I'm lazy and selfish and spend too much time on the internet. I love to be creative with photography and jewellery and sketching with pencil and pastels. I'm happier now than I have ever been and I love everything about my life ... where I live, my home, my fantastic grown up children, my lifestyle, my friends, my dogs and last but not least my wonderful adoring husband. Life is good!
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!
I've had a quiet day at home, while Adoring Husband has been at the SES shed attending a full weekend First Aid Course.
When the course runs in Burrum Heads, we go to dinner at the local pub, with the trainers, and tonight was no exception. There were eight of us and unfortunately, about 88 others all seated in the restaurant, celebrating somebody's 60th birthday!
AH and I arrived at 6.30pm and we placed our orders at about 6.45pm. They told us there would be a one hour wait for our dinner. Almost two hours later, our orders began landing on our table.
By this time, we were all so hungry, that all conversation ceased while we ploughed into our food.
I was disappointed because I was told that the menu had changed since the restaurant was revamped, but it was exactly the same as it always was. Even after 8 years, the menu remains the same. Very limiting for anyone with dietary requirements. It has to be at least a year since I ate there and I won't voluntarily return there for a meal.
Sometimes our lady's luncheons are held there, but the last time, I ate before I went to lunch and I joined them just for the social aspect.
It was doubly disappointing because AH and I wanted to watch his team play against Manly tonight, and by the time we got home, there was only 5 minutes left of the game. Thankfully, his team (Cronulla Sharks) won by eight points, which puts them firmly on top of the ladder!
Some more sad news from the world of celebrities ...
Alan Young (Wilbur, from the TV show 'Mr Ed') passed away today, of natural causes, at the ripe old age of 96!! I think that's a pretty good innings.
Vegan Chickie shared this on FB today and it had me laughing so hard, I had tears. Watch it to the end and I guarantee that you will feel those endorphins surging through your body.
It was just in the nick of time because I was sad to see my Broncos team lose by one point to the Cowboys tonight, but instead of crying sad tears, I shed some happy ones!
Nothing of any significance happened today. We had planned on attending the Maryborough Show for the first time ever, but after the car played up yesterday, I decided that I didn't want to drive in it until it was checked out. Especially out on the highway.
We started our quiet day with a cooked breakfast.
Adoring Husband had a little bit of work to do at the SES shed in preparation for the two day course this weekend, and while he was gone, I did a search for a movie that I've been looking for.
It was a movie that I watched about half a dozen times when I was seventeen years old. I remembered that it was an Australian movie and one of the main characters (who I had the hots for) was American. I remembered that there was a really fast car in it, like a Porsche or a Ferrari (it was actually a Corvette) and I remembered that it was based on the Gold Coast somewhere.
I started looking for it about two years ago, without success.
Today, finally, I found it!!!
It's called "High Rolling" and it was released in 1977. The American actor was Joseph Bottoms and Grigor Taylor was the other lead male actor. This was actually Judy Davis's first movie as well. Other actors in the movie were Wendy Hughes, Gil Tucker, Terry Norris and Gus Mercurio.
If you have the time and want to watch all one hour and twenty two minutes of the movie, go here!
I watched it while AH was out and I enjoyed it almost as much today, as I did 29 years ago! The Joseph Bottoms of 1977 still looks pretty hot to me and he is still acting today, but I'm not so smitten with the old Joseph Bottoms (call me fickle).
Young Joseph Bottoms ...
Old Joseph Bottoms ...
Anyway, I relived a little bit of my youth today and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Well, thank goodness I recovered from my queasiness and woke up feeling more energised and happy this morning, and ready to take off on the road to the Sunny Coast for my appointment.
We left bright and early. I shouldn't really say 'bright' because the sun wasn't even up properly as we drove off. We had to stop and go back inside because I heard all three dogs barking and shrieking and howling! I ran through the garage and banged on the door to the house as loud as I could (probably woke all the neighbours!). There was instant silence, so I opened the door and yelled at them to behave.
