I have felt burned out lately. I can’t quite put my finger on why that is. I think there has just been a lot on my mind, many things all at the same time – none of them particularly stressful or anything – but I haven’t had the motivation or energy to deal with it all. It’s a pretty strange place to be in. I have been solving some interesting problems at work, but some of them are burning me out, probably because I need to have a break, go and do a different task, and come back to it. I think we often think about taking a break in a daily context – going for a walk, changing up the scenery and working from elsewhere (which I did the other day by working from a cafe) – but we don’t often think of it over a greater period of time, like a couple of weeks or even a month or longer.

Trying to be kind to myself about it because there are some good things happening, too.

Some things that have happened recently, in no real order.

We saw Marianas Trench last night. They put on a great show. I remember going with my brother Brandon eight years ago, and then a couple years before that (honestly, there are probably still some posts on my blog about the experience haha). They were so incredibly good, and I remember Brandon fearing that any other concert he went to from then on would not top it. Marianas Trench were just as amazing as I’d remembered. High energy, very entertaining, and wonderful pop rock and symphonic rock music. It was a concert I had been waiting for literally years to happen – we purchased tickets back in 2019 and the concert kept getting postponed due to COVID.

I sort of wanted to see the band afterwards, you know, wait around and cross my fingers that they would come out and say hello. I actually did get a chance to meet and have photos with them the last two times I saw them! They had VIP packages this time for a meet and greet, but I wasn’t absolutely dying to see them. I mean, I bought the tickets in 2019, so it’s possible my feeling could have changed since, but I couldn’t change my tickets anyway, since they had fully sold out. Either way, we waited about ten minutes in total, and some people exited the venue slowly, but there seemed to be a lot of people waiting to potentially meet them as well, so we just walked back to the car. It had been a rainy night and I think we weren’t looking forward to all the bother in the rain, either.

I finally met my old coworker Jocelyn, and we spent half a day having brunch and walking through around Glebe and through the shopping centre and just enjoying each other’s company. We had never met in person even though we had worked together for a year, but we got along really well in person which was great! 🌟 I ended up walking home as well, which I had a lot of energy for, and got my steps up. Yay!

The other week we saw Furnace and the Fundamentals, a mostly cover and mashup band that is known for their energetic, fun shows. Nick found out about them from a conference he had to attend, really liked them, and wanted to see them at their own show. Then we connected the dots, realising that we knew keyboardist Pluto Jonze (from his solo work and for playing keys in Hey Geronimo). Before the show, we had dinner at a Greek restaurant and had cocktails at Jacobys Tiki Bar, but afterwards, we stuck around and said hello to Pluto and had a bit of a chat. Overall, it was a great show, and I wasn’t entirely in the mood, but the drinks did kind of help. 😛 And I had fun.

La Niña is about to wreak havoc on us again, giving us our third wet and rainy summer (in Australia, that’s December through February). 🌧️ I think many people are thinking of escaping the rain by travelling somewhere during the season – Nick included! – but I’ve also really been thinking about how realistically, the rain isn’t so bad if you are prepared. The times I’ve really disliked rain and when it’s felt like a bother is when it’s bucketing down and I didn’t think to bring an umbrella earlier in the day. That, and, wind. I’m alright with rain, and most rain is pretty tolerable, but when it’s windy, it’s just a pain in the ass. It cools the temperature in an uncomfortable way (unless it’s very hot), debris flows in your eye more easily or your hair blows in your face if it’s long (heck, even if it’s short), and it just makes rain go sideways. Ridiculous. Wind tunnels – when building developments are poorly designed and cause wind to filter through at wild speeds – are equally as annoying.

It has made me think about my wardrobe going into summer – is there much point in having summery clothes if I don’t see myself wearing them often? This winter season, I just bought some new long-sleeved tops that I’ve gotten a lot of wear out of, but maybe I’ll have to keep wearing them over and over…

Something I have been wearing over and over is a blue ribbed midi skirt that I got at a discounted price recently. I have generally been pretty unsure about midi skirts since I’m a short person and longer skirts can look a bit strange on me because they are out of proportion. But I found that this one works rather nicely because it’s about the perfect length, the side slit breaks up the entire column of colour, and the general fitted silhouette is more flattering on me compared to a skirt made from more delicate fabric. Also, it’s blue!

Last week I met the lovely Alice who owns Personail, the online store where I buy all my nail wraps. She had a stall at the Sydney Design Market and I popped on over there not only to check out the market, but to say hi! I stocked up on nail wraps and then bought a pair of earrings from a jewellery designer Olivia Raymond. Nick and I also spent some time walking around Barangaroo.

That’s a bunch of the highlights from the past month. Enjoy the weekend ahead. 🌻 I know I will be using at least some of the time to relax!