Just a minute in... November

I'm still catching up after my holiday, so I'm kind of a week behind on everything! But this is what I've been up to...


Listening... to Raindrops by Basement Jaxx. It's currently at the top of my 'most listened to' list.

Travelling...to Tassie. After The Engagement, I stayed on in Launceston for 7 days of karate training, while Gib went back home for work. It was great (the training that is, not Gib having to go back to work). Usually training twice a day. Being on holidays, and with a training regime like that meant I slipped into my natural rhythm of waking up early (training), having a nap in the afternoon, (more training) then going to bed late. I'd love to live in a country where they have siestas. I felt so refreshed and energised.

Organising... an engagement party. Christmas presents. The family Kris Kringle. Posting stuff. It's all go go go.

Re-organising... our living quaters. We've swapped our study and bedroom around. I now have an entire wardrobe to myself in the bedroom (which I can keep clean without all that boy mess) and Gib has another one all to himself in the study next door (where he can throw his clothes in, and if he loses his socks and undies, then it's not my problem)

Reading... Gourmet Traveller. 'The Waterbug Book'. Mostly non-fiction.

Preparing... for my first grading at the new karate dojo I'm now at. I'm a little nervous, not quite sure what I'm in for!

Cooking... some interesting dishes. New flavours from parts of the world I haven't tried before. Just generally having fun in the kitchen. I'm itching to do some baking, but haven't found the time in the past few weeks.

Loving... cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines... all of those delicious stone fruit that summer brings! They are my favourite fruit.

Writing... engagement party invites. Christmas cards. Christmas letters to friends overseas.

Sewing... little shoes for my friends new baby boy, an adorable star shaped bunting, some bibs... all sorts of other baby-related things. He's completely adorable. So tiny. This is my first friend from my age group to have a baby... I'm now officially in the whole 'engagements, weddings and babies' phase with my friends. I think it's time for my Christmas sewing to start too... perhaps I've left my run a bit late!

Growing... tomatoes. Lots of them. Too many in the one pot. I didn't quite expect them all to grow!

Hope you had a lovely November too! Check out what everyone else did last month over at August Street.

Amusing nursery find

Found at the nursery, side by side. Clearly I have a very primitive sense of humour...

News flash!

I'm back and sewing again, mostly because I have a new purpose to do so. It's Christmas time, my friend has just given birth to a lovely baby boy... lots of things to sew! I've also been into the garden, and cooking a few exciting things too. Maybe I'll get some time to post some of what I've made?

But for now, I have some exciting news! A couple of weeks ago we headed over to Tasmania again. Gib only had a few days to spare because he's recently started a new job, so he only came for the weekend, but I stayed on afterwards in Launceston for some karete training. A couple of days before we left, we both came down with rotten colds. We arrived in Tassie and it was a lovely 10 degrees (we had just left Melbourne's heatwave! We're not summer people). We headed east to Binalong Bay, one of our favourite little spots. Our room where we were staying wasn't quite ready, so the guy at reception advised us to go for a drive or take a stroll along the beach.

Me, strolling along the beach. Look at those awesome storm clouds.

It was drizzling, we were sick and miserable, but having fun walking along the beach. It's one of our favourite spots. As we wandered, Gib just casually commented that we'd been together for 4 years now and wanted to know if I'd marry him? After I'd overcome the surprise and shock, I hugged him, said yes!! (there's nothing like saying yes to marrying your best friend!) and burst into tears (good tears). So now we're engaged!

He asked me right there!

Ahhh... the newly engaged couple.

Now, I'm not really one that is into jewellery. Mostly because the work I do, and the hobbies I enjoy, are not really conducive to wearing jewellery. I'm a practical, no fuss kind of gal. So we decided that I wouldn't have an engagement ring (we've decided to put it towards custom wedding rings) so instead we got an engagement painting:

The engagement painting: A lino print of a SCUBA diver swimming in kelp. Apologies for the poor photo quality.

It's a lino print by an artist, Craig Worby, who is a local at Binalong Bay. It was on the wall of the restaurant we went to, and we both liked it as soon as we spotted it. So they called him up and he popped by to wrap it up and sign it for us. It's different, but then again, we're not a typical couple.

Example:

About 5 minutes after Gib had asked the Big Question, we both spotted this dead chiton:

The dead chiton

We were pretty excited to find it. I love

Background information: Gib and I did zoology together at uni, and for our end of year exam we had to dissect sea snails. I hate snails. Nothing makes me shudder more: They are cold and slimy and gross (but I love chitons, which are close snail relatives. They are less gross and much prettier, and don't eat my strawberries). Specifically, we had to dissect the snails with bare hands, find the radula, which is the "tongue" of a snail. The radula is tiny, very thin, quite transparent and breaks easily (see photo below, you'll see how small it is). When I dissected my snail for my exam, I succesfully found my radula but then accidentally dropped it (but managed to find it again on the table, about 10 minutes before the end of the exam), and Gib had made a mess of his dissection, but managed to squish about blindly and find his by accident. Either way, we both have vivid memories of radulas.

So anyway... we were quite excited to find that this chiton must have been freshly eaten, because its radula, which is the two dark lines protruding at the lower end of the chiton with a blob of sand stickign to the the end, was still intact. We were excited enough about finding a chiton with its radula still there, we had to take a photo.

Perfect match: We get engaged, then 5 minutes later take photos of sea critters. It must be true love.

So Gib left for home, and I stayed on in Launceston for another week to do my training. The training was awesome, but I have no photos because the camera ran out of batteries and I had no way to recharge it. Oh well...!

And now we're organising the engagement party for late January and things like that. I'm currently having fun making the engagement party invites. It's going to be a while before the wedding due to the PhD and us saving for other things first. We're planning for the wedding to be some time in Autumn 2012.

Hope you're all doing well out there!