Week 100 — Just magic
A self-made short week this week :)
A few quiet nights in and Stardew to start the week 👩🌾👨🌾. Clare has a farm going on the iPad and it has been really lovely to join in and help get all the community centre bundles 🥰. I have been playing my years-old save on the Switch and just finished the community centre, so safe to say I have been procrastinating pretty hard hah!
On Thursday Clare and I went to Pub Choir which is, and isn't, what it sounds like 😆. It is ~several thousand strangers singing together, but not in a pub, in a huge and cool theatre! Clare showed me a recording of the previous one she attended and it looked like a super joyful experience — so when a ticket came up to join her, I couldn't pass it up! The night started with a find-a-carpark mini-game which sucked. Getting stuck for 30+ mins in a full carpark you just want to get out of is 100% one of the special punishments in hell. After finding a park by the Canberra Centre I rushed back to meet Clare who was so kind to wait for my sorry-ass to book it back to the venue (❤️). We thankfully didn't miss much! They were just doing some warm-up things / helping people sort out a seating / standing arrangement to make sure they were with similar-sounding voices. I was sitting up in the higher range with Clare and her choir pals, so had to migrate to one of the lower sections else struggle to hit anything close to their range 😆. On the way to a seat in a different section, I wandered past a fellow in a red trump-cap. I wonder if he was lost? But, I found a seat and had an absolute blast learning an arrangement of Take On Me by A-ha. The way it worked was the words were up on screen, a line for the soprano-y voices in blue, alto-y voices in green and bass-y voices in red. Each slide had a handful of words, that were set higher or lower based on the relative change in pitch — with GIFs to act as memory devices (of course). Each section would take turns learning their part on each slide and then we would move on, culminating in this absolute masterpiece (shot on shitty phone cam™). The whole experience was a joy. A delight. A room full of people singing their hearts out, and having a bloody good time doing it. People cheering for the other parts when they nailed a section. All the positive energy concentrated on one thing. I can't express how much fun it was, clearly, but to say A++, would sing again. Oh and, what an ear-worm that song was holy moly. It was so nice to then find Clare again post-show and just bask in what an affirmative experience it all was — minus the parking 🥰
On Friday, Sebby and I flew down to Melbourne for my cousin's wedding. The flight was scheduled for ~2pm, so we headed over at around 11:30 (bag drop closed at 1:30, and I figured he might nap in the car). He did not nap in the car. Oh well, I thought, quick nap in the airport before the flight. The flight which was no delayed until 4:00pm 😱. I'd dropped my bag already, and paid for parking, so I didn't really want to leave. Instead, we hung out in the airport for 5 hours. Sebby re-arranged some of the pod-chairs they have there, observed all the strangers, looooooved looking at the trucks and cars on the runway, wasn't super interested in the planes, but did love one leaf in particular that blew past. We had some lunch at lunchtime, and I tried to get him to nap. Which was bloody hard in the noisy gate lounges. He did look like he was going down briefly, but then woke back up after hearing the announcement tones go off. Rats. So, we read some books, sang some songs, wandered around some more, and that's when I found a little quiet area to see if he would nap. I put him on my lap, started to sing him a song and before I could see if he was bored of the same song, he was out. Woke up by himself 10 mins before boarding, and we took off to Melbourne. He was a champion on the flight, was fascinated by the seat-back and all the paperwork / magazines in the holder. The tray table thing and the phone holder all kept him busy for the majority of the flight. Towards the end, I handed him my phone (he loves to look at himself in the selfie camera) and he recorded our descent into Melbourne. Mum and my grandma picked us up and we went back to Mum's for a quick explore of her house and dinner before hopping into bed! We both slept like logs after that 😂.
On Saturday we got up at about 7am, had some breaky, played with some playdough that mum made, blew some bubbles and explored the garden before getting ready to head off to the wedding ceremony. It was so genuinely lovely to see Sebby meeting so much of his extended family. Everyone loved seeing him, albeit cautious at first, he slowly warmed up to the business of the room. We managed to get a couple of lovely photos before the ceremony started, and, just as it was starting, he demanded to sit on my mum's lap and give her a cuddle (🥹). A typical ceremony, though, riddled with random sit-stand segments. When we were standing, Sebby was having a great time climbing up on the pews and then climbing down again. Using his candle, which he didn't want to light, as a drum stick, and then eventually a flail of sorts, as it snapped in to multiple pieces. We wrapped up around 12, and in typical Greek fashion everyone tried to mob the newlyweds to congratulate them, while everyone else formed a line on the side. We got to lunch at about 1:30-2:00, but I wanted to see if I could get Sebby to nap in the car before our flight home that afternoon. To no avail. So mum brought us out some snacks, and I went off and got changed and hopped in a car to the airport. Where Sebby did then fall asleep. And he was still asleep when we arrived. I dropped my bag off, sat for ~20 minutes with him while he was still asleep, went through security and he woke up the moment I picked up my bag off the scanner 😂. We had a quick snack and hopped on our flight back to Canberra. It was similar to the first flight — though now the reading material in the back of the seat, was a hat, and he wanted to share it with other people! That night Clare and I got some take-away Greek food and caught up on the happenings of the trip.
On Sunday we spent the day getting breakfast at Fox and Bow. There was an incredibly sweet looking french toast on the menu, that we both got sucked in to getting and it was probably the best french toast I have had at a cafe. Incredibly filling too! Didn't really feel hungry 'til dinner! We then had a quick look at Her Canberra to see what was on for the weekend, got overwhelmed, picked a few things at random, and set off. Our first stop (and the only thing we really looked at on that list!), was a visit to PhotoAccess to check out the Canberra Contemporary Photographic Prize for 2026. But, it was closed. So we wandered up in to Manuka to check out a small exhibition there. There were some really interesting crochet and glass-works, but, part way through was a really detailed A2 cyanotype. Made up of layered shells and flowers, it was so so well done! We asked the artist about it and part way through her explanation she mentioned "oh yeah you can get the stuff to make this at Eckersley's art supply" (💡). On the way back to the car we were already planning our next move — a trip to buy some cyanotype supplies — via M16 first. Here there were 2 current exhibitions, a collection of garments exploring a visual and tactile language for survivors of sexual assault. And, a collection of small but detailed surreal animals, plants and building made from papier-mâché and felt. Both were really interesting explorations of their themes — but there was something about being able to really get up close to each piece and look at the details you wouldn't see in a regular gallery. Onwards to Eckersley's (and thank you for reading this far, it was a busy and detailed week!). With cyanotype kit and watercolour paper in hand, we headed back to Clare's to start experimenting with an ~184 year old form of photography. See the photos for some of that experimentation! We found some objects from around her house as well as some plants and had a crack at composing some things to see what we could get. It was pretty tricky! Knowing how long to expose for, and the fact that the sun cast elongated shadows made it hard to properly plan a composition. But it was so much fun nonetheless!! Something about that hypothesise-experiment-observe-adjust cycle really draws me in to science and art, and it was so much fun doing it with someone who was also was keen to experiment, and see what kinds of things we could make ❤️. With the sunlight fading, though, we only got a few exposures in, but left with a head full of ideas and hearts full from being creative. We spent the evening getting dinner with Clare's dad and then called it a (very successful) day.
A lot packed in to 4 days, but I definitely came away feeling refreshed and full of joy and gratitude for the amazing and beautiful people in my life and all the wonder this world can offer 🥰!
Tags: weekly