The Day After Christmas

So, it's the day after Christmas .. yes I know it's Boxing Day .. all is quiet on the home front, now that Chicklet and Vegan Chickie have departed .. and what a departure!

We arrived at the train station 25 minutes early. The last few times that I've caught the train, it has arrived at my station up to ten minutes early .. especially when it's the diesel engine. Unfortunately, this was not the case today!

We checked the 1800 information number, to discover that because there had been earth tremors off Fraser Island at approximately 4.30am today, the trains were running late by at least 45 minutes and it was expected delays could reach two hours.

*sigh*

You can imagine how difficult that was for a 4 year old, confined to one small square area of a waiting room! Forty five minutes passed and we continued to wait. Ninety minutes passed and we continued to wait.

We played I spy. We played tag. We played hide n seek (very difficult with nowhere to hide!). We played dinosaurs. We played 'what animal is this?'. We played rhyming words. We snacked. We coloured in and made Christmas cards.

.. and still we waited.

Just short of two hours late, we finally heard the train whistle. Chicklet was right on the verge of losing control, so it was a relief to finally have something positive happen and to know that the journey home was about to begin.

Because of the earth tremors and the risk to track damage, the passengers would be transferred to buses at Gympie. As luck would have it, Vegan Chickie was given the wrong bus number twice!! They almost ended up on a nonstop bus to Roma Street Station! THAT would have been a disaster for sure!

I'm expecting a text very shortly to advise me that they are home safe n sound.

Christmas was great!

Chicklet burst into my bedroom at 7.30am yelling "Happy Christmas!!"

We all had to sit down in the lounge room, while Chicklet selected gifts from under the tree, showing them to Vegan Chickie to find out whose name was on the tag. She handed everybody their gifts before sitting down to open her own.

She didn't seem terribly impressed with her gifts at first, but soon was keen to set up a craft area on the dining table, so that we could spend almost the entire day being creative and artistic and crafty.

After ham and eggs for breakfast, we got cracking on the craft.

She made Christmas decorations to hang on SEB's bird cage ...

She decorated Ruby (middle psychotic dog) ...

Christmas lunch was a noisy affair, with twelve bonbons between four of us ... 

Prawns, sand crab, Moreton Bay bugs, turkey and ham along with pasta salad and other salad items, mango, sun dried tomato, roasted capsicum and more. 'Christmas food' as requested by Chicklet. Chocolates shaped like christmas trees, elves, santa etc. 

Obviously very serious about her craft ...

... and very imaginative and creative with her crocodile pretending to be santa ...

An Aussie Christmas tradition ... water fight in the back yard ...

I was heavily involved in this particular activity, while Vegan Chickie napped, and I have to say that it was one of the more exhausting activities of the day! I haven't done any running for a good many years ... which is why she caught me and drenched me many times over!!

A bit more craft after the water fight. Extra decorations for the tree ...

... a quick snack for dinner and an early night .. for ALL of us .. which is why there was no blog post last night. Exhaustion overtook the desire to blog :)

The best way to spend Boxing Day is with alcohol, seafood and junk food while plonked on the couch watching the Boxing Day Test.

I know that there are many families down south who have lost all of their possessions in the fires on the coast near the Great Ocean Road, Wye River and Separation Creek and my heart goes out to them all. What a dreadful end to 2015 and a horrible, struggling way to start 2016.

I hope they appreciate that their safety and their lives are more important than the possessions that they lost. I also hope that they recover from the emotional trauma that the power of mother nature has burdened them with. I know from experience, that helpless feeling of losing all power and control.

Life will never be the same for them, but I hope that out of tragedy, something new and positive develops in their lives. Friendships and bonds will form between strangers, with this shared experience, and life will go on. For some, it will be more difficult than for others.

Good luck to you all and out of this disaster, may 2016 bring fresh new beginnings and happiness to you.

Nite all.

PS Vegan Chickie and Chicklet have arrived home safe n sound!

The Eve of Christmas

What sort of fool attempts grocery shopping on Christmas eve????

Adoring Husband and I kind of fools!!

We left bright and early this morning and drove for almost an hour to be at Urangan Fisheries by 8.30am - their apparent opening hours. They were already open and looked to have been open for some time. There was a long queue outside, which we joined, and it was moving quite fast, so we were in and served within ten minutes.

