The second quarter of 2025: Midwinter report

The second quarter of the year, for me, runs from Easter until the middle of the winter school holidays (ie this very week). I realise my division of the year does not align to anything particularly, but it's just how it is in my brain!

This has been a very busy, very tiring, but ultimately pretty good quarter. 

I've been mostly well in an infectious sense - only one cold virus to report - although my digestive woes from my borked gallbladder were on a steady rise through the months. Thankfully, I had the surgery to remove the offending organ 2 weeks ago and am now about 80% recovered from the wounds (it has taken longer than I had hoped), with some digestive improvement already. In other health news, I have also finally entered the perimenopause, so I'm still working out what that means for me (both physically and mentally / emotionally).

I've been very busy, you might say over-busy, with work - some big new projects have been claiming a lot of time - but the work has, on the whole, been fairly interesting and satisfying, and my bank account is not complaining! I also really enjoyed my self-imposed June Month of Poetry, with the theme of great mysteries of history - it was very enriching and enlivening, even though I only got 15 poems done in the end.

I've got through another 38 books this quarter (reading is not an optional activity IMO), 6 of which were Agatha Christie re-reads but the other 32 of which were new titles. It's been a rich field, with very few stinkers in it if you don't count the DNFs (and I don't!)

Highlights of the three months are many, but the top notes would be:

- Finally acquiring our electric car at the end of April (it is a Kia EV5 that we have named Eeevah after the Wall-E character :-)
- The Hans Zimmer concert we attended with friends (just mindblowing)
- Our Mothers Day / multi-birthday family lunch in mid-May
- Author's talk at MWF with the author of the novel Butter (went with my friend)
- My Brisbane work trip in mid-May, which included a birthday celebration for a dear friend
- My middle daughter's 20th birthday
- Beetlejuice the Musical with my book club friends
- The Sigur Ros concert I went to with a friend in late May
- Book Club each month, but especially our special celebration 50th birthday / farewell night at Bathtub Gin in late May
- OzComicCon in early June, which was fun as always
- Girls' weekend with my longtime friend group in the Yarra Valley in mid June
- Day out with my parents at the NGV Winter Masterpieces exhibition, then lunch, in late June
- Willy Lit Fest date day with my husband in late June
- Adventure day to Warburton with my husband, my youngest, and my friend and her youngest, last week

There have also been sadder and more difficult moments. This three-month period included the first anniversaries of the deaths of two very significant people in our lives, and I'm not going to lie, that was hard. We have all had challenging days and challenging weeks, as pressures manifold and various weighed on us. Life has not stopped life-ing for a hot minute (as is its wont).

The next three months have plenty in store. Work will remain busy, but should be a little easier to manage as my short-term project finished in June, so I now just have the three longer-term ones running, and one of those is in its close-out phase so will be less demanding. There are several theatre and show plans coming up, a tea-blending class with my friend, birthdays, a probable Brisbane trip for work, a possibility of a few days camping at our friend's bush property, and a weekend in Phillip Island to see the eclipse. And, of course, at the end of the line lies spring, a blessing for which I am yearning on this cold, cold day. 

Quarter three ends for me mentally when school resumes in early October, so I'll check in again then. Safe travels to us all in the meantime, and here's a little photoboard of the quarter that was :-)

Birthday cake time

Beetlejuice!

Brisbane southbank

Butter discussion at MWF

ComicCon

The rolling hills of the Yarra Valley

The new car!

The redwoods at Warburton

Winery country

Hans Zimmer concert

From the Winter Masterpieces at the NGV

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