I had a few tough lemongrass outer leaves and a few ginger peelings kicking about from various recipes which, in a flash of inspiration, I had the genius idea to try infusing in boiling water.

It tasted spectacularly good – much superior to my usual the tea bag option. I’m an enormous fan of lemongrass tea – and what a fabulous way to use something otherwise destined for the bin.

I had a decent stockpile of leaves (from a recipe requiring FIVE lemongrass stalks) and I thought to maybe I would give the dehydrator** a whirl to make them last a little longer.

Of course I dithered about this for much too long – overthinking and perfectionisting like I do with pretty much everything – and everything was getting somewhat sad looking.

But I eventually got there and after many hours was pretty surprised to find that the dehydrated version was much less fragrant than the sad versions I started out with. The garage (where the dehydrating was happening) smelled wonderful though.

I chalked this up to a learning experience and one of those get-that-idea-out-of-your-head-and-into-the-world lessons, but actually it tasted pretty great.

So I’m not entirely sure what the lesson was in all this, but I definitely won’t be tossing out my lemongrass outer leaves or ginger peelings again.

xxx

** In one of the Ruthless Decluttering forays last year we attempted to donate the dehydrator (which I think may have been used once in the last 10 years), but the charity shops weren’t accepting electrical items. Perhaps The Universe was trying to tell me something.

Don and I both had a day off last Friday. We’d originally intended a bit of a local bike ride in the morning and lunching somewhere nice that was outside the usual local haunts and pottering about a bit. Instead we spontaneously decided to drive to the Blue Mountains**, take in some scenery and grab lunch up there. It was the first time I’ve left Sydney at all in 15 months.

The drive up was fast and painless. Normally the winding roads are packed with tourist buses but now of course there are none. Likewise the villages – pre-covid, you’d never be able to get a parking spot and the footpaths and scenic spots would be teeming with tourists. Dishy(Ex)Boss lives in one of the most picturesque mountain villages and was telling me pre-Xmas that everywhere was jam-packed with people holidaying from Sydney, so perhaps we got lucky with timing.

When we arrived we headed to a local park, found a track and followed it, hoping for a glimpse of something scenic and came upon a lookout which we had pretty much all to ourselves. It was immense and quiet and utterly breathtaking. I could have stayed there for hours just breathing it all in.

There are really no photos that can do it justice, but here are a couple anyway.

squishy panorama

I’ve been totally kidding myself thinking a daily stroll around the local cricket oval is “getting out in nature”. There are residential areas just across the road (and down a track) from those views – I can’t even imagine those spectacular morning walks!

After a bit, we took ourselves out for a stroll around the local shops, found our intended lunch destination had moved villages and went on a quest to find it. They fit us in without a booking, gave us a table on the terrace – where we were forced to take in this view.

Really, really gorgeous day out, but sent me into a bit of a mental spin. I thought I was really very satisfied with where I’m at generally, and to a large degree I am, but there are definitely things that need addressing.

I returned home with a sizeable chunk of me wanting to pack in the city life and escape to an off-grid hut in the bush!

xxx

** not really that mountainous, more like tallish hills

hubcaps and hangers (and whiskers on kittens?)

It’s been on one list or another since October 2014 … today I finally signed up for two one-day pottery classes.

I decided that I was going to stop getting in my own way and find a class that met some of my conditions, not keep fruitlessly searching for the perfect thing (for years).

Some things I absolutely don’t want to do – like 6:30-9:30pm (what of dinner? of sleep?), but other things I can – like why *not* take the day off work to make things? why resist a labyrinthine public transport journey?

Both classes are in March, both hand-building (wheel not really my jam right now).

I will report back!

xxx

I really need to apply this get-out-and-do-it and stop-putting-up-roadblocks approach to many more things in my life.

Guerilla florists?

These … bunches? arrangements? groups? … of faux flowers appeared in one of the neighbouring streets a bit over a month ago.

They’re moved up and down that part of the street at random intervals, I imagine under cover of darkness, popping up on various sections of foothpath and in random garden beds.

I’m highly entertained every time I encounter them. The world definitely needs more fake flower interventions.

An attempt to get myself back into the photo taking (and photo posting) habit.

Morning walk treasures #01 …

On footpaths, in different directions.

what is the universe trying to tell me?

I realised yesterday that in terms of calorie load, those daily servings of avocados and mangoes more than replace the nightly desserts I gave up several months ago!

I was utterly perplexed as to why my clothes were becoming increasingly more difficult to get into in the last month – I think this would go some way to explaining why.

