Still looking ahead

I have so many questions about yesterday's post, like does K swim at the Northcote pool or use the gym there? If gym-users are there at 6am maybe they are some of those smug fucks troubling her so much? Still, Jane's friends sure seem like some smug swimmers. Jerks. But if K is swimming how do we know she's not a smug jerk? Yikes!

I love a warm morning, yeah I do but I'm looking forward to the turn of weather, mind you I don't plan to hang out at the gym at 6am. I recently reread The Shipping News. I loved that book the first time and I loved it the second time too. The blurb told me I'd get swept up in an "exhilarating Atlantic drama." I didn't really remember it like that and that's because it's not really like that. It's more about the vibe of it. Technically lots of dramatic things happen but the really the greatness, for me, is in the conjuring of this stormy, tiny seaside time and it's inhabitants. Anyway, there is this scene in the book where a girl is described as walking into a room wearing a sweater and when I read that line I just, "Oh that lucky thing! A sweater! I can't wait to wear a sweater!" And you can bet to heck I'm wearing one right now. Although I know I'll just have to take it off in a couple of hours when the sun comes out. But that's ok. I'm not a fool. I know that in 6 months I'll hate every sweater I own and be longing to expose some skin and bid adieu to the rain-induced super frizzy hair of winter. It's like Spandau Ballet said, I know this much is true. But for now I'm just digging on a little chill.

2016 reflections. Again.

Well, here we are! The end of 2016. I can barely believe it! In the grand tradition of Miss Soft Crab round-ups K and I got together to have a little chat about things. There were things I wish I'd mentioned, like how a highlight of the year was our new once-a-day, daily post format which, I don't know about you but I am sure enjoying. And the new iOS update which has finally included a croissant and a pile of pancakes in the emojis. Anyway, here's what K and I thought of the last 51 weeks.

 ‪J: Yeah 2016! How was it for you?

 ‪K: You know, it was pretty great.

 ‪J: GREAT! What did you like about it? 
‪K: Well, personally, I liked settling in to being KB's mum. And I liked hanging out with KB and watch him become cuter and cuter. ‪I liked going back to work and therefore being able to read books again.

  ‪J: Yeah I was thinking about how at the start of this year you had a six-month-old baby and by the end of the year you have a nearly 18-month-old toddler and how different those two things are.

 ‪K: Fully different. ‪And you went from being a mother of sons to being a mother of sons AND WHOOPSIE!

 ‪I also liked how it was a year of serious things. All the deaths. Brexit. Trump. It's a year  to remember.

 ‪J: Oh yeah. Seriously what a year! I had a baby. And all that totally crazy shit happened. Basically if you had asked me what this year would hold ‪I could not have predicted any of that shit. From a new baby to the Trump presidency I'm basically still having difficulty believing any of it. 


‪K: Yeah. The shit has been pretty unbelievable. I know we still have a week or so to go, but I'm just glad QEII is still here.

 ‪J: I've been really worried about her, what with 2016 being so full of unbelievable shit. Mate, as much as I've loved QEII and her monochrome for a long time now, I feel so much closer to her after watching The Crown. Let's just hope we can escape this year without any more celebrityy deaths. 

 ‪When Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature LB and I were saying if you came into the news report half way through you would have thought he was dead too. God forbid.

  K: ‪Totally. It was really a strange year. Kind of doomy. ‪And the weather has been a bit shit. ‪But personally it's been nice, so what are you gonna do?

 J: ‪Yeah. It was a totally strange year. I was basically pregnant from the beginning until Whoopsie was born in October and I was highly emotional for that entire time. Which really added to the weirdness for me. Like I was so emotional when Leonardo FINALLY won his Oscar. But I was so emotional for that entire awards ceremony. I basically cried at every standing ovation.

K: ‪Oh man, that victory was one for the ages. Leonardo Di Goddamned Caprio. What a proper movie star he is.

J: ‪You said it!  

K: Speaking of movies, one of the things I enjoyed about this year was discovering a film review podcast called Kermode and Mayo. It's a couple of blokes mucking around telling jokes and talking about movies. I think Fassbender is going to be on it next week.


 ‪J: Oh I see. 

