Our glorious spring-summer has ended like it does every year and autumn has arrived – just like it does every year as well.
It was 12C this morning when I went for my run and you bet I made a theatrical production out of it. I dug out my ski gloves, a polar fleece vest and took a few deep breaths as I stepped out into the crisp air. I rewarded that bravery with a large mug of coffee which I had to hold in my hands for several minutes to warm them up.
I’ve done a quick walk around of the house to check that the heaters are all working, I’ve patted myself on the back for having the foresight to have homemade soup frozen in the freezer and …. a trip to Uniqlo with the rest of Sydney is on the cards.
I know, I know. There will be fun to be had through autumn and winter. Everything takes on a sense of adventure when you’re doing it rugged up in a coat and scarf and striding out in gum boots.
And then there’s that different, slightly austere beauty in the way the wintery sun illuminates the city.
Lounging around at home in flannel PJs during the cooler weather is as close to living the hygge life as this Sydneysider is going to get for quite a while. But Denmark is definitely on my list of places to visit.
The clothes are rather nice, I have to admit.
Coats and knits, tights and boots….
VIVID is one of my favourite things about winter in Sydney and I’m definitely going to head back to Taronga with Master SSG.
There’s always Plan B as well. The one involving a plane trip to somewhere warm and sunny should the hardship of a Sydney winter prove too much.
How are you coping with Day 1 of the Big Chill?
A mixed bag of moments this week…
Some joy in the sky in the midst of the days and days of rain we’ve had in Sydney. I saw this rainbow arching across the sky behind the old work carpark last Friday. A fitting end to the week and a good omen for the weekend ahead.
The cool and shade under these trees near Master SSG’s school was greatly appreciated as I trekked from where I parked the car to the uniform shop and back. It was one of those days where the humidity was pleading with the clouds to just release that rain already.
A gift to self from Mecca wrapped up like fish and chips. I did my bit for the environment by saying no the trademark Mecca dusky pink paper bag with the black handles.
DIY flat packed electrical items are getting even more DIY by the year. I had to assemble the actual fan section of my new standing floor fan from Target this week. That’s right. Actually put the (plastic!!) blades into its cage, secure it then afix the top half of the cage. As well as the usual base and stand assembly. The fan wasn’t that cheap either! For $109 I had hoped for a bit more pre-assembly. Oh well, fan assembly is now something I can now cross off my bucket list.
Adam Liaw’s twitter in general but more specifically, this recent exchange of tweets. ‘Bring A Plate’ events are not really a thing at Master SSG’s school but parents are allowed to send something to share for birthdays. Cupcakes are the official suggestion. Only I’m no good at frosting and I haven’t found a Sydney cupcake bakery that would be willing to drop off directly to school. Which is why I love Adam’s work so, so much,
Have you ever managed to send perfectly frosted cupcakes to school?
How’s your week been?
My world, as seen through the lens of my iPhone this week….
This shop front that cheekily references my neighbourhood’s love of canines great and small.
Wearing (or should that be sipping) my team colours at the gym. I’m an AFL girl and in keeping with my status as an adopted Sydneysider, a Swans girl too.
Master SSG and I joined the rest of Sydney at the first official Lego store to open in our city.
The store was packed with the young and the young at heart all there to appreciate the art you can create with those simple (but painful) plastic bricks. I was this close to buying the chess set…
Tributes to Sydney graced the walls of the store but sadly, I couldn’t find anything like the 3D recreations of local landmarks like I’ve seen at the LEGO stores in Berlin and New York.
Master SSG popped into the LEGO Cave that will be hosting many a birthday party in the near future. Possibly including Master SSGs but dont’ tell him I said that.
This is a LEGO Baby Shark, isn’t it?
And this would be James Corden, Sophie Turner and Josh Groban singing Baby Shark… with a full gospel choir in a would-be cabaret lounge.
The quirkily decorated lift at the LEGO store.
Bondi Beach recreated as a mosaic up on the second floor of the store.
We were also at Costco over the weekend. It was more of a journey than that sentence implies. The M4 entry and exit points all seem trickier than they were the last time I drove them. Then I forgot my membership card. And then there was the crowd. But at least I got my Costco essentials – the kilo tub Lurpak, lots of Kirkland Sencha green tea, even more Kirkland cinnamon and….
nappies! The best gift an aunty can give. Part 2 of my sensible gift is going to be a Dinner Ladies voucher. I can just seeing myself cutting loose in Boston though and picking up just one cute little outfit for my future niece….
How was your weekend? Does the new M4 perplex you the way the Eastern Distributor always did?
In short, I’d like to recapture the early days, weeks and years.
There was so much to learn, do and accept that I didn’t have enough time to simply be in the moment.
Our first days in hospital together were a blur of hormones, nervous energy and sleep deprivation. Fortunately with good coffee from down the road.
Embarrassingly, nothing I read in any of my books while I was hugely pregnant and reclining on the sofa with a bowl of Cheezels was anything I could confidently put into practice in our little room on the ward. Thank goodness for the helpful posters on the wall and the nurses who checked in on us….
I remember the feelings the most from those early days of January 2013. The warm fuzzy ones from azing into that sleeping little eyebrow and eyelash free face and the sharply contrasting feelings of being seriously out of my depth when I looked into that astonishingly large, toothless oral cavity as it cried and hollered. I remember feeling as if I’d re-entered the world after leaving it for the planet of new motherhood that first time I walked out of the hospital for a quick stretch after Master SSG was born.
I wish I’d spent less time second-guessing and less time hurrying the next stage along.
I wish I’d been more in awe and less in fear.
In this day of everyday life being the subject of thousands of phone camera photos, I wish I’d taken just a few more photos of us in amongst the 99.99% of photos that were all just him.
I wish I knew then what I know now.
That sleeping through the night, talking and toilet training would all happen in their own time. That the silent disappearing act in public places of highly mobile toddlers would end when they did learn to talk and then you’d never again be without a running commentary of your time together.
That those seemingly throwaway lines other parents told me were both true and comforting.
The days are long but the years are short. This too shall pass. You’ll never get this time back again. Yes, but they (the babies) haven’t read the books.
Would you have ‘done’ the early days differently? Is hindsight a benefit?
