Kinda Kondari

It was a lovely morning tea with the girls today, where we gently celebrated Rebel Mardi's birthday with home made carrot and pecan muffins (by me) and orange and date muffins (by Beauty), and with a happy red balloon tied to her chair .. that was a sign for any passers-by to wish her a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Rebel Mardi/Kaz :) I hope you enjoyed your day and felt some warm and fuzzies.

From there, the Speckled Hen, Reality TV Queen, Chef Pat and I headed into The Bay to test out the restaurant where we will be lunching with our lady's group this month. I liked it very much. Even Reality TV Queen gave it the thumbs up! She had grilled fish with chips and salad and even though the fish was well cooked, she said it lacked some flavour, but overall, was nice.

Kondari Resort

I had Barker's Creek pork cutlet with chilli glaze sauce on a bed of mash and salad. The pork and the glaze sauce was delicious. I barely touched the mash, but the salad choices from the salad bar were great.

The Speckled Hen had Lamb's Fry and Bacon. Chef Pat had Battered Fish and Chips. Four satisfied customers.

The pub had a nice atmosphere and the staff were friendly and welcoming, so I'm looking forward to returning there at the end of the month.

Today is May 4th ...

... one more time with feeling ... May the 4th be with you!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I have set myself the mission of cleaning and decluttering my work area. It's going to be a massive undertaking and I hope to post the 'after' photo here tomorrow evening.

Wish me luck!

Nite all.

The Monthly

Well, here we are on the first Tuesday of the month, and we all know what that means! Group barbecue on the river ... except ... they've closed off the park by the river and we've had to find a new location for the next 6-8 months while they build the controversial boat ramp near the Lions Park.

Our only other option is at the other end of town in a park on the waterfront, but the water and beach are obscured by trees and bushes, so we don't have the lovely views of the water and the sunsets that the Lions Park affords us.

Almost everybody was available tonight, so it was a noisy and happy group with lots to talk about. I wonder, if the people in the houses across the road, were disturbed by our excitement?

I made a delicious salad that I plucked from Pinterest this afternoon. It was Roquefort Pear Salad and it was even better than I expected! I replaced the Roquefort cheese with Feta cheese and I did my pecans on a tray in the oven with maple syrup and himalayan salt.

ALL of the dishes on the table (we all contribute a plate of something) were delicious and I commented that the entire meal was better than restaurant quality. We make a great team!

Now it's almost midnight and I have a big day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Procrastination and Distraction

My day began with such good intentions!

I looked at my desk and work area, remembering that two months ago, I announced here, with an accompanying 'before' photo, that I would clean it out and share an 'after' photo, in 2 days, or two weeks or two months.

Well, the two months is up and this morning, I felt motivated! Here is the new 'before' photo ...

I pedalled to the Seat of Knowledge to see the boys, bought my morning coffee and came straight home to begin my chore.

Where to start?

I decided to start with the drawers of beads, charms and other jewellery making paraphernalia. I checked online to see how other people sell their beads and began bagging them in colours and 250gm ziplock bags.

While I was doing this, I remembered that I was going to make clearing my office, part of my vision board! So with the skills of a great procrastinator, I left the bags of beads and the scales on the kitchen bench and headed into the back room where I had stored my vision board.

I laid it on the ironing board and gathered my books, magazines, cards, pictures and quotes, ready to create a masterpiece. I cut out a couple of pictures and stuck them on the board and then placed other pieces in strategic places.

For some reason, unknown to me, I opened the top drawer of the dresser in that room and began emptying out the contents. I was in de-clutter mode and decided that if I hadn't used anything in the drawers for years, then I needed to remove them from the house!

Twenty minutes later, with that drawer very much lighter and a pile of unwanted 'stuff' on the floor, I turned back to the vision board and while browsing through my life diary, I decided that I needed photos of yoga, meditation, walking along the beach and rebounding for the physical health part of my board.

This led me to the next bedroom where the giant bookshelf is stored.

Big mistake!

Twenty minutes later, I had the dining table half covered with books that I don't want to keep anymore, but none of the pictures that my original search was for!

So, in the space of about two hours, I'd covered the kitchen bench with beads, charms and plastic bags. I'd covered the ironing board and a single bed with books, magazines, cards, quotes, scissors, sticky tape and glue. I'd made a pile of unwanted clutter on the floor of the spare room. I'd partially covered the dining table with unwanted books and I had achieved absolutely nothing!!

Adoring Husband arrived home from his morning at the SES shed and I had to clear as much stuff as possible to organise lunch.

Then we watched two movies together!

Then it was time for dinner.

The story of my life.

Procrastination.

Distraction.

It's all over for me!

Let's hope I can find some dregs of today's motivation, tomorrow, so that I can put a much bigger dent in my original plan that was for today!

*sigh*

Nite all.    

Happy Hummer

I wish Australia had a native Hummingbirds. I love them so much! This is a great story ...



I collected my sand crabs from The Motivator this morning and ate three of them for lunch. I still have two more to pig out on tomorrow, which makes me very happy. I love sand crab season!

I found a great app today. Since I stopped being 100% paleo, my ability to fall asleep immediately has been greatly reduced. At first, I found an app to live stream any radio station in the world, and I was listening to some classic 60s, 70s and 80s music, which lulled me to sleep quite well.

That worked for about three weeks, but soon my brain noise began overriding the music, so today I searched for an app with sleeping sounds, white noise and meditations. It's called 'Relax Melodies: Sleep Zen Sounds and White Noise for Meditation, Yoga and Baby Relaxation'

It has the sounds of river, ocean, rain, winds, birds, flute, piano, thunder, campfire, wind chimes, slow waves, frogs, cat purring, grandfather clock, wind in the trees, brahms lullaby and many many more. It also has guided meditations for sleep therapy, attracting success, creativity, concentration etc etc.

