My Kind of Day

Low productivity today and it felt good.

I was up at 9am and while Adoring Husband was off buying coffee (yes I know!), I took Harley out to play.

I hung out a load of washing and brought the dry stuff inside.

I reheated some chicken sausages in leftover gravy for my breakfast and when I’d eaten my fill, gave my leftovers to AH who always tells me how much he dislikes chicken sausages, but he hogged them down pretty well!

We watched some old 90s rugby league games for a couple of hours before I moved to my bedroom and watched some Mayim Bialik, followed by Chase Hughes and then some David Bayer all on YouTube.

I took Harley out for another play and then prepared for dinner - spaghetti Sunday - easy peasy.

I’m now watching the final round of the DP India Championship golf where my favourite, Rory McIlroy has completely underperformed with a very disappointing tournament.

No solid plans for tomorrow - perhaps I’ll be productive and do some cleaning or some art or some writing or some riding or perhaps nothing at all haha.

This first meme that I’ve posted is completely true. When I was aged 5 and 6 after two surgeries, my bed was wheeled out onto the sun deck every morning at 10am for 30 minutes of sunshine. The same when my kids were born. The doctor and monthly nurses would recommend to lay the baby naked in direct sunshine for 10 minutes every morning to provide vitamin D and help build their immune system.

Nite all.

Riding on Energy

BGWLBH left early this morning and did the markets. She was kind enough to bring home some GF donuts and two loaves of true sour dough bread.

Adoring Husband left early this morning for work and 2 coffee dates. He didn’t get home until after 10am.

I had risen at 9am and immediately played with Harley. He gave up after 20 minutes and was panting heavily for about 30 minutes afterwards! He didn’t even jump in the pool this morning and that’s generally a morning ritual.

I made myself presentable and waited for AH to return so that I could go for a ride on my trike.

After having coffee every day for the last 3 or 4 weeks, I didn’t have coffee on Thursday and by Thursday night I had a pounding headache. I can’t believe I’m already having caffeine withdrawals after such a short time back on coffee!

I chose to not have coffee on Friday and could feel just a gentle headache at the end of the day.

Today I chose to have a small coffee and drank 3/4 of it. I grabbed a few other groceries because I decided to make some tomato soup with our excess tomatoes from the garden.

I always make it up as I go along, so the ingredients in this batch of soup are:

• Tomatoes (doh!)
• Onion 
• Carrot
• Celery
• Red capsicum
• Lentils
• Chicken bone broth
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Turmeric
• White pepper
• Sea salt
• Strawberries
• Goji berries
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• LF cream
• Maple syrup
• Chillies

It was spicy, tangy and delicious - especially with fresh sour dough bread!

Anyway … earlier on my ride, I pedalled for 10 kms. I did 2.4kms and stopped to watch the goings on in the river. I did a further 2.6kms before stopping again to enjoy the lake. My final stint was 5.5kms going the long way home.

I did a complete circuit of the big lake, stopping briefly to watch the ducklings …

I rode to the lagoon which is near where the 92 yr old lady who I met yesterday lives.

I did a circuit of the protected bushland which has its own designated pathway.

All up, I was gone for almost two hours. I could easily have done another two hours. Pedalling is easy and with the wind in my hair and the cooler temperature, I felt energised … until I stopped haha … then I needed to lie down for half an hour!

I did some washing, made the soup - enough for each of us to have a bowl, plus 6 containers in the freezer - watched some golf, took Harley out for his afternoon play and while AH watched his regular TV shows, I came to my room to watch more golf and to do some journaling.

Again, I’m feeling weary, so it might be an early night for me.

Nite all.

The Price We Pay

I accompanied Adoring Husband to Howard this morning.

He was going to the butcher for Harley food and I wanted to price their lamb mince and chicken sausages, as well as visit the Howard and Torbanlea op shops.

After spending $93 at the butcher, the next stop was Howard op shop.

I was in search of 3 things:

1. A large glass jar with a glass lid.
2. Single serve casserole dishes.
3. Jewellery with real turquoise.

At Torbanlea, I found a tall glass jar with a glass lid. I want this for my “abundance” corner. It will be decorated and filled with different objects, then placed in a specific corner of the living room.

I bought the jar at half price, for $5, then inadvertently left it on the counter of the next shop that I entered and we drove off without it! I realised what I’d done when we were half way home, so AH turned around and we returned to the shop where they were holding it for me. So if you count the extra diesel fuel that we used to go back, the jar probably cost about $15!

I was unsuccessful in my search for casserole dishes. I already have two, which I picked up at an op shop, but there are three of us living here! I will continue searching.