It was quiet as we drove off the second time .. hopefully it stayed that way!
We stopped at Sexie Coffee (of course) for our first morning pick-me-up coffee.
We arrived at our destination an hour early, so we sat in a little coffee shop while Adoring Husband had his second coffee for the day. He left to do his own errands while I attended what I thought would be a two hour appointment, but it actually only took my dentist 15 minutes to do the job and the appointment cost me nothing!
So that was my final appointment for all the repairs that had to be done to my mouth and in future, it will be just the 6 monthly clean and maintenance.
*happy dance*
Afterwards, we drove to Kunara Organic Markets and spent up big on some bulk items. We were surprised at how much cheaper they were, compared to what we spend in The Bay for the same product.
We also sat down in the cafe and Adoring Husband had his 3rd coffee for the day. We each ate a GF chicken and rosemary crepe which was absolutely delicious - but we should have bought two each!
I shouted myself a little 'finished with the dentist' gift before I left Kunara ...
Once we decided that we were too broke to go anywhere else, we drove to Noosa Civic and bought some GF petit fours for Chicklet, AH and I to share, a lemon meringue pie for Vegan Chickie and take-away coffees all round (Number 4 for AH). My coffee was lukewarm and not very nice, so I left at least half of it, which AH consumed (Number 5 almost).
Two hours of playing with Chicklet and talking with Vegan Chickie and it was time to return home. During the drive, AH complained about his tremor being quite bad, to which I replied "It may have something to do with the 5 coffees you've had today!!)
The car began flashing some unfamiliar dashboard lights as we got close to home, so tomorrow, AH has to take it into The Bay to have it checked over. The manual gave strict instructions to do so!
We pulled in the driveway, safe n sound, a bit after 5pm.
The Psychotic Dogs were very happy to see us, that's for sure!
AH was pretty 'done in' after experiencing some pain during the day and still having to drive, so he headed off to bed early.
It's only 9.20pm and I think I'll head off to bed to read for a while. I may sleep well tonight too.
I woke up this morning feeling a bit queasy, but I pushed through it and went to morning tea with three of the girls.
By the time I returned home, I had relapsed a bit, but did some washing and folding and bed making, while Adoring Husband vacuumed.
It was well after 11am when I decided to lie down and read for a while, hoping the 'queasy' would eventually pass. It didn't.
So I've remained in bed all day. I got out of bed to heat some soup for lunch, to greet Lady Lynn when she made an important delivery, and then to grab a couple of mandarins for dinner.
I'm hoping that by resting up, I'll be ok for the trip to the dentist on the Sunny Coast tomorrow.
I have no idea what's caused this queasiness, but hopefully I will wake up tomorrow with renewed energy and feeling a whole lot better.
Yes, I know that I'm a great Aunty!! But I'm actually going to be a Great Aunty!
Squirt (my little sister), announced on Facebook yesterday, that her oldest girl and her boyfriend are expecting a baby, due in December.
I feel a little disappointed that she didn't phone me with the news before announcing it on FB, but I honestly can't remember how I told her about Chicklet! It's highly likely that she is giving me a taste of my own medicine, so I can hardly complain!
Today, I made up a little gift pack, wrote on two cards - one for the Nana-to-be and one for the parents-to-be and sent them off in the mail.
This is how it was announced to her ...
... and also how she announced it on FB.
Crazy family.
I've been de-cluttering, and in the last two days have delivered five bags of books to the local craft store, including self help books, recipe books, novels, autobiographies and books on health. I have about 100 more recipe books that I'm going to take down there as well.
There is still plenty more de-cluttering to do.
I'm looking forward to seeing the Chicklet family on Thursday, which is the day that Adoring Husband and I drive down to the Sunny Coast for my dental appointment. Just a day trip this time, but I'll be babysitting for four days in the first week of June, so that will be fun!
Well, it's 11pm and I'm off to do some more reading.
