Happy Saturday

I woke up feeling much better today. Stomach cramps gone and plenty of energy to take on the world and Chicklet!

We had a happy day with lots of laughter and playing. Whenever her energy levels looked like getting out of control, we would take some 'quiet time' and bring things back to a sane level.

The Batman and Friends figurines got a workout today and we played hide'n'seek with them for a good couple of hours. The 'Zombies v Plants' game app also got a good workout. I downloaded a version of it onto my iPad and we swapped games competing for the championship. She is definitely her Grandmother's Granddaughter ... so competitive!!

She showed me lots of apps on her iPad and explained how to play each one, which was fun.

We read three stories tonight and when I told her to curl up like a dragon ready for sleep, she rolled over and without uttering another word, was asleep within five minutes.

I calculated that we received about 60mm of rain overnight and today. The wind didn't get too bad and the room that I'm sleeping in, on this visit, is much quieter in the wet weather, than the back room. I noticed that the weather was coming from that direction, so it was quite loud against the windows.

The Bare-chested Chef was surprised that I slept so well because, as he stated "It was a loud night!"

I'm missing watching the football with Adoring Husband tonight, but keeping an eye on the scores. It's Super Saturday and three games are being shown live on Foxtel. I'm disappointed that my team lost against the Auckland Warriors tonight.

Looks like it could be an early night for me .. ready for a big Sunday .. final day of babysitting, and the weather will be much improved, so we might get to the park and have some outside play time.

As always, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with Chicklet. She's crazy and fun and clever and a real joy to be with - exhausting but wonderful!

Nite all.

Struggle Street

I am struggling with some kind of gastric bug at the moment. I've had some very mild stomach cramps for the past 48 hours, which were noticeable, but not uncomfortable or painful. I thought my body was doing a good job of fighting off whatever was trying to attach itself to me.

The cramps have been much stronger, although very intermittent, and quite painful this afternoon and evening.

Only one other brief symptom to go with the cramps, so I guess my body is still doing a good job of fighting it ... and it may explain why I slept so much yesterday afternoon and last night.

I just hope that I don't pass it on to the family .. especially to Chicklet!

We had a big shopping spree today!

Vegan Chickie will be pleased with the new 'noisy' toy that has joined the household. A walking, roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex! Ten Batman figurines with suction cups to attach to a special story book. Zootopia stickers and activity books. New highlighter pens and textas. Some silver angel costume wings, which have been renamed 'dragon wings'. A Bat pen. Dinosaur stickers.

We still have two full days of play left and one day that we won't be able to leave the house due to inclement weather .. which has the potential to turn into a serious weather event .. so it was important to have plenty of activities to keep us occupied.

I had some 'time out' in my bedroom before The Bare-chested Chef went to work, so my body had a chance to rest a bit before the onslaught of full-on Chicklet play!

She didn't want to go to sleep tonight and claimed that she wasn't tired. She wanted to have a staring competition, but when I told her that the winner would be the first person to fall asleep, she changed her mind. She then suggested a counting competition, which I won, because I counted so loud and so quickly, that she kept losing count! Then I suggested a competition to see who could be quiet the longest - she spoke first to declare that it was a tie! Then we had a competition to see who could keep their eyes closed the longest, but she spent the entire time asking me if I had opened my eyes yet.

Finally, I suggested that she curl up like a dragon - because dragons are always exhausted from flying and breathing fire and rescuing people - and then she might find it easier to fall asleep. So rolled onto her side and curled up like a dragon, pretending to curl her long tail around herself, and she was sound asleep inside five minutes!

So I'm off to sleep now, hoping to wake tomorrow, cramp free and fighting fit enough to take on a crazy Chicklet and a possible serious weather event.

Nite all.

It Eluded Me

After watching an exhausting State of Origin game last night (which, as you can tell by the above pic, my team won!), the adrenalin took too long to subside and I could not relax enough to sleep.

It was after 1am when I finally drifted off to sleep and for some strange reason, I woke up more than twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off, so I was wide awake again at 4.20am. Ugh.

Thank goodness I put yesterday's coffee in the fridge when I wasn't able to drink it all. I heated it up this morning and drank it on the way to the station. At least that kept me alert for most of the uneventful trip.

The Bare-chested Chef was waiting on the platform for me and we drove home in time for me to give Vegan Chickie a hug and wave goodbye as The Bare-chested Chef drove her to Brisvegas for her flight to Perth. I'll be gone before she returns, so I won't get to see her again until July!