Also not helpful – my current lifestyle is quite sedentary. This really cannot be good for me at all.

Action will be taken, per those intentions.

xxx

Yesterday morning I also stopped waiting for perfection and got out for my first run in a-very-long-time. It was a pretty short ~2km, but felt really glorious. Later that afternoon I had a pretty ghastly stabbing pain at the base of my right shoulder blade. The InformationSuperhighway tells me it is likely from poor running posture. I am not at all surprised by this. I am somewhat surprised at the level of pain poor running posture can smash you with – I had to seek recourse in ibuprofen.

I followed up the radical departure from my usual routine by catching the bus to Broadway (Shopping Centre) to buy a pair of 2XU calf sleeves (as recommended by RelentlesslyCheerfulPhysio), a couple of elastic-waisted garments (yikes) and some kooky pens for my team. Of course I masked and sanitised and all those sensible things – and left before it got too crazy-busy.

I’m rather pleased I did something other than staying at home catching up on housework while Don was at golf, which tends to be how I fill my Saturday mornings. I usually have it in my head that unless the car is at my disposal it’s almost impossible to get out and about – this is utter nonsense as I have a major bus route and train line 10 minutes walk from my front door.

Next up – signing up for some sort of crafty class, to ease me back into the world.

I was pretty happy with those high level intentions from 2020, so I’m going to stick with them as themes for 2021.

I was wondering how to frame these in some sort of measurable way, but you know what? Life isn’t work and not everything has to be SMART (ooooh! insight!) – so I’ll check in with them periodically and go by how I’m feeling about progress.

+ improve posture
I have very little-to-no idea on how to achieve this. I’m not keen at all on wearing a harness or one of those wearables which buzz when you slump.
Pilates? Mindfulness? A large sign over my desk? All of those things?

+ improve health (physical and mental)
Exercise! Less sitting all day (honestly feel at times like I’m at risk of DVT), see SuperHappyFunGP about that vascular insufficiency thing
Also, I am really over being cynical (so tiresome) – so more positivity all round.
And get out of the house more and into nature.
Oh! And fuss less about the things I have no agency over.

+ thoughtful use of tech
I’m doing pretty okay with this!
Fairly motivated to ditch the morning phone habit and finally kill off the instagram.
Probably wouldn’t hurt to go on another unsubscribing spree!
More analogue!

+ take action, don’t dither
Maybe I don’t have to do all the things?
I’d like to get projects out of my head and into the world sooner – I spend way too much time ruminating on the process for things which sometimes don’t work when executed.

+ exercise brain
First step here is to read a bit more widely instead of defaulting to the usual genres.
Take a couple of classes in weird and offbeat things.

+ be calm | be crunchy
Meditate, bush care, be a bit more conscious of what I consume, try new things.
I don’t think I wrote about it, but I went to a sound healing session last Feb (in the spirit of trying new things) – it was much more relaxing than I had expected. What other bonkers stuff can I try?
And see above re the stuff I can’t control!

That should be enough to be going on with.

So, how about those 2020 intentions …

+ improve posture
If not now, when? My posture is fairly appalling and I’m starting to have the occasional lower back twinge and other aches. I’m not entirely jazzed by the prospect of entering my twilight years all pained and hunched over. Mostly this will involve mindfulness/checking in with myself – am I sitting up? are my abs engaged?
– Strengthen core
– Sit up don’t slump
– Don’t slouch when standing / walking

I’m quite confident I have not improved at all in this area.
– My desk chair at home does stop me crossing my legs, so perhaps a tiny win there.

xxx

+ improve health
I had a few bouts of non-serious, but fairly annoying, lingering illness in 2019, which of course had the associated negative impact on my mental health.
– Some cardio every day. At the moment this consists of 20min on the exercise bike which should be sustainable.
– Take a walk every day when conditions permit. I was reasonably successful with this for part of last year – then the smoke hit!
– Reduce meat consumption, increase vegetable intake.
– Drink more water! I am TERRIBLE at this.
– Be (slightly) more social – a mental health one.
– Don’t compare myself to others – thief of joy and all that! Another mental health one.

