Currently... 27.09.21

It's the second week of school holidays and I'm sitting outside in our garden, in the "relaxation area" Ella set up for me this morning, complete with cucumbers to put over my eyes and a bucket of (freezing) water for me to soak my feet in. What a delightful surprise this was, and oh how well Ella knows me!

It's been a wonderfully relaxing school holiday so far. Sometimes lockdown can feel like a real blessing in disguise. We've had time to do some admin and organising around the house, and our outings consist of nothing more complex than meeting friends for playdates and picnics in parks or at the beach. Andy is pestering me to do some weeding in the garden, but I'm determined to finish this blog post first.

Watching Drive to Survive on Netflix. We've just started this docuseries about Formula 1 racing. Andy used to watch the Grand Prix regularly when we were in England but I never saw the appeal. Cars zooming around and around on a track for 90 minutes... it's hard to think of what could possibly be more boring than this. We even went to the Grand Prix in Melbourne, way back in 2013, but I was more interested in the giant Qantas plane that does a low flyover than the race itself. (The Qantas thing is pretty cool though, to be fair.) Then I read the article "How Netflix Made Americans Care About the Most European of Sports" and I was intrigued. 

Andy was very surprised when I suggested we watch it a few weeks ago. Having finished the first part of Money Heist Season 5 we were in need of our next show to binge, and I have to say I'm now a little bit hooked. The first season of Drive to Survive is about the 2018 racing season, and as I knew absolutely nothing about F1 prior to this the outcomes are all surprising to me (well except that even I knew that Lewis Hamilton wins all the time). I am now familiar with a lot of the teams and drivers and have my own opinion of them (Daniel Ricciardo, love him, and it's great to cheer for an Aussie. Max Verstappen, I am not a fan! Esteban Ocon, does he ever get a seat again after being replaced by the new owner's son on Force India?! I need to know!). And, I did not know that apparently you need to be good looking to be a Formula 1 race driver, so there's also that...

We also just started Clickbait on Netflix which is kind of good but also I will probably forget about it as soon as we finish the series. I think what is most interesting about it is how the internet are involved in solving this (fictional) crime, sort of like what is happening with the whole Gabby Petito thing right now. It raises a lot of ethical questions about the genre of true crime, which can walk a fine line between raising awareness/remembering victims and treating horrendous crimes like entertainment.

Reading More than a Woman by Caitlin Moran. This book is part memoir, part feminist manifesto. Caitlin Moran writes about all of the different faces of a middle-aged woman: mother of teenaged children, carer of ageing parents, career woman, wife. Having turned 40 this year, I am maybe slightly behind her stage of life but still felt I could relate, or see my future, in a lot of this book. It's very funny yet tackles some serious topics (her daughter's eating disorder, the often negative impact of a patriarchal society on men, the real cost of unpaid carer work) and there were a lot of takeaways for me. I'm sure the book is most appealing for a particular sector of society: middle-class, white, mother, middle-aged... but as that is a group I belong to I found it a fun and relatable read.

My latest fiction read was the book Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton. I almost didn't read this book - I'd had it on hold at the library for months and forgot about it until I got an email saying it was ready for pick up. When I read the synopsis again and realised it was about a school shooting I thought to myself "no. I can't read that. It's too horrifying. I need something lighter in my life right now." But the reviews of it were really good and I was out of reading material so I figured I'd give a few chapters a go. I am so glad I did! This was such a beautifully written book. The "three hours" are the hours that a school is under siege by two gunman. The story is told from different points of view: students, teachers, parents and the policewoman who is tasked with trying to figure out who the gunmen are and what they will do next. Despite the theme, the book is not graphic or violent, and is much more character driven than I was expecting. It was an unputdownable read, tense and emotional, a story that stayed with me long after I finished the last page.

Drinking oat milk flat whites. This is now my regular order if we are getting take out from a café and I also make them for myself at home. I got into oat milk as a substitute for regular milk in coffees when I was in Canada, and I don't know why but I sort of forgot about them when we arrived in Melbourne. But we are always trying to find ways to reduce our animal product intake, and oat milk is (in my opinion) the best substitute for cows milk in coffee. It tastes great and froths up nicely. My favourite brand here so far is Oatly Oat Milk Barista edition. As a bonus Ollie also loves it - for some reason he thinks its chocolate milk, which I obviously go along with. 

Wearing leggings everyday, since we are in lockdown. Not having to put on professional clothing five days a week is definitely one of my "lockdown silver linings". 

Taking iron supplements after a few consecutive blood tests showed my iron levels were very low. This has been an issue for me in the past, and as we don't eat a lot of red meat my doctor has suggested iron supplements for three months. Low iron tends to lead to fatigue, and I am definitely a lot less tired at the end of the day since starting these three weeks ago. 

Waiting for what seems like an eternity for the vaccination rates to hit certain targets in both our state, Victoria, and Australia. The magic numbers are 70% and 80% fully vaccinated, though I can't quite remember why anymore. I think at 70% fully vaccinated we will be able to come out of our current lockdown in Melbourne, a target that we should meet by the end of October (we are approaching 80% single dose in the coming days). At 80% fully vaccinated Australia is supposed to open to international travel again, but who knows what that will look like. I have to keep my expectations in check, leading on to...

Hoping that we will be able to take our first international trip in June next year. We have three weeks in England and Spain optimistically planned. My parents and my brother's family are planning on meeting us in Spain, and we will spend time with Andy's family in England. It is so fun to fantasise about travel again... fingers crossed for open borders and quarantine free travel within the next 9 months.

Loving watching the relationship between Ella and Ollie develop. They are so cute together. Don't get me wrong, they argue and fight like any normal siblings. But they also play together really well. If Ella comes to drop off Ollie at daycare, it's her that he hugs before going inside. Likewise, if she is there for pickup, he runs and hugs her before Andy or me. For the past two days they have got up together and left me and Andy in bed, while Ella gets cereal for both of them and they watch some TV together. Cute, cute, cute! (And yay to laying in bed a bit longer...)

Wanting a pair of hair straighteners. One of the last things we haven't bought/replaced since moving here. I'm torn between splurging on a high end pair or looking for something more moderately priced with good reviews. My hair is nearly straight so it's really just the finishing smoothness I'm looking for - it's not like I have a head of tight curls to straighten. (And... life must be pretty good if I am putting this much thought into purchasing hair straighteners.)

Excited to discover that the giant tree in our back garden is a fruit tree... a Loquat tree to be exact! What is a loquat you ask? Good question! It's a small yellow fruit with a thin skin, sometimes called a Japanese or Chinese plum. We picked our first few today and I don't think they are quite ripe yet as they were a bit tart, but they did taste a bit like plums. I can see big batches of loquat jam and chutney in our future.

Well that's all for now, I can't put off this weeding any longer. time to find a good podcast to listen to to make the job more enjoyable!