Currently... June

We are one week into our winter school holidays. This is our mid-year, three week holiday, which is such an amazing amount of time to have off. I do have some work to do over the break, but sitting at home doing an hour of work here and there is pretty nice compared to the normal pace of our term-time lives. Andy has taken the kids out for an hour so I'm taking the opportunity to sit outside in the sun and catch up on the blog with no interruptions. Here's what I've been up to lately!

Reading I have read a few good books lately. The first is called The Heir Apparent, by Rebecca Armitage. Armitage is a journalist with the ABC (that's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for those in America), and as an International Correspondent has covered news to do with the British royal family. This book is about 29-year-old Lexi, or Princess Alexandrina, born third in line to the throne, behind her twin brother Louis. After her mother tragically dies in a boating accident when the twins are 17 years old, Lexi leaves the UK to study medicine in Australia, and doesn't return. 11 years later, she is living a fairly normal life when her brother and father are killed in a skiing accident, meaning she is now the heir to the crown. I like how the plot of this book is loosely based on the current royals, with Lexi as Prince Harry. It's a fun read, and as Armitage has covered the royals so much over the years, I'm do wonder which parts of the book are complete fiction, and which are based on truth. A fun read!

I also read Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. The premise is an interesting one: a tradwife influencer living a seemingly idyllic life on a farm with her husband and kids wakes up one day in 1855. She has to live the real life of a 19th century farm wife, which (surprise!) is pretty different to what is portrayed by a 21st century social media influencer. The chapters alternate between the influencer's life in the present day, and in 1855, and there is an interesting twist at the end which brings it all together. 

My favourite recent read is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. The book is told entirely through the letters and emails of Sybil, a 70-something retired lawyer. There are both letters to and from Sybil, and through these letters you learn about her life, both current and events of the past. It's excellent. I looked forward to reading it every night, and was sad when I had finished it. The letter writing reminded me of my year abroad in France, and how wonderful it was to receive and read letters from my friends and family that year. It also made me sad, both due to one main event in the book, but also because no one writes letters anymore, and what a loss for society that is.

I am now halfway through Lena Dunham's memoir Famesick. The first half of the book is about her life leading up to and during the production of the HBO show Girls, which she wrote, directed and starred in. Along with that we get insights into her rise to fame at a young age, along with her battle with endometriosis. Dunham was only 23 when she created Girls, which consumed her life for the next 7 years. She was also pretty sick and in a lot of pain throughout that time, and was pushed to keep working throughout by those she was working with. Her story has parallels to the other biography & documentary I read/watched this year about Tim Bergling (Avicii ): a young talented artist who really enjoyed the background more than the fame, pushed to work through severe illness... it seems Lena had wonderful supportive parents which in all likelihood kept her from the same fate as other young talented celebrities like Tim Bergling, who unfortunately did not survive their illness & fame.

Watching We are watching the World Cup, obviously, at the moment, and have three teams to cheer for: Australia, Canada and England. Ollie is obsessed with the tournament and stats from each game. We've been lucky that the game times have been in the morning so far in Australia, so pretty easy to watch - though I think the next England game is at 2am. We are into the knockout stages now, so the games will be much more stressful to watch from here on in. 

I also have two show recommendations that I've just finished. The first is Widow's Bay on  Apple+ and I liked this show so much! Matthew Rhys, from The Americans, is the main star, but the supporting cast are also excellent. Widow's Bay is an island a three-hour ferry ride off the coast of New England. The island's population never leave, due to a mysterious force on the island (think: Lost). However the island mystery is kind of secondary to the chemistry between the characters on the island, and the big surprise about the show is that while this is a sci-fi thriller kind of show, it is also hilarious. Like, so so funny, while also being scary at times. It's so great. I love that Apple+ release their shows weekly, so you get to spread out and look forward to excellent shows like this - it adds to the experience to not be able to binge it over a couple of days.

I also watched both seasons of the show Four Seasons on Netflix recently. This was a fun, cozy watch - one of those shows to get into when you don't want anything too serious or stressful before bed.

Listening to mainly the Mamamia Outloud podcast, which is where I mainly get my pop culture information each week. 

Seeing lots of friends from Melbourne these school holidays. We know about six different families whio will be visiting the Gold Coast at various points over the school holidays which is pretty fun. We spent a few days with the van Beeks over the first week, along with another one of my favourite ex-colleagues, and it has been great to see how quickly the kids have fell back in which each other - even though it's been a year since we last saw them.

Enjoying some pleasant winter weather here in Queensland. It's definitely colder now, but by colder I mean about 12-13 degrees in the morning, and around 19-21 degrees during the day. As long as there is some sun it's pretty warm during the day - shorts and t-shirt weather until the sun starts going down.  We did seem to have quite a bit of rain throughout May and June this year, which was getting tiring but was good for the garden. 

Using our pool heater heaps now that the weather has cooled off. We only use it to heat the spa section of the pool, as its is not powerful enough to heat our entire pool in the winter without also having a pool blanket. But even just heating up the spa means that we get use out of the pool all year round. Most weekends we'll heat the spa and then Andy and I will have a drink and a spa mid-afternoon, just before making dinner. The main pool gets used as a cold plunge (its about 18 degrees this time of year), and the kids will often join us, jumping from spa to the main pool. Getting the pool heater last year was definitely a good decision and well worth the money!

Needing a proper holiday. Since we moved to the Gold Coast, we haven't been on a holiday. Due to a combination of enjoying our new home and location, people visiting us, and well, the financial reality of the first few years of a sizeable mortgage, we have not gone anywhere, even a weekend break, since moving here. (Ok, we have gone camping, which has been fun, but is the exact opposite of what I'd consider a 'holiday'.) Despite having three weeks off work, which, don't get me wrong, is great, over the last week I've really been craving getting away - to anywhere really - I just want to be in a place for a while that is not our house. I want to go somewhere where there are no chores to be done, where I can sit and read guilt-free, instead of having all the things I could be doing around the house nagging at me. 

But I don't want to sound ungrateful... I love our house and I am so happy to have the school holidays off! And I'm sure we'll be able to plan a small holiday, even a few days away to somewhere close enough to drive, sometime over the next six months or so. For now, I'll just

enjoy being a tourist in the GC with so many of our Melbourne friends here!