Sporting Chance

Despite watching some of the Wimbledon lady's semi-final tennis last night, I did get to sleep much earlier than any night in the past ten days. It was still around midnight, but I enjoyed a solid seven hours of sleep, which made it easier to get up earlier.

As promised, Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay to watch the kids play touch football in their carnival.

Both kids are all round superstars. They have the brains and motivation to top their classes at school, the physical fitness and prowess to excel in any sport they choose, a relaxed and easy going manner to make friends wherever they go and are both popular with their peers, leadership qualities that I'm sure will take them far in their futures and both of them are physically and spiritually beautiful human beings ie inside and out.

'Moopoo' is sixteen years old and today played on Field One in a game that was live streamed on the net. Her team lost. They entered the tournament to be competitive, but did not expect to do well against more experienced and more successful teams in their age bracket. However, they have done better than expected and are enjoying themselves.

'Chunky' is fourteen and his team is, so far, unbeaten. They are expected to win the tournament for their age bracket. They are a young, experienced team who have played together for a couple of years now and so they know each other's game well and it shows in their play. The pressure is definitely on them though!

It's a massive tournament and there were thousands of kids of all age groups in attendance there today. All of the car parks were full and cars were parked for more than a kilometre along every street leading into and out of the sports grounds. It was crazy!

We were lucky enough to nab what we call a 'rock star carpark', when we drove into one of the full car parks right on the edge of the grounds and as we gave up and turned to leave, somebody was backing out, so we drove straight in! We were literally a two minute walk to the field.

After Chunky won his game, we left the grounds to do our shopping for the weekend. Again, there were people everywhere in The Bay, and Stocklands was incredibly busy. The supermarket was buzzing with activity and I admit that I was feeling pretty stressed by the time we got to the checkout! Couldn't wait to get out of there!

I would, however, like to give a big 'thumbs up' to Carol on checkout 4, who was incredibly friendly and efficient and whose packing skills were exceptional! She definitely eased my stress levels .. in fact I am going to email Coles to tell them how great she was!

I'll be right back ...

Done!

We now have a fridge and pantry full of goodies and I have a plan in my head for all the dishes that I'm going to prepare. It would have been easy to get carried away, but I want to enjoy tomorrow night with everybody else, so I'm mostly making food that can be prepared in advance and Adoring Husband will cook the meat on the barbecue.

So I have a cheese platter to prepare, I bought two dips and will make one of my own, I'll do smoked salmon & cream cheese discs, I've selected four different salads to make and I've decided on a GF red velvet cake for Best Cousin in the World's birthday. We also bought her a gift, which I won't reveal here, just in case she reads this.

I'm on it!!

Now, at 11.30pm, I am going to bed to watch Roger Federer play Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon men's semi-final. They are one set each and I'm pretty sure that I will fall asleep before I know the outcome of this one!

Nite all.

Shed De-cluttering

Adoring Husband decided to mow the back lawn today. He only mowed it on Sunday, but the little bit of rain that we've had caused it to grow considerably in a few days, so it's now looking trim and tidy.

His next job, was to de-clutter and tidy up the shed! I seemed to get sucked into the vortex and firstly, I listed the 250 odd vinyl records that have been stored in a box for about 12 yrs. There are 78s, 45s and 33 1/3s.

Fabulous oldies like Liberace, Jamie Redfern, Doris Day, Winifred Atwell, Judith Durham, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Morcambe & Wise, Harry Belafonte, Louis Armstrong and Joan Sullivan.

Musicals like 'The Sound of Music', 'The King and I', 'Carousel', 'Calamity Jane', 'Showboat' and 'Hello Dolly'.

Some of them are real treasures.

The next box contained jewellery. Unfortunately, it was mostly junk dress jewellery, some of which I kept, but most of which I tossed.

My final fun job, was to sort through some small notebooks, all of which were filled with very small handwriting, describing Aunty E's daily 'goings on'. Starting with the time that she woke in the morning, collecting the morning paper, all of her phone calls to her sister, grocery shopping trips, visits to the bank, paying the bills, meals, plant watering, hair tinting, toilet visits, drives in the car (Ford Escort), how much she paid for petrol, what she watched on TV, visits to her sister, the temperature range for the day and the weather.

It actually reminded me a lot of this blog!! Every day there is some 'same old, same old' that gets repeated with every post and none of it is very interesting or exciting .. but I just couldn't stop reading it!

She had soup and toast OR fruit and ice cream for dinner every night. She froze huge numbers of cheese sandwiches, but never seemed to eat any of them. She loved to watch English church services on TV and collected the New Idea and Woman's Day magazines every week. The Daily Mirror was her favourite newspaper and the local rag, The Leader.