Well that sounds cool. I may listen to it. I've enjoyed listening to Lena Dunham's podcast this year and working through my complicated feelings about her. Recently I listened to a few podcasts about Buffy, just people talking about Buffy episodes and stuff. It was pretty enjoyable.
 ‪
K: I've been enjoying the Lena Dunham podcast too. Did you listen to that one with her dad? I really liked that one.
J: I did listen to that one and I also enjoyed it a lot. I liked her dad. Readers, go listen to that show.

 ‪K: Please do readers.


‪J: And how about TV? Obviously I loved The Crown. Also of course Stranger Things. I mean just the stuff everyone talked about already. 

 In truth this year was so intense I feel like I have nothing new to say about any of it.

 

K: ‪Yep, I liked that stuff. And I liked Hard Quiz because I love a quiz and this was a delightful spazz one. 

J: ‪I like that too. But you know who really loves that show? Baby! He loves it. HARD!  

K: Ha! ‪That's adorbs. 

J: ‪Sometimes we play it at the dinner table. And when I told him I saw Tom Gleeson at Ikea the other day he was so impressed! 


K: ‪That's super adorbs. ‪
I saw one of the couples from Gogglebox at the market the other day and that was very exciting. ‪
J: HAHAHA. Gogglebox!
‪
K: ...now we are chatting about the year and i'm thinking about how intense it was I guess I'm realising that it's set a lot in motion. But I don't want to be a downer.



J: ‪Look, if we wanted to talk seriously this year we'd be here for ever. I mean fucking TRUMP?!

Aaaaaaahhhh, that's better 

K: You said it. 2016 involved a lot of emotions, a lot of humongous events and some rubbish weather. Any hopes and dreams for 2017?

 
J: ‪Geez, what a great question. What do you base your answer on?! Well I guess I want to enjoy it. Personally I'd like to organise my time so I can write and exercise instead of just thinking about doing those things. I'm super excited to see who Whoopsie starts becoming. Obviously I love seeing Baby and Newbie grow but Whoopsie is a brand new slate, you know. And I think by the end of next year I'd like to have some professional developments. So yeah, I guess I have a bunch of hopes and dreams. How about you?
‪K: You've given me some great hope and dream ideas for 2017 just now!

 ‪I'd like to write and exercise more too. And I'd like to go overseas again before we have to start paying for a seat for KB. ‪I'd like to read more. And I would like to have a conversation with you, mate, about us starting a sing club which some people might call a choir but I'd prefer to call sing club 

J:  ‪Yeah sing club! Let's do it! And let's have more conversations! ‪
K: Yeah!


Have a great summer everyone. We'll be back in about a month. Woot!

A better tomorrow

I was going to write a post about the great weather that's forecast for the next couple of days, and how on days like today and tomorrow, life feels easier and it feels better and I feel happier. Then the title A Better Tomorrow popped into my head and I thought ooh, that's what I'll call it, in homage to the film of the same name that came out in the 90s and J and I watched as part of our exploration of cinema from Hong Kong. Then I started thinking about Hong Kong cinema and how great it was in the 90s and 2000s, and I wondered if it was still great. Thinking about this made me happy. Then I wondered where I would turn to find out about what's coming out of Hong Kong, somewhere I could trust, not just 'the internet'. I thought about Margaret and David and how much I relied on them to educate me on cinema and thinking about that made me happy too. What a great show that was. What a great community service. Sure, they never talked about Hong Kong cinema but they had producers they needed to keep happy. Then I thought about Terry Gross, and the great interviews she does with the filmmakers and actors involved in films she loves, and that her radio show has certainly helped fill the hole left by Margaret and David. I'm sure you can see where this is going, but I have to say people, it made me happy. Happy happy joy joy. That's where all trains of thought are chugging me to, and it's all because the goddamned weather is so goddamned nice! 

