If everything had gone according to plan, today's post would recount what I am sure would have been a glorious long-weekend escape to the beach with friends. But life does not always go to plan. Sometimes that stomach flu that has apparently been "going around" hits you square between the eyes and wakes you in the dead of night screaming "I AM HERE! FUCK YOU AND ALL OF YOUR AWESOME PLANS, YOU WON A TRIP TO VOMIT TOWN!"

Tom had it three days earlier, and I was so certain that I'd made a lucky escape (admittedly a fantasy when living in the small quarters of a one-bedroom flat) that was excitedly picking out books to read on the beach and buying Tanqueray and Rekorderlig to drink over interesting (and later, ridiculous) conversation during those balmy nights out on the deck.

Alas, it was not to be. (I wish I could honestly say I use the word alas in my day-to-day vocabulary, but most of the time I just waste the opportunity by using a swear word in it's place.) We spent Australia Day on the couch watching The Matrix Trilogy, which I somehow managed not to see in the fifteen years since it's release, which is unfortunate because of all the Thomas Anderson references I could have made throughout the last two years. Other than those misses opportunities to tease my boyfriend, though, I don't feel like I missed out on a great deal. The first was good, but the other two? Whole sequences of CGI people with jelly-limbs hitting each other? Twenty minutes on a single chase scene that wasn't remotely necessary to the development of the plot? Machines and computer programmes with an inexplicable will to live? The first was enough; ignorance was bliss and I wish I could un-know the whole Architect/Oracle/One storyline and the stupid love story between Neo and Trinity. /accidental rant

 

In other exciting news, I finished my first batch of kombucha and I'm dorkishly proud of myself. I'm please that I have a boyfriend with a background in biology, because I needed him to assure me that none of the new growth around my SCOBY was bad, regardless of how ugly it appears. Even though I knew what kind of things to expect in a normal batch of kombucha, I was still anxious that I had somehow broken it and infected my SCOBY with horrors unknown. It reminds me a little of when I first started nannying the twin one-year-olds when I was eighteen. When they tripped and fell I would run and scoop them up, afraid I was doing a terrible job. It only took a week or so for me to become more relaxed and just let them pick themselves up and go along their merry way. Things are usually not as dire or serious as they might initially seem. I'm hoping that kombucha will become second nature to me and I won't be anxiously checking the progress of each batch multiple times a day.

I'll be honest, this first batch hedged a little close to the over-brewed, slightly vinegar stage. In an Adelaide summer like this I think it could use a day or two fewer to be of the beautiful tart standard of Mojo, especially with the mini heat wave we have to look forward to this week. I hope you're all well and that any of you Aussies had a more exciting/less sick Australia Day than I, but right now I really ought to get ready for work - I've made a terrible habit of being exactly two minutes late to work every day, but I think today shall be the day I break that streak and catch the earlier train.

life, lately

pictured
1. The sky one night of the heatwave. Oh, yes, the heatwave. For those of you lucky enough to have been anywhere else last week, we had the most diabolical (record-breaking) heatwave. On Thursday the temperature reached 47C and we were officially the hottest city on the planet. We had to close the shop for the week and I spent most of my time hiding form the heat and watching Homeland.
2. Celebrity head, because Sherlock and Watson were adorable when they played it in The Sign of Three. We spent Tuesday of the heatwave swimming, drinking gin and playing silly games with friends.
3. I finally bought a Kombucha SCOBY and my first batch should be ready in about five days!
4. Cashew Cheese from The Whole Pantry app.
5. The Life-Changing Loaf of Bread from My New Roots.

not pictured
1. Impromptu dinner date at Jack Ruby. The scallop cheviche is ah-maz-ing!
2. our first night(s) apart since moving in together. Tom went to Kangaroo Island with work (just for fun- entirely funded by tips!)
3. the cool change came in the form of a huge storm; Tom's parents dog was alone and terrified and somehow managed to make her way to our house. It's about a half hour walk, but we can't remember a time that she has actually been here before then. Clever girl.
4. a lovely gin-soaked evening with Josh.
5. setting up my studio in the detached bunglalow in the backyard. Excited to start using my new (to me) workbench.

I didn't mean to take so long to post again, but the heat was so all-consuming and those day so uneventful (I didn't think you wanted to hear my thoughts on Homeland or how our low temperatures were a normal week's highs) that time just ... passed. How have you all been?

Pub nights in Adelaide. (1 degree of separation)

Usually I really love Adelaide, you know? I like how it's relatively small and quiet for a capital city. And though we have plans to live in other, bigger, and busier places in time, we're pretty happy right where we are right now.

 But then you have those nights where you go to the pub and find that everyone knows everyone and you run into not one, but two of your exes (one of which we will not discuss because I like to pretend that it never happened) and start to wonder if perhaps it's time to move on from this tiny town to avoid these kinds of awkward interactions.

One of Tom's closest friends from all the way back in high school is now in the same Fringe show as the guy I was seeing for a couple of months three years ago. A guy I haven't spent more that thirty seconds with since that time he drunkenly apologised for being a dick while we were dating and then proceeded to try and coax me to go home with him. It couldn't have been all that long before Tom & I got together.

When asked how we knew each other, the Ex vaguely told someone "... we'll go with Uni. Yeah, Uni ..." as if we had some kind of secret. We met at the pub and we hung out for a couple of months and then we kind of fell apart and that was that. And neither of us were studying at the time. I have no idea what was going on there, but the remainder of the night was tinged by that initial awkward and unnecessary lie.

The combination of $2 beers specials and the strange I-have-seen-you-naked-but-I-don't-actually-know-you-very-well-anymore conversations left me feeling distinctly disgusting at work the next morning. I'm reasonably sure I was still drunk when I got to work, but thankfully no one seemed all that interested in coffee and I managed to spend my shift mainly eating bacon (essential) and rehydrating. It was possibly not the best start to a year of taking care of myself. I remember now why I always aim to get the last train home on weeknights, and it's not because of the cab fare.

The word for 2014

Last year I played along with Susannah Conway and created a "Word for 2013".
I took so long trying out words and attaching meanings to them that I don't think the end result of the word "Do" was perhaps as powerful as Susannah's experience with the process. I didn't exactly forget the word like I often forget New Years Resolutions, but I don't see evidence of it inspiring me to do more, to approach situations differently or to step out of my comfort zone in any way.
I had no intention of choosing another word for this year. Last year's process simply didn't seem to be something that stirred much within me, so I decided instead to write a list of intentions that were specific to a few areas of my life on which I'd like to focus.
But while I was writing the list and exploring my intentions for 2014, one word just kept coming up. Explore.

The word came to me organically and the word failed to go away. So I've decided to welcome it into my life and let it stay for the year. My year of exploration.