JANUARY DIARY

 What a wonderful start to the year!

I celebrated NYE for the first time in decades with a boyfriend!

This sounds sadder than it actually is...as such.

I spent most of my 20s in a defacto relationship that went terribly sour, he really did not treat me well. This is another story for another day, but it left me so very damaged that I spent the better part of a decade single, happily so...sort of. I just didn't want another experience like that and needed time to heal. I call them my lost years. So I have been dating since my mid 30s and I am now 50, so that is a long time and so very tiring! I have met many lovely men, with many types of relationships, but really none that stuck. I seemed to attract a lot of idiots, boys, and users. I did the online thing, and for every great guy, there was 9 total dicks. So I have searched high and low for my Mr Right for me and I believe I have finally found him, just when I had pretty much given up too! He is lovely and sweet, intelligent and funny, and feels like he has been my boyfriend forever, and I mean that in the best possible way. He is easy going and easy to be with, not hard work and he treats be beautifully.

I am in heaven, and I will stop, because there is nothing worse than someone raving on about such things.

Also after 3 years in the vortex and feeling stressed and anxious with health and work issues it is nice to start a new year feeling relaxed and unhindered. I know we still have the COVID reality to deal with, but that is a walk in  the park compared to other stuff I have been through!

So January was great.

Work is going well, in my  new position at Belmont Library, I am loving the work, the team, and the community. We work hard, have fun, and have much we want to achieve this year. YAY!!!

It was a mostly quiet month, just chilling really.

Here are the things I watched, read, listened to.

We had a fabulous day in the city mid month. Brunch at The Autumn Rooms, which I cannot recommend highly enough.

Then a wander and shop on Darby, followed by the Backstage Pass exhibition at The Art Gallery.

Next we hit Newcastle Baths, where I sat and read and people watched and A took pics and videos.

A late late lunch or early dinner at Scotties was a must, you can never go wrong eating there.

The day was capped off by a wander at the top of King Edward Park and Shepherd's Hill.

More brunch at the end of the month at Table 1 Espresso, Warners Bay and a walk near the lake, then Fish Fry and Pow Wow with friends at The Gallipoli Club.

I did my usual markets of course.

And some photography...

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ROUND UP

The month commenced with my second week of holidays, I had a bad head cold and icky throat, so I spent some time in bed and on the couch, but I did manage a few trips out.

I went to a couple of sessions of History Illuminated, a sort of writer's festival for History that work presents each year.

Heather Rose, author of the amazing The Tattooist Of Auschwitz told how she found that remarkable story and loads of behind the scenes information. I saw my friend Robert present a session on finding out information from historical photos that was eloquent and fascinating. And a professor from Newcastle University talking about the mystery of Picnic at Hanging Rock and the author, Joan Lindsay, which was just fantastic.

My nephew's team won their soccer grand final, this is the second year in a row, although he plays in an all ages team now. It was a terrific game but in the most awful wind, which is where my cold flared up from!

I spent the last day of my holidays at The Ocean Baths for lunch, glorious day, but too cold for a swim.

My niece had her 11th birthday, so I helped celebrate twice, once with her friends for a Disco Party, and a few days later her actual birthday with family.

My Bestie Cathy, and I had a lovely day out. We lunched at the Mary Ellen, then spent time looking at the new exhibits at Newcastle Gallery, followed by afternoon tea at Coco Mondo, and a shop on Darby. I love those days we have, creatures of habit, but what quality habits!!!

I got my car serviced and had a fabulous lunch at The Kent of all places while I waited.

I went to a couple of sessions of This is Not Art and The Young Writers Festival, mostly about blogging/writing/memoir/critiquing. And had a great lunch at The Commonwealth Hotel.

I have had varied food tastes since radiation, there is a lot of food I still cannot manage to eat, and I have been trying to keep it simple, so pub food has been the better option for me when dining out. At home it has mainly been veges.

September ended with me back at choir finally, and loving it and heading to Carrington Bowlo for the monthly One Song Sing gig, doing Aretha, it was an absolute blast of sass!!!

Things were going swimmingly and I was starting to feel less tired and better and then boom, I got this awful rash on my legs, that was painful and swollen and made movement just a real pain, a low grade Vasculitis was finally worked out and I had a lot of time of work on and off, loads of Drs apts and different creams and anti-biotics. It was caused by my throat infection due to nil to low immunity cause cancer/radiation. At the time of writing, it has improved greatly, but still looks awful and a long way to go. Needless to say it has set my recovery back significantly. I've had other minor issues, right lung a little touched by the radiation so I get very puffed, never ending sinus, and still tired, amongst other niggly things. So I had to pull back on being out and about and rest...again.

I did manage to head to Lizottes and see Tex Perkins with Linda, we'd had tickets for ages and would be sitting down, so no way I was missing that. He was a sheer delight, just him and Matt Walker playing guitars doing swampy blues and telling stories. Perfection indeed, and as always living up to my nickname for him, Texy!

We had a double bookclub in Oct, due to missing out in Sept, as always at Talulah who do a mean smoothie!!!

I had a huge day towards the end of the month, I caught up with a lovely school friend prior to our school reunion. We had lunch at The Brewery of all places. Haven't been there in decades, it was ok, wouldn't recommend it though. But it was lovely to catch up with my friend and then the others that made the reunion. 

I didn't stay long as I had to dash to Town Hall for the Newkulele Festival. My choir was performing. We had an amazing set of Never Tear Up Apart (INXS), Clocks (Coldplay), In This Heart (Sinead O'Connor), Rio (Mike Nesmith), A stunning Aboriginal tune, a gospel version of Kumbahya, and a show stopping Spanish finale. It was an absolute blast and we were well received.

Here is our take on In This Heart.

Directly after was One Song Sing, and we did Somebody to Love. I cannot begin to explain how magical this was. It was a thing of dreams. About 700 people filled the beautiful room, and we sounded amazing. 

Cathy and I started going to meditation classes with a Buddhist group and have found it very very good for our zen and mental health.

The month ended with my nephew's birthday, our little boy is grown up and 16.

I'm settling into my new position, it has been a huge learning curve with most of my work surrounding statistics and number crunching. As a word person, this is fascinating, watching my brain develop these new skills. And it is fun. The new surrounds are full of lovely colleagues, and I am close to home and my myriad of Doctor's appointments.

We are still in the midst of a long and stressful restructure and will not find out where we will fall until at least next year. It is difficult not to feel overwhelmed (especially given the year I have had) by this. For me, it is highly unlikely I will return to Swansea and my new position is temporary, so I am very unsure of my future. I am not the only one. I just try to place it all to the back of my mind and hope for the best.

Of course, I've stuck to my usual routine of heading to the markets.

Here are my reviews for September/October.

And some additional pics.