It gives you the option to create your own sleeping sounds by combining the different noises. It also gives you the option to pay money, which buys a large number of other sounds, guided meditations and white noises.

There is a clock so that you can set it to turn off after a certain time.

The ones that disturb me the most, are the running water sounds, because they make me want to pee and then there is a campfire, which would be wonderful to fall asleep to, but if I woke up to the sound of fire, I would be awake and jumping out of bed screaming "I think the house is on fire!!!" Then the adrenalin pumping through my body would stop me from falling back to sleep!

There are a couple of urban sounds too, like the sound of traffic going past your house, or trains in the distance .. they are a bit disturbing, but I remember when Bubbles lived on a main road and came up here to visit, the silence prevented her from relaxing and falling asleep at night, so I guess the traffic sounds would have been helpful for her at that time.

Tonight will be the test for me, so I'll report back tomorrow!

Let the test begin ...

Nite all.

EMB

EMB = Emotional Monkey Business

If this doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you have no heart!



I didn't even wake up until 8.30 this morning! Well, actually, I woke up a few times before 8.30, but closed my eyes and drifted back into that lovely lazy blissful sleep. It was a very pleasant way to ease into the day.

So I missed seeing the boys, but I still rode down to order my usual morning coffee and got some food to cook so that we had healthy munchy stuff while we watched the football this afternoon.

When I got home, I created the most delicious breakfast I've tasted for some time! I chopped up some banana into nice sized chunks, mixed coconut oil, coconut sugar, salt and chilli powder together in a cast iron frypan and threw the banana chunks into it. Cooked over a high heat until it caramelised.

In another pan, I cooked the bacon. I chopped 4 small pieces of haloumi cheese and fried it in the bacon fat til it browned and then I dry roasted some pine nuts.

Threw it all on a plate, drizzled some maple syrup over the top of everything and sprinkled the pine nuts over the top.

I'm drooling just remembering how delicious it was. I'm making more tomorrow morning!

I had a couple of hours with The Motivator this afternoon, which was fun. I only meant to be there for an hour, but when I looked at my watch, two hours had passed! I'm going back tomorrow to pick up my crab order. YUM.

Happy to say that I have four out of five of my footy tips correct so far.

I had until midnight tonight to create a photo for the April flickr challenge, so threw this together about an hour ago. The theme is 'Abstract'. This is not a bad effort for a 90 minute deadline, but the other submissions are amazing, so once again, I am making up the numbers.

Now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Luckily For Me

What luck!

Adoring Husband contacted Harvey Norman about the food processor. They advised him that it was purchased on 16th April 2015 and therefore the 12 month warranty had expired.

Luckily for us, AH always does his research before making these phone calls, and because we couldn't find the receipt, he had gone onto the website for this particular brand and discovered that it comes with an unconditional FIVE year warranty (and so it should, considering it's price!), so he brought this to their attention.

Harvey Norman keep a record of all our purchases, so we know that if we can't find our receipts, they can provide us with a copy.

Upon checking their facts, they asked AH to bring the offending processor into the store - I believe that they still weren't sure of the facts.

Not long after he hung up, they phoned back, apologising profusely, stating that they would replace the food processor with a brand new machine, but they had none in the store, so they would place an order immediately and could we bring the broken processor into the store at a time convenient to us.

I should think so!

We drove into The Bay today to buy BGWLBH a birthday present.

I have actually ordered a gift for her online and I was hoping it would arrive today. I've been tracking it and it was in Brisbane yesterday, so it was touch and go whether it would arrive on time. Unfortunately, it didn't make it, and I REALLY wanted her parcel to arrive before her birthday next Friday, so the next best option was to buy her something else in The Bay and get it in the mail today.

You see, Monday is a public holiday, so it was imperative that I got the parcel in the mail today.

I had an idea for a gift that 'I' would love to receive and hoped that she would also love it, so it was a double purchase. AH bought one for me, while I bought one for BGWLBH. It took a little while to find exactly what I wanted, but luckily for me, it was pretty painless.

Afterwards, Adoring Husband wanted us to have a nice lunch together, but I explained that we must get home with enough time to wrap the other gifts (this one was gift wrapped by the store) and get to the Post Office before 2pm to catch the last mail of the day.

So, luckily for me, he reluctantly, and feeling very hungry, drove us home.

I wrapped the gifts, wrote little notes for each one, added a longer note inside the card and jumped into the car and headed to the Post Office.

By now it was just after 1.20pm, so at this point, we still had plenty of time to spare. I took a few minutes to decide on the packaging, selected a box, filled in the address and signed the declaration .. just as I finished signing, there was a black out!

Because the PO is attached to the local supermarket, the power generator won't support the PO, so the shutter was pulled with no indication of how long this power failure would last.

Ugh!!

Now what?!

Luckily for me, Adoring Husband came to the rescue with the declaration that we would drive to the Howard Post Office (about 20 minutes away) because they had a later time for their last mail pick up.

By now, I'm feeling very stressed and anxious!

Twenty minutes later, we walk into the Post Office and discover, luckily for me, that their last mail goes very late in the afternoon, but just to make sure, we sent it Express Post!!

On the way home, I'm thinking about cooking up a feast for AH to make up for the fact that he missed out on lunch (especially because he also hadn't had any breakfast) and by now, it was after 2.30pm.

