Forgive the radio silence around here – I’ve been trapped in a time warp where the only hours I’m conscious are between 8AM-5PM. And before I know it, I’m waking up to get ready for work again.  I blame the 800% humidity and 37*C temperatures and my debilitating cramps and two relatively stressful weeks at work. So in all honesty, blogging got lost in the cray. Hoo-ray.

So, what have we been up to in the last 11 days?  A slightly above average amount of activity you say? Well hot damn.

Last Saturday started at 3AM with Trump’s inauguration. I wanted to be there to witness the assassination/immediate impeachment/Ashton Kutcher reveal that it was all a prank – but then nothing like that happened so I just watched in stunned horror, wanting to believe that it was my bleary 3AM eyes that made him look like a flamboyant, gesticulating butthole in a dumb red necktie giving the thumbs up (serioulsy) and chanting about uniting the nation (while systematically dividing it). Alas, it was not. These things actually happened. It was hard to watch.

Continuing the Scary Saturday theme, Joel and I checked out the Spiders: Alive and Deadly Exhibition at the Australian Museum.

I’m super scared of spiders. However, when they are caged and safely kept away from me, I love them and can’t get enough – give or take the odd shudder and feelings of EVERYTHING crawling all over me.  The exhibition boasted “over 400 real spider specimens” and “creepy crawly immersive experiences.” I was down. I was excited to get to know spiders more in a totally contained environment. i.e. not biting me or getting caught in my hair.

The “creepy crawly immersive experiences” were, unfortunately, a let down. I was looking forward to a dome where you could look up through a glass ceiling and see heaps of spiders in webs. However, there was only one spider. At least he was eating something, so that was cool. There was a virtual reality exhibit that gave the impression of giant cave tarantulas crawling all over you, which was cool, and about 3 different ways to magnify and examine specimens super close. Oh, and the specimens. There were so many. Enough to give you nightmares. SO much NOPE.

Overall, very kid friendly (there were so many kid activities), but super informative as well – did you know that a spider’s heart runs along the back of its thorax? I thought that silk was the only junk in that trunk. We didn’t get to see the live spider milking, but I bet that would have been rad as hell. 7/10, would visit again. I took about 700 pics, here are a few:

After the speeeeders, we looked around the exotic animals room, and I visited some distant relatives:

We had lunch at the No.1 William restaurant at the top of the museum. Delish burger, delish view.

After all that, we stopped by a little game shop to pick up Scrabble. We’ve gotten into Words with Friends again, which made us want to play the real thing. But Scrabble was $60 and travel sized Monopoly was $15, so Monopoly prevailed.

I haven’t played Monopoly with just two people in ages. It’s been so long that I forgot that a two person game of Monopoly takes about 14 hours to conclude. I was kicking ass right out the gate, buying all the rail roads, the utilities, and stocking some low-rent streets with houses. I saw Joel was struggling, so I saved my money and held off buying more hotels until he got back on his feet. I helped him out of the hole buy buying his Boardwalk and Park Place (except Monopoly is British here so all the names are different and weird and well, British), and I still had like, $4k in my bank. I was riding high.

 

But then. I had paid more for BW and PP than they were worth because I felt bad for Joel. He in turn took that $1000 and immediately bought all the houses he could for his highest rent streets. Ok.

Then I landed on those properties 3 times in a row. It wiped me out. And he continued to build and build and build. He showed me no mercy. I ended up selling back BW and PP, selling my utilities, hotels and houses for half their worth, mortgaging my properties, buying them back, putting hotels up, taking them back down, and finally, I was in jail, broke, completely mortgaged, and basically dead.

So now I know where I stand. Next time, I’m going TERMINATOR.

I also went to my friend Casey’s birthday party at a vegan restaurant that totally made me forget I was eating vegan. This place made vegan duck and vegan chicken taste just like the real thing. I was beyond impressed. Everyone should check out Golden Lotus in Newtown.

AND in SUPER EXCITING NEWS – I got the desk I’ve been lusting after for almost a year. My friend Josien and I left work a bit early on Wednesday and trekked up to the blue and yellow wünder land, where I got our replacement bookcase, our new desk, and some other odds and ends. I had a 4 day weekend because of Australia Day, so I had 4 days to play around with it. It’s so big and spacious and doesn’t look cluttered. I love it.

Speaking of living life to its fullest, I met my friend Kat for donuts at Mug Life, a 90’s themed donut and coffee joint that is 100% worth the 20 minute sweaty, sweaty walk.

And diving further into the pool of fulfilled living, I finally got to put together the puzzle I bought weeks ago. It was easy because the pieces were huge. I need a good 1000 piece with tiny pieces. Something that I can’t finish in 4 hours.

Ikea, friend hangs, new desk, donuts, reading, lots of QT with Joel = Australia Day 2017 was definitely a good one.

And on a fun note, my mom now knows how to call me through the Skype app on her phone. I feel like I’m watching my kid take its first step. /sniffle

So, what’s everyone else been up to? Enjoying your winters? Sweating to death in your summer? Thanking your lucky stars that your president isn’t a complete asshole, ignoring the very Constitution he’s supposed to defend?