Outstanding

Awesome nearly 100-year-old Japanese Maple

I had my performance review today at work. I'm "outstanding". Yay. Hopefully outstanding enough to get a pay rise, because my rent is going up soon. (Boo.)

Luke made creamy chive mashed potatoes the other night, just like you get in nice restaurants, with lashings of butter and cream. Delicious. Will eat again.  

I had a lumbar puncture on Friday (not a gleeful event, although it was much less painful than anticipated). I asked the doctor what spinal fluid looks like and she showed me a vial of my own spinal fluid, which is kinda cool. Surprisingly, it looks exactly like water: clear and...watery. I thought it would be more viscous. 

Misty, but still colourful 

Luke and I visited Cloudehill Gardens in the Dandenongs on the weekend and it was lovely, despite the rain that started not long after we arrived. It was awkward trying to juggle an umbrella and keep the rain off my camera lens, but mostly it was quite delightful being in a garden in the rain, listening to the sound of drops pattering onto leaves and seeing the clouds close in around us. 

The lyrebirds seemed to like the rain too - we saw four of them! I'd only seen four in total in my whole life until then. They look funny when they run and I never noticed before they have big feet.

Lyrebird not hanging around for photos