So Little Time

So much to do, so little time.

I'm sure it's time to panic!

Studying on struggle street and I feel like time is slipping through my fingers way too fast. I'm doing everything to convince myself that I can do this, but OMG, it's going to be tight!

Ugh.

We had a knock at the front door this morning and I answered the knock to find a stranger standing before me. He announced that our neighbour had told him that we had chickens. He advised that he had a black laying hen that he needed to remove from his brood of hens because the others didn't like her.

So we agreed to take his hen, whom he had named Lizzie.

Of course, I can't have a hen named Lizzie, among my 'beginning with 'H' girls', so I renamed her Harriet.

Now we have four hens and they are named Helen, Happy, Hector and Harriet.

Happy, the other black hen, became very loud when we introduced Harriet, and she stood on the highest spot of the garden yelling and cackling for a long time.

Helen, the brown hen, became a little aggressive and gave Harriet a few nasty pecks to show her who was boss and Hector, the white hen, hovered very close in an intimidating kind of way.

Because Harriet didn't know where the roost was, she attempted to climb the mango tree for the night .. until Adoring Husband showed where her bed was. The other girls sent her to the doorway for the night, but at least she is safe and warm.

So, once again, our family has grown.

I'm sure that I'm going to wake up one morning to find an alpaca in the back yard!

Anyway, I'm thinking of squeezing another couple of hours worth of study in before bed.

Nite all.

What the!?

After five hours of study today, this was the last paragraph that I read ...

"Few fatty acids occur free in foods or in the body. Most often, they are incorporated into triglycerides - lipids composed of three fatty acids attached to a glycerol. To make a triglyceride, a series of condensation reactions combine a hydrogen atom (H) from the glycerol and a hydroxyl (OH) group from a fatty acid, forming a molecule of water (H2O) and leaving a bond between the other two molecules. Most triglycerides contain a mixture of more than one type of fatty acid."

What I actually read was "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"

It was at that point that I realised it was time to stop studying for the day!

As I reread that paragraph, I'm not exactly sure when it might be a good time to recommence studying!

The panic is still welling within, but I continue to look at the inspirational cards taped to the bottom of my computer monitor and it gives me the motivation to power on. Thank you Vegan Chickie.

While I attempted to get to bed early last night, I got involved in a movie called "and then she found me" with Helen Hunt (who was also the director), Colin Firth, Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick.  It sucked me in and I watched it to the end.

The last 30 minutes I watched from bed, but it was well after midnight when I fell asleep.  I woke at 8.15am but didn't rise til after 9am.

I went for my morning ride in the glorious sunshine, got my morning coffee and was home an hour later to get stuck into the books.

Therefore, no photos and no facebook quotes to share.

Time to get my footy tips in and then get ready for a night out at the club. I have won $45 worth of restaurant vouchers, so Adoring Husband and I are going to have a free meal at the club restaurant with a few friends.

Nite all.

Exhausted

I can't begin to tell you how exhausted I feel tonight!

I'm functioning on one hour of sleep, after staying up all night and watching Kyrgios lose his match against Raonic at Wimbledon.

He seemed to have lost his spark and I guess the 5 set match against Gasquet and then the huge win over Nadal took it's toll. He only had 24 hours to recover and it just didn't happen for him.

Still, he was gracious in defeat and his tennis future looks bright.

Today I received a special envelope in the mail, beautifully addressed with calligraphy and containing some timely motivational and inspirational quotes on cards.  I have them stuck to the front of my computer screen to remind myself to keep going.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie for giving me the gentle shove that I needed with just a week left to finalise 2 of my assignments for the semester. I have two others that I haven't even started that need to be complete by the end of the first semester which ends mid August.

Far out!

No more sleepless tennis nights for me!

Since my brain was too frazzled to study, I spent some time in the kitchen and made some pumpkin soup, some banana bread, some failed potato croquettes that became simply 'mash', a big jug of freshly squeezed orange juice and Adoring Husband helped me crumb 24 fish fillets. So at least my day wasn't a total waste!

Now I'm going to try to study for an hour or two before bed. Not sure if my brain can manage it, but we'll give it a whirl.

Nite all.  

Winner!

I sat up until 4.30am watching a magnificent game of tennis between the Australian, Nick Kyrgios (ranked 144 in the world at the beginning of the Wimbledon tournament)  and the number one player in the world, Rafael Nadal.

The Australian won in four sets!

He was brilliant.

He outplayed Nadal from beginning to end and it wasn't like Nadal played badly either. Nadal fought hard and used his usual psychological tactics with time wasting to try to put Kyrgios off his game, but the kid wasn't fazed by any of it and remained level headed throughout the match.

Even serving for the match, he remained calm.

Just amazing for a 19 yr old and such a nice kid too. Articulate and humble and polite and seemingly unaffected by all the attention.

Unfortunately, he plays again tonight, so I have to stay up and watch him again!

I DID sleep from 4.30am until after 9am today, so I am not completely sleep deprived, but I feel that I might struggle to remain awake if this match goes for too long.  There are two games before his, so I can't imagine when his might start.

