Flat and Sad

I have been feeling a bit flat and sad today, and I don't know why.

I slept poorly last night and had a couple of dreams about floods. I looked up 'dreaming about floods' and found this ... "If the flood was gentle and the water clear, you will soon see an end to all the worries that have been plaguing you about a certain matter."

So I guess that's a good thing. If the flood waters had washed me away or was torrential and muddy, my dream would have meant something completely different.

Poor Adoring Husband doesn't know what to do with himself with the tennis on all day. He usually has full control of the TV remote, but twice a year, during the Australian Open and Wimbledon, (and sometimes the US Open) I am the boss of the TV! The US and French Open don't thrill me as much, unless there is an Aussie doing incredibly well.

Tonight, he headed to bed before 8pm and now I am sitting on the couch, with the dogs on the 'storm chair', because we had some threatening weather earlier, waiting for the match with two Aussies.

Bernard Tomic plays John Millman. I think the winner of this match has to play Andy Murray in the next round and I don't hold out much hope of an Aussie win there. Andy Murray has been playing too well lately.

I hope John Millman wins tonight.

Thought I might add a little reading matter about our health. I've always thought that I needed a lithe and supple body to be able to practise yoga, but yoga moves can be modified and adapted to suit everyone's capabilities. I found this interesting Yoga shown to boost brain power in older adults. I know that my brain power could use some boosting!

I found these videos on youtube. Nice gentle yoga for beginners and seniors (60+). I've watched both of them, but haven't tried them yet myself. They look pretty basic and not at all painful.

Third Age Yoga for Seniors - episode 1 of 2

Third Age Yoga for Seniors - episode 2 of 2

I always like how I feel after 20 minutes of yoga, but I've never been able to get into a regular habit with it. I might try and make that one of my goals this year. I'll add it to my 'life workbook' and my 'shining year calendar'.

Anyway, here I am still writing and the tennis match I've been waiting for, is half over! John Millman needs my support!

Nite all.

Ending The Week

I had a lovely morning catching up with The Motivator.

I had a lovely evening catching up with the Bowls Club poker machines and my wonderful friends at the Bowls Club.

I am enjoying the end of the day watching Nick Kyrgios play in the Australian Open. He lost the first two sets but is playing like a champion now, having won the third set and I feel like he is in control in the fourth set.

I am also feeling very weary and I don't think I can stay awake for the end of the match.

Daria Gavrilova, aka Dasher, won her match in three sets .. very happy with that outcome.

I can't stop yawning, so I'm off to bed to get a good night of sleep (it's 10pm).

Sorry, I have nothing to share to make this post more interesting. I may have pictures of pictures that Chicklet has been working on, tomorrow evening. Maybe.

Nite all.

Just a Bit

So I did 'just a bit' of housework today.

I cleaned out the fridge. I cleaned one toilet. I did three loads of washing. I cooked one meal.

I stopped when the tennis started on TV. Tennis will always win over housework. Come to think of it, just about everything will win over housework.

Vegan Chickie and Chicklet phoned me today and it was nice to catch up with their news. It seems that Chicklet's new favourite person is Aunty BGWLBH. Sideways swinging and funny words have become the foundation for a beautiful friendship! I think that's lovely :)

We farewelled Lleyton Hewitt from the tennis circuit tonight when he was soundly beaten in his second round match against David Ferrer. I will miss Lleyton. He was one of my favourites.

Another Aussie, John Millman, who has been playing professionally for ten years, but has been a very quiet achiever, won his match and for the first time is into the third round of a Grand Slam. He will probably have to play Bernard Tomic in the next round. Tomic has won his first two sets and is looking good to win his match.

BGWLBH arrived home safensound yesterday, only to find the house ransacked. She had been robbed. They even took her pillows and doona!

If that wasn't bad enough, today she had to say goodbye to her best friend, Indi, the dog. She was 16 years old, a beautiful gentle and loving companion to BGWLBH and she will be greatly missed.

So please focus for a moment on sending strength and positive energy down south in the direction of BGWLBH to help her get through this very challenging period of her life. The universe sure sends us some mean curve balls sometimes, but this past six months of hell seems just a bit excessive!

One day at a time.

