Good habits return

I ate a lot of chips at the start of isolation, afternoon tea too. And now I'm suddenly remembering... vegetables 😂 It's like everything's happening in reverse - more and more of my good habits are returning as the city starts to open up. There were a couple of weeks where I'd forget to leave the apartment, maybe because I was so nervous about being outside. Now we're going for walks most days and starting to visit some of our favourite cafes and ice cream shops again. It's small stuff but really nice.

I'm super excited about Movie Night, a way to rent and stream films from my favourite Sydney cinema. Even though I live in Canberra, I often look at what's playing because the curation is always great with a nice mix of indie films, cult classics and docos. I reckon I'll start with either the Ryuichi Sakamoto documentary or Yellow Is Forbidden, which is about a Chinese couture designer.

Being at home for so long has helped me improve little corners of the house. My bedside table no longer has books on, in and under it. Instead it's just a few special-to-me things, some from my time in Wagga Wagga and newer things like a bunch of flowers my sister-in-law dried. It's a nice reminder that things can look good without spending a lot of money.

Most nights I read a couple of instalments of 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith before bed. I've never read any of his books before (and only realised he was a dude a couple of weeks ago!) and the concept for this book is so unique. Originally the novel was a serialised column in a Scottish newspaper. A new one came out every day, which means you can read a bit of the story every day without too much effort. It's been the nicest way to ease back into reading after a long break.

My friend Irini recommended the book after reading the first instalment of a comic series I've been involved with at work. She's also the reason Tony and I became obsessed with High Fidelity on iView. We watched the first ep after hearing about it on a podcast but didn't love it right away - and I'm so glad we went back and kept watching.

It's been super nice to grow stuff again! A friend at work says it's just nice to care for something and I'm finding that to be very true. I'm also loving chef Roy Choi's posts on Instagram this week from his funny pep talks ("Be the turtle") to dreams of becoming a florist.

Finally, some recipes to share. I made Julia Ostro's pasta e fagioli this week and had forgotten how magical it is. It's super flavoursome for something with a couple of simple ingredients. I also spent Monday testing her newest recipe for ABC Life, peanut butter and chocolate blondies with salted peanuts. It's super delicious.

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