16th January, 2026
Welcome back! Once again, you get to witness my embarkment into writing about myself. As if my life is the single most exciting thing since… I don’t know, when we thought covid would end by Easter 2020.
It’s been about a month since my last update, but 2022 is coming in full swing, so I have an enormous amount to write about in this instalment. To assist readability and cute-ability, I’ve arranged my thoughts into chapters. You don’t have to read them in order because they’re not predominantly chronological, and it’s not that kind of book. No pressure, only vibes.
Regardless, enjoy!
Chapter One: The Yearly Return to Wollongong
I wrote my last perks post while I was in Dubbo for the Christmas/New Year break. So, in the spirit of documenting my life as if it’s a novel, a change of setting is in order. Shockingly, I went back to Wollongong. Who saw that coming? Crazy, right?
The drive home from Dubbo was mildly eventful; I did get pulled over whilst driving through the blue mountains. If you’ve ever been randomly pulled over, you know the anxiety. You could have been driving perfectly and had done nothing wrong at all, but your hands are shaking, and your throat gets dry as if you’ve just robbed a bank. This was, in fact, the case this time. The officer just wanted to carry out a breath and drug test and then let me keep going. Five minutes later, I drove into the thickest fog I’ve ever seen and ended up having to pull over and wait for it to clear a bit.
Since I’ve been back in Wollongong, I’ve checked all the inaugural homecoming boxes. I’ve caught up with friends, been to my favourite shops and venues, visited my comfort beach and comfort forest. I’ve done that New Year, New Me clean. I’ve bought new plants and clothes and got cracking on new goals. I’ve been making a conscious effort to go outside, get my steps in, see my friends and family, do art for fun and occasionally read. That said, I went for a hike the other day and got attacked by a leech, and I went to the beach the other day and broke out in welts. So, I don’t know that it’s going remarkably well, but I am having fun.
I’ve been making a weekly reel where I just put together all the videos I take in the week. It’s great because I get to romanticise my life and keep myself accountable in a sort of visual journaling way.
Chapter Two: An Impromptu Trip to the Middle of Nowhere
If ya’ll have been reading my updates for a while now, you know that I love a little impulsive trip. The other week, I visited one of my good friends, Taylor Lani (check out her blog). I didn’t have anything to do one day, and she only lives an hour and a half away from me. I’d never driven that way before, so I thought, why not.
The thought of driving somewhere I’ve never been, almost entirely on the highway, a year ago would have scared me shitless. But it was no sweat. There’s not much to do where Taylor lives, so she suggested we go to a little town called Milton, claiming that I’d find it charming. She was correct; it was, in fact, incredibly charming.
Chapter Three: Risking it all for The Grounds of Alexandria
So far, I’ve miraculously managed to avoid contracting covid. I feel like everyone that I know has had it, and as far as I know, I haven’t. So naturally, I’ve been paranoid, and however, not paranoid enough to continually put my life on hold. After that long ass lockdown, I can’t tolerate doing nothing with my day and just staying home minding my business.
I took a considerable risk a few weeks back when my Mum and sister came to Wollongong/Sydney. As the title of this chapter suggests, I caught the train into Syndey to go to The Grounds of Alexandria. It was beautiful, and I’d never been there before, but it was also incredibly crowded. We took RAT tests afterwards and somehow dodged Omicron. I got my booster shot two weeks later, and it absolutely knocked me out for a few days, but I feel a tad safer.
As I mentioned before, I love a spontaneous little road trip. But the one thing I like better than a road trip is a train journey. I solemnly believe that I do my best daydreaming on trains. So naturally, I wrote something while sitting on the train. Like all the best things, it has very little actual meaning. There’s no big resounding underpinning theme here. It’s just a collection of thoughts I had arranged in a particular way. So take it as you will.
Chapter Four: Mercury Retrograde Takes No Prisoners
As you may know, if you’re an astrology gal or associate with astrology girlies, we’ve just come out of a lengthy mercury retrograde. For those of you who know don’t understand what that means – it basically means that mercury appears to be moving backward. That might mean that things seem to randomly go wrong for a few weeks in our lives. Usually, this involves a run-in with someone from your past or technological difficulties. To be honest, it’s not been a horrible retrograde for me. I’ve had a great couple of weeks, but I did fall victim to some tech issues. Namely, my laptop decided to mysteriously stop working. I was editing photos, I got up, went to make dinner, came back, and it just wouldn’t turn on. So that got sent home to Dad for fixing.
You might also recall that I received a film camera for Christmas. I am absolutely heartbroken to announce that I unknowingly shot two rolls of blanks before realising that I did not know how to correctly load film. If you’re a photographer, you probably know the pain of losing photos that you were incredibly excited about. I might try to draw/retake the ones that I can, but unfortunately, this means that my current roll of film will be the first to develop. So, stay excited about that.
Chapter Five: Much to Write About Nothing
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about creative burnout, and I thought it might help me develop more ideas about what to write. It did not. However, some cool things have happened here and there content-wise, so this chapter is just me bragging for a moment.
Late last year, I took some promotional photos for an artist who wanted cover art for his first single release. That song was published a few weeks ago, with my photo as the cover art. So that’s pretty cool.
I was again asked to write a pre-release review for Sydney band AMARNA. If you’ve read that review, you’ll know that I am beyond excited about the development of this bands’ career. They just keep getting better and better, which is insane considering I thought their first song was flawless.
I also had the opportunity to sit in on a zoom meeting with Bridget Hustwaithe of Triple J about building a career in the music industry outside of being a musician. Ideally, that’s something I’d love to do, and I’m a huge fan of Bridget’s work, so that was cool as well.
Chapter Six: Getting from here to there
So, that’s basically everything I came here to say. I thought about leaving this post for next week, but I decided it was already going to be too long. On Saturday, I get to see Pacific Avenue in concert. This is especially exciting because I don’t remember the last time I got tickets to a show that wasn’t immediately cancelled. The week following I’ll be working a stall at campus fest. In doing so, I’ll get to see Montaigne, Ziggy Ramo (again), and others perform on campus. After that, I’ll be jumping into my third year of Uni, and this time, hopefully in person. So that’ll be great. If my hair has grown out enough by the end of February, I might cut it short. I’m not sure. But I’ll update you guys later.
