WARNING: SELF PITYING DEPRESSIVE RAMBLING

Thankyou to those who've asked after me, I truly appreciate it! Life's been a bit meh for me lately. I'm still trying to exercise but this last couple of weeks I seem to be skipping every second day. After my birthday I got a bit depressed and annoyed with life. Every year, ever birthday reminds me of how I've got less and less time left with my kids, and worrying if I'm giving them all the life skills they'll need. I'm working so hard and trying to be frugal without being stingy and lecturing everyone in the house about wasting things. I've been a real killjoy lately. I'm tired a lot of the time, and apart from commenting on the odd post here and there I've refrained from posting daily because mood, menopause, money, and disappointment at myself for failing to exercise daily as I intended. I figured everyone's going through similar stuff (except maybe the menopause!) so what I'm feeling isn't special so I haven't talked about it. It's been hard to find joy in life at times. I also need to seriously declutter the flat, which I've attempted a few times over the last couple of weeks but when I get home it all seems to be still there, plus some more. It just seems to be such an effort to be positive in my life and inspiring for my kids. Christmas is coming, I have an unpaid fortnight off over Christmas & New Year (yay casual work), Elder Minipeeler is attending high school for the first time next year and there are expenses with that.. I just don't know how I'm going to manage it all, everything is getting so expensive. I'm really worried and burying myself in work and getting sick of saying "No we can't do X on the weekend because I'm worried that if I spend $ on that I won't have money for the other things." Mr Peeler is focused on trying to get his disability pension and little else. I guess I have to make more of an effort to appreciate the good things, even though the good things in life don't seem to outweigh the negatives right now. I occasionally just get sick of having to make the effort and having to force myself to be positive; when it doesn't come naturally and everything gets me down it's just a pain in the arse, and so am I. Why does it take so much effort? Keep trying woman! 💪 Thankyou for bearing with me, grumpy old grizzly bear that I am.

Heading out for the first time since lockdown pretty much. Nervous but the long island ice teas will help lol

Have a great night everyone 🙂

Just got back from the IGA..

7 dollars for a 10g pack of kaffir lime leaves.

Suffice it to say the green thai curry tonight will be a bit more bland than usual.

I've been going to the butcher after I got disenchanted with the quality of colesworth meat for the prices they charge, so I thought initially "the butcher might be pricier, but there'll be better quality and less reason for (former chef of 40 years) Mr Peeler to whinge." Today I got 2 generous kg of beef mince, 2kg of good sized chicken wings, 2kg of good sized drumsticks, 4 large chicken breasts and a couple of enormous and beautiful looking thick rump steaks (one steak will almost feed the 4 of us) for a little over $70. This will feed us for almost a fortnight. I'm glad the kids love chicken! The flavour of meat from a butcher is beyond compare; I hadn't done it for ages, since the last butcher in my area closed (there used to be 3!) and the first time I did it again recently the family unanimously agreed that this is the way forward from now on, it is noticeably different. The Minipeelers wanted to come along. I said seriously? To the butcher? I hated all the bits of bodies and the weird smell when I was a kid, but I loved the fake grass the shop had in the window and the paintings on the window of a smiling cow. They weren't phased by it at all, and of course influenced the purchasing!

I also decided to order a Funky Food fruit and veg box (thanks to Melbaboutown for posting about it). I got a $50 box which is approximately enough to feed 4-5 people for a week, and I'm looking forward to my Wednesday delivery!

My pie is too hot and I've burnt my lip. Boo.

Putting this shit on garlic bread is completely unnecessary (I'd taken it off and put it aside before the photo)

Another disliked chore off the to-do list: I got out with the pole saw and cut back the overhanging branches from the neighbours' yards. Chomp and I will deal with the offcuts once they have dried off a bit.

Hopefully I've cleared enough to get sufficient sun through to the garden bed I will be planting the citrus in.

