Market Madness

What a day!

My alarm went off at 5.50am and I jumped out of bed to get to work so that I would have plenty of time to work, return home, and be dressed and ready to be picked up at 7.15am.

It was still dark when I rode off holding a torch, because the battery is flat on my trike headlight.

By the time I took the risk and rode to get my coffee before rushing home to get ready, I had 25 minutes to prepare for my day.

I timed it perfectly, but The Motivator was more than five minutes late, so I had breathing space.

She dropped me off at Aquavue and she headed off for her 8am massage appointment. I found a table in the Winter sunshine and there I sat enjoying a latte for almost 90 minutes. It was a beautiful day, but at about 9.20am, a very cool breeze picked up and it was cold enough for me to put my coat and scarf on.

When she returned, we decided to order some breakfast. I had gluten free pancakes with banana, bacon and maple syrup, which was delicious.

Just after we ordered, The Reality TV Queen appeared out of nowhere and joined us for breakfast.

By the time we left Aquavue, it was quite late in the morning. We checked out the Torquay markets, which were quite small and uninspiring. We walked across the road and spent some time browsing and buying at Go Natural before finding our way to the pier markets at Urangan.

We bought lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, bunches of fresh herbs and some pots of thyme and lemon balm. There was a stall selling spices, where I got some white peppercorns. I purchased some lovely, and very reasonably priced jewellery (because you can never have too much jewellery) and then we discovered a meat van selling pastured beef, lamb and pork, so I bought a beef cheek, beef fillet, leg of lamb and some bacon.

By the end of our day of retail therapy, the car was well laden with our goods, but we still stopped by the side of the road and bought 4 pineapples each from the back of a truck!

The Motivator dropped me at home where I had just enough time to pack everything away, before heading off to my next date at The Blond Bombshell's house. The Reality TV Queen, Blond Bombshell and I finished off the wine that was left over from our Gold Coast trip.

Two hours later, I stopped at The Motivator's house to pick up some sand crabs that I'd ordered, but I ended up spending an hour there and by the time I left, I was riding out into the darkness!

I munched on some crab for dinner and sat down to watch the second half of the Cronulla Sharks v Auckland Warriors game. It was AMAZING. 18 all at full time. After a very tight match, Cronulla finally scored a point to win 19-18.

Adoring Husband is in Sydney and attended the game. He said he stood in the stands with all of the other fans singing the Cronulla victory song three times before leaving the grounds. Even though he was by himself, he said he had a ball! I wish I could have been there to share that excitement with him.

Now, I'm watching my team play the Bulldogs. They are losing. I'm not sure that I can stay awake for the second half. It has been a very long day with an early start and I didn't sleep well last night because I was worried that I would sleep through my alarm.

I'm looking forward to staying in bed tomorrow morning, snuggled under the blankets and slowly easing myself into the day.

Nite all.

Where did it go?

Where did my day go?

I left for work at 6.20am and afterwards rode to the Seat of Knowledge to see the boys. I bought my coffee and some ingredients for my chicken dinner. I prepared my chicken dinner (three days worth of chicken dinner). I watched a movie.

Chicken, ginger, shallots and coriander ready to be poached.

Suddenly, it was time to get ready to go to the club!

I feel like I blinked and half of the day disappeared!

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. The weather forecast is for a temperature range of 7C - 19C which is incredibly cold for this neck of the woods. I can already feel a chill in the air.

I have plans with The Motivator early tomorrow, so I need to leave the house at 6am to get my work done and return home to get dressed and be ready to get picked up at 7.15am.

I have my warm clothes and gloves all ready for work and then my outfit ready to go out. I can't believe that I will need my coat and a scarf! I need to be very organised because time will be of the essence!

It's almost 11pm, so I should attempt to get a good night's sleep so that I don't struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

Nite all.

Responsive

I just received a phone call from some young man who advised me that he was calling on behalf of our local member, Keith Pitt. He told me that Keith would like to know my most important federal issue.

So I told him ... "The most important federal issue for me, is that voting is compulsory, and I have to decide which morally corrupt liar I'm going vote for!"

The was a stunned silence on the other end of the phone until he uttered a discombobulated "Oh"

I said "Thank you for calling. Bye bye."

He said "Bye"

I hung up.

I hope that I am his 'story' of the week! Although I'm quite sure that he receives much worse responses than mine!

It's 8pm and I am off to bed to read until I sleep.

Nite all.

Origin Time Again

I'm happy to announce ...

Queensland wins the series again!! Wahoo!

This was our beautiful sunset this afternoon, but unfortunately I couldn't get out there fast enough with my camera, so I grabbed my phone and took this ...

A spectacular sky.

I enjoyed morning tea with the girls today and followed it up with more coffee on The Blond Bombshell's deck with Reality TV Queen ...

The Blond Bombshell is out of town, so we sent her this selfie to show her what she is missing!

