Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

RoznDeb's Most Excellent Adventure

I had a restless night last night, and so did BGWLBH, so we didn't get away this morning til around 8am.

Ok ... so Wilbur-Herbert couldn't make our 'most excellent adventure' this year, and we really wanted a companion, so we kidnapped Mickey ... only it turns out that Mickey was a willing participant in his own kidnapping!

When Mickey's owner finds out, we will probably be in big trouble, but BGWLBH will have to face his wrath upon her return to Griffith in a few weeks' time.

In the meantime, Mickey is gunna have FUN!











I have taken other photos, but they can wait until I have time to edit them.

For now, you will have to live vicariously through Mickey!

I can't believe how perfect the weather is down here.  At 11am in Coolamon, it was 19C!  We have had a glorious day of travelling .. a little bit windy in Junee at lunch time, but glorious here in Cowra, where we are staying tonight.

Budget Motel for less than $100 a night.  Our aim is to try to pay less than $100 every night for accommodation.  This was our fourth try .. the other motels ranged from $120 - $145.

We stopped for the night earlier than originally planned because we thought it'd be nice to catch a movie, then get a bite to eat and then get some shut eye.

Unfortunately, after we paid for the motel and unloaded the car, we found out from the owner of the motel that the Cowra Cinemas shut down about 6 months ago, so we walked to the main street and found a Thai Cafe where we had dinner, walked around the block and then came back to the motel to work on these photos.

It's been a good day, catching up on each other's news, gossiping and giggling.

Tomorrow, we hope to do some bush walking and some side tracking down little known roads and hopefully get really adventurous ... well as adventurous as a pair of old birds can be anyway.

Nite all.

Friday, January 3, 2014

We're OFF!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of our road trip!

I am very sad to say that Wilbur Herbert will not be with us on this trip, because I left him at home.

It would have been difficult to carry him on the plane because he is quite a cumbersome size and made out of metal.

Besides, my luggage was already oversized!

Perhaps we can find a new travel companion that will be easier to carry on all the different modes of transport that we encounter, and not so difficult to carry on the long walking tracks!

Today, we visited Dad W in hospital, where he was sitting quite proudly showing off his new metal leg with the running shoe attached to it.  It's just his temporary foot and I really should have taken my camera to capture the memory *forehead slap*.

I have to say that he was looking healthier and happier than the last time I was here, with a bit of a twinkle in his eye, and already making jokes about his foot.  I think he will have a lot of fun at other people's expense, over his foot.

Anyway, it was great to see you Dad W and I hope you enjoy keeping up with our road trip ... I promise to make this blog 'newsworthy' with minimal cooking details for the duration of the trip.  OK?

I guess I should sign off and get some sleep so that we can head off early tomorrow morning.  It'd be nice to leave before sunrise and get some nice morning light photos, but I doubt we'll be that well organised.

Catch up 'somewhere in NSW' tomorrow!

Nite all.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Safe Arrival

While I was sitting in the airport terminal in Hervey Bay, waiting to board my flight, I was watching a mother say goodbye to her young son (who's name I later found out was Oliver).  He was about 10 yrs old and was obviously feeling a bit sad to say goodbye, though he wasn't crying.

They gave each other a long squishy hug and the air hostess who was accompanying him, helped him carry his bags of food and drink.  Mum kept blowing kisses and Oliver kept turning around to wave goodbye and blew a few kisses too.

It made me feel warm and fuzzy watching them and she called out "I'll see you in a couple of weeks!"

He, along with a couple of elderly people and another person in a wheelchair were the first to board the plane and then it was announced that the rest of us could board.

Adoring Husband had checked me in the night before, online, and checked me into a window seat.

I was one of the last to board, and as I walked into the cabin and spotted my seat, which was the last seat on the plane, who should be sitting in it???  Oliver!

So, I sat in the aisle seat, without complaint and introduced myself to Oliver, who preferred to talk to himself, than this old lady.

The air hostess who was chaperoning, came up to me during the flight and said, with a big smile, "Thank you for letting Oliver have the window seat"

I thought to myself "I didn't 'LET' Oliver have the window seat!  You gave it to him, or he took it, without even asking me if it was ok!"  Of course, if Oliver, or the air hostess had asked me, as I boarded the plane, I wouldn't have even hesitated, but I was a bit annoyed that she 'thanked' me for doing something that I had no choice about!

The other thing that annoyed me a little bit, was that I was booked on a 'flexi' fare, which includes a meal on the flight.  The meal was pasta .. which I couldn't have because it's not gluten free.  The only thing they had on the flight that WAS gluten free, was a packet of two cookies .. which I also wouldn't normally have because they are full of sugar, but I was hungry!  So I ate them.  But they certainly were not a meal.

The third annoyance for the flight, was the terrible turbulence as we approached Sydney.  We were getting bounced all over the place and as we were coming down to land, I was bracing myself for a heavy landing, when all of a sudden, before the plane reached the ground, the engines roared and the plane took off very sharply and very steeply, back upwards!