We arrive home to discover that the power is STILL out! We checked the Ergon Energy site to find that the time frame for a fix was 'unknown' so this meant no cooking .. no feast for AH!

Desperate situations call for desperate measures, so it was last night's leftovers of cold sausages and onion gravy, followed by a bowl of the ice cream that had destroyed my food processor. That was satisfying enough to please his belly AND luckily for me, made him choose to accompany me to the club for raffle night!

The final 'luckily for me' moment was when the team that I selected in my tips for tonight's NRL game, actually won .. unlike last night's team!

Seems like it might be my bed time.

Nite all.

 

Wreck it Roz

So I was making some ice cream tonight.

Frozen banana, maple syrup, nut butter, coconut milk and shaved chocolate. Chuck it all in the food processor and whizz until it's smooth and creamy. I've made it twice before without any issues.

Not tonight.

I turned on my very expensive food processor and it went clunk, clunk, bang, bang, crack, crack, SILENCE.

When I pulled it apart, the bowl had a small crack in it and beneath the bowl, the base was shaved and shredded and split. It's not very old, so we're hoping it's still under warrantee. I have no idea how or why that happened, but I'm not happy Jan!!

I actually did some housework today and then cooked up a big lunch of sweet potato mash, broccoli, carrots, sausages in onion gravy. I am a bit partial to sausages with onion gravy.

We had a big lunch because Adoring Husband had SES training tonight.

Remember the other day when I posted the link to cleaning soap scum from your shower? No? Well here it is again ...

Cleaning Soap Scum

I tried it today and it was pretty good. You need to wear a face mask, because the fumes coming from the mixture are pretty strong! I used 'Earth' dishwashing liquid, instead of 'Dawn' and it possibly isn't the best one to use because it is lacking a lot of the ingredients that are in the more toxic dishwashing liquids like Palmolive or Sunlight or Morning Fresh.

It definitely reduced the scrubbing/rubbing/wiping time considerably and it worked well on the tiles and the chrome fittings too.

I will use it again.

I found this today and thought it was very moving .. both happy and sad.

I can't believe that it's rapidly approaching 1am already. Best head to bed.

Nite all.

Lovely Lunch

Hervey Bay Golf Club was the destination for lunch today.

I ordered 'main meal size' Grilled King Prawns, which should have had 6 king prawns on a bed of rice with a seafood aioli. Well, I received 6 king prawn heads, but only 4 bodies! My generous friend, Chef Pat, who was sitting beside me, offered me one of her prawns, which was lovely.

I was encouraged to tell the staff about the shortcomings of my meal, but when I told the woman taking our payments, she simply said "Oh ok, I will let him know."

I didn't complain, but stated a fact. Perhaps I should have made more of a scene, and perhaps I should have said "Well let me wait here while you tell him now."

I don't believe that she let anybody know, so this evening, I constructed an email to the club and sent it via their website 'contact us' facility, explaining my displeasure at both the meal, and the response I received when I advised them of their error. It will be interesting to see if they respond.

Today, I chose NOT to have more drinks at the Speckled Hen's house, as a few of us usually do after our lunches, and they drove me directly home instead. I walked in the door, to discover that Adoring Husband had eaten the last four of the muffins that I made yesterday, so I stepped into the kitchen and immediately made another dozen!

That was six hours ago and there are STILL a dozen muffins in the kitchen as we speak!

I'm now going to bed, to take advantage of the deliciously cool breeze floating through the bedroom window.

Nite all.  

Giggle a Day

These gave me a good belly laugh. I hope they shoot some happy endorphins through your face and brain!



Whisper Challenge 1

Whisper Challenge 2

Whisper Challenge 3

Whisper Challenge 4

When I rode to get my coffee this morning, I took some old scratchies to be checked by their scanner and discovered that we had won $18, so I bought $18 worth of new scratchies and won absolutely zip! Ah well.

I spent some quality time with The Motivator this morning, which was most enjoyable. She and her fiance, 'The Mighty Fisherman', gave me four crabs for my birthday!! What a lovely surprise!! I came home and spent 40 minutes removing all the meat from the crabs, then sat down and took 10 minutes to eat it all! Delicious :)

BEFORE I sat down to eat my crab meat, I whipped up a batch of Adoring Husband's favourites, the apple and walnut muffins. I made a dozen and I believe there are only three or four left! Lucky they are healthy!

I'm looking forward to lunch with the ladies tomorrow, but I haven't heard from my lift yet, so it may be touch and go!

Finally today, I have this link that some of you may find exciting!!

How to Magically Remove Soap Scum Without Scrubbing.

Nite all.

Being a Woman

"And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows." - Audrey Hepburn

Feminism (noun) - the belief that all people are entitled to the same civil rights and liberties and can be intellectual equals regardless of gender.

Some women who should be celebrated and better known than they are ...

Roslyn Sussman Yalow won the Nobel Prize for her development of RIA (radioimmunoassay)

a technique that is used to measure small quantities of liquid in human blood.

Barbara McClintock, the first woman to win an 'unshared' Nobel Prize in Physiology,

for her theory in transposition - the idea that certain genes turn on or off 

physical characteristics.

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women

About International Women's Day

My day of empowerment included riding to the Seat of Knowledge, buying coffee, visiting a friend for morning tea, watching a movie, watching the football, cooking dinner and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it!

Now, I'm off to bed for another good night's sleep.

Nite all.

Anniversary Number Six

Adoring Husband and I spent a lovely day together, celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary. He brought me coffee so that I could enjoy a leisurely morning in bed, followed by two enjoyable hours at Arkarra Lagoon over lunch, then we drove into The Bay and shopped at Pandanus, before heading to the Boat Club for a quick 30 or 40 minutes of unsuccessful gambling.

