The Price We Pay

I accompanied Adoring Husband to Howard this morning.

He was going to the butcher for Harley food and I wanted to price their lamb mince and chicken sausages, as well as visit the Howard and Torbanlea op shops.

After spending $93 at the butcher, the next stop was Howard op shop.

I was in search of 3 things:

1. A large glass jar with a glass lid.
2. Single serve casserole dishes.
3. Jewellery with real turquoise.

At Torbanlea, I found a tall glass jar with a glass lid. I want this for my “abundance” corner. It will be decorated and filled with different objects, then placed in a specific corner of the living room.

I bought the jar at half price, for $5, then inadvertently left it on the counter of the next shop that I entered and we drove off without it! I realised what I’d done when we were half way home, so AH turned around and we returned to the shop where they were holding it for me. So if you count the extra diesel fuel that we used to go back, the jar probably cost about $15!

I was unsuccessful in my search for casserole dishes. I already have two, which I picked up at an op shop, but there are three of us living here! I will continue searching.

Real turquoise is impossible to find in any shop - even Tinkerbells - because it is rare and very expensive. My only hope is stumbling across something in an op shop. I have joined some online groups and forums that deal with genuine turquoise so I have an idea of what to look for and how to tell if it’s genuine. 

I came across a small, single strand necklace of tiny turquoise pin beads at the Gem Fest this year, but it was $499. Instead I opted for a silver feather with a single turquoise pin bead for $50. I love it, but I’ve seen some stunning pieces online and they are priced at $3,000-$10,000USD. I’ve also seen some stunning pieces online that were picked up in op shops for $15 and later verified to be genuine.

I hope to be that lucky.

Today, I can verify that the op shops in Howard, Torbanlea and Burrum Heads do not have any turquoise jewellery for sale.

When we arrived home, I rode my trike to the local op shop and was surprised at how busy it was! There was barely room to move! Then I rode to the supermarket and JUST beat the rain, so I parked my trike under cover to wait it out.

There I met a lovely 92 year old lady who lives with, and is carer for her 80yr old brother, who was given an overdose of radiation during treatment for prostate cancer, which caused some pretty horrendous injuries and he is in constant pain, can only eat clear broth and has serious toileting issues.

She was lovely and felt like a kindred spirit because she too doesn’t trust doctors. I hope I run into her again. I’ll watch out for her.

I started to ride home, but stopped in the park to take in the view of the river. Because of the rain, there was nobody about and the car park was almost empty so there weren’t many out fishing. It was very quiet and peaceful.

At home, I spent a couple of hours watching YouTube videos, then had a nap until Harley jumped on me.

I rarely shower in the afternoon, but today I felt the desire, so at 4pm I had a shower before playing briefly with Harley and then, for my dinner, cooking the chicken and spinach sausages that we bought this morning. They were very tender, juicy and tasty.

AH and I watched some of the DP World India Championship golf before retreating to our rooms at 7pm.

It’s now 10pm and I’m a little weary.

Nite all.

Footy’s Back!

Chase Hughes - how he controlled his brain disease.

Amazing.

Spent the day in the Bay.

Apart from the usual gadding about, I let Adoring Husband shout me a leg and foot massage (he doesn’t know til he reads this haha), I got an extra ticket in the $100million Powerball which was wasted money because I won nothing.

BGWLBH worked this afternoon so for the last hour, I popped into the RSL, checked and replayed my old keno tickets and sat in their very comfy lounge chairs watching the keno draws. I could easily have fallen asleep if it wasn’t for some old bloke sitting in the bistro area telling caravan stories very loudly and with very colourful language.

Tonight’s dinner was leftover roast chicken, leftover egg and bacon pie and a bunch of salads.

AH and I watched the first rugby league World Cup game between Australia and NZ. What a great game with the Aussies winning by two points. The lead seesawed throughout.

I can’t believe it’s almost 11pm already. AH and I are heading out to Howard butcher tomorrow morning so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Fairly Productive and Informative

Behavioural Expert Chase Hughes 

I am fully intrigued by this man and find him so easy to listen to. I am going to find him online and learn more about him. His expertise and his experiences with the human mind, and in particular, his OWN mind has me fascinated.

Today was a pleasant day.

I was out of bed by 9am and playing with Harley outside while Adoring Husband was out buying our coffee.

Because of overnight rain, the midgies were out in force and I was bitten a number of times causing horrible itching and driving me to distraction!

I still remained outside for 30 minutes.

I decided to go for a trike ride because I needed to buy some eggs. My new recipe of choice was a bacon and egg pie for dinner, which I served with garden salad, pickled tomato and cucumber, wombok salad and last nights leftover baked vegetables.

With the leftover puff pastry, I made a berry tart. I lined a mini tart tray with the pastry and added sliced strawberries and blueberries. I had egg wash left over from glazing the egg and bacon pie so I mixed that with a little cream, some castor sugar and some vanilla extract, then poured it over the berries. That went into the oven for 25 minutes.

