Christmas in Town

Adoring Husband arrived home before midday, but was here just briefly before heading off to fulfil SES duties for the town Christmas party.

I had been asked by the Progress Association to attend the event and take photos. My heart really wasn't in it. It gets tiresome when so many volunteer or town groups request photo shoots of events, only offering credit for the photography.

I think I might have to create a minimum fee for these groups, because the shoots are rarely fun and I have no control over where the events within the events take place, so the lighting is often harsh and difficult to work with, which then requires time to edit the photos to look presentable. It's a real chore and takes time that I resent losing.

More than two hours of my valuable time was spent waiting for something worth photographing, to take place.

At least I caught up with a few locals that I haven't seen in some time. I won a frozen chicken, which I donated to an elderly couple because it wasn't GF and we wouldn't be able to eat it.

Here are a couple of photos from the event.

Lamb shanks were on the menu tonight and I had them in the slow cooker for some time and served them with mashed sweet and regular potato, cauliflower, zucchini and a tomato and onion gravy. It was quite delicious and there's plenty left over for tomorrow's lunch.

It's now after 10pm and I'm ready for bed.

Nite all.

That's it from me.

Here it is 7.45pm and I am feeling quite done in.

Admittedly, I have spent a couple of hours at Woman of Many Talents' house and enjoyed a wine or two ... or three.

I believe, looking at the evening's TV that is on offer, tht I am going to be in bed incredibly early .. like in the next thirty minutes!

I have shown off my new teeth all over town today and the discussions that have ensued have worn me out completely.

My sincerest apologies to everyone who hoped for more from me tonight.

Nite all.

Home and Smiling

What a day!

The Bare-chested Chef drove Vegan Chickie, Chicklet and I to Tewantin, where we girls shuffled into Zabe Espresso Bar for our morning coffee and some breakfast.

This cafe is a bit retro/nostalgic where the decor is all mismatched furniture, old lounge chairs that look like they came straight from Grandma's house, old leather sofas, distressed timber tables, wireless sets and radiograms from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, record players, timber cabinet stereo units and an old upright piano in the corner right in front of the window.

The numbers for the tables when you order are old 45 vinyl records in their covers. The walls are plastered with old news articles from every decade that you can imagine, one wall covered in different music sheets, while the floor is polished concrete.

We ordered coffee, a bacon and egg frittata for me and a reuben toasted sandwich for Vegan Chickie.

It was quite busy, so the only seats available for us were a couple of old two seater granny lounge chairs that were backed onto the music sheet wall and were separated by a small round timber table. It wasn't very conducive for chatting but was reasonably comfortable.

The coffee was DELICIOUS (just as it was the last time I was there) and the food was nice too, but I am unable to chew at the moment - having lost all of my back top teeth and the gums still stitched up.

Apparently, chewing with the front teeth covered in porcelain veneers is not an option - taking a bite is ok, but chewing is not, so I attempt to soften and mash my food with my tongue and the roof of my mouth. My food options are limited and it's quite possible that I will lose some weight over the next few weeks until my mouth is filled with usable teeth!

There was an elderly man sitting across from us who drew our attention to an even more elderly lady, who had just seated herself at the upright piano. He told us she was 94 years old and there she sat in a blue pants suit and a white crocheted beret with her granny trolley parked beside her.

Her first song was 'Keep Your Sunny Side Up' from way back in 1929 and almost immediately, my eyes filled with tears .. I have no idea why she affected me that way! Her next song was 'It Had to be You' and still I felt emotional.

She was so old and frail and hunched over that keyboard, yet her hands and fingers just glided over the keys so naturally.

I thought I remembered that there was a florist next door to the cafe, so as we left, I was relieved to see that I my memory hadn't failed me. I stepped inside and with Vegan Chickie's help selected the biggest brightest, sunniest yellow gerbera from the bucket. The woman behind the counter wrapped it in clear plastic and tied a bow around it and I returned to the cafe, waited til the old lady finished her song and then presented her with the gerbera.

I thanked her and told her that she played beautifully and that she had brought me such joy and had made my day (mind you, I said this fighting to hold back my tears!).

She was so pleasantly surprised and thanked me profusely, telling me that 'I' had made 'her' day. She told me that she almost hadn't made it there today because she had a terrible night of cramps in her legs. She said 'Lucky I don't need my legs to play the piano!'

We then walked across the road to a little boutique where Chicklet began to try on all the lady's shoes that were at her level. Vegan Chickie started to tell her to leave them alone, when I said "Leave her alone! That's MY girl!" (I'm passing on my shoe fetish!). Chicklet then piped up very loudly "Yeah Mama, leave me alone! I'm Bozzy Wozzy's girl!"

