I'm Doing It!!

Ok I've made the decision to participate in the 10 week Paleo Way Program.

Ten weeks is a short amount of time to commit to a program that I figure will only do good things for my fitness and health.

The program provides daily menus, recipes that you can switch up and shopping lists for the week after you've selected your preferred meals.

There is a section on fitness that you can manage at your own pace that includes circuits, tabata, incidental cardio and strength and spinning. The mentor for this part of the program is Luke Hines. He was a finalist on MKR and is a Fitness and Personal Trainer in Bondi, is author of the book 'Clean Living' and is a presenter on Weekend Sunrise. He has a number of qualifications including Master Trainer (AIF), FISAF International Trainer and Les Mills Body Combat Instructor.

The exercises for the first week look pretty manageable (even for me). He provides short videos to show how to do each exercise. It's a 30 minute workout that includes stretching, warm ups and things like squats, thrusts and jogging on the spot.

Another section of the program is Life Coaching with Trevor Hendy. In his past life, he has won several World and Australian Ironman Championships and is now a Wholistic Personal Trainer and Life Coach as well as running Corporate Team Building sessions and seminars. He focuses on positive reinforcement and helping people create positive change in their lives.

There is a Naturopath and Nutritionist, Helen Padarin, who can help monitor people with chronic health conditions and is available in her office or for phone or skype interviews. She has six qualifications including Bachelor of Science (Naturopathy) and Diploma of Nutrition.

Then, and this one is my favourite, we have Nora Gedgaudus, who wrote (among others) 'Primal Body, Primal Mind'. She is a Board-Certified Nutritional Consultant and a Board-Certified Clinical Neurofeedback Specialist (neurofeedback is about improving brain function and deals with conditions such as anxiety, depression, behaviour disorders, sleep disorders, seizures, autism and cerebral palsy).

Nora has all the information about the food we eat, how it has changed over the generations, why it is affecting our health now, what our bodies need to thrive and why chronic disease is so prevalent now, including autoimmune diseases, heart disease and cancer.

This program is not just about changing the way we eat and getting active. It is an ongoing education about how our bodies work, how we can use food more efficiently to improve our health, working on our minds, relaxation techniques, what to expect from our body during such a massive (for some) change and monitoring all the participants to see how the changes improve their health and well being.

I'm both excited and hesitant about doing this because it means giving up my morning coffee (for at least the next 10 weeks anyway) and no alcohol for the same period, but the exercise part will be the most interesting! Riding my trike and walking along the beach are my forte and even though the exercise program looks pretty manageable, it's still out of my comfort zone .. but I guess when you compare my situation to most of the other people participating, the changes I have to make, are pretty minimal in comparison.

My pantry and fridge are already full of the ingredients that I need, so the initial expense for me is much lower than for most others. The only things I have to give up are coffee, alcohol, potatoes and rice, where most others will be removing gluten, sugar, coffee, alcohol, carbs and processed foods .. so the road ahead for them will be much tougher, but no doubt they will notice much bigger changes in their body and their health than I will.

There are few things that I want out of this program. One, is a reasonable level of fitness. I haven't worked on my fitness for a few years, and I was once VERY fit and strong. I know, at my age, that I won't ever be at that level again, but I would like to improve that aspect of my life.

The second is that I'm having annoying issues with my hormones and I'm certainly hoping that the changes that I make will improve my health in that area. I've read a lot of stories from women who have seen huge improvements in their hormonal health from making these changes.

Thirdly, I'd like to lose about 5 kgs and then maintain that loss. I feel that the hormone imbalance is making me retain fluid, so once I get that sorted, the weight will change. A 5 kg loss will put me at my comfortable weight.

Lastly, I hope to gain knowledge that will help me with my studies. With so much information about health and nutrition, it should go a long way towards some of the required knowledge in the course. In fact, today is the first day of the program and I've already learnt something that will contribute to my essay assignment.

So, that's the deal.

Now that I've put it out into the universe, I've officially committed myself to the program and now you will hold me accountable and I will keep you up to date with my progress.

It's only 10 weeks. How hard can it be?

May the Force Be With Me!

Nite all.

PS We had a bit of a storm tonight ...

Foodgasmic

Well after approximately 125mm (5 inches in the old scale) of rain in two days, the sun is now shining and not a cloud can be seen in any direction. All weather warnings have been cancelled and now we enjoy the biting heat of the sun and the oppressive humidity as all that dampness evaporates into the atmosphere.

I spent the morning making up the dog's food and had to take the pedestal fan into the kitchen because I was dripping with perspiration!

Today's doggy concoction was made up of 2kgs beef mince, 2kgs chicken mince, 1 ox heart, 4 leaves of kale, 4 leaves of silverbeet, half a large pumpkin (cooked), 2 carrots, a big bunch of celery leaves, half a cup of plain greek yoghurt, 3 eggs (shells and all), 1/4 cup coconut oil, 4 T cod liver oil, 2 T turmeric and 1 heaped teaspoon of spirulina.

Everything in this mix is raw except for the pumpkin and all the veggies are blended because it's easier for the dogs to digest and get all the nutrients that way.

So I mixed up the minces together in a giant baking dish and then blended everything else in the blender, which took about four loads. I poured everything over the mince and then mixed it all together by hand. I got 13 containers each with 500g in them, so the dogs get approx 170g each per meal.

I haven't actually calculated the costs, but I do know that it's cheaper than feeding just plain mince or meat and also cheaper than the (supposedly) good quality dog biscuits that we were buying. It takes about an hour to make up, put into the containers and then clean up. I have to do that once per fortnight, but I think it's worth the effort.

Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon, Adoring Husband had to travel out of town for a SES meeting with some people of importance, so we decided to have our main meal for lunch. We had lamb rack with roasted veggies.

The lamb was seared in a hot pan and then placed on a bed of onion slices and popped in 200C oven for thirty minutes.

I sprinkled the vegetables (fresh beetroot, zucchini, carrot and sweet potato) with Himalayan salt and cracked pepper, placed some garlic cloves between them and tossed some fresh sprigs of thyme over the top. They roasted for 40 minutes in the same oven. I took the meat out to rest for the last ten minutes that the veg cooked.

I always bake on baking paper and I brushed it with coconut oil for the veg.

It looked so good on the plate, that I forgot to take a photo because I just wanted to eat it! I drizzled balsamic vinegar over the vegetables and crumbled a little feta cheese on top. Delicious!

I currently have a big batch of chicken stock brewing in the slow cooker and it smells great!

Tonight we will be enjoying dinner at a friend's house. There will be twelve of us and I'm really looking forward to a nice friendly and relaxed social atmosphere with some of my favourite people.

