A Brief Moment

It's 3.30am and we've had no phone coverage or internet for more than 30 hours (but who's counting?).

So in this brief moment when I'm able, I just wanted to quickly let you know that all is well here. Our little town is one of the lucky ones, but I don't know how long it will be until the cyber world is accessible again.

Watch this space.

Nite all

Margarita Success

My day began at 5am.

I don't know why, but for the second day in a row, I was wide awake at 5am!

So I got up, got dressed and got cracking in the kitchen.

I made a paleo chocolate birthday cake with a middle layer of strawberries and chocolate ganache and a top layer of chocolate ganache. Delicious!

I made apple and walnut muffins.

I made a big fruit platter.

I made two cheese platters.

I made guacamole dip.

I made a plate of veg sticks to dip.

I poured some plain chips into a bowl.

I made two jugs of Margarita mix.

I made a non alcoholic punch.

I made Midori Illusions.

I whipped cream.

I sliced limes.

I set up a tea/coffee station.

I set up a mini bar.

I printed out cocktail recipes.

I cleaned my bathroom.

I washed my hair.

It took me 6 hours to do all of that. I met a bunch of ladies at the pub for our monthly luncheon

I was home again by 1.15pm tidying up some loose ends in preparation for my guests.

Forgetful Steph arrived at 1.50pm to set up the Le Reve table, followed by my 7 guests who staggered their arrival.

It was great to have that many guests because 8 out of the 9 people who have standing first priority on my invitation list are currently out of town or committed elsewhere, so I was concerned that I would only have The Motivator and myself in attendance!

We drank Margaritas, Midori Illusions, Champagne and non alcoholic punch.

We sang happy birthday to Arty Cat and she blew out her candles.

It was a very successful party and I received more than $500 worth of products for $131.

I am having another party on 27th April. That will be my last. By then, I will have all the Le Reve products that I want.

It's 10.30pm and I am exhausted.

Nite all.

Just Not Right

There is something just not right.

I am still feeling lethargic and my joints not only ache, but also feel tender when I stand up or attempt to walk. They have felt like this since I returned from Melbourne.

I feel like a very old woman.

My sister has suggested Ross River Virus. She suffered with this last year apparently and her symptoms were the same as mine.

I will try being extra vigilant with my diet, follow the health advice that I received while in Canberra, do some juicing, and hopefully, weather permitting, get some sunshine and do some grounding.

Even though I had so much to do today, I spent a good portion of the day in bed, resting my joints and napping.

So I guess I should get an early night.  That way I can wake up early to do everything that I couldn't do today! If I can get my time management right, there should be no stress involved.

There seems to be some very heavy rain about tonight. I hope the dogs don't decide to suffer PTSD and keep us awake with their crazy stress levels.

Have a happy Wednesday!

Nite all.

Newsworthy

Cyclone Debbie.

Ugh!

This cyclone is a long way from us, but as a consequence, we will probably receive some heavy rainfalls later in the week.

My niece, her husband and their baby are in Mackay and have decided, much to the horror of my sister,  to remain at home and ride it out.

Even though Cyclone Debbie is going to touch land a couple of hundred kilometres north of Mackay, being on the southern end of the cyclone, is the worst place to be, and king tides will cause major flooding which has prompted the evacuation of more then 25000 people from that town.

Still, my niece, going against my sister's pleading, refuses to leave.

There have been many tears.

I also have a cousin on Magnetic Island, north of the cyclone. It seems that the predicted weather in that neck of the woods won't be as bad as originally expected, so I am less concerned about his safety  now.

Mother Nature is ugly sometimes. She is breathtakingly beautiful sometimes too.

This Wednesday, after our lady's luncheon, I am having another Le Reve party. It's going to be a cocktail and mocktail party with nibbles and a birthday. cake, because one of the ladies is celebrating her birthday on that day.

So Adoring Husband and I headed into town today for supplies of the alcoholic variety. The only alcohol I had available was a bottle of SB wine, a bottle of Vodka and half a bottle of Midori. That's not going to make any tasty drinks!

