Hobart

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june (in july)

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Sorry for the long pause between posts, my friends. It’s been A Time and the month I have to catch you up on feels very far away now!

If I had to sum up June 2023 neatly it would be - joyous, vibrant, fun, varied and but also pretty relentless. We were very busy (and still are!) with limited time to decompress in between work, travel and various other things, but managed lots of fun as well.

The highlight of June was, without a doubt, our second slightly spontaneous trip to Melbourne, the main purpose of which was to attend an incredibly intimate, joyful and colourful wedding. I’m sure most of you will recognise the bride - if not, she is my Melbourne sister and old blogging friend, Ashley! She was radiant in a cloud of peach tulle and a floral headdress, both of which she made herself. The dress code for the wedding was “maximum dopamine: wear whatever makes you happy” and Tom and I needed no encouragement to bring out something bright and eye-catching!

A friend took this photo with a Snapchat filter….my makeup wasn’t that flawless in real life. Nor was Tom’s, haha.

It was lots of fun taking the train to the wedding, all colourful and dressed up! The dress code for the hen’s night (which was on the day we flew in!) was also colourful, so yet another opportunity for me to wear my favourite Keshet jumpsuit.

The wedding was on a perfect, glorious early winter’s day - the sun shone, the piles of leaves twinkled in the golden light, and a full moon rose over the city like a blessing. I’m so glad we could be there to celebrate Ash and Michael!

Reconnecting with Ash has been a wonderful part of moving home. She has always inspired me, for different reasons at different times in our lives. These days, she inspires me to live boldly, to be generous, to let people be who they are, to be brave and take up space, to indulge my creativity and express myself without fear, to be audacious and live with joy. I love that, after all these years, both our stories are still being written.

The rest of the visit was just about enjoying Melbourne, and seeing some wonderful friends we hadn’t managed to see the week before. We felt like absolute jet setters compared to just two years ago when Tasmania’s borders were closed to all and sundry. We even went to our first live gig since the pandemic (not counting MONA FOMA, which was all outdoors) - the Nadav Rahman Trio at Jazz Lab in Brunswick, which was simply outstanding. The trio blended jazz with other styles quite effortlessly - soul singer Jag joined them for a few songs, likewise hip-hop artists Thamson P and Tumi the Be who were mesmerising. Their other special guests included Ethopian jazz legend Nhatty Man and kora player Amadou Suso. I honestly felt like I was in Addis Ababa at one point, I felt utterly transported by their incredible music. What a treat!

With our dear friends - and I just noticed what’s on Tom’s bag. Hilarious! 😂

Mostly, we just loved being with our friends who feel like family, eating good food, shopping till we dropped, going back to favourite restaurants and bars where they recognised us from the last visit (!), and just soaking up the great vibes of a city we both adore. Thanks to our two recent trips, Tom and I both feel like we’ve got to know Melbourne properly again. It felt like our city again - we embraced its energy and found our place in it. We felt at home there in a way neither of us has felt for a while.

Having said that, we were also deeply relieved to get home to Hobart! We are still recovering from the hectic, high stress, constant cortisol life we had in London (family, friends and delivery people alike are highly amused by how we keep everything LOCKED at all times!) and so we do find the busier, more crowded aspects of a giant city a little jarring at times, much as we love a change of scene and energy. After four days of Melbourne’s crowds and general busy-ness, the smell of the pure, clean air that blew into our faces as we walked off the tarmac at the airport, freezing as it was, was a tonic. There is no place like Tassie. It suits us down to the ground for where we’re at right now. And now that life has pretty much returned to how it was before, we can finally, perhaps, get to know and enjoy Hobart in the same way we enjoy Melbourne. We had barely begun to explore and find our feet in it when the pandemic swept in just over a year after we arrived. Adventures don’t have to be saved for a trip interstate, we’ve realised.

OTHER LOVELY EXPERIENCES IN JUNE

We were too busy with work to get out to any of Dark Mofo this year, but enjoyed seeing Hobart glow with red lights, as has become the custom.

As mentioned, there wasn’t a lot of down time once we returned from Melbourne (hello simultaneous client and PhD deadlines!) but I managed to get to a Women’s Circle gathering one Saturday afternoon, which was amazing and much needed. The leaders, two young women from Sydney now living in Tassie, showed up for us so generously and wholeheartedly, taking us through qi gong, yin yoga, 1:1 eye gazing, yoga nidra and some other deep connection practices. Three hours of filling the well, catching my breath, of being still. It was glorious.

And just when I thought nothing could top the experience, at the end one of the young women leading the circle came up to me and said “you wrote The Latte Years, didn’t you?” which was completely unexpected and made my day. I think both of us were in a bit of disbelief! I was completely floored that, seven years on, someone would still be thinking about my book and the impact it had on them, let alone recognise me. It still kind of blows my mind that anyone other than my friends and family bought and read it! She said some really kind and beautiful things to me, which I folded away into my heart to bring out again when courage runs low. I have wondered many times over the years if publishing that book was the right thing to do. But in moments like that one, I know that it was. It’s a book that needed to exist and I’m glad it does.

Reading

I didn’t do a lot of reading in June - almost everything was exclusively PhD related, unsurprisingly! But I did read a handful of amazing books when I wasn’t chained to the computer.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about mental illness that’s as compelling as Anna Spargo-Ryan’s A Kind of Magic. It managed to be hilarious one moment and utterly heartbreaking the next - full of pain and confusion yet somehow uplifting. There is a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation out there about mental illness - so much so that those suffering from it have to become experts so they can advocate for themselves and have any hope of appropriate treatment. This book is the author’s attempt to show what it’s really like to live with the ‘constant chaos’ of it. It’s a real page turner, beautifully written and strikes just the right note between raw and hopeful.

Madeleine Dore’s excellent I Didn’t Do The Thing Today was another of my June reads, recommended by Kate Mildenhall when I did an online class with her in May. I really liked how the book focused on encouraging the reader to think less about how to get things done and more about what things are worth doing (to you), using lots of wisdom from the great thinkers of history and quite a few contemporary intellectuals too. Worth seeking out if you’re feeling like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew and are a bit overwhelmed by All The Things.

Tom also got me Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty for my birthday (among a veritable pile of other books!) which I read in June and it was as delightful as everyone says.

Vulture: ‘Poor, Odd Nate’, Nick Mohammed ends three seasons of Ted Lasso with a friendly debate about his character - we rewatched the entire series of Ted Lasso in June and I really loved hearing Nick Mohammed’s take on things. I found Nate much more sympathetic on a rewatch than I did watching it live!

Women’s Agenda: Succession’s tragic take on women and leadership - I enjoyed this and agree, gender doesn’t explain everything about Succession’s ending but it does explain some of it!

Too Fat To Run: founder Julie Creffield has sadly closed down this wonderful movement but in this very articulate and highly relatable post, she explains why. It reminded me a lot of my reasons for stopping Skinny Latte Strikes Back.

State Library of New South Wales: Novelist Michelle Cahill brings a marginalised character back to the centre - a fascinating-sounding novel and novelist! I was particularly intrigued by Cahill and her interviewer Neha Kale’s discussion of Virginia Woolf and how the exclusion of non-white women from A Room of One’s Own (a “sacred cow” of white feminism) points to “a persisting violence in Woolf’s legacy”. I’ve just ordered Hood Feminism as I really want to learn more about this.

The Guardian: I smell a whiff of 2000s fat-shaming in the air. If you’ve never spoken out against it, now is the time by Rebecca Shaw - a very timely and important read.

Listening to

A client of ours is a local musician and I spent a lot of June helping him with a project, and had his debut album (yet to be released!) on for inspiration on repeat in the background. I can’t wait to help spread the word about it once it’s out - it’s a real beauty.

Another Winchmore client (and friend!), Mezz Coleman released her third single from her upcoming album in June, and it’s stunning.

I am addicted to the Bad Sisters original soundtrack by PJ Harvey and Tim Phillips - it’s perfect for writing dramatic, juicy, slightly macabre scenes.

The Mel Robbins Podcast: The ‘Let Them’ Theory, Happiness is an Option for You: 4 Easy Habits That Make Your Life Better Based on Research and 4 Simple Ways To Stop Giving A Sh*t What People Think

The Garret: Pip Williams on writing commercial historical fiction

How to Fail: Diana Evans on writing routines, dealing with her inner critic and living life to the fullest

Best Friend Therapy: Co-dependency and Perfectionism

The Great Creators with Guy Raz: Jason Sudeikis: His Winding Path from the Basketball Court to SNL, and how Ted Lasso saved him

Eating

Pumpkin curry with tofu - I was amazed to learn that if you boil tofu cubes for a few minutes, it gives it a texture similar to paneer, YUM!

A stir fry based on our favourite “Mostly Greens” from Veggie Bar in Melbourne, made with Tasmanian-made tempeh which is absolutely delicious.

I made Jamie Oliver’s chickpea and leek soup, to which I added my usual flamboyant twist - in this case, pink peppercorns.