Right now, I think I need a nana nap.

Nite all.

Old Fartism

At the risk of being labelled an 'old fart', I would just like to question the content of some of the most popular TV series' over the past few years.

I must admit that of all of the shows that I am about to list, I only watched one episode of 'The Good Wife' and absolutely NONE of the others.

I have heard a LOT about these shows from the people who I know that watch them. I have read a 'little' about each of them and I did some research on them tonight, checking out IMDB and looking at each of their websites (if they had one) and looked at some reviews.

• Penny Dreadful
• American Horror Story
• Sons of Anarchy
• The Leftovers
• The Affair
• Boardwalk Empire
• Scandal
• Revenge
• How to Get Away With Murder
• Hannibal
• House of Cards
• Mad Men
• The Good Wife
• Orange is the New Black
• The Walking Dead
• Game of Thrones
• Dexter
• Breaking Bad

These shows regularly show graphic physical violence, sexual assault and rape, domestic violence, murders, revenge killings, kidnappings, carjackings, fraud, corruption, theft, break and enters, drive-by shootings, drug use, extra-marital affairs, serial killers, cannibalism, poisonings, high speed car chases usually ending in exploding vehicles and death, and then there are the zombies, vampires, demons, ghosts, wolves and other supernatural beings, all of whom have their very own brand of everything that I've already mentioned.

People of all ages are thoroughly enjoying these shows and discussing them with enthusiasm on social media and looking forward to the next episode or the new series with impatience.

Has everybody become numb to the moral issues involved here? They see it every day on TV and then when it happens in real life, they brush it aside and rate it of little importance. Or they make the obligatory "Oh how horrible" comment and then it immediately disappears into the dark recesses of the mind, to be stored with all the other "horrible" memories that no longer pack a punch.

I don't understand how people can 'enjoy' these shows. How they can warm to the evil characters and root for them .. even have crushes on them. It seems that everyone is getting sucked into the mindless vortex of twisted violence on their screens.

Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest. It's been bothering me for some time.

Meanwhile I've had a busy day cooking. Firstly, Zucchini Noodles with Avocado Cream Sauce and you can find the recipe here.

I added 2 Tablespoons of Greek Yoghurt and 1 Tablespoon of raw honey to the sauce. I added 2 chopped bacon rashers and half a sliced onion to the zucchini (I fried it off in duck fat first). It was delicious!

Then I cleaned out my fridge in preparation for our first FROG box of the year which was full of Paleo fruit and vegetables, all of it absolutely beautiful.

It's been raining all day, quite heavily for most of it, so I have a couple of loads of washing hanging all over the house and I also got some more of my essay done and I'm feeling good about my progress with that.

More cooking at dinner time. I invented a Chicken Coconut & Lime dish with Cashews and then cleaned up afterwards as Adoring Husband headed off for his first night back for regular SES training nights.

I'm sad to say that I just watched Lleyton Hewitt lose his second round tennis match, in five sets to the German player, Benjamin Becker. He won the first two sets so easily and then all of a sudden Becker found form and Lleyton had no answers. It's Hewitt's 19th consecutive year playing in the Aussie Open and hopefully he'll be back again next year for his 20th.

Now I'm excited to watch another Aussie, Samantha Stosur, play in her second round match. Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Nite all.

A Gutsy Person of Interest

There are so many stories of health improvements and healing through the Paleo Way lifestyle and I never tire of reading the success stories of hundreds, if not thousands, of happier healthier people.

Whenever I read about someone suffering from a particular disease, I do a google search to see how many stories I can find of people who have either improved or cured the same disease through diet. It's almost always Paleo, but sometimes it's just removing gluten, or just dairy or just discovering an allergy to nightshades or some other food/chemical/additive etc.

Today, I read a story about a young person suffering from Crohn's Disease, which is a debilitating illness.  Some of the symptoms I have embarrassingly dealt with myself, through my gluten intolerance, but Crohn's is a very nasty disease with all of it's symptoms together in full force and I am grateful that I don't suffer from this terrible condition.

After I read about this young person, I did my usual google search and found a blog called Gutsy by Nature written by a young woman in northern Virginia in USA who suffers from Crohn's Disease and how she is healing herself using the Paleo Way lifestyle. Through her blog she is diarising and monitoring her progress and hoping to eventually help others suffering from this condition.

She does state that changing to the Paleo Way has not 'cured' her, but her symptoms have been overwhelmingly alleviated and even the readings in her Crohn's medical tests have improved so dramatically, they are most often showing in the 'normal' range.

I have read most of it and it's an interesting read.

There are a lot of interesting reads out there about people who, in desperation, because they cannot get relief or answers from their doctor, have reversed or cured their medical conditions just by changing their diets. Conditions from eczema to migraines to psoriasis to diabetes to heart disease to Crohn's Disease and even cancer.

Perhaps once each week, I can share a story in here, or provide a link so that you can choose to read it if you like. I find anecdotal evidence so much more interesting than any other types of evidence. Real people sharing their stories, their hardships, their break throughs .. always eye opening and sometimes inspiring.

Two things that I enjoyed in Facebook today ...

Nite all.

Joke Joyce

This is hilarious and I just had to share it!

An 83-year-old man was requested by his doctor for a fertility test as part of his regular physical exam.

The doctor gave the man a jar and said, “Take this jar home and bring back a sample tomorrow.”

The next day the old man reappeared at the doctor’s office and gave him the jar, which was as clean and empty as on the previous day.

The doctor asked, what happened and the old man explained. “Well, doc, it’s like this–first I tried with my right hand, but nothing. Then I tried with my left hand, but still nothing. Then I asked my wife Martha for help. She tried with her right hand, then with her left, still nothing. She tried with her mouth, first with the teeth in, then with her teeth out, still nothing.

We even called up Edith, the lady next door and she tried too, first with both hands, then an armpit, and she even tried squeezin’ it between her knees, but still nothing.”

The doctor was shocked! “You asked your neighbor?”

The old man replied, “Yep, none of us could get the jar open.”

And another for a quick giggle ...

Some food for thought (pardon the pun) ...

Heart Disease became a problem approximately a hundred years ago.

The obesity epidemic started around 1980 and the type 2 diabetes epidemic followed soon after.

These are the biggest health problems in the world today, and it seems pretty clear that diet has a lot to do with them.

For some very strange reason, the health authorities started blaming them on foods like red meat, eggs and butter.

We’ve been eating these natural foods for thousands of years, while these health problems are relatively new.

Doesn’t it make more sense to suspect all the new stuff instead, like processed foods, added sugar, refined grains and vegetable oils?

