Summer holidays

My summer holidays are nearly over. They’ve been mostlygood!

Hangin' with Henry (Lawson)

We were in Grenfell for Christmas, with Alan’s parents and sister and brother-in-law. We went bushwalking and ate coloured popcorn and went for a drive to see the Christmas lights on houses around town (either that or it was a tour of the places where Alan’s mum’s been to garage sales – I was confused. Also confusing was the fact that she took along her GPS but then directed us by looking at a map with her mini torch.)

The main street of Grenfell

Our time in Grenfell was tainted by the fact that Alan and I were in the middle of a fight while we were there. I told Alan I wanted to talk about the problem before we left home because I didn’t want us pretending to like each other while we were there, but we didn’t have the talk, nor did we pretend to like each other while we were there (win win…?). It was a fight where I was convinced he was in the wrong and needed to apologise and he was convinced that I was in the wrong and needed to apologise, and so we found ourselves at an impasse. For about a week. We’ve never had one of those kinds of fights before; it was weird and unsettling. Anyway, life is easier when we like each other, so we both apologised (with fingers crossed) when we got back to Sydney, and then enjoyed the rest of our break together.

We’ve spent a LOT of time bike-riding (and by we I mean Moses), and have also enjoyed swimming (all of us), drinking water straight from the kitchen tap (Hazel), and watching copious amounts of Parks and Recreation (Alan and me), among many other things of which I have no photographic evidence.

I was able to scratch a few books off my reading list over the holidays (by reading them – was that clear?). I also read a couple of novels that weren’t on my list and that I wish I could go back in time and not read so that I could instead read something I really wanted to. I start my course on Monday, and from the look of things I won’t have any time for non-study reading (or non-study anything, really) for the next 6 weeks.

4 of the books in my to-read tower have been borrowed from friends, so they’re now at the bottom of the pile (until I start geting harassed about returning them). I’ve finished the top one and am most of the way through The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. 3 of the books in my pile are books I borrowed thanks to references to them and/or their authors in All Joy and No Fun (why did you make them all sound so very interesting, Jennifer Senior? Whyyyyy?). I’m happy to take the Jaclyn Moriarty novel back without reading it; I borrowed it because it was recommended by Liane Moriarty (Jaclyn’s sister), and I love her so much I just do whatever she tells me to. Alas – I’ve run out of time! Sorry, Liane!  What do you reckon the chances are of me finishing the other 5 ½ books from my pile in the 3 ½ remaining days before holidays end? I’m going to give it a red hot go.

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Yesterday morning I absent-mindedly picked up a cornflake from the bench while getting my breakfast ready, and after registering that the cornflake was far less crispy and far more salty than I’d expected, my mind finally woke up and explained to me that I was currently chewing on playdough. This has nothing to do with holidays, but I wanted to let you know. That’s one more for my list of food mistakes.