For lunch today, I did a coriander lime whole chicken in the slow cooker.

Last night I made a salt rub, with salt, chilli powder, cayenne pepper and cumin powder and rubbed it all over the chicken. The marinade had lime juice, coriander, macadamia oil, salt and crushed garlic. I put the chicken into a plastic bag with the marinade overnight and this morning, placed it (with the marinade) into the slow cooker on low for 6 hours.

It was moist, tender and full of flavour and deliciously spicy. I served it with baked sweet potato, baked carrot and baked onion, pureed garlic cauliflower and choko and steamed broccoli, bok choy and zucchini. A huge lunch so that we didn't have to worry about a big dinner leading up to State of Origin football.

I love a successful new recipe.

It's after midnight, so I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

All About Happy

During the week, The Motivator shared this recipe with me. It's called Hainan Chicken. It's poached chicken with ginger, and I made it today for lunch. OMG, it was so delicious that Adoring Husband went back for seconds, then was disappointed when I wouldn't let him have thirds!

It's very simple to make and this is my modified version ...

INGREDIENTS:

6 chicken thigh fillets with skin on
3 spring onions (chopped)
1 cup of coriander leaves and stems (chopped)
1 tsp salt
7-8cm piece of ginger (sliced)
6 white peppercorns

SAUCE: 2 spring onions, 1 Tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp salt, 1 finely chopped fresh chilly, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 3 Tsp maple syrup, the juice of half a lime and 1/2 cup macadamia oil. Place in a saucepan, bring to the boil, turn off the heat and let it sit til the chicken is ready.

Instructions:

Place the chicken pieces, skin up, in the bottom of a large stock pot or saucepan. Scatter the remaining ingredients over the top and then cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered, for 13 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in the stock for about 1.5 hours.

Remove the chicken and slice into pieces. Place over steamed rice and steamed greens and pour the sauce over the top. The end!

The chicken turns out juicy and tender and full of flavour, while the sauce is tangy and even though it contains a whole chilli, it's not too hot.

It's going to become a firm favourite in our house :)

Meanwhile, it's been a while since I created a list, and I saw this idea on FB this morning.

Fifty things to be happy about ...

1. Lists about happy things
2. Delicious new recipes to try
3. Sunshine on a Winter's day
4. Rainbows
5. Crystal clear river water
6. Happy waggy dog tails
7. Squishy faces of newborn babies
8. Hearing birds singing outside my window
9. Sunrises
10. Sunsets
11. A giant full moon rising on a clear night
12. Shooting stars
13. Friends
14. Morning tea with the girls
15. Friday nights at the club
16. Fresh coffee in the morning
17. Reading in bed on a quiet night
18. Sliding in between fresh clean sheets 
19. Eating fresh food straight from the garden
20. Laughing so hard that the tears come
21. An empty ironing basket
22. Friendly neighbours
23. Road trips!
24. Fresh flowers in the house
25. Bare feet on the sand 
26. Organic Farmers markets
27. Lazing in bed on a cold morning
28. New shoes
29. Re-reading my favourite book
30. Picnics
31. Riding my trike
32. Music from my era
33. Steady rain on a tin roof
34. Butterflies fluttering by
35. Sharing photographs 
36. Social lunches
37. Dressing up
38. Hugs
39. Home
40. Cheering for my footy team
41. Staying up all night watching Wimbledon
42. Movie marathons
43. Beautiful works of art
44. Good news
45. Quirky hats
46. Ryan Gosling
47. Best friends
48. A kind and loving husband
49. Chicklet giggles
50. Family

What would be on your list?

I tripped over on our front porch today. I don't know how it happened but it happened so darned fast!

All I remember, is seeing the tiles rapidly coming towards me, so I put my hands out to stop them from hitting my face. Thankfully, I softened the blow by landing on my knees and hands with a loud smack and what I thought was a pretty loud grunt from me, then I performed an unplanned role onto my side.

I lay there, for what felt like forever, waiting for somebody to come to my rescue. I waited in vain. Adoring Husband was in the back yard and our front hedge and geisha girl tree hid me from the street.

So I gingerly moved my wrists and thankfully, there was no pain. They smarted a bit where I landed, but nothing serious. Then I checked my ankles and knees. They seemed ok, but one knee felt a little raw.

Whew! I was ok. I rolled up the right leg of my tracky dacks and there was a nice patch of skin rolled off my knee. Not even enough for it to bleed. It peeled every layer of skin except the last one, in the size of a 10c piece.

Basically, my pride was bruised and I felt like a doofus!

On the bright side though, it means that I must have pretty strong bones! I fell pretty hard! There's always a bright side.

To end, what has been a pretty great day ...

Nite all.

Time Flies

I visited The Motivator this morning to get some coriander that she'd offered me yesterday.

Two hours later ...

