Life Lately.

Socks that span the rainbow and beyond at Uniqlo.  They've added a much-needed pop of colour and a dash of sartorial flair to the #scrublife at work.

The runway created when the cousins come over for Sunday lunch.

Running a ribbon worth 900m at this week's athletics carnival.  

My favourite dried fruit has returned to the supermarket shelves.  Those fancy freeze-dried pears and that aesthetitically pleasing variant with the skin and core in are both all well and good but these sweet, chewy dried pears from Woolies are my favourite kind.

Just a girl, her coffee and her shopping.  Killing time on a day off outside Woolies in trackies and Birkis.  These are the highlights of my weekday day off.

Leftover air fryer miso crusted salmon starring in a mid week salad lunch.

A day that began with spitty rain and grey skies only to develop into this....

Nothing says Year 10 to a child of the 90s like .....

Impulse deodorant!!!!!!  They were simpler but also more transformative times.  2020s me is smiling warmly back at 1990s me right now.  Telling her from across the decades that while the best is yet to come, the best times are right now.  Urging her to make the most of every opportunity and privilege afforded her.  That the people who love her (sometimes with tough love) will be the pillars of her adult life too,

From Where I Stand.....

Annual leave seems like a lifetime ago.

One day you're on staycation being a tourist in your own city, sleeping in and swimming in a rooftop pool and the next moment....

it somehow got to be Friday morning and you're having a moment on the sidewalk outside your favourite work cafe, waiting for a long black.  

Personally, I feel that we all deserve medals just getting to work on Friday mornings.  Waking up the household, ensuring that its fed and dressed, making it through the various commutes necessary before you can even embark on that all important bill-paying one... Friday mornings are marathons.

Friday afternoons, on the other hand, are simply a gift in themselves.  You leave work feeling that the loose ends are tied, the work diary been's turned a page forward (did you know we're up to week fortysomething of the year already!?!?). The after school pick up on Friday is my favourite one of the week and I accessories accordingly with an extra special after school snack and a fleecy sweater.  Because, you know, Asian mum and we are famous for feeling those drops in the temperature.  Often well before the weather itself decides to make it so.

Fast forward to Saturday when gardens great and small become my happy place.  

I actually had more fun than I care to admit to pruning my hedges and doing a general tidy up.  I am yet to achieve the precision of the suburb's army of visiting landscape gardeners but it will do and it was therapeutic putting my hedge shears through their paces.

Saturday soccer in the park has resumed for the final term of the year.  It was a draw 1-1 for the 10am 6/7 Kickeroos.

Spring has also arrived at the park and it looks like this.

Flower beds that fit together symmetrically like a jigsaw, ponds filled with waterlilies in the background and people simply out and about getting their (socially distanced) steps, kicks, cycle and bats in.

The flowers are in bloom at home as well. Kind of.  Uniqlo make these Relaco pants and they cost $14.99 AUD.  There are two lengths - shorts and 3/4.  They have been my go-to pajama bottoms and general lounging pants since forever.  These florals are my pick for the warmer nights ahead.

Wednesday Afternoon.

And exhale.

Order has been restored.

My much-loved, slightly ancient mum mobile is back on the road.  I just picked her up from the panel beater today and she looks practically brand new. I've missed how easy it is to maneuver the tight corners of parking lots with her, the way her indicator and windscreen wiper switches are on the 'right' sides, the dulcet tones of her GPS, how I managed to BlueTooth my phone to her computer.  

It's great being back on the road with here and what a relief to be able to lose those 'hire car nerves' of the last few weeks as I've gingerly driven around in a rental.  

School's back for the shortest term of the year.  Here's to having the correct socks paired and ready to go plus the summer uniform shorts freshly ironed.

In these times of covid, a fresh supply of personal hand sanitizer dispensers were also part of our back to school preparations.

It's been such a crazy year for us all.  School has been a calming constant for us both.  Its routines connect our pre-covid lives to the post-covid lives I'm sure will be ours in the not too distant future.  On a personal note, the school grounds are a restorative bubble of swaying trees, solidly reassuring buildings and the dynamic presence of the students.  Miles away from work and the strange reality that is our country in 2020.  

Be well and I hope life is treating you kindly right now.

Staycation Moments and Memories.

It's been a week and a bit that has, in fact, been more of a week and a half in terms of its wow factor.

Reader, I staycationed.  

I won't even try to rationalize it by calling it glamping because that Le Labo toiletries Instagram would expose my lie.