Deliciously Ella’s harissa tofu wraps - I treated myself to her Feel Better app for my birthday and there’s some great recipes on there. This is one of our favourites so far.

Anna Jones’ broccoli on toast - seriously delicious! It makes a lovely light dinner too if you fancy something a bit more posh on toast than cheese or a can of baked beans.

I bought a bunch of beetroot at the Farm Gate Market so was looking for unusual ways to use them - I made a beetroot hummus (from the Feel Better app) and a surprisingly good beetroot pasta (I used cashew cheese instead of feta).

As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up one of my favourite Youtuber’s cookbooks while we were in Melbourne and the first recipe I made from it was the lemongrass coconut tofu which was sublime!

Drinking

My brother-in-law gave me this chilli gin to try - I loved the spicy warmth of it but at 58% proof, I could only manage half my glass of a double shot with tonic before I felt completely sozzled. That’s what cutting back on your drinking does to you! But highly recommended regardless, especially for a Tasmanian winter. It was delicious.

Watching

Bad Sisters (Apple TV+) - Tom and I got into this in a big way and chewed through the entire series very quickly. I’m a sucker for anything with lots of sisters in it (obviously), and this one was fabulous, despite it containing extremely dark subject matter (which, even though I enjoyed it very much, still kept me awake at night). The first episode opens with the funeral of John Paul (aka The Prick, as the Garvey sisters refer to him), husband of Grace. We’re not given much information at this point, only some hints that his death might have been suspicious. As we’re introduced to Grace’s four sisters - Eva, Ursula, Bibi and Becka - it becomes apparent that no one is that devastated about John Paul’s passing. It turns out that John Paul thoroughly deserved his nickname - he was a controlling and cruel narcissist who was emotionally and physically abusive to pretty much every woman in his life, especially his wife, daughter and sisters in law.

As the story unfolds cleverly in two timelines - six months earlier and the present - we see each of the Garvey sisters reaching breaking point with John Paul’s cruelty and manipulation, not just of their sister Grace but what he dishes out to each of them personally. I think the only way I was able to stomach and enjoy the series was knowing that karma eventually got him! Each of the sister’s attempts to help Grace and talk to her about her husband achieves nothing, and the four sisters decide, separately and eventually together, that the only way out is murder. And we know, thanks to the opening scenes, that one of their many, often misfired, attempts to kill him succeeds. The question is….whose?

Unfortunately for the sisters, a few other people suspect the death was not an accident. Desperate to not have to pay out a life insurance policy that will bankrupt his firm, somewhat hapless agent Tom Claffin and his attractive and less hapless brother Matt start digging into what happened. Their antics bring some much needed comedy and lightness to the story!

It’s brilliantly written, acted and shot, with a killer (sorry) soundtrack that I can’t stop listening to. I will definitely watch it again at some point…but maybe not at night!

Ted Lasso (Apple TV+) - we had watched the entire series as it was released over the past few years, but we decided, as we enjoyed the finale so much, to binge watch the entire thing again in June and boy was that a great decision! I think it’s one of the greatest TV shows ever made. The perfect thing to watch and unwind with when you’re busy and stressed. It’s so rare to see a show like this that turns traditional masculinity on its head, that’s about the importance of emotional intelligence, forgiveness, vulnerability and curiosity (as opposed to judgement). I think it will be one of those shows I will watch and rewatch forever.

Wearing

I went a bit crazy in ELK’s Melbourne CBD store and make no apologies for it. Their clothes are colourful, gorgeous to wear and ethically made - what more could you want? I have barely stopped wearing this dress and this jumper since our trip. I also got a top from Variety Hour, where all the clothes are handmade in Melbourne. Love!

I also got these high-top sneakers after lusting after and attempting to recreate some of Rebecca’s outfits on Ted Lasso - obviously I could never afford the Armani ones she wore, but these were a great alternative! I love the extra height they give me (I’m already quite tall) and they work with dresses and jeans alike.

Quote of the MONTH

“Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence.” - Alan Watts.

But also….

“Revenge is a dish best served in a novel.” - Helen Ellis

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! Lots to tell you about JULY too, which I can’t believe is nearly over, and which I will try and do sooner rather than later. Trying to remember an entire month of stuff, nearly two months later, has been a bit of a test for my usually excellent memory. I’m sure there’s loads of stuff I’ve forgotten!

I hope you are well, safe and happy, wherever you are xx

Please note: this blog post has affiliate links with retailers such as Booktopia which means I may receive a commission for a sale that I refer, at no extra cost to you.

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catching up

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My favourite hot cross buns in Hobart are from Jackman and McRoss - no mixed peel sadly (why does everyone hate it?I love it!) but with apricots and hazelnuts instead.

Hello friends - I can hardly believe we’re in the middle of April already! I had a post almost fully written just before Easter for you but then Squarespace logged me out while writing it and…that was that, it was all gone. I’m afraid I didn’t have the strength to rewrite it immediately!

Life has been full and busy, with deadline after deadline, but that is to be expected when you run a business, are in the final year of a PhD and like to keep your hand in with freelance journalism! But I am loving it. I just need to keep up the self care, which has always been a challenge. But I’m trying to get better at it - at the suggestion of one of my supervisors, I have a list of rewards that I decided to treat myself to when I reach certain milestones (two of those arrived, more on those further down!). Tom and I have also put some fun things in the diary to look forward to.

Favourite experience/s of the week

We had a lovely Easter celebration with the family - last year Tom and I started a new Easter tradition for the nieces and nephews, the Easter lucky dip, and we continued it this year, which was great fun. We get a number of big bags of mini M&Ms, Mars Bars, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Malteasers, all kid-friendly things and whack them inside a sack (well, pillowcase), along with a booby prize, which is usually a packet of dried chickpeas or pearl barley from the cupboard. Each child (though quite a few of them are teenagers now!) then picks a prize from the pillowcase and it’s so much fun, everyone seems to enjoy the suspense and theatricality of it. This year, our three-year-old niece picked the booby prize of pearl barley (we had given her a little chocolate bunny separately, I didn’t think her parents would appreciate her being given an entire bag of mini Mars Bars) which she actually seemed quite delighted by!

But the best moment of the past few weeks was Tom getting 100% on his Australian citizenship test!

Reading

Alice Pung is one of my favourite writers - I loved her workshop in Hidden Nerve last year on gesture - and so I was delighted to pick up a copy of her latest novel, One Hundred Days, which was shortlisted for last year’s Miles Franklin (probably the highest literary honour in this country). I devoured it in an afternoon, lying in bed, hot water bottle pressed to the abdomen (which made me feel a lot of the book’s content quite viscerally!). It’s simply outstanding. Set in the late 1980s, which I really enjoyed, it was almost a retelling of the Rapunzel story - an intense mother-daughter relationship which is taken to a new level of smothering and control when the teenage daughter discovers she’s pregnant. She tries and fails to keep it from her overbearing mother, who loves as fiercely and protectively as she knows how, but which leaves the daughter feeling like a prisoner, quite literally. It’s a tense and almost claustrophobic narrative at times but also very funny in places too. I really loved it.

The New Yorker: The Unexpected Grief of a Hysterectomy

British Vogue: Bernardine Evaristo: 2023 Is A Breakthrough Year For Black British Women Novelists

The Cut: My Marriage Was Never The Same After That - oof, I felt every word of this.

Lit Hub: The Hero We Need: Keanu Reeves is Demolishing All Our Dumb Stereotypes - I did not realise that there is an entire sub-genre of Celebrity Studies entirely dedicated to Keanu Reeves, especially in relation to his representations of masculinity. Just one of the many rabbit holes I fall down on a daily basis when doing my PhD work! Tom and I have ended up having a bit of a Keanu season as a result and we’ve both enjoyed thinking about his films through that lens.

I also read Ashley Kalagian Blunt’s new crime-thriller Dark Mode in just a few days - it’s really quite gripping, despite the dark and disturbing subject matter. Not normally my preferred genre but having listened to Ashley talk about it on her podcast for the last few months, I was very excited and intrigued to read it. I also loved that it was set in Sydney! Masterfully crafted and absolutely riveting, you’ll find it hard to tear yourself away - and do not read it at bedtime is all I will say. Ashley’s also shared a lot of the inspiration behind Dark Mode on her blog, which is also fascinating reading.

I’m re-reading Stephanie’s Journal (now out of print) for about the millionth time - always a good comfort read, and I always notice something different, something else to relate to. This time what has struck me most is the restraint with which she writes about difficult situations, especially in friendships and professional relationships breaking down. The details are spare but her anguish is very plain.

I borrowed this vegan cookbook from the library - I love how a local author can be easily identified by the map of Tassie sticker on the spine! - and was quite enthralled by all the delicious ideas. I think I’ll have to get my own copy, which you can get direct from the Bob Brown Foundation or Hobartians can stroll into Fullers and grab a copy by the looks of it. See Eating for more!

Listening to

I have been listening to Alexandra Stréliski’s new album Néo-Romance non-stop - it’s the perfect writing music. Londoners, she’s playing there on 4 May! I so wish I could go! If you love haunting, melodic piano (similar to my beloved Ludovico but she’s most definitely got her own style), I think you’ll love her work.

