It was a dark, wet and dreary day nineteen years ago as I stepped off the plane in Perth for the first time to start my new life in Australia. I don’t recall specifics but there was a whole line of family and friends to meet us at the airport. I remember it was a bit overwhelming to meet so many people at once and I didn’t think I’d remember names any time soon. There probably weren’t that many people but it seemed a lot at the time. I was four and a half months pregnant with Game Fanatic at the time and starting to feel a bit oversized already…I remember I had on a short-sleeved red top that I was fond of wearing. In fact, I probably didn’t wear it much after that time and I have no idea what became of it now. Funny the stuff you remember after so long. That first month seemed to be have rain just about every day but the sun would often pop out and we’d see a rainbow appear on many of those days too. After that life was a bit of a blur as I adjusted to my new home. That is, until October when life got very interesting after Game Fanatic was born.

I completely missed this anniversary last year. I might have also missed it this year had I not had to write out the date today. I was at the Red Cross doing a regular plasma donation and had to sign and date the forms and that’s what triggered the memory. As a side note, I have now reached the maximum plasma donation level of 18% which allows me to give 800 mls each donation. I think this is only slightly higher than the last one but it makes the last cycle of blood draw and red cell return a bit more worthwhile. As I’ve used my right arm for donation most of the time lately, I thought I’d give it a break and try my left arm. It seems my veins were not easily found by the lady doing my session today so the expert was called in and he found a good vein. Interesting part was the way the machine was not moved to my left side this time but the tubes were draped across me. I think this had a lot to do with my location at the end of the room as they usually do shift the machine to the same side as blood draw. My next appointment is in a month for a full blood draw, but I wonder now if they will again ask me for plasma instead since they still have a high need for it.

We had pizzas from our much-loved local shop for dinner and I went back out to the store afterwards in search of a brownie mix. Brownies are my go-to treat to celebrate special days. I will clarify that I would love to make home made brownies most of the time but my boys seem to prefer the store mixes. Our favorite brownie mix here is the Australian made White Wings brand which has a nice chunky brownie mix that works well with my non-fat oil replacement of Greek yoghurt. Sadly the store had no boxes of this type available. They did have the Betty Crocker type available which is acceptable. They also had the Duncan Hines type which wasn’t all that great when we tried it. I found another mix by another Australian brand which was cheaper than the others. I decided to give it a shot and bought it along with a muffin mix on a special offer. Unfortunately they didn’t come out well at all. Not inedible but definitely quite underwhelming. I now feel the need to fix this wrong by making more tomorrow that taste like they should. Of course the lesson in this situation is not to try something too unknown for anything special.