The Fast Day

I can't believe how quickly today passed.

I had a few errands to run this morning. I visited The Motivator very briefly. I did a couple of loads of washing. I rode to the Post Office. I put together my outfit for the Murder Mystery night. I put together my outfit for tonight. I made a few business phone calls and I sat for about an hour.

My new neighbour hand delivered a plate of beautifully presented mini carrot cakes with some kind of delicious looking cream frosting very artistically swirled on each cake and then topped with a walnut.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'm gluten free, so I accepted them graciously and will take them to my art class tomorrow for the girls to enjoy.

I made a big batch of Hainan Chicken that should last me the entire weekend. That makes meals easy!

Oh and when I spoke to the Manager of the Bowl's Club this afternoon, she told me that some people had dropped out of the Murder Mystery night and she invited both Lady Lynn and I to take on those characters for the night. This should make for an interesting night.

Our table was quite lucky at the Club tonight, with three prizes being won in the raffles. I was NOT one of them .. not that it matters, because I can't eat 90% of the prizes due to my dietary restrictions.

It was nice to have Tweedle Dee join us for the evening for the first time too!

So that was my day!

Now I need to sleep because I will be up bright and early to go to work. I pray for dry weather.

Nite all.

A Big Outing

The car had to go in for a big service today.

I accompanied Adoring Husband into The Bay so that I could shop for some items that could make up a decent costume for 1920s New York Jazz - which is the theme for the Murder Mystery night that I will be attending in the near future.

My 'fancy dress' wardrobe already includes a deliciously rich red feather boa and a black sequinned top that can easily fit into that theme. I have some long black beads and other pieces of jewellery that could fit the brief and I have a head piece as well.

So I needed some shoes that fit the 1920s style - I just happened to find a pair of red shoes, exactly the same red as my feather boa, in the style that I needed, AND they were on a sale rack for $15 and the only pair there were MY size.

How amazing is that? Ask the universe and ye shall receive.

Next, I needed a knee length skirt. I was thinking black, silver or beaded. I bought 3 skirts. One is shiny black and one is shiny silver - they were on a sale rack for $10 and then I found a black skirt with different coloured metallic beads and it only cost $7 so I bought it too - just so that I could stretch my options because I wasn't sure how any of them would look with my sequinned top.

I wanted some stockings or pantyhose with a seam at the back of the leg, but I couldn't find a pair like that anywhere, so I bought some plain black stockings and will draw the line either on my leg or on the pantyhose!

Finally, we visited Spotlight and bought some fringing, which I hope to add to one of the skirts - my sewing skills have been in hibernation for many years, so we'll see how that pans out!

I didn't even think about make up, so I'm a bit concerned about how I'll manage that side of it.

We bought some new DVDs - La La Land, Lion, Sing and 10 Things I Hate About You which is one we had, but it disappeared from our collection. I had leant a few to Mum H a few years back and some got sucked out of her lounge room by the tornado. I think it may have been in that collection. So now we will gradually replace the ones that are missing.

We enjoyed a delicious late lunch at Aquavue while we waited for the call from the car yard. Five hours is a long time to kill while you wait for a car to be serviced!

Since we still hadn't heard from them by the time lunch was finished, I bought some ice cream from Go Natural and some coconut water and kimchi.

Finally the car yard called and we picked up the car. By the time we checked the mail, picked up our butcher order and got our afternoon coffee, we didn't get home until 4.30pm!

So it's been a big day and I'm ready for a big sleep.

Nite all.

What Have I Done?

I'm not sure that I've achieved much of anything today!

I visited The Motivator this morning and we got excited about some ideas that we had. I made some phone calls to follow up on those ideas, which took about 45 minutes of my time.

I mailed my FIRST SALE from the website!! Wahoo!! I gift wrapped it and added my personal sticker and business card and wrote on a gift card with a personalised message.

On Tuesday, I put in an order with a bakery in The Bay. They advertised on the local news that they baked Gluten Free products. I ordered over $50 worth of cakes, breads and pies to try and because they only bake the GF on Wednesdays, we had to pick up the order at 2pm today.

Adoring Husband made the trek into town to pick them up and then bought coffee so that we could savour some of our haul.

I ate this ...

It was sickly sweet and made me feel like I'd taken drugs! I'm sure that a sugar addict would absolutely love it, but I won't be buying another one and Adoring Husband agreed that he would pass on that one for next time.

We tried their meat pies for dinner, but they were very bland. The pastry had no seasoning and there was no flavour in the meat mixture. So they too are a pass. I only ate half of my pie, but I thoroughly enjoyed the salad that I prepared to have with it.