She listed the medications that she took every day, her doctor's visits and hospital visits, collecting the mail from Caringbah Post Office, the bus and it's number that she caught to Miranda Fair, what nationality the driver was, how she was feeling, physically, each day.

Aunty E was aged in her mid 70s for most of these notebooks and she lived til the ripe old age of 97. She was born in 1917 and we also possess the golden key from her 21st birthday, which she celebrated in 1938. She enjoyed lots of international holidays with her two sisters over the years, and ocean cruises and camping trips around Australia.

She lived a very long, full and exciting life and I wish I'd known her. By the time I met Adoring Husband, she was already in a nursing home and quite ill with dementia, so I never got to meet her, but there are many many albums full of her holiday photos, so I feel really good energy whenever I think of her.

So my day was pretty much filled up with those activities. At 5pm I began preparing dinner. Mostly leftover chicken with a few extra salads. Fresh grated beetroot with shallots, dressed in chocolate, raspberry balsamic vinegar, carrot salad with roasted almonds and cranberries, garden salad, buttered mushrooms, rice salad and sweet potato chips (which I just this minute realised, I left in the oven! Doh!).

I was worried that there wouldn't be enough food, but there was plenty, and everybody was sated and full of compliments.

Tomorrow, AH and I will go watch the kids play a couple of their games and then we'll do a big shop for Saturday's party.

This means no tennis for me tonight! I was up very late watching Roger Federer pull of a miraculous five set victory in his match, to get through to the semi finals. It was about 2am when I fell asleep.

It's now 10.45pm.

Nite all.

    

A Day in the Bay

We had a couple of false starts, but eventually, we arrived in The Bay to enjoy a delicious lunch at Aquavue on this glorious day.

The kids took advantage of the sunshine and walked along the beach after lunch, while Adoring Husband and I visited our favourite shop for ice cream! We bought two tubs of Raw Chocolate Coconut Ice cream, because there was no salted caramel in stock *insert very sad face here*, but they DID have something new!

A box of 4 ice creams .. very similar to Magnums .. but with coconut ice cream! Coated in delicious dairy free chocolate and almonds. Adoring Husband and I ate all four of them in the space of about twenty minutes!

We arrived home at about 4pm, at which time I got straight onto dinner. Our new favourite, Hainan Chicken was on the menu tonight and it was a winner! The kids gobbled it down pretty fast and were excited to have dessert waiting for them.

Chocolate mousse made with avocado, covering a layer of chopped strawberries and then topped with a whole strawberry, a scoop of raw chocolate coconut ice cream and sprinkled with crumbled freeze dried strawberries. Completely devoured!

So everybody left the table totally satisfied .. except for me! I was SOOOOO full, it has taken four hours for my body to finally feel comfortable!

The men in the house, did the dishes and tidied the kitchen when we were finished eating ...

Everybody, except me, headed to bed for an early night. The family need to be in The Bay at 7.30am for a start to their touch football carnival, but luckily I get to stay warm and toasty in my cosy bed til I'm ready to rise.

I must admit that I am feeling decidedly weary tonight. It has already been a big week and as I sit here watching my favourite, Roger Federer, losing his quarter final tennis match, I'm thinking about my warm bed.

It's fifteen minutes away from midnight. It will definitely NOT be a 3am finish for me tonight.

I got distracted and now it's ten minutes past midnight!!

Nite all.

They Have Arrived!

This is just a short post, because it's 1am and my need for some solid sleep is on the high scale right now.

I lasted til 3am watching the tennis last night - I know right!!?? You didn't think I would last after all that hard work!! - and I was awake at 8am ready to tie a few loose ends before the family arrived this afternoon.

I baked two chickens so that we could all sit down and have dinner when they arrived. Just a simple chicken and salad with a nice glass of wine.

The conversation hasn't slowed down for the entire six hours that they have been here and Nellie Noo has only just gone to bed herself.

I have morning tea with the girls tomorrow, so I'd best get some sleep so that I can be fresh for that. Afterwards, Adoring Husband, the fam and I are heading into The Bay for lunch.

So here is a photo of some of the fam ...

I bet you wouldn't recognise those feet if you saw them in a different setting! Ha!

Nite all.

Been Workin' Hard!

Right! What a day! Almost a complete Spring clean in one day! Surprisingly, I still feel quite energised, although I think I've worked some muscles that haven't been used in a while.

