So much to do ...

So little time.

Tomorrow, I have to groom the dogs and do some cooking in preparation for the family coming on Monday.

And I have to study. I sooooo need to study. I just don't feel ready for the exam. It's going to be a tough one and I need to be better prepared.

It's so intense and there is so much information that I need to learn, I have to take regular breaks, because otherwise it all starts to sound like blah blah blah.

At least I got to enjoy a nice sunset this afternoon ...

I slept in this morning and didn't get out on the trike at all. Adoring Husband delivered my coffee bedside again and I took my time greeting the day.

I seemed to spend a lot of time in the kitchen in between study sets. A big bacon and egg breakfast. Fresh fish and salad for lunch. Bone broth. Steak and veg for dinner tonight.

Now I'm trying to fatten up AH by feeding him some carbs. A big batch of fried rice yesterday and a big fat baked potato in it's jacket for him tonight. Who'd a thunk that I would ever be trying to fatten him up!!?

The trick now is for me to avoid the carbs that I prepare for him. I found my food niche .. the perfect foods that don't negatively affect me and I need to stick with them to maintain optimal health. It's so easy to be tempted to eat the foods that I once loved.

I had some rice last night and suffered with indigestion and reflux for two hours between 2.30 am and 4.30am! I finally made my way to the kitchen and took a swig of apple cider vinegar. That mouthful stung my throat so badly, I thought it was being stripped bare! But within about 30 seconds, I felt my stomach settle and the indigestion and reflux miraculously vanished!

This is why I slept in ... trying to catch up on those lost two hours.

It's almost 11pm, so I think I'll try for a solid night of sleep.

Nite all.

Friday is my Favourite

It's Friday!

I love Fridays.

I love meeting my friends at the Club on a Friday night.

It was a special night, because Mardi's daughter, Aunty R was there with her J-Man. I REALLY like J-Man - I think he's the real deal.

I should have taken pics, and I probably would have if we'd gone into the restaurant for dinner as planned, but AH has had a big week with SES duties and I have had a big week with studies and, having been given an 'out' by Mardi, we decided to come home instead.

We had lunch leftovers for dinner and as I write this, it is ticking over to 9pm .. as soon as I sign off here, I am off to bed.

Hopefully, tomorrow, I will rise early and take advantage of that photo opportunity that I spoke about yesterday.

I am feeling very weary and I have plenty of study tomorrow, as well as preparations for the Vegan Chickie family visit on Monday.

So much to do above and beyond study before the exam on Wednesday and then the road trip at the end of next week.

I feel it all creeping up on me.

Ciao for now and chat more tomorrow.

Nite all.

There was Light

Adoring Husband and I arrived home from The Bay yesterday right on sunset and the sky looked like it might have something special in it, so I jumped on my trike and pedalled like crazy down to a different part of the river than my usual spot.

The sky didn't quite reach the heights of colour that I was expecting and I actually ran up and over the grassy dune that was between me and the mud flats to get a decent shot before what little colour there was, disappeared.

Did you take that in? I RAN! It didn't even hurt! And I lived! I lived to tell the tale!

Anyway, I came across a big old abandoned boat beached on the sandy bank with a big chain hanging down off the bow, so I used it to my advantage to add a bit of interest to the shot ..

Once again, nothing to report for the day. I studied.

I was given a tip about a great photo opportunity, which I'm going to follow up tomorrow morning, so watch this space!

It's almost midnight again, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

State of Shame

The second State of Origin game was played tonight, in Melbourne.

Queensland won the first game three weeks ago, and for those of you who don't know about the State of Origin series, it's the best of three games.

Tonight, before the game, they announced 1 minute of silence for one of Australia's greatest athletes, Ron Clark, who passed away earlier today at the age of 78.

A large portion of the crowd was a disgrace during that minute, chanting and yelling and swearing throughout the entire minute and behaving in such a disrespectful manner that I was appalled, as I'm sure, many other Australians were too.

It was positively shameful.