March to the end of the year

Yesterdays shit hot weather made me think about last summer.
This time last year, Appleheart,  KB and I were on a plane on the way to London, where we remained (more or less) until February 2016. KB was four months old and we were all pretty raw from the experience of either having looked after a baby for four months or having been a baby for four months.
We were excited and daunted AF (as the kids like to say these days). I love London, and was pretty delighted to be going there. But being away from home with a new baby was going to be tough. And it was going to be cold. Cold AF (as the kids like to say). We were going to miss most of summer and though I was happy to be going away I was not happy to be missing summer. With the benefit of hindsight I can say boy was I right, missing summer is a bunch of bullshit. We made the most of the cold and had some truly excellent cold weather days. Several times taking long walks through London and then stopping off at cosy pubs to drink mulled wine and/or Guinness spring to mind. London is so good at cosy pubs. Walking along the coast in Lands End, in Cornwall, in very wild weather which looked a lot like the pace Dumbledore went to find a horcrux and shit got real for him. There were also the walks through snow in the Swedish countryside and the time it snowed overnight in Copenhagen then the sun came out and we went for a jog around the cemetery. I remember that because it was the only jog I did in three months and I nearly puked all over the fresh white snow.
Look, it was pretty fantastic, really.
And now I'm in a tight spot because the point of this post was to highlight that the lead up to the end of the year is always so mental, and last year I missed that, and so ended 2015 in a state of relative calm, which was the silver lining to missing out on summer.
But maybe I've just discovered that missing summer doesn't even need a silver lining. I missed something great but I had something great. It was just great.
Wow.

Sunshine revisited

You didn't have to be in NSW last week to enjoy some sunshine. Although today's forecast of 38 is beyond what I like in a summer day, last Thursday's 32 was just about perfect. I'm not saying I like day after day of 32s but a few now and again suits me just fine.

Last Thursday evening on that hot day I took the kids to the pool. As we were walking out the front door my next door neighbour was walking out her from door with her 2.5-year-old on their way to the pool too, she met her partner there and half an hour later LB showed up with another neighbour's 3-year-old son and as the sun lowered in the sky hitting everything with that yellow summer's evening light I felt like I was in a god damn Tim Winton novel. In the best possible way. I mean, is this Australia or what!? The neighbours all at the pool, sharing responsibility of watching the children as they frolic in the water cooling themselves in the golden light of summer. It was so idyllic, I could barely believe it. My neighbours later had Jimmy Grants delivered by Uber Eats to the pool, and although I can't imagine that happening in a Tim Winton novel it really did add to the feeling that life can be pretty sweet.

I know I complained a lot last week, about my pregnancy weight and politics but the truth is I'm mainly a glass-half-full kinda gal. I may whinge about a lot of things. I may draw conclusions about people I don't know, I may complain about people I do know. I may lament not having a good wardrobe or money or a satisfying job. And I'm sorry, because all in all life is pretty good most of the time. I know that the light of the lowering sun is pretty special and can not be replicated any old time and I know that not everyone gets to live in an awesome street with neighbours who become friends and have similarly aged children, but hell guys, a sweet evening at Fitzroy pool really makes you see the good in life. As long as these 38 degree days don't keep up I've got some pretty good feelings about this summer.

I've even planned my summer look, despite Pickle being too distracted to even ask about where my summer look is headed. But more about that some other time.

Sunshine

I'm in a place called Corlette. It's an hour north of Newcastle. My word New South Wales knows how to make a nice beach.
Last night KB, Appleheart and I we were playing with a ball down by the water and three pelicans came along. It was very exciting and they were incredibly cute with their waddly way of walking and spiky feathers. I was loving watching them until one of them got a little bit too close to KB for my liking and I started thinking that if any of them tried to hurt KB they were going to get cut.
It was a slightly confronting moment among all the beauty and serenity. Of course it didn't come to that because I didn't have a knife. Jokes! They didn't try to get KB because they are pelicans and have no interest in a small baby.
It's going to be 32 up here today. Like a proper summer day.
Everything seems better when it's sunshiny. 

More reality check

Hey, did you all see Miss Dizzy's delightful comment on J's Monday post? People say that internet commenters are nasty trolls but not our readers, no sirree.

Hey, did you all see the Super Moon last night? I did. It looked like a big moon. That's all. Just a big moon in the sky.

Hey, did you all notice that I didn't post yesterday? I'm still sorting out the teething problems related to my baby teething Ha! Not really. It's the teething problems related to not being able to use any of my devices to blog, thats what I'm sorting out. I've had to borrow Appleheart's computer, and then in turn have had to deal with the inevitable questions like "Why are there all these pictures of Chris Pine open on my computer" when I forget to cover my tracks.  I'll get it sorted out though. Promise.

