So just like that we’re smack bang in the middle of October and already in to Term 4.
The school holidays already feel like a blur, which they kind of were even at the time an extended stint of solo parenting with Mr SnS was in the States for the first ten days. Still, we had some fun times, despite the usual shenanigans.
Great weather, plenty to do and some special events – the AFL Grand Final, a day trip to G Town and a double 40th – made for a social couple of weeks.
Which is the perfect segue way to some of my favourite things …
1. Silent Disco
A couple of gorgeous girlfriends decided to celebrate their 40ths together on the Grand Final public holiday eve here in Melbourne. Before our sit down dinner in Richmond, they’d arranged for fifteen of us to meet at Federation Square at 5pm for a surprise “non confrontational activity”. My money was on a cruise down the Yarra, but whaddayaknow, we were about to embark on our first silent disco. Non confronting?
If you’re a silent disco newbie – as I was – basically what’s involved is you are each given a pair of head phones (so you can all hear the same music) and you are then led on a silent disco around the city. Our girlfriends chose a ripping soundtrack with loads of our favourite songs which got us going.
It was absolutely hilarious and super fun, once you got used to dancing in public in broad daylight during peak hour. Yes, it’s pretty crazy to begin with!
We danced around the city from Federation Square, through to Flinders Street station, Degraves St and back down Collins and Swanston Streets over one hour. Our rendition of ‘Love is a Battlefield’ in Degraves St was definitely a highlight, as was our grand finale of Horse on the steps of St Patrick’s Cathedral.
I can also highly recommend our leader Guru Dudu who was the perfect guide. He mentioned he was leading a silent disco with ABBA songs soon which I thought was a cracking idea. Look out for them if you’re in the city sometime!
2. A Trip to G Town to see The Archibald Prize 2018 finalists
If you’re looking for an awesome day trip, I can highly recommend hotfooting it down the Princes Highway to G Town to catch this year’s Archibald Prize finalists at the Geelong Gallery.
This is an outstanding collection of portraits, including many of well known Australians as well as self portraits.
Here were some of my favourites …
Alison Whyte, a mother of the renaissance by Paul Jackson
Guy by Anne Middleton
Abdul by Johnathan Dalton
And the winner is Yvette Coppersmith, self portrait, after George Lambert …
Afterwards, we popped in to the children’s art area where the kids were encouraged to create their own self portraits.
All up, we spent about an hour at the Gallery. The portraits are exhibited over two large, connected rooms. They vary greatly in size and style, so there’s plenty of variety and things to talk about with the kids.
If you want to make a day of it, pop down to the Geelong waterfront afterwards, one of the great cafes listed in this post, or head to Little Creatures with friends like we did.
The Archie will be in Geelong until 18 November. For more details, head here.
3. Food Truck Fun
What did we do before food trucks were a thing? It doesn’t bear thinking about!
The Hank Marvin Market gang turned up at a local shopping centre car park last weekend and the people of greater Blackburn were very happy indeed. In fact they flocked to this event, the mild weather certainly helping.
Delicious bao (pictured above), chips covered in butter chicken, cocktails, rides for the kids, gourmet ice creams and burgers with 120 patties in them, what wasn’t to love? Please come back again soon!
To see if they’re coming to your neighbourhood, check their upcoming events here.
4. Gardening Central
It wasn’t Spring that motivated me to sort out my indoor plant situation – it was the fact that some of my indoor plants were knocking on heaven’s door, taking my hard earned cashola with them. I’d already lost one fiddle leaf and, generally speaking, I had more brown leaves than green, so it was time for some urgent remedial action.
So I did as any self respecting but clueless indoor plant lover would do, I went to Bunnings, bought a couple more plants as well as some fertiliser to revive the tired looking survivors.
I can report that everything looks a lot happier and fresher now and I actually enjoyed potting and re-potting plants, fertilising and watering. It was surprisingly satisfying. On a related note, I am officially turning into my mother.
As I was on a roll, I finally cleaned/wiped down our front door which I’ve been meaning to do for about five years. Laters dust and dirt. I even swept the front porch.
Meanwhile Mr SnS clipped all the hedges, fertilised the entire garden and lawn and re-zhoojed all the potted colour. A very productive day indeed. One thing I am on the look out for is more well priced ceramic pots with saucers – have you found any lately?
So over to you – what have you been enjoying lately?