Negative Motivation

Struggling with motivation again today. I did not finish my essay. I may never finish my essay. *sigh*

I had a nice morning, starting at the Seat of Knowledge, followed by coffee and then a stroll through the local markets.

I got some fresh lemons and mandarines, a couple of little gifts to put away for Christmas, a yellow handmade carved timber owl which is now up on the wall in my study and a basket made out of old timber and a bit of driftwood for the handle, which is now sitting on my kitchen bench filled with fresh eggs.

I chatted with the lovely couple who made these crafty items. I bought a gift for Vegan Chickie at the markets in February this year from the same couple. The husband remembered me and said "Goodness, you've lost a lot of weight and you look so healthy and vibrant! What have you been doing?"

We talked about his work with drug addicts and alcoholics and he admitted that he had learned a lot about himself by spending time with them and he even touched on childhood abuse issues just briefly.

They are a lovely couple and I wish we had been able to spend more time together.

I pedalled home fully intending to cook and study and make my day productive, but within twenty minutes of arriving home, all motivation flew out the window.

I did some washing, made some lunch, organised some of my packing, edited some old photos and watched some TV until the football started.

Very happy to say that I got three out of three today with my footy tips.. unfortunately I got none last night, but then most people got none last night!

Some of the photos ...

... and this is a current video, taken today of some White Bellied Sea Eagle chicks being fed by their parents! How cool is that!?



I finished off the bone broth tonight and now I'm ready to climb into bed.

Nite all.

No Winners

Very quiet in our corner of the Bowls Club tonight.

Maid Marian, Apple and I.

Nobody won the membership draw. Nobody won on keno. Nobody won on the poker machines. Nobody won on the raffles.

I got a lift home with Apple.

Adoring Husband hibernated at home after a big SES day.

I spent the day doing everything BUT my essay.

I made up a two week batch of dog food. I have bone broth in the slow cooker. Roasted a chicken in the oven ***yay my oven works***

I almost stayed in bed all morning because it was 4C with the wind chill factor! Very chilly!

Luckily I pedalled down to the Seat of Knowledge because the Dancing Queen was waiting there with her new iPad mini and had lots of questions to ask me. I sat with her for about 45 minutes giving her a few lessons on how to use Facebook and her Gmail account.

Of course, my morning coffee was next and then I got some chicken frames from the butcher for the bone broth.

When I arrived home, I noticed that the frames still had the parson's nose attached, so I cut them off and fried them up to munch on. YUMMO! My favourite part of the chicken.

I decided to pedal back to the butcher and ask him if he could keep the parson's noses separate for me and I will buy them by the kilo every Friday. He was happy to oblige.

I'm now imagining baking up a big batch of parson's noses, with honey and garlic, in the oven every Saturday afternoon to munch on while watching the footy! Drool.

Right now, at 12.40am, I am watching Australia get annihilated by the Poms in the cricket. I've decided that it's just too painful and torturous to watch, so I'm heading off to bed.

No photos to day. No videos. No quotes.

Have a happy weekend!

Nite all.  

I'm Booked

An hour in the beautiful Winter sunshine was just what I needed this morning. The perfect start to the day.

Coffee, then I booked my train trip to the Sunny Coast for Monday, then more coffee, then home.

Study was intense for a couple of hours including a live seminar that was interesting.

I cooked steak and salad for lunch and then I roasted a big pot of vegetables in the oven to have with sausages and bacon for dinner.

That is the total excitement of my day.

I hope to finish my essay tomorrow so that I can then focus on preparing for my week away. Making up some sauces for Adoring Husband to add to his protein and then some of his favourite chocolate energy balls to keep him energised while I'm gone. I think there is enough bone broth to keep him going, so I won't have to make any more of that.

I feel quite weary tonight and it's only 11pm.

Sorry for the short and sweet post, but some days there is just nothing to report and the brain can't stretch it further than a mini post.

Nite all.

Day of Therapy

Yes, of course! Retail therapy!

I got to spend the day with Adoring Husband and we drove into The Bay and did something similar to a 'pub crawl' except the crawl involved all of my favourite shops!

We started at Office Works because AH needed supplies for his SES duties and I needed nothing, but that didn't stop me from spending money on some items that I WILL need in my study future.

Our next stop was Nana's Pantry where we stocked up on a few items for our own pantry.

Then, of course, Stocklands shopping centre.

AH had an appointment with Bay Audio, so I got to do some shopping in his absence and left the area loaded up with bags full of goodies! We also did some grocery shopping and rushed home to prepare for the oven man to arrive.

You guessed it!! I HAVE MY OVEN WORKING!! Yay!

I actually popped next door for a belated New Years drink with my neighbour, 'P2'. Yes, it's August and we've been talking about and trying to plan an afternoon since November last year!

My plan this afternoon was to stay for one hour, but time flew by while we chatted away at a mile a minute about everything and anything, until we realised that two hours had passed and our husbands were waiting patiently for us to emerge and prepare their respective dinners!