We drove home and he dropped me off at 'Woman of Many Talents' house, where she and I spent over two hours catching up on all our news.

Later, I watched the Cronulla Sharks beat Penrith Panthers in the only NRL game played today and we had curried sausages for dinner - nice and easy out of the freezer and reheated.

So the weekend was fantastic, with all the celebrating of the birthdays and the anniversaries!

Now I'm off to bed. I was thinking of having an early night, but I've just looked at the clock and it's already 10.45pm. Ah well, I guess it's better than midnight!

Nite all.

I Made it!

Fifty six today! I made it!

It's been a great day.

Spoiled rotten by Adoring Husband and BGWLBH.

Saw my boys at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, then had morning tea with the Blonde Bombshell. Spent the day with AH, followed by drinks with my new neighbour, and few other friends, next door. AH then cooked dinner for me!

I received birthday phone calls from all of my kids AND my sister AND Lady Lynn who sang to me with her perfect birthday singing voice.

All in all, a perfect birthday :)

I opened my birthday parcel from BGWLBH at 1.30am (yes .. this morning!), then surprisingly, had a text conversation with her after I sent a thank you text to her .. I certainly wasn't expecting her to be awake at that time!! Therefore, I didn't get to sleep til after 2am, so I am feeling decidedly tired tonight.

On that note, I probably don't need an explanation for providing such a short post tonight, and I am off to rest my weary head.

Happy birthday to me!!

Nite all.

Unbirthday

I had a very happy 'unbirthday' this morning with my Chicklet family.

An 'unbirthday' is the birthday you have when you can't be with the family for your actual birthday.

My 'unbirthday' throne, where Chicklet called me Queen Bozzy Wozzy ...

... and my delicious unbirthday petit fours ...

... gluten free, but not paleo!

The train was very full and loud and cramped on the trip home. Perhaps it was just because there were so many people, but the seats seemed smaller and space between them seemed smaller too.

For the first time in about two years, I had to sit beside somebody! He was an old man, originally from Howard, now living in Maryborough, who once worked in the mines at Howard and later, he worked on the railway. He knows my boys from the Seat of Knowledge and he was in for a chat.

Our chat would have been very pleasant, but he obviously had a hearing problem and his speaking voice was so loud, it filled the carriage! After a while, I pretended to sleep, because I felt that the other passengers were sick of hearing his life story at full volume.

Unfortunately, there was another passenger on the carriage who also wanted to discuss her life story at full volume. She was much younger, with no hearing problem, but very full of her own self importance and full of confidence that she could change the world (obviously one train carriage at a time).

She explained that she believed that this would be her last life on this earth, and she needed to use all the knowledge that she had gathered in her previous lives, to spread the word and educate the young people of this world to make a difference.

She believed that the problem with young people these days was generational and that she could provide the hope and the values that they need for a better future.

I wondered how she was going to bring hope and values to the youth of the world, while standing on the Gympie station platform, with a group of other passengers, smoking in a 'non-smoking' area, while making her son stand alone in the middle of the platform away from the smokers.

She believed her four year old son was a very old soul with a wonderful warmth about him and beautiful manners that brought her such joy. She believes that he is so charming because of their nomadic lifestyle (that is another story that I won't go into).

We learned that her father left the family home when she was six and that she was forced to live on the streets at the age of fourteen, but through her own tenacity, she developed good morals and values that made her different to the lost youth of today.

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

I can't tell you how grateful I was when the train pulled into Maryborough West train station, which was her stop. I'm sure I could physically feel the relief that settled over the remaining passengers - I could almost sense an impending round of applause!

I hope that she CAN make a positive difference in the world. I hope that she CAN do everything that she believes of herself. I just hope that my future doesn't include a shared train trip in the same carriage with her, because I don't want to listen to her story again.

It was fabulous to see Adoring Husband's smiling face when I finally arrived at my destination and we even got to enjoy our afternoon coffee together before I got ready for my weekly jaunt to the Bowl's Club.

Just two glasses of wine tonight.

It's already well after midnight and I don't feel the slightest bit tired! Perhaps I should have had more wine!

Nite all.

Moulded Bozzy

This is a quick and short post because I'm exhausted and need to sleep.

It was almost 3am before I finally fell asleep this morning and the alarm woke me at 6am. I really thought I'd conquered this fear of dentists, but obviously not, because I couldn't sleep AND my eye is infected again .. the same as the last three times leading up to a dental visit .. UGH!

The dentist almost suffocated me this morning taking moulds for my back upper denture. Gross man! It was extremely unpleasant, but on the positive side, she was very fast. I was sitting in the chair at 8am and walking out the door at 8.45am in search of a good coffee!

I decided to go to the movies on my own, to see 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was all alone in the cinema until about 2 minute before the movie began, when about 20 or 30 people came in.

After the movie, I found my favourite shop and bought a couple of tops and bottoms. Then I discovered a remote controlled dragon for Chicklet. She loves it and we spent all afternoon playing with it and trying to perfect the very touchy remote. It's tricky, but fun!

It's been a very long day, mostly because I didn't eat and fuel my body, so I've been running on empty for most of the day. Self inflicted, and I know better.

Tomorrow morning I am having a pre-birthday celebration with the Chicklet family before I head home. By pre-birthday celebration, I mean balloons, coffee and cake!

Right now, I need desperately to close my eyes and head off to dreamland.

Nite all.

Busy Bozzy

Let me see ...