The First Time: Masters Series with Cate Kennedy - OMG this was amazing. So full of insight and reassurance. Cate Kennedy said some wonderful things, but this I played back several times: “it’s uncomfortable to write. To make anything is a state of of discomfort because you have to sit with it being in an imperfect state for a long time.”

I’ve also been enjoying revisiting the music of Riyuichi Sakamoto who sadly died at the end of March. His last album 12, released in January, is wonderful.

Inner winter playlist, on repeat!

Best Friend Therapy remains a favourite podcast, I’m always glad when Monday rolls around because I have a new episode to listen to! The episode on guilt was especially helpful - that very day the episode dropped I was in a conundrum about something, and through listening I realised that I didn’t actually feel guilty about my feelings, because I trusted them, I just felt afraid to express them. It’s easy to mistake fear for guilt, it turns out.

Eating

Tom and I went out for brunch for the first time in ages - it feels quite wondrous going into cafes again, though I am still a little skittish at times - and we were both in raptures over the Scrambled Stunner at the Little Lotus Cafe. This was scrambled tofu, squares of crispy polenta, chargrilled broccolini, tomato chilli jam and rice paper ‘bacon’. Absolutely delicious! I also enjoyed a proper chai alongside.

This pasta was also a stunner - this is parsnip pasta! Not sweet, if that’s what you’d be thinking with parsnips. Made with wholewheat spaghetti, some smoked vegan cheese, kale and chilli, it was a real treat! I also used Jamie Oliver’s trick of roasted the parsnip peel in the oven with some nutritional yeast (he uses Parmesan). I will never compost parsnip peel again - it was amazing.

I love Shepard avocado season! It divides the nation every year - from February to April - but I don’t know what the fuss is about. They’re lovely! Far better than hand-grenade Hass, who go from perfect to inedible in what feels like half a day. Shepards last well and are nearly always blemish-free. The flesh of Hass oxidises far more quickly too. We’ve enjoyed Shepards on toast, in salad, every which way we’d normally enjoy an avocado and think they’re fabulous. Shepard forever!

I made a vegan zucchini and potato bake from zucchini and potatoes from my garden, which was absolutely sumptuous. There were leftovers, which I blended into another batch of zucchini butterbean soup a week later.

This is the chilli sin carne from Lisa Searle’s Feeding the Resistance mentioned in the Reading section. It was scrumptious! I followed her suggestion to make it mild and then smothered my own portion in pickled jalapeños! Perfect cold weather food. We loved this and the recipe made enough for me to stock the freezer with, and leftovers (with rice) for both of us to take to our respective offices the following day.

I had leftover porridge from breakfast a few days ago and was moved to make porridge bread for the first time in quite a while. It was divine. It’s so wholesome and delicious, like having porridge and toast for breakfast in one. We enjoyed thick slabs of it toasted with marmalade and cultured oat butter for breakfast, and with soup for dinner. It was so good I deliberately made extra porridge for breakfast today so we could have another loaf for the weekend. It’s in the oven as we speak and the house smells heavenly.

I roasted a whole heap of root vegetables (and a broccoli stalk) - including beetroot I grew myself - for a yummy quinoa salad.

Other meals have been the standard tofu fried rice, frozen dumplings, sweet potato mac and cheese, baked potatoes and kimchi, and leftovers thereof. I’ve also made this vegan bolognese which was out-of-this-world good - it stocked the freezer and we have plenty of leftovers in the fridge.

These chocolates were one of my “yay, you did it!” rewards to myself - I got the Love and Light Bundle, which is a box of their artisan chocolates (the Lover’s Box) and a divine sandalwood and vanilla candle. I was seriously impressed with the delivery - I ordered them on Monday evening and they were in Tassie by midday on Wednesday, packed in ice! These chocolates are unbelievable. Handmade in Byron Bay, vegan, free of all nasties, packed with superfood ingredients and natural flavours, I can’t get over how decadent and delicious they are. And seriously satisfying - Tom and I shared three between us and that was more than enough! I’ve not made my way through the whole box yet but my top three flavours so far are Coconut & Cashew with Vanilla, Dark Peppermint Creme with Matcha and Butter Caramel Pecan with Cinnamon. Seriously, I may never eat any other kind of chocolate again. If you love chocolate and want to treat yo self (and you should), I would highly recommend them.

Drinking

You guessed it - my favourite. Nothing like a proper chai this time of year.

Picking

The garden has been full of delicious things - the aforementioned potatoes, zucchini and beetroot, and yesterday I picked nearly 1kg of cherry tomatoes which went into my vegan ragu. I held out so little hope of the tomatoes going red that I hadn’t been to check on them for some time, and some of them had exploded from overripe-ness on the vine. Whoops!

I picked another kilo or so of figs, which have been roasted and frozen for winter porridge, but there are still a handful of them ripening on the branches. Some green beans, which I’ll pick to go with our shepherd’s pie this evening. It looks like we have a few pumpkins on the vine too.

My parents told me to go and pick some of their apples and tomatoes while they were away on the mainland, so I picked a bag of each. I stewed the apples with lots of cinnamon and vanilla into a delicious compote, which we’ve had with porridge most mornings, and the tomatoes became a kasundi, one of my signature condiments. I used to make it for neighbours and workmates in London who all loved it. It’s great made with tinned tomatoes as well as fresh. I use Anna Jones’ recipe.

I bought lots of basil from Hill Street Grocer today (on special!) so I think I’ll make a pesto with it together with the beetroot stalks and leaves. I also have a giant half of a red cabbage to do something with - I might make Nigella’s pickled red cabbage from Cook Eat Repeat.

Watching

As mentioned, Tom and I had a very Keanu-themed Easter thanks to my sudden interest (as mentioned above)! We watched John Wick (the first one), A Scanner Darkly and Street Kings, all on 4K BluRay. These sorts of films, it must be said, aren’t usually my cup of tea but it was fascinating to watch them taking particular note of how the roles Keanu Reeves plays are nearly always a comment on some variation of masculinity, and reflect the profound importance of kindness. Tom, of course, was thrilled that I wanted to watch these movies and dissect them from these particular angles! Film is his thing.

I always associate Easter with Little Women - very odd I know, as it’s more of a Christmas film - because the Gillian Armstrong directed version was released on video (!) at Easter when I was a teenager. My sisters and I watched it on Good Friday, eating our fish fingers and chips. For the longest time I was very protective of that particular version, I thought nothing could touch it (and I still think Christian Bale is a very charming Laurie) and I was sceptical when a new adaptation came out in 2019, even though it was written and directed by my best friend Greta Gerwig. But then I watched it. I should never have doubted Greta. It’s without question the best version of the story I’ve ever seen. So we watched that for our Good Friday movie and both laughed and cried, as usual! Utter perfection.

Succession (Binge) - after two very lacklustre episodes (we thought) to start Season 4, this week’s episode was a nail biter! A complete return to form for the series that both Tom and I were left reeling from! Who else has watched it?!

I’m also still making my way through a complete rewatch of Call the Midwife which is definitely my comfort watch (though there’s nearly always some dark tale at the heart of each episode). I adore it.

Wearing

It’s getting cold and therefore one needs SOCKS. I went to see Tracy and Jen at Red Parka in town, who sell delightful, colourful, warm and ethically-made bamboo socks. And I love that they have Tasmanian animals on them! I bought some fairy wren ones and some pademelons. I wasn’t sure if the 7-11 would fit me, as I am an 11, so I got the pademelons in an 11-14, just in case. I’m happy to report the 7-11 fit perfectly and the 11-14 are a little big, but both very comfortable and fun to wear either way!

I really love socks, I’ve discovered.

Another of my making-a-deadline rewards was this Ipsum Face Oil Intense which I’ve been wanting to try for a long time since I read about it in an article about winter skincare dos-and-don’ts (Spaced fans, you’ll get the joke I’m sure) a few years back. I’ve only been using it for about 10 days and it’s already giving me a glow. It may well be the best thing I’ve ever put on my face. It smells divine, full of lavender, chamomile and fragonia, and feels delightful and nourishing on the skin. Everything feels smoother since I’ve been using this oil. It’s just beautiful and I can imagine it will help keep my skin in good condition over winter. Ipsum very kindly included a full-size Cleansing Oil Balm with my order too, as that product has just recently won Best Skincare Product at The Best of The Green Edit Awards. I can see why, it’s also lovely and leaves my skin so soft! It also arrived within a week of ordering and I got a lovely personal email from the director of the company to thank me for my order. Supporting small businesses for the win!

Proud of

As mentioned, my darling husband studied hard and learned all about Australia’s history, system of government, culture and various other things for his citizenship test, which he got 100% on! We were both so thrilled and relieved. Not that I thought for a minute that he wouldn’t pass, but something of this nature always has a lot riding on it (I remember it well when I did my British citizenship test and interviews). I am more proud of him than I can say.

Quote of the week

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” - Coco Chanel

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! I hope you’ve been keeping well and that you’re also finding things in your life to savour and ponder, that give you pleasure and comfort.

