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Board games
For the last two or three months we have been playing board games regularly on the weekends. Game Fanatic started us playing an easier version of Gloomhaven. Some time ago we had tried the regular version, and it was okay, but we didn’t play for a long time and when we tried this version I had forgotten how to play. The good news is we played often enough to remember how to play for now. It’s been just The Scientist, Game Fanatic and me, but once we finish all the campaigns, the plan is for Lego Lover to join us for the regular version. The good thing about this game is you keep the same character and build it up over time. I guess for some this isn’t a good thing but for me it’s good to stick to what I know and keep playing it. Normally I choose a character that uses magic for these games but this time I chose a close-up fighting character and it’s been okay for me.
That said, we haven’t played in the last month due to other games and distractions. We finally tried out Takenoko for the first time and we all liked it well enough to play it again and again. Good things about this game are it is short, easy to learn and has some strategy involved. I’ve had the board game for a year or two, along with an expansion. We have yet to include the expansion but will likely try it soon. I also have the iOS version and have started practicing it so I can get get better at it.
The most recent game we played was a new version of Sentinels of the Multiverse. We played the older version years ago but hadn’t played it for years now. Game Fanatic bought the new edition recently and we learned it all over again. This is another game where you play a character type although it’s not like Gloomhaven where you build it up over several games. I found one that I really like and have stuck to it, but I will have to try others or get stuck in a rut. We played this before Game Fanatic’s birthday and on his birthday recently and it was enjoyed by all of us.
I like our new version of game playing where we are sticking to the same games over a period of time instead of trying something new each time. I found it anxiety-provoking to be challenged with something new almost every time and now I can relax and enjoy it more.
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Spring
It’s now spring in our part of the world and it’s obvious everywhere around us. We are suddenly getting much warmer weather and most importantly the pollen counts are high. All but one in the family is taking anti-histamines and I just bought nasal sprays today. I have had long success with Beconase and that’s what I got today. It worked almost immediately and turned my stuffy nose almost into a drippy nose. Not quite but close…
With the beginning of September I enter into the birthday season. There are several friends and family members with birthdays this month. The first birthday was on the first and was for a friend who has kept out of touch. Our sons have been in regular contact but she has not. There are things going on in her life that have been problematic so I can only hope she one day returns. But I did send her a message on her day and even did a bit of an update.
On Saturday, it was my dad’s birthday and I did call him that night (my time) and got hold of him easily. He’s been suffering massive pain after he fell of his bike recently and hadn’t had much relief until recently. Apparently he’s back to work and feeling much better but is looking forward to getting a pain injection in November. Frustrating he has to wait so long but it’s great that he’s feeling pretty good right now. I hope it continues.
A dear friend had her 70th birthday on Saturday also. I can always remember her birthday since it’s the same as my dad. She had a lunch at a local restaurant with seventeen of her friends and family, of which we were included. We’ve been to the restaurant before and it’s been good, so it was no surprise that the meal was really nice. She was a really good hostess and moved around to different groups at the table so that she could enjoy the company of all present. We ended up sitting at one end of the table with a mutual friend and across from a couple that are former neighbors. They’re a bit older than her but it was really quite fascinating to talk to them. They are originally from the UK and they spent much of their youth going off to see up and coming bands like The Beatles and the Who and various other groups. It was quite neat to think of them being some of the first to see these bands in their youth. But it was also weird in a way to think that that era is now so long past that these people are well into the 70s and beyond. I don’t equate rock music and older people but these were some of the people that were in it in the early days. The other fascinating aspect of their lives is they both came to Australia as 10 pound Poms in the late ’60s. This was a program started to increase the population and the passage on the ship was a mere 10 pounds. So they were neat to listen to on two counts. The only downside was there was a lot of noise and I found it hard to follow a lot of what was going on. It was quite exhausting after a while. After we’d been there for 3.5 hours a few of us joined our friend at home for more cake and coffee/tea. I will note the Scientist made two special cakes to make sure there was enough and they were both delicious.
On the 10th it was my great aunt’s birthday and that was a bit of a sad occasion since she died just before her previous birthday from lung cancer. This aunt was particularly close to my mom and also one of my second cousins. It’s been over a year and it’s still been difficult for them. Even for me it’s unsettling to think this aunt is no longer around.
And that’s just the first couple weeks of the month. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow and further along my college roommate. And then we get a bit of a break.