Absolutely not where I want to be
– The 20min on the bike was apparently not sustainable, but I’ve been back in the saddle for most of January.
– Have been exceptionally good with daily walk since we first went to lockdown – barely missed a day since (even in torrential rain).
– I’ve been pretty good about drinking water – having an attractive pitcher and adding lemon slices was one of the keys to success, as was attaching it to an anchor habit of a pot of green tea.
– Nope to the rest, but getting better at the last one – maybe.

xxx

+ thoughtful use of tech
There are a lot better uses of my time than the infinite scroll, which truly is the devil’s work, or clicking mindless about. I’d really like to disconnect a bit more.
– Limit instagram use. It’s wonderful to keep up with people, but holygoodness it is way too easy to get sucked into the abyss.
– Just put the phone down!
– Stop reading garbage / hate-reading – unsubscribe!
– Embrace analogue. We’ve started listening to CDs, I’m reading library books, I’d like to drag out the camera again.
– Share more good online things.

Not too bad here. I have been much better this year about disconnecting – it has been extremely helpful to have slow projects for the evening.
– Given up instagram entirely, though have not killed the account. Likely will do the killing in 2021.
– On phone quite a lot less – really want to kick that morning habit though.
– Mostly not reading garbage and have unsubscribed from a few (what have turned to) hate-reads.
– Libraries all closed with covid. I have not been in one since March.
– I shared a bunch of good online things with colleagues. I’ve found it challenging to find a balance with my work digital life and my personal digital life this year.

xxx

+ take action, don’t dither
Procrastination is my watchword, let it no longer be so.
– All those plans you have – stop thinking and start them!
– Make comments on other blogs! Avoid posts languishing in tabs for weeks/months (I currently have at least four sitting there that I meant to say nice things about)
– Perform those bigger household maintenance tasks – keep the Palace from falling to the ground and/or incurring undue and unnecessary expense.

Yeah, nah.
– My dithering is probably worse than ever.
– See above balance of digital life. I’ll have interesting posts open in the browser for weeks intending to comment – but the time passes and it seems too late (which of course it isn’t).
– We did have other people help-the-house-not-fall-down (new windows, plumbing, room building). Still much work to be done here. I replaced part of the carpet underlay in the not-craft room by myself which made me feel like a superstar handywoman.

xxx

+ exercise brain
This encompasses pretty much anything that stretches me beyond the routine
– Get back to daily Japanese
– Maybe undertake a puzzle more frequently than just at Xmas
– Stretch my reading
– Crafting – take classes, learn new things, make new things!
– Pick up that cryptic crosswords for dummies book (#2 on the 60 list)

NONE OF THESE THINGS!
– Alas no puzzles, no stretched reading (you’d think covid times would have been perfect for this!)
– My commute time was my Japanese time and I haven’t worked out a way to seamlessly slot it into my lift now – though I definitely want to return to it at some point.
– I did make quite a few things and was delighted by those giant red flannel pants and that baby sampler. I loved my second glass class way back before we went into lockdown. I’d sign up for another in a heartbeat.
– Picked up that cryptic crossword book and then after a while accepted that while I really saw it as a hallmark of being a certain type of intelligent, cultured, admirable person, I’m just never going to be that person. Sent the book to the charity shop. I’ll stick to the more lowbrow quick crosswords.

xxx

+ be calm | be crunchy
This was my catch-all for a lot of DFH** stuff
– Don’t buy any clothes for a year (#42 on the 60 list)
– Be conscious about what I buy in general – refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, recycle!
– Meditate every day (#21 on the 60 list)
– Attend one bushcare working bee

I’ve probably done more of this category than any other.
– While I didn’t hold to the buy no clothes for a year, I got to a couple of hundred days without anything new and have since kept clothing purchases to a minimum.
– I probably bought things I didn’t entirely need, but they generally made me happy
– Meditation is going okay, could improve (which I think even very seasoned meditators would say). It is a helpful addition to my life.
– Obviously bushcare working bees were not happening in 2020, but I have hopes for maybe toward the end of 2021

** Dirty … Hippy

Next up … Joan

Australia currently has 0 cases of community transmission of the covid. One of the reasons our Government has managed this so successfully is by making it next to impossible for our citizens overseas to return home – aggressively low incoming passenger caps, individual one way flights costing >$10k each (if you can even find one – and these will generally be cancelled multiple times at the last minute), mandatory hotel quarantine costs of $3k and a ton of other restrictions. There have been a handful of sporadic official repatriation flights, but these are quite poorly managed and pretty impossible to get.

What the Government has done outstandingly well is deflect any criticism and whip up public sentiment against those overseas with a whole “they should have come home earlier” narrative – quite how this could have been achieved with that whole no flights thing is never really articulated. It’s probably unrealistic to expect these incompetent clowns to arrive at a plan in the almost 12 months they’ve had to organise something.

There are currently 39k people trapped in this situation – Joan is one of them. She’s in Switzerland right now residing with her Swiss boyfriend. The Swiss Government being more humane than ours, is permitting her to stay on for chunks of time – though she does not have work rights. While this is not great, she is in a better position than many others who are in really quite dire circumstances.