Please note: this particular blog post does not contain any affiliate links. Usually I have affiliate links for books I mention but this week I couldn’t be bothered, haha! I’ve not been paid or asked to endorse anything in this post. Everything I’ve mentioned and linked to is a genuine recommendation - but that is always the case :)

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this week and last week

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The last strawberries!

Well, this week has turned into last week and last week turned into the week before last in the blink of an eye!

Sorry everyone. I have constant deadlines at the moment, as well as a few other stressful things happening behind the scenes which I don’t feel at liberty to discuss publicly so yes, needless to say, life has been and probably will continue to be hectic. But I’m trying to hold on to this space I’ve carved out for myself, to record the small details of life as I’m living it now. One day this will be the past and I’ll be glad I took the time to put it all down. One year can turn into five so quickly.

A few days ago we lit the fire in the house for the first time since December. It’s quite cold now in the evenings and the mornings - whenever the sun isn’t out, basically. I think I’ve picked the last strawberries. The autumnal air is still slightly tinged with the last breath of summer, but soon it will be woodsmoke, piles of leaves, earth being turned over.

This is an in-between time, I’ve come to realise - much like September is in the northern hemisphere, so is March in the south. Summer is definitely over, but we’re not quite in full-blown autumn yet. I’m still drinking crisp and cold white wine but craving the warmth and sweetness of a fruit crumble. Soaking up the sun, and even still sporting a tan in places, but also savouring the coziness of a favourite jumper, which is now always within easy reach.

highlights

Handing in 20,000 words to my supervisors, on time! I looked at the “Properties” of the Word document I submitted…7,076 minutes have been spent on the document, which translates to nearly 118 hours. It didn’t feel like it! And yet when my head hits the pillow every night, I sleep the sleep of the truly spent.

Writing and sipping tea in a colonial house merely metres away from where my character would have sipped tea too, two hundred years ago.

A catchup with a dear friend of 37 years over proper chai and vegan peanut butter cookies the size of our heads. I am godmother to her son, who will be 18 this year. It doesn’t feel that long ago that we were celebrating our own 18ths!

Figs I grew featured on the cheese platter! They were delicious with a piece of aged cashew cheese on top.

A much-loved aunt and uncle visiting from interstate, whom I hadn’t seen since 2019, coming round for drinks and nibbles. Like Tom and I, they have had to weather the tempests of other people’s opinions and judgements for taking unconventional paths in life, so it was really wonderful to spend a few hours catching up. I so enjoyed seeing them and feel very lucky to have them in my life. I think we’ll be a lot like this aunt and uncle in 30 years time…well, I hope so.

The open garden scheme run by Home Harvest last weekend, where we got to see five local backyard gardens and what the clever inhabitants had managed to achieve with them. I loved seeing pear and apple trees laden with fruit, beans climbing up frames, abundant patches of kale, silverbeet, beetroot, tomatoes and snow peas. I was so inspired. And reassured to see that many other Hobart gardeners have rogue pumpkins and potatoes too!

Reading

Just a few books I’ve devoured when I’ve not been chained to my desk…

I want to make particular note of Alison Croggon’s Monsters which might be my favourite book I’ve read this year. I devoured it in a day, could barely tear myself away from it. It was so poetically and cleverly written - taking the personal (a painful estrangement from her sister) and placing it within a wider global and cultural context, exploring how the “monsters” of racism, colonialism, privilege, white supremacy, and patriarchy have played out in the family history and in the eventual broken and dysfunctional dynamic Alison found herself in and how these attitudes have shaped her. She writes about how life for most white people who have grown up in the structures of colonialism and patriarchy becomes a series of convenient fictions, because we can’t find it in ourselves to truly acknowledge what horrific systems we are a part of - this is true of dysfunctional families as well. Alison thoughtfully and unflinchingly considers the “monsters” of her own life and psyche, her family and colonial Britain, which of course includes Australia, and, naturally, there are no neat endings or easy answers. It’s fascinating. I highly, highly recommend it.

I’ve also been enjoying Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal which was mentioned in Diem Tran’s excellent newsletter a few weeks back. It’s all about cooking with economy and grace, with so many ideas for making the most of ingredients. I am loving it! Perfect bedtime reading.

The Guardian: Seven tips for eating well on a solo budget and yet another stolen generation.

Women’s Agenda: Michelle Yeoh’s epic win and call to women and girls (don’t let anyone ever tell you you’re past your prime!)

The Weekend Australian: A profile of one of my favourite novelists, who has a memoir coming out, and it sounds fascinating.

Listening to

I have been really enjoying Sarah Cahill’s The Future is Female, a three-volume series which celebrates and highlights women composers from the 17th century to the present day. It’s all piano music too, which I love! Wonderful writing music.

My inner autumn playlist, which naturally then went into winter, and now spring! But because the weather is so autumnal, I’m leaning back on the autumn playlist. I may or may not have mentioned but Tom and I use TIDAL, which is to our minds the most ethical of the current music streaming services, in that it does pay the artists.

PICKING

What the garden gave me one Thursday afternoon…..

The garden has been surprisingly prolific! The fig tree has been full of ripe fruit. I have given two bags away to a neighbour and a friend, and still have managed to have one or two each day sliced on pancakes, into a smoothie or just enjoyed on its own. Yesterday I picked another bowl:

Which I then roasted with white wine, brown sugar, cinnamon and star anise. They turned out beautifully and are so delicious. They’re now being stored in the fridge for this week’s breakfasts. I’ll be eating them with coconut yoghurt and granola, or on top of porridge. Yum!

I was also happy to see some of my own tomatoes in the garden finally turning red!

Picked quite a few zucchini too, which I’ve used in my cooking throughout the week. There are at least three more budding on the plant in the garden.

And then I woke up this morning to find a bag of vegetables - kale, silverbeet, more zucchini and more tomatoes - from my parents on the doorstep. They must have come past at an hour they knew we’d still be in bed! Kale and silverbeet are going in a soup tonight and the tomatoes might get made into a kasundi….

Eating

The last few weeks’ cooking and eating has been centred around making the most of the seasonal produce! I roasted a big tray of vegetables, which we enjoyed with pan-fried gnocchi; sautéed zucchini into buttery softness which becomes a wonderful pasta sauce; made bruschetta which is my favourite way to enjoy a glut of fresh tomatoes, from my garden or someone else’s; turned leftover porridge into pancakes which I topped with tahini, maple syrup, coconut yoghurt and fresh figs from the tree; a tofu scramble which was divine; a butter bean curry from Natural Flava which was delicious but so hot (1 tablespoon of curry powder next time rather than two, I think!)

I also did some baking with my zucchini and fig glut this weekend - chocolate courgette/zucchini cake from The Vegan Baking Bible with a lovely chocolate ganache icing on top, the usual banana bread with grated zucchini added, and the aforementioned roasted figs with spices and a pinot gris we didn’t like enough to drink but seems to be OK to cook with. In the banana bread and the figs, I used my favourite spice which was sent as a surprise from a kind friend in Melbourne. It arrived on a day I really needed cheering up and while she could not possibly have known that, she also somehow did in the way that kindred spirits always do.

And, of course, there were a few nights were we were too exhausted to do anything other than cook frozen dumplings or heat up leftover pasta and fall into a TV stupor! No need for photos of that. But know that it happens!

Drinking

Chai. Proper chai. It’s all I want to drink in autumn.

Watching

We got Binge in anticipation of the new season of Succession so not only have we rewatched season 3 so we remember what’s happened (!) but we finally caught up on the 2022 season of Masterchef UK, which has been one of my favourite shows for years. It was superb! Really loved seeing John and Gregg again, how well they nurture talent, and how inclusive this series was - it made me very happy to see a Deaf woman in the heats (it would have made my grandmother very happy too). It made me a little homesick for the UK too - or maybe nostalgic is the better word. Seeing familiar brands of foodstuffs I used to buy (though they always blur out the logos?!), remembering dishes I used to cook and the kinds of wonderful and different ingredients you could get. Great fun!

Likewise, have used getting Binge as an excuse to catch up on Call the Midwife, which is as wonderful and comforting and heart-wrenching as ever. One of my favourites!

As for films, I adored Maggie’s Plan, which Tom surprised me with - wonderfully written and acted, and really thought provoking. I love films set in New York City with quirky characters who are writers and academics, so this film was me to a tee.

It was a nice antidote to In Bruges, which we both watched for the first time the night before. I remember posters for it being all over the tube in London in 2008 when it first came out, but we never saw it until now. It was a bit too violent for me and hadn’t aged well - very homophobic with lots of ableist and fatphobic slurs that are just simply unacceptable, even if you’re trying to illustrate how repugnant a character is. Apparently, it’s supposed to symbolise purgatory - a setting that has always fascinated me, ever since I read T.S Eliot’s The Wasteland way back when. So even though The Banshees of Inisherin has won a lot of acclaim and I’m intrigued, as it’s the same team, I’m not sure it will be my cup of tea! But we’ll see.

We also watched Ford vs Ferrari which I surprisingly enjoyed. The race was a nail biter!

