I love this time of year. As I was sitting around the firepit last week, having a farewell-to-winter gin and tonic, I started to get excited.
The Sunny Coast weather is heating up, flowers are coming back into bloom and it is almost time for that first beach swim of spring.
My excitement soon turned to horror as I pictured my extra winter kilos in last year’s togs. Oh no!
I forgot to go to the gym this week, which makes it about six years in a row that I have forgotten to go do a workout.
So, I did what any curvy and savvy woman would do … I went online and bought new togs. I also bought scented candles, six bottles of Kangaroo Island gin, two books about decluttering my house and a new quilt cover set.
Am I worried about navigating the conversation with my husband Sam about “another delivery that came today”? No.
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You see, the other thing I like, but also actually hate, about this time of year is that my daughter Avalon and I become invisible.
My house is a 60/40 male/female split and in September, the focus well and truly shifts to the Lions, the Broncos, the Storm, the Wallabies and the joy that seems to be gained when Collingwood or Penrith lose.
My boys come up for air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when there is no footy on the TV.
Family conversations resurface and, for 48 hours, we return to the normal, blissful chaos.
But on Thursdays, it is back to business. They start rabbiting on about the “ins and outs” and how that “six-point start is ridiculous”. It’s like a foreign language to Avalon and I.
That is when we take our cue and fade into the background.
We read books, drink cups of tea, chat and binge-watch questionable TV. It is bliss.
We do not understand one bit of the yelling and screaming coming from the lounge room.
My husband cried when the Lions lost the grand final in 2023. It is clearly serious stuff.
But then, for the record, my husband also cried last year when the Lions won the grand final. And he reckons I am an emotional beast!
Here’s to a great footy season ahead, no matter what shape that takes for you.
Sami Muirhead is a (now retired) radio announcer, blogger and commentator, wife and mum of three.