On that uplifting note …

Let’s review 2020

1. Have £x in my savings account by June 2020
✅

2. Find a new hobby that involves physical activity
Not so much…

3. Start a language course
I started an online German course but it’s not the best

4. Travel to 5 new countries
I went to Spain in February and snuck to Liechtenstein in November but 2020 hasn’t been great for exploring new countries

5. Reduce my expenditure on food
No in the first half of the year when I ate my quarantine feelings away through Deliveroo but I’ve spent a lot less the second half of the year in Switzerland

And for 2021

Doing this under duress. If there’s anything I’ve learned from 2020, it’s that you can have the best intentions for the year ahead but external factors can make achieving goals impossible.

1. Add five new dishes to my cooking repertoire
2. Do some sort of physical activity at least every second day
3. Earn some money, somehow
4. Sort out my photo library
5. Go to Australia at some point

xxx

Joan’s previous not-resolutions:
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011

Inspired by the excellent ganching – an excruciatingly granular day in the life of carolbaby:

• 06:05 – Alarm. Feed kitties, make coffee, return to bed, read phone – check for overnight messages on family chat, personal email, read management articles, scroll cross-stitch reddit
• 06:30 – Drink coffee, more pointless internet phone reading, brush teeth
• 07:05 – Morning walk with Don
• 08:00 – Grab dinner from freezer (red beans and rice tonight), make another coffee, eat breakfast (greek yoghurt with a couple of berries), wash breakfast dishes, take probiotic, light candle, pull three tarot cards (judge if you must), ponder tarot cards, meditate for 7 minutes, blow out candle, legs-up-wall for 5 minutes while reading kindle (re-reading the Miss Silver novels – wouldn’t necessarily recommend), drink coffee, read blogs on computer, watch heart-warming youtube video, shower, brush teeth, dress, make pot of green tea, fill water jug
• 09:00 – Daily Team call – WIP, bonding, all the good things (great meeting – good energy)
• 09:30 – Daily project #1 meeting with vendor (terrible lose-will-to-live meeting)
• 10:00 – Twice weekly IT meeting (pretty okay meeting)
• 10:30 – emails, slack, 5 min legs-up-wall, listen to chilled tunes on new micro-hifi
• 11:00 – Weekly project #2 meeting (can’t-get-a-word-in meeting), prep for 2pm meeting I’m chairing for first time
• 12:00 – Walk to store for quick fresh food shop, call with Bobs to go over his 2pm meeting prep, unpack shopping, make sandwich (avocado, chicken, tomato, cheese, cos on wholemeal) and fruit (mango, orange, strawberry, green grapes), eat lunch, read kindle, watch fish romp about in new(ish) aquarium, feed ravenous kitties, wash lunch dishes, force video of delightful fishy antics on family
• 14:00 – Very Important new monthly meeting with Leadership team (good meeting) – pleased with outcome
• 15:30 – Email, slack, issue various edicts/instructions, meeting fatigue so reschedule 2 individual WIP meetings, make pot of lemongrass and ginger tea (with ginger peelings and lemongrass off-cuts – amazing new discovery), schedule mentoring session I’ve been putting off, lock in annual leave day for two weeks hence
• 18:00 – Close work computer, greet Don, pack away dishes, 15min on exercise bike, 20 squats (gotta start somewhere), sit quietly watching fish for a bit, briefly scroll pinterest (not feeling it), clear dish drainer, force more fish videos on family
• 19:00 – Drive to officeworks to collect print job (this should be quick, it is not and takes at least double the time I’d planned), sit quietly with kindle while red beans heats up and the rice cooks, eat dinner, help Joe/Frank clear table, dry some dishes to make space in drainer for more, feed fish, feed ravenous kitties, drink probiotic drink and make big cup of chai
• 21:00 – Retire to not-craft room with audio book and stitching, drink chai, think thoughts
• 22:15 – Prepare for bed, wash face, wash feet (I absolutely cannot sleep with not-washed feet), brush teeth and floss, set muji oil diffuser, set alarm, read kindle for a bit, fall asleep

Still here? You deserve a prize!

Was this a typical work day? Pretty much – I probably have more meetings than this in the average day, I try to ride the bike at lunch rather than after work, there is generally more involved in dinner prep and I leave the house much less.
What I’d like to change: less phone time in the morning (it’s a lot), add journalling, increase meditation time (or add a post-work session), more exercise – even in short bursts

You should totally share your day too