Getting back to the spring weather, I will note we had to open windows and turn on the fan and later the air conditioner. Part of the reason for the a/c was to try to pump some of the pollen out of the house. But it was also already getting rather warm. And it’s now 11:30pm and the fan is back on to bring a bit of fresh air inside.
Our bottlebrush trees are starting to bloom and soon the branches will be heavy with red flowers. Afterwards I need to prune off branches as they are getting kind of low to the ground. Plus I need to get out and mow the backyard again. And still need to do something in the front yard. Hopefully it will stay dry long enough to make some in-roads for both.
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55 1/4
When it was my birthday in March, the Scientist had had to drop plans for a special birthday for me turning 55. It was that day that we went into lockdown and the best we could do was to bring home take away food to enjoy with the family. I had a good day anyway and life carried on.
A few weeks ago on the Friday, the Scientist said to me we were going out the next day and I needed to be ready to go by 10am. I wasn’t too sure what that was about so I was kind of curious. On Saturday I got up and got ready to go out and we ended up driving out through a new section of highway we hadn’t used before. It was kind of neat to see it from the car. I’ve rode out that way on my bike but not so far as we went this time. We turned off to Bullsbrook and drove along another road for a few kilometres. Then we passed by this place called Outback Splash. This used to be called The Maze but they have added a water park and expanded it considerably in the past few years. Anyway, I commented that I guess our destination wasn’t Outback Splash only to be told it was where were going. It was a bit odd to pass by a place we were headed to. We turned around on another road further along and went back to our destination. Then the Scientist went right past the entrance to the parking lot and had to turn around. I later learned these were just delaying tactics. I should have been suspicious since I know he wouldn’t easily miss these turn-offs.
Finally we were parked and went into to the entrance. But the Scientist made me wait outside for a bit while he was discussing something with staff. Finally we went through and sought out a particular “hut” (shelter) that we were aiming for. We did eventually find it and sat down at which point the Scientist did a little speech about how his plans for my birthday got ruined by covid-19 and so he was finally getting his plans into gear that day.
So I turned around to find three of my friends from tai chi there, with presents, to celebrate my 55 1/4 birthday. From my friends I got a candle and incense burner set, a tea cup with my favorite color purple, and a metal water bottle that had the color purple too. It was all very sweet.
Then we went off to the koala house to meet the koalas. We had special tickets to get up close and personal. The keeper took us through and set up a step ladder so we could pat the koala in approved locations and see what it was really like. This was my first time being so close to one. Decades ago when I was pregnant I had held a wombat and that was quite an experience. But these were the dozy koalas who were mostly sleeping. The one we had access to was agreeable enough for a while but after a few people had been up to see it, it moved itself to the back of the house and out of the way. Still we had a good look and I got a few photos on my phone.
Hello there! 
A bit shy 
Hide and seek
The koala house After this we returned to the hut and the Scientist went off to get a cake and the food he’d ordered for lunch. He came back with a huge tray of rolls with various fillings. It was a bit much for our small group of five so quite a few didn’t get eaten until much later.
Then it was time for cake and on there he’d written it was my 55 1/4 birthday and he had two candles to put on the cake. But there was the issue of blowing out candles and the idea was to remove them to a plate for the blowing part. But it didn’t matter as I expected because the breeze blew it out instead. The next thing was trying to cut the cake since there was a lack of any sort of knife. One of my friends made use of the cardboard backing of the candle and that worked enough to get the pieces we needed. It was a really yummy cake, homemade with buttercream frosting and lots of chocolate and decoration.
Special cake to celebrate my 55th birthday a few months late. Afterwards, the food was put away and we went off to the first of the mazes. We had been to the Maze years ago when the kids were much younger and had a good time. The hedge maze at the time wasn’t a thing yet because they were still growing it. But we could see where it would be. And it was quite a bit of fun although not particularly difficult. There were quite a few people going through and there was a natural reaction to just follow along but we did break rank and sought out our own pathways. It wasn’t long until we reached the center and stood on a platform looking over the maze. Then it was a pretty easy task to reach the end on the other side. I’m not saying it was simple but it wasn’t that challenging.
The second maze was a tire maze and the idea was to reach a certain point by following a color progression and jump across tires. I didn’t even realise where the goal was until after I’d gone through and come back out. I tried again and it was quite difficult to get through and we gave up. It was actually kind of tiring going round and round and there were also quite a few others doing the same but it was a lot of fun to try it out.
