Simply Saturday

I woke to the sound of rain blowing against the windows this morning.

So instead of going for my morning ride, I made myself comfortable and enjoyed some morning reading in bed until around 8.30am.

As much as I wanted to go straight to my workspace, I decided that the housework had been neglected for long enough and so I spent the morning cleaning the main bathroom and toilet, sweeping floors, clearing clutter and finding homes for the shoes and handbags that I've scattered throughout the house in the last couple of weeks.

I did some washing and returned all of my journals, books and art pens to my workspace from the lounge room (which was beginning to look like an office!).

During my decluttering, I found some paperwork from the financial advisor that still needed to be read before we sign off next week, so I sat at my desk and read half of it before I decided to prepare lunch.

Adoring Husband and I watched the Aussies defeat Pakistan in the Test Cricket over lunch and then I returned to the kitchen to create some deliciousness.

Lime cheesecake with raspberry gel topping ...

It's an adapted recipe from one that I made for my LeReve party a few weeks ago. I've made my own version so that I can use it on my site, which is why it took so long to create today. Writing down every step and taking photos .. you know the drill.

I finished in the kitchen and Adoring Husband did the tag team thing and swapped places with me. He cleaned the kitchen so that I could start again and cook dinner!

Duck breast and salad, followed by Lime Cheesecake of course!

So having performed my wifely duties today (and by that I mean 'housework'), I intend to spend the next two days at my workspace. I have a very long 'to do' list that needs attention.

10.30pm and I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Time Flies!

I received a text message from Reality TV Queen early this morning, inviting me into The Bay for a bit of gambling and some lunch. It's been about 6 weeks or more since I had a gambling hit, so I jumped at the chance to join her for the day.

We stopped at Aldi first where I bought some fruit and veg. I found a newsagent to check my Powerball ticket - alas I did not win $55million - but I did find some lovely new journals (and you can never have too many journals).

We then headed to the RSL club, where we gambled to our heart's content and suffered through a roast pork lunch with very dry pork and very chewy crackle, then gambled some more before heading home. We were home by 2.30pm.

On the drive home, I received a phone call from Adoring Husband to say that he was called to work because there was a snake and he had to organise the snake catcher to come remove it. It was only a green tree snake, but it was quite large and scared a few people, including AH!

I spent the afternoon planning and booking and organising a trip down to Canberra in February for a two day conference that I'm keen to attend. I spent forty minutes figuring out the least expensive way to get there and another forty minutes organising accommodation.

By the time I'd finished, it was almost 5.30pm, so I jumped up to prepare dinner. As I sat down to eat it, I looked at my watch and saw that it was 6.20pm and suddenly realised that it was Friday night and I should have been at the club!!

Adoring Husband had asked me much earlier in the afternoon if I was going to the club, but somewhere between his question and the time that I should have been getting ready, my brain pushed the information into a dark corner where I couldn't see it!

Looking on the bright side, I got to see this lovely sunset from my front door ...

Apologies to the girls who were expecting me at the club tonight, but I bet there were a billion tourists there taking all the chairs and being noisy! Haha.

Well it's after 10.30pm. I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Creating Recipes

I pedalled down to visit the boys at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, but they had all made a run for it due to the rain - not that I would call it rain - it was really just a very fine mist.

So with nobody to sit with, I decided to take a long ride. I rode to the beach, parked the trike, kicked off my thongs at the bottom of the stairs and headed out to the waterline.

The tide was quite low, but was on it's way in, so I didn't have far to walk. I splashed through the shallows in my bare feet and walked for about 20 minutes. I didn't want to go too far because the skies were looking very ominous!

This was taken with my phone camera. I walked back to my thongs and decided to trike around town until 9am when the Post Office was due to open.

I checked for mail, bought a couple of groceries and pedalled the long way home. My completed activities for today are 4,124 steps walking and 7kms riding, but my watch is not happy with that. It tells me I need to do more. If my watch doesn't stop harassing me, I'm going to turn that button off permanently!

I wasn't feeling very motivated for working on the website today, so instead, I decided to create a recipe which I will eventually post on my new recipe page when it's up and running.

I made smoked cod and sweet potato patties. The first batch were a bit bland because I forgot to season them, but I added the seasoning before cooking the second batch and they were delicious.

As you can see, I served them with rocket, pear and walnut salad topped with my special green dressing and some kimchi on the side. The mix made 24 patties and there are only six left, so I guess that's a good indication of their taste.