We had to cross town to Stocklands for the first part of our grocery shop. It was about 9am and the crowds hadn't built up yet, so we got that part of the shop done quite quickly and we were in the car by 9.45am and headed to the next supermarket in search of chocolate coated nuts and what Chicklet calls 'Christmas food'.. ie food in the shape of Christmas eg chocolate santas, chocolate christmas trees etc.

I could not find chocolate coated nuts anywhere!! I tried newsagents, supermarkets, chemists and even the cheapie shops to no avail.

This part of the shopping took the longest and we didn't leave The Bay until 10.45am. By the time we stopped for coffee at Foodworks, where we finally found some chocolate coated nuts, it was 11.15 when we arrived home.

Little Chicklet had been so patient waiting for me to return so that we could play, but it was lunch time, so she had to wait a little longer.

We made some christmas baubles for the tree, created some art with blank paper and stickers and then we watched the Madagascar movie. The last bit of fun for the afternoon was painting the chook pen. It's not quite a masterpiece, but we love it :)

Tonight, after I returned home from the club, I made butter chicken for dinner and finally Vegan Chickie and I got to sit down and watch 'Love Actually' together, in the same room, on the same TV.

It's our Christmas tradition and I felt so happy that I could almost burst, through the entire movie.

Now it's well after midnight and tomorrow is Christmas so I'm off to bed.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL. Have a wonderful day with your loved ones and enjoy the festivities.

Nite all.

Disturbing

Looking at this man makes me feel disturbed!! Therefore the band is appropriately named lol, but I do like this version of 'The Sound of Silence'. I'm also sure that some of you won't :)



It's been a big day.

We started with brunch at Noosa, then for Chicklet's pleasure, a short play on the beach. I had to go buy a hat before we traipsed across the sand because it was a very bright and warm sunshiny morning and even the sand was incredibly hot to walk on.

At 1pm, we (Chicklet, Vegan Chickie and I) climbed on board the tilt train at Cooroy Station for the 2 hour ride home. I've never seen carriage E so full!! I'm usually one of eight people on the carriage with two seats to myself, but the carriage was full and I had to sit beside someone! I believe that is only the second time in about 40 trips that I've been seated beside someone.

Adoring Husband was at Howard Station to pick us up and take us home.

Chicklet spent the afternoon removing all of the knick knacks from the middle two shelves of my cabinet .. mostly dragon ornaments and lizards .. and lining them up on the lounge room floor. Then she requested all of my stuffed toys, so I went on the search to drag them out of the bedrooms. The back yard was next in line so that we could remove all of the frog garden ornaments from their homes and have them congregate in the middle of the back yard.

I cooked dinner before we all climbed in the car to go in search of Christmas lights. I was pleasantly surprised to find so many people getting into the Christmas spirit this year. We spent about 30 minutes driving around town looking at the lights and even got out of the car to walk along the waterfront where there were quite a few houses lit up.

Dessert and a quick bath for Chicklet before bed time tonight. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep. I think exhaustion had set in!

It will be an early start for Adoring Husband and I tomorrow. We have some last minute food shopping to do in The Bay and we don't want to get caught in the Christmas Eve crowds, so we'll be in and out as quickly as is humanly possible!

Best get to bed then!

Nite all.

Surprisingly Princessly

A truly amazing artist ...



Feeling really good today. I only got about 5 hours sleep last night, but breakfast was really good this morning .. bacon, eggs and avocado with an extra large coffee.

An hour or two in the children's playground, some grocery shopping and a stop in the children's shop for a princess dress and some shiny sparkly shoes for someone special!!

She's never been keen on dresses or girly stuff before, so I had to take lots of pics .. of course, I didn't bring my camera, so the phone camera had to do. Vegan Chickie has much better phone camera skills and Instagram skills than I, so her pics seems to be the best of the bunch. I definitely need some practise!

The dress and shoes were soon tossed on the floor and she was running around naked wearing a dinosaur mask not long after we got the pics. Gotta be quick!!

Chicklet and I played some games, but by 2pm, yesterday caught up with me and I had to have a nap. Much to Chicklet's disappointment, I slept for a bit over an hour, but I made up for it by sharing some sticker activities with her before I cooked dinner.

Mama had bath duty tonight, while I had kitchen duty. Luckily, I got story time with Chicklet before she fell asleep.

