It is a Friday night.
The wind outside is rife.
The days have been cold.
It is an opportune time to be on maternity leave.
I can stay home as long and as often as I want, and I don’t feel bad for it… not that I should. But the weather does not permit me to go outside, nor does my heavy belly. 😂
They are aligned. It is perfect. 😁💖🤰🙏
Start of the day, versus end of the day:
The in between? Why, the last day of grade 3 for baby girl! And what a terrific tradition we have gotten into these last couple of years, of heading to the beach on the last day of the school year. 💞
All we need now is for Melbourne weather to fall into the tradition of giving us summer weather… in summer. 🤣🌞😎🌅
I don’t know what it is, but I’ve had some kind of cold-hayfever hybrid these last couple of days.
Head cold, nose dropping like a tap at times, sneezing. I know we whinge about the weather, A LOT here in Melbs, but I swear to God this is no exaggeration:
I wholeheartedly blame Melbourne weather.
Everywhere I turn I hear of people catching something. And how can you not be sick? One day we’ve got the air con on and visiting the beach for the first time, sweating under doonas overnight…
Then the next we’re rugging up in jackets and shivering and putting on the heater because apparently winter never actually moved on, it just lay dormant to tease and torment us into a false sense of security before f$%*ing everything right up.
Rant over.
We had a family member’s house to go to tonight, and I honestly didn’t know how I would cope. At times during the day I sneezed so much my eyes went watery, used my fair share of Aloe Vera Kleenex, and my nose-head area was pulsing and feeling the pressure more than Mercury and Bowie.
Of course we notified said family members of my current state, and they were still happy for us to come.
And then that thing happened, where my symptoms went on pause for several hours.
You know how you tell someone you’re under the weather, but then you see them and suddenly there’s no sneezes, drippy noses or clutching heads? 🤦♀️🤣
(I mean it’s great, but you look like a bullshit artist).
It’s like your body gets distracted and puts a hold on things.
I don’t know if it was just focusing on something else, being in a different place or what, but for about 4 hours tonight, I was good!
Sure, it only lasted 4 hours, but it allowed me to have a somewhat good night despite my head and nose. 🤣😫🤧
Little things, little things. 💪💪
Our house got whiplash last night.
Whiplash in its truest form. Only whiplash feels like a bit of an understatement… this was like a ferocious beating, not just from the wind, but the rain. The intensity was so great, it awoke us after 4am and kept us up for well over an hour. We even headed downstairs to check if our bird who sleeps outside, was in fact, still there (and still alive!)
But, we got through it. And hearing about all the damage and flooded properties today around our area and other parts of the state, I can say one thing with utter gratitude…
I am sooo glad our house is elevated.
It’s in an elevated part of the street, and I think in horrible weather spells like this, it means the world. Sure, we still get the ‘Bay Beating,’ and it comes right for our bedroom window which faces the street, and the Bay. We hear it all, and it wakes us up every single time there’s a frightening storm like last night’s one.
But fortunately, where we cop the weather extremities, we are spared the water lodgment. Flooding, intense water rushes, they bypass us, and head down, somewhere else…
It may seem like little things, but also in the house scheme of things, it’s kinda big too. 🏠🙏
And then summer came.
Last week, heater. Even, colds, or something was lingering in our household.
Today, HEAT. It was glorious, but it’s come on quickly so there has been some very sudden adjustments.
But there was a moment of symmetry today, that really made me think…
Because it was sunny, ALL DAY. I do a little walk near the school before pick-up, so as I approached the lolly-pop man crossing, a strong clap of thunder threatened from above.
What? Thunder? Sure there were clouds up there, ominous too, but it was sooo warm!
Surely there wouldn’t be any rain on such a gorgeous day. Not here anyway.
We got to the car and all was good. Mondays we go straight to swimming from school, because baby girl has a class at 4pm.
We were in the car and suddenly, I could hear spots on the car. Some massive drops appeared near the open window, and we quickly closed it.
OK, sure. There was some light rain passing. That’s all it was.
But these drops, they were BIG! They were thick, they made an impact when they crashed down.
Within minutes, the sky was dark and it was pouring. We were driving and marvelling how we had been so hot and bothered only minutes earlier, and now we were driving to swimming and we were literally swimming in it ourselves! We had to do a dash inside, getting splattered with heavy raindrops all over, and we just kept shaking our head at the craziness of Melbourne weather.
But… later, it made me think.
Earlier today, I had sent my manuscript off to someone… and this manuscript that I have slaved and stressed over for weeks now, well it has a scene in it where the rain comes down hard and heavy out of nowhere…
And I went huh? What are the odds?
I don’t know, but it felt awfully coincidental, symmetrical, super weird, that we were kinda acting out a scene from my book, on the day it went out to… someone.
What are the odds?
Rain is release. Letting go. Things getting unveiled, brought to the surface.
Replenishing. Renewal. Rejuvenation.
Let’s hope it’s also means Reward. 🙏
It’s been approximately… 3 months since I stopped drinking coffee.