Wearing/ USING

I’ve been writing with my new metallic lilac Lamy fountain pen, which I treated myself to with some of my Van Diemen History Prize prize money. Every time I write with it, I try and remind myself I am an award-winning writer. It quiets the inner critic who has certainly not disappeared. I’m determined to keep it at bay and allow gratitude, humility and hope to be my guiding stars.

It keeps dawning on me - I am in what is likely my final year of my PhD. I am really trying to enjoy it because I have actually been working towards this my entire life. I want to remember as much and soak up as much as I can, and not be robbed of my pleasure and joy by fear, anxiety and self doubt, as I have been for so many years. I have let those things keep me small for long enough. I have also let the judgment of insecure people in the cheap seats keep me small for long enough. Now, the idea of playing small is more painful than the vulnerability of putting my hand up, of saying things out loud. It’s more painful than the risk that I’ll give it everything and it still won’t be enough. I don’t care about that anymore. I do not want to look back on this time with regrets. I want to make the most of every opportunity. People have said “if you don’t believe in yourself, you can’t expect anyone else to” to me for years but I finally understand how very, very true that is. And let’s face it, self doubt just gets very fucking boring after a while!

Grateful for

Everything. Like I said above, I’m trying to make gratitude my default position, even in the face of painful or inconvenient happenings. It really helps.

Quote of the week

“Half of life is lost in charming others. The other half is lost in going through anxieties caused by others. Leave this play. You’ve played enough.” - Rumi

If you’d like to share your thoughts on this post, or anything else, with me, please do! I hope you’re enjoying it getting warmer where you are, or finding things to savour about autumn as it gets cooler, like me! See you soon xx

Please note: this blog post has affiliate links with retailers such as Booktopia which means I may receive a commission for a sale that I refer, at no extra cost to you.

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this summer

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The view from Wendy’s Secret Garden in Sydney, where I was a few weeks ago.

The longer I put off writing a catch-up post, the longer the draft gets! And now we’re at the end of the Australian summer. I saw autumn leaves scattered on the pavement on my walk the other day and almost groaned out loud in indignation! I love autumn but I’m really not ready for summer to be over just yet.

But that’s the thing about the seasons, you can’t stop them from turning. They have their time and then have to give way for the next one. All we can do is make the most of them.

It has been a summer of fun, hard work, adventure, sun, books, words, friends, music, planting and harvesting. A summer of being brave, of being curious, of filling the well.

Grab a drink - warm or cold, depending on what it’s like where you are - and get ready for the mother of all catchup posts!

Favourite experiences of the summer

Every visit to the beach. Lying on a towel, refreshed from the ocean, a warm breeze drying my skin, looking up at that brilliant blue sky.

Shakespeare in the Gardens. This was a wonderful evening, watching one of my favourite Shakespeare plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed in the open air, under the trees which lit up as the sun set and night came. Tom and I sat happily among a few hundred other people on picnic blankets, having a lovely time. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a Shakespeare performance so much - the language was so beautiful and poetic, and I didn’t find myself switching off like I usually do with Shakespeare because the language is usually a bit too ornate, even for me! It was such a lively and engaging performance. I hope this will become a summer tradition for us.

Sydney. My first time in the city since November 2019, and what a joyful reunion it was. I went for work and so spent most of it doing research - site visits and working at the archives. I didn’t really tell anyone I was there apart from two friends, who I was overjoyed to see again. The rest of the time I spent alone, working, reading 200 year old letters and documents, deep in thought about my project, writing until 1am, soaking up as much art and culture and history as I could. It was my first time away from Tom in over three years too, so that was very strange! But despite missing him so very much, I had the most incredible time. I have to say, being able to travel interstate freely again feels wondrous! It’s crazy to think that this time two years ago our state’s borders were still closed to most of the country. It feels surreal now. But it ensured I didn’t take a moment of being in Sydney for granted.

Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta was one of the highlights of the trip. It’s an incredible place, where time has stood still, where history is made tactile and immersive. The chairs can be sat on, the beds laid on, doors opened, objects can be touched. It was as if the Macarthurs had slipped out to tend to the sheep, and I was just wandering around, looking at their lives. The guides were amazing, particularly one who had heard of my subject! “You’re the first person I’ve encountered since 2008 who’s heard of her!” she told me. This particular lady was very lovely and generous with her time, and showed me many hidden gems that other visitors walk right past.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales remains one of my favourites: Wednesday was late opening night, so when the archives closed at 6pm, I packed up and walked right over! It was pretty busy, hence my mask. Wandering around a gallery is one of my favourite things to do, with someone or alone, so I had a lovely time. I particularly enjoyed the From Here, For Now exhibit (and took selfies with the Tracey Emins, above!), the Daniel Boyd exhibit, and the 20th Century Galleries in general, particularly 15 gunshots… by Xiao Lu. The perfect Artist Date, really. My mind was buzzing with ideas, concepts and inspiration. The Sydney Festival was also getting started but I sadly didn’t catch the Frida Kahlo immersive biography, as it was booked out (unsurprisingly)!

Instead, on my last day, as the rain poured down and I could swear I saw steam rise from the hot pavements, I immersed myself in Brett Whiteley’s Studio not far from where I was staying in Surry Hills. It was AMAZING. I didn’t know much about Whiteley at all before this trip and now I’m a bit obsessed! I also visited Wendy’s Secret Garden, the stunning natural wild garden in Lavender Bay that is owned and maintained by his widow, and that is open to the public.

Working in the archives in Sydney was incredible, as expected. Having been prevented from visiting them in person for years because of the pandemic and all the interstate travel restrictions that existed for the longest time, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get there again before my thesis was due. I was deeply grateful to be there. The staff were kind and helpful, and I saw everything I wanted to see. There’s a lot of boxes of “documents relating to the settlement of Tasmania” in the Mitchell Library, which aren’t very specific so one has to sift through so much stuff in case there’s a hidden treasure in there. And I did find some! The whole trip was so fruitful for my work and I returned to Hobart absolutely itching to start putting everything together.

Mona Foma! It was fantastic. We watched lots of great musical acts, drank fabulous wine, and really let our hair down for the first time in what has felt like years. Well, it has been years! I didn’t wear a mask once. It felt so wonderful to be out again, properly, seeing live music for the first time since January 2020, to mingle with fellow humans and seeing everyone happy and buzzing (it was a great crowd, no dramas or weirdos, and no insurmountable queues). It felt like a return to old times, but with everyone more mindful, more conscious that being able to do this - go to a festival, see live music, dance in a throng of people under the stars - was something we really used to take for granted. We now know how easily those joys and privileges can be taken away.

Reading

I wrote a separate post about Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen which is one of my books of the year so far - it’s just so brilliant and intriguing. I wish I could write about food and life in the way Johnson does, taking the everyday act of cooking and following a recipe and linking it to classic literature, psychology, histories of oppression, philosophy, the self, and what the food we cook says about all of that, and us.

I got some wonderful cookbooks for Christmas and have been steadily cooking my way through them for most of the summer - see the Eating section for more!

I am a huge fan of the Sydney Review of Books and so when I saw their latest anthology of essays, I knew I would love it - and I did. Open Secrets, Essays on the Writing Life is a collection from a wide variety of writers - some known to me, some not - about various aspects of their writing lives. Some are about one memorable turning point, others about the contents of their days and brains as they navigate the ups and downs of writing. As a writer, you cannot help but feel seen and understood reading a collection like this. Most of them were pandemic-tinged, unsurprisingly, which still made for fascinating reading. Standouts for me were the essays by Lauren Carroll Harris (boy, did I relate hard to that one), Laura Elizabeth Woollett, Fiona Kelly McGregor and Eda Gunaydin, but I particularly loved Oliver Mol’s essay, “La Vida”, which was an odyssey-like journey from Sydney to Barcelona, where Oliver is trying desperately to write a book he’s been thinking about for years, now he has the freedom to do so, and finds he cannot. And yet, around every corner, are coincidences and signs that he is being encouraged and supported, that he is a writer, even if the actual writing is proving temporarily elusive. I wiped away tears and felt viscerally in my body the self harm Oliver does to himself in a fit of helplessness and confusion at his perceived inability to cope, as my younger self had similar moments. And I rejoiced in his eventual realisation that “our only objective is firmly, and with great attention, to continue; to kindly, sincerely, try” (p.121) and how he learns to write without pressure, without expectation of outcome, meaning or purpose. Highly recommended!

Speaking of Sydney, I had a wonderful time walking through the bookshops there. So many favourites! Elizabeth’s in Newtown welcomed me back like we’d never been apart and, predictably, I spent hours there combing their packed shelves for treasures. During my trip I read Fiona McGregor’s A Novel Idea, which is the photographic documentation of McGregor writing her novel Indelible Ink over several years, which was fascinating; Between Us, a Women of Letters book that I didn’t have in my collection; and The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear which covered a lot of familiar ground but was still a good read, I think I’m just addicted to books about writing, really.

The Guardian: Why one woman is drumming for 100 hours over 10 days - we caught Chloe Kim’s final hour of her performance on Sunday at Mona Foma and she was quite extraordinary. This is a great article about endurance in art and music performance.

