#amonthinthelife

#amonthinthelife- Days 29-31

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The Internet woes continued, and it is only now that I have the time and the bandwidth to post! The data usage on my phone has been quite considerable as a result:).

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Birthday boy strikes a pose #amonthinthelife #sean

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Master BG’s birthday party was on Saturday (day 29), which involved laser tag, his mates from school, his sister and pizza. His accumulated birthday money is likely to be invested in Lego, though he has also expressed an interest in wanting to play a keyboard. A dilemma ensues- do I want my ears assailed, or my feet with the torture instruments known as stray Lego pieces?

Day 30 saw Mooch in the guitar case, attempting to sleep. It is always fun to see where she will snooze, as any of the cat beds we have made for her are only slept in for a couple of days. Is it a symptom of her life as a stray? An incredible level of fussiness? Inherent knowledge of her humans that they will be intrigued and feel the need to record any silly antics and blog about them?

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Morning #amonthinthelife #ballarat #autumn #churchst

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The last day of #amonthinthelife takes place at 7am in my street. It’s barely dawn and you can see the church’s bell tower framed against the morning sky. Daylight savings ends soon as the days get shorter. I am looking forward to that extra hour in bed.

My month in a life was an interesting exercise, and definitely got me motivated to post more. I realized that it is easier when technology plays nicely and how important it is to have a goal when you write. While my goal was to document with a photo and text a day, it also gave me a chance to reflect upon which aspect of the day I wanted to depict. That reflection upon my day was rewarding in itself. People’s comments both on Instagram and on the blog were also a delight. So thank you to my readers for following my month!

#amonthinthelife- Days 26-28

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Another omnibus edition, as my internet woes at home continue. And it would be good if my ISP would return my call…

Mr BG doesn’t really go in for music videos for his own music, and this is a screen grab of someone’s video of one of his songs that has been uploaded to YouTube. It’s intriguing to realise that many people discover new music through a visual online medium, such as Youtube, rather than radio or TV, but you gotta be where people are! MrBG is yet to embrace social media- he is quite happy with Last.FM and email, and checks out people on Facebook through my account, but that’s the extent of his foray. He still spends an inordinate amount of time (and bandwidth) online, it’s just doing other things than firing off pithy tweets or posting his latest BuzzFeed quiz results. He does like pictures of cats…

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Mine craft madness #amonthinthelife #emily

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It was funny overhearing the kids playing at Minecraft. Master BG is the older patient brother, trying to instil a love and passion and correct playing procedure in his little sister, but all she wants to do is play. The funny thing is, they were playing quite well, enjoying a common game, without the usual bickering. Miss BG adores her older brother, and was quite happy to hang out with him.

A new skirt, bought on sale from an ethical fashion website. It was a lovely splash of colour against the foggy autumnal day today, which became one of those glorious sunny days that make me love autumn so much. It looks great with black, so it should fit into my wardrobe quite well, thank you very much…

#amonthinthelife- Days 22-25

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This is an omnibus edition as a catchup over the last couple of days. A slow internet at home, and a frantic workplace does not auger well for daily posts!

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#ghostsigns #amonthinthelife #ballarat #autumn #campst

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I collect Ghost Signs, remnants of a building’s past through old signage remaining on a facade. This is one on an old woolstore which is now a local nightclub. Situated on the corner of Camp and Mair Streets, it’s a beautiful bluestone building with a cellar. There is another sign on the right hand side of the building which shows it used to be an antique shop!

I was on my way to my hairdresser to have a leisurely cut and colour when I snapped this photo,

Master BG turned 9 on Monday, but the festivities commenced a day early. We were in Geelong to visit my parents and brother who had journeyed out from London and after a lovely roast lamb dinner we had a birthday cake! Master BG, being the Minecraft nut that he is, was suitably impressed with the efforts that my lovely sister had undertaken. I am very lucky to have such a cake decorating whizz in the family :).

The actual day of the birthday was a bit rushed I fear. Master BG wanted to head out for dinner, which appealed to me after a busy day at work. He decided he wanted an adult-sized spaghetti bolognese from the local and managed to eat his way through most of it.

