Good Things Friday
We have had some beautiful Autumn weather here this week, as well as some heavy rain. Here’s a few good things from my week.
The Weekend
Although I had vertigo on Saturday afternoon and lingering effects (including the headache) on Sunday and into Monday, there were still some good things. G arrived home from overseas early Saturday morning. The weather was a beautiful Autumn day. I went for a bike ride in the afternoon down the coast trail, and it was stunning. I replaced a run to lessen the load on my sore foot and then stopped at Hampton to replenish the pantry stocks at the bulk food store.
I was woken very early Sunday morning with the headache part of my migraine, took some Voltaren and went back to bed. I got up a couple of hours later, and the girls picked me up for brunch. We went to one of our Albert Park favourites—The Guilty Moose, and met G after his run and a friend who lives around the corner. Afterwards, we went home and filled in some time, starting our new puzzle before G’s family arrived to celebrate his dad’s birthday. G had organised a cake from Glazed, a local gluten and dairy-free bakery. I should have taken a photo; it was beautiful and yummy, and it was such a treat to have something that I knew wasn’t going to trigger any allergies. His dad has coeliac, which is why we had to have gluten-free.
Once everyone had left, we had leftovers and watched a few episodes of The Brothers Sun on Netflix.
Humpday Lunch at Scopri
I look at the books for my parents’ superfund. We have an annual meeting with their accountant and then go out to lunch. The meeting was on Wednesday, and afterwards, my parents and I met my two sisters for lunch at Scopri. I had scallops, fettuccine with duck ragu, and apple tart, accompanied by a fabulous red wine (photos from their Instagram). Fantastic food and a good catch-up. Dad’s foot seems to be doing better and he didn’t need the scooter to get around.
Biking
My foot is still a little bit sore, and I want to give it time to heal, so I’m replacing some of my running with the bike. As a bonus, I can do my exercise and throw in some errands while I’m doing it. Thursday, I rode to the library, dropped off some books, picked up my holds, and headed down to the beach path. Once there, I rode out for 30 minutes and then came back home. Since I’m using these rides as actual exercise, I try to get a decent chunk in my zone 2 heart rate zone and don’t use the assist. I’ve realised my backside is not bike-ready. I’m so glad I have my bike now so I have this option to keep my fitness. God’s stars, too, for our council for all the bike lanes and bike paths. The coastal path allows me to ride for ages without dealing with cars or traffic lights.
Bonus Good Things
- Finishing the balloon puzzle. That was a surprisingly hard one because of the reflections, but it looked beautiful when it was complete.
- Catching up with my mainly music team after a break for the holidays. We had a very productive team meeting and are ready to start term 2.
- The sound of water from our little pond with a water spout.
- Beautiful blue sky, Autumn days.
- Getting back to my local bulk shops.
- This post about Two kinds of attention: narrow and wide was interesting.
- I also could relate to SHU’s post Nebulous Long Range Projects are Hard. I think my photobooks fall into this category. We are currently working on our estate planning and received the engagement letter from our lawyers, but need to get some tax advice from our accountant before sending our final instructions to the lawyers, so I’m happy that this project is nearly finished.
- Working with Your Hands is Good for Your Brain. The typing vs handwriting section was interesting.
How has your week been? Does your neighbourhood have good places to ride or walk?
12 Comments
Nicole MacPherson
Oooh I really love a good puzzle, but man, does that one look difficult!!! All the balloons and sky. My husband would love it – he loves really hard puzzles – and I am more of a “easy puzzle with lots of individual vignettes” kind of a person. I recently did a puzzle of Queen Elizabeth at her coronation, and it was SO HARD.
Biking is so much fun, and we are juuuuust getting into the season here!
Melissa
I find it’s sometimes hard to know how hard a puzzle is going to be until you get started.
Elisabeth
That balloon puzzle is gorgeous. As per usual, I would lose my living mind if I attempted something like that!
Also – those food pictures. YUM!
I’m sorry the vertigo/migraines impacted your weekend, but I’m proud of you for being proactive and hope that you get relief soon after your most recent appointment and the action plan that came out of that.
Melissa
The food was so, so good. It’s probably one of my dad’s favourite restaurants.
San
The food looks absolutely amazing. A nice tradition to tag a lunch date to a monthly task.
I am sorry you’re dealing with the migraines but hope you’re on a better path of managing them. Getting out on your bike sounds delightful. I cannot wait to get my bike out and use it more again. My immediate neighborhood thankfully is quite walkable/bikeable.
Daria
Thank you for this post, Melissa! And especially for the blog links- I saw SHU’s post and I could so relate! Will check out the others later on today.
Autumn looks so pretty but it’s wild to me that it’s autumn… Since we are in the spring in NJ now. And the puzzle looks amazing but I could never complete that!
Melissa
My eldest daughter does a lot of the puzzles when we do them and she always insists on doing the sky.
Melissa
I suppose it won’t be long before the weather is good enough for you to get back into biking.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Glad to hear your dad is already well enough to walk around. I sure hope your foot is healing quickly too. What a great way to stay active and use the bike more.
I live in an area where we have good bike lanes and trails. Actually just along my home there are three big bike routs. One is the Berlin-Copenhagen route, one is the Berlin Wall Route and one is the Havel Route (the river I love on). So many options for me. Unfortunately my bike is really crappy and may almost not be save to drive. I wanted to buy a new bike last year but am overwhelmed with the options. And now I am thinking I can go another seaosn with the old one in order to save my money.
Melissa
When we were in Berlin I was really impressed with the biking infrastructure. We di a bike tour and I felt really safe, even though I was out of practice on the bike because it was before I got my bike here.
NGS
The very first puzzle I remember every trying to attempt was one of hot air balloons and all the different shades of blue in the sky made me insane. Well done!
We have a lovely recreational cycling path near our house. Unfortunately for us, if we wanted to commute by bike, it would be really hard and would involved us on very narrow roads with cars driving too fast. We also have mountain biking trails within a half-hour drive of our house and my husband sometimes take advantage of those.
Melissa
I plan my routes very carefully, trying to make use of the roads with designated bike lanes (not seperated from the traffic but at least marked) and the coastal path with is a shared pedestrian/cycling path. I wouldn’t want to drive on some of the narrower roads with fast cars, I’d be too nervous.