Hey, has anyone seen the weather forecast for the next few days. It's going to be super nice!
Let's focus on the positives, shall we?

Positive things! (PM)

Great attitude K! Annoying transit really sucks, more so when there's a baby with you, but arriving in NYC really is good for what ails ya. And I'm totally on board with positive attitudes in the face of annoying situations. My situation is fine, really. I just have a load of washing to hang out, literally seven loads of washing to fold and put away, a pretty messy house I'd love to put away and this out of session blog post to write, but hey! Stay positive!

Right now I have one sleeping baby and a cup of tea to enjoy so who am I to complain!?

You know what else has been great this week? The weather. I love how it has been cool and I've been able to wear jeans and jumpers and lasagne, the leftovers of which I will continue to enjoy tonight. Which also means I don't have to cook tonight. Double positive!

I love how today it is sunny and the sun is warm but the breeze keeps it all nice coolish and everything is touched with the autumn light. (God I love you autumn, I'm totally your bitch.)

In summary, autumn is doing everything it should be doing and it's great to be here.

PS. I saw this around the corner from my house today.

Another autumn post (AM)

When K went overseas at Christmas time I loaned her my puffer. Not my pink puffer I bought last year which is totally warm, but not nearly as hardcore as my hardcore puffer, a North Face number I bought in a February in NYC. My serious puffer. My best puffer. My beloved puffer. I knew that once upon a time I put a photograph of it on MSC, so last night I hunted it down. Here it is:

In this picture I'm walking through FAO Schwarz eating red liquorice. May I highly recommend writing a blog, because tracking back through blog posts is awesome.

When K returned it I washed it. Of course. It's a white coat! And as it hung on the line, in the sun, and I lay inside, warm because it was summertime I just thought of my puffer, swaying in the breeze and how soon it would be time for me to wear that puffer and how much joy it would bring me. Last winter, despite owning Whitey and Pinky, both knee-length puffers, I bought a new black puffer. Waist length. I agonised over the purchase for some minutes but in the end I decided that Whitey and Pinky were both pretty full on and sometimes you just want a very warm, not so bulky jacket to throw on. So now I own three puffers. Blacky was a great purchase, I wore him so much last winter and I've even worn him a couple of times this year.

I guess what I'm trying to tell you is that I love puffers. I wouldn't even be surprised if I bought more. I LOVE THEM! But related to that is my love for all things warm and puffy. Like doonas. Oh god I love doonas. In late spring I change over to a summer doona and basically spend the next 4 months fantasising about going back to winter dooney, and finally friends, I think that time is upon us. I can't wait to get rid of this lightweight thing on my bed and snuggle under something serious. Tomorrow I'm going camping and the other night I started thinking about how cold it will probably be at night and how great it will be to be in a sleeping bag or under a doona and feel so warm against the cold. It reminded me of the time at Meredith , I was pregnant with Baby and K and I had an afternoon lie down and we were each in our sleeping bags just loving the shit out of it, imagining what a great life Baby would have when he was born and got to be swaddled all the time. I was just thinking the other night about how I couldn't wait for some self-swaddling this Easter.

I fucking hate being cold. But I love being warm in the cold. It is truly one of life's joys and another reason I effing love autumn!!!

Welcome AUTUMN!!!

Surviving the Antarctic vortex (PM)

The last couple of days have been pretty cold, and I expect that it will continue for the rest of the week. That expectation being based on the BOM website. But as K pointed out it IS LITERALLY THE MIDDLE OF WINTER! LITERALLY! So, nut the eff up everyone. Or, as my computer just auto-corrected that to, nut the Jeff up! HA.

Winter, should be cold. That is its whole raison d'être! From memory last winter was pretty mild, and frankly I feel a little ripped off when you don't have at least a few good cold days. Don't get me wrong, I don't want winter to be lost to an entire 3 months in the Antarctic vortex but I do like an excuse to rug up a bit and wear some of what can only be described as a surplus of coats, given what global warming is doing to the seasons. Plus today I am working in a library with a jumper on and a view of nude trees, it's classic winter and I love it.

