Currently... 01.11.20

Doing watching a Halloween movie with Ella. She's chosen Monster House, although we're about five minutes in and I'm wondering if it will be too scary for her. It's animated but perhaps she's a few years too young. The kids had soccer this morning, the last day of the season. I'm sad, the coaches were brilliant and both kids really got a lot out of these sessions. Not to mention we are super limited in activities for the kids at the moment! Ollie has gone down for his nap, so Ella normally has some TV time now. She's just curled up next to me so I think we might be switching to a different movie shortly!

(LATER) It's now the next morning as I try to finish up this post. Ella asked me to close my laptop so we could snuggle and watch the movie. Snuggles with Ella are few and far between these days so of course I obliged! Yesterday we had a really fun Halloween, even though traditional trick-or-treating was strongly not recommended in our area due to the pandemic. However a few of our neighbours put together little bags of candy for the kids so we went to four pre-planned houses in the afternoon. One of our neighbours, who's granddaughter is Ella's bestie, decorated her backyard and made a candy hunt for the two girls. 

We also had a huge pile of leaves to rake up on the front lawn, that was super fun for Ollie and the girls to play in:

After dinner we took a kids on a drive looking for houses that were decorated for Halloween. One house in particular always has a crazy Halloween setup, and it was on in full last night. I only took this one picture, which is really just a small snapshot of the whole display:

I tried searching the internet for more, and found this picture. The kids had such a fun time, and we got to see a lot more cool decorations than if we had just stayed within our street doing traditional trick-or-treating. Ollie kept saying things like "I'm so happy" as he pointed out pumpkins, ghosts, and the huge full moon. 

Reading I just read a book called Brother by David Chariandy. I've never read anything else by this author, I just happened to see this book on display at my local public library and thought it sounded good. I'm so glad I did! The book is beautifully written. It's the story of two brothers growing up in the 90s in Scarborough, which is a suburb east of Toronto. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their dad is long gone, and their mother works double shifts in order to support them. The book is bittersweet, in that the relationship between the boys is so so strong and full of love, however their circumstances mean they are subject to prejudices and there are devastating consequences for one of them. It's a powerful and timely book written by a Canadian author. I highly recommend it.

Watching the series The Queen's Gambit on Netflix. We are on episode 4 and Andy and I are both thoroughly enjoying this one. Set in the 60s, the series follows the life of an orphaned chess prodigy called Beth Herman. She learns to play chess with a janitor at her orphanage, and is later adopted in her early teens. Her adoptive father leaves his wife, and so to make some money Beth decides to enter a local chess tournament where she stuns everyone. As an orphan, Beth was dependent on tranquilizers that were given to the children (which later became illegal), so she battles with addiction alongside her fast rising fame in the chess world. I'm not sure if I am selling it, but boy is it good. Also the styling of the 60s makes for some gorgeous cinematography, it kind of reminds me of Mad Men in that way.

Listening to a podcast called Canadians Away! Each episode is an interview with a Canadian living the expat life somewhere, so as you can imagine, this is right up my alley. I've only listened to one episode - the most recent one which features a teacher from Alberta on exchange with an Aussie teacher from a small beach town about 300km north of Sydney. It's really funny to hear another Canadian's observations about Australians and Australia, although for us Melbourne is quite different to a sleepy beach town. For example she talks about how much people walk around in bare feet, like even in the grocery store. People definitely DO NOT do that in Melbourne, although I do remember a lot of bare feet when we visited Byron Bay. And it was more acceptable for kids to run around in the park barefoot in Australia than it is here in Canada, for sure. Ella loves running around barefoot, so it must be the Aussie in her! Anyway, I'm looking forward to listening to more of this podcast.

I also listened to a super interesting interview with Nicholas Christakis on Sam Harris's podcast. Christakis is a sociologist and physician, and the current director of the Human Nature Lab at Yale. In the podcast, called A Pandemic of Incompetence, he discusses the US's response to Covid, the breakdown in the public's trust of scientists, and how science should be independent of politics (which it is not currently in the US). He also gives some of his predictions on where things are headed with respect to Covid. He's a very engaging interviewee, and is able to break down some complex ideas in ways that are easy for anyone to digest. Definitely worth a listen!

On a lighter note, there is an interview with Matthew McConaughey on Armchair Expert which is just delightful. He has written a memoir, and in the podcast he shares stories from his childhood. It was such a fun listen, and I am now interested in reading the book, called Greenlights. McConaughey reads the audiobook version so I'm thinking I may try that instead of a traditional book. 

Wearing my winter coat! We've had a quick autumn and there is a chill in the air that is here to stay. At night when you walk outside it smells like winter - anyone who lives in a cold climate will know what I'm talking about! I've also got my trusty Heattech extra warm leggings from Uniqlo on the go. They are so soft and comfy and are warmer than regular leggings.

Enjoying my job lately. It's always nice to start your second year in a school, as the first year is spent figuring out how the place works. This was also a totally new role for me last year. I'd spent my whole teaching career in London and Melbourne as a Math teacher, with some leadership positions like Department Head and Head of Curriculum. But now I'm a special education teacher, a Learning Strategist as it is called here, and I help students one-on-one who have identified exceptionalities, such as a Learning Disability, ADHD or, as is becoming more common, anxiety. I am able to really get to know students and help them according to their individual needs. 

Feeling somewhat anxious about the outcome of the US election. It feels very close to us here in Canada, and of course this year the stakes are very high for the whole world, not just American citizens. It also seems to have been going on FOREVER, so I, along with I think most people, would just like to know the outcome already. 

Eating chocolate chip oatmeal pancakes from Minimalist Baker this morning. This was the first ever recipe on that blog which is kind of cool! The kids devoured them, and they were more filling than regular pancakes as they are made with oatmeal and whole wheat flour.

Drinking waaaaaay too much coffee. But it's just such a comforting taste to me. Even the really bad stuff they brew at my school. I generally have one Nespresso pod when I wake up, and then I take a small thermos of coffee my dad makes every morning to work with me. I put a bit of cream in it, which is the best part. So much more decadent than regular milk. I usually drink that while I drive to work or as I'm first checking my emails and planning my day. Then around 9-10am I have one more small cup of terrible coffee at school. Once in a while I sneak out for a Starbucks Flat White as a treat. I can't handle any more caffeine than that, so in the afternoon I switch to herbal tea. 

Savouring cuddles with Ollie, when I get them. Since I've gone back to work and Andy is home with Ollie a lot, he's started to favour daddy, which is heartbreaking! While teaching from home in the spring, and on summer holiday's, Ollie was a big mummy's boy, and very cuddly. But now, when I get home from work, he just looks at me and says a big "NO!" and runs off. So sad. But on weekends I manage to get back in there, especially when he has first woken up. 

Pic of the Month This is a rare photo of just me and Andy (no kids!), taken during our visit to Stonehaven Farms earlier this month.