Strawberry Lipstick State of Mind in Magical Realism

It’s a sunny day but I am facing away from the water, sitting cross legged with the laptop in my lap, typing. I don’t have my feet on the floor because our robot vacuum, Jackie, is working. I am drinking iced coffee in a yeti cup. My posture is poor.

I think I had a resolution to write once a week or something, which obviously didn’t happen, but still better than the like, year-long gaps I’ve taken the past few years. I don’t think too much went on last week - we had a long weekend for the Labour Day holiday which was nice but didn’t really do much. A actually ended up working a lot of the public holiday for the Queen’s death and then he had a work event the Saturday of the long weekend so that kind of broke up the extra time off. I read a lot and watched the full Swimming with Sharks series on amazon with Kiernan Shipka and Naomi Watts which I really loved. This probably says something negative about me, but I just love things creepy thriller type shows that are visually stunning. Just googled and didn’t realize it was a re-make of a 90’s movie with Kevin Spacey. I would watch that as well.

Friday night we went to a preview screening of Don’t Worry Darling which was kind of in the same vein. Beautifully staged, filmed, and directed, and everyone in it was gorgeous of course. (I find Harry Styles weirdly attractive - the boy band stuff was never my thing but I kind of love his cheeky pansexual vibe nowadays? I also love his Adore You song and video where he befriends a magical fish.) I liked it and the DWD screening itself was very nice with cocktails and snacks and wine. It had been a long week and I kind of fell asleep towards the end…oops. But I did really like it.

The next day A had an event starting at 5:30pm but we actually got up early to go walking around the lake. On our way we hit this spring festival, Floriade, which was cute. It was free during the day and there were lots of fun flowers and kiosks and things. We grabbed a coffee and rode the ferris wheel which was kind of fun. We ended up having a nice long walk to spend some quality time together before he headed out.

His event was a local concert which was outdoors and the weather was not great, so he thought he might be able to just go for 30 minutes or so to greet some people and then leave him to it, but he ended up having to stay the whole time. We didn’t have dinner so he brought some food home. I probably should have ordered delivery but the one time I got some takeout when A wasn’t home, the delivery person gave me my food and then said he also offered massage services. Are you kidding me? Super creepy.

Didn’t do much on Sunday but at night we went to the Floriade NightFest to check it out and use the two remaining ferris wheel tickets. We walked there, checked it out, bought a bottle of wine, rode the ferris wheel and walked home. Drank the wine on our balcony in the dark to cap off the weekend. Appreciated the extra day to laze with him working on Saturday and the Queen’s Memorial Day.

Workweek was uneventful. Saturday we went to Bunnings (did not get a sausage as it was raining and I didn’t want to eat it in the rain or in the new car) and did errands including the Chemist’s Warehouse, which is like a super-drugstore. Good stuff. We shared a tofu/veggie/vermicelli vietnamese bun bowl which was yummy. Got a few groceries and a bottle of wine and we drank it while doing home improvements. By “we” I mean A did home improvements and I occasionally brought him stuff, held stuff, etc. Oh and I wrapped his birthday presents in the local newspaper.

The next day was A’s birthday and I had arranged some fun plans. We got ready and were picked up around 10am in a refurbished 1986 London taxi cab! (This vehicle was the main reason I chose this particular tour - A thought it was really cool!) Met our driver/guide who took us out to the local wine country. Did some wine tasting and then a beautiful lunch overlooking mountains and vineyards. It was 2 courses with pairings but SO much food. We had the perfect seat, right by the window and the best view.

For our entrees (first course in Australia) I had A choose first and he picked the poached salmon with red curry sauce, prawn cracker, and chili oil with a sparkling rose. All his food was so pretty and pink.

I got the roast chicken breast with pea puree, red cabbage salad, quail egg, and pickled radish which came with the vineyard’s (non-oaky) chardonnay.

For our mains A had herb marinated lamb with tomato sesame sauce, roast cauliflower, and chimmichuri which was nice with a shiraz.

I did the lemon baked barramundi with parsnip puree, sous vide fennel, and lemon sauce with a riesling. It was good and luckily Australian rieslings are very different to the sickly sweet german or austrian versions.

We also each got a side which we could have done without, because they were both enormous. A had shoestring fries with rosemary salt, and I had a wild arugula salad, beetroot, shaved parmesan, and balsamic. So much food but everything was so yummy and each course was so pretty, with all the colorful dramatic drizzles and such.

The next stop was a winery just down the road and we sat outside on the patio. It was super sunny so I asked the team if they would be able to open up the pergola for some shade. It was automated! Very cool. About 20 minutes later it started pouring so it was good the canopy was still up. The rain in the air felt so good, not too cold as we are heading into summer here.

The next winery was also a fromagerie that also made their own pickles, so we had a really nice cheeseboard there. Everything was timed really well so by the time we made it to that one, we were peckish again.

Went to two more vineyards which were all really fun. We got about 6 bottles of our favorites of each, and put them right into our storage unit in the basement which being 3 levels underground, should make a pretty good wine cave.

Then we went upstairs and A opened his presents. Besides the wine tour, I got him:

• A dji mini 3 drone and “fly more” kit with case, extra blades, extra batteries. I also got the dji “refresh” insurance which replaces for 2 years if anything happens to the drone as he is learning. I don’t usually get insurance like this for things but thought it might be a good idea here. And if he doesn’t use it in the first 2 years, it extends for a 3rd for no extra cost.

• Set of olives, olive oils, and vinegars from Homeleigh Groves. Someone had gifted us with their Lemon Myrtle infused olive oil when we first came to town and we were both crazy for the stuff but it was almost out, so I thought it would be fun to get some more and try different flavours. We are going to do a tasting dipping chunks of bread into the lemon myrtle versus blood orange, rosemary & thyme and then the regular balsamic versus the spiced mandarin balsamic. Can’t wait!

• 2 pairs of fun socks from SHEIN, one with sea turtles and one with starfish and octopus patterns

• Pair of his favorite jeans from Taylor Stitch

• 2 sets of new sheets and bathtowels from Brooklinen

• Book of James Bond Quotes