Not Quite 70

Birthday dinner requested … lasagne. I added a small garden salad and garlic pita. Chocolate cake with candles.

That is all.

Happy birthday to my darling Adoring Husband 🥰

Nite all.

Double Down

Monday was quiet and uneventful.

Played with Harley, rode my trike, watched YouTube, made Tacos for dinner.

BGWLBH worked in the Bay.

Today was meditation.

I had been awake from 2am so after purchasing a coffee, I arrived at class 15 minutes early. Since I left the shop (I was always 30 minutes early because I had to open the shop) this has NEVER happened so everybody was pleasantly surprised!

As always, it was a great class with lots of sharing and caring.

The Gypsy had to take her car to the doctor yet again, so there was no catch up after class. She is house sitting on Sunday, so we’ll catch up then.

I rode to a bench seat by the river and sat to enjoy the ambience for 20 minutes before heading home.

My lack of sleep caught up to me so I lay down for a rest. I found a YouTube video, but I dozed on and off all through the 90 minutes and have no idea what it was about.

Harley took turns between AH and I, sleeping on my bed for 30 minutes, then sleeping at AH’s feet for 30 minutes, then back to me and so on.

At 2.30pm I decided to get started on AH’s birthday dinner for tomorrow night (21st). He has requested lasagne so there are now two lasagnes in the fridge waiting to be placed into the oven.

Then I boiled up some large potatoes, cooked some crumbed chicken, made a garden salad, a wombok salad and put beetroot and some sour cream on the table for dinner. I had my home made tomato soup with toasted sour dough.

We ate early at 4.45pm because if I had sat down between preparing the lasagne and preparing tonight’s dinner, I would have stayed down and everybody would have gone hungry!

Next Tuesday, I am travelling by train down to the Sunny Coast for a very quick catch up with Vegan Chickie, Mr Perfect and my two beautiful grand daughters. I haven’t seen them for 6.5 years and I’m so excited.

We will only have two nights, a day at Eumundi markets on Wednesday and I will take care of the girls that night so that mum and dad can have a date night.

Short but sweet.

Now it’s time for me to sleep.

Nite all.

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.