I had a lot of fun playing with Chicklet for the next five hours. There was lots of dinosaur play, hide and seek, creating pictures and stories with stickers and pencils on paper, lunching and playing Angry Birds on the iPad.

By the time The Bare-chested Chef returned, and struggling to cope on 3 hours sleep, I was out on my feet, so as a good tag team does, I left Chicklet in his capable hands and climbed into bed for a nana nap. That was at 2.30pm.

I woke at 4pm and used the bathroom. I was going to head outside to the living room, but I could hear Chicklet and her Dadu chatting away and they sounded so relaxed and happy together, that I decided to lie back down on the bed and listen to them for a while, without disturbing them. Listening to them made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Next thing I knew, it was 6pm! I had drifted back to sleep and this time, when I woke up, I could hear them talking to Vegan Chickie on the speaker phone. She had arrived safely and Chicklet was chatting away, so again, instead of disturbing them, I decided to wait until the phone call was finished before making my way out.

Next thing I knew, it was 7.40pm!!! I had drifted off to sleep AGAIN!

By now, Chicklet was in bed and The Bare-chested Chef was cleaning up in the kitchen.

So my day has consisted of 2.5 hours of travelling, 5 hours of playing and 5 hours of sleeping!

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, but I'm still feeling very relaxed and drowsy, so after a few pages of my book, I believe I'll be back in dreamland before long.

I should certainly have plenty of energy for a full day of play tomorrow!

Nite all.

One More Sleep

I'm very close to being fully packed. I just need to put into the suitcase, the make-up and toiletries that I'll use to get ready in the morning, so it's all good! I am surprisingly well organised.

I enjoyed morning tea with the girls today. As predicted, they all had fabulous holiday stories to tell and they obviously had a great time on each of their trips away. There were six of us until The Speckled Hen and her daughter and grandson appeared, so our table was very full and very loud!

It was quite late in the morning, by the time we all went our separate ways.

I cooked up a big batch of beef ribs, some in the slow cooker and some in the oven. That was our quick easy dinner in preparation for State of Origin tonight. Yes, it's that time again! The first of three State of Origin games! I even delayed my trip away, so that I could watch the game with Adoring Husband.

It's our thing.

He supports NSW and I support QLD.

This is where I get to brag that since we've been together, his team has only won three series' and my team have won nine. Yay us!

I need to go now and get my State of Origin gear on. Adoring Husband has been wearing his blues gear all day and is fully prepared already.

Talk to you from the Sunny Coast tomorrow night.

Go QUEENSLANDERS!

This is a photo that I posted yesterday of a sunset on the river here...

I thought I'd show you the 'before' photo. It really wasn't much of a sunset and this is straight from the camera (actually this photo was taken ten seconds before the top one, but is identical except for some space on the right) ...

I'm just a rookie photoshopper and have no idea how to use anything but the basic tools in the program.

So now you know.

Nite all.

It's Oily

It's a habit that I still have feelings of guilt about, but I continue to laze in bed every morning, for as long as I feel it necessary. This morning, it was well after 9am when I climbed out from under that warm bedding.

Because I can!

After I bought my morning coffee, I decided to accompany Adoring Husband into The Bay. He only needed to buy one thing and I wanted to get some Black Seed Oil from Go Natural, across the other side of town.

While we were there, we stocked up on coconut ice cream too!

I hear you asking "What is Black Seed Oil?"

I'm glad that you asked!

Black seeds come from the Nigella Sativa flower, and it’s origins are from North Africa, Mediterranean/Europe, and Asia, but are grown all over the world now. Black Seed Oil is known as one of the most effective natural remedies in world, for many different ailments.

Cleopatra used it as part of her beauty routine, King Tut had a bottle of it with him in his tomb because he wanted to take it to the afterlife and the Muslim prophet Muhammad stated that black seeds can cure everything but death.

It's known as 

• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-oxidant
• Anti-fungal
• Anti-cancer
• Anti-asthmatic
• Anti-histamine
• Anti-viral
• Anti-coagulant

It promotes heart health. Lowers blood sugar. It strengthens your immune system to fight colds and flus. Reduces high blood pressure. It promotes natural deep sleep and has been known to eliminate insomnia. It prevents and eases muscle cramps. It has been an effective treatment for convulsions. It can lower anxiety and help with depression. It improves liver health and also digestion. 

