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 3, 2015

Skipped one.

I consider myself 'told'.

Adoring Husband called me names for not doing a blog post last night.

Pfft!

It is very difficult to come up with anything readworthy when your day has been full of membranes, centrioles, microtubules, flagellum, phospholipids, exocytosis ... need I go on?

Once I'm focused, it all kind of flows and makes sense, but as soon as I lose focus, I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall!

ALSO ... my shoulder muscles are sore from writing!

Today, I split my study up with some time in the kitchen.

Garlic lamb rack on a bed of zucchini swirls and vegetables. Coconut berry ice cream - a lot of work involved, but so worth it. The berry jam to mix into it was divine and there is enough left to have on some grain free toasted bread. The ingredients were only frozen berries, honey and lemon juice.

So I have some quotes to share with you.








I've been told that we have dolphins in our river who swim in and out on the tides. I am yet to see them, but hopefully, one day soon, I will be able to share a photo of them here.

Nite all.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Intentions

Our intention for New Year's Eve was to join some friends at the local pub for a couple of drinks and be home sometime between 9pm and 10pm.

I was thinking of having an early night and rising at 4am to photograph the first sunrise for 2015.

Instead, we arrived at the pub at 7pm, drank copious amounts of alcohol with our friends (though surprisingly, after a whole bottle of wine to myself, I was not drunk ... happy, but not drunk), and didn't leave the pub until well after midnight.

I climbed into bed at around 1am and fell asleep almost immediately.

While Adoring Husband slept, I arose at about 8.30am and rode to my coffee place and brought back coffee for both of us, then made bacon and eggs for breakfast.

I have been studying ever since.

It has just reached the point of 'blah blah blah blah blah', so I thought I would take the opportunity to do a quick post here.

The words currently spinning around my head are integumentary, thermoregulation, interstitial, gametes, epithelial, organismic, homeostasis, cytoplasm, afferant, efferant, quadinary, osmolarity, isosmotic, nucleoplasm, ribosomes, vesicles, phosphorylation and oxaloacetate, just to name a few!!

See!? I can tell that you are already reading blah blah blah blah!!

I definitely need a break from studies so I think I'll head to the kitchen.

Perhaps I will review my work prior to bed .. that should put me to sleep fairly quickly!

Nite all.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Woopsie

So, I have an exam on 8th January. Who knew?

I've been studying 'procrastination' for so long and now I discover that my exam is on Anatomy and Physiology! Ugh!

I guess I will be cramming for the next week, hoping to absorb enough information to pass this test which makes up 40% of my subject mark.

It's highly likely that my blog posts will be very short during this time.

This should be a good time to work on that word that I've chosen for 2015 ... PEACE.

There are no excuses. This is self inflicted. I'm not looking for sympathy, but if you could telepathically send me some positive energy and some extra brain power, I'd appreciate it very much.

Nite all.

Peace

My word for 2015 is ...


"PEACE" - noun - Freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, obsession etc. To find tranquility or serenity.

I'm aiming for inner peace, peace of mind, peace with myself, peaceful calm and peace and quiet.

I have reached a point where my mind is never still and I don't know how to make it quiet. Thoughts are jumbled in my brain flowing in and out of my consciousness all day long. I need to find a peacefulness that allows me to focus on my day to day activities, one at a time.

I need to create a peaceful state in my mind for the times when I'm resting.

So my intention for the year ahead is to create an inner peace. I will search for ways to find my peace of mind and then I will practise feeling that peaceful calm.










Nite all.


Monday, December 29, 2014

The Bathtub wins

As the mainstream media grab hold of a story to sensationalise the alleged dangers of raw milk, and attempt to terrify anybody who may have considered buying or drinking it, I have been researching the story online myself, trying to discover some actual FACTS.

I read 63 news reports, blog articles and press releases. The press releases were vague and many TV stations and newspapers simply quoted the standard press release that was issued to everyone, so I really had to dig to find some details.

The headline reads 'Toddler dies after drinking bath milk'.

The story goes that in mid December, a three year old child died 'after drinking bath milk'. Apparently 4 other young children also became ill 'after drinking bath milk' from the same dairy farm in Victoria.

By law the dairies that sell this product must add warnings to the label advising people that bath milk is not for drinking. This particular dairy did abide by that law.

I watched the follow-up stories on the news tonight.

1. Did the story explain to us how the child died or how the other children became ill? No.

What they stated a number of times, was that the child 'died after drinking bath milk' ... leading us to believe that it was the bath milk that caused the death and illnesses.

2. Did the reporter tell us about any tests conducted on the bath milk or the dairy farm from which it came, to confirm that it was actually the bath milk that caused the death? No.

In actual fact, I discovered that health officials have conducted tests on site at the dairy in question and all of their products have passed with a clean bill of health. No diseases. No stray bacteria.

Of course the media can't add that information to the story .. not sensational enough.

3. Did the reporter give us the name of the illness that made the children ill?  No.

They interviewed 'somebody' who touted the terrible dangers of raw milk and the disease causing bacteria that lurk within it, leading us to assume that the bacteria was indeed in the milk that the children drank ... which, as I've already mentioned, is not the case.

The only facts that I could find, stated that 3 of the children (and we don't know which three) contracted Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (despite Fairfax media describing it as a fatal disease, it is NOT normally fatal), which can be caused by contaminated meat or produce (but not the produce, in this case, as proven by the health officials) or it can be contracted in swimming pools or lakes where human or animal faeces is commonly found, or it can also follow infections from other bacteria.

It can be caused by certain medications AND it can be genetic .. that is .. passed down from your parents.

4. Did the reporter give us any details about the children or their state of health prior to drinking the bath milk? No.

So the only facts that the report actually gave us was that a toddler died after drinking bath milk.

The rest of the story was manipulated leading us to the conclusion that the bath milk was full of a disease causing bacteria that killed a toddler and made four others sick and that the dairy farm in Victoria was responsible.

It made us believe that Raw milk was extremely dangerous and that there is a growing 'mob' of health buffs who are attempting to manipulate the general public into believing that raw milk has health benefits.

We still have no idea what actually caused the child's death.

It's a very good example of how the media can take a tiny bit of information and expand on it to sensationalise and frighten the public into believing something that isn't actually true.

If they can do that with something as simple as milk, just imagine the havoc they are causing elsewhere.

Nite all.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Retail Therapy

Today, Adoring Husband and I decided to head into The Bay and attempt the sales.

In years gone by, we have agreed to avoid The Bay over the Christmas/New Year period because it's the height of tourist season and unbearably busy, with terrible traffic to contend with and crowds of holiday makers who are always way more stressed than they should be while on holidays!

Surprisingly, we had a great day of shopping and returned home after four hours, relaxed, and arms laden with clothes, pyjamas, shoes, bags, dvds, cds and food.

I bought the dvd of the movie 'Healing' (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with Nutritional Medicine!), the complete boxed series of Ally McBeal and Barbra Streisand's new 'Partners' cd.

Of course, I realised, as I took my first purchase to the sales counter, that I had left both of my keycards at home in my camera bag! I had to search out Adoring Husband and steal one of his cards to do my shopping!

He's a good man :)

So that is our last session of retail therapy for 2014.

A new year is like a blank book.

The pen is in your hands.

It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself.

The last two years, I have fulfilled my New Year Resolutions. They were about getting healthy, eating real foods and studying 'something'.

So 2015 is just around the corner and instead of a New Years Resolution, this year I am going to choose a word that encapsulates my intentions for the whole year ahead.

When I have selected my word, I'll share it here with my reasons for choosing it, so watch this space between now and New Years Eve.

Nite all.