch up, and it was lovely to finally meet another one of my internet friends in real life for the first time.

There was a bit of back and forth across Commonwealth Bridge as I went up to Parliament House for a second time on the same day. Been a regular up there when it is sitting time.

Jude and Zac have been doing some practice together and are starting to get much better at playing duets. Well, sometimes they do playing horribly out of step with each other, but when they do hit it, it is great.

New Arkham Horror expansion, new fun times. And we won which was outstanding.

Sebastian has been playing indoor cricket with his usual cricket team on Friday nights. Usually James takes him, but I did my first time this week. I truly didn’t understand what was happening at all, but Sebastian’s team won.

Here’s Jude making breakfast for himself before hockey and waiting for the toast to cook. He was really enjoying this book.

Jude and I walked in to ANU for hockey and where they won, and then headed past this creek-side art on the way back home via Lonsdale Street.

We stopped at LSR. Jude had recently tried some coffee gelato and really liked it, so he wanted to try coffee (decaf version). I suggested that a mocha might perhaps be a better option. Jude discovered that coffee is really strong and really bitter. I think he might be reverting to hot chocolates for a while.

We hadn’t done a big supermarket shop for a while, so Jude and Zac and I did a mammoth one. I think we will be fine if the zombocalypse happens soon.

The days are definitely getting longer.

Jude went a did a bit of busking late Saturday afternoon. On our first attempt, we found that his spot had been taken by a younger girl with a violin. We came back an hour later and he spent 40 minutes. He picked a good time – I had thought he had done well last time with a haul of $4oish, but this time he made over $60 in 40 minutes.

On Sunday I decided that despite my various injuries, I should rouse myself from my sloth and go for a ride. So I did 24 km of lake.

George is funny sometimes. He doesn’t get to come into our room at night, but our bed and its afternoon sun is one of his favourite spots. I’m pretty sure this look means “I thought we had a deal, yours at night, mine in the afternoon.”