It took me quite a bit longer to make them, having to write down all the ingredients and measurements as I went and remembering to stop and write down each step of the method is tricky too! Oh and I had to stop and take a photo of each step as well!

After we ate lunch, I sat on the couch and watched the cricket in between writing some more notes and adding to the outline of the new book idea.

I added another ten recipes to the list for posting on the website over the coming months, and I browsed through my recipe books to find some that I'd converted or adapted over the years.

I scoured through Pinterest and found some stuff to add to my Romance Your Life Pinterest page ... one day I will be motivated to finish that too lol.

So even though I didn't work on my actual website, I did a lot of stuff to contribute to it later, and that's ok.

Anyway it's after 10pm so I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

 

Getting Trivial

Well, unfortunately, my art class did not happen.

The teacher runs the classes in a shed in her back yard and she says it's just too hot to run classes at this time of the year, so she has gone away for a month and the classes will commence near the end of February.

It kind of suited me. It gives me a chance to focus on the website (and hopefully finish it) before I have to focus on sculpting!

Since I'd psyched myself into a day of art, I wasn't sure what to do with my time, so I rode down to see the boys at the Seat of Knowledge, bought some tomatoes for our lamb shank dinner, then went for a 6km trike ride.

I had taken a book to read down by the river, but there were too many people around (bloody tourists), so I rode home feeling a bit discombobulated.

While I was gone, Adoring Husband had returned from The Bay and was busy in the shed, finishing his new work station.

I spent an hour at my desk attaching my logo to all of my social media sites and pages, which took me to lunchtime.

Sausages were on the menu for lunch and I made an avocado mixture with chopped onion and capsicum and the yummy dressing from last night's dinner. I piled that into a lettuce cup and served it with some kimchi alongside the sausages.

After lunch I prepared the lamb shanks for the slow cooker so that we would have an easy meal before going to trivia tonight.

The website wasn't calling to me today, so I wrote in my journal, added my three notes of gratitude to my Appreciation journal and then decided to scribble some notes about a book idea that I have. I tell you, I have so many ideas spinning around in my head! Is it any wonder that I can't get to full speed on the website!

Late this afternoon we got ready for trivia, picked up The Blonde Bombshell from her house and drove to the club to meet Tweedledee and her husband The Garden Guru.

I don't think I've ever seen so many people in the club! There was a long line of people, almost all tourists, queuing to order their meals and they had filled all the tables in the room.

One of the Burrum ladies from our luncheons was sitting at a table with her family and they were finishing off their meals, so they promised us their table. In the meantime we sat with other friends chatting until the table was free.

It was loud and crowded and busy. Almost all of the tourists stayed to play trivia. There are usually about 6 or 7 teams for trivia, but tonight, there were 16!! The couple who run it, Nobody's Fool and The Cheeky Goblin, did a fantastic job, really keeping their cool under difficult circumstances and keeping everybody entertained and happy.

It was a good night and we came 7th out of the 16 teams. None of us were really on the ball tonight, and it was difficult to hear each other over the noise. I didn't answer many questions at all and of the ones I did answer, I got quite a few wrong!! Ah well, February is another month. We'll smash it in February!

Here I am breaking my New Year's Resolution ... it's almost midnight! I should have been in bed at least an hour ago!

Nite all.

Too Many Tourists

Honestly! They're everywhere!

It's tourist season and there is no escaping them. As much as I want to rant ... and I have this big spiel in my head ... I will show restraint, but I just needed to put it out there!

It was a pleasant coffee with the girls this morning, although there were only four of us.

Adoring Husband and I drove into to town for a spot of grocery shopping, where we were greeted by another overwhelming wave of tourists. Ugh.

I restocked my coconut ice cream supply, went to a closing down sale and got some bargains, bought four tops for $43 - gotta love this time of year for sales! Checked my lotto tickets and it seems my dream of becoming a multimillionaire didn't come to fruition.

We were home before 3pm and the psychotic dogs were very excited to see us .. probably because the house was like a sauna and they just wanted to get outside!

I was excited to receive my finished logos for Romance Your Life.

There are different sizes and different configurations for all the social media sites and for the website itself. These are just a few. I'm very happy with the results, especially because I got input from a couple of friends and between the designer, my friends and myself, we came up with something that I love.

It's been described as a "lush, green, fertile planet full of life, passion and fun" and "like looking into the depths of a beautiful green ocean" Those descriptions bring a smile to my heart.

I hope to be attending my first art class tomorrow, although I haven't heard from my lift, and I don't have her phone number, so I hope she hasn't forgotten me!

