Hi Everyone, I’m back with the newsletter that no one has asked for. Sharing things that most don’t care about. But I do care, so I’ve decided to try and reboot this newsletter. I got caught up in uni and life last year. Apart from a couple of cruises, 4 uni subjects and a dislocated elbow nothing too exciting happened.
January in Review
Well the year started off with study (boo hiss) as I received special consideration for my exam due to the dislocated elbow. My exam was on the 6th of January so that was a bit poopy. I went out Bucketty’s in Brookvale for a birthday get together and thank goodness uni is over. The XPA and the sunday special roast pork burger are great. I did manage to get away for a small trip to Berry to go shopping at the popping candy pop up shop. It was great to get away. I may have brought some shoes accidentally. Otherwise I have been relaxing, watching cricket and learning Python.
Books
After knocking over my 26 book goal in 2024 (I read 44 books), I thought I would just go with the same again in 2025. No reason to push my luck. I’ve started off well with 3 books in January
- A Gentleman Fallen on Hard Times – Grace Burrowes: This is the second book I’ve read by Grace Burrowes and the first in The Lord Julian series. I really enjoyed spending time with Lord Julian and his godmother, Lady Ophelia Oliphant. He is returned solider who was captured and tortured during Napoleonic war. There wasn’t a murder but more of a mystery about what is going on at the country house and what really happened to Julian during the war. I’ll definitely be reading the next one. (I borrowed the ebook from the library and read the book in a day)
- Ask a historian -Greg Jenner: Greg Jenner is one of the writers of Horrible Histories (YouTube, ABC iview) and host and writer of my favourite podcast ‘You’re dead to me’ (BBC sounds, Spotify, Apple). I was never not going to enjoy this. I listened to it on Spotify with Greg as the narrator. The book responds to 50 genuine questions from the public, travelling on an entertaining tour through the ages, revealing the best and most surprising stories, facts, and historical characters from the past. Bouncing through a wide range of subjects ā from ancient jokebooks, African empires, and bizarre tales of medicinal cannibalism, to the invention of meringues, mirrors, and menstrual pads.
- Five Little Pigs – Agatha Christie: This is the first of the 2025 Agatha Christie Challenge (yep I’m trying again this year). The theme is artists. It’s the 25th Hercule Poirot book, written in 1942. The plot is an investigation of a murder that happened 16 years earlier. The story is told through the nursery rhyme of the five little pigs. Also it Hercule Poiret gets the ‘5 pigs’ to write their memories of the events which was an interesting writing tool. I enjoyed it. Not my favourite but very good.
Music
Lots of listening to music, really enjoying revisiting Sting, Dire Straits and Toto. I’ve also been enjoying Lou Donaldson, who has the best album name ‘Everything I play is Funky’.
Strange Rooster
I went to the camelot lounge for the first time. One of my favourite drummers was playing in Strange Rooster. So Miss M and I went off to enjoy a wonderful night out. They are a party band who played tracks like ‘Spinning wheel’, A message to you Rudy’ and ‘Late in the evening’. So a varied evening of music. Heaps of fun and lots of dancing.
Viewed
Sport
So surprise surprise I watched cricket, cricket and is that more cricket. Of course I’ve enjoyed the Ashes win by the Aussie women and the Aussie men’s win in the India-Australia series. Also lots of night time watching of Big Bash. Really if there was cricket on I was probably watching it.
Now, I have no memory of why I’ve written this down, 180. So if anyone knows what I was telling myself when I wrote down 180 that would be great.
Other things
When I wasn’t watching cricket, I was hanging out on YouTube watching
- Drumeo – heaps of hours watching people play drums either their own tracks or my favourites ‘Never heard the song before’ where the drummer hears a track without the drums part and has to make up their own version. So good.
- Practical Engineering – I’ve probably shared this channel before but that doesn’t make it any less cool. Big engineering explainer videos.
- Calum – His videos don’t come out very often but the research into history of rare machinery is absolutely brilliant.
- B1M – Always a go to channel to catch up on construction projects from around the world (nothing to do with how good looking the host is at all, hehehe). Also there are some episodes on the tunnels in the Faroe Islands.
Things I made
This month I managed to get some sewing done and started on my MakeNine for 2025. I made a bubble skirt and a top from some cherry fabric I found in the stash. So excited to own a bubble skirt, I didn’t have one the first time around so I am excited they are back in fashion. Heaps easier to make than I thought it would be. I used McCall’s M8452 for the bubble skirt and a modified version of McCall’s M7630 for the top. Here a few pictures of me on a lovely day out in Berry rocking my new outfit. Ok the middle one is just me eating liquorice ice cream but I’m very happy about it. š
Coming up in February
- Orchestra starts rehearsals for the year with our first concert at St Leonard’s Park, North Sydney on Sunday 16th of March at 4:30 (TBC) keep across the details at https://www.nsso.org.au/concerts
- Uni goes back for what might be my final semester. Two subjects, Optimisation and Numerical Linear Algebra, wish me luck
- I’m starting a role (unpaid) as data analyst for Warringah Rats which is very exciting.
- Post Modern Jukebox concert is on which will be wonderful.