Simple Saturday

I was in bed by 9pm last night, and I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep the instant that my head hit the pillow. I woke at 1am for about thirty minutes and again very briefly at 4.30am for about thirty seconds. It was 7.30pm when I finally woke for the day.

When I opened my eyes,  there was my morning coffee sitting on my bedside table (thank you Adoring Husband), so I chose to spend even more time in bed with my iPad and it was about 9am when I finally climbed out of bed to welcome the day.

I took the opportunity to cook up a big breakfast for AH. Bacon, eggs, tomato, mushrooms and avocado. It turned out to be a good move because he got a callout for a land search with the SES almost the second that he took his last mouthful.

That meant that I had a very quiet morning and early afternoon at home alone. I did some washing and watched a movie and ate half a kg of organic red grapes! Delicious!

When AH arrived home, I cooked up some lamb back strap for a late lunch.

We spent the afternoon watching the Auckland Nines. AH's team is one of only two that have won both their matches so far. Last year, they got into the finals but lost the big game. We're hoping that they can go one better this year. My team is not doing so well.

Today has been rainy and quite a bit cooler than the last couple of weeks, which has been pleasant. Instead of keeping the house closed up and the air conditioner running all day, we could open some windows and let some fresh air in.

During my facebook browsing today, I came across this fabulous video that I simply had to share here. I love it so much. It warmed my heart.



I also loved these quotes...

On that note, it's 11pm and I am going to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Short and Sweet

I believe that a solid night of sleep is calling to me. It has been months since I chose bed at 9pm so I am outta here.

I thought that Margaret Pomeranz choices for movies might appeal to you.

Movie choices

Let me know what you think! Your reviews will mean more to me that Margaret's.

Nite all.

Movie Improvement

So, five strangers, Adoring Husband and myself, all watched 'Sisters' today at the cinema in The Bay. It's the final week for the viewing of the movie, so it only cost $9 - that was a bonus! It was funny - a big improvement on last week's movie, that's for sure.

Afterwards, we went for a drive along the esplanade to see the damage from last week's storm, but they've cleared the debris so well, that it's difficult to tell where the damage was, along the foreshore. The caravan park at Scarness is closed, has obvious damage and there is still work going on, but otherwise, you can barely tell there was a storm. The clean up job by council and SES crews has been pretty amazing.

We bought a blood pressure monitor today.

I am 55 years old and almost everybody I know has blood pressure problems, mostly high, and they have been prescribed medication for it. Adoring Husband had high blood pressure a couple of years ago and was given a period of time to lose weight and reduce his blood pressure, which he did, so fortunately, he didn't have to take medication.

So I figured that we are at the age where we need to monitor it, and since I don't consult doctors, I can do it myself at home. As of today, I am happy to announce that both of us have perfect blood pressure and perfect resting heart beats! Yay for us!

The video that I am sharing with you today is one that I found on my 'on this day' memory page in facebook. It was shared on my page by The Nikonian way back in 2013, a week after the tornado, when our power and our internet coverage was intermittent. I didn't even know it was there until today!

She shared it because she knew I would love it. She was right! It's brilliant. A belated thankyou to my friend :)



It's pouring with rain tonight and by the look of the BOM, it's not going to stop any time soon. A nice night to fall asleep to the sound of rain on the tin roof. So...

Nite all.

Morning Laughs

The highlight of today was most definitely morning tea with the girls. There are two highlights to mention.

The first highlight was the delicious paleo apple and walnut muffins that The Blonde Bombshell baked this morning and brought, still warm, for us all to savour with our tea and coffee.

I believe there were nine of us this morning and the biggest highlight of the day, was when we were joined by our old friend Tweedle Dee! She moved down south about seven months ago and we've missed her crazy sense of humour and her hilarious stories.

She cracked us all up and we cackled like hens for a good two hours. My cheeks ached from smiling and laughing so hard and it was well after 11am by the time I got home.

One of her stories described the lifetime search, for a hat to suit her. A lady in a hat shop even told her that there was a hat style for everyone, but after she had tried on all of the styles in the shop, even the hat lady told her there was nothing!

So I asked her to try on my hat and ... wahlaa! It looked great!

Tonight there were dinner arrangements made for a big group of us to meet at the pub and I promised Tweedle Dee that I would bring one of my hats for her (I have 4 of the same style hat).

The routine of my life is so ingrained that I was halfway through cooking dinner when I remembered that I should have been at the pub ten minutes ago!! By the time I finished dinner, it was too late for me to have a shower (and I desperately needed to wash and blow dry my hair) and get ready, so I messaged my apologies to the group.

Then I remembered the hat! So I asked Adoring Husband to drive me to the pub, where I rushed into the restaurant, looking like a grubby old housewife, and presented Tweedle Dee with her hat. There were welcoming cheers all round and photos were quickly taken and I disappeared from the pub as quickly as I had appeared!

