Movie Fun

You've just got to go to this website ... 52 Shoes ... and enter the competition! Create shoes to go with the outfits that they provide. You can enter as many times as you want. It's so much fun! I spent hours in there yesterday afternoon/evening and have lost count of how many shoes I created. Imagine winning 52 pairs of shoes ... one pair per week. My idea of heaven.

Adoring Husband and I saw The Nice Guys today and absolutely loved it. Put Ryan Gosling in any movie and it's a winner for me! Tomorrow, I'll need the tissues when I watch 'Me Before You' with the girls. I saw the preview for it again today and it looks both warm and fuzzy, as well as heart wrenching. Ugh.

Chicklet looks like she had a lot of fun at Movie World today, in her new Bat cape ...

Precious little possum.

With that, I'm off to bed. I'm feeling weary and have an early start tomorrow.

Nite all.

Out and About

After four days of self imposed quarantine, I rode to our meeting place and sat with four of the girls for morning tea, which was really lovely, and then I visited The Motivator. I haven't seen her for about six weeks. She was away for a month and then I was away for ten days and for the last few days, I didn't want to pass on any of my germs.

We had some good Paleo discussions, because she has decided to give that a try, and we had lots of catching up to do with plenty of news to share. She lent me her Pete Evans 'One Pot Favourites' recipe book, and I've selected a couple of those recipes to photocopy and use later, and I will loan her my recipe books to make her paleo journey a bit easier.

It was 1pm by the time I arrived home. Luckily, I had oxtail casserole in the slow cooker ready for lunch.

I had choko, sweet potato, onion, carrot, celery and garlic in the slow cooker with the meat, so I put all of those vegetables and some of the stock in the blender and blended it into a delicious thick sauce. Then I put the oxtail pieces into a saucepan with the sauce and reheated it all.

After I took the meat off, I put the bones back in the slow cooker with the remaining stock, added some more vegetables and water and they will cook for a further twelve hours to make a delicious and rich beef bone broth.

With all of the immune boosting goodness that I've been pumping into my body, I forgot about my black seed oil! I found it this morning and took half a teaspoon of it. I felt a difference within thirty minutes! They say it cures everything except death!

Adoring Husband informed me this afternoon that his throat was feeling a bit tender, so I pumped him full of vitamin C, probiotics, honey/lemon/ginger drink, chicken bone broth and half a teaspoon of black seed oil. By the time he went to bed, he said the tenderness had gone! Let's hope it's gone for good and it doesn't sneak it's ugly head back in tomorrow.

I've invited AH to the movies with me to see The Nice Guys tomorrow. I've heard all good reviews so far, from friends, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

There was no phone call from Chicklet this afternoon, so she must have been too worn out. She'll have double the stories to tell tomorrow! I hope she got to meet Batman.

Two more scarves arrived today.

It will be an early night again for me. Look at this! Finished by 8.30pm!

Nite all.  

Hangin' in there Tuesday

So, I'm still hanging in there. The bug hasn't taken hold of me, but I can still feel it lurking.

After drinking a large mug of bone broth while having a late morning in bed, I eventually managed to package up the remaining chicken bone broth and freeze 15 days worth of it.

Blending some pineapple, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries and mint, made for a refreshing drink full of vitamin C, to have with lunch.

I was enticed out to the shed this morning by Adoring Husband, who was still sorting through 'stuff' that has been stored for years. There has been some brutal culling performed and our sulo bin is more than full for tomorrow's pick up service.

AH and I went through a large box of photos today and tossed out quite a few old rolls of film and boxes of slides. They were mostly of his three Auntys' many Australian road trips and overseas cruises.

Knowing how much time, effort and expense went into this massive collection, it seems such a shame to be getting rid of these memories, but there is no-one left to appreciate them and AH's kids are not interested, so it is obviously the end of an era, and we need to let them go.

The important photos will all be scanned and stored on usb sticks. AH has many, many more photos than I do, although my little sister 'Squirt' has boxes of our family photos stored in her roof in Blackwater. It must be time to get them down here, so that we can scan them and store them more securely.

A very very young Adoring Husband, long BEFORE he was my Adoring Husband ...

Or in his dancing days leaning against Johnny O'Keefe's Cadillac (I think this is his favourite pic of himself) ...

By noon, I was well and truly done, and after making lunch, plonked myself down on the couch and took the lazy way out for the remainder of the day.

Late this afternoon, I received a phone call from my little Chicklet, who is currently enjoying a holiday with her Mama and Dadu on the Gold Coast.

In her very excited voice, she told me all about her day yesterday at Sea World and then today at Movie World. She saw dolphins jumping out of the water high as a building. She saw a Polar Bear. She saw penguins swimming in the pool (so far the only photo taken on the phone) ...