Blaming new health problems on old foods simply doesn’t make sense.

Finally, as I write this, the weather around us is sounding very threatening. I've been watching the BOM all day (as I do) and the storms started out as tiny specks, but have joined together and grow bigger with every hour that goes by. They change directions, then split up, then join back together .. very unpredictable.

It appears to be long way from me, but the edge is only about 20 kms away and I can definitely hear it making it's presence felt!

The blinds are closed and the TV volume is up! I can still feel the vibration of the rumbles though lol.

I'm wondering if, maybe when I've finished my Nutritional Medicine course, I might study Meteorology! My obsession continues.

Nite all.

My Idea of Heaven

I think this is my second favourite time of the year.

The Australian Open Tennis Championships began today.

There are 20/20 cricket matches and one day cricket matches for the next few weeks too.

My favourite time of the year is June when firstly, it's Winter and we experience lovely cool weather, secondly, State of Origin football is hitting it's peak and finally, Wimbledon Tennis Championships are on.

The Aussies have had a fairly successful day with most of them winning their first round matches. I am watching Nick Kyrgios playing at the moment, but I'm not sure if I'll see out the match. I will go to bed soon and fall asleep to the sound of tennis racquet hitting tennis ball.

I'm happy with some good study time today.

I also phoned Vegan Chickie today and got to speak to my little Chicklet, which was lovely.

Then this afternoon I could hear and feel some rumblings becoming louder in the background as I was listening to study videos through my earphones. When I checked the Bureau of Meteorology rain radars, and then looked out the front windows, this is what I found...

It looked very intimidating and I don't mind admitting that I put my camera bag in the wardrobe and put my mobile phone on charge, expecting the worst.

Luckily, there was not a lot in it.

It was originally part of a very big storm system coming from the south. It broke away and came in our direction, while the bigger one hit Maryborough bringing strong damaging winds and some flash flooding and then it moved on to The Bay. I don't know if they experienced any damage there.

We got some good heavy rain and lots of noise, a few wind gusts .. just enough to put me a little on edge, but it didn't eventuate to anything much, thank goodness.

This photo was taken just outside our front door.

Usually, when there is a storm about to hit, I like to pull the blinds closed and turn the TV up, because, to me, ignorance is bliss, but Adoring Husband decided that for today's storm, it would be a good idea to open the blinds and turn the TV 'off' ... then, in the middle of the storm, he decided to leave me alone in the lounge room and he went to bed!

I made sure he suffered for it later.

He was called out on SES duties after the storm to chainsaw a fallen tree, so lucky for him, he missed out on the bulk of my 'storm wrath'!

Right now, there are big storms to the north and to the south, but I don't think any of them will get close to us. We should get a peaceful night of sleep.

Nite all.

Stupid Stupid Stupid

If you're having a quiet day, here is some reading material for you to peruse at your leisure. Just a few interesting stories about Drs who misdiagnose .. both on purpose and accidentally.

Stupid Dr #1

Stupid Dr #2

Stupid Dr #3

Stupid Dr #4

Stupid Dr #5, 6 & 7

Stupid Dr #8

Stupid Dr #9

Australian medical truths

Australia has the highest rate of medical error in the world according to the World Health Organisation :-

18,000 people may die every year in hospitals through preventable medical negligence in Australia.

50,000 people suffer from permanent injury annually as a result of medical negligence in Australia.

80,000 Australian patients per year are hospitalised due to medication errors.

All this time, I thought the USA had the most medical stuff ups!

So, my advice is .. ALWAYS get a second opinion before undertaking invasive treatment for any condition or disease. Even if you've had the same doctor for a million years.

Better yet .. aim to make yourself the healthiest version of you, build up the strength of your immune system and avoid having to make any major decisions about repairing your health.

Just sayin'

Here is my photo for the 'Colourful' challenge in the flickr group this month.

Nite all.

Not With it

Motivation levels were at an all time low today.

All the excitement of my high mark for the exam took it out of me and I could barely move off the couch all day .. only to prepare meals.

So we watched a few episodes of Ally Mcbeal from our collectors edition boxed set.

I think I might try for a reasonably early night and try to hit the books again tomorrow.

Nite all.

Surprise!!

I can't believe it and I keep going back to my emails to check that I saw the results clearly, but my first Physiology/Anatomy exam netted me a result of 93.3%.

Really?

Are you sure?

Am I going to receive an email telling me that they made a mistake and they sent me somebody else's results?

I am overwhelmed and still feeling like there might have been an error.

Really?

Are you sure?

Freak me out!!

I'm going to sleep on it and when I wake up in the morning, I'm going to check my emails again .. just in case.

Nite all.

♪ Sadie ♫

♬ The cleaning lady♪

That was me today.

It's amazing how much you can get done when the 'man of the house' is absent.

Adoring Husband had to spend the day in The Bay while the car was having it's major service today, so I had 7 hours to myself.

Over an hour of that was just for vacuuming the house. There were a few loads of washing to do and a line full of washing to be folded and put away (one of my favourite things is to hang Adoring Husband's shirts facing the 'wrong' direction in his wardrobe ... it drives him crazy!!).

I cleared the kitchen bench of 'many weeks' worth of clutter and rearranged everything slightly, all the while planning how I am going to redesign the whole room. One day in my future, there will be a brand new, more functional kitchen!

I collected all of my jewellery that was strategically placed in a dozen different spots throughout the house. I calculate that it will take me about 5 hours to sort through the jewellery on my dressing table and make our bedroom look presentable again. That will be an interesting 'before' and 'after' photo opportunity!

That might have to wait til after I submit my essay, which I hope to finish this weekend.

I made myself some cauliflower fried rice for lunch, which was pretty stupid because it just meant more time cleaning up!!

I had a lovely phone call with Number One Son because he is celebrating his 33rd birthday today. He is in Melbourne for work and was planning on having a few drinks with work colleagues this evening.

It felt like I had no sooner sat down and opened my books for study, when Adoring Husband arrived home, so I don't feel like achieved much in the way of study, but it was a fairly productive day otherwise.

Another evening of tennis to watch tonight and so far, it's a tight match between Bernard Tomic and Thomas Muller, although it's not looking good for Tomic at the moment, even though he is playing outstanding tennis.

We had an amazingly heavy storm hit us last night, at about 12.40am which dumped 45mm of rain ☂ in the space of about an hour. Sent one of the psychotic dogs into a spin .. she has issues with storms since the tornado. So it was about 2am before I drifted back off to sleep and then the other two psychotic dogs decided at 3.45am that they wanted a toilet break! Very inconsiderate I thought!