Real turquoise is impossible to find in any shop - even Tinkerbells - because it is rare and very expensive. My only hope is stumbling across something in an op shop. I have joined some online groups and forums that deal with genuine turquoise so I have an idea of what to look for and how to tell if it’s genuine. 

I came across a small, single strand necklace of tiny turquoise pin beads at the Gem Fest this year, but it was $499. Instead I opted for a silver feather with a single turquoise pin bead for $50. I love it, but I’ve seen some stunning pieces online and they are priced at $3,000-$10,000USD. I’ve also seen some stunning pieces online that were picked up in op shops for $15 and later verified to be genuine.

I hope to be that lucky.

Today, I can verify that the op shops in Howard, Torbanlea and Burrum Heads do not have any turquoise jewellery for sale.

When we arrived home, I rode my trike to the local op shop and was surprised at how busy it was! There was barely room to move! Then I rode to the supermarket and JUST beat the rain, so I parked my trike under cover to wait it out.

There I met a lovely 92 year old lady who lives with, and is carer for her 80yr old brother, who was given an overdose of radiation during treatment for prostate cancer, which caused some pretty horrendous injuries and he is in constant pain, can only eat clear broth and has serious toileting issues.

She was lovely and felt like a kindred spirit because she too doesn’t trust doctors. I hope I run into her again. I’ll watch out for her.

I started to ride home, but stopped in the park to take in the view of the river. Because of the rain, there was nobody about and the car park was almost empty so there weren’t many out fishing. It was very quiet and peaceful.

At home, I spent a couple of hours watching YouTube videos, then had a nap until Harley jumped on me.

I rarely shower in the afternoon, but today I felt the desire, so at 4pm I had a shower before playing briefly with Harley and then, for my dinner, cooking the chicken and spinach sausages that we bought this morning. They were very tender, juicy and tasty.

AH and I watched some of the DP World India Championship golf before retreating to our rooms at 7pm.

It’s now 10pm and I’m a little weary.

Nite all.

Footy’s Back!

Chase Hughes - how he controlled his brain disease.

Amazing.

Spent the day in the Bay.

Apart from the usual gadding about, I let Adoring Husband shout me a leg and foot massage (he doesn’t know til he reads this haha), I got an extra ticket in the $100million Powerball which was wasted money because I won nothing.

BGWLBH worked this afternoon so for the last hour, I popped into the RSL, checked and replayed my old keno tickets and sat in their very comfy lounge chairs watching the keno draws. I could easily have fallen asleep if it wasn’t for some old bloke sitting in the bistro area telling caravan stories very loudly and with very colourful language.

Tonight’s dinner was leftover roast chicken, leftover egg and bacon pie and a bunch of salads.

AH and I watched the first rugby league World Cup game between Australia and NZ. What a great game with the Aussies winning by two points. The lead seesawed throughout.

I can’t believe it’s almost 11pm already. AH and I are heading out to Howard butcher tomorrow morning so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Fairly Productive and Informative

Behavioural Expert Chase Hughes 

I am fully intrigued by this man and find him so easy to listen to. I am going to find him online and learn more about him. His expertise and his experiences with the human mind, and in particular, his OWN mind has me fascinated.

Today was a pleasant day.

I was out of bed by 9am and playing with Harley outside while Adoring Husband was out buying our coffee.

Because of overnight rain, the midgies were out in force and I was bitten a number of times causing horrible itching and driving me to distraction!

I still remained outside for 30 minutes.

I decided to go for a trike ride because I needed to buy some eggs. My new recipe of choice was a bacon and egg pie for dinner, which I served with garden salad, pickled tomato and cucumber, wombok salad and last nights leftover baked vegetables.

With the leftover puff pastry, I made a berry tart. I lined a mini tart tray with the pastry and added sliced strawberries and blueberries. I had egg wash left over from glazing the egg and bacon pie so I mixed that with a little cream, some castor sugar and some vanilla extract, then poured it over the berries. That went into the oven for 25 minutes.

It was delicious! I could only eat half of it so I gave the other half to AH.

The tide was up this morning so the river was looking beautiful …

It was pretty quiet around town.

I watched Mayim Bialik videos and the Diary of a CEO video that I linked at the beginning of this post, did some journaling and added to my art …

I also communicated with an old friend who now lives in Mackay.

We experienced some small storms with some nice rain this afternoon, which meant my exercise program with The Motivator had to be canned til next week. It’s an outdoor program so it’s dependent on good weather.

Now it’s already 10.30pm and I need to be up reasonably early for a day in the Bay.

Nite all.