Good Things Friday – Good Friday Edition

Easter Weekend

We are back down at my parent’s place for the Easter weekend with various extended family members. The weather is stunning, and I’m looking forward to running (I hurt my foot on Tuesday, but I’m going to test it tomorrow; hopefully, my 26K will be a go on Sunday), walking, eating and lots of sitting outside chatting. I wish we could do both this and celebrate Easter at our church. I was thinking maybe next year we come down after the Good Friday service, but my nephew just arrived and said the traffic was horrendous, and it took him three hours to get here.

Our Anniversary

We had a wonderful day on our anniversary. We started by walking Riley to the dog beach for a splash around. While we were there, I heard someone call my name. I turned around and saw a friend I used to play tennis with before the pandemic. She had driven across town from our old neighbourhood with a friend to let their dogs play at the beach. So random.

The highlight of our day was lunch at Smith St Bistrot. We parked at my parent’s place and walked from there. We toasted ourselves with a French Martini for me and a zero beer for G. My sister and sister-in-law had both told me that I must have the twice-baked cheese souffle with gruyere sauce, and it didn’t disappoint. (No photos of this, I scoffed it down too quickly) For main, I had coq au vin with the wine pairing. I decided today was the day to break my low-alcohol, low-dairy efforts and it was worth it. I love breaking out for a special occasion. My eczema flared over the weekend, but it’s settled down again, and I didn’t trigger a migraine.

On our way back through the streets of Fitzroy, we admired the buildings in the oldest suburb in Melbourne. I had mainly been on the main streets in this area, which are a mix of commercial buildings and beautiful townhouses built for wealthy bankers and merchants in the mid-19th century. In contrast, on the side streets, there are what would originally have been one- and two-room terraces for the workers in the various factories that have long since shut. We had a lovely walk checking these out.

The rest of our day was spent, moving some furniture round at my parent’s apartment, dropping off some bits and pieces to the op shop (and finding some treasures, see below) and having our daughters over for takeaway. They usually come over Friday for take away; they ate … I didn’t.

An Awesome Haul of Puzzles from our church’s Op Shop

While I was dropping off some of my son’s clothes that don’t fit him anymore, I checked out the puzzles and found two 2000 pieces and a 1500 piece that looked quite hard. Our eldest immediately wanted to get stuck into them on Friday night. She chose the coral reef design. The rest of us watched a movie. The girls also spent a large chunk of Sunday over here and we worked on it then and finished it on Monday. That’s why we need big, difficult puzzles, otherwise they get finished too quickly. There was a bit of unexpected difficulty due to about twenty-five extra pieces from another puzzle in the box, and three missing pieces.

Neighbourhood Trails

I love that I can run from home along these trails for my long run. Bonus … there are also some gorgeous views.

Doing Repairs

Does anyone else get those tiny, annoying holes in the front of their T-shirts that just seem to get bigger and multiply until you can no longer wear the T-shirt anywhere decent? Check out the photo above for what I’m talking about. I had two T-shirts that just started to get holes so I decided to have a go mending them. The mending is not invisible, but it is pretty hard to see when I put them on (especially because both T-shirts are a bit textured). The blue and white striped T-shirt pictured is one of my favourites. I’ve had it for three or four years now, but I’m hoping this will give me a bit longer with it. I also had a pair of 3/4 running tights that had a hole in the side seam, so I sewed them up while I was on a roll. Since cooler weather is coming, I’m going to need them.

Travel Guide Books

I borrowed a number of guides about France from our library to try to get a feel for what I wanted to do while I’m in France by myself later this year. I get so much enjoyment browsing through them, looking at the pictures, and imagining possible itineraries. I’ve pretty much decided to spend the whole week in Paris. G and I spent a week there in 2018 with our younger daughter, but there are still a number of things I’d like to do, plus I’ll do some day trips.

Bonus Good Things

• Good Fish website and app. I’m trying to eat more sustainably, but you can’t do that without information. This is a comprehensive guide to Australian seafood sustainability.
• Hot cross buns. They arrive in the shops soon after Christmas, and I usually scoff them continuously from then until Easter, although this year, I’ve been a bit more controlled—I don’t want to carry too many hot cross buns with me around the 42km of the marathon in July.
• Being invited to lunch at one of our neighbours. Yummy, authentic Chinese food.
• We are three episodes into Bodies on Netflix. I am intrigued. Also, I’m still utterly fascinated with the shenanigans on Married at Frist Sight.
• As someone who wants to do all the things, I’ve finally learnt that I can’t do all the things all the time. Marathon training can’t happen at the same time as lots of hiking and other activities that occur on the weekend or need a lot of physical stamina. Working on too many sedentary, cognitive-intensive projects is a recipe for disaster that would leave me wired mentally and physically slothful. My life is not an assembly line. Here’s Cal Newport’s take on the subject: To Cure Burnout, Embrace Seasonality.