It was a bad start to a bad game. Poor refereeing by both the video refs and the on-field refs (those poor decisions were made for both teams). Nasty tactics by the NSW captain and most (but not all) of his team. It seems that NSW can only win with rough-house tactics because they don't have the skill to win a fair game.

NSW won, so there will be a decider played in Queensland in three weeks time.

So .. I've had my say on that terrible game .. had to get it off my chest .. thank you for listening!

This afternoon, I attended our community hall to take a group photo of some ladies called 'The Village Voices", who often have morning or afternoon teas where they entertain the local community and raise money for various causes.

Today, they were raising money for the children of June Wallis. June was murdered by her husband (the children's father) in March this year and the children are now in the care of their grandparents.

One of the ladies told me that the only group photos they have, are of them looking down at their music sheets, or with their mouths wide open singing, so I volunteered my services and also offered to take photos to be published in our local newsletter that is circulated monthly, to show how the community take care of each other.

I will share them here another time.

Adoring Husband and I spent the afternoon in The Bay. I had to get an enlarged print of a photograph for someone and also stock up on some pantry items. I enjoyed a little retail therapy as well.

We've had some good rain today. It also rained very heavily in The Bay while we were there. We need it and the garden is very happy. I picked some bok choy from the garden when we got home and it was full and crisp and delicious from the rain.

I thought I'd share this trailer for a documentary that I have been keeping my eye on for the last year or so. It asks for donations to help in the creation of the documentary. I just wanted to clarify that I'm not sharing this to ask for money on their behalf.

I'm sharing it because I think just about every woman who I know reads this blog, has body issues .. hell who hasn't? I believe that it will be a very interesting documentary, and will show us that we are not alone with our negative thoughts.



Oops! I may be turning into a pumpkin! It's just past midnight ... again!

Nite all.

Specifically

Surely it's impossible to know all of this stuff.

I can totally understand, now, why doctors 'specialise' in a specific field of medicine.

Once again, I thank the internet gods for youtube, google, practice quizzes and online flash cards!

I was thinking today about my method of study.

If I began studying at a steady pace, from the beginning of each semester, by the time exams rolled around, I would never remember what I learnt at the beginning. I would be panicking just as much trying to review it all before exams, as I do now simply learning it at the last minute.

Anyway, after another great morning tea with the girls, I studied for the rest of the day, only stopping to make lunch with the delicious whiting fillets that 'The Captain' dropped off this morning.

So nothing to report, but I wanted to share this funny video of goats. I giggled a lot when I watched this ... a cute way to end my day.



It's almost midnight again lol.

Nite all.

Studious Me.

Study Study Study

That's about the long and the short of it today.

Oh I had a visit from my Jehovah's Witness friends today! Once again I denied them entry .. only because we were just about to sit down to our very late lunch.

The story goes like this ...

About 6 years ago, I made friends with a couple who come to our town every year over the Summer months. They own and work a mine out west, but it's too hot in Summer, so they bring their caravan and spend about 3 months enjoying the cooler coastal weather. He is in his 80s and she is early 60s.

I only just found out early this year that she is a Jehovah's Witness. He is not. She talked about how horrible people are to JWs when they knock on doors, so I naively promised her that I would be nice to the next JWs to knock on my door and invite them in.

As I'm sure you've guessed, two days later, two JWs knocked on my front door!

I was very friendly to them, but I just couldn't invite them in because I was 24 hours away from an exam and couldn't pause my studies for them, so I offered them a genuine apology and suggested "maybe next time".

The next time was the day before my birthday morning tea and I was in the kitchen cooking up a storm. Once again I apologised and offered another 'maybe next time'.

The next time, was today.

Adoring Husband had been in town all day on SES duties and arrived home for a very late lunch .. which I cooked as a main meal, because he had to attend an important SES meeting tonight and had to leave quite early.

We were ten minutes away from sitting down to lunch, when they rang the doorbell.

So, as it turned out, third time was not lucky for them .. but they could smell lunch through the open door, so they knew I wasn't telling fibs. They kindly left me with one of those funky little magazines and promised to return next time.

