That’s Gold!

BGWLBH and I spent the day at the RSL Club in Hervey Bay attempting (without success) to win a golden ticket. She already has one and there is only the October draw left now. The BIG draw is in November, so I’m running out of time.

We arrived home a touch before 5pm and we were both starverated (that’s hungry) so it was straight to the kitchen where she prepared herself a pizza and I crumbed ten prawn cutlets and fried them.

I had crumbed, cooked and already eaten 3 of my cutlets by the time hers came out of the oven.

The NRL Preliminary final between Canberra Raiders and Cronulla Sharks was played tonight. I was the only one to tip the Sharks and in the end, they won easily. That made Adoring Husband very happy!

The AFL Preliminary final between Collingwood and Brisbane was played tonight and surprisingly, Brisbane won easily. That made Adoring Husband very sad.

Tonight I’m watching Round 3 of the France Open Golf and it’s almost midnight. I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Epitome of Efficiency

It was difficult to rise this morning.

I woke at 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep. My body decided to “peace out” at 6am and my alarm sounded at 7am. I hit snooze many times until just after 7.30am, but I played with Harley and was ready to leave the house at 8.30am.

Adoring Husband and I drove into the Bay and followed an efficient itinerary to complete everything on my ‘to do’ list.

I started the day with a green juice from the Jam Jar Cafe (aka Su Jus Cafe) and we worked our way from the butcher in Pialba to Petbarn in Stocklands for Harley treats, to Coles for groceries, bakery for bread and rolls, to Eli Waters for fruit n veg, lotto and seafood and home by 11.30am.

I made lunch and parked my tired butt on the couch to catch up on Gogglebox and the usual quiz shows.

Harley got his play in the afternoon and I came to bed at 4.15pm to rest up. No sleep yet, but watched some YouTube, checked out the new menu for the Jam Jar Cafe and did some journaling before making my dinner and feeding Harley.

Now I’m snuggled up in bed watching the French Open golf championship and yawning my head off so I think I shall fall asleep to golfing sounds.

Nite all.

Happy Lunch

I am exhausted!

I had lunch at the Bowls Club with five great ladies today.

Five hours of fun, frivolity, whinging, bitching, gossiping, eating, drinking, laughing, reminiscing, dreaming and imagining.

Books being written, wigs being bought, holidays being had, wedding proposals, Uber eats in the city and so much more.

I even rode my trike there and back. The head wind on the way home was a killer!

I left home at 10.50am and returned home at 3.40pm.

Both Adoring Husband and BGWLBH had arrived home before me and both of them had worn Harley out playing by the pool and he was still panting heavily an hour after I’d arrived home.

I had no energy and threw together a tuna pasta dish for their dinner. I was still full from my salt and pepper calamari lunch.

I’ve been in bed since 6pm.

Tomorrow will be a big day in the bay with AH so I need to sleep now.

Nite all.

Middle Day

This hit close to home …

My daughter came home from school and said,

“Mom, you’re not going to believe what happened in history class today.”

Her teacher told the class they were going to play a game.

He walked around the room and whispered to each kid whether they were a witch or just a regular person. Then he gave the instructions:

“Form the biggest group you can without a witch. If your group has even one, you all fail.”

She said the whole room instantly lit up with suspicion.

Everyone started interrogating each other. Are you a witch? How do we know you’re not lying?

Some kids clung to one big group, but most broke off into smaller, exclusive cliques. They turned away anyone who seemed uncertain, nervous, or gave off even the slightest hint of being guilty.

The energy shifted fast. Suddenly everyone was suspicious of everyone.

Whispers. Finger-pointing. Side-eyes. Trust dissolved in minutes.

Finally, when all the groups were formed, the teacher said,

“Alright, time to find out who fails. Witches, raise your hands.”

And not one hand went up.

The whole class exploded. “Wait! You messed up the game!”

And then the teacher dropped the bomb:

“Did I? Were there any actual witches in Salem, or did everyone just believe what they were told?”

My daughter said the room went dead silent.

That’s when it hit them. No witch was ever needed for the damage to happen. Fear had already done its work. Suspicion alone divided the entire class, turning community into chaos.

And isn’t that exactly what we’re seeing today?

Different words, same playbook.

Instead of “witch,” it’s liberal, conservative, vaxxed, unvaxxed, pro-this, anti-that.

The labels shift, but the tactic is the same.

Get people scared. Get them suspicious. Get them divided.

Then sit back while trust crumbles.

The danger was never the witch.

The danger is the rumor. The suspicion. The fear. The planted lies.

Refuse the whisper. Don’t play the game. Because the second we start hunting “witches,” we’ve already lost.

A very quiet day for me.

Another late start and Harley didn’t get his first play until 10.30am.

We caught up on The Block and watched “Talkin’ Bout My Generation”.

Tomorrow is lunch day with the art girls and The Motivator has been invited and will be in attendance. We haven’t seen each other for almost 2 years! It’ll be so good to catch up.

It’s already after 11pm and I’m going to sleep now.

Nite all.

Get it? Got it? Good!

I have been a member of a couple of Parkinson’s Disease support groups in Facebook for some time.

This was posted today …

*** It’s so incredibly important that you exercise. Here’s why:

Parkinson’s is like an evil villain’s conveyor belt ever so slowly delivering the victim to his doom. 

If the victim does not move, he will meet his end quickly. If he moves halfheartedly up the conveyor belt, he will delay his doom for a little while. 

