Learning Experience

There were only three of us at morning tea.

Myself. The Silver Fox. A newbie.

The newbie, who I shall name Oceans 11, (because of her vast array of ocean themed tattoos) is going through a very difficult time having recently lost her 41 yr old daughter to rapid onset bowel cancer. Just twelve weeks from diagnoses to her passing. She left behind a husband and two sons aged 12 and 14.

On top of this grieving, Oceans 11 is dealing with many other issues in her life that require time, effort and energy that she is struggling to muster. Her daughter’s death has hit her hard and she’s struggling just to get through each day.

When she saw me, she literally fell into my arms and we hugged while she cried on my shoulder for a solid ten minutes. It felt nice to give her a safe place to do this because she is under pressure from many close to her to “get over it”.

She plans on getting a tattoo to honour her daughter’s life. This is what she gave me …

This is my first idea …

I’ll let you know what she thinks after I see her next week. I’ll draft a couple of other ideas so that she has options. She might not choose any!

It was a very long morning with lots of deep conversations, lots of dark secrets revealed and very private and personal information shared by all of us. While it was cathartic and soothing in some ways, it was also draining and devastating in others. Sharing other people’s traumas can be traumatic in itself.

After Oceans 11 left for a Drs appointment, Silver Fox and I chatted for another hour. We always find a lot to talk about and surprisingly have a lot in common.

So it was 1pm by the time I returned home. 

Adoring Husband and BGWLBH were sitting down to lunch so I unpacked the FROG box and made myself a cup of tea. I did the garden tour to see what was thriving and what wasn’t and then sat down to sketch the tattoo idea while watching my quiz shows.

I cooked a whole chicken for dinner with sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, onion, cherry tomatoes, beans, snow peas and broccoli and of course home made gravy.

It was delicious.

After dinner I attempted to make some apple and blueberry muffins - BUT - the recipe stated 300gms (3 cups) of coconut flour. When I added all of the ingredients, it did not form a ‘batter’ as the recipe suggested, but a very dry, crumbly mixture.

After much head scratching and rereading the recipe four times, I googled 300gms and discovered that it was equal to 1.27 cups NOT 3 cups as the recipe stated!

So I tripled everything else in the recipe hoping to create this batter. It didn’t work very well and while the muffins were ‘just’ edible with the apple and blueberry sauce that I had in the fridge, it was a waste of about $25 worth of ingredients.

Not happy Jan!

By 7.30pm I was able to sit down and watch The Block.

Suddenly I see that it’s after midnight!! Far out! 

We have another whale watching trip tomorrow, which means an early start so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.