Hopefully I will get a solid night of sleep tonight so that I can put in a solid day of study tomorrow.

Nite all.

 

Routine

Does two days in a row make a routine?

Sitting down to study at about 10am, stopping to prepare lunch at noon, more study from 1pm - 4pm, a glass of wine and time out for an hour before preparing dinner.

Today, for lunch, we had a giant stuffed mushroom (stuffed with capsicum, celery, onion, grated sweet potato, cauliflower rice, garlic, bacon and covered with sliced tomato and a touch of melted cheese) served with a side salad of baby spinach, rocket, onion, tomato, cucumber, avocado and mango, sprinkled with poppy seeds and lime dressing.

For dinner, we had venison with spinach, pumpkin and pine nut salad and now I am sitting watching the tennis with a bowl of mixed berry ice cream which was made with coconut milk and coconut cream, maple syrup and a whole bunch of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. It is truly delicious.

I planned on starting my essay today, but instead, I gathered some more information to put towards it. I attempted to watch a tutorial on the subject, from my study site, but the woman who teaches this subject, has never ending problems with microphones and feedback and wastes a ridiculous amount of time at the beginning of each tutorial attempting to fix it. I don't know why she can't delete that part of the tutorial before she puts it on the site for us to watch!

Very unprofessional. I partly scratched a letter of advice (complaint) to the college, but I might wait til I've finished the subject, just in case she holds it against me and grades me poorly because of it ... the last thing I need with such a difficult subject, is to have a begrudged teacher marking my exams and assignments!

The Aussie that I watched play tennis last night, lost his match. I didn't see it out to the end but had the TV on in the bedroom and listened to the commentary as I fell asleep. I vaguely recall hearing the end of the match.

Tonight I'm watching the Aussie, Bernard Tomic play the German, Philipp Kohlschreiber. He now has match point, so I could have an early night tonight! Yessss! He won!

So I guess that means that it's good night from me as I head off to bed with a tummy full of berry ice cream .. that wasn't very well thought out was it? Ah well.

Nite all.

New Religion

YouTube is my saviour.

My first essay is due in a few weeks. 800 words to describe the Blood Buffer System and how it relates to Metabolic Acidosis & Alkalosis and Respiratory Acidosis & Alkalosis. I have to provide examples of these conditions and discuss the complications ... among other things.

So I checked the lessons provided on the study smart system and all I could see was blah blah blah blah blah.

Then I checked the recommended textbook readings and all I could see was blah blah blah blah blah.

In a fit of desperation, I checked YouTube and lo and behold, thanks to a couple of very helpful professors who explained it all very succinctly using language that I could clearly understand, I am now feeling very confident about my essay!

The only problem that I can foresee, is remembering different formulae and equations, which I will definitely need to master before the exams in early March.

For example, this is an equation that it is recommended we know how to write and understand, in an exam ...

H₂O +  CO₂  <- ->  H₂CO₃  <- ->  H⁺ + HCO³ˉ

They are chemical symbols for Water, Carbon Dioxide, Carbonic Acid and Bicarbonate.

EEP!! Right?!

So, as I said, YouTube is my saviour and I look forward to starting my essay tomorrow, knowing what I now know.

It's been another HOT day here in paradise. Thank goodness we have air conditioning otherwise paradise would have lost it's sparkle by now and I might have posted a 'for sale' sign on our front lawn! The worst part is that February is our hottest month and we are not even half way through January yet!!

I received a very special package in the mail yesterday from BGWLBH with a selection of beautifully hand crafted gifts that she made herself, especially for me. I want to take photos and share them here and I hope to do so this week during one of my breaks from study. They are amazing!

Right now, I am waiting patiently for a tennis match to start, between the Australian Nick Kyrgios and Jerzy Janowicz from Poland. The match has been delayed due to rain, but it should start soon. I am hopeful.

I may need something to nibble on to keep me awake for the duration!

Nite all.



 

Wiped Out

No study for me today.

Adoring Husband and I headed into The Bay early today. While he had some SES chores to attend to, I had a shopping list a mile long.

Our first stop was one of my favourites. Office Works. It's back-to-school time, so the shop is chockers full of interesting folders and notepads and pencil cases and highlighter pens and novelty pins and paperclips and sticky notes and washi tape and oh the list goes on!

I needed some big study notebooks, mini post-it notes and some printer paper, but I couldn't resist a new pencil case, some highlighter pens and a USB stick. My self control astounded me!

Next was the Go Natural store for some organic fruit and veg, because the FROG people close down for the school holidays and even though I bought extras with my last order, obviously they're not going to last for 6 weeks. There is not a lot available at this time of year either. The Queensland Summer is not conducive to the normal Summer crops.

We even found some organic chook food which wasn't too much more expensive than our usual buy.

Nanna's Pantry for some coconut oil and to replenish our nut supply.

Thirty minutes in the supermarket for the rest of the groceries.

The new kitchenware store 'Robin's Kitchen' was my next stop to find some bottles for my newly brewed kombucha.

Here, I learned a very valuable lesson and came to the realisation that my eyesight is not as trustworthy as it once was! I bought, what I thought was a metal vegetable spiralizer, but after I arrived home, I discovered that it was an apple peeler and corer! Note to self: Put your glasses on and read the box .. don't just look at the picture on the box and make up your own story to go with it!

On the upside, Adoring Husband was very excited because he has always wanted a mechanical apple peeler and corer! He had fun attempting to peel and core a sweet potato this evening (yes, I know that sweet potatoes don't have cores).

Doctor Dan's was next for a six-pack of Oyster Bay Sav Blanc.

Finally, a fresh seafood stop and a coffee before heading home.

With more SES duties to attend to, Adoring Husband left me to unpack the groceries, clean out the fridge so that there was enough room for the fresh food, cook the pumpkin for the fresh dog food which eventually took me an hour to make and package up.

By the time I cleaned up the kitchen and sat down with yet another large vessel of wine, it was almost 5pm and I reclined in my lounge as my feet felt like they had just completed a marathon.

But wait!! Oh that's right. Dinner still needs to be prepared! Ugh.

Savoury chilli turkey mince with cabbage, bok choy and sweet potato rings.  Forty minutes later .. let's try that sitting back and relaxing thing again.

Ahhhh

Back to the studies tomorrow.

Nite all.

Sunday Matters

Chemistry .. lesson one .. Matter and Measurement.

I read 21 comments on the student forum page today, from 21 people who are all stressing over how difficult Chemistry is and the fact that they require more than the allocated 10 hours per lesson and that they are certain that they'll fail the exam!

