We're a week into November and I am still stuck back in October. It feels a theme this year. The weeks whip past me and, bam, those deadlines rudely slap me in the face.

I've kept up, just, but am busting for a break in the work-study-commute-family-home routine. It'll come soon enough with that final exam at the end of this month. I can't wait.

IN OCTOBER:

I WENT TO... Wollongong for a day. I met up with my aunt, had a poke around the city centre, stuck my head into a couple of op shops and headed up the escarpment to the Jamboree weekend creative escape on Mount Keira. My folks are from Wollongong and it's weird to drive around a place you have a vague mental map of and memories of childhood visits to grandparents.

I ATE... a couple of cheap and cheerful dinners from Woy Woy's new Indian diner Spices 29 and Avoca Beach takeaway All Malay. At both my partner and I shared a dish, added either a dessert or accompaniment like naan at the Indian, and left happy and full. My excitement was in finding an old-fashioned deep-fried ice-cream at All Malay. Good ones are as rare as hen's teeth.

I OP SHOPPED... a bunch of patterns from Wollongong's Red Cross store. If you're a local, head in. There was a stash of great 1960s and '70s patterns on the shelf and because I'd shown an interest, a bag from behind the counter was dragged out for me to dig through. I left plenty. I also found a cute crossover Oroton bag and pottery bowl. I have a new appreciation for all the beautiful pottery I find on op shop shelves after starting a pottery course a couple of weeks ago.

I MADE... A Shibori scarf and cordage from reclaimed and natural fibres on my weekend away, and a bunch of new embroidered felt mandalas. I make them every year as Christmas decorations and never bore of playing with colours and threads.

I READ... I pushed myself through The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. It was too slow for me, and where there were dramatic plot points they felt too far a stretch and then seemed to shape the character little. I know others liked it, so don't take my review as your sole source of evidence. It's probably just a little too chick-lit for me.