Tomorrow, we all head home on the train! Chicklet's first big train trip I think?!

I'm aiming for an earlier night tonight. It's just about 11pm and it's lights out for me.

Nite all.

Free From Amalgam

I guarantee that this will bring a tear to your eye .. in a good way!



Today I caught the 6am train to Cooroy, where the Bare-chested Chef picked me up and drove me to my dental appointment at Maroochydore.

I had four amalgam fillings removed. What started out as a 4 hour appointment, ended up being a 2.5 hour appointment because everything went so smoothly without a hitch.

It was an interesting experience where the anaesthetic numbed my face from the nose down. I couldn't feel my face, my lips or my tongue. The safety precautions used to protect the dentist, her assistant and me from the mercury and the vapours that were emitted were pretty amazing.

A rubber dam was used to protect me from ingesting any mercury/amalgam that was drilled from my teeth. It also covered my nose so that I didn't breathe in any of the vapours.

A large vacuum hose was beside my chair sucking any vapours or fragments away from me as they rose from my mouth.

Suction was used in my mouth to make sure that everything was immediately removed as it was drilled out.

The dentist and her assistant had special masks, gloves and protective clothing.

Once the amalgams were removed, all the protective gear was disposed of, including my bib, their masks and gloves, all the tools and the rubber dam. It was all replaced with fresh sterilised gear, to continue with the tooth restoration.

It was pretty intense!

I must say that the very back of my jaw is aching a little tonight from having my mouth open so wide for so long.

It was a painless exercise. Even the drilling, which I was most afraid of today, was a breeze and I barely noticed it.

The four teeth that had the amalgams are now restored and I'm feeling great.

My next visit, in February, is to have the gum disease in the bottom gum treated.

Vegan Chickie and I have spent the evening lying on my bed catching up and now it is rapidly approaching 1am!!  I've been awake since 4am and I'm just beginning to feel a little weary.

My diet today has consisted of two cups of chicken bone broth, one cup of coffee and a pear. Tomorrow morning Vegan Chickie, Chicklet and I will be having breakfast at Civic and I'm looking forward to a big bacon and egg brekky!

Time now, for me to sleep.

Nite all.    

He's a bit sickly

Well, alas, Adoring Husband has become ill with some kind of respiratory virus.

When I first met him, he was a sickly character and spent a lot of time in hospital with chest infections that required strong antibiotics administered intravenously, often double doses. For the first six or seven years that we were together, it was a 'given' that he would be sick enough to need time off work, time in bed and time in hospital a few times a year.

Before we left Sydney, he had to have x-rays and tests on his lungs, because there were shadows, which turned out to be scarring from previous infections. The doctor had been concerned that the shadows were something more sinister. That was a lucky escape!

Then we moved to Queensland.

He became fit and lean and strong, working the lawn mower business. He spent time in the sunshine and built up his Vitamin D levels. From memory, he got the flu twice in the first two years and one of those times was because he shovelled mushroom compost in the garden without a mask and got spores in his lungs.

Since we changed our diet/lifestyle and stopped eating gluten, dairy and sugar (it's now 4 yrs gluten free and two years dairy and sugar free), it has now been more than four years since his last flu or virus. I believe that's a record for his entire life!

I'm surprised that his immune system was weak enough to let this one in, although it's that time of the year when people are festively hugging and kissing and passing on Christmas wishes, along with all their germs.

So we're using colloidal silver on the back of his throat, dosing up on super strength vitamin C capsules, antioxidants and multivitamins combined with probiotics,  juicing up with oranges and pineapples, medicating with chicken broth and lots of water. He's been sleeping on and off in his chair - sleep is good.

Unfortunately, I have to go away tomorrow, for two nights, so I have to trust that he is going to be vigilant with my prescription for good health.

Hopefully, it won't deteriorate to a full blown infection and he will recover quickly while I'm away.

Thought you might enjoy this little video ...    



An interesting read and includes stories from people who had amazing health success using oils.

Essential Oils

A story from the ABC about the health problems occurring in Australian hospitals and with doctors. The statistics for accidental deaths and permanent injuries, are quite shocking.

Medical errors in Australia

It's now 10pm .. I'd best go finish my chores before bed. I have a very early start tomorrow!

Nite all.