Hello! Welcome to another monthly update, this time it's the end of October update! I know there's still a day to go in the Southern Hemisphere but I want to feel accomplished this week.
What's been happening for Ashy, Benji and Luke in the month of October?
Tonight, we're heading out to celebrate Luke's dad's birthday at the pub - and tomorrow is Halloween. I'm not much of a fan of Halloween but I do like spooky things #spookyseason
Some Previous Life Updates
October 2024 Life Updates
Root Canal Update: MY ROOT CANAL + CROWN is finally finished thank f*ck, that was such an ordeal and fingers crossed nothing happens to my crown. For the first few days after the crown was fitted, I had a bit of pain (which is to be expected) and it's been about 2 weeks now and it's still a bit uncomfortable like it pushes on my sinuses and gives me a headache but I think my body is getting used to it.
I finally finished ALL my Pinterest Pins for all the old blog posts and went back and added in SEO stuff where I could. It took ages but I'm glad my blog looks way more professional now.
On the 30th of September, Luke and I celebrated our official two-year anniversary. Yes, I know it's not technically October but it was after I posted the September Life updates post. We went into the city for dinner and drinks, we had dinner at a bar in Southbank called Soho and then we went to Arbory Afloat for another drink! And dogs are allowed there which is so cool!! We didn't stay out for long as it was a Monday night but it was a good night out for sure.
I got my hair cut and coloured and I thought it was funny that my hairdresser's is called Soho as well HAHA!
We had a weird encounter with a guy when we were walking Benji one morning. We went down a quiet-ish street - one we've been down before and had no problems, and Benji stopped to sniff the grass because he's a dog! And as he did that, we heard banging on a window and were like okay that's a bit weird, but just kept walking AND THEN a guy came out of his house to yell at us for walking our dog on a public nature strip and footpath, telling us we should walk our dog on our own property. We're kinda like um this is a public place dude. Anyway, he said we were the reason that people get sick because dogs go to the bathroom on the grass. And I said "No, people get sick because they don't get vaccinated" - and then we also said he was literally just sniffing the grass and he didn't even go to the bathroom there (which was true). He got REALLY mad so I yelled back at him and called him an a$$hole because who does that? We had every right to be walking there - and he doesn't own the road. Like I would have understood if we were on his property, but we weren't, it was fenced off and he's the one that came out to yell at us. I talked to my psychologist about this too because I was like WTF dude? And even he was like don't think he knows the law LOL. But yeah, what an a$$.
The YouTube videos that I put out are as follows: The Curious Case of Time Travel // Melbourne Diaries Episode 6: Life Reset! // REAL LIFE Creepy Things That Have Happened To Me // Story Time // The Consequences of AI in Everyday Life from a Sociological Lens // VLOG: Decluttering the house, root canal update + dinner with friends // Spooky Season: Why Do We Believe in Ghosts?
Luke managed to lock himself out of the house while I was at a dentist appointment and called a locksmith but I got home just before he got there, so we had to pay a call-out fee but that was it at least, it was only $29 so better than the $200 it would have been LOL.
I got another one of those Daniel Reeves spam emails, so gross, like it's obviously spam, stop trying. And then someone who went by a different name, with the same scam. It's annoying because I have to keep reporting them but I can't seem to kick them off my contact list.
Benji had a trial sleepover at Luke's parents' house as he'll be staying there for 2 weeks when we go to NZ. I think he was pretty good.
I don't know if you've been reading my blog for this long, but I think once I talked about the old tenants of our house coming over to collect their mail and this was really early on (like we'd first moved in) so we gave what we had as we hadn't RTS yet, but now it's been over 8 months of us living here and we got some mail from the old tenants so we returned it to sender (RTS) and then the old tenants showed up again asking for their mail. Like WTF? How did you not update your address? Anyway, it's been a whole drama and I'm over randoms showing up to my house. I made Luke deal with it because she was quite manipulative and expected us to fix her problems and I would have got angry at her.
We purchased a new crate for Benji Bear and so far he seems to like it, it's a lot bigger than the old one so we're kinda leaving him to his own devices and not forcing him in there. I like to have it mainly so he's got a safe place if he ever needs to travel but we don't make him sleep in there or anything like that.
I also purchased a few new clothes as I've been gaining a bit of weight, I'm trying to work on my fitness again a little bit now that I have more energy but my weight is fluctuating so it is hard to get nice fitting clothes. But one of my 2024 goals was to upgrade my wardrobe - I need to clean it out and give some stuff to charity but I think my wardrobe has been officially updated. I got some stuff at the mall and a few pieces from ASOS. Update - I have cleaned it out woo!
Speaking of weight, I lost 1kg then put it back on somehow (idk man, I can't win). My weight is a bit all over the place, but it might have to do with my meds and also when I'm weighing myself. I've noticed that I'm comparing my body to what it looked like when I was 16 and I think that's a problem because I'm an adult woman and my body doesn't need to look like that. Also, never look up your ideal weight for your body height - it's a bad idea.
