Party Times

It’s been a busy month or so. I hosted a birthday party (the first on my own), the girls and I took a road trip to the beach and back via the Zoo and then there’s been a decent amount of life admin as well. All-in-all I’m pretty proud of myself as certain aspects of life feel a bit more on-track than they used to be. With that being said, however, I’ve been having a few more moments than I used to where the reality of my situation kind of hits. I think that’s mostly down to the fact that, with other concerns and worries cleared, I have more time to mull and realise other things more than I used too. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing but getting emotional whilst wandering around IKEA isn’t exactly entertaining either. Still, I take it as a positive by virtue of it seemingly signifying that other things aren’t troubling me as much.

Taking A Trip

I think I mentioned this the last time I posted but I’d hope to take a day trip to the coast with the girls. I managed to achieve that goal and, despite a huge mistake on my part in terms of sunscreening properly (I had confused my times and so we didn’t re-apply in time) I’d say it was a pretty successful day. We got to Broulee, a favourite haunt, just before lunch. Both girls were keen to get into the water and, after a little convincing for 11, they both had some good fun on the boogie boards.

It was a genuinely awesome sight seeing them both catch waves, celebrate successes and just generally enjoy messing around. It brought a huge smile to my face as I think I was properly feeling like a little family again. I mean, I know we are, but I think the fun we were having and the fact that we were just being without the rest of the worry. After a spot of lunch and some sandcastle making, 11 was pretty keen to move on, perhaps even home. I felt it was, perhaps, a little too early and so threw in a spontaneous suggestion of visiting Mogo Zoo.

As an attraction, Mogo Zoo was okay. If I recall they were affected by the fires that tore through back in 2020 and so I appreciate recovering from something like that is no easy task. Still, I was a little underwhelmed but the kids did have fun, especially the opportunity to feed a couple of deer which isn’t something you get to do everyday. We saw 11’s favourite animal, giraffes, as well as a very inquisitive baby gorilla. There was a little diappointment that nothing could be purchased from the gift shop, but all-in-all we all had some fun. Once we got home everyone was suitably tired and I was pleased we made it home in time to have bedtimes close enough to normal.

Cleaning Up

I also took some leave in late January, mostly to make up for working through Christmas and New Year. A common occurance for me as it’s the time when I can update servers and generally turn things off without upsetting too many people. It was an opportunity to go through a lot of the stuff that I’d brought with me that, perhaps, I no longer needed. There wasn’t as much as I thought, but, it was still very useful to get through it all and feel as though most of what I have now is stuff that I’ll make use off.

The break also afforded me time to catch up with other admin things around budgets and things and try to plan out, as best I can, the year ahead. Whether or not that will include purchasing my own place I don’t know. Whilst we finally got a rate cut from the RBA for the first time in years, house prices still aren’t cheap and most that seem to be in my price range are a part of complexes so have strata fees and so on. In any event, looking ahead at least helps me know where I stand and better plan in terms of how buying somewhere would affect my paycheck to paycheck income.