My parents arrived home from overseas this week to get stuck straight into packing up their apartment which will settle in October. Before listing all the good things I will have a whinge about the wind we’ve been having lately. I want to spray the citrus, and it’s been so windy every day I haven’t had a chance. Riley runs nuts at the park when it’s windy and it’s just generally less pleasant to be out and about.
FRI 30.8.2024
- I was woken up in the early morning hours by a storm, with no thunder but strong wind and heavy rain, and went back to sleep, imagining a soggy day coming up. Imagine my delight when I got up out of bed to bright blue skies. It’s the perfect combination I think—the plants get a good soaking overnight and then we get to enjoy a beautiful, sunny day.
- H took the day off work because she has many days in lieu owing due to working overtime. The plan was to visit the Affordable Art Fair at the Royal Melbourne Exhibition Building before walking across the road to my parent’s place to help them pack their house. H and I both got the details of some artists we liked so we could keep an eye on their work. I’m keen to get a still life for a wall in out kitchen and I saw a few I liked.
- Back at mum’s and dad’s we had lunch and then E’s girlfriend K came over. My parents have sold their city apartment and so they need to pack up everything. Since it is their second house, most of its stuff must go. E’s girlfriend came to help me pick out some bits and pieces for E when he moves out. We packed up a dinner set, some glasses, a couple of sizes of crueset dishes and other bits and bobs. I also sent K home with a few things for her kitchen. H picked out some pasta bowls, a one-person frypan and a few other things. I also picked up a good collection of jars for my pantry, which will save me scouring the Op Shops, washcloths, egg rings (I want to try making crumpets), and utensils. I replaced my very bedraggled pastry brush, which I’d been meaning to do. I think this well and truly satisfies the “get 10 things secondhand instead of new” item on my 101 Things list. That does not mean that I won’t keep finding secondhand instead of new.
- We were also able to pack up their books for sale by an organisation that sells them online with the proceeds going to charity.
- Takeout Friday was at mum and dad’s. We had yummy pizza from a place near them.
SAT 31.8.2024
- I was back at Mum and Dad’s this morning. My sister and her husband also helped today. We managed to get most of the cupboards sorted out into boxes for their house at Point Lonsdale, boxes for the children and grandchildren, boxes for the Salvos and rubbish. We found Mum’s sewing machine in the laundry, so I’m keeping that. At the moment, I want to mend my favourite top, and I was planning on seeing if I could borrow the sewing machine from the Bayside Library of Things. This way, I’ll be able to do more of the little bits of sewing that arise. We also headed home with a painting and a painted pot.
- At one stage we looked out the window and saw this beautiful rainbow.
- Due to a whole series of complicated events that I won’t get into here, I ended up driving my niece to my sister’s place. We got ten minutes down the road from my parent’s place, and she started vomiting all over herself, the car seat and the car. This is obviously not a good thing, but things I’m grateful for … 1. it was not my car! I was very happy about this. 2. It wasn’t too far from my sister’s, and with the windows fully down, I managed not to throw up myself. 3. G is a trooper and did most of the cleanup while my sister (not my niece’s mother, the other one) and I were largely useless due to sympathetic dry retching. 4. My niece was fine after the vomiting. You wouldn’t have even known she’d been sick.
- After the vomit drama, we (the adults) sat around, had a nice glass of wine, or cider, or gin and recovered.
SUN 1.9.2024
- It was Father’s Day today.
- I had my first outdoor run since my fracture. Thirty minutes walk/run.
- We met the girls for breakfast afterwards. I had a big bowl of green veggies on pumpkin hummus and it was so good, even though I forgot to order a poached egg on top. Sometimes, veggies really hit the spot.
- The girls came back to our apartment afterwards, and we finished the puzzle. It wasn’t as hard as we thought it might be.
- We had afternoon tea with G’s family for Father’s Day.
- G and I led the service at church in the evening, and it went well. We usually have a discussion-based format and there’s always some excellent insights during the discussions.
- Soup. It was so easy to prepare ahead of time and stretch between groups, which was lucky because …
- E had his girlfriend and another friend over for dinner. We had a lovely dinner. It’s always good to make the dinner cover guests at short notice.
MON 2.9.2024
- Today, our normal session leader for mainly music was away, so I had to step into the role. I don’t love being up front, but it went pretty smoothly. One of the mums had a baby at the end of last term, and she was back. It was good to catch up and see the new bub.
- Another fullish table at dinner tonight with six of us. E will be home for dinner multiple times this week, along with his girlfriend which is always nice. I expect we’ll see a bit more of him because he is working on a musical at a school that is within walking distance from us.