This brings us to the more important issue of the media. I am not lying when I say that barely a day goes by that I don't lament the work of the media. They are truly such fear mongers. If they are not trying to work us into a fear of an Antarctic vortex they are telling us that we should be worried a terrorist attack is imminent and just to be safe we should probably be scared of anyone with brown skin. Also anyone that decides to catch a boat here is probably evil. And wants to steal our jobs. Of which there are hardly any anyway. Also if you are a woman you better watch out when you walk down the street. Also if you are a bloke too because you may get king hit. But even though men actually are in more danger of violence in the street than women you still don't need to be as scared as women. You know, because... women. Also be scared of ice. The drug, not the stuff from the Antarctic vortex.

Seriously media, I live in this city, and sure I spend my time mainly in the relatively affluent areas but I just think maybe we all need to chill the Jeff out. Which should be easy given the Antarctic blast.

Surviving the Antarctic vortex (AM)

When the news started going on about the Antarctic vortex weather pattern that was coming our way this past weekend, I responded in two ways.
First, I freaked out because I tend to run pretty cold and the words Antarctic and Vortex sound very very cold to me. I wondered how the eff I would manage to stay warm and comfortable in an Antarctic vortex when I have about five items of clothing that I still fit into and only one of them would be anywhere near appropriate for an Antarctic vortex.
Then, perhaps as evidence of my growing maturity (or my difficulty giving a shit about anything that doesn't relate to my current life-stage) I thought hang on a second...how cold are we talking here? When I looked at the forecast my attitude changed from fearful to smug. The Antarctic vortex was going to bring weather of between 5 and 13 degrees.
Sure, that's effing cold. But it's also the kind of rubbish Melbourne weather we get every single winter. It lasts a few days, then it gets better. Perhaps we have two or three waves of it, then it gets better.
So what we're dealing with here is Melbourne media's tendency to go apeshit over a little bit of entirely season-appropriate weather. It really cheeses me off, the way they do that. Getting through winter is no picnic. It is literally, no picnic. And being told that some terrifyingly named weather patter is in its way just makes it harder.
So shut-up media. We're all doing the best we can, and you're not helping.
But on a positive note, last night's ABC news kept showing footage of a samoyed running in the snow and very clearly loving life, which was very nice to see. It's the perfect weather for those guys!

Here it comes (PM)

The cold weather sure is here. Even though it's sunny and beautiful outside right now there's a chill in the air. It's truly autumn at its finest right now, but it's only gonna get colder. Well first it's gonna get hotter with the BOM forecasting 29 degrees for next Wednesday, but in the grand scheme of things it's only gonna get colder. Yesterday I changed from the summer doona on my bed to my winter doona. Fancy! I'm like a goddamn Kennedy with my seasonal doonas. Getting into bed last night was a real joy, especially after eating lasagna and red wine for dinner and watching Netflix on my TV using my new Google Chromecast. Hells yeah, I know how to do cold weather right!

I am missing out on that Accuweather app but I plan on downloading that ASAP. I check the BOM website about five times a day. I think I'm overly dependent on it and probably expect too much of it. If I have some things to do at non-specified time during the week I look at BOM to see what's coming weather-wise to plan my week out. If I have actual plans I check BOM so I can start thinking about what I might wear to said plans. All normal enough I guess but sometimes I think about checking BOM for plans way too far into the future, like weeks or months ahead though I know they can't forecast that far accurately. Sometimes I have a split second thought that BOM may be able to forecast other things too, like who is going to be somewhere or what someone may be thinking about doing for there birthday, as if BOM is not a bureau of meteorology but rather a bureau of fortune telling . I would probably become similarly dependent on Accuweather, probably more so given its time- and location-specific predictions but whatever the future is now so I better have all the apps possible to help negotiate it. 

Here it comes (AM)

Have a look at this, would you?

That's what the temperature is here in Preston as I write  this, according to the Accuweather app. That is mother flipping cold. Hardly makes one enthusiastic about pulling the covers back and getting out of bed. 

But on the plus side, reading it makes me realise how much I like the Accuweather app. It's location specific and has nice graphics to reflect the time of day. It also sets out the forecast for the whole day, so you can plan effectively. 

