It’s not quite the end of March, but it is the last Friday in March which means it’s time for some good things.

• We got March off to a great start, hosting E and K’s engagement parties. First up was the party for family which was in the afternoon. We served up sushi (bought), my dad’s sausage rolls, a pea, mint and feta frittata (gluten-free and vegetarian) and chicken sandwiches (normal and gluten-free). We followed up with my raspberry cheesecake brownies and gluten-free lemon and coconut cake and carrot cake muffins made by K’s mum. We had about 35 people and it was a gorgeous day, luckily, so we could be inside and outside. That finished up about 5:30 pm, then we reset for their friends party starting at 7 pm. Food for them was the leftover finger food from the afternoon followed by nachos—I made two big trays, one vegetarian and one BBQ chicken)—and then mini magnums. I think there were about 18 people at this party. K moved everyone on at about 10:30 pm because she needed to go home because she has early starts on Sunday running the junior kids church program at their church. All up a wonderful day. We got to meet some more of K’s family and I they enjoyed themselves. I have no photos, from the party, except the two of them doing a speech, I was too busy looking after all the food and making sure people were not left on their own.
  
• For the party I bought two bunches of flowers and divided them into three vases to decorate the living room and outside table. Some of the flowers are everlasting type so once the bunches were looking a bit saggy I collected up survivors and they are still looking pretty good in a vase nearly four weeks later.
  
  
  
  
• Since late January I’ve had worsening peri-menopause symptoms and over the month a February my energy levels were cratering so I went to the doctor and started hormone therapy. Sleep and energy levels have improved and my can’t be bothered mood is getting better. The eczema on my hands has completely cleared up and I’ve only had a few flare-ups on my feet which may or may not be related, but I’m counting it. I’m glad I decided not to continue pushing through the fatigue.
  
• Our Labour Day weekend is on the second weekend in March and I went with the girls down to my parents house. We had a lovely time with family. The weather was hot, and we even had a visit to Noble Rot. You can read all about it here.
  
• Evia Greek Pro yoghurt. Has double the protein of many other Greek yoghurts here and tastes good. I insisted on getting it when I was down at mum and dad’s over Christmas and when we went back for the weekend they already had it in the fridge because mum has switched across. It makes me very happy to see mum getting more protein in at breakfast.
  
• My dad had an operation to replace his aortic valve and it went well. He has recovered and is feeling much better than before. I talked to him the other day and he is walking down to the shops and back (about a km) each day, and his ankles are back to normal size.
  
• We had some hot weather on the long weekend, but didn’t take advantage to go to the beach and I figured that may have been my last chance for the summer—I count it even if it is actually Autumn now—but the following Saturday was 36C so S and I went to the beach for what I’m pretty certain will be the last time this summer. It was quite cloudy in the late afternoon when we went but still very hot and humid.
  
  
  
• How cool is the colour of this fungi. I spotted it under the trees near the Tan while I was waiting for running group to start.
  
  
  
• G was away for a week in March and while he was gone I watched The Swap on Netflix. The program follows students from the Islamic College of Brisbane, state and Catholic schools as they immerse themselves in each other’s daily lives. They attend each others schools, meet each others families and go on a camp together. Some of the families also met and had meals together. Absolutely fascinating. Here’s an article about it that goes into more depth.
  
• The girls and I finished another 4000-piece puzzle. It was a hard one, especially the area of trees.
  
  
  
• I’ve started my half-marathon training for Gold Coast. Two weeks down, fourteen to go.
  
• You know it’s Autumn on Melbourne when the cockatoos come sweeping through the suburbs in packs leaving a mess under every tree. We’ve had packs of the Sulfur-crested Cockatoos but this week there was a group of Little Corella’s feasting in the gum trees at Elsternwick Park. They make a very ugly noise.
  
  
  
• G and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. We did our runs, spent the morning looking at apartments with K and then took ourselves out to lunch at Winston’s. It’s a fairly new restaurant and my sister has been wanting to know what it was like. Overall it was good but we had the steak for main and while it was perfectly cooked inside and very tender it didn’t have enough caramelisation on the outside which was disappointing. Afterwards we came home and watched TV/read my book.
  
• Although it’s the latest end to summer that I can remember, we have been having some cooler mornings. Last Sunday the weather on my run was magic, no wind, high teens, heading towards 20C. I don’t know whether it’s the cooler weather or I’m just finally getting a bit fitter but my easy pace has improved in the last few weeks but about 15s/km. We finished our run at our friends and had a cooked breakfast and yummy hot cross buns.
  
  
  

• This is a thoughtful take on immigration from a Christian perspective.
• The Opt Out Project. A helpful reference as I disentangle myself from the tech oligarchs.
• And related: Adult Screen Resolutions
• How I Broke Up With Amazon. I have a very big problem with the way Amazon does business (and treats their workers) so I do not buy physical product from Amazon but I do have kindle books and we currently have a Prime TV subscription. Prime TV should be gone before we leave to go overseas, I’ve moved from Goodreads to Storygraph and have tentatively worked out my alternative to kindle books when I next want to buy Ebooks.

Writing this, I’ve realised I need to get stuck into some hot cross buns while they are around. Are you a hot cross bun fan?