Taking Stock - September

As you know, I'm not the biggest fan of these posts, as I don't really know what you, dear readers, get out of it. However, as I'm about to shut the blog down for a few weeks, I thought I would post for #Lifethisweek. Photos are not related to anything, but do you really want to look at photos of ScoMo and Dutton?

Drinking :  Way too much - or at least too often. Those alcohol free nights are killing me.
Reading : Just finished the Portrait of Molly Dean for book club, and finishing Americanah. Listening to Lost Connections (Hari) while I do the housework.
Next read : Heartburn by Nora Ephron and finish Run like Crazy, Run like Hell (the comic by Tardi)
Wanting : To get our tax done. It's hanging over me like a constant stress. I just need a day to get all the documents together.
Looking : At what to do with my three precious days in Singapore and where to stay for next year's trip to Japan
Enjoying : Seeing movies after a cinema 'drought'.
Liking : Catching up with friends. That seems to have been at a minimum and then all of a sudden, it's a couple of times a week.

Wondering : How goals impact our unhappiness - do we choose the wrong goals or do we accept what society says? (Not personal, came up in the Hari book. It's got me thinking...)
Loving : That the HSC timetable played nice and the music exam date just announced allows me to get last minute tix to the Singapore Grand Prix. Yip Yip - go Kimi!!! Also loving generous husband who said go any way even though it's costing me more than when I book it all way back in January.
Pondering : What is going on in Australian politics?
Buying : A last minute Father's Day present because my guaranteed delivery before Father's Day was apparently only an aim, not an actually guarantee.
Watching : Better call Saul. And looking forward to new season of Ozarks - but we're really struggling in the TV department so any suggestions are welcome!
Hoping : One of my idols appears to have done the wrong thing. Hoping it's just an oversight in paperwork and not a breakdown. Watching from afar, the potential fall from grace of a good man.
Cringing : What is going on in Australian politics!!
Listening: Just discovered Max Frost - loving Adderall and White Lies. (Apologies if offensive to people with genuine ADHD or ADD. It's just so upbeat and uplifting tune-wise)



What are you up to? Any TV recommendations?

Linking with #IBOT  #PhotoTunes  #TheRandom & #PointShoot

Cocktail Tuesday

On Tuesday we snuck out to catch up with friends we'd not seen for well over a year and to try out the cocktails of some London celebrity mixologist at Charlie Parkers.
The food was delicious and the company even better.

With ease of conversation, quickly we covered what we had been up to and updates on all the kids, and were soon covering the state of affairs in the world and arts, with laughs a plenty. With some people the frequency of contact is irrelevant.

Sometimes spending time with friends is all you need to love life.

What are you loving this week?

Linking with #TforTuesday  #Sundayinmycity #Project365 #MySundayPhoto 

Once you're in it, it's okay

Deb Cook responded to my post last week 'Oh, isn't that interesting that the stuff you expect to be stressful isn't (the HSC trials) and relaxing dinners out can be?!' and she got me thinking. A lot of our stressful situations, we create. Had you asked me even a month ago, would my child and I have fun lunches on the way to an HSC trial exam, I would never have expected the answer to be yes.

Having seen a few friends get teary at their child's graduation and feel feelings of loss at the end of their role as a school parent, awaiting the pending empty nest and all that it means, I was expecting a wave of sadness and loss as my eldest left school. I was completely unprepared for the feelings of pride and excitement when I received the email to my own child's graduation ceremony - I understand this is my first graduation and their last, so maybe I'll be in the same boat later down the line. However, for now, I'm excited at her new adventures, and at the person she's becoming.

In a surprising turn of events, I don't even care now about the HSC. As she madly fills out application forms, I figure she'll get into something, one way or another, so does the ATAR even matter? Perhaps it is us, the adults in the education system and the parents of those doing year 12 that need to change the stress levels for our children. Given 40-50% of year 11 and 12 students suffer clinical emotional distress, maybe our focus needs to put it in a more realistic frame. My child is still sitting the same exams, but the stress free trials experience seems to have altered the 'importance' of the exams. They're just exams. Same as all the other ones you've done before in 12 years of schooling.

I am very much the person expecting the worst, in order to be prepared, but perhaps I'd be better parking that energy and just waiting to see how it plays out? When my father was dying, I came across the audio book This is How by Augusten Burroughs. While driving to and from the hospital each day, I learnt how to let someone die and how to cope with being diagnosed with a terminal illness. His book talks of the anticipatory stress being far worse than the actual terrible thing happening. The truth of the matter is "Once you're in it, it's okay" The outcome was the same awful loss it was always going to be, but the book helped me make it less painful for both me and Dad. I really made the most of the time we had, even though he was stuck in a hospital for months. I made it matter and we shared some really special moments in those last crappy months.