There are lots more uses for it and there has been success with various cancers and protecting from the harmful effects of cancer treatments. 

You can read more about it here. 

AH has some spots on his arm that I will use this oil on .. I will report back with the results.

I enjoyed a couple of wines with The Blond Bombshell and Reality TV Queen this afternoon and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with the girls at morning tea tomorrow. There have been a few trips away, so there should be lots of stories to listen to!!

Nite all.

Happy Monday

How cold was it on Sunday night!? I was sleeping on top of the doona and under the light duvet and spent half the night shivering, but couldn't bear the thought of exposing my body to the cold air long enough to get under the warm bedding! Crazy.

The temperature got down to 7C this morning, which is very cold for this part of the world, however, once the sun rose, the weather warmed up quickly and it turned into a pleasantly mild day. Mild enough for me to comfortably wear jeans!

On my way to get my morning coffee, I bumped into Reality TV Queen, who was walking two borrowed dogs and she invited me to accompany her into The Bay while she bought a new toilet seat and some accessories for one of her borrowed dogs.

I eagerly agreed, even though she intended on visiting my least favourite shop in the universe .. Bunnings!

We also shopped in K-Mart, which is one of my favourite shops for reasonably inexpensive goodies. I got some more tea towels to replace my turmeric stained cloths, a new bed for Ruby and a clothes stand for when I do my ironing.

The RSL Club was our lunchtime destination and it was there that we discovered Chef Pat who was having an early lunch, and then while we were looking for a table to sit down, we found Shazzam with her husband, so we sat with them to eat, which was very pleasant!

A quick flutter on the pokies and then we were off to the supermarket for some groceries and we were home by 3.30pm. It was a good day and it's always nice to spend some quality time with Reality TV Queen. She's a crack up!

I sold the fourth of my five text books today, through Gumtree, so I'm pretty happy with that kind of success inside one week. I still have one book remaining, which is the most expensive of the books, but time will tell.

I hear a warm doona calling my name tonight! I will climb under there immediately, so that I don't have to think about it again before morning. Cosy and comfy straight away.

Nite all.

Last Sunday of Autumn

I don't know if you've seen this before. I saw it for the first time, a few years ago, and was amused, amazed and entertained, so when I saw it pop up on my Facebook feed today, I thought I'd share it here for your enjoyment.



I did what I do best on a Sunday morning, and stayed in bed, reading and playing on my iPad til after 10am. I did this while Adoring Husband was working his butt off, whipper snipping and mowing the shop lawns and then doing our lawns.

While he was finishing our lawns, I went for a ride in the glorious Autumn sunshine to get my morning coffee. I rode the long way and meandered along the river path, playing my music really LOUD through my earphones and stopping to chat with a couple of the shop owners before I decided to head home.

Off in the distance, I watched a Whistling Kite climb high in the sky and then dive bomb so fast toward the tops of the tall trees, it was a spectacular dive! I stopped, watching and waiting for it to fly back above the trees, to see what it had caught.

It never came back up, but not far to the right of the trees, I saw my favourite bird, the White-bellied Sea Eagle, soaring in slow motion and forming a V with it's huge wing span. Suddenly from nowhere, two Whistling Kites began dive bombing it! It quickly flew over my head and towards the river, with the two kites close on it's tail.

THEN, as it got closer to the river, a second WBSE appeared, and the kites, even though they were less than half the size of the eagles, began bombing both of the eagles! So I turned around and I hightailed it towards the river (even though I DID NOT have my camera with me), so that I could watch the action.

As I got close, I lost sight of them through some trees and by the time I got to the river's edge, there was no sign of ANY of the birds, in ANY direction. Disappeared into thin air! Ugh!

It's probably a good thing, because if anything more exciting had happened, I might have been really sad not to have my camera with me!

Most of today, I spent at my lovely clean desk, looking at some old photos and found this one ...

It was a neighbour's birthday cake covered in fresh frangipanis. This happened in January this year and looking at the photo today, I remembered how poisonous and toxic the sap from these flowers is! Luckily, nobody was affected, but I'll make sure I tell them to avoid using fresh frangipanis for decoration on food in future.

This was our dinner tonight. I did duck breast with orange butter sauce, served with bubble'n'squeak.

Now I'm off to bed. It's going to be a big week for me!

Nite all.