Driving Rain

We went driving in the driving rain to the other end of The Bay for the birthday lunch today.

Firstly, we started at the Seat of Knowledge, where BGWLBH asked the boys "How long do you think we have til that rain hits us?", to which they replied "Nah you've got plenty of time.  It's not going to rain yet."

Within twenty minutes the heavens opened just a little and gradually it got heavier until BGWLBH and I were triking and walking home in a steady drizzle.

Luckily, we had plenty of time for a hot shower before getting ready for our lunch date.

We drove to Aussie H's house first to pick her up and then made our way into town.  It was miserable weather and horrible to drive in because the road has so many places where water pools and makes it tricky.

But BGWLBH is a competent and careful driver in all situations, so I didn't feel unsafe at any time.

We arrived at our destination much earlier than the agreed time, so we signed in, found a table, bought drinks and were quite settled in when the others arrived twenty minutes later than the agreed time!

I was disappointed to discover that The Boat Club doesn't have a gluten free menu, so I risked steak and salad.  I also had a lemonade and two glasses of wine.  Something that I ate or drank did not agree with me ... so there was gluten in SOMETHING!

The discomfort is quite intense, in waves, and I'm going to bed early so that this passes quickly and I can wake up refreshed and feeling better tomorrow.

The weather seems to have eased now and we three are going to The Bay tomorrow to run some errands and see the Chicklet family (can't wait).

I had a nice moment this evening when one of my photos triggered a happy childhood memory for The Nikonian.  Even though it wasn't a great photo, it's now special because it gave her a happy, warm and fuzzy feeling.  I really love that!  Sometimes, that's even better than a fabulous photo that everyone wants to compliment.

A couple more photos from the rock star road trip ...

... and a couple of potential bird shots.  Disappointing, but oh what could have been!

On Sunday, we will be experimenting with shots for the 'frozen in mid-air' challenge, which closes on 28th May.  We'll be cutting it fine!

I almost need toothpicks to hold my eyelids open ... so I'm outta here.  Let the driving rain be gone tomorrow!

Nite all.

Trivia Champion

I started the day quite late in the morning and didn't even leave home til after 7.30am.

BGWLBH walked with me while I rode the trike, firstly to the bakery for coffee and then to the Seat of Knowledge, where only two of the boys were waiting.

We spent an enjoyable hour with them and after we parted company, we made our way along the river path and then directly home.

BGWLBH and Adoring Husband cleaned their cars in the driveway and I desperately tried to firstly 'tweezer' the prickles out of the passenger side floor mat and then vacuum til the vacuum cleaner stopped due to over heating!

It was about the second week in, when we went on our first drive to catch a sunset in Griffith, and I stepped on a blanket of prickles which I then 'unknowingly' wiped on the floor mat of the car.

Instead of attempting to clean the mat immediately, I have spent the last 6 weeks rubbing them deeper into the threads of the carpet.

IMPOSSIBLE to completely clean even with both tweezers and a vacuum cleaner!

It is, at least, now passable - by BGWLBH's standards anyway.

I have spent the rest of the day going through my holiday photos and posting some to facebook.  None of today's photos are worthy of going to flickr, but here are a few that I shared in facebook.

Tonight the three of us played Trivia from the 1990s.

Surprisingly, I won!

No doubt we will play a few more times while BGWLBH is here and I rather imagine that she will thrash me ... although I must say that Adoring Husband has some pretty scary trivial stuff stuck in that brain of his too.

Actually, when I think about it, it was a fairly even game.  Even if it's only briefly, I am still going to boast that I am the current trivia champion in this house!

Tonight, I'm keeping 'The Rev' in my thoughts and hoping that he is strong enough to get through this health scare.

Grannymus, I know you must be doing it tough during this worrying time, but I'm sure you have enough love and support around you to help you manage.

My love goes out to you both.

Nite all.

QUEENSLANDER!!

Yes, it's that time of year again :D  State of Origin football.

Seven years ago tonight, my Mum passed away at the end of the first State of Origin game.