I think I might be up for an early one tonight. It's almost 10pm and I'm feeling weary after last night's bed time of 1am.

Nite all.

Find a Rhythm

My life needs rhythm.

I need a plan and a routine and I need to NIKE (just do it)!!

I'm talking about housework of course. One thing in my life with which I have always struggled, so if anybody out there has any hot tips for making housework easier, faster, enjoyable or less of a chore, please feel free to share!! The only idea that I can come up with is hiring a cleaner!

I was running late for morning tea with the ladies today because I received a call from Mrs Bucket, a phone call that was very 'newsy' and took some time .. however most phone calls with Mrs Bucket take a bit of time :) It was good to hear from her, even though she had some upsetting family news.

When I eventually got there, I really enjoyed morning tea with the girls. Five of us were in attendance and we did miss Lady Lynn and Mardi and Reality TV Queen and Maid Marian who texted me to ask if coffee was on, but she strangely didn't turn up.

It was almost 10.30am by the time we said our farewells and headed home. (this is why my housework never gets done!)

Adoring husband had SES duties all morning, but came home for an early lunch and I had the afternoon to myself, during which I did NO housework, but instead, watched a movie called 'Elsa and Fred' with Shirley Maclaine and Christopher Plummer in it. I enjoyed it very much, because I like both of those actors.

Then I watched some tennis before doing a lamb roast for dinner. I cooked some 'parson's noses' in the oven first and used the fat left over from that, to cook the potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. The meat was a plain butterflied lamb leg which I browned in the skillet and then baked at high heat for fifteen minutes. I made a gravy with the lamb fat which was left in the skillet, some tapioca flour and some home made chicken broth and served it all with steamed fresh green beans.

It was delicious and AH said the pumpkin was the best he'd ever tasted. It was beautifully caramelised in the chicken fat.

I'm now NOT doing more housework while I watch more tennis. The Aussies are all doing well (except Sam Stosur, who never seems to do well at the Aussie Open) so far, which makes it a bit more interesting.

Found this on Magnesium today, which I found interesting, particularly because BGWLBH and I had discussions about it while she was here.

I have a couple more pics from our time on the Sunny Coast ...

  and these for a giggle ...

And it's good night from me.

Nite all.

Back to Normal

Tears all round as BGWLBH left this morning. I was very surprised to see her car still parked in the driveway when I woke this morning, so I actually got to see her drive away and I wasn't expecting that. It's much easier without 'goodbyes'.

We've had contact during the day and she is travelling well.

So the first half of my day was very quiet with both Adoring Husband and BGWLBH out of the house.

I took the opportunity to take a breath, and I watched one of my new dvds, "Last Cab to Darwin". It was not as sad as I expected, although it was quite dark in places, but funny with typical Aussie humour in other parts. I thought all the characters were well played except for Jackie Weaver. I usually like her, but I didn't like her in this role.

Just as I pressed 'play' on the second dvd, AH phoned to say that he was on his way home, so I paused the movie, made his lunch (duck breast with salad) and we sat down together to watch "Aloha".

It stars Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone and Bill Murray. The first half of the movie was a bit confusing trying to figure out what was going on, but it eventually all came together and I enjoyed the movie a lot, with a few tears at the end.

AH is at a meeting tonight, so I get to watch the tennis in peace. At the moment Bernard Tomic is playing Denis Istomin from Uzbek. He is leading 2 sets to 1.  I'm looking forward to Lleyton Hewitt's match tonight against another Aussie, James Duckworth. I hope he does well in his final Australian Open appearance.

I have another photo to share from our holiday. I call it "HIGHER! HIGHER!" which, much to BGWLBH's dismay, is pretty much was Chicklet was yelling for the entire time that she was on the swing.

Time for me to settle into the tennis.

Nite all.

Final Holiday Day

Today was BGWLBH's last day here.

As you read this blog post, she is probably already on her way home.

So we spent the day together at the Boat Club in The Bay. It was a good day. The coffee was good, the poker machines were reasonably friendly .. and by that I mean that we spent four hours there for free and the atmosphere was happy (because most tourists have left town now).

It was a nice way to spend the last day of our holiday.

I have two photos to share from our road trip.

