I don’t usually do ‘In Review’ posts, but the last 2 COVID-filled years have started to slowly grind me down. I miss the ‘old normal’ greatly. With the Omnicron variant currently spreading wildly in my state, I do wonder if this year will run any different. I really hope that it will.

I wanted to make a post on here to capture and reflect that I actually did do things in the last year despite it all. I’ve been feeling bad that I’ve been neglecting this little part of the internet for a while too.

The moments here range from the small and miniscule to the more eventful, in no particular order.

Went to some exhibitions

On the first day of last year, I went to ‘The Motorcycle‘ exbihition at GOMA with a couple of my friends. I wouldn’t say I’m an enthusiast of any kind when it comes to motorcycles, but it was never the less a really interesting exhibition, particularly with the evolution of the designs from being steam powered bicycles to more futuristic models.

The following month, we went to the QUT Art Museum with see their Miffy exhibit. It detailed the history and process of Dick’s Bruna work as well as presented some othe artists work inspired by the little white rabbit.

Towards the end of the year, I took my parents to see the ‘European Masterpieces‘ and finally got to see a painting on person by my favourite classical artist Vemeer.

A small holiday trip

One of my friends has access to the a holiday home up the coast and invited our friend group to join her while she was staying there over a week. I offered to come visit over the Friday and weekend. While I was there we went to various local shops and attractions, eumundi markets, a food truck night and a morning at the beach.

Getting my Japan fix

This would’ve been the year we’d go on a Japan trip, but it looks like that’s a far off dream right now. In the meantime I’ve been consuming so many Japan youtube channels, from informational channels to silent walking tours, just to try and live vicariously through them.

There’s been a few little surprise Japan treats though. The first one was discovering onigri at a city train station. They were pretty decent too though not as delicious at a proper conbini one. Alas, they must have not been popular and are no longer stocked 🙁

While wandering around the valley looking for ingredients, a just so happened to walk by this mochi donut place. I’ve never been so happy to find donuts before. I ended up picking up some the next day and we ate them for dessert.

The Olympics happened

Following on from the above, we had a 2 week interval of Olympic sports that became our nightly watching. We particularly got into the sports climbing and stayed up late to watch all of the semi-finals and finals.

Gardening produce galore

We had big year with our garden. Lots of veggie produce, installed and filled out a new veggie patch and the introduction of our worn farm which I’ve been sitting on for several years.

My hoya and roses bloomed

I bought my hoya back in 2019 because I loved the flowers it produced. It would take until this year though to actually bloom and they did not disappoint.

I also read up on how to prune roses in the winter to get them to bloom and it worked! Unfortunately the plant seems to have completely died back again though 🙁

I drew more

There was a time back in high-school that I used to draw all the time, but since uni this has gradually faded. In 2020 I got really sucked into illustrator studio vlogs on youtube as a way to pass the time. I also have a few friends and colleagues who are great illustrators and it made me long to get back into drawing again.

Last year for Christmas, my partner was nice enough to gift me an iPad. I made it a rule for myself to draw and complete something once a month to get back into the practice. I also did Inktober as well with a few colleagues. I’m not a good illustrator, but I did create 43 completed artworks, which is much more than the 1 sketched image I completed before. I’ll spare you seeing any of those images but I hope to continue practicing this year as well.

We got a new puppy

Yes! It’s true. We have a new addition to the family in the form of a German Spitz puppy called Evie. I will write a full post about her sometime in the future but for now I can tell you she is a little cute menace – chewing everything in site, curious about the world and a pretty quick learner (except with the chewing). It’s taking a while but Lucy is slowly accepting her into the family unit as well.