Rather, the location of our staycation was the Park Hyatt where I grappled with the Nespresso machine and mini carton of UHT milk from the minibar and savored the result of that union (messy china cup and all) as the sun rose over the Opera House.

Time at once stood still and raced along as I spent our night stay arranged on various pieces of furniture making the most of the view beyond the sliding door of our room.

The Opera House and tall ship were the constants of my view.

While the sky, ferries and passers-by down below played out dynamic scenes as a kind of backdrop to my downtime stillness.

Our stay was the perfect chance for Master SSG to play hotel guest with me because the logistics of traveling for work make it impossible for him to come along.

Spoiler.  He took to hotel life like a duck to water.

Beyond the view, I experienced the extravagance of sharing a bathroom with a perfectly maintained pot plant.

I sipped rose by the pool.

I spent a fair bit of time reflecting on life as I sat in the spa.

I helped unpack half a suitcase full of special guests who were hand picked for the little getaway.

Someone else made afternoon tea and dinner and did the dishes.

And another someone else had the best time 'making memories', a direct quote.

He's right.  We have made many memories these holidays.

In between the sessions I've devoted to clearing the backlog of housework that accumulated over last term.  The photo?  It's of the front window of our local toy store.  You eyes are not deceiving you.  They really do sell miniture Vileda and Bosch products.  It's hard work being a child in 2020.  In more ways than one, perhaps.

I've been on pool duty as we've braved the wave pool and super slide at the aquatic centre.

I'm one step closer to covering every surface of the house in crochet.

We went to the zoo on the hottest day of the school holidays.  The heat added to the authenticity of the savannah enclosure and made discovering the shady, breezy areas of the zoo as we walked around that much sweeter.

We didn't quite make it to the beach afterwards due to the non existent parking.  We did, however. take the advice of some kindly Mosman locals and found ourselves a drink nearby instead before heading home with our respective children for a bit of a splash under the hose / cold shower.

We've had one last day at the park today, the summer uniforms are ironed and ready to go and I've caught myself up on the work WhatsApp.

Here's to the final school term of the year and the craziness as we collectively head to Christmas and the New Year afterwards!!

Out of the Office.

What a difference 8 hours makes.

From starting that last Friday before annual leave neatly dressed and ready for the day ahead to ...

this.  At the top of the last flight of stairs to my level at the car park in bare feet because my blisters have blisters.

I don't know about you but despite the general pace of life having slowed down since the pandemic debuted, I'm still finding that I need theses 'week and a bits' off every few months.  Our days are simpler in many ways with so many restrictions in place but we also have that much more uncertainty and new territory to navigate in our daily lives.  The complexity is draining.  The projected long term implications on every aspect of our lives as a result of these 'unprecedented times' are overwhelming.  I know I could avoid reading the news about what may lie ahead but at the same time being 'prepared and informed' is part of my DNA.

My new bottle of a favourite perfume arrived in the mail last night.  Much like my barefoot in the work car park stairwell on the way home photo, it illustrates just how deeply my life has been impacted by Covid 19.  In the grand scheme of things, very much at the first world problems end of the spectrum.  I still have my job, I still have the same hours and salary that I did back when the world was more certain, I can meet all my bills, the household diet has not suffered due to financial constraints (time constraints, definitely, though), my family is healthy.  

It's just that, you know, I'm here.  Home.  Wings clipped.  Not packing for adventures abroad.  Not notifying my bank about my overseas travel destinations.  Not somewhere elsewhere buying perfume as a memento of my destination.  

Enough of the 'have nots'.  What about the 'haves'?  I have the means to purchase that replacement bottle of perfume here in Sydney.  I have the matching soap from my stash from my travels last year (it's the little things, this is me you're dealing with...).

I have the week ahead with the little guy, pottering around the house and beyond.  Making our own fun.  We have a new terrarium.  It's meant to be watered every fortnight.  I wonder how tall it will grow?  What do we do when it outgrows its cylinder?  Will living in a terrarium alter its growth rate?  So many questions.

I have time and nowhere to rush to in the mornings.

I have my Opal card and access to all the public transport options I need in the city thanks to our collective efforts in 'Doing the 3' and keeping our daily case count admirably low.

I have a fabulous city I call home.  

It will be no hardship being a tourist in my own city for the week and a bit ahead.

I have the luxury of time and that famous Sydney springsummer weather with which to enjoy it.

I might even squander a great deal of that time lost in my books.

Out of the office and into the chill zone.  What's not to like?