I am a huge Fawlty Towers fan but I think remaking it is a truly terrible idea - and I’m not the only one.

I’m enjoying Jessie Tu’s modern analysis of classic 1990s films for Women’s Agenda - she’s done Sister Act and Mrs Doubtfire so far.

This New Yorker article was….bizarre.

Vanity Fair: Monica Lewinsky shared 25 life lessons on the 25th anniversary of her name, and life, becoming one of the most scrutinised/villified of the late twentieth century (and all the years afterwards). Monica would be one of my dream dinner party guests; she seems like an incredibly grounded person who is empathetic, intelligent and a lot of fun. I loved all her tips but particularly #22.

The Conversation: ‘Something that happens in fiction’: romance writer Susan Meachen’s ‘fake death’ reminds us that the author is a construct by Ika Willis - OMG, Bad Art Friend, hold my beer. The romance writer who faked her own death and came back to Facebook as if nothing had happened is next-level twisted. I enjoyed Ika Willis’ literary studies take on it!

Also on The Conversation: an interesting analysis of the potato shortage that plagued Australia for much of the summer and Melanie Saward’s favourite fictional character is Queenie.

The Spectator: What a voice Plath had – stern yet somehow musical, long-vowelled, bear-like: Radio 4’s My Sylvia Plath - on 11 February it was 60 years since Plath’s death, so I also spent some time on the wonderful Gail Crowther’s website, especially Sylvia Plath, Safe Spaces, and the Violation of Women.

Finally, Room on the Broom, many times over, with our darling niece - we got it for her for Christmas and she is OBSESSED. It’s a wondrous thing to have a child in your life who loves to read as much as you do. I think it needs to be encouraged at all costs!

Listening to

At the start of the year, I decided to mix things up a bit with my writing music, which was almost completely dominated by my beloved Ludovico Einaudi and Nils Frahm. Every month, my most played artist on Tidal was Ludovico, by a mile! Nothing wrong with that of course, but when January 1 clicked over, I was suddenly seized by a desire for new and different, to shake up my creative practice a bit. If I listen to the same things, watch the same things, absorb the same things, I won’t be changed. My work won’t expand in the ways it needs to.

So I made a new writing playlist for myself - nouveau pour l’écriture - full of new piano discoveries, mostly by women composers and performers. Sophie Hutchings, Grace Ferguson, Alice Baldwin, Poppy Ackroyd, Olivia Belli, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, and more! It’s been wonderful to surround myself with the sounds I love but with new melodies and energies. I highly recommend all of them.

I also made a Sydney playlist - something I love to do when I travel is make a playlist of songs I hear while I’m there. In a cafe or bar, in a shop, on the street, in the hotel lobby. Shazam on the iPhone is a godsend! These songs will always make me think of this trip!

As for podcasts…..there have been a few.

The First Time: Summer Series - A beginning & Claire G Coleman and Summer Series: Helen Garner

Books and Travel: Solo Walking the Camino De Santiago Portuguese Coastal Route with J.F Penn, Thoughts From the Pilgrims’ Way

The Creative Penn: Writing Tips: How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr (Will Storr’s work was recommended by my PhD supervisor)

The Art of Work: Classicist and bestselling writer Dame Mary Beard on what she has learnt about power - this was an excellent interview with a woman I very much admire. She said something that has stayed with me in the weeks since I listened to it: that resilience is a very underrated/undervalued virtue these days, that life is tough and of course it would be great if the world only had nice, supportive people in it but the reality is, it doesn’t. You’ve got to carry on regardless.

The Imperfects: Santa Claus - A Special Vulnerability House - this was hilarious. Glenn Robbins playing Santa Claus, getting worried phone calls from Rudolph because the sleigh is in a no standing zone…genius!

James and Ashley Stay At Home: Digging into shame with Hayley Scrivenor and all the mini-episodes about Ashley’s new novel Dark Mode, which I can’t wait to read!

Writer’s Book Club Podcast: This kept me company while I was in Sydney. The Kate Forsyth episode was the standout one for me - I will be listening to it again, with a notebook alongside. I also very much enjoyed the Hannah Kent and Nigel Featherstone interviews.

The Rich Roll Podcast: my friend Mary, who I was lucky enough to see while I was in Sydney, got me on to this! I loved the Seth Godin, Mel Robbins and Rick Rubin episodes.

Akimbo: Once I heard the Rich Roll interview with Seth, I needed more so I listened to his own podcast, particularly enjoying the Genius, It’s not about the chocolate and Blogs and Platforms and Permission episodes.

All The Small Things: Natasha Lunn on love and friendship and Is wellness just another fashion trend? with Rina Raphael

The Guilty Feminist: Phoebe Waller-Bridge at the Royal Festival Hall

Daisy is Insatiable: Shahroo Izadi - I’ve been really captivated by Shahroo and her work, but I’m not going to list all the interviews with her I’ve listened to over the summer because I’ll probably look like a bit of a stalker, haha! But this one was probably the best.

Wellness with Ella (formerly the Deliciously Ella podcast): I’ve got back into this in a big way! Really enjoyed all the episodes I’ve caught up on, especially Happiness, Change and Emotional Resilience, Jay Shetty: the untold journey, Ella on finding purpose and putting mental health first and Jake Humphrey: the power of optimism.

Eating

The cinnamon scroll from the all-vegan Sydney patisserie, Miss Sina. Run, don’t walk!

Obviously, the food in Sydney was AMAZING. I’ve written all about my favourite Sydney vegan eats for Onya magazine - as I ate my way around the city and slowly amassed a list of must-trys, places I definitely wanted to return to with Tom on our next trip, I thought that surely this information would be useful for others too. Once a journo, always a journo - I pitched the idea to Sandi at Onya, she said yes almost immediately, so now there’s a whole vegan series in the works. Melbourne, unsurprisingly, is next!

But here’s what else I’ve been cooking and eating at home over the summer:

  • For Christmas treats, I made vegan gingerbread truffles, Nigella’s sticky vegan gingerbread and the now famous Oreo brownies

  • Tomato orzo one-pan bake (from The Green Roasting Tin with a few amends)

  • Spicy tempeh sushi and a vegan cheese platter for Christmas Eve Eve (sushi recipe from Veganomicon, which I picked up in NYC in 2015)

  • Rick’s pasta for Christmas Eve dinner - we were inspired by The Holiday and how Miles and Iris eat “Christmas Eve fettuccine” - like them, we ate pasta, popped some bubbly and celebrated being young and being alive!

  • Caesar salad with crispy chickpea croutons from Moby’s Little Pine cookbook, one of my Christmas presents

  • Asparagus and romesco aioli pizza, made on the barbecue - a variation on a recipe also in Moby’s Little Pine cookbook

  • Jerk lentil burgers (from Natural Flava)

  • Pickled avocado - OMG, life changing! Great to put on burgers (from Cooking from the Spirit by Tabitha Brown)

  • Sweet potato curry with jollof rice (from Natural Flava)

  • Potato and broad bean quesadillas - broad beans grown by me!

  • Silken tofu summer breakfast bowls - these are so wonderful! If you want a refreshing and delicious summer breakfast, you have to try them.

  • Mexican rice bowls with black beans, guac, corn, salad, etc - these have been a staple meal all summer ever since I had a delicious similar meal at Bad Hombres in Sydney. So filling, so healthy, so delicious!

  • Callaloo pesto pasta (from Natural Flava)

  • Roast carrot and sweet potato rice paper rolls with homemade satay sauce

  • Mango coleslaw (from Natural Flava)

  • Tempeh “shwarma”, something I just made up and it was delicious!

  • Butterscotch pudding from Moby’s Little Pine cookbook (really nice!)

  • Muesli tahini flapjacks/breakfast bars

  • Deliciously Ella’s orzo (risoni) recipes from the app - we tried a mushroom miso one and a red pepper tahini one, both amazing!

  • Chargrilled broccolini with pesto linguine

  • An EPIC quinoa salad I made up, featuring green beans from the garden, roasted pumpkin, and tofu ‘feta’ which was amazing. I made it for my friend Anne who came round for dinner one baking hot night. Served with an Imago sourdough baguette alongside, it was quite the feast.

I also made apricot and vanilla jam and dried apricots (on the dehydrate function on my air fryer) with the four or so kilograms I got from a farm across the river. No fruit on the family trees this year! Most jars of the jam have been given as gifts, I have one left for me. And the dried apricots were the best ones I’ve ever had, and made my garage (where the air fryer lives) smell like my grandparents’ house did.

Drinking

A Red Corvette cocktail at Wrest Point’s Birdcage Bar, which I hadn’t been to or had since perhaps 2003. It tasted just the same as I remembered and went down all too easily!

I got hooked on bubble tea while I was in Sydney - I know, why did it take me so long to try it? Gong Cha was my favourite place to get one and I was delighted to find out they have a branch in Hobart too. QQ Passionfruit is my favourite flavour, followed by Lychee Oolong.

