01. My first dive (from Rye pier) – exhilarating, terrifying, exhausting, addictive.
02. Kids sport is back; school is back; and I’m getting emails about the opera and theatre. YAY!
03. A big splurge at I Scream Nails (favourites: Lovin’ Life and Caution).
04. Bump (on Stan) – it’s really very good.
05. We all get to tune into the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
06. I’ve stuck to Duolingo… wirklich!
07. Started my Stella Prize 2021 longlist research this week (by picking up a bunch of books from the library). Thoughts on any of the following?
That water looks so inviting.
Spectacular day (and quite the contrast to the weekend that just passed, when the water was choppy and the sky grey).
02. School in WA just got put back for a week – we’re in lockdown! – and my daughter had her stepsons with her so that’s five kids at home under 10.
With this in and out of lockdown in WA and Vic, I’m starting to think my mid-year visit to Ningaloo will be stressful!
Lovely to hear that normality is slowly returning for you.
Very much so and we all feel very fortunate. Being able to go to concerts and movies, restaurants and people’s houses without worry feels like a miracle after last year.
We can only dream of that but the vaccination programme makes me hopeful
It’s so nice to hear that normality is returning somewhere in the world! Gives me hope. That first photo is gorgeous!
I hope you get some normal back very soon.
Wait…DIVE?? Off a PIER??? Like, how far down is that water???
6 metres! It was a crazy feeling looking up.
Holy moly that is almost 20 feet in my neck of the woods!!! F!!!!! I have to get up the nerve to jump off a regular pool diving board. LOL
My son almost drowned at that pier when he was a little boy. We were walking along it on a windy day and a huge gust of wind blew him into the water. The Ex dived in after him, but the rip was so strong that although he was a championship swimmer and a surf life saver, it took them half way down the beach before he could tack back across it to land. His shins were cut to ribbons where the waves had dashed him against the mussels growing on the legs of the pier, and the kid was shivering uncontrollably with what I realised later was probably hypothermia.
Not my favourite pier!
How terrifying. It’s incredible how windy it does get on that pier. I remember walking with my son there when he was about 3yo. His favourite hat blew off and I’m sure, had I not had him attached to the leash on the pram, he would have jumped in to chase his hat!
The thing is, under that pier it’s another world and there is so much to see (for snorkeling as well as diving).
I’ve never been able to think of the joys of looking under the pier…
I would love it if The Salt Madonna was on the Stella list, I really enjoyed that book.
Bump was a great show, I’m pleased it’s already been signed for a second season.
I’m on the waiting list at the library for Salt Madonna (I remembered you’d loved it). Fingers crossed it’s my turn to borrow before the longlist announcement.
I hope it’s one of the listed titles. It’s completely worthy.
How are you finding Duolinguo? I hope the (German?) sentences make more sense than the Hungarian ones. I gave up when I got to “the airplane flies above the politicians”. When will I ever need to say that?
I don’t think you’ll ever need to say that!!
Some of the phrases are ridiculous (I have said a lot about cats and owls playing chess/ the piano), but I have stuck at it for over a month now and I am learning lots.
The water is stunning!!
We tried to learn a bit of Swedish in Duolingo. I didn’t stick to it – other things keep getting in the way.
It took a few days for me to settle into a routine with Duolingo but now that I am completing the lessons over breakfast, I’m managing to stick to it (because I never miss breakfast!).
That’s a good idea!! I never miss breakfast either – I‘d keel over!! 😂
5. I missed that (unfortunately)
7. I’ve been wondering about this year’s Stella, and I have very few thoughts because of my disordered reading last year. The things she owned sounded really interesting though. I’m thinking the Vic Premiers winner must surely be there. Pip Williams’ or did hers scrape in for last year’s. I can’t remember. Elizabeth Tan’s Smart ovens? Carey’s book on Von Arnim? These are SOME of the ones I’ve been wondering about.
I’ve just put together a list of all the possibles that I could come up with (drawn from various sources so there will be some I’ve missed). I didn’t have the Carey, so will add it.