Luckily, I had an easy dinner planned and it didn't take too long to prepare. I did NOT use my newly repaired oven ... but I WILL be using it tomorrow!

The third and final flower photo for the three day challenge that The Nikonian sucked me into (thanks for nothing) ...

and now it is almost midnight, so I'm off to snooze.

Nite all.

Terrific Tuesday

So much for getting early morning sunshine!

This morning I woke up to a dark, gloomy, overcast sky. It had been raining earlier and thankfully, it stopped for me to pedal to the shops, then the soft spray of misty rain fell for quite some time during our morning tea.

Only three of us turned up for coffee this morning. Tweedle Dum, the Reality TV Queen and I. Even though we missed all of you lovely ladies, whom I imagine to be having a fabulous time, we did have a very pleasant morning and we all jumped to attention at 10.30am when we realised the time!! Time flies when you're having fun!

Right on cue, the rain stopped so that I could pedal home without getting wet.

Earlier in the day, we really thought that our monthly evening barbecue might have to be cancelled. It was so cold this morning .. even I felt the chill in the air! The cold combined with the rain didn't seem very conducive to a pleasant evening.

Thankfully, the weather warmed up, the clouds cleared and the sun shone.

So we had a good roll up.  For those of you who are missing ... we had D & J, J & J, N & G, P & D, I & J with their friends S & B and then Adoring Husband and I. Considering how many of our regular group are out of town this week, fourteen was a pretty good number!

It was a good night. I pedalled down at 5pm with all the food and drink packed into my trike basket and AH arrived later after an SES meeting. So at the end of the evening, after two glasses of wine, I pedalled home with all the lights flashing on the trike.

I loudly announced my departure and told everyone to be wary of my flashing trike as they drove home .. but there was no sign of any cars on the road for my whole journey home.

The new theme for this month's flickr challenge is 'Australian Wildlife' so I'm pretty excited about that. It's right up my alley really.

Finally, The Nikonian nominated me (and two others) for a three day flower challenge so this is today's flower offering ...

Heading off to bed before midnight.

Nite all.

A Notch Happier

Today was a slight improvement on yesterday.

I seriously believe that I need to increase my sunshine/vitamin D intake. I've only spent time at the Seat of Knowledge four times in the last two weeks, so I'm not getting enough happy morning sunshine. I'm going to make a concerted effort to pedal there every morning this week.

I bought some more sand crabs today, and as much as I'd have liked to waste some time with The Motivator, I didn't hang around, but came home to shell the crabs and then eat them all for lunch.

I spent a couple of hours studying and after my brain shut down, I chilled on the couch watching 'Love Actually'.

The day seemed to go very fast and before I knew it, Adoring Husband was home from his SES duties and it was time to cook dinner!

Boring old chicken and vegetables tonight, because my oven is still not working. Two more sleeps and it should be done!

Very very surprisingly, I came second in the flickr challenge with my bird's eye photo! I don't think my photo deserved it, but who am I to argue with a bunch of strange people who make such decisions with their votes!?

I collected a dozen eggs from the chook pen today, proving that Adoring Husband has been neglectful in his duties. I also picked an orange from our orange tree. There were two on the tree and it's our first crop since we planted it about 5 years ago (if not longer). I ate the orange and it was just a tiny bit tart, so it may have required a bit longer before picking.

Our peach tree has peaches and our mulberry tree has mulberries! The garden seems to think that it's Spring. I also noticed that the Rainbow Bee Eaters are back with a vengeance and seem to be everywhere!

So while the world is blossoming and blooming, I am a notch happier than I was yesterday. Tomorrow, I will be another notch happier .. even though I will miss my girls, Lady Lynn, Mardi and Maid Marian tomorrow at morning tea and then again at our monthly barbecue by the river tomorrow evening. I hope that you're all having a good time without me!!

Here is another photo of the male Lyre Bird from our road trip.

Time for bed.

Nite all.  

Sad Sack Day

So if this research is already three years old, why are cancer patients still fed lollies and icy poles while they are having their treatment? Is this kind of research not shared far and wide with everybody working in the medical industry?

Helping kill cancer cells

It is lunch time on Sunday and I am feeling so blurgh.

Nope, not alcohol related lol.

You know, some days you wake up feeling a bit crappy and then every tiny thing just drags you down further? Woe is me. It's not taking very much to trigger my anger response. I don't like myself or anybody else today.

I'm certainly not in the mood to study and it's taking all of my will to stop myself from sending an email to withdraw from the course.

It's such a beautiful day outside and I'm cowering inside feeling sorry for myself and feeling angry at the world.

Perhaps I should just go plonk myself on the couch and ride the day out.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

I'm definitely feeling off balance ...

... unlike this beautiful Bald Eagle ...



Yes, tomorrow will be a better day.

Nite all.