There was a maze/not maze with some other animals, mostly kangaroos we also visited.
Lounging around 
Lazy afternoon 
Rusty old ute
Kangaroo enclosure Next was a ring toss game that we all tried to play and had varying degrees of success. I managed to get one ring on the whole time. We took turns until we reach the goal on that one.
The last maze was the main attraction, a wooden maze that had several flags you needed to reach. I remember this from our previous visit and Game Fanatic was instrumental in helping us find all the flags. This time we made it through to a couple of flags and that was okay. The third flag was also doable. But trying to get to the next one proved a bit too difficult and we ended up going in circles and not getting any closer to our target. It was around this time my bladder made its needs known and it wasn’t too much trouble to get back out of the maze. I went off to to the toilets and the others came out of the maze and that was the end of that. I’d had stuck it out had my bladder not been so insistent.
Next we moved on to the mini golf part of the park. This was no great version of mini golf but we still had fun giving a shot. I managed to do par on one hole. The rest were kind of all over the place.
Afterwards, one of my friends bought us ice cream and we sat at a table outside the café to eat. It was in the midst of this final treat that the music that had been playing stopped and it was clear the place was closing down. So after we finished we left and came home. There had been ideas of carrying on the celebration afterwards by having a bit of a games night elsewhere but not all of us could go so we opted to leave it at that.
It was later that I realised it would have been better to say it was my 55 1/3 birthday since it was actually four months after my birthday so that was another fun aspect of the day. It was kind of surreal to be having a birthday celebration months later but it was definitely a unique one as my birthdays go. Even better was the fact that Lego Lover helped me finish the cake later on. He’s a bit iffy on cakes that leave the house but he was happy to enjoy all.
I will also point out the boys were both quite helpful in preparations. Lego Lover had the task of keeping me shopping on the Friday night while the Scientist worked on the cake. Game Fanatic kept watch to keep me out of the kitchen later that evening and even into the Saturday. It was very much a family project even though the boys didn’t come along.
Overall it was the most memorable birthday I’ve had in years. My 50th was another prominent one with a party at home but this was a totally different sort of thing. All great fun to share with the Scientist and my friends.
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Double Nickels
This is what my cousin called turning 55. I hadn’t thought of this before but maybe it’s because I’ve been away from nickels for too long. :) She is only five months older than me so we reach these milestones close together. Anyway, yesterday was my 55th birthday. I guess I am another year older and wiser. At least I hope so.
It was a low-key kind of day in the end. The Scientist has been working many extra hours the past week for a project that’s about to be demo’ed. Still, he managed to take some time off in the late-afternoon and evening. He made a lovely cake for me, complete with my name and strawberries. It was very yummy. For dinner we had takeout food from an Ethiopian place we hadn’t visited for quite a while. My favorite thing there is a sampler of five different vegetarian foods with two injera pancakes. It was the first thing I’d tried from there and I still get it because it’s just too hard to decide on a single thing.
I spent the day playing Animal Crossing, for the most part. I was really getting into it and have built up quite a bit of my little island now. But I have lots to go. I have heard stories of people fast-forwarding time to get things done more quickly but I honestly don’t see the fun in that at all. I learned my younger brother’s family is also playing so maybe we can connect and visit each others’ islands…
It’s weird to think I’m on the climb towards sixty now.
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Revisiting purple
The last time I’d gotten my hair done was at the end of October, just before I went home for my holiday. Earlier this month I noted it was looking a lot greyer than it has in close to a year and I decided it might be good to get it done before my birthday. I managed to squeeze in an appointment the Tuesday beforehand and I went to the hair salon in our closest shopping center. This place is run by the same person who runs the place I’ve gone the last few times and the pricing is pretty much the same but it’s a smaller shop.
This time I got the actual owner of the place and when I asked to get my hair colour in purple, she didn’t give me any fuss. This is different than the two male hairdressers I’d been to at the other shop. The first one steered me away from purple for some reason. The second one seemed to think it wasn’t a good idea and pushed for me to just stick to the colour I already had. So I guess this was progress in the end.
The hairdresser was quite friendly and she did her work in a reasonable time. I didn’t have my glasses on while she was working so I really couldn’t see the colour until the very end. She kept telling me it would look more purple once it dried but I really couldn’t see it enough to judge a colour. Anyway it came out darker than it’s been and the purple isn’t terribly obvious but it is visible, especially when in the sun and good light. And again it makes me look a lot younger than my 53 years. I think the ridding of the grey is the big part of it. I really like this colour and plan to get a touch up before we go on our trip to Thailand in May to keep the roots looking decent. The colour also seems to match my glasses frames so I think it works out. Too bad I didn’t get her to do my eyebrows…lol.
