That’s what’s going on

the last couple of weeks have been unusual for their warmth – everything feels a hell of a lot more like autumn (including the sunset light) than winter, what with the sunny days and all.

Given we’re normally well into winter now, it’s the first time I’ve really seen such climate anomalies. I won’t say I’m not worried.

We did have our first two mornings of frost, however, and I definitely had to do some ice-melting prior to the school run. The scratch of windshield wiper on ice legit sends shivers down my spine. It is the worst of sounds.

And as you may already know, I’m back in Employeeland, a place I’ve not seen in some time. I have always worked from home as the kids have grown up (except the first few years when they were very little and I taught one day a week at uni with the kids in an on-campus day care). It’s been A Time.

I had my first job interview in 10 years (I’ve either been approached for work or my applications have never made it to the interview stage), which was a panel interview, just my luck! That’s always intimidating, no matter what the circumstance. Fortunately me + the school canteen is a good fit all round and everything worked out in my favour.

the kids, miraculously, are still enjoying school and their friends and their constant-presence mother doling out the popcorn, so I’m grateful. They love their teachers and getting involved in community events in general so I’m riding that wave while I can. I could tell everyone was tired as the term ground to a close though, as emotions were high and fuses were short. It was a delicate balancing act to ensure shit didn’t entirely implode, but there were a few close calls.

We had a very sweet winter solstice celebration at school to mark the turning point of the season, and the kids got to write a wish and throw it into the fire. Of course it made me cry.

the other thing that made me cry was watching someone serve the end-of-term sausage sizzle sausages straight up on the bread, and not on the diagonal. I felt dizzy and a little bit sick. That’s not right, is it? How did this even come about? The diagonal is classic! It’s there for a reason! How are you going to adequately sauce your sausage if there is no crust pocket? Even worse – the sausages were placed on the bread diagonally, only for them to be “corrected” into the straight serve before being handed to the kids.

I don’t know what kind of world I’m living in any more, but if the sausages are incorrect and we’re wearing t-shirts in the depths of a Melbourne winter, it’s no wonder I’m dizzy.

Girlfriend has been making her presence FELT as she is up in everyone’s grill at all times. She rules this house and she must know it, as she gives zero fucks and all the cuddles. She is pure joy and there’s not a day goes by that I’m not ever so grateful she ended up with us.

On a much sadder note, we had to say goodbye to Skye, our bunny, as she took a turn one evening a week or two ago and was gone within an hour. I went out to her hutch to check on her and bring her some veggies and she didn’t look quite right. I wondered if she was cold so added more hay to her hidey-hole. I checked her again after 10 minutes and she’d just fallen in the hay and couldn’t get up. I brought her inside where it was warm, but she was limp and breathing super slowly. I called all the vets nearby but they were either closed or had no vacancies. I checked on her a few more times over the next hour, afraid to touch her too much if she was in pain as I didn’t want to stress her even more, but she just quietly died.

Naturally, I feel responsible, and it is DREADFUL. Obviously something I did or didn’t do has led to her suffering, except I don’t know what it was – or wasn’t. Did I feed her something she couldn’t eat? Did something frighten her? Did she not have enough hay to keep warm? It is weighing terribly heavily on me. Poor bunny.

I have developed a fondness for Korean cooking videos on YouTube. I shall present them without comment, but enjoy – they’re well worth a click: One Meal A Day

The school holidays so far have treated us well. We went to Ballarat for a couple of days, where we had lunch at The Pub with Two Names, and I had breakfast at Webster’s Market and Cafe with none other than the extraordinarily beautiful Jodi of Practising Simplicity. Seriously, her face is so otherworldly that it’s probably a health hazard if she pops up while you’re using sharp knives or operating heavy machinery.

Next week we are off to the Yarra Valley for a couple of days and every single one of us are counting down the minutes. Bring me all of the fireside chats and farm animals, please and thank you.

Hope everything is hunky-dory where you are.