It was well after lunch and poor Adoring Husband had given up on me and had driven to the butcher to buy meat to cook for his lunch! Woops!

I made up for it by cooking up a big meal of chops, bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms. I also juiced up some oranges and pineapple and added some ginger and pear kimchi. Delicious.

This morning before I rode to get my coffee, I culled some of my wardrobe and took 25 items out, so that I could hang the 32 items that I'd ironed yesterday. I already have about 50 items in a bag, also waiting for the epic 'ladies only' garage sale!

A couple of the other girls have talked about going through their wardrobes too, so it could be the event of the season! Clothes, shoes, handbags, jewellery, scarves and accessories. Might ask the mobile coffee girl to park on the front lawn and I can make some delicious paleo sweets for the morning session and put the wine on ice ready for the afternoon session!

Sounds like fun.

This also sounds like fun ...

Directions:  Scoop the flesh of the avocado into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to gently break up flesh. Add remaining ingredients and pulse until everything is combined and creamy. Pour into moulds and place in the freezer for a minimum of 5 hours.

Healthy and delicious!

I'm going to make them while Adoring Husband is away. If they are really good, I will get to eat a whole batch myself! I promise to make a 'welcome home' batch if I think they're worth it.

Anyway, I'm off for an early night. Time seemed to slip away last night and it was after 2am when I finally got to sleep. I need to catch up tonight.

Nite all.

Water Logged Sunday

It's been raining all day and quite heavy for most of it. It will probably rain all night, but hopefully, it will have cleared by morning. We've had more than 60ml by now. I haven't checked the rain gauge, but Bundaberg, an hour from here, has had 85ml and Hervey Bay to the south has had 45ml, so I'm plucking a figure near the middle.

I spent my morning ironing all the clothes in the back room. I expected that it would take 3 or 4 hours, but it took less than two! Through the process, I discovered that I have WAY TOO MANY CLOTHES!! There is no way that the clothes I ironed today will fit in my wardrobe, so they remain in the back room wardrobe until I can sort through and cull from my collection.

I feel a 'ladies only' garage sale coming on. I suppose I should include 'men who like to dress up as a lady' in my advertising. Numerous pairs of shoes, handbags, jewellery pieces and items of clothing to go to new loving homes.

From there, I made lunch which was yesterday's lamb shanks in tomato and onion gravy with vegetables.

I chopped up a whole pumpkin to cook up for the dog food which I will finish tomorrow.

We watched the football, until Adoring Husband was called out with the SES to provide sandbags for some flooded areas in Toogoom.

While he was out, I took the opportunity to do some research into Naturopaths in the local area.

Firstly, I read their summary, then if they had a website, I checked that and finally, I browsed their Facebook page.

The first Naturopath told a story on her FB page about how her week had been very stressful, so she took some time in the morning to walk along the beach with a friend and then shared coffee and scones with that friend.

* So I crossed her off my list .. she is not very health conscious if she's eating scones with sugary jam and comes across (to me) as an emotional eater. If she doesn't care enough about her own health, then I'm not going to trust her with mine.

The next one was a male Naturopath with 17 years experience, but 2004 was his last known training.

* That's a no - I don't feel that he is up-to-date with current trends.

Number three made me feel a bit sick to the stomach as she described a patient of hers who was a ten year old with terminal cancer and she used hypnosis and creative visualisation to help her go through her wish list. Since she passed away, she has helped the family to deal with their grief through hypnosis and counselling.

* Nope .. I want someone who's aim is to help me fight my illness/disease and bring me back to vibrant health!

Next was a male Naturopath who specialised in massage, Chinese Medicine and Reflexology, but it seemed that he was more focussed on people who practised sport or dance.

* Sport and dance are not my forte, so that's another nope!

The fifth Naturopath was mostly into massage and intuitive healing.

* I'm a big believer in 'intuition' - but not for healing, so there is another one crossed off the list.

Then there was a Salt Therapist. His list included healing asthma, psoriasis, hay fever, allergies etc

* Salt therapies don't really cover the area that I'm looking at, which is detoxification and cleansing.

Number seven was a very experienced Naturopath with 27 years experience, but her training is very dated and after going to her website, her nutritional beliefs are so old that she still counts calories, removes fat from the diet and encourages 'low fat' yoghurts/milks/cheeses etc.

* That's a big black cross against her name.

Lucky number eight seems to be the most promising, but he does not have a website and sadly, hasn't posted on his FB page since December last year.

The information that I found, showed that he shared the same health values as I do, like paleo lifestyle, no sugar, high fat, organic food, oil pulling, building the immune system with herbs and nutrition to fight disease and illness, internal and external detoxes, various forms of cleansing and he advertised FROG boxes at regular intervals.

* I will do some follow up and see if he is still practising.

I will also do further research in the Sunny Coast area .. I'm sure there will be plenty to choose from down that way!

Look at that! It's almost 1am! Best get to bed!

Nite all.