Hello Monday

Hi friends, and happy Monday! I’m back linking up with Holly and Sarah on this sunny autumn day to share a bit about my weekend. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Saturday

Saturday was our federal election day, and we walked up to our local polling station to cast our votes. It was all very straightforward, and we were in and out pretty quickly.

After voting, I walked to Woolworths to get some turkey mince and regretted not taking my shopping trolley. Yep, here I am again, turning a ‘just one thing’ trip into way more!

After my shopping trip, I had avocado, mini Roma tomatoes, and fetta with balsamic glaze on sourdough for lunch–yum!

Winter Gala 2025

In the evening, it was time to watch my talented cousin perform at her Winter Gala. This time, most of the Cousin Connect crew came along, and we had a reserved table, with a cheese platter and a drink included in the ticket price.

It was great to see so many performances from incredibly talented dancers of all ages. I especially loved hearing stories of people who started dancing later in life—it was such a good reminder that it’s never too late to try something new.

I’m not just saying this because she’s my cousin and I love her, but honestly, her performance was amazing. She was definitely one of the best dancers. The way she moved so gracefully, like she was floating across the floor—it looked effortless.

Latin dancing is tricky! We had a quick salsa lesson before the performances started, and I couldn’t ‘one, two, three’ my way around without concentrating hard and counting out loud.

Sunday

I had some milk that needed to be used up, so I made smoothies. I went with the still-drinkable milk, added some water for the right consistency, and tossed in:

• A handful of mixed frozen berries

• 1 banana

• 1 apple

• A good dash of maple syrup (I usually use honey, but we were running low—and now I think I actually prefer the taste of maple syrup. It’s a bit naughtier, but sweeter and extra delicious.)

Then blended it all together, adjusting with water as needed, and ended up with three delicious smoothies.

Smoothies are such a great way to use up things in the fridge before they turn into science experiments. You don’t need a strict recipe because you can just throw in what you have and blend away. But if you’re after a few ideas, you can find my smoothie recipes here for more combos and inspiration.

The rest of Sunday was pretty low-key, and I didn’t do anything wildly exciting (not that I ever get wild, haha!). I ended up doing a few chores, which isn’t really my thing on a Sunday. Sundays are for taking it easy, and I usually like to avoid stressing about the week ahead. But, of course, there’s always something that needs doing, isn’t there?

Oh, I nearly forgot—we ended the weekend with the last-ever episode of Vera, and I’m so sad the show has ended after 14 years! My Sunday evenings won’t be the same without Vera Stanhope solving yet another case. She’s been the perfect end to many weekends.

And that was my weekend. How was yours? I hope it was a good one. I’m looking forward to being back here on Wednesday to start sharing the recaps from the last week of our trip, and this time, it’s all about our adventures in sunny Hawaii.

Happy Monday!