Hotch-potch.

Harro!

Don't you hate it when you have to squeeze five days' work into four? That was me last week.
Another monster week looms this week, with abstract art painting, running and such. And work. Always work.
(HOW GOOD WAS OFFSPRING??????)

So, what in this past week or so has been particularly blog-worthy?

Thursday night, the fella and I went to a beer vs pig (the Kiwis) event at Atticus Finch in Brunswick. My fella is Kiwi and loves his brew and swine. Me, I am much more a wine girl than a beer girl. I actually gave most of my beer samples to him. They were very complex brews, a bit too funky for me (when I must drink beer, it is Corona or something light and fruity). There were many matched smallgoods on offer. It was good, but more of a man-thing. Plus I woke up at night with palpitations, probably related to the nitrates. But now I am sounding like a tool so I will shuddup about that.

I tried a bit of pattern-mixing in my work outfit on Friday. Behold:

All of the clothing is stuff I have had for a while - the frock is very old concession Leona Edmiston ($70 bucks, but never fails to get compliments and washes up beautifully), the cardie is Witchery, the scarf was gifted and the boots are circa-2009. The toilets are my work building, circa-1960.

And a closer look at the pattern mixing, and my chins.

Friday was a tough day. It was, as somebody said, Fuckwit Friday. Fraught with frustration.
I found myself at various times about to lose my cool, but held it together. I always feel bad for getting angry, and find it might come out in my voice, but a lovely colleague said that I held up admirably. That was good of her to say and made me feel better. Though these situations, plus being busy and a bit tired, certainly bring up the aggro factor.

Hence, when I got home on Friday, I was very tempted to go "fuckit, I want a pizza, then I want a bottle of wine, and screw driving across town to visit my brother".

(ie doing the very thing that I had told my patients not to do in clinic a few hours earlier.)

I thought "NO, I am going to LOOK AFTER MYSELF!" A bigger and better act of defiance against the world, don't you think?

I had some mexe beans with capsicum and salsa and corn, and ate them with some oven-baked corn tortillas. Kind of like healthy nachos.

Go. Me.

On Saturday, I had a facial, which was part of a birthday present. It was lovely, and my skin really did look and feel nice after. They slopped on some off-milk and shone some special light or some such on it. It is something I need to do more often, being on the downhill side of thirty and all. Part of LOOKING AFTER MYSELF.  The fella and I then made a trip to the city to wander about, and have a nice dinner at geriatric hour. However, on arriving at the Meatball and Wine Bar in the city we were told that the wait would be an hour. I got distressed at that point. But, always clear thinking, I bundled us in a cab to Collingwood and made an emergency call to Josie Bones. Luckily, they had one table of two left, which I promptly nabbed. The Porkstravaganza of Thursday evening extended into Saturday evening.

I have been to JB a few times, it is always popular with people of the man-variety, so I figured the fella would like it. The menu is based around beer and meat. There are vegetables and wine too, if one is so-inclined. The beer menu is encyclopedic. There is something for everybody there, even me. They have a little counter on their wall which, Julia tells me, is the number of people who they have managed to convert to beer drinkers. (Not, as I guessed, the number of dumbass references to Masterchef the owners Chris and Julia get).

Behold, some pork crackling. And other deep fried deliciousness. Behind is a meat cutter thingy. This photo contains approximately 500 grams of saturated fat. Just looking at it can clog your arteries. But YOLO, right?

And here is some beer that I liked. The first one is a Belgian Raspberry Lambic. Kind of like a tart raspberry cordial, for grown ups. It went down a treat. The second one is an apple beer - the front part of the taste was apple-y, and the second part was a very beery, hoppy, fragrant taste. It was very yummy, and will have to get my mitts on some.

We ate the rolled pigs head, some confit chicken, some vegetables and some cheese to finish. No sweeties.

Sunday was a quieter day. I had to do some work, making amendments to a paper which is due today. Yes. I know. Distasteful.

I have been quite good, food wise, during the week, and this is starting to show up on the scales, which is good.  The weekend is where I like to let my hair down a bit, but the next goal is not to be a complete glutton. Just a little bit of one. Contained gluttony.

I am already looking forward to Friday.

On another, more navel-gazing note, a couple of years back, I never used to look forward to weekends. Mostly because I was bored shitless. We would never do anything.

Then, when I separated from my ex, I jammed my weekends with stuff. Mostly because I was like a puppy being let out of a laundry, doing happy laps, but also because I was scared to be still. Scared of what stuff might pop into my mind.

In the end, I had to find a balance between doing cool stuff and relaxing. Both are important.

I hope you all had an interesting, but still relaxing, weekend.

Also, what is your favourite drink?