It was delicious! I could only eat half of it so I gave the other half to AH.

The tide was up this morning so the river was looking beautiful …

It was pretty quiet around town.

I watched Mayim Bialik videos and the Diary of a CEO video that I linked at the beginning of this post, did some journaling and added to my art …

I also communicated with an old friend who now lives in Mackay.

We experienced some small storms with some nice rain this afternoon, which meant my exercise program with The Motivator had to be canned til next week. It’s an outdoor program so it’s dependent on good weather.

Now it’s already 10.30pm and I need to be up reasonably early for a day in the Bay.

Nite all.

Spiritual Phillosophy

Fancy that!

Five minutes early for meditation AGAIN!

Unheard of.

Adoring Husband dropped me at the hall because The Gypsy is house/dog sitting on the other side of town and we planned for her to take me there so that AH could pick me up at noon.

As it was, we were so intensely discussing spiritual philosophy, that I texted him to push it for another hour.

So we chatted maniacally for 3.5hours knowing our time was limited. We had so much to say and the time just flies by so freaking fast!

We could so easily have carried on for another 2 hours at least.

At 1pm, AH appeared outside and we drove to the local shops to get some meat for dinner. We decided on a baked dinner.

A whole chook with baked potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, onion, capsicum and steamed snow peas and beans with home made gravy.

It was delicious!

Harley got his afternoon play and I got the last of my clothes off the line.

After dinner, I came straight to my room to watch Monday nights MKR - because BGWLBH told me that HAD to watch it. It was worth it.

Tomorrow afternoon, I am meeting at The Motivator’s house to do a short, pre-determined exercise circuit  with our limited resources. We have a rebounder, hand weights, hula hoops, yoga arm stretchers and a rowing machine.

For the first couple of weeks, we’ll only do five minutes on each activity because we don’t want too much next day afterpain and possibly put ourselves off in the future.

I’m looking forward to it. I’ve invited BGWLBH, but she doesn’t seem too keen.

The weather forecast is sounding a bit ominous, so fingers crossed it’s ok for our plans.

Now it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Nothing Much

What are Mondays for?

I mean … when you’re retired, you can do anything you want, anytime you want.

My only real commitment is meditation on Tuesday morning. Without meditation, I probably would never be able to identify any given day!

I took Harley out to play at 8.30am, sent Adoring Husband off to buy coffee, brought some washing in and hung some more out, watched 2 movies - “Doing Life” and “Chaos Theory” - watched my quiz shows, took Harley out to play, made curry pastries for dinner and was in bed at 6pm.

Meditation tomorrow.

Nite all.

It’s Sunday

For some strange reason, I was awake at 5am … on a Sunday!

I stayed in bed until 9am.

I took Harley out to play and discovered that Adoring Husband had already brought coffee home, but only for himself and BGWLBH!

Spewin’!

So I had a shower, got dressed, jumped on my trike and rode to the shops to get my own coffee.

I sat briefly to enjoy the view …

AH was planted in front of the TV watching Bathurst, so when I returned, I took myself back to my bedroom and watched some golf and some YouTube. I did some washing and kept myself occupied until it was time to leave for my visit with The Motivator.

We chatted for 3 hours!

We sat outside in the shade looking into the mini rainforest that she has at the side of her house. It was very pleasant and we obviously had plenty to talk about, until I realised how late it was.

I rushed home because we usually eat at 5pm and it was already after that! Luckily it was spaghetti Sunday so it only took 20 minutes to cook the spaghetti and heat up the sauce.

Now, it’s already 10pm and I’m truly tired!

Nite all.

Weekend Coffee-date Warrior

I decided that I would ‘come bearing gifts’ to my coffee date.

The gifts being takeaway coffees and GF profiteroles from the local bakery.

It was incredibly windy along the river path. It was blowing the spray from the white caps onto the riverbank, so I could actually feel the cold droplets as I rode along! That’s never happened before.

I was going to phone my coffee date to ask if she wanted coffee but I accidentally left my phone at home, so I bought the coffee anyway, only to discover that she had just finished a coffee before I got there … which was strange in itself because she had invited me around for a coffee date!

Anyway, she did enjoy the profiteroles.

We spent two hours together, interrupted by a visit from a builder who she gave instructions for some basic work to be done tomorrow (Sunday), but she was concerned his unreliability meant that he might not turn up.

It was a great visit and one that we had put off too many times. I hope that we can catch up more often.

Tomorrow afternoon, I have another catch up with The Motivator. She has a very busy October, so we are squeezing this quickie in between her diary blocks.

I was home by12.30pm and made myself an avocado/tuna dip to eat my crackers for lunch.

Adoring Husband was planted in front of the TV watching the Bathurst car racing, so I moved to my bedroom to eat my food, watch the live golf from Japan, do some journaling, catch up on my “Traitors” TV and do my daily Facebook browse.

Harley took turns spending time between AH and me.