Now I need to get to bed, so that I can be fresh and alert and creative and artistic tomorrow!

Nite all.

Surge to a Stop

Thank goodness for a solid night of sleep!

I visited the boys at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, which was fun. They were in fine form and we had some good giggles.

From there I shopped for some vegetables to have with dinner tonight and then returned home to get started on the website.

I had a fabulously productive morning, working solidly until noon, at which time I prepared our lunch and sat with Adoring Husband while we ate.

I returned to my desk and was feeling very pleased with myself until I had to update a plugin.

I clicked the update button and up popped a message.

Computer:  'Make sure to backup before upgrading. Files and settings may get lost or changed.'
My brain:  "What?"

So I google search "How do I backup my website before performing updates?"

Twenty minutes later I'm following the instructions and another question appears, which seems totally unrelated to my current workflow.

Computer:  'Would you like to point your Domain?'
My brain:  "What?"

So I google "What does 'point your domain' mean?"

After thirty minutes of reading, I decided that I did not need to point my domain - but I still don't understand what the heck it means!

I move on. But not for long. The next question appears.

Computer:  'Do you wish to configure the account to work with a mail client?'
My brain:  "What?"

I check on my host's site to figure out if I need to do this. Twenty minutes later, I decide that I don't need to configure my account and I'm not 100% sure what that means either!

Finally I backup my website and then go to update the plugin.

I click on the update button and it takes me to a sign in screen for the plugin. It asks me for a username and password.

I open my book of usernames and passwords and there is nothing there for this particular plugin.

My brain:  "What now?"

I look at the clock and it's 4.30pm. Nothing!  That's what!  I give up for the day!

I now have a 'to do' list for tomorrow that contains twelve items and not one of them is going to be easy. I certainly hope that my caffeine withdrawals don't peak tomorrow, or I'll be in big trouble.

There is one thing I can do tonight that I will appreciate tomorrow. Go to bed early.

It's almost 10pm, so this is where I will leave you.

Nite all.

First of the Year

"I plan on starting the new year on a high, with plenty of motivation to get things done."

That is what I declared on New Year's Eve. It's now New Year's Day. How motivated do you think I was?

For a start, I was in bed last night before 11.30pm and I lay in the dark, with my eyes closed, but feeling VERY awake, until 2.30am.

I tried all of my tricks for falling asleep and obviously, none of them were successful. I didn't even have any thoughts running through my head to keep me awake. I have no idea why sleep eluded me, but the longer it took, the more annoyed I became.

I knew that my New Year's Day motivation was draining away and my energy levels would be very low with so little sleep.

Some time after 2.30am, I finally fell asleep, but strangely, I was wide awake again at 7am!

Of course, it was not helpful that I made the decision yesterday to quit coffee again, so I didn't even have the support of a nice hit of caffeine.

So I climbed out of bed and decided that a refreshing shower might help. It did. Briefly.

Pacing myself over 90 minutes, I drank my warm lemon water, followed by my beetroot, radish, carrot, raw honey, black seed oil, powdered pawpaw seed, coconut water and ginger kombucha drink of which I'd made a big batch yesterday and still had a glass leftover for this morning, and finally a large glass of filtered water.

We had leftovers from last night for lunch.

When Adoring Husband drove off to get his afternoon coffee, I threw beetroot, radish, carrot, pawpaw, ground pawpaw seed, black seed oil, coconut water and kombucha in the blender and then  poured it into a tall glass with lots of ice.

Try as I might, there was nil motivation for website work today, so instead of feeling guilty and annoyed, I decided to just write the day off and pretend it was a recovery day.

I did liaise with my logo designer and tested the designs that she sent me for Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. I wrote in my journal. I filled out some of January and February on my wall planner. I answered some emails and deleted a lot. That's about all that I accomplished today, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

The other problem with today, was the oppressive heat. I'd just finished telling The Motivator yesterday morning, that the weather here had been bearable, and ever since I opened my mouth, the weather has been stifling!

I tried to nap on the couch this afternoon and I think I had about 30 minute dozing on and off, but it was hot and Adoring Husband had the TV on full volume. That half hour helped a little.

The good thing about today (and we can always find something good), is that I've had no coffee, and as of 8.30pm, there is no sign of a headache! I may be speaking too soon, but I've been keeping myself well hydrated and making sure to consume plenty of nutrients. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

In the meantime, I'd really like to fall asleep quickly tonight and catch up from last night.

So this is where I leave you.

Happy New Year!

Nite all.