- The girls and I worked on a new puzzle which is shaping up to be quite tricky, but only 1500 pieces.
TUES 3.9.2024
- I cut the everlasting daisy back in early winter, and it is bushing back up again and flowering copiously. How many flowers can one plant produce? When I bought it, I did not think it would be anywhere near this prolific.
- The lettuce and kale from the garden has stretched the veggies from my box out over a week of meals so I won’t have to order another until next week.
WED 4.9.2024
- Chocolate cake at our ministry leadership team to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of our leaders. She is amazing. I hope I grow up to be like her.
- A pot of chocolate mousse from the store—rich, dark chocolate goodness—was not cheap, but we shared a pot between the four of us, and it was a lovely indulgence.
THURS 5.9.2024
- Being available to help E’s girlfriend get to an interview. It’s always good to have the least number of things that could go wrong for stressful situations like interviews.
- Chicken schnitzels. I do enjoy them for dinner fairly regularly.
- That feeling of accomplishment when you’ve worked through a tricky problem. I’ve been writing a new report for our finance manager to run, and I finally sorted it out late in the afternoon.
How has your week been? Are you a sympathetic vomiter? Do you have a food indulgence?
Comments
12 responses to “Good Things Friday”
Chocolate cake AND chocolate mousse, sign me up.
AIEEEEE CAR VOMIT. Is she prone to carsickness? My younger son was when he was little and I always travelled with a litre yogurt tub, complete with lid, lined with a plastic bag in case of emergency. It worked really well. Thankfully he outgrew that! I’m not a sympathetic vomiter but I get massive anxiety when someone does vomit. I always think tv and movies should have a content warning if someone is going to throw up.
Apparently she has never been car sick so I’m not sure what was wrong. We always had plastic bags in the back seat just in case.
Vomit. This is the second time I’ve read about vomit this morning and in “real life” my best friends daughter – who my children were recently playing with – has a stomach bug. GAH. I hate vomit so, so much. (I mean…who likes it, I suppose, but UGH).
On a happier note, your food sounds delish, and what a pretty puzzle. It looks plenty hard to me 🙂
I hope you got off in your house without picking up the stomach bug.
Car sickness is the worst. I always feel bad for people who have it, but they do seem to shake it off! I am a sympathetic vomiter, but I try to hold it together to help the sick person.
What a lovely goal to find things second-hand. There’s such a large surplus of kitchen goods in thrift shops here in the States because so many people don’t cook from scratch anymore!
I get car, train, plane, bus and sea sick which is not fun. My niece doesn’t actually get carsick so we’re not sure what was wrong.
Yes, I suppose also people, if they do cook from scratch tend to cook easy food. My daughters cook most of their meals from scratch since they’ve moved out, but usually the same things every week and fairly simple, but they’re both working. Although my daughter does make banana bread as well every few weeks.
Oh no! Vomiting in a car seat is the absolute WORST place to vomit! That has happened to us several times. I have become more hearty about vomit since having kids, esp since one of my kids is prone to puking. But if it wasn’t my child it would be hard for me to handle – especially the terrible clean-up!!
That rainbow is gorgeous! And yay for shopping your parents apartments – that is a win/win for everyone. I am so happy when I can pass along kid stuff to another family. I would otherwise donate it but it’s nice to know it’s being used.
I am so bad. My daughter used to vomit in her sleep when she got a cold (too much mucus). Since G travelled a lot, sometimes I would have to do the cleanup and I’d have her in the bath, do a bit of hair washing, run out to the hall and take a few deep breaths, then come back and do a bit more and repeat. It was awful.
Oh goodness, I remember my daughter barfing in her car seat once, and her seat tilted her back a bit and I was terrified she was going to choke on it. I was on the freeway and had to zoom across 3 lanes of traffic and get off of the freeway to get it all cleaned up. She was fine, thankfully.
That’s great that you’re able to find new homes for so many of your parents’ extras!
Oh no that must have been scary. I was a bit worried at first as she sounded like she might be choking, but she stopped that pretty quickly so I knew I could just keep going.
Not a fan of the vomit drama but the rest of your week sounds great. And I want some chocolate mouse in my fridge now.
Also love the puzzle again. Maybe next weekend I pill one out. Usually only do it between the years but reading about all your puzzle joy I want some too.
Congrats on being able to run again.
My running didn’t last long, I’ve put it off until after our trip so I don’t injure myself. I love the chocolate mousse we get. I eat it very slowly with a teaspoon.