Every time she tried on a pair she would announce "These ones look good on me!"

So after a little retail therapy - read - buying Chicklet a thousand and one stickers from the cheapie shop - we headed up to the park that was being redesigned and constructed for three weeks, six weeks ago! It's still not ready!

We sat down at a picnic table and called the Bare-chested Chef to come pick us up.

There before us, slowly gathered a group of middle-aged people with musical instruments. Banjos, guitars, ukeleles etc setting up their music stands with iPads and soon they were all playing and singing together. There were about ten of them.

We gave them a round of applause at the end of their first song and them climbed into the car to head home.

The rest of the day was spent playing games with Chicklet, watching the 'Bolt' dvd, creating pictures with the newly acquired stickers.

The Bare-chested Chef drove me to the train station and kindly waited with me until the train arrived (5 minutes early!) and I had a very peaceful and relaxing trip home with only 5 of us in the end carriage.

Adoring Husband was waiting, as always, with open arms and now I am home safe n sound.

Boy, I sure fit a lot into three days. It's now 1am and I NEED to sleep!

Nite all.    

Feelin' Done In

It has been a long, stressful, tiring two days of dentistry.

Happy that it's over. Happy with the results so far. Need to learn how to both smile, and talk, again.

Right now, I need to sleep.

So here I am in all my 'straight from the dentist' glory (I softened the pic to reduce my ragged look) ...

Now I really need to sleep.

Nite all.

A Bit the Worse for Wear

Yes, after two hours in the dentist's chair and after the needles wore off, I'm feeling quite a bit the worse for wear tonight.

A complete clean and scrape, removal of some infected gum, two full teeth extractions and two surgically removed broken teeth roots and then a flushing cleanse of the gums. Five stitches and about fifteen needles later, I walked out feeling on top of the world!

I can't say that it was a pleasant experience, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was bearable and she was kind and patient and tolerant and understanding. She gave me a stress ball to play with at about the halfway mark after I held both of my hands up and they were trembling uncontrollably.

She was quick and efficient and kept me informed of everything that she was doing while letting me know as each tooth came out ... I couldn't feel a thing from the bottom of my eyelids to the bottom of my chin!

Just as I thought I was in the clear she asked "Will you still be here tomorrow?"

I told her that I was booked on the afternoon train to go home and she said "I've had a cancellation tomorrow afternoon, so I could fit you in for the next part of your plan."

I asked her if she thought my mouth and body would cope with so much work in such a short space of time and she told me that because I have removed gluten, dairy and sugar from my diet, my mouth and body will heal much faster AND because there is so much infection in my gums, getting rid of it as soon as possible will help my body to thrive.

That made sense to me, so I decided to change my travel arrangements and will return to the dentist's chair for a FOUR HOUR visit tomorrow (or today, as you are reading this).

I bought a bottle of very strong colloidal silver from her (because I left mine at home), and it was very reasonably priced at about half the price that the chemists charge for weaker strength. So I've been flushing my mouth with that and I've taken my Reserve which is full of antioxidants and my super strength vitamin C to promote healing.

Despite all of that, there is some swelling, tenderness and discomfort tonight. Vegan Chickie has given me a sheet of Nurofen Zavance, so if the pain gets worse during the night, I've got that to fall back on, but it will have to be pretty bad for me to resort to that.

I've already had a couple of naps that lasted about an hour each and hopefully by morning I'll be feeling ready to cope with the next leg!

I can't quite believe that I'm doing this!

I can only have cool fluids - nothing hot, and I have to stay out of the sun for a day because heat increases blood flow and can induce bleeding in the wounds. So I've had a fresh watermelon, pineapple and mint juice, courtesy of Vegan Chickie, some room temperature bone broth and lots of water. Surprisingly, I don't feel hungry.

My Chicklet family are taking very good care of me.

Now I need to sleep it off.

A big thank you to my friends and family for their messages of encouragement and support .. you know who you are. I truly appreciate you and you need to know that you helped keep my strength and determination on track.

Warm hugs to you all!

Nite all.

Train Travel with a Difference

It was a fairly hectic morning, although I was able to do everything I needed to do, with time to spare.

I batched up about a dozen containers of chicken bone broth and then used the remainder to make a casserole for Adoring Husband, hopefully to keep him fed for the two nights that I'm away.

I packed a small backpack with some make-up and toiletries. I have almost everything that I need permanently based in my second home now, so I can travel light from now on.

I showered, washing, blow drying and straightening my hair and applied make-up .. all of which are fairly epic tasks that require about an hour to complete.

We arrived at the train station with about 15 minutes to spare, but the train arrived ten minutes early!! Unheard of!!

It was the old diesel train, which takes three hours to travel the same distance that it takes the tilt train two hours to complete.