I'm so pleased that I did that because I got to give her a goodbye hug and show her that I wasn't fobbing her off for dinner. I hope that one day I get to visit her at her new home on Bribie Island. She's just so happy and full of love and laughter.

We miss her a lot.

Adoring Husband and I have a movie date tomorrow morning. Our plan is to see 'Sisters' - however - 'The Choice' starts tomorrow and I do want to see that too. Perhaps we can save 'The Choice' for next week!

I should probably go get some sleep, since we have an early start tomorrow.

Nite all.

Fixing the Mental and Emotional

Tonight, after a conversation about my fear of not just storms, but the possibility of approaching storms and also other strange quirks in my personality, including my refusal to get counselling for the PTSD that resulted from the tornado in 2013, Vegan Chickie described me as ...

"A riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma"

Many many years ago Winston Churchill described Russia this way, though I doubt that he uttered those words with love, the way (I hope) that Vegan Chickie did!

It is true. There is healing required. I've worked so hard on my physical health, but have neglected my mental and emotional health. Counselling is an option that I 'may' consider in the future .. maybe.

Meanwhile, there are lots of other things that I can try, like meditation and mindfulness!!

My brother told me about a series on the ABC about training your brain to do all sorts of things. I believe there were two seasons of this show and I found them on youtube tonight. I haven't watched an episode yet, but I have watched a few of the short segments and this is one on mindfulness ...



I would like to find the time to watch a few more of these shows. I might discover some new ways to nurture my mental and emotional state.

Again, it's heading towards 1am and I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Impulsivity

I made the impulsive decision to head into The Bay with The Reality TV Queen today, to share her belated birthday lunch at the RSL. She received a meal voucher from them for her birthday and she had to use it before the expiry date, which was actually yesterday, but even though she went in there to use it yesterday, she'd accidentally left the voucher at home in another handbag!

After explaining her situation to the lady at reception, she was lucky enough to have her voucher extended so that she could use it today! That was nice of them.

While I was in town, I bought myself a set of sketch pencils in a case from the art and craft store. I also bought an A4 size sketch pad.

It's been quite some time since I practised my art and, like anything, it takes a lot of practise to be proficient. I'll see how my motivation levels go.

I actually wanted to buy some oil paints and brushes to get back into painting, but a 37ml tube of reasonable quality oil paint costs more than $25. I would need at least six colours to start and I'm not sure if I can stay motivated enough to justify paying that much for the supplies.

If I focus on the sketching and the spark comes alive inside of me, than I will certainly outlay the money for some new supplies.

My other purchase today, was of something that will surprise you I'm sure ... shoes! Just some fancy green and blue bejewelled thongs.

While in the shoe shop, we were advised of the storm warnings that were current and the flood warning for the Burrum River, and as it began to rain, we rushed to the car hoping to beat the storms home.

Before we even got to the outskirts of The Bay, the rain stopped and even though there was plenty of water on the sides of the road, the skies cleared and the sun was shining by the time we arrived in my driveway.

It's still terribly hot and uncomfortably humid. Storms are forecast for the rest of the week, but the weather should cool down by the weekend. We can only hope!

I shared this video on facebook this morning. I think it runs for about 18 minutes and is a viewing 'must'!



It's well after midnight, so I'm outta here!

Nite all.

Loving the Shoes!!

Adoring Husband had two call outs today, with the SES. One in town and the other in The Bay, so he was gone for most of the day.

I spent part of the day cooking a roast lamb and veg meal, which was originally for lunch, but ended up being for dinner.

I spent part of the day watching a movie.

I spent part of the day trying to think of an interesting 'water' photo to take. This month's flickr challenge is themed 'water'. I couldn't think of anything, so I went outside after the rain and tried for some droplets shining in the trees, but unfortunately, my camera seems to have lost it's ability to focus properly, so I will need to get it serviced and/or repaired.

I spent part of the day looking through all of the photos that I've taken in January, with the hope of finding one with water in it, that I could work on, and submit for the challenge.

I spent part of the day watching a storm on the BOM that firstly hit Emerald and brought with it two quick inches of rain and 85kph winds and which I then warned my sister about. It seems that the storm, once again fizzled before it got to Blackwater.

I spent part of the day watching the tennis final between Djokovic and Murray. I'm glad that Djokovic won!

I spent part of the day browsing shoes ...

Gorgeous aren't they!?

I spent part of the day wishing that I could sit on my couch eating junk food, like chips and chocolate and ice cream and lollies. That doesn't happen very often! I didn't eat any of those things and I know that I'm feeling better for it tonight! Mentally AND physically!

So you see that my day was again, not very productive. It's too hot, humid, wet and/or stormy to get productive.

I can't believe that it's now after 11pm! I thought it was much earlier than that!

Nite all.