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All adults here
Lego Lover turned eighteen last month and the house is now filled with adults. Sure, maybe some of the adults are still quite dependent up the parents, but they are still legally adults. That’s kind of weird to think about because part of me still thinks of that baby and little boy when I think of him.
The birthday itself was pretty quiet. Lego Lover wasn’t interested in any sort of party so it was just us plus the Scientist’s mum, who dropped by early in the day. He got some of the presents he was hoping for and I went out and got another one for him on the day because the item in question was finally available. He asked for tandoori chicken for his birthday meal. Last year he’d asked for pizza from our local shop but he found it made him too full. The chicken came out well with some basmati rice. Later on we played some video games that were of interest and it was all good.
Later in the night, after his birthday was technically over, we had a rather emotional chat that touched on subjects that needed to be discussed. I won’t share that here but I will say it was good for us to share what we did. It was one of those times when it became clear what sort of things matter most to him…at least the ones that he isn’t already quite vocal about.
Anyway, Lego Lover is such an amazing young man and he continues to grow and become more interesting all the time. I must remember this when we are dealing with the harder stuff because it’s so easy to get lost in the tedious everyday issues.
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Anniversaries
Three days ago, it marked one year since our cat died from injuries likely caused by a dog attack. In some ways it seems a long time ago then it doesn’t seem so long ago. There are still the occasions when I return home and expect to see her lazily walking down the driveway, making me wait to pull the car in. :) I changed my Facebook picture to one with her in it last year but I think I will soon change to something new since it’s already been over a year.
Today would have been my close friend’s birthday if she were alive. This is my local close friend who died four and a half years ago from bowel cancer. She should be 54 now. She is still on my mind a lot of the time but so it’s kind of weird to think it’s been so long since we talked now.
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22 years being a mother
It was around this time 22 years ago today that I became a mother for the first time after a long night of full-on labour. Some aspects of being a mother have been as expected but there have been lots of surprises along the way. Game Fanatic is like no other person his age but he is still amazing and remarkable in his own ways.
Happy birthday to Game Fanatic. Hope today will be a great day for him and I have good thoughts for his year ahead.
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Beginning a new year, completing projects
Yesterday Game Fanatic and family celebrated his completion of 21 years as he begins the next one. I think it went rather well for him. He woke up early to find out the crowdfunding project he backed had reached its goal and that pleased him considerably. He made a large investment in this project, made larger due to very poor exchange rates. I am relieved it reached it’s goal because there was every chance the money would be returned but at an even worse rate than before.
Our patio paving was completed over the weekend and we bought a table and new chairs to put out there, along with new cushions for older chairs that have been sitting in the elements the past year or two. Unfortunately there’s been some rusting of the older chairs but they are still quite okay to use otherwise. The new cushions are bright and cheery. The new chairs are just mesh ones but we could theoretically add cushions for those at some point too. We still have to move some displaced sand out of the backyard and clean up some of the mess but it looks really lovely. I will see if I can get some photos up in the next few days.
The weather turned out to be quite pleasant so the plan to spend much of the day outside worked out well. This kept the house from being quite so crowded with people and allowed much more personal space for everyone than inside our fairly small living areas.
Game Fanatic had wanted to have Indian food from a favorite local place on his birthday but they aren’t open on Monday. His Indian feast is postponed to the weekend and there was the decision of what food to prepare for guests on the day. He wasn’t too keen to settle on anything so the Scientist and I decided to try out Mexican style foods. Over half our visitors were vegetarian so it was important to find foods that would be suitable for all. I went back and forth on many different options. I got ingredients for more foods than I could really have managed and eventually decided to stop while I was ahead for fear of too much food.
I only did one meat dish, which was the usual chicken that I do with tomatoes and spices. It’s really straightforward to put together once the chicken is cooked and is agreeable to all family members. I found a recipe for baked marinated tofu which had some mixed results. The recipe I used for the marinade was pretty wasted because nobody could taste the flavors at all. I would have preferred not to have spent money on limes and coriander (cilantro) since they didn’t work in this case. I do wonder if a longer marinating time might have worked better on that. I had four blocks of tofu and did two with that and decided to use just some jarred salsa for the rest. That tofu came out really nice and the flavors were just right there. That’s not to say the other tofu was terrible but it was mainly like eating plain baked tofu.