How comforting to know that I am not alone in the world of 'oh God I think I'm going to fail'!

Today, I began to study Matter and Measurement.

Firstly, I made a big mistake by going into the tutorials and choosing the first one on the list .. it was about atoms and after 30 minutes of a 150 minute tutorial, my brain exploded all over my computer monitor and the walls of my office.

It was messy.

Then I discovered that the tutorials are listed in a very odd order and did not match the lesson plan.

Whew!

So I went back to my lesson list and discovered that Matter and Measurement is where it all starts.

THAT, I can handle.

Learning the difference between Organic and Inorganic Chemistry.

Learning the basics of elements, compounds, mixtures, matter and energy.

Learning metric measurements and symbols.

Learning simple nutritional calculations using mass and energy data.

THAT is a little more than I can handle.

They said, on the forum page, that Lesson One is the easiest and that every lesson gets more and more difficult.

This is going to be an interesting month and procrastination is NOT an option.

Intense.

Nite all.  

Overseas

Adoring Husband, twenty one people and I caught the Burrum River Quest across the river this afternoon, to Walker's Point, where the Woodgate Bowls Club buses were waiting to take us for a ten minute drive to the Bowls Club.

We left here at 4pm and arrived home just after 9.30pm.

What a great night it was!

The food was delicious, the service was fabulous .. there was plenty of wine.

Now we are home and Adoring Husband is already sound asleep on his recliner chair.

I, on the other hand, am about to collapse into the bed to sleep soundly until tomorrow morning.

Nite all.

Overdue

So here we are, on the 9th January .. or the 10th by the time you read this, and we still have our Christmas tree up, along with our decorations AND our Christmas lights, still on the timer, so they are flashing brightly every night from 6.30pm.

Everybody knows that it's bad luck to have Christmas decorations still up after the first week of January.

We took them down late last year, and look how that turned out!

So I guess tomorrow has to be the day.

Adoring Husband has commitments for tomorrow morning, and we both have commitments for tomorrow afternoon, so somewhere in the middle, we need to get this done!

I studied to day!

Some funny facebook quotes ...

Nite all.

Rewards

It is 5pm and I am currently sipping my second bucket (very large vessel) of wine.

This is my reward after enduring 90 minutes of torture, sitting my Anatomy and Physiology exam.

As I stated in my Facebook status...

It was horrible. Plenty of guesses in the multiple choice questions. Plenty of scribble and scratches in the 'match the statements'. Plenty of waffle in the short answer questions. Reasonably confident in the True/False questions.

This makes up 40% of my final subject mark. Not feeling confident.

I MAY have 'just' passed. Fingers crossed.

Seriously, it's impossible to study 6 weeks worth of material in just one week and expect to do well in an exam. These subjects are not easy if you've NEVER studied even basic science before.

However, my situation is self inflicted and I only have myself to blame.  From here on in, I resolve to do better. I resolve to apply myself completely, and not just for the week leading up to whatever assignment or exam is due.

So .. NO MORE PROCRASTINATING .. time to get serious about this subject and give myself a fighting chance!!

I've got this.

Nite all.

  

Grateful

Beautiful story on gratitude.

A famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:

**Last year, I had a surgery and my gall bladder was removed. I was stuck in bed due to this surgery for a long time.

**The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favourite job. I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.

**The same year I experienced the sorrowful death of my father.

**And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in  hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of the car was another loss.

At the end he wrote: Alas! It was such bad year!!

When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it beside her husband's writing.

When the writer saw this paper, he found this written on it:

**Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.

**I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilise my time to write something better with more focus and peace.

**The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical condition passed peacefully.

**The same year, my son was saved, my car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability.

At the end she wrote: "This year was an immense blessing and it passed well!!"

Wow! It is the exact same incident yet here we have 2 different viewpoints - one is sad and dis-empowering. And the other is positive and empowering. What made all the difference was looking at the situation with eyes of gratitude.

Nite all.

Officially Difficult

Another day of cramming.

Another Facebook status update complaining about the cramming.

"Anatomy and Physiology = blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"

Sent my practise test to someone who loves Anatomy and Physiology, so that she could help me, but even she struggled, claiming, much to my relief, that the wording of the questions sets the student up to fail.

I can only hope that the practise tests are made difficult so that the actual exam ends up being easier than expected.

Adoring Husband asked me to read out one of the questions.

Adoring Husband then said "If I ever ask you again to read out a question, belt me over the head."

So now I have 24 hours to try to absorb as much information as possible. Tomorrow will be youtube day ... I have a list of about twenty videos that I want to watch, and I hope that by the end of the day, I will have a much better understanding and all of those nasty words will become more familiar to me.

Oh my brain is so tired!

Nite all.

Bloop Bloop Bloop

I'm drooowwwwnnnnninggggg!!

Anatomy and Physiology would be so much easier if the scientists who discovered all this crap gave everything a simple name to remember!

Oligodendrocyte? Hypothalamus? Epimysium? Medulla Oblongata? Fascicles?

Why is it necessary to create these ridiculous names?????

And there are sooooooo many of them!! Hundreds, if not thousands!! How is a simple person like myself supposed to commit them to memory? Not only remember the names, but what they do and how they relate to each other?

I DID, however, find lots of videos on youtube to help me *insert big smiley face here*. Videos by science teachers and medical students, all with different angles and differing presentation skills, some comedic, some boring, some fast and flowing and some really simple.

Finding the right video for each section of study is the tricky part and then fitting them all into the time that I have left to study .. all the while my brain in panic mode, knowing the time is limited.

BUT .. it is all self inflicted. I chose this course. I chose to procrastinate. I put myself in this situation, so I have to get myself out of it and just do the best I can.

As Adoring Husband advised this afternoon "Just keep applying yourself. It's all you can do."

So that's what I will continue to do for the next two days and hopefully everything will fall into place when I need it to.

Thank you for listening to my ramblings and complaints.  You do realise that you will have to endure this for another three years??? Just sayin'.

Nite all.

HEEEE-EEEELLLLP!

There are no words.

I'm in trouble.

I don't understand.

I'm struggling.

Physiology and Anatomy are so complex ... I need somebody to teach me how to understand it in simple terms.

It's time to hit youtube!!

There must be videos of "Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies" somewhere on youtube!

... or a book on Amazon!!

I'll keep you posted.

I need to FOCUS!

Nite all.

Skipped one.

I consider myself 'told'.

Adoring Husband called me names for not doing a blog post last night.

Pfft!

It is very difficult to come up with anything readworthy when your day has been full of membranes, centrioles, microtubules, flagellum, phospholipids, exocytosis ... need I go on?