Above, me with an Aperol Spritz at Mona Foma! A bright drink to go with my bright outfit, haha! They always make me think of trips to Berlin.

Finally, pandan soy milk at Han Phuc Vegan in Sydney - surprisingly good! Sweet, creamy and refreshing.

PICKING

Over the summer I’ve harvested strawberries, potatoes, garlic, peas, green beans, broad beans, zucchini, and silverbeet on the regular. The caterpillars got my kale, boo. We also have random pumpkins taking over the entire garden! Beetroots are starting to look good and soon we’ll have even more potatoes. The fig tree’s branches are heavy with fruit that’s slowly going from green to purple. The tomatoes are plentiful but still green on the vine. Never mind, I have a great green tomato pickle recipe if they don’t end up being coaxed into their fullest, reddest expression.

Watching

The Crown (BluRay and Netflix) - we decided to watch the entire series again before embarking on Season 5, so we went right back to the wonderful Claire Foy and Matt Smith beginning. Seasons 1 and 2 really are the best, in my opinion!

We had a bit of an Edgar Wright season and watched Baby Driver (Amazon Prime) and Last Night in Soho (Amazon Prime) back to back. Enjoyed both very much, but I preferred Baby Driver out of the two.

I’ve got back into Call the Midwife (ABC iview and Binge) in a big way, as it’s a bit of a comfort watch for me - well, I say that, every episode is hard-hitting in its own way. Every episode makes me cry, even if it’s just a routine birth where nothing goes wrong! It’s an emotional release of sorts, I think.

Wearing

I’ve been wearing this running top I got in Sydney non-stop - it even kind of works with my Kemi Telford skirts!

I’ve also been wearing this beautiful perfume that Tom got for Christmas and it’s been my scent of the summer, though I can see it working well for winter too, with its smoky and leathery notes of oud and amber. I also love Goldfield and Banks’ Sunset Hour which smells of peach, mandarin, raspberry and ginger - absolutely stunning scent for warm weather. Confession, I have nearly all of the Goldfield and Banks range! They make incredible perfumes. Seven years ago, the perfume tray on my dressing table was nearly all Jo Malone bottles and now I’m well and truly in my Goldfield and Banks era! I am happy to skimp on makeup but on scent, never.

Other favourite wearables this summer have been our ally-friendly Always Was Always Will Be shirts from Clothing the Gaps, replacement running shoes (I just bought exactly the same ones!) and this jumpsuit from Tassie designers Keshet, very much a head turner like the one I bought this time last year! As seen on me in the pics at Mona Foma 💚

Grateful for

A fun start to what I think is going to be an interesting year.

Quote of the SUMMER

“Seek joy” has really been my quote of the summer, as it was the attitude I decided to go into this year with. But this quote really spoke to me when I came across it in the pages of a book that I now can’t recall the name of.

I’ve been thinking about this concept of belonging to yourself a lot, particularly as 2022 ended and the new year began. It’s now been over a year since I stepped away from personal social media and I can see how much I’ve changed. How much kinder I am to myself, how much stronger I feel, how unafraid I am to set boundaries. Stronger in the broken places too - some difficult things that happened now belong to “last year”, or even the year before. Time has given me the gift of perspective, and perspective has given me strength.

So, that has been the start to my 2023. Working hard but also taking every chance I can to enjoy life.

If you’d like to hit the button below and let me know what you think, or what you’ve been up to in 2023 so far, please do - I would love to hear from you.

I hope you’ve had a fun, relaxing and memorable summer, or a restorative winter, depending on where you are in the world. Stay safe and well, until next week, when normal programming will resume! xx

Please note: this blog post has affiliate links with retailers such as Booktopia which means I may receive a commission for a sale that I refer, at no extra cost to you.

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this week, and the ones before

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Hello friends! This will be quite the catch-up post, as last week’s was, so do get a cup of tea and make yourself comfortable.

I can’t believe it’s December and in a matter of weeks, another year will be over. I don’t think I’m alone in eagerly anticipating the fresh start that the first of January promises (but admittedly doesn’t always deliver) as this year has been harder than most. I am ending it a different person than I was at its beginning. I think I’m tougher, wiser, more resilient, and less afraid and naive. Those are very good things and I’m grateful for the hard-won lessons, but I’m still looking forward to seeing 2022 in the rearview mirror nonetheless!

This post is going to be a mash-up of the highlights of the past few weeks since we returned from Melbourne, and then on Friday we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming….she says hopefully.

Favourite experience/s

Probably this amazing news, sharing it and celebrating it with some delicious Bream Creek vintage sparkling wine, as pictured above! This year I’ve really tried to push myself with my writing, put myself out there and really back myself. This has been incredibly hard to do at times, in the face of everything that Tom and I have had to deal with this year. But I also did not want another year lost to imposter syndrome, where I believed my critics (both inner and outer) over the quiet but fierce inner wisdom, encouragement and truth in my own heart. Perhaps I needed reminding that I’m on the right path. To have achieved this incredible feat, and several others, in spite of everything has been so wonderful, so needed and so encouraging.

I’ve also enjoyed hanging out with my nieces and nephews - one I took to a kids session at Frida’s Sip and Paint where we painted this Eastern Rosella together:

And I also enjoyed getting a much-needed haircut!

Reading

To be honest, I’ve been writing more than I’ve been reading - which is probably a good thing. I had a fantastic workshop with my fellow Creative Writing PhDs last Friday, so spent some time reading their work and prepping for that.

I’ve been rereading an old favourite, Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which is still great fun and I enjoyed noticing its subtle influence on The Latte Years, as I originally read it around the same time. It was such an inspiration for me in how to write about the harder, darker things with humour. I’m enjoying revisiting it, especially as we’re now rewatching 30 Rock, probably the greatest TV show ever made.

For our last Hidden Nerve session, Nigel read us a poem by Claire G. Coleman, “Forever, Flag”, which I saved to read again later - it’s quite astonishing and powerful.

Sophie Cunningham was another Hidden Nerve presenter and I borrowed her book Melbourne from the library as I’m very interested in the work she’s done in the psychogeographic space. Loving it so far!

I’m nearly finished with Olivia Yallop’s Break the Internet, which I’ve enjoyed more and more the deeper I’ve got into it, and am now into Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus, recommended to me by many readers and friends. I’m coming up to almost a year since I spontaneously decided to step away from social media. I’m now managing an Instagram account for a client, so I’m just using theirs, not my personal one which I haven’t even glanced at. But it was interesting to observe in myself the familiar itch that resurfaced almost immediately - the itch to check, scroll, see. It is very helpful to just be using it for work and have a hard boundary. Johann Hari’s book is making the excellent point that the problem with attention, focus and our ability to think deeply goes beyond social media and into the Internet itself and all its trappings - email, smartphones, screens.

I will write more in depth about this in due course but having been off social media (with my personal accounts at least) for nearly a year now, I can say with absolute certainty that it’s done something to my brain. I have my brain back, perhaps. I am a more productive (dare I say a better?) writer without it. I have achieved more and feel more balanced without it. I have observed that I still seek (and desire) external validation at times and feel a bit sad/deprived when I don’t get it, but it is so much easier to spot when I’m in that frame of mind now, rather than it simply being my default position because I felt constantly in a state of comparison with others. It’s been a very, very interesting experiment.

Listening to

I discovered the Stella Anning Trio while we were in Melbourne - I love gentle jazz and their album Stat is a wonderful moody soundtrack when sipping your herbal tea (or something stronger) in the hour or so before bed.

How to Fail: Rob Delaney on the death of his beloved son Henry - listen to this if you need a good cry but also to marvel at how bloody resilient people can be in the face of the unthinkable.

Best Friend Therapy: is back for another season, so every Monday when I walk to or from uni I have a new episode, hooray! This week’s episode on how to work with friends was very relevant and gave me a lot to think about.

The First Time: Masters Series with Heather Rose - her new book is on my Christmas Wishlist!

Writes 4 Women: Writing the Second Novel with Holly Ringland - yay Holly! Loved this candid and inspiring interview with a wonderful writer who happens to be a friend too.

Mummafication: Another interview with a good friend of mine, this time parent educator Katie Parker which had me grinning with pride as I listened. Relevant even if you’re not a parent, FYI.

Happy Place: Dawn O’Porter and Tim Minchin - enjoyed both but I especially liked Tim’s, as he really delved into the harder parts of the creative life, and convincing yourself that you are worthy even when you aren’t getting attention. He is so unapologetically himself but it has taken quite a while to get to such a comfortable place. Worth a listen!

You and Me Both with Hilary Clinton: Hilary interviews Hannah Gadsby - loved it. I especially enjoyed hearing them talk about Tasmania (Hilary has apparently never been) and nodding furiously along as Hannah described how Tassie used to be and how it’s changed for the better. I am proud that Tasmania now has some of the strongest human rights protection laws in the country, quite a contrast to how things used to be for the queer community. Hannah is always a delight to listen to and the banter with Hilary is just wonderful.

Eating


As usual, there’s quite a bit to catch you up on here - I’ve made and eaten some very delicious things!

