I have had a wonderful couple of days, the last few days of freedom before school kicks in and I hit the ground running – so expect my posts to slow down too after this…

Is there anything better than catching up with friends in the sun having a BBQ? I think not. In the ’round’ of BBQ’s that we are doing with our friends, it was our turn yesterday. It was so nice to fill our back courtyard up with folks and just hang out and laugh and chat. And because we are grownups now our BBQ’s don’t just consist of DRINKING with some burned sausages as an afterthought. And remember how awkward and non-drinking I felt at the last one? None of that this time – it has been enough time now that I didn’t feel like I was missing out. And I went to the fancy health shop in the morning and threw some ‘Kombucha’ in the trolley on my travels – to try it out – I don’t know if it breaks the no sugar rule – I couldn’t see sugar in the ingredients and I know it’s meant to be good for the gut, so I had that in a wine glass with ice – YUM.

We made our usuals, but the highlight for me was dessert! I made rainbow fruit skewers with raspberries for everyone else and Melissa made delicious, Gf, Df AND sugar free cheesecakes! YUM. especially for my special needs, and she messaged and checked ingredients and tried really hard to get coeliac safe nuts and everything. I was really touched, so thoughtful, and the best part was that they were DELICIOUS.

I officially started the iQS today. I did the food shop saturday, combined with our normal hopping and it was wee bit more than usual, but it that was because there were a few things for baking etc to last me the eight weeks. So next time should be cheaper! The way it works is that you get the shopping list and recipes on the thursday, and you do a bake and prep for the week on the sunday, and then follow the recipe plan for the week! Easy peasy. And in typical me style I got it all sorted, did the baking and make the chia pudding and cooked the quinoa etc Only to discover this morning that I don’t like the chia pudding (although that may be a lack of yoghurt more than anything so I’m going to get coconut yoghurt – Sf and DF – to see if that helps). And I thought I would try to be positive, so I tried the Buckwheat loaf – and that was gross too. Sad face. The plan is to message the iQS folks tomorrow to ask if there is any GF bread on the market that has the required lack of sugar….

The rest of the recipes look really good though – I am optimistic – and most of them look like meals the rest of the family will like too. I do like that the thought has been taken out for me, nothing to have to think about while school is starting up again and taking up all of my brain!

And I went to Laneways today, sober, and without really knowing any of the bands except for Courtney Barnett who I wanted to see. I was determined to not get hungry (although I think I have mentioned I don’t so much these days?) So I packed a yummy lunch, check it out below. I had to tell the guy at the gate that I had Coeliacs to be let I with my food but he was super fine about it so that was good!

It was so good hanging with my grrl Yas and her man Matt. It def helps to know people who know people – we didn’t have to line up for the loos – we just borrowed their friends backstage pass and ducked through to clean portaloos, I actually stood a metre away from Courtney Barnett – but was too chicken to tell her it was a great show – what a dick ha ha. It was a chilled day of people watching, sitting in spots and watching the world go by, soaking up the sun and sounds and bumping into randoms from my present and my past. Such a nice way to end the holidays! But of course now I’m home and trying to work out getting to school by eight am to do everything I need to and I need to go to bed (yawn). Catch you soon, have a good week at work y’all!