The hostess announced that "it was deemed necessary to approach the landing from a different direction", so we flew out to sea, did a u-turn and landed from the opposite direction.  The pilot apologised to us upon landing, explaining that the wind had been the problem.

I must say, it was a bit off-putting!

(After we landed, I checked one of the weather sites, and it showed that the wind speed had increased by 20 kph in the twenty minutes it took for us to descend to landing point.  It went from 22 kph to 42 kph in that short time!)

So when we arrived in Sydney, I had to check in at the 'Rex Airline' counter.  My luggage had been booked right through, but I still had to check in.

There was a big flashing sign stating that all carry-on baggage had to be weighed and that the limit was 7kgs.

This made me panic slightly, because I knew that my bag (which contained my camera, three big lenses, my ipad, my purse and 3 prs of glasses), weighed 7.6 kgs, AND I was carrying my laptop separate to that.

The woman at the counter said to me "Do you have carry on baggage?"  I replied "Only my handbag and my laptop"  She asked "No dangerous items in your handbag?"  "No" I said.

She handed my boarding pass to me and said "Have a nice flight"

Whew!

Got through security ok, but then was pulled up for a bomb detection inspection!  Seriously?  Do I look like the type of person who would be making bombs?  So I got swiped - my hair, my pocket, my shirt, my shoes, my bag ... obviously, all clear.

When he finished, I said "You just picked me because I looked the easiest!"  He replied "No, I picked you because you were NEXT!" then he laughed and said "but you were pretty easy".

After that, the first thing I did was look for food.

Having been on this new eating regime .. it's quite alarming how much fake food is out there for the world to choose from and how little 'real' food is available .. especially at an airport food court!

My only option for gluten free and 'close to' real food was sushi.  Of the remaining 10 food sellers, not one of them had a gluten free food option.  Oh!  Except for MacDonald's fries .. blah.

I had almost 3 hours to wait for my next flight, so I found a comfortable seat and did some people-watching for a while, then got my ipad out for about an hour.  The time passed quite quickly.

Right on schedule, I boarded a half empty plane (very unusual) and it was a very smooth flight to firstly, Narrandera, where we landed among hundreds, if not, thousands of Galahs!

After a 20 minute stop, where 8 passengers alighted, we continued on to Griffith.

Our pilot was Irish - with a very strong accent and quite difficult to understand!  I saw passengers in front of me, look at each other quite befuddled because they too, didn't understand what he was saying.

I have now arrived safe n sound in Griffith and it's good to see BGWLBH and her Mum.  We will visit her Dad in hospital tomorrow and then leave on our road trip in a couple of days.

I am laying in bed listening to the soft rain outside and enjoying the very mild 22C temperature with no humidity.

Sorry if it's been a bit of a 'whinge fest', but they were only small annoyances, and I am happy :)

Time to sleep.

Nite all.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Great Start

What a great start to the new year - sharing the evening with good friends, laughing, dancing, swimming, eating and drinking.  A good time was had by all and we even saw midnight without too much of a struggle!

Yesterday, during my daily 'date with the internet', I discovered a woman by the name of Karen Walrond.

She is a Lawyer, Photographer and Author of "The Beauty of Different".

The following words are hers ...

Hey you.

Yes you.

Here's something the media doesn't want you to know ...

You're beautiful.

It's true.

Here are ten ways to make sure everyone, knows it.

  1. Remember, there are differences, but there are no flaws.
  2. There's only one fashion rule:  if it makes you feel awesome - wear it!
  3. Be willing to be vulnerable, so you can fully experience joy.
  4. Control your own perspective.  Perspective is everything.
  5. Another word for sexy?  Confident.
  6. Breathe - deeply and every day.
  7. Express yourself - often, kindly and without apology.
  8. The adventure is in the attempt.  Embrace possibility.
  9. To remain 'youthful', never stop looking for the wonderful.
  10. ... and finally - create your own story.  Never let others create it for you.
Because no matter what anyone says, there is an underlying truth:

You are different and you are beautiful, so ...

GO
BE
AMAZING

and on that note, I just had to share this with you all ...


I plan on being awesome :)

Nite all.

New Year's Eve

New Year's Resolutions.  I have two.

My first resolution this year is to learn as much about nutrition as I can possibly squeeze into my brain.

I am so hungry (pardon the pun) for information, but I'm worried about being trained like a monkey ...  I feel that taking all of my information from one source will not provide me with 'the whole story', so I'm trying to figure out my best options.

I also don't want to spend a fortune .. after dropping out of the Diploma in Photography course because the first three modules bored me out of my brain (and my motivation was so high when I started!) ... I will need to be convinced of the value in any nutritional education that I take on.

So I'll do a bit of research.  Ask the right people the right questions.  Decide whether it's worth the effort to educate myself through an institute and gain qualifications, or just continue learning and exploring online.