That may explain his reluctance to eat anything for breakfast the next morning…

Miss BG’s dance class had an open day. This allowed parents to have a peek into what the students were doing in jazz ballet. Miss BG loves jazz, as it allows an element of freedom and an opportunity to do as many handstands and cartwheels as possible. She didn’t stop moving during the class and really applied herself to it

#amonthinthelife- Day 21

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My library, like every other library in Australia has been nominated as Australia’s Favourite Library .We are all doing our best to plug and campaign to get as many votes as possible through on campus or in-house campaigns and taking it to the virtual streets with social media.

And this is where it gets funny. A lot of my friends on Twitter, and readers of this blog are librarians, all of whom are no doubt also campaigning for their library. When I made the mention of it on Facebook, a former colleague replied, no vote for MY library. It’s the beginning of #librarywars.

Maybe next year ALIA should do library games in the form of the Hunger Games. 12 librarians battle it out to the death for library supremacy in a big library. They will encounter obstacles and monsters drawn from works of popular literature, like the Jabberwocky, or Voldemort, and the last librarian standing will be crowned as Australia’s best librarian. Or not…

#amonthinthelife- Day 20

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There are days when you are constantly playing catch up and this was one of them. My afternoon of unwellness meant catching up from the day before at work, and with a beautiful sunny day today, it was also a chance to catch up with the washing.

It never ends does it?

#amonthinthelife- Day 19

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A day late with this, as I was unwell yesterday afternoon. I returned home early to have a nanna nap and woke up to find that Wendy, my Avon lady, had left behind a new Avon catalogue.

Wendy has been dropping off my Avon catalogue for years. She’s done it in between school and kinder drop offs, and it pays for things like her daughter’s trip to Tasmania for a Girl Guide jambouree. Her success in selling  Avon has even landed her a much needed 7 day cruise. She is a lovely person to chat to, and always asks after the kids.

I will buy something from the catalogues every second or third time, usually the odd lipstick or foundation, and their shampoos are quite nice! It’s a vestige from my childhood that I hold on to- I think part of the attraction is nostalgia.

#amonthinthelife- Day 18

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My street #amonthinthelife #ballarat#autumn

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The leaves are beginning to turn in our street. It feels strange to see the leaves on the ground when it was such a warm day!

The narrow frontages on the houses render most of the parking either on the street or in carports at the back of the houses. We have a lane at the back of the house and a carport, but it’s easier to park just outside (especially when the carport is used to house bikes and our barbecue!).

One of our neighbours have inherited a caravan, and they have had to park it temporarily on the street. They’ve given it a thorough clean and paint, all on the street, and it has been fun to see heir progress over the last month or so.

I really need to go out and do some raking…

#amonthinthelife- Day 17

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Master BG is given a homework sheet at the start of each week, to complete by Friday. It involves a combination of maths, basic grammar, reading tasks and an exercise activity. I usually go through the sheet with him and talk to him about the tasks, some of which have to be signed off by a parent.

Our conversation led from one thing to another, and before long we were discussing annoying habits online (he’s been looking at cybersafety at school). He thought trolls were annoying, as were people who leave ill-informed and grammatically incorrect comments on news websites (actually I think that was his dad who said that…). After some thought, he decided people who take selfies and use hashtags were also incredibly annoying. So I did what every mum should do and be as annoying as hell to their offspring, and took a selfie with Master BG and posted it up with hashtags.

I love being a mum…

#amonthinthelife- Day 16

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Laundry #ballarat #amonthinthelife #autumn

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Today I could have posted of our morning in Daylesford, with coffee, Dutch pancakes, market-bought honey and eggs. However Miss BG decided to place her apple juice in my bag for safekeeping and neglected to secure the top properly. My time at the market was then spent emptying out my bag of apple juice rather than taking photos of people and their dogs, and their caravans…a lot of caravans on the road today!

So instead it’s a photo of a very familiar place to me- the laundromat, with 3 loads of washing which will not get dry on a weekend with intermittent showers. Winter is coming…

#amonthinthelife- Day 15

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With the mornings growing darker, the running group I run with on a Saturday morning have modified our course from the Yarrowee trail to around the streets.

This morning’s route took us south, down to Redan and Sebastopol, and along part of the Yarrowee trail that I hadn’t visited in years. We passed by the old Ballarat Woollen Mill which was constructed in the 1870s, still standing after 150 years.

I am enjoying running more, as the running in a group is far more motivating than running by oneself. Different routes other than simply running the Lake also add to the variety. It’s a good way to see more of your town.