• Frogs v Dinosaurs
• Wile E Coyote v Road Runner x 2
• Sink or Swim crocodiles
• Sink or Swim frogs
• Colouring in with magic water
• Building a doll/dragon house from a box
• Driving dinosaurs in shoe cars
• Coffee date
• Watching Captain Planet and the Planeteers
• Creating art on the iPad
• Playing games on the iPad
• Reading stories

I think that's all.

We seem to have fit quite a lot into about sixteen hours of 'awake' time.

Tomorrow is my dentist appointment - eep.

I will reward myself with a pedicure and shopping at Sunshine Plaza :)

Tonight, I have some Grey's Anatomy to catch up on, so I am signing off so that I can fit all of the episodes in before midnight. I have an early start tomorrow and need to get some good sleep between Greys and the Dentist!!

Nite all.

Pretty Much Ready

I giggled most of the way through this one.



I saw my boys this morning, then visited the Blonde Bombshell for coffee, before coming home to finish off the dog food that I couldn't be bothered doing last night.

There is a second batch of chicken broth ready to be frozen now.

I am partially packed for my trip to the Sunny Coast.

Thank goodness the train doesn't arrive until after midday tomorrow, so I will have plenty of time to finish off a few loose ends before I leave.

After seeing my 'on this day' posts on facebook this morning, I spent a lot of time dreaming about having a clean work area.

I would love to start again just like this, so when I return home from this trip, I'm going to do a complete clean out and declutter. There is a lot of stuff in my work area that is being 'stored' and not 'used' so it's time to get rid of it and make my work space usable and a more enjoyable place to be.

That's my plan for next week!

My other plan for next week, is to enjoy lunch with the ladies - how quickly our monthly lady's luncheons come around!

Nite all.

Autumn at Last.

I recognise this season! The air is clearer, the temperature is cooler, the colours are more vibrant and it's pleasant sleeping weather. Finally!! Autumn is here *happy dance*

Not quite as successful in the kitchen as I'd planned for today.

I did the honey chilli chicken rissoles, the apple and walnut muffins, finished the broth, partly did the dog food - which I'll finish tonight (after I've signed off here), but I decided not to do the chocolate tart.

I cooked duck breast for dinner tonight, served with pumpkin mashed with chilli coconut mayo and roasted walnuts, carrot, broccoli and bok choy.

I have all day tomorrow to clear out the fridge, juice the fruit and finish all our leftovers, so that there is room in the fridge for the FROG box contents on Thursday.

Oh and I have to do all of my washing before I go too!

I found this today and it's pretty spectacular ...



Nothing else worth sharing tonight.

Happy Monday to you all!

Nite all.

I'm a Kitchen Maid

I've spent a good deal of my day in the kitchen, but not enough that I'm sick of it yet.

I've been watching all of the Paleo people on one of the Facebook pages, discussing how they spend a day every week doing a bulk cook and then freezing it, so that all of their meals are prepared and they only have to make the salad or the vegetables to go with it.

Some also make a weekly batch of mayonnaise and then make the coleslaw, they prepare dips to have with their vegetable sticks as snacks, roasted vegetables to reheat etc etc.

There are times, especially when the football is on TV, when I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, so today, I decided to do a cook off.

• 3 X Curried Sausage
• 3 X Spaghetti Sauces
• 3 X Beef Stroganoff
• 1 X Savoury Chilli Chicken Mince
• 1 Big batch of Pea and Ham Soup (not Paleo)
• 1 Big batch of Chicken Broth
• 2 X batches of Chicken Sesame Rissoles (tomorrow)
• 12 Apple and Walnut Muffins (tomorrow)
• 1 Chocolate Tart (tomorrow)
• 16 days of dog food (tomorrow)

So, Adoring Husband will have prepared meals, if he wants them, while I'm away next week and there will be plenty left for when I return.

The only hiccup was when I dropped one of the pyrex storage bowls onto the tiled floor. Wow! What a mess! Luckily, I hadn't filled it with food, so it was empty, but boy did it shatter into a million pieces and it flew in all directions!

I have a long kitchen with only one entry/exit, which is lucky, because the force of the broken glass was quite powerful. The cupboards and wall stopped most of it but it still found it's way under the pantry door and even as far as my desk which is about 20 feet from where I dropped it.

Adoring Husband came running to my rescue in bare feet, calling out "Don't move!" - so I reminded him how smart it would be, for HIM to put thongs or shoes on HIS feet! I was already wearing rubber thongs.

Between us, we found all the broken glass and cleaned it up pretty quickly, but now I will have to replace the container.

This cooler weather has been a real blessing. The boys on the Seat of Knowledge are even wearing jackets in the mornings! For the second night in a row, I pulled the bed covers over me, but still left the fan running - because I love to feel the breeze while I sleep.

If I could, I'd be like Vegan Chickie and have the air conditioner running even during Winter, so that snuggling under the warm doona would be all the more enjoyable!

I found this today and felt that it would be a warm and fuzzy way to start our Sunday ...

Finally, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to 'Beauty' who celebrated birthday number 52 today (or yesterday, as you are reading this on Sunday)!!

I'm off to watch Brisbane Broncos finish off the Newcastle Knights with a flourish! (I hope I don't live to regret those words!)

Nite all.

In The Air

Do I detect a slight chill in the air?????

Did Mother Nature take note of my request last week to give us a taste of Autumn????

It is absolutely delightful and in the early hours of this morning, I even pulled the bed cover over me ... for the first time in about six months.

This weather is perfect.

So I am going to take advantage of it and head off to bed to snuggle under the sheets.

It has been a long time since I posted some quotes on here, so for your viewing pleasure ...

May your weekend be amazing!