Luke and I had dinner with one of our couple friends in Kensington, we went to "Hardiman's Hotel" which was cool because I've never actually been to Kensington before - like I've driven through it, but we've never stopped. I had a chicken parma and Luke had a pizza. It was cool because it was both dog-friendly and cat friendly. We didn't know that, but we saw a massive floof leave, and then a couple came in with 3 dogs and 1 cat and they all had glow-in-the-dark collars which was cool.
Luke started the official season of cricket - idk if I said that last month? Luke's always at cricket haha!
We had a bit of a scare with Benji Bear one day when we let him off at the park and he decided to run outside of the park, luckily we got him and he didn't go on the road, but it was a bit freaky. I know it happens but he's never done that before (yay for good recall though).
We finished The Amazing Race Australia Celebrity Edition and I called it from the start who was going to win.
I started journalling again - I got myself some cute notebooks to help with both journalling and for my thought diaries for therapy. I also bought myself an early birthday present of a tote bag and a new floral black handbag.
It was daylight savings in Melbourne and I think my body has still not adjusted!
Benji had a check-up at the vet and a chat about when to get him dese*ed and as he doesn't have any behavioural problems, we're going to do it once we're back from NZ and Benji is in good health. They say to wait longer for corgis so that their backs are more adjusted.
One of my YouTube videos has over 900 views. Check that out here - "The Consequences of AI in Everyday Life from a Sociological Lens". I'd love to get it to over 1000 views.
I finally made a Facebook page for asheycakes - you can like and follow that "here."
In not so good news, I have been struggling a little with my mental health and I have been trying to look after it, but I don't think I've had enough socialisation with my friends but November is going to be a massive month of socialisation as it will be my birthday and we are going to NZ so we will see lots of people then.
I've been really liking matcha lattes lately and I just ordered some powder so I can make some at home and what's great is that apparently they're REALLY good for IBS - you can check out "this study" which demonstrates it. I'm quite excited to learn to make iced matchas and also iced strawberry matchas too! I am currently working on different ways to have it and hopefully, I'll have a recipe for you soon!
I decluttered a lot of my stuff - like my wardrobe, my make-up, my desk, and my bookcase.
I finished reading a couple of books - Elevation by Stephen King, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, and have moved on now to a book about conspiracy theories. I'm going to make a blog post about all the books I've read in 2024 very soon so keep an eye out for that.
Spooky Season has inspired me to write a bit more - focusing on spooky topics in the lead-up to Halloween.
I made my very first espresso martini! I didn't quite get the sizing right for two drinks but Luke said it was good for a first-time go (and I'm happy I got the froth on top woo). You can find my recipe "here".
Benji and Frankie had a play date/walk at our house - and they were very well-behaved here.
I'm up to day 299 of my daily gratitude lists!
Because I read Reacher: Killing Floor - by Lee Child I thought I'd go back and watch the Amazon show and I didn't realise it had a second season OR that Amazon decided to put ads in their streaming service which is annoying AF. But the last time I watched it, I didn't pay as much attention as I should have so going back and watching it after reading it was a good idea me thinks.
I had been using a social media content calendar that I made in Canva but it was fully digital so I was struggling a bit to use it, so we went to Kmart and got a new whiteboard purely for my blogging content (so hopefully I can stick to that).
I was scrolling Reddit one day for inspo for some blog posts and happened to stumble across /r/Melbourne and found that there was an attack on a woman 12 minutes from our house which was scary - I don't think they've found the perpetrator yet. I also feel like I wrote this in a different blog post (or maybe I'm thinking of my diary, idk). But very scary stuff.
My Pinterest account is at 15K monthly views and I thought that was cool. You can follow me at asheycakes or click the link "here."
TV shows that Luke and I have been enjoying this month have been: Fisk, Dessert Masters, Question Everything, and Spicks and Specks. Sidenote, I don't think I'm the only person to think this BUT I think it would be great if Wil Anderson and Adam Hills swapped hosting roles one night on their shows (because people say they look similar).
I'm getting better at blow waving my hair, it's still not perfect but it's taking much less time than when I first go the hot air brush - I think I should have gone for a more expensive well-known brand, but I wanted to try it out first.
Thanks for reading! Much love,
Ash xoxo
I'm sorry to hear about your root canal. That is definitely not fun. I wish they would put us under for that procedure. Even taking off my temporary was traumatic because it wouldn't come off. They had to hammer it off. 😫I'm glad you have other great things going for you though. Congrats on your two-year anniversary!
I hate daylight saving time because it takes me a whole week to adjust. I wish they would do away with that....
Elevation is on my reading list, I hope it's a good book and I hope you get better soon. 😊
Thanks for sharing the updates.
This so amazing! You had such a busy month. I enjoyed reading your life updates and wishing you the very best on everything for the future :-)
That's cool. So many good things to be grateful for and you are keepong track of all progress. Keep up the good work!