Between Adoring Husband and myself we have:

• Removed the bedding, washed it and remade the beds in three bedrooms. Vacuumed and dusted said bedrooms.
• Cleared the middle bedroom of all my new study decorating paraphernalia (the new study will be revealed some time this month!)
• Pulled the washing machine out to clean the floor under it and the wall behind it, as well as the floor to ceiling window and sliding door beside it. Cleaned the laundry tub.
• Removed all the furniture in the outdoor area, pressure cleaned the concrete floor, washed down all the furniture and then returned it all.
• Cleared out the fridge in the kitchen, pulled all the shelving and drawers out to be cleaned, tossed the old food and returned the good stuff.
• Cleared out the spare fridge in the garage and cleaned the drawers and shelving.
• Pulled everything out of the very large, very full pantry, tossed the out-of-date stuff, cleaned the shelves and then re-organised everything.
• Cleared the clutter from the kitchen bench, cleaned on top, under and behind the big dehydrator at the end of the bench.
• Wiped down all of the kitchen appliances (electric kettle, toaster, blender etc)
• Emptied the vegetable box, cleaned it, tossed the sprouted onions and sweet potato and returned it to the bottom of the pantry all spick and span.
• Washed the bird cage.
• Did two other loads of washing. Folded the clothes that were already on the line.
• Put the fresh batch of bone broth into containers in the freezer.
• Cleaned the main bathroom and toilet.
• Vacuumed the tiled floor ready to be mopped tomorrow.
• Planned the menu for Best Cousin in the World's birthday party on Saturday night.
• Got the ironing up-to-date - took about 40 minutes.
• Cooked lunch (well actually, reheated beef casserole and steamed some broccoli & snow peas).
• Stacked and unpacked the dishwasher three times!
• Filled an extra 8 ice cube trays in preparation for Saturday.

I think that just about covers it.

At 8.47pm I made the decision to have an Epsom Salts bath. I'm not a fan of baths, but I could feel some muscles beginning to complain, so I added some lavender essential oil to the mix and lay there for about 40 minutes reading my Susan Howatch book, "Cashelmara".

Right now, I'm sitting on the couch in my pyjamas, feeling very much refreshed, munching on some raw macadamia nuts and watching Wimbledon! Nick Kyrgios is playing tonight, but first Roger Federer is playing Steve Johnson, then Serena Williams plays Svetlana Kuznetsova and THEN Nick Kyrgios plays Andy Murray ... I feel that it's going to be a long night! Right now I feel great, but I wonder when I'm going to hit the wall?

Let's hope Roger and Serena both win in straight sets!

I thought I would share this music video with you. The girl is the daughter of one of The Motivator's girlfriends. These two have beautiful voices and the song is reminiscent of my youth describing the drama and uncertainty of those early relationships.



I wish I had a tub of Zebra Dream Salted Caramel Coconut Ice cream right now! I've earned it!

Nite all.

Weekend Warrior

It's been a very busy weekend for Adoring Husband and I.

We have family arriving this week, so we took the opportunity to do some things around the house, that we have been putting off for quite some time.

I actually spent more time in the kitchen, so AH has done the most work in the rest of the house. Aren't I lucky? Some husbands aren't quite so accommodating! I won't name names ... you know who you are ... and if you're not reading this, your wives know who you are!! Haha!

It's almost been a complete spring clean, but tomorrow will be a rush to get it all finished because they are arriving a day earlier than originally planned!

Another cousin (best cousin in the world), who has just moved from Julia Creek to a property near Gympie, is having a birthday this weekend. She messaged me to see what we were doing on Saturday night and I invited her to join us all here to celebrate her birthday.

I was hoping to convince my sister (squirt) to join us as well, but unfortunately she has other plans. It's a shame because these two cousins were very close to her in her younger days - their ages are much closer to her than me - because I'm an old fart.

Anyway, we should have a lot of fun on Saturday night. I have balloons and party hats and I'll surprise her with a cake - I'm pretty sure that she doesn't read this blog, but if she does, then the cake won't be such a surprise will it?

There will be wine and food and music and balloons and hats and cake and love and laughter. That should be enough for one birthday party.

I finally finished the curried chicken today and the oxtail casserole, then returned the bones to the slow cooker to make up some bone broth. I also did some more Hainan Chicken. I delivered five of these meals to Mum H who today celebrated her 74th birthday.

For a couple of weeks, she had been struggling with her health and was feeling very down and out, but her new medication has kicked in and she was in very good spirits today. It was good to see her almost back to her old self.

Unusually so, Wimbledon has live tennis today. The middle Sunday is usually a rest day, but there has been so much rain, they are running behind with matches, so today is catch up day. I might even get to see Kyrgios finish his match which was suspended last night due to rain.

So this is where I leave you.

Nite all.