Hello Monday!

Hi friends, and welcome to the Hello Monday link-up with Holly and Sarah. Thanks so much for reading along as I share a bit about what I got up to over the weekend.

Saturday

It’s so good to start Saturday morning with a cup of coffee. I used the grinder I bought on Amazon to grind some coffee beans my lovely friends bought me a little while ago. I only grind coffee on the weekends because it takes time and it also gives me a good arm workout. It’s a nice treat too!

It was a wet, windy, and miserable Saturday morning. Steve and I, being a couple of nosey Parkers, went to a house auction. The house was in a suburb a 10-minute drive from our place. We don’t have any plans to move, but the house up for auction was in Steve’s dream location (near the water). He drives past it every day on his way to work, so he was curious to see how much it would sell for.

We bundled up and watched the bidding war between two very keen buyers. Just before the auctioneer called “sold,” another buyer swooped in with a bigger offer and bought the house. It sold for an eye-watering four and a half million dollars! I couldn’t believe it, especially considering the condition the house was in. I took a photo of one of the rooms, but I wish I had taken more so you could see how it was a total mess, with mould in all the rooms. I’m sure it will be knocked down and rebuilt, but I just wanted to show you what property prices are like in some suburbs of Sydney! And Steve’s dream location will remain just that—a dream!

Later in the afternoon, my groceries arrived. Can you spy some of my favourite weekend treats (hello salt and vinegar chips!)

My big boy Luke came over, and we had nachos, corn salad, rice, and guacamole for dinner.

Then we watched “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” I didn’t love it, as it was very all over the place and I was baffled throughout most of the movie. But later on, Luke explained that the main character has undiagnosed ADHD and that the film’s director, Daniel Kwan, was diagnosed with ADHD while writing the script. Interestingly, all his research led him to his diagnosis. I wish I had known this before watching the movie because, thinking back on it now, it makes more sense. I have a very close family member with a recent diagnosis, and it’s quite a journey.

Saturday night, it was freezing, so we warmed up with some hot chocolate and Christmas cookies that were still in date. Haha!

Sunday

Sunday afternoon Steve and I went into the city. It felt like it had been ages since we had been anywhere and we had such a lovely evening! We had a drink in an old-style pub and watched some people having fun dancing to a live band.

On the way to dinner, we stopped and listened to a guy play some well-known songs on his saxophone. I could have listened for hours, he was so talented!

We had dinner in a little Japanese restaurant.

Then we jumped on the train and went home for dessert and an episode of ‘Vera’.

It was a lovely weekend, and I enjoyed spending time with my family. However, I have to admit that the whole time, I couldn’t shake a nervous, uneasy feeling in my stomach. I couldn’t stop thinking about the upcoming week. This week is not my favourite because I have an assessor coming to observe me at work for four hours tomorrow. It’s part of my course; she will watch how I interact with the children and families etc. Ugh! I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over, and I just hope I can act normal. I really do not like being ‘observed’!

And I wish I could say that I will be relieved once tomorrow is over, but no, there’s more. Steve is having a knee replacement on Friday. Hopefully, on Saturday, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Please send prayers and good vibes my way. I would really appreciate them!

Take care, and I hope to be back on Friday to share some favourites. There have to be some favourites about this week, right?

Thanks for being here!