I took him out to play and then made myself a chicken and prawn miso soup for ‘fend for yourself’ dinner.

There was a frozen mango smoothie in the freezer from last week, so I snavelled that and enjoyed the icy yumminess from my bed.

It’s now 11pm and I’m ready to sleep.

Nite all.

A Long One

It was a long day in The Bay today, but we almost didn’t make it there!

BGWLBH is having trouble with her keyless key and the car just didn’t want to start this morning. It was making lots of bells and whistles noises, but completely silent in the engine.

Eventually, just as BGWLBH had dialled ‘roadside assist’, Adoring Husband performed his magic and the car revved into action.

Whew!

We drove into town and directly to Nissan, where BGWLBH stood in line listening to long winded and pointless stories by the customers in front of her, until she finally got to the counter to make an appointment. The next available appointment was a whole month away!

Thankfully, the car started every single time while we were in town, and with any luck, it will remain that way and she can cancel the appointment in a month.

While I was in town, I investigated some food places for take away possibilities.

The Jam Jar cafe has a crispy chicken and chips meal, but unfortunately, their kitchen closes at 2pm.

There is a new Mexican joint at Pialba that opened last week, but their gluten free options are very limited and the quality would be reduced considerably on the 30 minute trip home. Even their ribs and chicken wings are not gluten free. Bummer.

The Sushi Train in Pialba has an amazing menu, but their gluten free options are even more limited. Cucumber sushi and avocado sushi and salmon sushi are pretty boring options, so I doubt we’ll be trying that one.

The only other place that does have good gluten free options is Mum’s Charcoal and Grill, but their chicken is dry and a bit tough, their roast pork has a nasty aftertaste, the potato bake doesn’t have a nice flavour, their sauces and dressings are a bit yuk and the salads LOOK great but are not fresh and crisp. We were disappointed the last three times.

Three strikes and you’re out.

There are not a lot of gluten free takeaway options available.

At least our juices were tasty and we enjoyed them on the drive home.

It was a long day and after I gave AH some prawns to add to his hot and spicy noodles soup, I got changed and climbed onto my bed.

I have a coffee date in the morning and another on Sunday afternoon, so my social calendar is filling up. 

Right now, I’m going to fall asleep listening to golf commentary.

Nite all.

Looking Grim

Morning tea with some of the art girls this morning - only three of us - because unforeseen circumstances prevented some attendances.

It was a venting morning with all sorts of nasty happenings around town causing problems for my friends.

Our quiet little fishing village is not so quiet anymore and all the originals are angry and feeling unsafe.

We hope it’s just a passing phase but we fear it’s the beginning of much worse to come.

Anyway, after two hours of venting, I said my goodbyes, hopped on my trike and rode to the shops for some junk food - GF cookies and Reece’s Pieces - and headed home to enjoy some solitude. 

BGWLBH was in the Bay and Adoring Husband was at golf.

Unfortunately I only had 40 minutes of solitude.

I watched Jet Lag the game and spent a couple of hours dozing on my bed.

Dinner was oven baked barramundi, chips and salad.

I got a call from Number One son, which I missed (third call in a row that I’ve missed!) so I was able to call back straight away and we chatted for about 45 minutes. He’s doing well. This is a photo of his and his friend’s puppies …

Cutie pitooties!

I’m off to the Bay again tomorrow, so it’s time to sleep for me.

Nite all.

A Bit Hippy

Today, I purchased a hippy-ish kind of denim vest for myself.

I think it’s an acquired taste.

I love it.

BGWLBH had an appointment to do her taxes this morning, so I accompanied her into the Bay.

We landed at the Jam Jar Cafe for morning coffee before the appointment.

I was doing a favour for Old Speckled Hen, by seeking out 3kgs chicken necks for her dog Rusty. The Hen has an infection in her knee, so she’s not allowed to do anything while she finishes her high dose antibiotics, so I offered to help.

The first butcher I asked had none. Coles only had 1kg. The second butcher had none. The third butcher, in Woollies, had none. Much later, Coles suddenly had a whole shelf loaded with chicken necks, so I was able to complete my mission.

I took a long walk to put lotto on.

I browsed the lady’s boutique and found my vest.

I did a decent grocery shop at Coles, grabbed a couple of things from my regular butcher, bought some juice, did fruit and veg at Farm Gate and finally fish and prawns from the seafood place.

We arrived home a bit after 2pm. I jumped on my trike to deliver the chicken necks and rushed home before the storms hit.

We’ve had a bit of rain this afternoon and evening - perhaps 5 or 6 mm. Enough to wet the ground nicely.

Dinner was GF pies with mash, snow peas, green beans and carrot. I crumbed myself some whiting fillets, fried them up and then drenched them in fresh lemon juice. Very nice. Afterwards I made myself a chocolate thick shake with coconut ice cream and lactose free milk. Also very nice.

I have morning tea with the art girls tomorrow morning, so it’s time to sleep now.

Nite all.