Word: kwam ka-tan-yoo - Gratitude - what I’ve been feeling after an enormous year.

In my life: Somewhere along the way in August last year, my other writing muse took over my life and these weekly notes got put by the wayside. So here’s a note with a reflection on the last few months of the year and some hopes for the new year.

After my last set of notes, it was mostly quiet as Sathya was away on his trip. During this time we got the news that our Australian PR was granted. It was sort of bittersweet to get this news that we’d waited months for, while we were not together. There is a bottle of palincă that has followed us from Romania, that we keep saying we will open on a special occasion. Sadly that has to wait for one that we can celebrate together.

PR sorted, we started on a house hunt. The rental market in Australia is a bit crazy, there are very few long term leases, rental hikes can be quite high, there are frequent house inspections and to get a rental you have to give extremely detailed information. We knew that if we were staying here long term getting something permanent would have to be on the list.

We spent a few months sorting out finances, speaking to a broker & conveyancer, visiting various suburbs, walking through multiple properties, reading through endless reports, failing to win an auction, but eventually we found it - that one place that felt like home. Thankfully our offer was quickly accepted, our final approvals came through and we managed to buy the house. Settlement is in a few weeks and we’re crossing our fingers that all goes well.

In October, while Sathya was away for a wedding, I went to Brisbane to visit my cousin for her birthday. We spent a few days chatting, eating, sleeping (me), pet sitting and just catching up. It was such a good break from the usual busy office grind, so much so that I returned in December for Christmas with Sathya tagging along this time. Somewhere in between these visits we also celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary with a dinner at Sakura.

We went to a few concerts over these months as well. The most memorable were P1Harmony (one of my favourite K-pop bands), John Butler, Evanescence, Metallica and AC/DC. John Butler in particular is such an amazing artist that I really wouldn’t mind going to see his concert another time as well. The P1Harmony concert was at Hordern Pavillion which I don’t really like as some sections have really terrible acoustics. It was a bit poorly organised - tickets were sold in tranches but this was not mentioned anywhere, merch stands at the Pavilion were not there (and info about any merch not communicated) but the artists themselves were great and the audience enthusiasm really made the concert one of the best of the year for me.

We had a few small health niggles that we worked through - a sprained toe for me, hip pain and ER visit for Sathya but our health otherwise has been good. Doc says my insulin numbers still look good which is a huge relief.

Gym sessions have continued slightly differently. In November my trainer, Lu made the decision to go back to the UK, so I’m working with Sathya’s trainer Daniel now. It’s interesting to see the tiny differences in the training regimen between them. I’m also doing joint sessions with Sathya which has been very motivational and going to the occasional group class recently. All in all good progress.

Work is trudging along as it does. We’ve had some team movements and have a new dev in our squad. It’s been an interesting experience having her onboard as her experience has not been in the items we generally deal with on a day to day basis. So I’ve been taking copious notes on what questions she asks so we can document all of the stuff that lives in our team members heads now.

Two fronts have been slightly less encouraging. We were busy with the house hunt (most inspections are on Saturday and conflicted with our classes) so we paused our Guitar class and I’m not sure we can continue considering our move in a few weeks.

I’ve also permanently stopped running exercises. While I loved the exercise itself, the subsequent bruises and cramps left me really uncomfortable. My GP wasn't able to find anything wrong but the symptoms returned when I tried again and I’ve made the decision that it’s not worth the pain it would involve. So I’ve gone back to just my regular walks instead and the goal of running a 5k will sadly remain a dream.

On my pages: This gets a section all on its own just because I’m so happy with my progress here. After years of not writing anything, last year I wrote about 47000 words across three stories. Yes, that’s right. Not only did I complete the story I was writing in my last notes, but I followed it up with another one that I loved writing and am now working on my third. So glad to get back to this after all this time.

On my camera: Some snapshots from the months that went by

Q4 - 2025

On my mind for 2026: I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself as it never turns out well so instead of calling this my goals for 2026 I’m calling this my hopes for 2026 instead.

  1. Spend more time with family and friends - we never know how much time we have with someone.
  2. Write more - whether original or in my fandoms - it gives me so much joy to put the words in my head down for others to read.
  3. Do a pull up by the end of the year - get fitter and stronger.
  4. Get to a healthy waist to hip ratio - more accurate marker for health than BMI as per my doc.
  5. Settle into our new home and make it our own. I’m looking forward to planting some roses in our new yard.

Here’s hoping for a happy, healthy, joyful 2026 for all of us.

Happy New Year all! Thanks for tagging along.