I should have got up at 4am, if I wanted to avoid the chill. 

And I wonder what time I should take my lunch break? 

Well, 4pm really! But I think we all know that's not going to happen. 

We all know that it's going to get warm again soon too, and just because it's 9 degrees (feels like 6 degrees) now it doesn't mean the good times are over for the whole year. 

Still doesn't make getting out of bed any easier though, does it?

Ugh, here I go. 

Good weather for ducks (PM)

A lady in a country Victoria bakery would make that comment about ducks, I guess. She'd probably offer you a neenish tart too.

I guess Baby thought it was good weather for ducks too. He was in my bed over night and woke up in the middle of the night when it was raining. He started telling me some complicated story about a show called Sarah and Duck where some kid was playing a game with rubber ducks and mistook Duck for a rubber duck and something something something... Who knows what he was saying it was the middle of the night and I don't know about the weather but it was good time for sleeps, that much I know. 

Good weather for ducks (AM)

So how about that rain last night? I haven't been in (read: laid in bed and listened to) a storm like that for yonks. It's pretty exciting really, providing you're in the conditions set out in brackets above. 

One time I was in country Victoria for work, and had been driving for hours in the rain. I was a bit frazzled as I went into a country bakery to get a sausage roll for lunch, but the old woman behind the counter said "Its good weather for ducks" by way of greeting. I'd never heard that phrase before but thought it was such a good one I bought a lamington too. 

I wish I hadn't put off bringing the washing in though. Oh well. 

Haiku Thursday (PM)

 

The week's highlights

I

Sure, got kinda wet

But I dug on that rain and 

Thunder! Break the drought.

II

I really loved Bruce

I just love the rock and roll

And legends of same

Haiku Thursday (AM)

A handful of feelings I felt  yesterday

I

Lost my umbrella.

And my sunglasses got broke.

Felt disappointment. 

II

Super super loud

Lightning cracked over my head.

Felt a little scared. 

III 

Got drenched going home. 

Then made some hot cocoa. Felt,

Like a million bucks. 

Happy medium (PM)

I’ve gotta be honest with you, I was out of town from Friday night until this morning so I only know about this heatwave theoretically. At least it wasn’t 4 days above 40, right? Am I right. Still, almost 30 degrees before sun up, that is some crazy kind of bullshit right there. And, theoretically I feel your pain, Mate, and Melbourne more broadly. Plus I’ve seen the forecast for the next week and I’m not happy about it. I mean, I can’t keep skipping town every time I don’t like the weather.

I’m a big fan of happy mediums. Not all the time, I kind of like extremes too. But in weather I totally dig on the happy medium.

But mate, think about this: in two short months you will be the hell out of here, sure so will the superheat no doubt (please Nature). But we’ll all be hurtling headlong into winter and you will be heading to sweet summer. Oh sure, according to one website, “Summer is a great time to visit Cardiff as it is at its sunniest and hottest. June to August sees an average temperature of 15ºC.”! Oh, that sounds just about the same as a Melbourne winter, but you cannot deny it also sounds like a happy medium.

WAIT! That is the average temperature, but the average maximum temperature is more like 20ºC. And that really does sound like a happy medium. Oh, sure, it sounds like a bullshit summer, but a pretty good way to spend a winter, ay. Just look forward everyone and we’ll all get a good night’s sleep soon.

Happy medium (AM)

I don't like to whinge about the weather too much because it's very very boring for everyone. But gee you guys, it is warm out there, and it's kind of preoccupying. When I got up this morning, it was still dark, but already 28 degrees. 

Stars in the sky and a sweat on my brow. And check out the rest of the week. So consistent. I guess consistency is the hot new look in Melbourne this summer. 

You know what else is consistent? The weather in Cardiff. 

Consistently a bit shit. But to be fair, it is winter. And at least you can get a decent night's sleep in that weather, unlike here at the moment. In fact, a range of 4 degrees and 8 degrees is perfect weather for sleeping. I'm going to do heaps of that in Wales. But right now, 

what i'm interested in is a happy medium between Cardiff in winter and Melbourne in summer. So basically, Autumn. I think I want autumn now.