Nite all.

Opening Day

Adoring Husband and I attended the debut viewing of the movie "Allegiant" today.

It was brilliant!

It is the third movie in the Divergent Series. The series started with "Divergent", followed by "Insurgent" and today we saw "Allegiant".

We thought that there were only three movies in the series, and we wondered why this one ended as it did, but I have just discovered that there is a part two to this movie to be released in 2017 called "Ascendant"!! I'm excited!!

The main character, Triss, is played by Shailene Woodley (she has also starred in "The Fault in Our Stars" and "The Descendants").

I have found the series, so far, to be an extreme and symbolic view of how the world is today and I sit on the edge of my seat through the movies taking it all in and wishing I could be half as amazing as Triss!

Today, AH and I were the only two sitting in the cinema until about 2 minutes before the movie commenced, when gradually, 19 others found their way in and sat scattered throughout the largest cinema in the complex.

Now the countdown begins until the final instalment - June 2017.

We tried to replenish our stock of salted caramel ice cream today, but Go Natural was sold out. The salesperson told us that it was the most popular flavour and was always the first to sell out. Apparently, there will be new stock in on Monday ... another countdown begins!

The third countdown for me, is the visit to the Chicklet family next week and what should be my second last visit to the dentist. I can't wait to see my little Chicklet and I can't wait to be finished with the dentist!

Nite all.

I Missed You!

How did I miss posting last night? I don't even remember doing anything important that would stop me from posting.

See, it's another one of those hiccups in my life, where my memory fails me. It's not the only thing I've forgotten this week.

Both of my sons-in-law had birthdays this week, just one day apart. One is the 12th and one is the 13th April. For some strange reason, I switched the dates in my head, and gave one the 13th and one the 14th!!

Vegan Chickie phoned me today and said "You forgot the Bare-chested Chef's birthday"

I said "No, the day isn't over yet. I haven't forgotten."

She replied "Mum, it was yesterday."

I am a BAD mother-in-law!

Let me make it clear that Vegan Chickie didn't phone specifically to tell me that and make me feel bad.

Luckily for my other son-in-law, that she DID call me, because it meant that I didn't miss his birthday completely!

So now I've hired Vegan Chickie as my PA so that she can make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again in my future.

Good grief.

I found this today. An interview with the author of 'Grain Brain' explaining how gut health is so important and how it affects our health, in particular, brain health with neurological disorders like Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Autism, Dementia, Depression etc.

This is only 20 minutes of the complete interview, which I think goes for about 90 minutes altogether. Very interesting and makes a whole lot of sense.  



Finally, I think we should start our day with this wonderful thought ...

Nite all.

Finally .. 'After'

Honestly, I still have to clip her nails and do some more tidying up, but this is close enough for now ...

I was reading a funny article today, about how the younger generations don't understand some of our expressions. This will make you feel old ...

Q: Why do we say "hang up" a phone?
A: Phones used to have two parts to them, a base and a receiver. In order to end a call, the receiver had to be placed on the base.

Q: Why do we say "dial" a phone?
A: To call someone on an old phone, you had to stick your finger in a rotating dial at number positions that would turn the dial for various lengths of time when released. You had to dial the entire number every time.

There were others, but these two related more to my generation (and older) than those others.

Then I found this ...

Introducing kids to rotary phones

How funny! Technology has changed a lot in the last twenty or thirty years!!

Now I'm off for some more guitar practise and then another early night to bed.

Nite all.

Who Knew?

I knew that my gum disease was affecting my overall health, but as time goes on, I'm learning more and more, how vitally important is our oral health. I found this article incredibly interesting and full of information that we all really need to know.

Gum disease opens up the body to a host of infections.

The scary thing is that I had no idea that I even had gum disease, and it was chronic! The dentist wondered why I couldn't taste it or feel it, but the only indications that there was something wrong for me, was that two of my front teeth were being pushed out of the gums until they looked like vampire fangs, and one of them was very loose for a long time. I had no idea that it was gum disease causing that.

There was no bad taste in my mouth, no pain or tenderness for years until it became painful to bite with one of the crooked teeth.

I left it way too long before I finally found the courage to visit a dentist. The first dentist put the fear of god in me (as if I wasn't already terrified) and my chosen holistic dentist has worked hard to keep me calm and keep me informed about the work required.

She even printed out a dental plan with a step by step process and price list. The fact that I misplaced the dental plan before the third visit tells you something about either my apathy, or my confidence lol.

I still only have a vague idea of what's coming next, but I DO know that the worst is over, so I'm not concerned about my dental future. My next visit is 21st April, not too far away.

I enjoyed morning tea with the Blond Bombshell and Reality TV Queen today. The chocolate tart didn't get touched yesterday during our gathering, so I took half of it home and left half of it there, with an invitation to share it for morning tea today. We ate it with raspberries, strawberries and dollop cream. YUM!

Adoring Husband and I attempted to finish the grooming of Colli today. We've done two short shifts, where I was able to clip her four legs and paws, snipping my own palm in the process! I clipped some of her neck and face, but she became very agitated, so I hope to finish off her face tomorrow.

I would groom her more often, which would make the job a lot easier and more pleasant, if only she would be nice about it, but she's not, so I keep putting it off, which just makes the job more difficult. I think in future, I will suck it up and do it once a month before it gets to this state.

I admit, I only have myself to blame.

Anyway, as you can tell, I've posted this nice and early today. I'm aiming for an evening of guitar practise and then an early-ish night to bed.

Afternoon all.
 

Saturday Gathering

The local markets were on in town today, so I visited Adoring Husband as he helped the SES cook the bacon and egg rolls and the sizzling sausages, and while I was there, I supported the local stall holders.