The only hope of surviving longer is to move as hard as you can against the flow and don’t ever stop. 

Parkinson’s is relentless. You gotta get up and get moving! It will not wait for you. If you want to have any kind of a decent life, you have to exercise, even if it hurts or is difficult. 

You will get stronger and recapture some of your lost energy, coordination and balance. The earlier you start, the more you will slow progression.

Do not surrender. There is hope for us 💪💜

***

It’s something that Adoring Husband’s professor discussed with him years ago, but these days, AH finds many excuses and reasons for not being regularly active. The effects are noticeable.

***

Today was meditation day. There were a couple of newbies in the class so there were no empty seats. It was also an emotional day with a few confessions and some tears shed. These moments always bring us closer.

Afterwards, I spent 3.5 hours sitting by the river with The Gypsy. There were a LOT of people out and about and it was difficult to find a free space to sit! Lots of dogs out walking with their owners too. By the time we left, there were tradies everywhere enjoying their lunches.

At home, I made lunch, caught up on last night’s Block episode and watched my quiz shows.

I took a spaghetti bolognese sauce out of the freezer for dinner.

It’s now almost 11pm and I’m looking forward to another night of sound sleep. 8.5 hours last night!

Nite all.

Relive via Replay

I slept poorly last night.

I’m not certain if it was because of the exciting footy game or if it was the food that I ate for dinner.

I ate ‘off limits’ food - potato salad and coleslaw - and even though it was only a dessert spoon full of each, it was enough to get my tummy rumbling for most of the night.

Lesson learned.

Reluctantly, I climbed out of bed at 9.30am, made my warm lemon water and took Harley out to play.

Now that the weather is warming up, I’m letting Harley dive into the pool after his ball, which he is loving.

The neighbour’s dogs on both sides of our house, have been barking incessantly. While one neighbour always wants to know if his dogs misbehave while he’s at work, and then tries to remedy the situation, our other neighbour does little to quiet her dogs, even though she is home all day.

When other neighbours complain, she has stated “dogs are allowed to bark you know”.

I beg to differ.

I made my breakfast and caught up on Sunday’s episode of The Block, and then decided to retreat to my bedroom for more writing. 

I squeezed in about three hours of writing before being distracted by my afternoon quiz shows.

The pool guy interrupted us all this afternoon and had to do a bit of work on the pool that was beginning to grow algae on the back step. He hadn’t cleaned the filter for a while, so hopefully, with a few unwelcome chemicals and a clean filter, everything should get back to normal quickly.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the replay of yesterday’s football game and quietly celebrated accordingly.

For dinner tonight, I cooked salted orange chicken with potato chips and green beans. I put yesterday’s salads out “just in case” they needed extra filling up.

Adoring Husband did some more yard work today. His knee seems to be on the improve.

BGWLBH did a solo trip into The Bay.

I’m looking forward to meditation tomorrow. All the golf is finished so I should be able to fall asleep early tonight and sleep soundly.

Nite all.

Right or Wrong

I woke this morning and was shocked to see it was 9.45am!

Harley was still sound asleep and not bothered by the time.

Feeling offended that nobody in the house was concerned by my absence, I walked out of the bedroom to hear Adoring Husband quip “I was just about to come in to check your pulse!”

A bit late for that.

So I made my warm lemon water and took Harley out for his play.

By the time I returned indoors, AH was out the front mowing the lawns, so I filled a bowl with black seed grapes and parked my butt on the couch … my third favourite place to be.

I found a fluffy Netflix movie called “The Wrong Paris”, which I quite enjoyed. The male lead (Pierson Fode) was pretty hot. He’s been around for a while but obviously hasn’t sold his soul to the devil yet, so he’s not a huge star.

After the movie, I watched some lady’s golf. All I know is that nobody spoke English (except the commentators) and everything was written in Japanese (I think). There was a play off because two of the girls finished -10 and it only took one play off hole to decide the winner.

It was quite emotional!

From there I took Harley out for his afternoon play and began making the salads for dinner.

I only had 30 minutes til the footy started and I didn’t want to miss any of the game because it was my team, the Broncos, playing the number one team, the Raiders.

I made coleslaw, potato salad and a green salsa with cucumber, avocado, green capsicum, pear, spring onions, salt, white pepper and lemon juice. Yum.

Convincing AH to cook the snags on the barbecue at half time was a huge success, so I got to stay watching the footy.

And what a game!!!!

My team had two men in the sin bin in the second half and were losing 12-28 with 15 minutes to go. 

I admit that I had given up hope and was resigned to the fact that we would have to fight it out with AH’s team next week.

But Reece Walsh, one of the men sent to the sin bin, returned to the field on a mission. He almost single handedly scored enough points to draw with the Raiders 28-28, which took the game into extra time.

They played two halves of 5 minutes each, without scoring, which then meant Golden Point. The first team to score would win.

With 2 minutes to go, Ben Hunt, for the Broncos, attempted a field goal. The ball hit the right post and fell through between the posts to score the winning point.

That was such an intense game. I wish I could describe to you, all of the moments in the game that were defining, heart flipping, jaw dropping, eye opening and air gasping.

So happy that my team won 29-28!

Now I’m watching the final round of the BMW PGA Golf Championships and will probably, once again, fall asleep to the sound of club on ball.

It’s exhausting living vicariously on all the sporting fields/courses!

Nite all.