Recovery Mode

Today is very quiet as I recover from the night before.
It is the Sunday after the Saturday night in the city.  
I'm sure we've all had one of those!

But it's not what you think. 

Pretty tame, really, but for a body like mine, an evening out without a nap in the afternoon beforehand is the equivalent of partying non-stop through a long weekend with no breaks.  Like a 'smashing' fun party, it was worth it for the experience and the memories but it will take a while to recover.

Sigh … Yes, there are beds to be made, dishes and laundry to be done and a house to tidy and a week to plan. Do you think I am physically up to those tasks? No!

So the next best thing to do is to laze around and catch up on blogging!  
(Yes, it has been quite a while!)


I had a great night last night with my family, fulfilling their birthday gift to me–tickets to see comedian Kitty Flanagan at the Adelaide Festival Theatre.

I love Kitty Flanagan!  She is so funny but also right on the money with her opinions on many issues. (At last someone of my generation who seems to be looking through the same or similar lens at the world.)  Kitty's material always makes me laugh so hard I can't help myself.  The only other person who makes me laugh that hard is Billy Connolly.  Kitty is very talented–witty, physically funny, highly observant and with a great voice.  

I must admit that I love listening to her particular New South Welsh accent–it reminds me of my childhood with my NSW family every time and one rarely hears that accent in South Australia even though Australia has national TV and radio shows.  

I don't know if it's the same where you live but where I live there are the 'public/media accents' and then there are the 'local/real people's accents'.  Kitty Flanagan is a 'real people' on TV, on stage and in person and I love it.

We were lucky to meet Kitty after the show as she signed a copy of her latest book. It had been on my Christmas wish list since I learned of it's publication during a radio interview earlier this year.  Kitty was very friendly, welcoming, gracious, funny and generous with her time despite having a long line of people at the book signing.

So in one night, I sorted out both birthday and Christmas. Yay!

Kitty Flanagan kindly autographed her book for me.

The weather was mild which made it a great evening to stroll along the main boulevardes of Adelaide which were full of christmas decorations and people after the Australia v. India test cricket match had just completed play at Adelaide Oval (adjacent to the Festival Theatre).  

After the show we: 

• caught the tram from the new tram stop outside the theatre (super convenient and saved me having to wheel up a hill)
• were shown, from onboard the tram, Jamie Oliver's Adelaide restaurant by my daughter where she recently dined for a Christmas function. (Coincidentally, Kitty Flanagan had her post-show supper there and put it on Instagram).
• went 'window shopping' in Rundle Mall
• observed the big Christmas tree in Tarndanyangga/Victoria Square.

It was a late night.  I slept in today. I have done nothing much since.

And so to blogging ...

It's been such a long time, such a busy year, lots of stress and lots of demands: form filling, documentation, research, emails, budgets, unwanted appointments etc.  It isn't always easy to sit at the computer so it has been a burdensome challenge to keep up with it all. 

The school year is now complete, many loose ends are tidied up and deadlines completed.  This seems to be the first week in a long time for taking a deep breath and living at my own pace after existing in a pressure cooker for 18 months.


As for crochet, not as productive as other years but some crochet activities were prioritised for my sanity! If you don't mind retrospective blog posts, expect to see a backlog of crochet projects appearing soon.

Regarding crochet projects, I recommenced an ordinary tea towel top last week but maybe it's time to be more … what's the word (?) … creative … impulsive … clichéd … ridiculous after Kitty Flanagan's inspiration to do the middle-aged lady (or grandma) thing of crocheting on a tea towel but maybe with more buttons!

Anyway! I'll show you when it happens. Meanwhile, The Plan is to use the summer holiday season to update Lupey Loops and to actively participate in the blogosphere again.

After so many months away, it will be nice to reconnect. 
I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's news.

Greetings will be most welcome via the comment box below!

Further Information

ABC Radio, "Kitty Flanagan's unlikely path to comedy" [radio interview, duration 52'22"], Conversations with Richard Fidler, Sarah Kanowski, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 6 March 2018: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-kitty-flanagan/9565050

Festival Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, South Australia: https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/venues/festival-theatre/?v=Festival%20Theatre&t=events&a=-1%2C19 

Flanagan, Kitty, Bridge Burning and other hobbies, ISBN 978-1-76063-205-2,  Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, Sydney, Australia 2018 

Kitty Flanagan [website]: http://www.kittyflanagan.com/