Once I'm focused, it all kind of flows and makes sense, but as soon as I lose focus, I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall!

ALSO ... my shoulder muscles are sore from writing!

Today, I split my study up with some time in the kitchen.

Garlic lamb rack on a bed of zucchini swirls and vegetables. Coconut berry ice cream - a lot of work involved, but so worth it. The berry jam to mix into it was divine and there is enough left to have on some grain free toasted bread. The ingredients were only frozen berries, honey and lemon juice.

So I have some quotes to share with you.

I've been told that we have dolphins in our river who swim in and out on the tides. I am yet to see them, but hopefully, one day soon, I will be able to share a photo of them here.

Nite all.

Intentions

Our intention for New Year's Eve was to join some friends at the local pub for a couple of drinks and be home sometime between 9pm and 10pm.

I was thinking of having an early night and rising at 4am to photograph the first sunrise for 2015.

Instead, we arrived at the pub at 7pm, drank copious amounts of alcohol with our friends (though surprisingly, after a whole bottle of wine to myself, I was not drunk ... happy, but not drunk), and didn't leave the pub until well after midnight.

I climbed into bed at around 1am and fell asleep almost immediately.

While Adoring Husband slept, I arose at about 8.30am and rode to my coffee place and brought back coffee for both of us, then made bacon and eggs for breakfast.

I have been studying ever since.

It has just reached the point of 'blah blah blah blah blah', so I thought I would take the opportunity to do a quick post here.

The words currently spinning around my head are integumentary, thermoregulation, interstitial, gametes, epithelial, organismic, homeostasis, cytoplasm, afferant, efferant, quadinary, osmolarity, isosmotic, nucleoplasm, ribosomes, vesicles, phosphorylation and oxaloacetate, just to name a few!!

See!? I can tell that you are already reading blah blah blah blah!!

I definitely need a break from studies so I think I'll head to the kitchen.

Perhaps I will review my work prior to bed .. that should put me to sleep fairly quickly!

Nite all.

Woopsie

So, I have an exam on 8th January. Who knew?

I've been studying 'procrastination' for so long and now I discover that my exam is on Anatomy and Physiology! Ugh!

I guess I will be cramming for the next week, hoping to absorb enough information to pass this test which makes up 40% of my subject mark.

It's highly likely that my blog posts will be very short during this time.

This should be a good time to work on that word that I've chosen for 2015 ... PEACE.

There are no excuses. This is self inflicted. I'm not looking for sympathy, but if you could telepathically send me some positive energy and some extra brain power, I'd appreciate it very much.

Nite all.

Peace

My word for 2015 is ...

"PEACE" - noun - Freedom of the mind from annoyance, distraction, anxiety, obsession etc. To find tranquility or serenity.

I'm aiming for inner peace, peace of mind, peace with myself, peaceful calm and peace and quiet.

I have reached a point where my mind is never still and I don't know how to make it quiet. Thoughts are jumbled in my brain flowing in and out of my consciousness all day long. I need to find a peacefulness that allows me to focus on my day to day activities, one at a time.

I need to create a peaceful state in my mind for the times when I'm resting.

So my intention for the year ahead is to create an inner peace. I will search for ways to find my peace of mind and then I will practise feeling that peaceful calm.

Nite all.

The Bathtub wins

As the mainstream media grab hold of a story to sensationalise the alleged dangers of raw milk, and attempt to terrify anybody who may have considered buying or drinking it, I have been researching the story online myself, trying to discover some actual FACTS.

I read 63 news reports, blog articles and press releases. The press releases were vague and many TV stations and newspapers simply quoted the standard press release that was issued to everyone, so I really had to dig to find some details.

The headline reads 'Toddler dies after drinking bath milk'.

The story goes that in mid December, a three year old child died 'after drinking bath milk'. Apparently 4 other young children also became ill 'after drinking bath milk' from the same dairy farm in Victoria.

By law the dairies that sell this product must add warnings to the label advising people that bath milk is not for drinking. This particular dairy did abide by that law.

I watched the follow-up stories on the news tonight.

1. Did the story explain to us how the child died or how the other children became ill? No.

What they stated a number of times, was that the child 'died after drinking bath milk' ... leading us to believe that it was the bath milk that caused the death and illnesses.

2. Did the reporter tell us about any tests conducted on the bath milk or the dairy farm from which it came, to confirm that it was actually the bath milk that caused the death? No.

In actual fact, I discovered that health officials have conducted tests on site at the dairy in question and all of their products have passed with a clean bill of health. No diseases. No stray bacteria.

Of course the media can't add that information to the story .. not sensational enough.

3. Did the reporter give us the name of the illness that made the children ill?  No.

They interviewed 'somebody' who touted the terrible dangers of raw milk and the disease causing bacteria that lurk within it, leading us to assume that the bacteria was indeed in the milk that the children drank ... which, as I've already mentioned, is not the case.

The only facts that I could find, stated that 3 of the children (and we don't know which three) contracted Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (despite Fairfax media describing it as a fatal disease, it is NOT normally fatal), which can be caused by contaminated meat or produce (but not the produce, in this case, as proven by the health officials) or it can be contracted in swimming pools or lakes where human or animal faeces is commonly found, or it can also follow infections from other bacteria.

It can be caused by certain medications AND it can be genetic .. that is .. passed down from your parents.

4. Did the reporter give us any details about the children or their state of health prior to drinking the bath milk? No.

So the only facts that the report actually gave us was that a toddler died after drinking bath milk.

The rest of the story was manipulated leading us to the conclusion that the bath milk was full of a disease causing bacteria that killed a toddler and made four others sick and that the dairy farm in Victoria was responsible.

It made us believe that Raw milk was extremely dangerous and that there is a growing 'mob' of health buffs who are attempting to manipulate the general public into believing that raw milk has health benefits.

We still have no idea what actually caused the child's death.

It's a very good example of how the media can take a tiny bit of information and expand on it to sensationalise and frighten the public into believing something that isn't actually true.

If they can do that with something as simple as milk, just imagine the havoc they are causing elsewhere.

Nite all.

Retail Therapy

Today, Adoring Husband and I decided to head into The Bay and attempt the sales.

In years gone by, we have agreed to avoid The Bay over the Christmas/New Year period because it's the height of tourist season and unbearably busy, with terrible traffic to contend with and crowds of holiday makers who are always way more stressed than they should be while on holidays!

Surprisingly, we had a great day of shopping and returned home after four hours, relaxed, and arms laden with clothes, pyjamas, shoes, bags, dvds, cds and food.