The first is of my Grandfather's name (Francis John Fordham) on the war memorial in Esk. It was revealed to me only last year, that his name was there. Apparently, in his teenage years, he worked on a farm in Esk and joined the Navy at the beginning of WWI. He survived the war and Esk claimed him as their own.

The second is of the river at Wiangaree. Very picturesque.

Well, it's midnight. I'm off to bed. Hopefully I will be awake when BGWLBH leaves tomorrow .. although we both hate goodbyes and I wouldn't be surprised if she left without saying goodbye. It's easier that way. Less painful for both of us. She will sneak out in the early hours.

Nite all.

Sunday Movies

Watched the new Star Wars movie with Adoring Husband. He loved it!

We decided to watch a second movie, but it meant that we had almost four hours to kill. We filled some time by visiting Stocklands and I got my reading glasses repaired. Adoring Husband had lunch while BGWLBH went book shopping and I got some groceries for dinner.

It was such a beautiful day, we drove along the Esplanade to check out the water and then decided to take our first look inside the Beach House Hotel since it was rebuilt and opened 18 months ago.

It's impressive! There was live music and a nice size crowd inside. We played the pokies for about 30 minutes before heading back to the cinemas.

We watched The Fifth Wave because AH said he was keen to see it, and the previews looked ok.

Absolute rubbish. I generously give it a 2/10. Acting was atrocious. Storyline was pathetic. It had absolutely nothing going for it and I recommend that you avoid it and don't waste 112 minutes of your life .. you'll never get that time back!

So we didn't get home til about 7pm, which meant a late dinner.

I made my version of Nachos. Sweet potato chips, avocado mash, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, rocket, chopped spring onions, grated carrot, goat's cheese, pork and chicken meatballs (which were already prepared and I'd taken them out of the freezer before we went out) with a sweet spicy sauce (coconut aminos, chilli powder, balsamic vinegar and tomato paste) poured over the top.

It was delicious.

Another round of trivia that BGWLBH won.

And now, once again, it is rapidly approaching 1am.

I need to sleep!!

The days have been full!!

Nite all.

Oopsy!

Today was intended to be movie day.

All three of us climbed into the car at 8.30am and headed into The Bay for our movie date. Halfway there, I realised that I'd left my glasses at home. Ugh!

Too blind to watch a movie without them, so we had to change our plans .. either go home to get the glasses, or postpone the viewing until the next day .. the second option was the best one.

So BGWLBH and I got our nails done .. a full set of gel nails.

We followed up with a bit of retail therapy.

Across town to savour the best coffee in town and also to visit Nana's Pantry and the Go Natural store.

A stop at JB HiFi so that Adoring Husband could spend his christmas voucher and of course some more retail therapy for we girls.

We arrived home at about 2pm and cooked up a quick beef stroganoff for a late lunch. While AH cleaned the kitchen, BGWLBH and I wandered down to the beach, me on the trike and BGWLBH walking.

I parked the trike and we kicked off our shoes to walk barefoot over the sand and wade ankle deep in the water at low tide. Even though it was overcast, the weather was quite mild and comfortable. We got caught in a couple of small showers, but nothing too dramatic.

On the way home, we grabbed a couple of coffees 'to go'.

We relaxed for about an hour before I made a fresh salad for BGWLBH and gave AH some leftovers from lunch and we followed that with a marathon trivia game.

After about 4 hours, we declared it a tie.

BGWLBH and I had all our pieces of pie and spent over an hour attempting to land in the middle and answer our final question to win the game, but try as we might, we couldn't get that last question right!!

We conceded well after 11pm. AH still had two pieces of pie to get and wouldn't let us declare a two way tie .. it had to be a three way tie! Cheeky! We were too tired to argue, so agreed that he could claim a win with us.

By the time we got ourselves organised and tidied up the dining room table, finished cleaning up the kitchen, filled all our water bottles, took the dogs out for their pre-bedtime pee, filled the slow cooker with chicken broth ingredients and turned it on and then sat down to write this blog, it was well after midnight!!

It's now rapidly approaching 1am and we have to be up reasonably early to see the boys at the Seat of Knowledge in the morning, so I'd best get some sleep.

I began to edit some photos to post tonight, but realised that it's just too late!

Sorry about that.

Nite all.