The Pear and Raspberry bread is just as delicious as it was last week and I would buy that again in a heartbeat! We bought three loaves, so that AH could take two loaves with him to his family's place. One for them and one for him to eat on the way down haha.

There are two mini apple pies left in the fridge to try tomorrow.

This evening, as the sun was setting, I took a peek outside and saw some colour filling the sky, so I grabbed my camera and took off, bare foot, across the road and across the empty block to the lagoon, where I found this!

It was stunning. It didn't last long and I only took two photos before the colours faded quickly to nothing.

* No damage was done to my feet in the making of this photo.

I thought that it was only 9pm as I was writing this, but it's almost 11pm!! How did that happen???

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Terrific Tuesday

Another excellent start to Tuesday.

I was a bit late this morning because I didn't wake up until 8am! It was 9am by the time I met the girls and they were all wondering where I was because I'm usually the first one there!

We spent about 90 mins chatting and laughing and causing a ruckus, before we all said our goodbyes and headed off to greet our respective days.

Some of us had more stressful days than others. Some with Drs appointments and medical tests, some packing in preparation for long caravan trips away, some dealing with sick and sore husbands and others, like me, to do nothing but enjoy the company of my friend and then my husband.

The Motivator shared some magic formula with me, we talked some business, I bought some delicious sand crabs and I agreed to do something positive towards my website ... I think ... but somewhere between there and home, I got side tracked and distracted!

I came home and shelled the crabs, watched the previous night's episode of The Voice, made a salad for the monthly friend's barbecue at the park, constructed a gift box from the slabs of cardboard that I ordered at the Gift Fair (who knew they would arrive in separate flat packs that required constructing?! Ugh.) and I didn't once do any work towards my website.

It was a nice night at the park tonight with a brief, but beautiful sunset and the company of good friends to wile away another 90 minutes of the day.

I didn't have any alcoholic beverages tonight, but finished off my afternoon coffee and then drank water.

Tomorrow, I plan on spending the day at my desk. I still have a 'to do' list that needs to be completed!

And look at this! It's way past midnight!

Nite all.

A Bit of Everything

Ok, so I didn't get eight hours of work done today, but the three hours that I spent at my desk were very productive and I'm pretty happy with what I achieved.

My SSL certificate has been purchased, installed and tested, so my site is now safe to purchase from. I just need to learn how to install the little green lock which indicates to everyone that it is a safe site.

I watched a couple of tutorials and need to do some study and research on marketing via social media.

There are still lots more products to add to the site.

I need to promote the last week of the subscriber competition in Facebook!

I spent some time with The Motivator this morning and we have become GSD buddies.

GSD = Get Shit Done (excuse the language)

We will attempt to monitor each other's progress during the day and hopefully motivate each other to GSD!

Adoring Husband spent the day with the SES on a land search today, so he returned home feeling very sore and sorry for himself.

I ran an Epsom salts bath and added some extra magnesium oil for good measure and told him to 'STAY' for at least 20 minutes.

While he was in the bath, I cooked up the vegetables to go with the beef ribs that had been in the slow cooker for 6 hours. We had broccolini, bok choy, sweet potato, carrot, Brussels sprouts and last night's leftover mash.

That was our early dinner which we sat down to at 5pm.

I had also baked some apple and walnut muffins, so I served a couple of those up to AH with some fresh raspberries and chocolate cream.

It was just what the doctor ordered. It's been quite a while since I provided dessert and AH was pretty impressed, especially after his big day. He needed some extra sustenance!

Tomorrow is coffee morning with the girls and then our monthly 'friends' barbecue at the park in the evening.

I should be able to get some work done in between.

Off to bed now!

Nite all.

A Garden Sunday

When I say 'A Garden Sunday', I don't mean working in the garden.

I love gardens. I don't love 'working' in the garden .. actually, once I'm in the garden and working, it's quite enjoyable and very satisfying, but finding the motivation to actually get out there and do it? That's another matter altogether.

My garden Sunday was actually spent at Arkarra Tea Gardens enjoying a birthday lunch with my art teacher's daughter and nine of her friends.

The food was great. The service was friendly. The drinks were cold. The company was good. I very much enjoyed the almost 3 hours that we spent together. Us oldies decided not to join the girls (all in their 30s and 40s) for the afternoon, because there's no way we could keep up with the drinking games and frolicking that was on offer.

No time was spent at my workspace today, so tomorrow, while everyone else in Queensland is enjoying a public holiday, I am going to be working a full 8+ hour day.

Tonight I'm looking forward to sliding between some crisp clean sheets and sleeping soundly so that my brain is fresh and bright for a good work day.

Tomorrow morning I'll put dinner in the slow cooker and then I won't have to worry about anything except work!

I hope you all enjoy your public holiday. Stay safe.

Nite all.