Counting Down

Just four more sleeps til the beginning of my oral adventure!

I booked the return train trip to the Sunny Coast this morning.

It's been a quiet day for me. Just some cooking and a little housework.

I am very distracted tonight! I have no idea why!

Nite all.

The First Step Toward Christmas

Today, the question was asked "What is the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease?"

According to the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication and performance of daily activities and Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that specifically affects parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.

I hope that satisfies your curiosity.

Today was a perfect day to travel across the river on the ferry to attend our Christmas version of the lady's luncheon.

We were, however, a little disappointed to discover that one of the club buses had broken down, so a group of us had to wait at the ramp while the first group was taken to the club in the bus and then it returned to pick up the second group.

The club did not disappoint. It was warm and welcoming, the staff were friendly and the food was good. 

We handed out our Christmas presents (we had to take a gift to the value of $10 - but I'm certain that a few of the gifts were more than that - also some of them were much less!) and the Speckled Hen made us sing a line from a christmas carol to receive our gift.

We all ordered our meals.

We sang happy birthday to Lady Lynn.

We got to play the pokies for only 20 minutes, when the first group were called to the bus for the trip to meet the ferry.

It was a nice ride back across the river. 

The day seemed to go so quickly!

Adoring Husband couldn't come to pick me up, because the workers were still at our house and their van, which they were working out of, was parked in the driveway. So I walked to the shops, where I bought some meat for dinner and ordered coffee.

Some friends, who had just arrived home from Brisvegas, pulled up in the carpark and offered me a lift home, which I accepted, but suddenly my phone rang and there was Adoring Husband telling me that the workers had gone and he could come get me after all.

I couldn't wait to get home and check out the new blinds.

We now have exterior blinds fixed to the Western side of the house covering four windows. They are slatted and have the winding mechanisms inside the house so that we can open and close the blinds from the inside.

I cannot believe the difference they make to the temperature of those rooms! The rooms are at least ten degrees cooler!

Our bathrooms are so hot in the afternoons from about 2pm onwards, that it's impossible to get dry after stepping out of the shower. It's like being in a sauna and it's very difficult to put on make up while the heat causes you to perspire. Many times I've brought the pedestal fan to the doorway of the bathroom, so that it can blow on me while I apply make up.

These new blinds don't just make a difference to those rooms, but also to the entire house. I've been raving about them all afternoon and I believe they are our best investment into this property so far. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them and I'm so pleased that AH suggested getting them. Best idea EVER!

Once again, it is rapidly approaching midnight, so here I sign off.

Nite all.

The Life of Me

This is SO 'me' and Adoring Husband can vouch for it!

I've been watching the final of XFactor Australia tonight and I'm pleased to say that my pick Cyrus Villanueva won. He seems like a lovely boy (19), very humble and he has a great voice.

Let's see if he fades into obscurity, just as all the other XFactor winners have in the past!

I've had a lovely day today, starting with sitting at the Seat of Knowledge with my boys, followed by morning tea with Mardi, Beauty, Maid Marian and the Reality TV Queen and then I invited myself to a day in The Bay with Reality TV Queen.

The day included a visit to Bunnings.

Everybody knows how I detest Bunnings and when Adoring Husband needs to go there, I demand that he drop me at a different shopping centre before he goes. I avoid it all costs.

So, as I was walking towards the entrance with my friend, I literally bumped into one of AH's SES colleagues! I made him promise to NOT tell AH that he saw me voluntarily entering the Bunnings premises and he agreed, but I don't trust him, so I had to confess my sin when I returned home.

AH was shocked and stunned!

My day also included another shop that I have only ever entered once and that is the Chemist Warehouse behind Aldis.

We had lunch at the RSL Club and then visited Dr Dan (Dan Murphy's) before returning home.

I was home before 3pm.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day because our lady's lunch group are having their Christmas party at Woodgate, which means a ride across the river on the ferry and the weather forecast is good. There should be 23 of us wreaking some havoc at the local club. I'm looking forward to it.

Today was the 18th anniversary of my father's passing. I can't believe it's been that long. It still feels like it was just a couple of years ago.  How time flies.

Happy birthday to my little sister, who turns 43 tomorrow (25th). She will be celebrating on Magnetic Island where she arrived a couple of days ago and spent some time catching up with our cousin. This is me catching up with him last year ...

Last, but definitely not least, a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Lady Lynn. We will be celebrating with her at the Christmas lunch, so wine will definitely be on the agenda!

Once again it's almost midnight, so I'm off!

Nite all.  

Movie Date

We were so looking forward to watching the final movie of 'The Hunger Games' series.

Even though neither of us had read the books, we've really enjoyed each movie as it was released and we were hooked from the very first viewing.

But I have to say that today, I was disappointed.

I really hated the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie. The ending was really weak and left me feeling flat. My inner dialogue was 'Really? That's it?'

After the movie, we had an hour to kill before we were to attend an appointment with Elston, so we got some groceries from Nana's Pantry and Coles, attended the appointment and headed home.

We were sitting on our couch at 2.45pm eating a quick light lunch made with leftovers from last night.

It's almost 1am!! How the hell did that happen!?? Time flies when you're having fun!

Apologies for the short post tonight. I lost control of my evening.

Nite all.

Slovenly Sunday

Yes it was pretty slovenly.

Not a lot got done, apart from me cooking three meals.

We had a big breakfast.

Protein and a tossed salad for lunch.

My favourite was dinner. Butterflied lamb leg with creamed garlic cauliflower, bok choy and mint sauce.

The mint sauce was a made up concoction.

I took a handful of mint leaves and put them into the mortar and pestle, added a pinch of himalayan salt and a pinch of coconut sugar (the grains of these help pulverise the leaves and balance the sweet and sour flavour), a drizzle each of olive oil and maple syrup and pulverised until it was smooth and runny.

It only makes a couple of tablespoons of mint sauce, but it's just enough to drizzle on the lamb and add that delicious minty flavour that we all love.

Dessert was blueberries, strawberries and chocolate cream.

I think I've eaten more today than I have for the last month!

We watched the Amy Schumer movie, 'Trainwreck' today, and though I felt it started a little slowly, I really liked it.

We are going to the cinema tomorrow to see 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II'. It will be the beginning of a very busy week for me and I'm looking forward to it very much.

In the next two weeks, I have a couple of Christmas parties plus the town Christmas party for which I've been booked as official photographer. I have two days on the Sunny Coast for my first dental visit and Adoring Husband will have a trip to Sydney for his annual visit to Mum.

The Motivator and I also have a Jeunesse presentation planned for the first week in December.

So it's all happening.

... and now I lay me down to sleep.

Nite all.