A lot has changed

Well well well. Here we are again. Same blog. Same 'blogger'. Same love of food. Different city. Different lifestyle. Different age.

I think I was maybe... 24/25 when I last contributed content on here. I stopped for a number of reasons, some of which I've outlined below.

I started writing the blog during a self-enforsed 'gap' year  (between my honours year and commencing my PhD). I felt it was important that I not solely define myself as a university student and wanted to explore other ways of identifying myself. I think that far too often we define ourselves by what we are doing rather than by things we enjoy doing. So I set out to cook food, garden and spend time doing DIY/crafty things!This proved a lot harder than you might think. Have you ever thought about how many times someone asks you, 'What do you do?'? It's a tough question to answer when you don't have a fall back answer like, 'Oh, I'm studying blah blah at blah blah'. It is for this reason that the year off was amazing and very much needed. I learnt about what I like doing, what I don't like doing and also to trust myself and my own decisions.

Another reason I starting this specific blog was because people kept asking me for recipes. I was sick of writing them down and sending them to individual people so I figured I'd put them all up in the same space! What started out as a blog for family and friends turned in to a little tiny minuscule success. I plagiarised a photo and didn't realise until many months later, I received hate mail and mail in support. It was intimidating and hilarious. I became a part of the 'Melbourne Food Blogger' community. Well I was really on the periphery of it. Timid and wary of new situations I didn't put myself out there. Too many chefs in the kitchen!

So, after roughly 100 posts I decided that I didn't need the blog anymore. It had served its purpose. It was too much work. I knew it had the potential to be good but I didn't need it to be good. I was ready to commit to my PhD again and focus. So that's what I did. I transferred my PhD to RMIT from Melbourne Uni, found two amazing supervisors and got to work.

The BF and I were still happily co-habitating with our dog Krumm in Flemington. He was studying Law while I worked away on my research at RMIT. We had pretty separate social lives and were for the most part growing up, learning about ourselves and discovering what kind of a relationship we wanted to be in. Then came the big change.

BF decided to take a grad position at a law firm in Perth, WA. 'Shit', I thought, 'I've finally got my life together'. I was happy at RMIT, I was happy with my supervisors, had found exercise that I enjoyed and was good at and had a great group of friends who were becoming like family! I'd found a good pace, found my groove. I wasn't going to leave all of that for Perth! But, once it was final I couldn't not go. I knew that if he was on the other side of Australia I wouldn't be able to invest in my research, I'd be distracted and have my mind elsewhere. So I made a decision. I decided to follow him to Perth.

To cut a long and not very interesting story short - we sold everything off and moved to Perth. After a few weeks (at the height of the Perth rental boom) we found a little old house in Victoria Park, south of the river.

BF became good at his job. I joined a rowing club. We made friends. I got stuck right in to my research and worked on some great projects, got a scholarship and well, we basically grew up.

So now here we are four years later, three of them spent living in Perth, and hoping to submit my thesis by the end of the year. BF is a good lawyer and does boring work. He works long hours and makes okay money. We both got skinnier, I got fatter, we rescued a dog, we travel too much (and blow our would-be savings going to weddings in Brazil, China and the States) and have decided that it's time to grow up. We are budgeting. I am writing and reading and writing and reading aiming to have 90,000 words by November.

I need something else. I need to write because I enjoy it. Because at the age of 29 and in my 30th year I have found my voice. I need to enjoy writing again.

So that's it really. BF, me, Krumm and... SCOUT living in a house in Vic Park. We don't have a lot of money and on account of BF's long hours I've become a lawyer's non-wife (LNW) and he has become a lawyer.  Time-poor and money-poor I've been working on making healthy delicious meals with the aim of going to the supermarket once a week. This means my fruit and vege' has to last more than 7 days. A lot has changed about my cooking. With IBS (yuck) I now eat meat and following a bout of glandular fever and ensuing chronic fatigue, trying to eat preservative free, nutritious and ethically-sourced food is important to us. I've done paleo, I've done gluten-free, carb-free, sugar-free but that's not what this is. This is just good food.


You'll see some changes over the coming weeks, a new format, shopping lists, meal plans, and a good dose of honesty.  Yeah I want to lose 10 kg, yeah I am struggling to get fit after almost a year of battling various illnesses, yeah I am a LNW and a feminist rolled in to one. So be kind, be patient while I figure this out.

Cheers, Jess