The good news is that the Professor is happy with Adoring Husband's health as far as the Parkinson's is concerned and also there is no sign of the bladder cancer returning. AH's health is as good as it can be, all things considered. *happy dance*
We have really focussed on improving our health and lifestyle, hoping to fight off the diseases that threatened us, so seeing and feeling the continuous positive results is inspiring and encouraging.
I'm actually proud of AH for keeping the faith and maintaining such a positive attitude.
This weekend he spent quality time, between appointments (3 days), with his Gold Coast family, and even got to play Poppy to his two little grandbabies. He and his son enjoyed watching their beloved Sharkies annihilate the Knights 62-0 together, so it really was a very successful weekend all round!
I cooked up a baked dinner to celebrate AH's return home and followed it with the celebratory apple and walnut muffins for dessert.
Before lunch today, I had a hair appointment. It's been about eight months since I've had my hair trimmed, so I asked for a fair chunk to be trimmed off today. It feels VERY short (for me) and is just a bit longer than shoulder length.
In between all of that, I submitted my photo for one of the flickr challenges this month. The theme is 'Patterns of Nature'.
The difficult part of this challenge, is that it's the third time we've had this theme, so trying to figure out a different way to interpret it, is a challenge in itself! I won it last time with the bees on the honeycomb.
There is another challenge themed 'Nature's Image' for this month too. I hope to get to that one later.
It's creeping up to 11pm so I'm off to bed for some reading. Five pages is about my limit before I start to fall asleep, so I think it might take me a while to finish this book!
You've read here, in the past, about a woman named Jessie Reimers, whom I follow on Facebook on her 'Get a Fresh Start' page, as well as her story with the Doterra Essential oils and her petitions, firstly to get rid of the 'Healthy Heart Tick', which in a way, was successful, but unfortunately led the Aust Govt to produce the 'Healthy Star Rating' which is no better than the tick.
Jessie has a new petition here, which explains why the new rating is very misleading and how companies can manipulate their data to improve their star rating.
Aside from the petition, she has joined forces with other like-minded activists, who focus on health and world truths, to create a series of videos, explaining the tricks that the food industry use to promote their goods and then they recreate that food showing the actual ingredients and the ratios and percentages as stated on the ingredient lists on their packaging.
Today, the first video has been released, and although it is a little amateurish, it is an excellent start to what I imagine will be a very interesting series, and will quite possibly lead to bigger and better things in their future.
It's just under eight minutes long and had almost 900 views in the first four hours after it was posted on Facebook.
Sometimes I truly believe that people are beginning to understand the relationship between food and their health, but then something happens that will bring me back to reality with a thud.
My voice of experience knows that young people (I was one once!) believe that what they consume in their youth is not affecting them and they will only worry about it 'later, if they get sick'.
Older people (I am one now!) believe that they can continue to eat everything that they've always considered 'healthy' and that prescribed medications will protect them into old age.
So I understand Jessie & Co's obsession and focus on getting the news 'out there' and, knowing how strong that brick wall of ignorance is, I have great admiration for them, as, with the very best of intentions, they continue to fight the good fight.
I wish I had their dedication and commitment. Even though my beliefs are just as strong as ever, criticism, teasing and negativity tend to silence me more and more, so instead of trying to change the world, as Jessie is doing, I withdraw and simply focus on Adoring Husband and myself.
I'm sure that my friends and family are grateful for those tendencies in me, and all I can do is lead by example. The only problem with leading by example, at my age, is that anybody who is more than five years older than me, believes that it is my youth that makes the difference, not my lifestyle.
So I will continue to share information here in my blog, and hope that in some small way, I might make a difference to somebody's health.
All going well, Adoring Husband is due home tomorrow and as much as I have enjoyed a very peaceful and quiet weekend alone, I am looking forward to seeing him upon his return. I may even bake some 'welcome home' apple and walnut muffins!
My written words make so much more sense to me than anything I see in my mind or that comes out of my mouth!
I have an early finish today, because I plan on going to bed early to continue reading Penmarric.