Now, I have Tequila, Bacardi, Cointreau, Blue Curacao, Kahlua, SSB wine, bubbly stuff to have with strawberries and lots of juices and soft drinks and fruits and parasols to make punches and cocktails and mocktails.

I also bought a punch bowl! I needed one of those ... and some cocktail glasses, and champagne flutes. Now I have a drinking vessel for all occasions!

Having done all of that shopping, I have since discovered that most of my friends are currently out of town, so  I'll be lucky to get 4 or 5 people here at the current rate of declines!

This bothered me until just now, when I saw the Higgins Storm Chasing video of how cyclone Debbie is going to travel and develop over the coming week.

It seems that we (as in the Hervey Bay Area) are going to get many inches of rain accompanied by winds gusting up to 100kph by Friday. This does not please me, but at least I will have a house full of alcohol to numb the pain!!

Ugh!

Bed time for me.

Nite all.

Sunday Setback

I woke up this morning feeling like utter crap.

My body ached all over and movement caused me great discomfort. Ankles, knees, hips, back, neck, every step and every twist and turn hurt. I felt like I'd been hit by a bus!

Not only that, but I felt sad and angry and unmotivated and lethargic and frustrated and miserable and completely out of sorts.

To a lesser extent, I have felt like this for three days, but today was much worse. I feel like my body has been building up to today's crescendo.

As tempting as it was to remain in bed and feel sorry for myself, I dragged myself to the bathroom, had a hot shower, got dressed and went for a ride on my trike.

I rode down to the river and followed the path. Because of the recent heavy rains, the river is not as clean and blue as it was when I left town a couple of weeks ago.

Against my better judgement, I decided to buy a coffee before visiting The Motivator. She and The Fisher King were sitting down to breakfast, so I joined them at the table and poured out my misery. I felt guilty for bringing my negativity to their Sunday, but I felt a little better for having done so.

After breakfast was finished, The Motivator and I caught up on our news and before I knew it, it was already after 12 noon!

I rode home and put a boneless leg of lamb in the oven with some vegetables and let them cook while I watched some more Grace and Frankie with Adoring Husband.

I was in no fit state to do any of things I planned for my day, so before, during and after lunch, I remained firmly parked on the couch.

We were invited to a neighbour's house for a barbecue dinner, so at 6pm, we hiked two doors up with our esky full of alcohol and enjoyed a very pleasant evening catching up with these neighbours, who I haven't spoken to for so long, I can't even remember.

I think that my body is struggling right now because of poor eating habits for the last 2 weeks, 6 weeks of travelling and being out of my regular routine, the knowledge that my week is so full that I'm not going to get anything done with my website and having an intimidating 'to do' list that is getting longer by the day.

Anyway, there were some interesting cloud formations this evening as we left for our dinner date ...

They were both taken at the same time. The top one looking East and the bottom one looking West.

... and I really love this quote ...

It's 11pm and I'm off to bed.

Nite all.  

 

Behind the 8 Ball

Sadly, I've missed the last two art classes, so I am way behind everybody else and have a lot of catching up to do.

The other beautiful sculptures have evolved into amazing characters and I am envious that I don't have the time to develop my own bust's character in the same way.

Today, I had to split my head in half, scrape the clay from inside the skull, punch holes into it, rejoin the head, create ears and then begin adding the hair. I decided on dreadlocks, which are tricky because they can easily snap off in the firing process. I had to punch little holes into each dreadlock and then partially refill them. This could be my downfall.

I hope that by next week, this will begin to look more impressive and have more character. The others have Peter Pan, an African Woman and an amazing Witch. They are all fabulous!

We were working/playing for more than three hours and not one of us looked at our watch. We could easily have stayed there all day. Eight hours of clay work would have suited all of us very well. It's very therapeutic.

I love it.

The remainder of my day was spent watching the first two series of Grace and Frankie (third time for me) with Adoring Husband, who had not watched any of it prior to today. I guess series 3 will be tomorrow!

It's been a good day.

It's midnight.

Bed time for me.

Nite all.

PS Have a happy Sunday!