It had become more than just a habit, it was like a routine I was scared to break because of those ill-fated caffeine headaches if I dared missed a cup.
Yes, I enjoyed it. But there were days I could go without, but never used to, just because, routine.
But I was pregnant too. I was getting increasingly ‘off’ so many things, food, drinks… yes, even coffee.
The almond milk I was used to drinking, subtituting for regular milk, was actually disgusting me.
So I moved to just black. Straight blacks.
But that’s when I caught covid, in week 10 of pregnancy. And one day while lying on the couch, ravaged by weakness, I decided I wanted to stop it all.
I haven’t had a sip since. ‘Til today!
Honestly, I have been enjoying the scent of coffee as it wafts over to me from whoever is drinking it, for a week or two now. Realising I was out of those horrible nauseous months, I decided I wanted to try it again.
But also, realising that I didn’t have to have something just because it was 3pm, realising I didn’t have to get my body dependent as it once was on it… I have the control now.
I had a day off today. I made myself some brunch, a coffee, and proceeded to write and edit my novel on this very rainy Melbourne day.
Guess what? I didn’t get affected by the coffee, even in the 3 month absence of it.
In fact, it was like I never stopped drinking it at all.
That’s unsettling. 😬🤣
Today was the first day of Winter.
But as all of us living in Melbourne know, Winter crept in the back door at the start of May, and has been following us around blowing cold air and splashing water in our faces since. 🤨
Winter is cold in Melbourne, FULL STOP.
But for us specifically, the thing that sets our beautiful town apart in Summer, just sucks royally come this time of year.
Those beautiful bay views, yes… 😍😍
Become HELL as they start sending strong, icy winds from the ocean our way. 🥶🥶
We couldn’t go to our usual cafe, because –
a) they keep the front door open ❄️, and
6) it’s a tiny cafe and everyone was crammed inside!
We were walking around, not only looking for a place that was closed in and had ample seating for our weekly brunch, but also a place that could cater to our specific Wednesday morning palate.
Nothing too big, nothing too small.
We headed into a cafe we have actually never been in before… Jackson’s. And it was pretty lovely inside. 💖
We both got the scones and coffee deal, and the scone was huge! One scone could be cut into like two regular sized scones!
And the coffee, HUGE! All that caffeine! 🤪
It was a different place for us, and just as well our usual cafe didn’t bode us well today… because we found something else just as pleasing.
Variety is good.
Ahh, this BS already-Winter weather.
There is nothing to do BUT stay home. And baby girl was trying to keep herself busy at home, so she developed this reading plan thing-a-ma-jig.
Basically she was acting like a teacher. She wrote out a plan as to when she reads within those time periods, like 5 times a week (mind you most times she is at school, but I let it go) and told me to make a booking for the reading time. Like a reading group, where she was the teacher, and I was the student.
I said cool, I want to join the reading group now.
I walked into her room at the set time of 4:10pm. I sat on the floor, and like the teacher she often inspires to be, she introduced the novel, ‘The 13-Storey Treehouse’ and proceeded to ask the class (me) what we might think the book is about!
“Uh, I think it’s about a treehouse!” I said confidently, from the floor. 😁
She proceeded to read with great expression, clarity and enthusiasm for the book. And I must say, I was impressed. 🤩
I realised while listening to her, rain falling outside, wind squealing, that it’s double points when –
I’m relaxing
She is doing something to advance her learning, i.e. reading
And we are ticking off the staying warm requirement on such a freezing day.
Triple points in fact! Hell yeah! 👊
I’m always really frustrated and angry when the cold weather initially sets in.
And then I get creative. I get EVEN, mwa ha ha.
Because in order to be prepared for Winter, you must come armed with equipment. You can’t just yell in the face of cold weather and will it to go away, that won’t happen, least of all in Melbourne.
And while that might sound utterly ridiculous, people not being equipped enough for the change of season, seriously, I think some are so stubborn (✋✋) that it really does happen… at first.
I have been freezing the last few times I’ve worked from home, and I have no one to blame but myself. I feel like putting on the house heater is ludicrous since it is only me at home, albeit me freezing my arse off, but still, just me.
But I remembered a heater that we’ve used very on and off over the years, and I decided to bring it down a la The Price is Right style. It was last used in baby girl’s room when she was a baby, and on those chilly Winter nights I would turn it on, and it was the perfect heater to keep the chill out of the air without making the room stuffy.
Previously it was used when I was a late teen (😲) and I would put it on in my room, close the door, and let it become all toasty. It really did do a delicious job of keeping things warm.
I am talking about, the oil column heater.
This old school bad boy. Only it’s not so old school anymore. I did a quick google search before, and these things are still being made, and all high-tech, with timers, cord compartments, they are seriously looking so snazzy.
And today, mine did the job. I turned it on, and although it took its time, it seriously did warm the area I was sitting at.
Ha. Take that Winter! Next…
The weather was weird and overcast, yet kinda mild…
We were meant to be elsewhere, but that was cancelled (covid case, of course)…
And so we did what we felt was best, and easiest, and most fun.
We painted our town red. 💞
carcrashgratitude 