This train is quite dark and dingy, with no TV screens for entertainment and quite a bit less leg room with their seats. I was seated beside a young man who was feasting on a train meal heated in a foil container, which smelled delicious but looked pretty dodgy.

I decided to head to the front of the train to get my free coffee, using the voucher that they issued when they checked my ticket. When I finally got there (and it's a hell of a hike along 5 carriages, opening four doors between each carriage and stepping over the old wobbly carriage connections), the club car was only partially filled, so I took ownership of a booth and set myself up with my ipad and settled in for the trip.

It was very spacious and very comfortable with big windows that let in plenty of light. I was having a wonderfully peaceful time, when the queue to the kiosk suddenly seemed to grow longer snaking through the carriage, past me and reaching the door at the other end. Everybody was talking and it was noisy and much less comfortable. The people standing in the queue had trouble keeping their footing as the train snaked around some tricky bends.

A woman, I guess in her late 60s (her oldest child was a 44 yr old son), requested permission to sit at my booth, just until she ate her meal. I welcomed her and even offered her the cake that came with my coffee, which she accepted with gratitude.

She was a woman 'of God' and her job was to assist recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. She had recently returned from six months working in China in an orphanage and had sole car of eleven children with Cerebral Palsy. One of her sons was a Pastor in the church (I'm not sure which religion) and she had many a tale to tell.

Once I got over my initial dread that I had to endure this woman for the entire trip, and opened my mind to what she was talking about, she really was a very interesting woman. Every so often she would preach a little and tell me about how the "Lord provides for us all" or "Lord heals us all" or "Lord blesses us with something special every day" etc etc etc., but generally she kept it about her experiences with broken young people and described many success stories and the sort of work that she does.

I was impressed with her enthusiasm and positive outlook (considering her work) and how strong her faith was. When it was time for me to disembark, I shook her hand and told her what a pleasure it was chatting with her. She promised to pray for the Lord to heal Adoring Husband of his Parkinsons .. so I expect his complete recovery by the time I return home on Tuesday!

The Bare-chested Chef was waiting for me at the station (he picked me up during his break from work) and I arrived at the house to find a very excited little Chicklet laughing with delight that I had returned so quickly. I got thirty minutes of chat in with Vegan Chickie, before it was time for Chicklet to get my undivided attention.

We had a lovely afternoon playing with the giant spider that I'd brought with me (a leftover decoration from Halloween). Vegan Chickie had made a delicious meat and veg casserole for dinner and after we ate, there was more play, bath time, story time and then sleep ... but only after Mama came to the bedroom!

Vegan Chickie and I then had some time together and now I am ready for sleep. Oh and VC fixed my new phone with all of my contacts and email!! It took her less than two minutes .. honestly *rolls eyes* .. it was so simple, I feel like a right doofus!

Tomorrow is the big day, and now I'm starting to feel nervous and anxious. Wish me luck!

Nite all.  

Damaging Weather

So it seems that last night's storm caused a bit of damage on the river ...

This particular boat broke from it's mooring and wiped out three other boats which also came away from their moorings. The other boats were retrieved and had varying degrees of damage, but this one came off the worst for wear.

When I left, there were three cars on the river bank, all with ropes attached to the boat and all attempting to get the boat upright. I doubt that they would have been successful.

We've had another storm tonight, so it will be interesting to see or hear the outcome of this little debacle.

The other interesting thing that happened by the river today, was seeing a family of galahs teaching their babies how to get seeds from pods in the trees.

This little one seemed very curious about me and wasn't at all afraid.

He didn't move until the rest of the family took flight very loudly and rapidly, so he followed close behind.

Adoring Husband bought me an early Christmas present yesterday .. a new Apple iPhone 6 Plus. I spent this morning trying to back up my old phone and restore it to the new phone, but I was only partially successful and I can't seem to get my contacts or my email restored.

That is frustrating!

I'm counting on Vegan Chickie to press a couple of buttons for instant success when I get there tomorrow.

Luckily, I had organised to spend some time with Woman of Many Talents today, so I was able to ease my frustrations with some wine and a good old girlie chat for a few hours.

It was quite late when I finally made my way home, so I cooked a quick dinner and then made up a batch of dog food.

I leave at lunch time tomorrow for the dreaded dental trip to the Sunny Coast. I'm looking forward to my appointment, but with some trepidation .. I doubt that my long time fear of dentists will ever disappear completely, no matter how good the dentist is, but I haven't felt comfortable smiling for a long time now and my crooked loose front tooth has limited my food choices, so I'm excited about getting it all fixed and my mouth being healthy again.

This appointment is going to be the longest two hours of my life!

It has just ticked past midnight, so I'd best get some sleep!

Nite all.