I bought the dvd of the movie 'Healing' (which, incidentally, has nothing to do with Nutritional Medicine!), the complete boxed series of Ally McBeal and Barbra Streisand's new 'Partners' cd.

Of course, I realised, as I took my first purchase to the sales counter, that I had left both of my keycards at home in my camera bag! I had to search out Adoring Husband and steal one of his cards to do my shopping!

He's a good man :)

So that is our last session of retail therapy for 2014.

A new year is like a blank book.

The pen is in your hands.

It is your chance to write a beautiful story for yourself.

The last two years, I have fulfilled my New Year Resolutions. They were about getting healthy, eating real foods and studying 'something'.

So 2015 is just around the corner and instead of a New Years Resolution, this year I am going to choose a word that encapsulates my intentions for the whole year ahead.

When I have selected my word, I'll share it here with my reasons for choosing it, so watch this space between now and New Years Eve.

Nite all.

There but for the grace of God go I

There was a discussion tonight, between friends, about the homeless .. especially during the festive season.

A friend's grandson spent Christmas day feeding the homeless. Another friend has discussed doing the same thing next year with her husband. I didn't get the chance to tell them about Number One Son who spent a few hours on Christmas day helping out in the Salvation Army kitchens to feed the homeless in Adelaide.

The homeless numbers in Australia are rising every year.

The only numbers currently available are from the ABS census from 2011, which showed that there were over 105,000 homeless people in Australia. That includes people who are living on friend's and family's couches because they can't afford to pay rent or buy their own homes.

NSW 28,190 (40.8 people per 10,000) +20.4% since 2006
VIC 22,789 (42.6 people per 10,000) +20.7 since 2006
QLD 19,838 (48.5 people per 10,000) -5.1% since 2006
SA 5,985 (37.5 people per 10,000) +1.4% since 2006
WA 9,592 (42.8 people per 10,000) +1.1% since 2006

TAS 1,579 (31.9 people per 10,000) +32.9% since 2006
NT 15,479 (730.7 people per 10,000) -7.8% since 2006
ACT 1,785 (50 people per 10,000) +70.6% since 2006

WHERE ARE PEOPLE STAYING?

Improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out 6%
Supported accommodation for the homeless 20%
Staying temporarily with other households 17%
Boarding houses 17%
Other temporary lodging 1%
“Severely” overcrowded dwellings 39%

HOW OLD ARE THEY?

Under 12 17% (17,845)
12-18 10% (10,913)
19-24 15% (15,325)
25-34 18% (19,312)
35-44 14% (14,484)
45-54 12% (12,507)
55-64 8% (8,649)
65-74 4% (4,174)
75 and over 2% (2,028)

WHY ARE THEY HOMELESS? (Just in Queensland)

Financial difficulties, housing stress, unemployment 25%

Accommodation issues, housing crisis, inadequate or inappropriate dwellings 34%

Domestic violence and relationship issues, time out from family, family breakdown, violence and assault 24%

Health reasons, mental health issues, substance abuse issues 3%

Other - transition from care/custody, lack of support, discrimination 13%

Having worked with CES and Centrelink for 16 years, I dealt with people who found themselves homeless. Women whose husbands physically and/or sexually abused them. Women whose husbands kicked them out of the home because they found somebody else. Women whose husbands had some kind of addiction, be it alcohol, gambling or drugs who lost all of their money and hadn't paid rent, or other bills. Women whose husbands passed away and their pensions weren't enough to pay the rent on their own. Teenagers who were sexually abused by their step father or other family member and left to escape the abuse. People with mental illness who were incapable of managing their finances or whose life skills were so limiting that they couldn't look after themselves and who had no family to intervene.

Not all of us are lucky enough to have family to fall back on. 

The list of reasons for homelessness is almost endless and there was a time during my life as a single parent that I came very close to being homeless with my 3 children, so I am very sensitive to situations that put people in the homeless category.

Unless you've been there, as with most of life's 'situations', you simply cannot understand how it feels to be there. 

We all make bad life decisions sometimes. We marry, or live with men who treat us badly or mistreat our children or who develop mental illness or who desert us or pass away and leave us with nothing. 

We may have been abused by parents, step parents or other family members that leave us with such low self esteem that we feel incapable of caring for ourselves, incapable of working or we feel undeserving of a home or a happy lifestyle.

Life is not always kind to us all. 

As my oldest daughter has told me often ... there have been many occasions, especially in her youth, where she had found herself in dangerous or risky situations and any split second decision could have changed her future in so many different ways. Not all of them good. Some of them, very very bad. She explains that sometimes, it was pure luck that sent her in the right direction. So she is very aware of how quickly and inexplicably life can take you down a very bad path from which it's difficult to return.

So I, and many of my friends have lived a very blessed and charmed life where we haven't had to worry about such things as homelessness. We should be grateful for that and we should never judge anybody in whose shoes we have not walked. 

Nite all.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

Before you start reading, you need to know that I am a bit of a Snoopy fan, so this post has both a Christmas AND a Snoopy theme.

There have been a lot of people complaining about the term 'Happy Holidays' lately and then getting cranky with me for defending the people who use it.

I just want to say "to each his own".

Who cares what anybody says? They are just words. It's the festive season and we should be feeling the love and wishing everybody happiness, not arguing over words.

So personally, I don't mind whether you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays .. as long as you are showing love and kindness to your fellow humans, that's all that matters.

I hope you've all had a lovely and loving Christmas day ... love from me.

Nite all.

My 2014 Overview

I thought I would provide a brief overview of my 2014.

After the tornado in January 2013, Adoring Husband became involved with the local SES group and this year in January took it a step further by becoming Deputy Group Leader. This has taken up quite a bit of his time, but he has thrived on bringing changes and improvements to the group, almost tripling member numbers with his recruitment drives. He volunteered his skills on a number of emergencies like land searches for missing people, assisting with traffic control for controlled burn offs in the local area and then heading down to Brisbane after the devastating storm that caused so much damage in November assisting with tarping roofs and chainsawing fallen trees etc.

While he was absorbed with all things SES, I had another fabulous road trip (Our Most Excellent Adventure) with my bestie, BGWLBH. We travelled the roads 'less' travelled and found lots of little 'out of the way' towns, antique and gift stores, markets, cafes, parks and bush tracks. We carried Wizard Mickey with us and he was in all of our photos that diarised our trip.

In February, my beautiful little Chicklet turned 3 years of age and also, I decided to learn more about health and nutrition by studying an Advanced Diploma in Nutritional Medicine with The Australian Institute of Applied Science. Procrastination has been my biggest hurdle and having passed my first semester with an average of 96%, I am now struggling with Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology and more procrastination. I obviously do my best work under pressure.