I thought of her tonight, as I do every year at this time.  It's like a heavy wave of darkness that engulfs me, so that I struggle to keep my emotions under control, ever so briefly, and then the moment passes.

I'm a Queensland supporter and we've won the series for six years running.  Tonight, we won the first game of this year's series (best of three).

Adoring Husband (NSW supporter) and I caught the courtesy bus to the pub and watched the game on the big screen with some friends tonight.

There was a rowdy crowd there and for a change, there were mostly QLD supporters there.  Usually, the NSW supporters outnumber the QLD supporters, two to one.

It's great to be a Queenslander!

I picked up my beloved computer today and thank goodness it was a simple problem that could be repaired quickly and now all is right with my world again!

Tomorrow, I hope to go through all of my holiday photos ... well probably not ALL of them, but a LOT of them!

I was going to try to go to indoor bowls for the first time in 3 months tomorrow, but I think I might wait til next week and give myself all of tomorrow to catch up on work that I've missed while the computer was getting repaired.

So, before I head off to bed, I would like to wish my friend 'Woman of Many Talents' a very happy birthday.  I'm looking forward to the birthday lunch on Friday and catching up ... it's been so long!
I hope that you've had a great day today!

I apologise for my brevity, but I'm all footballed out and the sugar high that I was on from the three cans of lemonade that I drank tonight, has now well and truly dipped.  I need sleeeeeeeeeeep.

I promise photos tomorrow ... oh, here is one that I worked on earlier ...

Nite all.

Chicklet Heaven

Before Chicklet arrived today, I took my camera outside to where we would be eating and placed it beside my table setting, so that I would remember to take photos.

You know, I always become so involved with her, that I forget to take photos and I always kick myself for it afterwards.

It has been six weeks since I saw her and I REALLY wanted to get a nice current photo to post here and share with all of you.

Can you believe that I completely lost focus on everything around me, except Chicklet.

Not a single photo was taken.

She has grown up so much while I was away and she has so many words in her vocabulary now.  A regular little chatter box.

We played for a long time together and she sat in the chair for ages playing with the little stuffed animals that BGWLBH had brought for her.

We went for a walk in the garden and talked to the chooks.

She toddled through the pebbles along the back fence and then tried to eat some of them.

She pointed to the birds and the frog garden ornaments, making the appropriate noises to match.

She named the Psychotic Dogs.

She pointed to the fish on the walls and said 'fish'.

She knows most of the animals and their sounds.

She likes to have long conversations with words strung together that nobody can understand ... but she speaks so confidently, like we ALL know what she is talking about!

She is always checking out of the corner of her eye, to make sure that Mama and Papa are still close by.

She says 'help' if she needs help.

She's just adorable and I can't get enough of her!

It was a wonderful afternoon for me.  I have no idea how everyone else felt, because I was focussed on my baby. 

After the family went home, BGWLBH and I went for a walk down to the river hoping to capture a sunset OR the impending storm, but both fizzled out. 

The dark clouds filled the sky so that no pretty sunset light showed through them and then built up beautifully, but fizzled to provide just a light shower just after dark.

I got a couple of photos down at the beach.

... and I played with a couple of photos from the last few days since we arrived home ...

We had a light dinner of chicken and vegetable soup that I made yesterday and everybody, including Psychotic Dogs, are in bed sleeping peacefully.  No snoring coming through the walls tonight!

No word on my computer yet.  Nerdy computer man said to wait 24 hours and that he would contact me ... I will now give him til lunch time tomorrow and then I will be on his case big time!

I need my computer back!!  If I can't have my computer back, then I need to get a new computer NOW!!

Ugh ... the frustration of it all!

So after a day of Chicklet heaven, it's time for me to sleep so that I can be prepared for the computer onslaught tomorrow. 

Nite all.

Menopausal Madness

My computer is now hospitalised **sad face**

He doesn't know how much work needs to be done, or if he can even fix it **sad face**

He will let me know tomorrow, how much he expects it will cost with parts and labour, and then Adoring Husband and I will determine whether it's worth doing, or if we are better off getting a new one.

