Day of Surprises

It was a cold night, so cold that I closed my bedroom window and it was difficult for me to climb out of bed this morning. I was so snug and warm under the blankets, I just wanted to stay there. 

Eventually, Harley’s whining forced me to get up and face the day.

I rugged up in my fluffy slippers and matching coat.

I cooked breakfast and took Harley for a 35 minute play around and in the pool.

When we finished, I gave Harley a treat and I climbed back into bed.

After about 20 minutes, I received a text from BGWLBH asking me to accompany her into the Bay to consider some display options for our stall next week at the art and craft expo.

So I jumped out of bed and made myself presentable and off we drove.

In the end, the trip was wasted because we don’t even know the location of our stall in relation to the hall. Do we have a full wall behind us? Do we have a window? Are we in the middle of the hall? Are we in front of the kitchen counter?

All of this matters to determine exactly how much we can spread out or how compact we need to make it.

We did some grocery shopping and came home.

On the way home, I received a text confirming that The Gypsy was arriving at 4pm so I had just over an hour to make lasagne and a salad for the home crowd and then pack up the vegetable casserole and zucchini tartlets to take to Heart of Gold’s house.

It was tight but BGWLBH dropped me off just about on time.

We enjoyed 3.5 hours of girlie time and between the three of us we put together a delicious 3 course meal, all prepared earlier so there was nothing to do but heat it up.

It was a lovely afternoon/evening and I was home just after 8pm.

I watched a disappointing game of football before coming to bed.

Now I am exhausted!

Nite all.

Even Less

Absolutely nothing happened today - except in the kitchen.

I prepared a vegetable, eggplant and chickpea casserole for The Gypsy who is staying at Heart of Gold’s house for the weekend. I also made some mini zucchini tarts.

For us, I made a small zucchini tart.

That was the long and the short of my day.

I watched mindless drivel on TV - so mindless, I can’t even remember any of it,

I napped this afternoon.

The reason my day was so drab is because I was chatting online with my brother who lives in a cold broken down old bus until 2.30am.

He has no blankets or doonas to keep warm and goes to bed fully clothed wrapped in a summer sleeping bag.

He is looking gaunt and thin and decidedly unwell and I know he is currently on anti depressants and anti anxiety medication. Who knows what else.

The idea of him expiring from hypothermia in that bus bothered the hell out of me, so I searched online and found a sleeping bag that keeps you warm at -7.9°C. I ordered and paid for it as a click and collect from BCF and he walked there this afternoon to pick it up. 

He should be toasty warm tonight and I will be sleeping better knowing that.

Needless to say, after only 3.5 hours sleep last night, I couldn’t keep my eyes open at 2.30pm this afternoon.

Harley jumping on me certainly didn’t allow any sound sleep but I dozed on and off over a 90 minute period.

Now it’s time to sleep in my warm and snug bed.

Nite all.

Not Too Much

Nothing much to report here.

Spent the day in The Bay.

Had breakfast at Bean Beats.

Lotto shopped.

Nail salon appointment.

Grocery shopped.

Art shopped.

Harley shopped.

Juiced at Su Jus.

Checked the mail.

Cooked Orange Chicken with fried rice for dinner.

Watched the One Direction movie - what a nice bunch of boys. I really enjoyed it and I smiled all the way through it.

Feeling pretty weary about now.

Nite all.

Still At It

Still in training.

Harley was a bit smelly so we went jumping in the pool early this morning. It’s a very expensive bath tub right? We humans wont be using it again until October so Harley may as well make the most of it.

Once he was fresh and clean and I had changed into walking clothes, we headed out for a big walk.

He decided today that trucks and utes need to be chased. Cars and motorbikes are safe.

We walked for over an hour, including 15 minutes on the beach. Harley would love to be set free to chase seagulls and he almost took me for a drag along the sand when he suddenly and unexpectedly decided to chase some birds.

Other than that, I extended the leash to full length, but Harley still stayed close and kept looking back to make sure I was still there.

When we returned home, he still wanted to play so I took him back to the pool area for another 20 minutes to chase the ball around.

That was it for my day.

I parked my butt on the lounge and watched ‘Stranger Things’ all day. I’m up to Season 3 now!