I bought some home made cards, some hand crafted towels, some massage cream to help AH with his aches and pains and a stained glass owl to hang in my frangipani tree.

From there, I came home and spent a couple of hours in the kitchen making chicken meatballs in honey chilli sauce and a chocolate tart.

My plan was to finish Colli's grooming, but the kitchen took too much of my time, so she is on hold until tomorrow. Here is the 'before' photo ...

Poor thing. She is half done and is running around full of energy, like a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders! I look forward to showing you her cute little face tomorrow.

I pedalled to the Blond Bombshell's house this afternoon, with the basket of my trike loaded with the food that I cooked and some wine.

There were about fifteen of us gathered (not all at once), each of us arriving with a plate of food, so we spent the entire afternoon eating and drinking until we couldn't swallow another bite!

It was a pleasant afternoon, although I must say that I wasn't feeling very well for most of it. I can't even pinpoint what was wrong, but I felt weak and a touch nauseas and a bit clammy. I'm feeling fine now, so I don't even know what it could have been.

I only had one glass of wine and then drank water for the remainder of the day.

I brought home a doggy bag for AH and he got to eat some party food too.

That was my day, and once again, it's almost midnight.

Nite all.

A Start

I spent 90 minutes attempting to groom one of the psychotic dogs today.

The older she becomes, the less Colli likes to be groomed. Once upon a time, she would lie or sit or stand exactly where I put her, and not move until I was finished. She was so easy.

Now, she dislikes it immensely, and I'm lucky to get her to sit still for 5 minutes at a time. She's jumpy and growly and I'm sure that one time soon, she is going to bite me!

Today, I kept a little ball of raw mince under the towel and every ten minutes I told her what a good girl she was and gave her a little piece of mince. I must say that it did not work a treat, but I got 90 minutes of her time, until she decided that she was done.

I estimate that it will take another hour to finish her properly, which I hope to do tomorrow.

Adoring Husband bought me some salon quality scissors this afternoon, so that should make the job a little easier. She doesn't like the electric clippers .. which is why it takes me so long!

I figured that it might be interesting to see what Youtube had to offer on dog grooming...



This dog is much better behaved that Colli, that's for sure.

When she wouldn't let me do any more, I figured that I would give her a bath to wash off any loose hair. I set the hose attachment to the tap in the laundry tub, lay a clean towel down and brought the scissors in, just in case she let me do a bit more of my handy work.

Then I called her ... and I called her again ... and I searched for her ... and called her again ... I finally found her in the far back corner of the yard lying down in the long grass, quite obviously hiding from me!

I figured that if she was going to that much trouble to avoid me, I wouldn't stress her out any more with a bath. She will have no choice tomorrow though!!

Tomorrow, I will show you the 'before' and 'after' photos ... and you will understand why it took so long!

Once again, it's midnight, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Not a Lot

Nope, not a lot happened today.

A brief visit to the Seat of Knowledge, coffee and then home.

I watched two movies - the two Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies and then 'My Blue Heaven' starring Steve Martin. It was made in 1990, so it was fun seeing all the stars as they were, almost 30 years ago.

I made a quick steak with mushroom sauce and salad for Adoring Husband before he headed off for SES training.

I chatted with Number One Son on the phone this evening.

That's the long and the short of my day.

I'm off to bed for an early night.

Nite all.

Just Relax

I was running just a touch late this morning.

I should have been at morning tea by 8.30am. I opened my eyes from a good night's sleep, at 8.38am!!

I jumped out of bed, had an incredibly fast shower, added a tiny touch of make-up and jumped on my trike, to arrive at morning tea by 9am. That's pretty quick hey???!

From there, I came home for yet another quick change, to get picked up by Rebel Mardi at 10.45-ish so that we could see a movie in The Bay. Maid Marian and Lady Lynn joined us for the movie "Brooklyn" starring Saoirse Ronan.

It was very much like "Lady in the Van", in that nothing much really happened in the movie, but it was still very good. Quite emotive in parts and giving us reason to judge on one hand, but on the other hand, wonder about our own life's choices, or what we would do in the same situation as the movie's main character, Eilis, especially considering the era that it was set (1950s).

I enjoyed it very much.

Afterwards, we got to enjoy a little retail therapy while Rebel Mardi attended an appointment.

Tonight, I made a quick dinner of chilli chicken wings with salad, so all round, and considering how the day began, it has been a pleasant and relaxing day.

Just to add to the relaxation process, I was watching Rachel Hunter's 'Tour of Beauty' where she travels all over the world and uncovers beauty secrets from different countries. She attempts or experiences everything from ayurvedic health practises to beauty treatments to yoga, meditation, mineral baths etc etc etc.

Tonight, while in India, she tried Yoga Nidra. It very much appealed to me, so I did a search in Youtube and found this for beginners...

Yoga Nidra

I've only listened to the first ten minutes of it, but will definitely get my yoga mat out and listen to it in it's entirety sometime tomorrow or Friday. I could feel my body moving into a deep relaxation in just that short time.

I have to groom the dogs tomorrow, so I think some Yoga Nidra might be in order afterwards!

Meanwhile, for my lovely friends who have recently begun an exercise program, I though you might find this useful ...

Now it's time for some sleep.

Nite all.

It's a sad shame

I always wondered why the world blamed Monica for the scandal, when she was just a young 22yr old and Clinton was a 49 yr old man and supposedly the most powerful leader in the world. He got off easy and poor Monica .. well, this says it all really...



