IN SEPTEMBER:

I WENT TO… Grafton, Glen Innes and Scone. At least, these were the places we stopped and stayed on a road trip up to the Northern Rivers and New England regions of New South Wales. I was the sidekick to Two Minute Postcards' road trip adventure to gather content for a buzzing Facebook and YouTube channel. Keep an eye out for video drops there soon. I managed to find a few things I'll be sharing soon too.

I ATE… I have eaten more pub meals than I care to mention in the past week and am actually glad to be back in my own kitchen. Though, keen to ditch the chicken schnitzel and chips, I have enjoyed being able to hunt down a good coffee and enjoy a few good breakfasts. Breakfast is probably my favourite meal to eat out. 







At Glen Innes, it's The Coffee Incident you'd trust with your caffeine fix, and on the New England Highway, plane your breaks at The Plains Pantry, Willow Tree, and Worn Out Wares, Singleton.

I OP SHOPPED… Oh, country op shops, how I love you. I spent a mere $5 on a pair of vintage Scholl wooden sandals; between 20c and 50c each for children's books with great mid century illustrations; 50c for a cute pair of long pants; and, $3.50 for a pair of acid wash Corfu jeans.

I was given a 1969 copy of Gourmet magazine (it was in the giveaway or throw out pile). I picked up a stash of wool-blend 5-ply yarn for $10, a stash of silk embroidery threads and unfinished sampler for $3 and an beaded Indian silk vest for $4. The vest needs a little repair work, but it'll be cute for summer when I am done.

The most I spent, and it wasn't at an op shop but rather a secondhand book barn, was $25 for a 1922 first edition of the Australian Red Cross junior branch cook book. It's a tattered little number, but I'm going to pick out a recipe for next month's Big Cake Bake.

My favourite op shops were the Opportunity Shop in Lang St, Glen Innes, and Anglican Cathedral Op Shop, in Grafton.

I MADE… I picked up a stash of a 5-ply wool blend that I'll be knitting up using a pattern from my Gran's stash of patterns. My Gran, my Dad's Mum, died a couple of months back and I've been getting to know her a little better reading through her knitting and crochet patterns and noting the magazine articles she cut and kept. The year's been busy, so I've made my way through the patterns slowly and will be coming back to them now to choose a pattern for the found yarn.

I READ… I picked the wrong book to pack for four weeks of travelling. I'd held a secondhand copy of Patrick White's Voss on the bookshelf for years and figured the flight and few days I had before a tour of Sri Lanka would be the perfect time to read it. How wrong I was. Despite it being listed by The Guardian as one of the 100 best novels, I found it too laborious to hold my attention. I got about a third of the way in and the characters so irritated I ditched it for someone else to find on their travels. 

Instead, I picked up off a hostel bookshelf a copy of Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Now here's a book I could recommend. I spent a whole afternoon reading it and the next morning, bundled myself into an airport taxi reading it all the way, went through the airport security putting it down only to pass through and read it all the way onto the plane. I was actually bummed when I finished and had to bid the good Major adieu.