Updating my profile on LinkedIn from when I was transitioning from one career to another and in and out of roles.
Never has the saying about "My resume is basically a list of things I hate to do" been so apt. Ugh.

Unpopular and controversial opinion, I love watching the horse racing. Such majestic, intelligent, powerful creatures that love to run. The downside to that is the whipping. The quicker that is outlawed, the better.

6.5k run with the doggo on the beach this morning - no incidents. Very worth the effort coming down last night after work and school etc

Cheese for dinner.

Mmmm

Last night I must have slept in a funny position, woke up with a numb arm. The prickly feeling when the feeling came back was intense. Ouch. Then was awake for an hour after that because couldn’t get back to sleep. Yay for long weekend!

I am getting into the swing of being carless. Today I had to nick into a local cafe to see someone, nick into the local op shop who were doing a carpark clearance sale, nick down to the parcel lockers and grab a pakidge. All in the neighbourhood but all different directions. Jumped on a bus to start and then walked a big circle. I would definitely have used my car previously.

And it's a nice slow way to go about a Saturday.

It would be nice to get another car but I think this is better in many ways.....(also helped by having actual PT options as backup)

I have now mixed and packed up a batch of dog food, so Mr Woof is sorted for the next couple of months. It's a tedious job and I'm glad I don't need to do it more often.

Had a great sleep, woke up to blue skies, now looking at this magnificent beast while I have my eggs benny & iced coffee in this cafe's alfresco 😎👌

$2 mystery bets at the RSL is a fun way to pass the time. I have not come close to winning one yet though it's totally rigged lol

Breakfast 🍏🍎🍐🍊🍋🍈🫐🍓🍇🍉🍌🍒🍑🥭🍍🥥🥦🥑🫛🍆🍅🥝🥬🥒🌽🥕🥐🍠🫚🥔🧅🥯🍞🥖🥨🧀🧇🥞🧈🍳🥚🥓🥩🍗🍖🫓🍕🍟🍔🌭🥙🧆🌮🌯🥗🍲🍜🍝🥘🍛🍣🍱🥟🦪🍥🍘🍚🍙🐠🍤🪼🦀🐙 🍗🥮🍢🍡🍧🍰🧁🥧🍦🍨🎂🍮🍭🍬🍫🥜🌰🍪🍿🍯🥛☕️🍵🍺🍶🥤🧋🧃🥂🍷🥃🍸🍹🧉🔋

Errands run for the weekend, now to bunker down with some pjs and games because next weekend is going to be huge.

Today I havested both the first strawberry and raspberry of the season from my garden. There are many more raspberries to follow shortly, but more strawberries will be a bit of a wait.

What's happening tonight? Why fireworks? Why they going off right in the middle of a scary movie 😭

It smells so lovely outside in the night air, like sweet spring flowers and fresh new leaves. The sunset was lovely too, just a hint of that purple now, volcano sunsets are nearly over.

I have got stuff to do today people but all I've managed so far is a ham and cheese croissant and a large cappuccino and I'm already tired.

I had thought my induction hotplates timer function was a bit pointless, but have just realised it is perfect to use with the pressure cooker.

We better not lose to England tonight.

In other news still feeling crap, runny nose and coughing up a lot of junk. Also lightheaded today snd off balance but more because of head congestion.

I need good comfort food.

Pretty good night. Turns out my tolerance to booze is higher than I thought.

Goodnight everyone ❤️

mask sewing continues . More than half way done now. I'll post pics later, they are so cute.

Did a quick dash out for makeup for The Interview as I haven't worn any since the second lockdown, and consequentially all I had has been tossed.
Have also spent the last hour and a half typing up interview (likely) questions and answers, including the ones I thought of last night and typed into a Google Doc on my phone. So I feel a bit more prepared for interviews than I used to be! (And I did fairly well on the screening one on the phone, especially since they were initially asking me about a higher position than I'd applied for or expected to fill, ha.)

Trackside marquee😎lovely day at the races 🥂