I had wanted to do something with sweet potatoes and black beans, having been inspired by a recipe from Valerie’s Recipes. Initially I was considering using this recipe but decided it was more suited to much cooler weather than we have right now. I plan to try this next winter on a damp and chilly night when I think it would be far more enjoyed by those who are willing to try it. I did find another recipe which is more suited to warm weather. That turned out beautifully and was really easy to make. which was really good so late on the previous night when my feet were in misery after hours of standing. It ended up that this works really well just as a salad too. I’m thinking of making this for our Christmas dinner since it’s so easy and would be something else my MIL could enjoy.
I also made homemade refried beans, which came out pretty well for a first try. They were a bit on the dry side but when heated tasted quite nice. Also, I got some jalapeño cheese(Monterrey Jack cheese with jalapeños that has only recently been found locally) to grate over it but couldn’t find out grater when it was time to use it. I had a second helping later in the evening and it was quite lovely with that creamy cheese on it. I used dried pinto beans this time and they came out nicely cooked. I think maybe I have got the hang of cooking dried beans finally. Means it’s a lot cheaper to prepare than having to buy canned beans and hope for decent quality.
I had intended to do some zucchini and corn in a tomatillo based salsa but gave up on the idea due to lack of time and insecurity about using the canned tomatillos instead of fresh (these aren’t usually available here so canned is the main way to go). I still have the ingredients for that so will make it some other day this week.
We also had four types of Mission tortilla chips, mild salsa and chopped tomatoes and cucumber. We had gotten some lettuce to use but it had gone bad within just a few days and had to be dumped. :(
Anyway, the food was enjoyed by all then we had heaps of yummy brownies and cheesecake made by the Scientist. He’s done the brownies many times before but the cheesecake was a new recipe and it was well liked by almost everyone, but happily was pleasing for Game Fanatic. There is none of it left today.
I forgot I also made some potato salad for Game Lover but didn’t serve to all because it had bacon in it, which was his request.
There were various people coming and going from early afternoon to early evening. Afterwards, we hung out and watched Game Lover play his new Donkey Kong game on the Wii U and then we started the newest Danganrompa game, which was one of the presents. He had a pretty good day overall and seemed really pleased with a few things. He will complete the celebration with his curries on the weekend.
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Important birthdays
Today happens to be the birthday of the older of my two brothers. This brother is about ten and a half months younger than me. So we are the “same” age for a few weeks each year. I remember when we were young that he made a big fuss over being the same age each year. Anyway, he’s starting the last year of his fifth decade from today while I am coming to the end of mine in a few weeks.
There are a few other family birthdays this month too. Three days ago it was my father-in-law’s birthday. Tomorrow is my brother-in-law’s birthday and at the beginning of the month it was my nephew’s birthday. It’s a bit like December with so many birthdays within such a short period of time.
It’s not just family either. It’s kind of a big year for turning fifty too. I have a cousin, actually a second cousin, who turned 50 last October. I think there were a couple other second cousins born around the same time but I am not in touch with them aside through other family members. This year, aside from my fiftieth birthday, I have several friends joining me in the 50s club. One of my friends going back to high school and college days has her birthday next month…essentially starting the ball rolling on this momentous year.
Many months ago, the Scientist hinted at something big being planned for my birthday this year. One of the possibilities was a trip back home to spend my birthday with my family. That would have been nice, but I do want to spend the day with my family here, namely the kids and the Scientist and decided that wasn’t going to be ideal if it was just me going. Financially it’s just not possible for all of us to go at the moment. Moving on a few weeks to a couple of months…
Wednesday night, the Scientist shares with me his early birthday present for me:
On Sunday, I’m getting on a plane and flying to Auckland, NZ and then I am staying in for the week while I have a look at the city. Then on Friday evening I am going to the zoo where I will see the Finns at the Zoo. This a musical show which will include Neil Finn, his brother TIm, and his son Liam as the main performers. But it will also include various other family members too. It looks to be a pretty special evening for all there.
There are a number of FInn fans who regularly travel to see them do shows far away but this will be my first time. It may well be the only time it happens as this is all in honor of this milestone year. But it will certainly be a memorable present.
The Scientist is pretty awesome!