If this was true for the painful loss of a parent, how can it not be true for such a simple thing as exams? Or something as positive as a child growing into an adult and stretching their wings into the wide world?

As daunting as you feel it will be, as big an obstacle as it appears, always remember, no matter what you are facing, once you're in it, it's okay.

Linking with #BookNook

(This is How is excellent - it covers among other things, how to be thin, how to be fat, how to be confident, how to fail, how to get a job, how to feel less regret and so many other things. I am eternally grateful for discovering this book in my library by accident when I did. It made me get through three incredibly difficult months without regrets, and cope with a loss I thought I'd never be able to bear.I can not recommend this book enough.)

Urban Landscapes - Share my Snaps!

I think you know you truly love a city when you see it's beauty in it's imperfections. Sydney has a lot of that gritty endearment at the moment, as every road and building seems to be scaffolded off as a building zone.

"To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they’re blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too. (20)”
― Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

You may not have beautiful scenery but there is always beauty to be found.

Sometimes just the hue of the sky is enough to dazzle you.

May there always be something, no matter how small, to enchant you.

Linking with #SkyWatch 

(and you can follow my Insta here)

Hit and Miss

It's been a great deal of hit and miss this week.

I enjoyed Bob Dylan, the Lime & Tonic blind degustation at the Park Hyatt was fabulous and I went to a great lecture at Macquarie Uni. Our Friday night dinner party cancelled so we're off to the movies instead, and I'd been lamenting that we had no time to see the new Spike Lee...

The misses: a terrible vegetarian dinner where the waiters wrestled the wine bottles off us to pour for us (yet were too slow to pre-empt and fill the empty glasses) and made me pay on the night even though I'd prepaid, and then made me ask twice for the refund once I could prove I had prepaid back in June, like I'd insisted...the usual hoop jumping to get money back from a doctor, discovering I'd been charged $1650 for a subscription that was meant to be $100 (got money back, just the time and hassle of doing so) and having a nasty person resurface in my orbit. I had to dig deep to be the bigger person, but it's left me out of sorts and uncomfortable.

The surprising big hit was the HSC Trials. Rather than being a basket of stress, my eldest and I managed to have a few pre-exam lunches together, where we shared easy laughs. Fingers crossed the results are good and the HSC is the same.

Sometimes happiness is found in unexpected places.

What have you been loving this week? Have you been surprised at what you were loving this week?

Linking with #MummyMondays and #TheRandom

Sydney

Sydney is a jumbled mess at the moment with scaffolding everywhere but if you push past it all, you land in the quiet oasis of the Park Hyatt.

The dining room offers great views, stunning views and this week's #WeekendReflections.

Sometimes the view, cloudy or not, is enough to make you smile.

Linking with  #OurWorldTuesday

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do. -Edgar Degas

My Wednesday Club is going strong, we've sung at pub choir, danced at NLNL, dressed up tor the Romeo & Juliet party, seen trolls at the Scandi film festival and strolled around Vivid. This month, someone has picked something that will push me out of my comfort zone. Take an art class, where we learn to paint a picture. For someone who had lots of fine motor skill issues as a child and can barely write my name legibly, the idea of painting a picture in public causes me a little discomfort. I can happily dance uncoordinatedly, merrily sing out of tune to an audience, and be at ease with my lack of culinary skills so I am surprised and a little perplexed that this project makes my heart quicken in anticipation. I guess it's something I was very self conscious about as a child, and it still bothers me, yet it so rarely comes up that I know longer think about it. However, this is the precise point of the Wednesday Club, to push us old people out of our comfort zone to find new fun activities. (We've returned to pub choir and NLNL a few times since the first outing).

It's been a long time since I mentioned my torschlusspanik list. (For newcomers, Torschlusspanik is the German word for 'the fear that time is running out. It's the panic you get when you realise you haven’t done very much in your life, and if you don’t act soon the ‘gate closes’.' ). However this is precisely what the list is for. And so another item is added and we shall see if Mr Degas was right:

Torshlusspanik List:

1. Shooting (check)
2. Fencing (check)
3. Play croquet at Croquet Club
4. Laser skeet
5. Off road buggy driving
6. Play Assassins Creed
7. Jetpacking (check)
8. The Color Run (check)
9. Invent something
10. Cooking Masterclass (check)
11. Master a Masterclass (check)
12. Perform a rap song (check)
13. Trampoline adventure (check)
14. BMX Riding (check)
15. Do a cart wheel (check)
16. Ride an Electric Bike (check)
17. Astonish Myself
18. Write a book.
19. Participate in a distance event (check)
20. Climb Sydney Tower (check)
21. Dance in a dance class (check)
22. Trust a stranger

23. Get a truck for the Landmine Museum and Relief Centre in Siem Reap

24. Paint a picture

Can you draw or paint? Would you like to try?

Linking with #OpenSlather #StayClassyMama #KCACOLS , #ThisMainLine