Yay! *sigh*

I must admit that I've always been curious to hear what they have to say and I'm sure I will have some tricky questions to ask them, so ...

I will definitely invite them into my lounge room one day when AH is not here, and I will have the obligatory discussion about their idea of 'god' and then I will thank them for their time and request that they avoid my doorbell during future visits to our town.

I see that puzzled frown on your brow! I like to keep my mind open to new experiences and I like to hear how 'other people' think, especially with subjects that I've always been taught to disrespect. I only have preconceived ideas about JWs because of what other people have told me, never from first hand experience.

So when it finally happens, you'll be the first to hear all about my JW discussion!

I'm certain that you all know me well enough to realise that I would never be recruited into the JW way of life!

Now, I'm picturing the JW trolls trolling through the internet and discovering my blog and rubbing their hands with glee and sending out a posse on the recruitment drive!! Haha!!

Back to the books.

Nite all.

Salubrious Sunday

I was awake early .. for a Sunday!

I walked into the back room to get my tracky dacks to wear for the day, when I noticed, at the end of the bed, my pile of 'small' clothes that I haven't been able to wear for about 6-7 years, due to weight gain, and for some strange reason, I decided to try them on.

Well, what a surprise and what a nice way to start the day!  All but one of them fit perfectly and the one that didn't, is just a little tight. I started my Sunday with a smile on my face.

I visited my boys and then got my coffee, but I couldn't head straight home, because the morning was just so glorious. A perfect sunshiny Winter's day that sparkled with perfect light, clear air and vibrant colours, so I pedalled to the beach, kicked off my shoes, grabbed my camera bag and headed out onto the sand flats at low tide.

I saw only two birds. A Curlew and a Seagull. So there was no photography to be had, but it didn't matter, because it meant I could just feel the cool water running over my bare feet, the sand between my toes, the sunshine on my face and the fresh air in my lungs.

I walked for about half an hour and enjoyed every single solitary minute of it, avoiding the few people that were out and about at that hour.

When I got home, I had a little serving of chocolate chia pudding with strawberries for breakfast and a handful of nuts and sat down at my desk to study.

Before lunch I did some washing and then heated up some chicken broth for lunch, which was delicious. Broth is one of my favourite foods these days. It's so rich with flavour and very satisfying.

I gave up on the study at around 4pm so that I could watch the football and before half time, I began preparing dinner. Adoring Husband was due home and I knew that he would be hungry, so dinner was going to be early. I was also hungry after my light lunch.

Crispy skinned chicken (one of our favourites) with sweet potato chips and salsa, served on a bed of fresh lettuce from a neighbour's garden. Then for dessert, chocolate chia pudding with strawberries and berry syrup. A most satisfying and healthful dinner to end my salubrious Sunday.

Today, my study involved muscles. If I was surprised by bone, then there are no words to describe how I feel about muscles. This is going to be as tough, if not tougher, than Chemistry. Let me give you an example .. this is something that my teacher wrote in an email responding to another student's question ...

*** The lats, pec major and teres major all insert into the lip of the bicipital groove - this groove then is a major landmark for us. Many times the landmarks are named after a muscle that attaches to them (eg deltoid tuberosity) or what the landmarks looks like (e.g. groove) so try and use any such connections to help you remember them. i.e. why is something named like it is. ***

Gobbledy gook huh?

Every muscle has a name, an origin, an insertion, an action, a palpation and an innervation.

So, for example, there is a muscle in the jaw called 'temporalis'. It's origin is the lateral surface of the temporal bone. It's insertion is coronoid process and ramus of the mandible. It's action is to retract and elevate the jaw. It's palpation is lateral surface at temple.  It's innervation is cranial nerve V (trigeminal).

Right?

So every muscle in the body has all of those things and all of them are different and I have to learn them all.

*sigh*

I have to do that in the next 8 days, so that I can sit my exam before I go on holidays. 

I'm beginning to feel just a little overwhelmed.

Anyway, now that I have your sympathy, I'm off to bed.

I thought this quote appropriate for me ..

Nite all.