“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.”

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Homemade Butter

This is not a recipe. 

I was trying to scoop out the butter from the stick mixer with my finger when I hit the button and set the blades rotating again. Two seconds later I'd thrown the mixer across the kitchen and let out an almighty scream. Tom has been sick and suffering from terrible back pains. He's been unable to move for a couple of days, but when he heard that scream he ran like the wind. He found me sobbing over the kitchen sink as it rapidly turned red. I just held my hand limply and cried because all sense of what to do in this kind of situation had left me as I stared blankly at the blood gushing out of a wound I could not see.

I had just wanted pancakes. Why can I not be trusted with blades?

He scooped me up, disinfected the many lacerations and wrapped it up in a bandage. He made me drink water and sit while he bustled around in the kitchen for a minute and then emerged with a pancake covered in lemon and sugar.

I had made pancake mix to surprise him in his sorry state, but the tables turned and the mix I'd almost forgotten was now comforting me in my own misery.

I've decided to talk about something very personal on here. I've touched on it in the past, but I've made a conscious effort not to share this very important aspect of my life. Until now. Because I was sitting with a customer-turned-friend-and-mentor yesterday and it hit me that our conversations were lacking that foundation of knowledge. I had to share this aspect of myself if we were to continue talking about direction and life decisions and all of those conversations that have become a regular occurrence as I make him an extra chocolately mocha and then mock him for his choice.

instagram loving

For the last two years I have had a useless phone that called the wrong people, crashed for no obvious reason and generally just made my life difficult. But those days are over (!) and I'm now the proud owner of an iPhone 5 (the phone company gave me a great deal since the 5s is about to come out and I'm a loyal customer) and an instagram account. It's my new favourite thing.

Follow me on @whereverwefindourselves  

heading to the polls

My first election was such an exciting experience. I was so pleased and proud to be participating in this critical civic duty. I deliberated over my vote and happily filled out every one of those eighty-something boxes below the line because I was not going to waste the opportunity by voting above it.

This year I'm not quite as enthusiastic. When the results come out tonight, no outcome will excite me. The major parties are a mess and their elected leaders are both ridiculous human beings, to put it extremely kindly.

If you're about to head to the polls today, have a quick read of this article before you do. It's giving me hope that the mess of our political system might actually work out in our favour eventually. An excerpt: 

But if Abbott wins?
We already know he can’t open his mouth without saying the exact wrong thing. We already know that he’s terrible on policy, can’t think on his feet and dodges responsibility. At the moment he can largely get away with blaming the government; once he’s Prime Minister, that’s not an option anymore. He will look like what he is: a man of narrow views and narrower knowledge woefully out of his depth. 

And look at the Abbott front bench: it's a viper’s nest. They’re not supporting Abbott because they think he’s an inspiring leader, since he’s demonstrated comprehensively that he’s not: they've backed him because the greatest strength they have had against Labor over the last 18 months has been in presenting a united front.  

Once they’re in power this bunch of smart, ambitious and shrewd politicians are going to be a lot less forgiving of a leader who's an obvious and embarrassing liability. Hockey isn’t going to fade back into the benches. Neither is Turnbull. Neither is Bishop. Neither is Morrison. Those squabbles have been sublimated for the time being because they had a common enemy: Labor. Once in power, they’ll have a different common enemy: each other. 

Even though the political system is a mess and I don't feel like any great difference will be made by filling out all of those little boxes (I will anyway, unlike my apathetic boss who prefers to scribble out his opinions on the party leaders all over the ballot sheet), I'm still looking forward to a walk in the sunshine to the polling booth at the local primary school. At least the election is being held in spring. 

spring has swept in and it's okay

I am reminded yet again that I shouldn't make promises on this blog, because when life gets busy and my head becomes overwhelmed, blogging is not going to be my highest priority. It's easy to fall out of the rhythm of posting regularly and as more and more time passes I find it harder to get back into a habit I've always found highly rewarding.

A dark cloud (literally) settled over Adelaide for a large part of August. I honestly think the lack of good natural lighting made the photography challenge of the August Break seem less enticing or, indeed, do-able. I swear that winter's last little kick tipped most of Adelaide over the edge. This city is just not made for Melbourne weather, we all tremble at the thought. Everyone seemed seriously miserable.

But the clouds have cleared and the rain has eased. Spring has most definitely come to town in the last week (which took me and my entire lack of Summer clothing by surprise). I've been wearing boots for the last three 30C (84F) degree days. Not ideal, to say the least.

How have you all been?