Good Things Friday

Dinner Party

“Have my school friends over” is on my list, and I am happy to report that it happened on Friday night. G was away in Noosa with his school friends, so I figured this was the perfect opportunity to have my school friends over for dinner. I reconnected with two of them at the running group, which is kind of bizarre. I ran into the fourth friend’s sister at our local cafe, and since we now live on the same side of town, we got together towards the end of last year for a walk and talk. The others hadn’t seen her for a number of years, so they were keen to reconnect in person, too. I cooked the main—Bridget Jone’s pan-fried salmon with pine nut salsa, crispy roast potatoes, salted tomatoes with tomato and white bean dip and green salad, while the other provided nibbles, drinks and dessert. We had such a good time catching up on where everyone’s at.

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Relays and Running Club Annual Dinner

Saturday was one of the main championship events for the cross-country season. I wasn’t running, but I took my daughter in, as she was, and took charge of a clipboard for the afternoon. In this race, there are teams of six (men’s division 1) or four (women’s and division 2), with each person doing a lap of the tan. They do use electronic timing, so the clipboards are a backup. As each runner comes into the changeover/finish, the timekeeper calls out the time, and the people with the clipboards need to write down the times. I was looking after two women’s teams, but not my daughters. Our club’s first women’s team won, and our first men’s team came second, but we ended up being awarded the win in the men’s because the other team had an unregistered runner. My daughter’s team came fourth out of twelve teams in the women’s division.

After the relays, it was back home for a quick rest before getting ready for our club’s annual dinner. I didn’t win any awards (LOL), but I had a good time eating and socialising. During the week I was umming and ahhing about whether to go because it would just be me and I had to drive thirty minutes across town but I’m glad I decided to go in the end. I picked up a friend on the way so had a bit of company on the drive.

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Long Bike Ride

On my original marathon training plan, I had a 30K run planned for last weekend. Instead, I went for a long bike ride down the coastal path. It was a really beautiful morning for a ride with very little wind and a bit of foggy cloud cover before it cleared to beautiful blue skies. The only non-good thing about this was the pain in my backside after 1:40 on the I. I ordered a pair of padded cycling shorts that arrived yesterday, and I look forward to trying them out soon.

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Op Shop Finds

I had my Breastscreen this week in Elsternwick and took the opportunity to visit the three op shops that are bunched together just up the street from Cabrini. Sadly, none of them had any large puzzles, but I found a jumper, a cookbook, a Miles Franklin Award Winner (I’m working through the list) and two glass jars that will be good for pantry storage. I’ll use these to phase out some of my aging Tupperware.

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The Winter Veggie Garden is Planted

I’ve had to clean out the veggie gardens and replant with winter veggies on my list for several weeks now. I needed to top up the beds with compost and soil and needed G to help me get the big bags. With my possible stress fracture, I didn’t want to be carrying heavy bags around. He picked me up from my MRI on Wednesday, and we popped into Bunnings on the way home. The Bunnings trip was made more urgent because my old mop broke last week, and the floors were due for another cleaning.

I checked back at the lessons I learned from last year’s winter garden and have tailored my planting accordingly. After getting no broad beans last year, I went back to a standard and what I hope will be a heavy cropping broad bean. I’ve ditched the broccoli and planted more lettuce and kale, both things that should grow reliably and that we eat regularly. After planting this lot and leaving the rainbow chard and parsley that was already going, I didn’t have room for peas, so I didn’t have to worry about working out a more robust support for them.

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A Night Out With Our Running Mates

Two of our friends from the running club recently returned home after completing the London and Boston marathons, respectively. G organized dinner last night with them and fifteen of our regular running buddies to catch up and check out the medals. It was good times all around. I am so grateful that we fell in with this group of runners five or so years ago. It’s hard to make new friends as an adult, and this group has enriched our lives in so many ways.

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Riley and Bananas

Our dog Riley loves bananas, and whenever I have one on my morning porridge he comes over looking for his piece. He sits waiting patiently for his piece, eyes expectant and excited. I throw it to him and he jumps in the air and catches it. No matter how many times we do this I always get a little thrill of joy as he catches it in his mouth. It really is the little things that amuse me.

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Bonus Good Things

• We’ve been doing the Prayer Course II at SOS on Sunday nights, which is so good.
• We had some of the chilli sauce I made last week on this Vietnamese Chicken Salad (except I bought a rotisserie chicken instead of poaching chicken breasts.)
• Double-glazed windows. Apart from the insulation benefits, they also provide an (almost) cone of silence to insulate me from the building noises next door when I need an afternoon nap.
• Our puzzle mat. It’s not quite as easy to make the puzzles on as my board, but It makes doing a 3000-piece puzzle possible because I can roll it up when we have people over.
• 20 Daily journalling Ideas
• Autumn leaves. The street trees are finally changing, and the streets lined with deciduous trees are stunning.
• Lots of blue sky, sunny, Autumn days.

Is there something small that never gets old for you? Do you keep in touch with friends from school? How has your week been?