All I really care about are the holiday photos and it shouldn't be a problem retrieving them.

I miss my computer **sad face**

Tomorrow will be catch up time with the ladies at morning tea and then the most exciting part of the day will be lunch with Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet, who are all coming here ... finally, I get to see them after almost 6 weeks!

I can hear Adoring Husband snoring through the walls tonight ... not really inspiring me to go to bed, but tomorrow will be a big day, so I need some sleep.

Speaking of inspiring ... I wish I had something more interesting to write tonight, but I am too tired to think!

Oh!  Just an interesting little thing that I've noticed recently...

**warning to males reading this - I am about to talk women's business, so step away from the monitor if you are squeamish about women's business**

I began my 'strictly' gluten free diet approximately one month before I flew to Griffith - so that means I have been gluten free for about two and a half months. 

Prior to this diet change, you may recall that I was complaining of all the menopausal symptoms that I was experiencing ... I calculated that of the 34 symptoms that are associated with menopause, I was experiencing 36 of them!

All of the physical symptoms, like hot flushes, dizziness, nausea, claminess, itchy skin, heart palpitations, aching joints, swollen joints, fluid retention, cravings, digestive problems, sore breasts, bloating and burning feet have all either disappeared or eased dramatically.

I still have mood swings, irritability, memory lapses and difficulty in concentrating, loss of libido and brittle nails - but it seems that my menstrual cycle is regulating itself again and these are occuring as PMS symptoms for the week leading up to my cycle.

It's very strange, but the change is incredibly noticeable to me - especially the hot flushes, waves of nausea and the intense digestive problems which have all gone (my digestive problems recur when I accidentally eat gluten).

I almost feel like a new person AND, as an added bonus, I have lost 3 kgs!

I think I'll stick with this gluten free thing.  I thought this information might be interesting to my female friends out there who are struggling with their own little batch of menopausal symptoms.

When I say 'strictly' gluten free ... you have to check the ingredients of EVERYTHING - it's worth checking out the Coeliac website to get all the information that you need ... there is even an app for the phone that lists all the bad ingredients/additives that you have to avoid.

It may not be for everyone, but boy I've noticed a huge difference!

Enough of this frivolity.  Once again, no photos to share and now it's sleep time for me.

Nite all.  

Stoopid Computers

Oh the frustration of it all.

I think that Adoring Husband's negative force field around technology is wearing off onto me!

This computer has a mind of it's own and the touch pad is so sensitive, that I find myself looking at pages and sites that, as far as I was aware, I did NOT request.

It takes longer to switch/toggle to the different pages that I have open and it processes everything a lot slower.

My Mac does everything instantly (well ... not at the moment ... but when it's well, it does!) 

The print is tiny and so is the cursor, so I spend half of my time trying to see where the cursor is.

Ok, now that the whinge is over ... thank you Adoring Husband for giving me the use of your computer ... at least I can visit my friends on facebook and keep my blog up-to-date.

I was even able to edit a couple of photos and post them today.  So all is not lost.

BGWLBH is feeling a bit run down today, so tomorrow I'm going to make big batch of chicken soup and I hope it will be enough to help pep her up.

We were going to visit Vegan Chickie and family tomorrow too, but she is sick, so I have to wait a little while longer before I can visit my precious little Chicklet.

At least I can send my Mac to the Dr and hope beyond all hope that she can be fixed quickly and efficiently.

I saw my boys this morning, down at the Seat of Knowledge.  They were very excited to see me, as I was to see them.

The river greeted me with a beautiful high tide of clean blue water and the morning was absolutely perfect.  Not a cloud in the sky and so many birds singing, I almost joined them!  The turtles were cruising on the tidal flow and lots of people were out in their boats.

 The caravan parks are beginning to fill with people.  The people who travel here from interstate to spend Winter in our town, because it's the best place in Australia for Winter!

It's good to be home and Adoring Husband is spoiling us with delicious cooking for lunch and dinner.

So, apart from the stoopid computers ... it's still good to be home :D

Nite all.