It was so nice by the river tonight. The weather was a touch milder than it has been, so the slight breeze was a pleasant change and made our friendly barbecue all the more enjoyable.

Good food, good friends and good wine, always a great combination.

I shared the links to some of these episodes when I watched "The Truth About Cancer" last year, but it is now available for free again. I swear that you will be amazed by what you learn and that you will receive lots of information about preventative measures from this series as well. Try to find some time to watch even a couple of episodes if you can.

The Truth About Cancer

I'm off to bed now, and I hope to be going to the movies with the girls tomorrow.

Nite all.

Good Muffin Bad Muffin

Good Lord! I've had some dreadful failures in the kitchen this week!

I took advantage of Adoring Husband's absence today and spent the entire morning in the kitchen.

The chocolate tart is delicious, but VERY rich, so it's not something that you can pig out on all day.

The apple and walnut muffins are, as usual, delicious and probably won't last very long.

The zucchini and sun dried tomato muffins were the most disgusting muffins I've ever tasted in my life and I threw them in the garbage after one bite.

It was an epic clean up after 3 hours in the kitchen, so it was nice to put my feet up in between loads of washing. I watched 'Meet Joe Black' with the most beautiful version of Brad Pitt possible.

Adoring Husband brought home two tubs of my Zebra Dream salted caramel ice cream *insert huge cheesy grin here* so that went a long way towards easing the pain of my failed cooking experience.

I had a little practise on the guitar .. my plucking fingers are feeling great today.

I'm off to bed and closing with this ...

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Nite all.

Woozy Sunday

I woke up with a touch of vertigo this morning. It came and went all day, which was both tricky and annoying. I was SO ready for a busy Sunday working bee with Adoring Husband, but my brain kept floating and spinning, so I couldn't do it.

It was a quiet and uneventful Sunday of watching the football and then tonight, cooking a meal that was so disgusting, neither AH or myself could eat it, followed by a couple of movies. "Hot Pursuit" and "New Years Eve".

I must confess that the vertigo is getting the better of me, so I'm off to bed.

But first .. I love James Corden's carpool karaoke and this is his latest effort with Jennifer Lopez.



Today, my little Chicklet made some Powerpuff characters ...

This is me...

This is BGWLBH...

This is Chicklet...

This is grumpy Dadu...

This is Mama...

This is Poppy B

They made my day :)

One more thing to share.

Nite all.

Pat a Cake

What a day!

It was a late start for me (nothing unusual there) and after I rode to the coffee shop, I decided to go for a long leisurely ride along the river, beginning at the park and winding my way right to the end of the path. This is something that I haven't done for a long time.

It was a beautiful morning, with a few scattered clouds, vibrant blue water and sunlight twinkling off the waves. There were a few people on the beach, fishing, sunbathing, walking, swimming and making sand castles.

There is still one week left of the Queensland school holidays, so next weekend, the caravan parks will empty, and NSW schools will commence their holidays, so we'll get an influx of new tourists for two weeks.

For that reason, this is not my favourite time of the year.

By the time I pedalled up our driveway, I was feeling motivated to complete one of my job cards. Not a new card, but one that I removed from the board over a week ago .. one that I was dreading, because I knew that it would take me a million years to complete.

It was about 10am when I pulled everything out of my dressing table. It has a row of three small drawers across the top and a bank of four large drawers at the bottom. This is just some of it! There was another large pile on the floor!

Two and a half hours later, I had finished sorting through clothes, jewellery, cards and letters, postcards, receipts, bank statements, ring boxes (why was I even saving them?), scarves, hair combs and scrunchies, buttons in little ziplock bags, CDs, umbrellas, handbag straps, old purses and phone cases, the list goes on and on.

It was about 12.45pm when I finally finished the job and sat down on the couch to take a break. I had to be ready for a lunch date by 1.40pm, but time flew so quickly, that the next time I looked at my watch, it was 1.30pm!! It was a mad rush for me to get dressed (not even time for a shower), splash some make up on my face, grab a bottle of wine, a wine glass and some ice from the freezer, and rush out the door.

As luck would have it, I was the first to arrive and everybody else was late!!

Our lunch was at Chef Pat's house. She turned 70 a week ago and at the time, she celebrated with her family. It has been years since she invited friends for a meal at her house, and we (The Speckled Hen, The Reality TV Queen, The Blond Bombshell and I) were the lucky recipients of a delicious spread of fresh nutritious food, lovingly prepared by Chef Pat.

It was all so good, that we awarded her a Michelin Star!

She and her husband once owned and managed the magnificent Federal Hotel in Childers. She was also the head cook there.

This is us, all having a wonderful time with Chef Pat...

... this is the delicious GF cake that she made and which was served with raspberries soaked in balsamic vinegar. Yummo!

... and this is me!

It was a really great afternoon. We had lots of food, lots of champagne and wine, and lots of laughs.

Chef Pat was a wonderful hostess and we couldn't thank her enough. She is visually impaired, so this was a bigger effort for her, than it would be for one of us. She is an amazing lady.

The sun had well and truly set by the time we farewelled her and the battery was flat on my trike headlight, which made it tricky to ride home. I made it home about an hour before Adoring Husband arrived home from his big day of SES training.

I also arrived home at the same time that I received a message from The Leggy Blond, who is a neighbour, about one of the psychotic dogs barking all day. I had been in such a rush to leave, that I accidentally left one of the dogs (Ruby) outside and she spent the entire afternoon barking at the door to come inside. I bet that made for a pleasant Saturday afternoon for all of our neighbours!

Well, it's just about to strike midnight, so I'm off to bed. It seems to be my usual bedtime lately.

Nite all.