Dinner was chicken breast in a chilli orange sauce served with stir fried vegetables and sweet potato, potato mash.

It’s 11.15pm and I’m feeling a touch weary now.

Nite all.

Not Much

Harley woke me an hour earlier than usual this morning so I took him outside to pee and then lured him back to bed with a toy. I was lucky enough to grab another 45 minutes of sleep. It was quite cool so it was easy to snuggle back under the covers for instant sleep.

Today was less productive.

I cooked breakfast, played with Harley, made some bad art, made an online purchase, folded a basket of washing, watched part of a cooking series, played with Harley again, cooked a chicken curry for dinner, showered and washed my hair.

That’s the long and the short of it.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Winning Again

I am so happy to have stayed awake to watch Djokovic win the French Open last night.

He’s a true sporting champion and has broken so many records in the tennis world. He’d have broken some much sooner without the Covid BS that took over the world and blocked his opportunities for 3 years.

He has worked hard and with so much conviction that he has now, at the ripe old age of 36, returned to his Number One position. He has broken Roger Federer’s records who retired at age 41 so he still has 5 years to create new records that will probably never be broken.

He donates half of his tennis earnings to various charities all over the world and he’s a true gentleman.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for this man who, like me, took a stand regarding vaccines and did not back down - he had a LOT more to lose than me.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Today was another productive one.

I cooked breakfast for everyone and made up Harley food for the freezer.

Harley and I then walked for 90 minutes and played around the pool for 20 minutes.

I followed that up with baking apple and cinnamon muffins.

I cleaned a couple of paintings ready to be varnished.

I did two loads of washing.

I got to watch my quiz shows and spent another 20 minutes with Harley around the pool before the footy started. 

I cooked crispy skinned chicken and served it with sweet potato chips and a chilli salsa made up of tomato, cucumber, celery, red onion and pineapple served in a lettuce cup.

Delicious.

It’s now 10pm and I’m pretty tired. It was about 2.30am when I fell asleep this morning.

So …

Nite all.

New Telly

Over the last year or so, the TV in my bedroom has dropped 4 or 5 channels. A few of the 7 channels and a couple of the 9 channels.

It’s 12 years old.

It never bothered me until this last fortnight when I was unable to watch the French Open tennis because 9 Gem was the last channel to disappear. I had to stay in the lounge room or log in to the 9 NOW app on my iPad.

Adoring Husband drove into The Bay today and purchased a new smart TV that was on sale at Harvey Normans.

Together, and surprisingly without any arguing, we removed the old telly, installed the new one on the wall mount and signed into the wifi, setting up the channels and logging into all the important stuff like Netflix, Foxtel, YouTube etc.

After the old telly was removed, I washed the walls, dusted the skirting boards and vacuumed the carpet before the new one came in.

We disassembled the pedestal fan that stands underneath the TV and I cleaned the blades and the cage before putting it all back together.

I cleared some books, sorted through 2 bags of paperwork, dusted my Goddess Fortuna, wrestled with Harley each time he jumped on my bed to mess up my neat piles, found a home for some clothes that were in the corner and returned some shoes to the drawers under my bed.

Harley thought it was great fun jumping on and off the bed. Until yesterday, he had never been on my bed so it’s all new to him.

When I got bored with cleaning my room (my dressing table is still a disaster area), I moved into the art space and varnished four more of my paintings.

The footy came on at 4pm so I lay on my bed watching my new TV until it was time to start dinner.

I’d taken some salmon steaks out of the freezer early in the morning, but did not unwrap them from the paper and plastic, so 7 hours later, they were still frozen!

Very annoying.

I had to formulate a Plan B and decided to make up a creamy lemon and honey sauce to pour over the frozen steaks and cook them in a very hot oven for 30 minutes. It worked a treat and the sauce reduced to a nice thick sticky consistency which was so full of flavour. I served them with potato and sweet potato mash and a broccoli, zucchini, bok choy and tomato mix sautéed in butter.

I enjoyed it very much.

So my day has been quite productive and I’m feeling good for it. I also cooked breakfast and played with Harley for an hour.

Tomorrow will be washing day!

Nite all.