Week 79 — Easter break

• I took 3 days off over the Easter / ANZAC day period for a whopping 10 days of value!
• We drove up to Sydney one of the days to check out some tiles we were keen on for our renovation. We had samples, and photos, but just needed to see them in person before pulling the trigger. Sydney and back was pretty much the perfect distance for Sebastian. We drove for a few hours and stopped in Bowral for lunch and a leg-stretch. Bowral is this weird place that is far enough away from Sydney that it captures people looking to leave the city (for whatever reason) and as such is bougie as fuck for a small country town. Nice for a quick stop though. Onwards then through Moss Vale and in to the industrial areas of Sydney. If fuel price is a judge of an area, unleaded was ~$207.00 in Moss Vale and ~$150.00 where we ended up stopping to look at flooring. Some pretty cool camo-wrapped cars to be seen, though. We spent all of 30 minutes looking at tiling, and then it was back in the car to try and maybe get home for Sebastian's bed time routine — which starts at 5pm. We spent that time in traffic, only hitting the outskirts of Sydney at 6pm. We did, however, make the wise choice of having one of us sit in the back with him for the return trip — and I tell you what, I was adding verses to "The Wheels on the Bus" like my life depended on it! But by about 6:30pm, he had tired himself out and slept right through to 8 when we got him home and back in to his bed. All in all a successful trip, and now we kinda know our limits and how to plan for a day trip like this in the future!
• Abby and I have been playing Blue Prince over the week. We each have our own save, and neither of us are even close to cracking the puzzle box. We have, however, been watching each other play, so as I learn things from her play-through, I'll take them in to mine — bee-lining for unlocks, or punching in keypad codes that we figured out while building her mansion. If you like puzzle-box deduction style games, this one is a very good rogue-like one of those. Like Tunic, without the combat, like Animal Well without the metroid-vania elements.
• I joined our local library the other week after getting back in to the habit of reading more often. I have been meaning to get to the works of Haruki Murakami and having read "A Wild Sheep Chase" a few weeks prior, I'm now on the lookout for the rest. It was a good book — mystical realism is my jam, and it was incredibly easy to get through in a few sittings — though maybe he needed an advisor when writing his female characters on that one. Up next is "Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world".
• We took a trip out to Tidbinbilla nature reserve today. The weather is such that it's not too hot now, but not icy cold yet. ANZAC day is usually the turning point (both in Canberra lore, and in our experience) where days go from ~20˚C to barely breaking 10˚C. So it has been nice to have a few more days of warmth that we can enjoy before we get in to the bitterness of winter. We took Sebastian in a carrier (rather than pushing the pram around) and he seemed to love it! He wasn't too interested in the nature, but he was happy enough to be out doors — babbling to himself as we walked and eventually falling asleep. I posted some photos from our day here. If you're in Canberra looking for something to do, highly recommend just picking an easy track and having a wander. It's $15 or so to bring a car load of people in, so very good value for an easy day trip.

Tags: weekly, easter, tidbinbilla, blue prince, murakami