March brought us three new chickens, but the eggs didn't come til May. A cyclone or two in March and April with lots of rain and wind, but nothing as bad as what contributed to the tornado in 2013. We held a dinner party where I cooked a three course meal for 6 friends and I also celebrated my 54th birthday.

May took me to a Playschool concert with Chicklet. The first eggs appeared from our chooks. A wonderful Mother's Day dinner with Vegan Chickie. A new grandson for Adoring Husband, named Seth.

June was the trip to Bunya Mountains with the flickr group. I was colder than I've felt for years! So windy and icy and wet!! The fabulous company made up for it though!

July and NSW won the State of Origin series for the first time in nine years. The family from down south stayed with us for the third year while participating in a Touch Football tournament in The Bay (something that we always look forward to).

August was the horrible month that Adoring Husband had a low grade malignant tumour removed from his bladder and then we spent three months working really hard on his health and fitness to make sure that it didn't come back before his 3 monthly checkup and to help his body heal properly from the invasive surgery that he endured to fix it. It was a long process, but our hard work was rewarded with excellent results.

We also had a long visit from Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour in August, which was lovely and a welcome distraction from the health issues.

Finally, I completed my first semester of studies with great results.

September, the Chicklet family moved into their new house on the Sunny Coast and I went for a visit soon after. I sat my final exam for the first semester, found the first Tawny Frogmouth nests of the season and had my trip to Magnetic Island with the girls, where I met up with a cousin who I hadn't seen for 37 years.

October was footy grand final when Souths won the Championship. One of the psychotic dogs, Jack, gave us a fright when he became ill with pancreatitis. We had the 'blood moon' which was a bit disappointing. The first Tawny Frogmouth chicks were born. Adoring Husband turned 57.

November, Adoring Husband got the all clear at his 3 monthly check up. I created my vision board. Chicklet fell asleep in my bed for the first time, while I was visiting and there was a massive storm that caused millions of dollars worth of damage in Brisbane.

December has been uneventful, but we are the most organised that we have EVER been for Christmas.

We both took refined sugar and processed food out of our diets this year, so I spent many, many hours in the kitchen making breads, cheeses, yoghurt, tarts and pies, casseroles, sauces, cakes and desserts using all fresh and mostly organic ingredients and cooking from scratch, which I have really enjoyed. I got so carried away that we had to buy a new freezer to store all the soups, stocks, savoury minces, curries and casseroles that I made.

Number One Son moved to Adelaide for a new job that he is enjoying very much. Sadly, Bubbles lost her job when her employer went bust. The Chicklet family had some family issues that were a little tough going for a while, but seem to be recovering well.

So, looking back, aside from Adoring Husband's health scare (which was pretty stressful there for a while and certainly tested our resolve), our year has been pretty good. Definitely fewer dramas than previous years.

Let's hope that 2015 is full of love, health and happiness for us and all of our friends and family. I will start the year with a positive attitude and look forward to all the joys that it will bring us.

Tomorrow, I will share some of my favourite photos from the year.

Nite all.

Surprisingly Organised

I believe that this is the first year, in my entire life, that I am completely organised for Christmas!

I'm feeling no stress, panic or dread.

The decorations are up.

All gifts are bought, wrapped and either under the tree, or sent in the mail.

The seafood is booked and organised for Christmas dinner.

Christmas is feeling pretty breezy this year!

Here is my Christmas card to anybody who cares. My friends. My family. My regular readers.

I'm a little early with my Christmas wishes .. but as I've already stated .. TOTALLY ORGANISED!!

Today, I received in the mail, the new bedding that I ordered weeks ago, so I washed and dried my bamboo sheets (I can't tell you how much I love my soft bamboo sheets, in fact, I ordered some more online today. They were on sale, down from $235 to $49!!) and have made my bed with the bamboo sheets and the new doona cover.

We all know how divine it is to slide into crisp clean bedding *sigh*

That's where I am heading right now .. to my fresh and new looking beautiful bed.

Nite all.

Drinkies!

The festive season is, socially, quite exhausting isn't it!? That is if you accept every invitation offered for Christmas drinks.

Drinks with various friends. Drinks with neighbours. Drinks with acquaintances. Drinks with workmates. Drinks with fellow hobbyists. Drinks with community groups. Drinks with sporting pals. Drinks with family. The list goes on.

I can't imagine how tricky it is for people who are too afraid to say 'no' when invitations are presented.

Today, we had drinks with our neighbours across the road and they invited the neighbours either side of them too, which meant I got to meet those people officially. We wave to each other and call out 'hello', but except for one of them, I had not been introduced. So it was a nice afternoon and considering what little we knew of each other, we were all very comfortable together and had some good belly laughs.

It has been a very social weekend and tomorrow, Adoring Husband is off to Fraser Island to catch up with family and two of his little grandbabies, while I hold the fort at home. I hope to really cram some study in while I have a silent house.

The festive season has worn me out, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

  

Tis the Season

to be jolly.

This morning I ran into 'The Designer'. She went on holidays at the beginning of last month and was supposed to be away for 3 weeks, but one thing led to another and almost 8 weeks later, she is home and working on an impulse garage sale.

She told me that she had some dvds for me, so after I had my coffee, I dropped by her house to collect them and discovered her attempting to transport her disposable goods and chattels to the front lawn to set them up for sale, so I gave her a hand and helped bring them from one end of the property to the front.

I was then invited inside to the air conditioning where we sat for a chat.

It was meant to be a quick visit, but as we do, we got all involved in some D & M conversations and all of a sudden, two hours had passed and I was rushing off like Cinderella leaving the ball at the stroke of midnight!

When I checked my phone, there were 5 missed calls from Adoring Husband! As I pedalled out of her driveway, there was AH driving up the street towards me!

I am usually home by ten or eleven am, so when I didn't come home and didn't answer my phone, he was worried, especially because there was a show on TV that I had been looking forward to all week, which started at midday and I wasn't there for it!

Luckily, the show, The Paleo Way with Pete Evans, was being recorded, so we watched it when I arrived home. Here is the link if you want to watch it ... The Paleo Way

We then watched Australia win the cricket and began to get ready to attend a Christmas party which was being held at an old friend's house up the road.

It was a good night.

We caught up with some friends who we don't see very often these days, and Adoring Husband did some flirting with some new young ladies in the group ... always good for the ego! We were there for almost 5 hours, which is unusual because in our old age, we usually last about 2 hours.

It's been an enjoyable day and it's almost midnight, so I shall sign out before I turn into a pumpkin.

Nite all.