Snow day + good things to share

It snowed today! The weather app teased to it for almost a week and then the snow icon disappeared on Friday night. Still I was very hopeful. Snow or just the possibility of it makes the very chilly end of winter worth it. At about midday, after debating whether we were seeing light rain or actual snowflakes, we put on our puffers and headed onto our balcony in time to see it snow for a good 5-10 minutes. You can't really see it in these photos but I promise it was there! It always feels special to see snow falling in the city.

I felt really flat this week - a combination of it being the tail end of winter, heading back to work after a break and the final changes for my team being announced after we were hit by job cuts. It surprised me because I wasn't expecting it. I also realised that I was feeling lonely, the result of being a little too cautious about coronavirus.

While Canberra still has no cases and has only light restrictions, I definitely changed my behaviour as I watched what happened in Melbourne (and a bit in Sydney too). I started to feel really nervous about going out to cafes and busy places and hanging out with people indoors. My friend at work told me that she'd heard somewhere that only 10% of worry is actually productive, so I'm trying to be braver. It's definitely a work in progress but a good realisation to have had.

My tax return came in the day after my birthday (timing!) so I treated myself to Skye McAlpine's new cookbook, which looked so great! I'm making an osso bucco from it tonight because it's good snow day fare. I've also tried the creamy lemon pasta, which was sunny and fast, so perfect for the end of the week. 

The cookbook has so many recipes with sage, so I bought a sage seedling to plant along with other herbs like thyme, parsley and rosemary. It was going to be my weekend project, repotting them... and then it snowed! There is always tomorrow.

I'm also reading Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld and really enjoying it (the sex scenes though!). It's a fictional take on how Hillary Clinton's life could've been if she never married Bill. When it came out, I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it but it got rave reviews from a few people I follow and they were right!

We've also been making ram-don, the instant noodle dish from the movie Parasite. A workmate recommended this video and we used the same technique. There's a great Asian grocer in the city so we found the exact varieties of instant noodles as well as some diced wagu brisket that wasn't as expensive as it sounds. It's pretty delicious - we've already had it twice in one week! 

I'm also excited to share Julia Ostro's sticky pork meatballs that bake in the oven with broccolini and are served over brown rice. And an ABC Life recipe I think I've made six times - a dutch baby with caramel apples. It's so lovely for lazy weekend breakfasts and I filmed the little video that's in the recipe. 

Finally, if you're looking for something to watch this weekend, I highly recommend the doco Boys State, which is on Apple TV. It follows a group of American teenage boys as they head to a camp where they learn about the US democratic system and play it out, competing to become Governor. It's such a bizarre ritual and the doco is so thrilling and scary in parts too. We watched it the other night and can't stop talking about it. 

Thanks as always for reading along! 

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