My second resolution is to create a website.  A good one.

I've been thinking about it for so long and procrastinating .. which you must admit, I am very good at .. so it's time to take some positive steps towards that goal.

So, having thought about resolutions for 2014, I'm looking back on 2013 and wondering what I achieved.  Instead, I will look at the good and the bad.

The difficult parts of 2013:

Adoring Husband's diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease.
The tornado.
Losing two friends to cancer.
Being so far away while BGWLBH dealt with serious family health issues.

The best parts of 2013:

My sister visited.
My brother visited.
My youngest daughter visited.
Number one son visited.
Best cousin in the world visited.
The sporty cousins visited.
Chicklet turned two.
I won two flickr challenges.
I learned how to make cheese.
I got 6 years of taxes up-to-date.
I had two girlie weekends with the Burrum Babes.
I had a baby shoot, a city night shoot, a wedding shoot, a portrait shoot and various sunrise/sunset shoots with the Nikonian.
We won the facebook/twitter campaign against Youi to get our house repaired after the tornado.
I got a new Apple iMac.
I found some Tawny Frogmouth nests after their usual nesting trees were lost in the tornado.
Spent so much time with Chicklet and discovered that she is even more special than we already knew.
Changed the way we eat and learnt so much more about nutrition than I ever expected.
Adoring Husband found the SES and worked his way into a valuable position that brings him so much pleasure.

Good grief, the list just goes on and on and on.

I've been dwelling too much on the bad and not enough on the good ... there has been a LOT of good!

Bring on 2014!!  I'm ready!!


Happy New Year to you all ... with love from me xxx

Nite all.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Kaptain Kitchen

Martha Stewart would be proud!

Now that Adoring Husband's life is partially filled with all things SES related, and his Parkinson's is tiring him out a bit, not to mention the side effects of his medication, I decided to play 'the good wife' and prepare all, or most, of his meals for while I'm away.

I'm heading off on another road trip in a few days and I'm not sure how long I'll be gone.

So I spent quite a few hours in the kitchen today, making beef stroganoff, spaghetti sauce, savoury mince, meatloaf and a beef and vegetable casserole.

I'm a bit cranky with myself for making so many red meat meals and should have included some fish and chicken ... however, there is some fish in the freezer, and I'm certain AH will make good use of it.

We had curried chicken and prawns for dinner tonight, anyway.

I also did some ironing and packed 3/4 of my suitcase ready for the trip.

So I'm pretty happy with my productivity for the day.

I found some quotes that I'm going to use with my photographs.

Here is the first ...


I think I might clean out the fridge before I go to bed ... OMG, by enthusiasm and motivation is beginning to frighten me!  What happened to my friend 'procrastination'????

Nite all.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Even Hotter!

35C with 81% humidity.

That's classed as a 'stinker' in our neck of the woods.

Blah.

I spent quite a bit of today in the kitchen.

As I'm going away this week for an unknown period of time, I made Adoring Husband a huge batch of toasted muesli to keep him going for a few weeks.

I juiced some organic oranges in my new slow juicer.

Made vegetable fritters for lunch, which were delicious.

I didn't have anything planned for dinner, so I roasted some cauliflower with turmeric/cumin/cheyenne pepper, did baked sweet potato in the jacket and made kale chips.  We had that with some braised steak and onions that I took out of the freezer.  Very satisfying - although I forgot about the kale chips until after dinner was finished ... still munching on them now!

Thought I would share a couple of wedding photos, since I haven't taken any photos recently.







I've got a lot to do over the next 3 days.

With a New Years Eve gathering here on Tuesday night and then I'm leaving on Thursday, I've made a list and will go through it methodically to get everything done.

It means that I need a good nights sleep tonight, hence my early post!  I've had a few late ones recently and the lack of sleep is catching up with me.

So it's good night from me!

Nite all.

Hot and Summery

I think we can safely say that Summer has well and truly set in.

Today was 33C with 70% humidity.

I turned the air conditioner on at 9.30am.

This guy had the right idea ...


... if I wasn't afraid of sharks, I'd have joined him!

Sadly there was a large dead turtle beached beside the boat ramp this morning.  Hopefully, the tide will take him back out to sea during the night.  It looked like he may have been struck by a propeller because the rear end of his shell was sliced and cracked.

Very sad because he was a beautiful looking specimen.

Nothing to report for the day.

It seems that we'll have a few friends over for New Year's Eve this year.  It will be a nice way to see out the old year, which hasn't been to kind to any of us, and see in a fresh new year that hopefully will bring us a lot more smiles and much better health for some of us.

I'm thinking up a good New Year's Resolution.

Last year my resolution was to become a little fitter and healthier.  Read last year's post here.

I believe that I have been successful with that resolution, so I need to find another achievable and meaningful resolution for this year.

I will think about it and get back to you ... watch this space!

Nite all.