This morning, Adoring Husband had breakfast of bacon, eggs and tomato waiting for me when I got out of bed and afterwards I went for a ride in the glorious Winter sunshine to get myself a coffee.  I sat in the sun on the river's edge and soaked up some vitamin D for a while before coming home to get into some study.

It took a while to get focused after such a late night, but I contributed some more to my assignment and every little bit helps!

My river was amazing and beautiful this morning.

The question was already asked "One or two too many wines???"

I just wanted to take a sharp angle shot :)

It has occurred to me that I can do some more studying while I wait for the tennis to start!

Nite all.

Awww Moments

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning tea with the girls this morning and then hit the books for a pretty productive day of study. Partially completed one of my assignments, so I've momentarily taken the edge of the feeling of panic that has been rising within for the last week or so.

This evening while I've been waiting for the tennis to start, I edited another photo from the Bunya Mountains weekend.

Superb Fairy Wren ...

... and I decided to share some cute and fuzzy pictures from my facebook visit this afternoon.

Two day old hippopotamus and then the rest speak for themselves.

Now, I think I have about an hour, before a tennis match that I don't want to watch, will be finished, so that the one that I DO want to watch begins, and I might squeeze in some more productive study while I wait.

Nite all.

See the Sea Snake

A quick visit to The Seat of Knowledge this morning reaped rewards for me!

Luckily I am known in town for my obsession with the camera, because as soon as the people saw this vision on the sand, they called me over immediately.

I've never seen a Sea Snake until today ...

At first, he appeared to be in distress, because he was on the sand, right on the edge of the water, so that each time the water rippled in small waves over his body, he squirmed and struggled as if he was either in pain, or unable to find the strength to get himself deep enough to swim.

But then a man walked over and gave him a soft nudge with his boot and the snake found his way and swam into the river towards a squadron of pelicans.

I expected that the pelicans might get spooked by the snake and fly off in a panic, but they weren't the slightest bit perturbed and just quietly moved aside for the snake to swim past.

So that was my exciting start to the day.

I didn't get much study done today because I cooked .. I made cheesy chard quiche with sundried tomatoes for lunch which we ate with a garden salad.

Then for dinner I made a pizza with a pureed chicken breast and coconut flour base, which was interesting and tasty, but too dry. Adoring Husband didn't like it and I'm not sure how I can make it less dry next time.  I'll have to work on that.

My Aussie tennis player is not playing tonight after all, so I get to have another early night in preparation for a late night tomorrow night.  He doesn't start til 10 pm our time, so it MAY be a late night, or Nadal could take him out in straight sets and it could all be over before you know it!

I have a little video of my Chicklet practising her fine motor skills .. she makes my heart melt and I've watched this about a dozen times already.

Nite all.

Missed it

Well, I went to bed and missed the big match! Luckily Nick Kyrgios won his match, so I get another chance to see him play .. only this time it will be against the great Rafael Nadal tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, here are my last 4 #100happydays challenge photos...

One of my practise shots for the red balloon challenge.

A female galah balancing on a wet wire fence.

I found a pair of Tawny Frogmouths sitting in a big old mango tree near the Seat of Knowledge.

At high tide on the beach this morning were two White Bellied Sea Eagles, two Whistling Kites and two Brahminy Kites.  I watched them for about an hour.  A Brahminy swooped for food, but I missed the shot. I did manage a reasonable shot of the White Bellied Sea Eagle. One day I'll get the money shot.

Adoring Husband made a delicious Osso Bucco in the slow cooker, for dinner tonight. It was a lovely end to a lazy Sunday.

If I get a good nights sleep, I'll be alert for a study day tomorrow and then I can stay up for the big tennis match tomorrow night.  That's the plan at this point in time.

Nite all.

Picture This

I am sitting very comfortably on the couch .. footrest up .. slippers on, and eating a bowl of fresh strawberries and cream while watching Wimbledon.

I'm watching a very good match between Rafael Nadal and the Russian player Mikhail Kukushkin. They are playing undercover because it's raining.

The Aussie, Nick Kyrgios, started his match, but it was suspended when the rains came because they were playing on an outside court. It was probably a good thing because he was losing 4-2 in the first set. He's playing a Czech named Jiri Vesely, whom I've not heard of before.

So now my dilemma is whether to stay up and hope that the rains clear and I get to watch the Aussie's match, or do I go to bed and hope that the rains continue so that I don't miss anything? Tomorrow is a rest day for Wimbledon, so there will be no tennis tomorrow night.

I studied again today .. gave myself a quick quiz about half an hour ago and did not impress myself with the results, so now I know that I need to revise EVERYTHING that I've learnt for the last 3 days. Ugh!

Other than that, we've had some lovely refreshing rain today and apparently there is a band of storms to the south-west, but I think they may skirt to the south of us. We MAY get the very edge, but I doubt it.

Happy birthday to my lovely Mum who would have turned 74 today. Most of all I wish she was here so that I could share Chicklet with her. She would have loved cheeky Chicklet.

It's now after midnight and the rains are still falling at Wimbledon. I think I shall concede defeat and head off to bed.

Nite all.