When it was very warm a few weeks ago (the promise of summer that promptly vanished within 48 hours and was replaced with a fortnight of rain and 3 degree nights!), I made this incredible Bún Chả Giò Chay (Vietnamese rice noodle bowl with spring rolls) and I want you to try it so much I wrote out the recipe! It’s the perfect dinner on a hot day.

I highly recommend getting the Fix and Fogg Smoke and Fire Peanut Butter for the sauce if you can find it. Not only was it magnificent in the noodles, I have also had some with avocado on toast which was quite sensational. A must for the chilli lovers. If you’re not in Oz or NZ, looks like the folks at Fix and Fogg ship worldwide! (and their recipe section is pretty epic and everything sounds amazing!)

We had a friend round for dinner and I made a new recipe from a favourite cookbook The Green Roasting Tin - the crispy gnocchi with mushrooms, squash and sage (p.68). I didn’t make the basil dressing but instead thinned down a bought vegan pesto with lemon juice and olive oil, which worked just as well. It was so very delicious! I have bought more gnocchi this week with the intention of making it again.

My new favourite bought dip is the signature Tahini Neri - a friend served it to me in Melbourne and I was delighted to find it in my local Hill Street Grocer when I got home (we often don’t get everything the mainland gets!). It’s so unctuous and savoury. Almost better than hummus, but not quite.

Speaking of hummus, I finally made hummus with dried chickpeas rather than tinned. I know, how can I possibly call myself a foodie? Every cookery writer I love and revere has waxed lyrical over the years of the incredible difference it makes using dried chickpeas to make hummus but being lazy and short on time I had never bothered. That will never happen again. I am here to tell you that the rumours are true. DRIED CHICKPEAS FOR THE WIN.

It was the best hummus I have ever had. The Tom of hummus, you could say! 😉

I used the OTK cookbook recipe which had very detailed instructions which included adding ice cubes to the food processor. I used an organic Woolworth’s tahini. It was simply magnificent. I will always make it this way from now on and urge you, if you are hummus lover, to set aside some time and make it with dried chickpeas. It will change your life!

I soaked a whole packet of dried chickpeas because, in addition to hummus, I also made felafel from scratch for the first time that week. I made the spicy felafel recipe in Deliciously Ella’s Quick and Easy. While they were absolutely scrumptious, I am not a fan of frying things in oil - mostly because the house stinks afterwards. They were absolutely worth the effort, almost as good as Pilpel’s in London, but I might try them in the air fryer or oven next time.

By the way, chickpeas start to stink when they’re soaking! I didn’t know this and freaked out, worried that they’d gone off because it was quite hot that week. Don’t panic, apparently it’s normal. I had them at room temperature for the first two days but then put them in the fridge until I was ready to make the recipes. All was well, everything was delicious and both Tom and I are still alive, with perfectly working digestive systems!

We ate in restaurants every day while we were in Melbourne, which was wonderful but it’s definitely more a treat than a regular thing for us. I’m keen to see what delights Hobart has to offer us this summer, as we definitely curtailed our eating out once the borders opened this time last year. A firm favourite so far is The Salty Dog on Kingston Beach, where we had a delicious lunch a few weeks ago. We had tempura cauliflower, enoki mushroom and black rice bowls (and a side of chips), sitting in the sun with cold beers while the salty ocean air drifted towards us on the light breeze. Heavenly!

I don’t make sweet breakfasts very often but we had some leftover porridge from Friday’s breakfast, so that Sunday I made leftover porridge pancakes, which I served with coconut yoghurt, maple syrup and slices of fresh pear. Yum!

My oven runs very hot - I should have taken this out five minutes earlier….still delicious though!

I bought Celebrate: Plant-Based Recipes for Every Occasion while we were in Melbourne, and have already made the summer greens filo pie twice (the benefits of having spinach and silverbeet going wild in the garden). It’s absolutely delicious! The first time I made it as written, the second time I left the broccoli whole and upped the spices a little more. I think it will be a staple for us over the summer now we have so many greens that need using and eating!

Now that it’s warming up, our favourite meal of last summer, the Nacho Average Nachos from Charity Morgan’s amazing book Unbelievably Vegan, is back on the menu. Regular readers will be familiar with these by now! Always amazing.

I helped Dad prune his broad beans and he gave me some - mine are still a month or so away from being ready - which I cooked separately, skinned and then cooked with cavolo nero, lemon zest, garlic, chilli and herbs, which we enjoyed with spaghetti, topped with toasted breadcrumbs.

Finally, I started road-testing some recipes for my Christmas baking and came up with these incredible vegan Oreo brownies. I’ve already published the recipe, that’s how good they are! Seriously, if you love a good brownie, you need these in your life. With a batch or two of these and Nigella’s vegan gingerbread, that’s my festive season sorted!

Picking

The garden was overgrown with greens - rainbow chard, silverbeet, spinach, celery and garlic scapes - when we returned from Melbourne. I’ve now given it a major haircut so the sun might actually reach the poor zucchini seedlings.

I’ve also made a tower out of discarded motorcycle tyres (thanks to a local dealership who let me help myself) to grow potatoes in, and the first green shoots are starting to poke through. I read a book over the winter that suggested growing potatoes this way can yield a harvest of up to 50kg….we shall see!

I also picked the rhubarb (which I have growing in a tub) and I made a yummy crumble from that. The major crop of strawberries are starting to redden and we’ve had to put cages on top of the troughs again to keep the greedy birds away. They get their revenge by throwing dirt out of other pots, ignoring the strawberries I have deliberately left unprotected for them to help themselves to! 😜

I’m not sure how abundant this summer will be, as I didn’t have the most productive spring in the garden, due to illness and constant work! But I am hopeful. Time will tell.

Drinking

Tom, our brother-in-law and my dad have started their own brewing company and their first limited release dropped last week. It’s a really delicious, complex and refreshing pale ale, perfect for a blazing hot afternoon like the ones we’ve enjoyed this weekend! I’m very proud of the three of them for taking something that was just an idea thrown around at a family gathering a year or two ago and making it a reality! Our company designed the labels and logo too.

After we got home from Melbourne, I cleaned out the fridge and found some kombuchas I made in January…2021! I made them with a SCOBY kindly given to me by Sarah (sadly the SCOBY has long since been composted due to my neglect!). The incredible pop when I opened them was quite ferocious, as they’d been sealed and fermenting for the best part of two years. Thinking they would be undrinkable, I poured a little of each into a shot glass, sniffed and sipped - and they’re OK! Quite strong, as you’d expect, but I’ve been enjoying them in a large wine glass where I put a splash of kombucha in the bottom and then top it up with plain sparkling water. Not unlike how you’d prepare a cordial. The elderflower and ginger one has matured particularly well.

Watching

At Tom’s insistence, we watched Monty Python’s Holy Grail and Life of Brian on BluRay, which I hadn’t seen for many years, probably not since I was a teenager (and hadn’t liked them that much). This time I really got the humour - most likely a side effect from being with Tom for 15 years, haha!

We have just completed a watch of the entire series of the US version of The Office which we absolutely loved. I read an interview with Jenna Fischer who said that the fact that the “documentary” wrapped up when Pam was ready to leave Dunder Mifflin, as opposed to any other characters who came and went in the course of the series, was not lost on her. I agree, I think on this rewatch I realised that Pam is very much the central character of the show, rather than Michael Scott, as it very much follows her journey.

We’re now working our way through probably our favourite TV show of all, 30 Rock, which we’ve not watched properly for nearly two years. It’s smart, charming, well-constructed and absolutely hilarious.

Wearing

The weather has been pretty mercurial so I’ve been wearing my denim jacket (which I bought from Sainsbury’s in 2014!) almost every day. It goes well with dresses or my favourite skirts from Kemi Telford. I’ve also been loving my new strap detail cross body bag from Country Road - I was fed up to the back teeth with my giant tote where I can never find anything so treated myself while we were in Melbourne. This is a surprisingly roomy and very stylish little bag which is not a headache to lug around, in fact I barely notice it’s there. I wish I’d downsized ages ago!

Grateful for

My husband and family. Good friends. The weather finally warming up and the colds we’ve had finally being on the run.

Quote of the week

This poem by John O’Donohue was mentioned a few weeks ago in an email newsletter I subscribe to, which sounded familiar. Then I noticed in the “on this day” feature that OneDrive has that I had taken a screenshot of the poem on that same day two or three years ago. A coincidence? Maybe. But the message of the poem was obviously fitting for the time and it is certainly fitting now! If you need to hear it, may it comfort you as it has comforted me these past few weeks.

This is the time to be slow

This is the time to be slow
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

- John O’Donohue, from From To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. Penguin Random House, 2008.

I am hoping, so hoping, that the air of 2023 will be kind and blushed with beginning. For all of us.

If you’d like to share your thoughts on anything in this post, or anything else, with me, then please do! I really enjoy hearing from you. I hope you’re also finding things to enjoy, savour and ponder over your weekend xx

Please note: this blog post has affiliate links with retailers such as Booktopia which means I may receive a commission for a sale that I refer, at no extra cost to you.