I lost a few days this week to a migraine, and I’m still feeling the aftereffects, but there are always good things to share! The first is that I am semi-out of the boot. I have to wear it half the time this week. There was still a bit of pain at the fracture sight, but the physio said that is the case sometimes and just be careful doing anything that causes pain. I have some strength exercises to do each day, which will hopefully go some way to building back up the muscle in my wasted calf … I’m sure there are other places that need strengthening, but that is the area that is most notable.

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I was a marshall

for this week’s APSOC cross-country race. Our club was hosting, and it was good to be able to participate in some way, even though I couldn’t run. There was one almost fall by a runner at my turn, but they righted themselves, so we were all good. The race was held in Yarra Bend Park, Melbourne’s largest bushland park. The Rainbow Lorikeets were going to town in the gum trees near me, so the morning was a good dose of nature, which I’d been missing since not being able to get out and about as much.

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Lunch with Friends

Saturday afternoon, we went to a friend’s place for lunch. He was hosting a group of us who had helped him get his previous house ready to sell. He cooked a beautiful cacciucco, an Italian poor man’s fish stew. After we ate the seafood in our bowls, he cooked up some pasta to mop up the rest of the sauce. It was delicious and not something I would ordinarily have tried. The dessert was pavlova, with yoghurt instead of cream on the top and fresh fruit. We finished up there at about 5:30 pm and didn’t need any dinner. The whole afternoon was such a beautiful celebration of friendship; I feel gratitude to this friend for showing us the way with his display of gratitude.

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King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Monday was a public holiday for the King’s birthday. I took the opportunity to potter around in the morning, getting a few odd jobs done. I also started a batch of yoghurt. After lunch, we popped up to our neighbours who live upstairs in our building and had a lovely afternoon tea. When we came back down our daughter, S, was hanging out with Riley in the apartment. I made up some dough for the Lahmacun I had planned for dinner. (The recipe said premade bases, but I have a foolproof recipe for pizza dough that it very easy). After that S and I were at a bit of a loss with what to do because G was watching the footy. The puzzle was sitting on the table, almost finished, but we’d told H that we would wait for her to get back from Noosa to finish it, but we just couldn’t help ourselves. The puzzle is finished. We did text H to let her know we would be finishing it before we finished it.

It was the 2000-piece with the note to take a chance on me. I can report back that only four pieces were missing, but one of them was a corner.

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Gifts from my past self

Last week, when I was writing out the menu plan, I saw that the veggies were going to run out over the weekend, so I gave myself a gift by ordering a box of veggies to arrive this Tuesday. I cleaned out the fridge and stowed them away and was very happy that I did not need to think about getting veggies this week. That also meant I could do my meal plan. I usually wait for the box and then write a plan to use up what arrives. I find this way, we tend to eat a bigger variety of veggies than we would otherwise.

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Bonus Good Things

• Late last Friday afternoon, I sent off some figures to the accountant so they could finish some paperwork before the EOFY. It had been sitting on my list for a few weeks now, and it felt so good to tick it off.
• My new vertigo medication generally allows me to get out of bed at least and even function OK some of the time. I still avoid driving.
• On a similar note, I’m so glad that my vestibular migraines were not this frequent when I was in the middle of caring for kids and driving them to all their activities. When it’s only once every three or four months, it is a lot less disruptive. I guess that’s the benefit of having kids early enough that they are grown before I reached perimenopause, with it’s crazy hormones.
• Our eldest daughter is currently on holiday with my parents in Noosa, and she had a wonderful birthday celebration with them.
• This was an interesting article in favour of a printed local newsletter as opposed to a digital version … “The invite Was Already in My Mailbox.”
• On a related topic – “We should be worried about devaluing ourselves. We should be worried about machines doing the work of trying to get us to feel things. Because that’s our job as humans. ” – Brooke Mcalary “Human Intelligence”
• I spent some time this week with our son, at his request, helping him sort out a new system to try to manage his finances. His ADHD gets in the way, so it’s not that straightforward. We had a few hiccups but I think one more trip to the bank next week and we should be sorted.
• All those things I get worked up about … “Maybe it Doesn’t Matter” – Oliver Burkeman

We have special plans tonight, which I’ll share for next week’s good things. How was your week? Do you give gifts to your future self?