She touched sting rays and starfish and sea slugs. She walked through the underwater tunnel and saw giant turtles and sharks and it was heaps better than Underwater World on the Sunny Coast.

At Movie World, she met Catwoman! She saw The Flash (who was only walking) and Green Lantern and Superman. She saw the Bat mobile and the Bat Glider. She saw Tweety Bird and Bugs Bunny. She saw a 4D movie of Wile E Coyote with the 3D glasses and wind and water. She got a giant lollypop. Tomorrow she hopes to meet Batman!

It was awesome listening to her talking so loudly and so quickly, trying to get all the information out at once. Yesterday was the BEST DAY EVER! But today was EVEN BESTER THAN YESTERDAY!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's phone call to hear all about Batman!

Bed time for me now!

Nite all.

Easy Monday

Today, to give my body a chance to concentrate on healing, I took it easy all day, catching up on all the TV shows that Adoring Husband recorded for me while I was away last week.

I diffused eucalyptus essential oil in the lounge room. Spoon fed myself raw honey with chopped garlic. Drank chicken broth and fresh juices. Popped vitamin C and probiotics. Sat in the sunshine for twenty minutes.

Tonight, as I did last night, I'll make a honey, lemon and ginger hot drink to sip while I'm reading in bed.

My throat is no longer sore or tender, but there is a bit of a tickle there, which disappears whenever I eat the honey and garlic mixture. The tissues have had a bit of workout, but I'm not getting worse, so that is a big positive for me.

Adoring Husband spent the day in the back yard clearing out the storage shed. He worked hard and got rid of a lot of 'stuff' that we no longer want or need. We found some stuff that we thought we'd lost in the tornado damage and found thousands of old photos that need to be scanned and saved to pass on to (mostly) AH's family.

I did manage to put on a batch of chicken bone broth to slow cook for the next 24 hours ...

Some more scarves arrived in the mail today. There are another dozen coming this week, but this is my stash so far ...

I'll add strings of beads and crystals and old jewellery to make a beautiful bohemian window cover for my studio/workspace, which will be moved into one of the bedrooms in August/September. That gives me plenty of time to create something arty farty and very bohemian.

I found this very interesting article about cholesterol today .. and the fact that it was published in mainstream media, means that my friends who only give credence to medical information that they see or hear about in the mainstream news, might take some notice.

Clearly, I need another early night to help me fight the bug, so ...

Nite all.

Sickly Sunday

Well, thank goodness the doTERRA ICE blue rub and some magnesium oil took most of my muscle pain away overnight. I only have a slight niggling pain when I stand up now and it doesn't hurt to walk.

I used the doTERRA rub three times yesterday, the last time was immediately before bed when I sprayed the magnesium oil on first, followed by the rub. I'm impressed with it's effectiveness.

I think I mentioned that four of the ladies were ill while we were away and one of them, with the flu, was sharing our apartment.

It seems that my body was working so hard to fix the muscle pain, that my immune system weakened and I am now experiencing some of the early signs of the flu.

You know that raw uncomfortable feeling in the back of the throat and intermittent runny nose?

I'm pumping myself full of raw garlic (antibacterial, vitamin C and potassium) which I'm chewing and swallowing slowly, so that the antibacterial properties have a chance to touch the tender area of my throat. I follow that with a teaspoon of raw honey.

I've doubled my probiotic (because healing begins in the gut) and my vitamin C intake.

I blended a big batch of

• watermelon - vitamin C for immune support
• organic pineapple - the enzyme bromelain and vitamin C, both of which encourage healing
• organic ginger - which has broad spectrum antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties
• organic lemon - vitamin C and flavonoids to fight infection
• organic strawberries - providing lots of antioxidants like vitamin C for boosting the immune system.

I'm diffusing francincense essential oil to promote healing.

I'm drinking home made chicken broth with turmeric (anti-inflammatory) stirred through it.

Lots of filtered water to keep my body hydrated.

I will definitely have an early night and hopefully some good solid sleep will give my body the final surge of healing power so that I wake up tomorrow as good as new!

So that's the continuing saga of my health - thankfully, none of it is serious and can be easily healed and hopefully, the sun will be out tomorrow so that I can soak up some healing vitamin D.

Nite all.

Another Super Saturday

The pain that I have experienced in my legs last night and today, has been so intense, that I hardly slept last night because even the slightest movement shot incredible pains through my calves and thighs.

When I attempted to get out of bed this morning, my legs almost collapsed from underneath me and it took a good five minutes to shuffle into the ensuite for my morning pee!!

I was confused and wondered how the hell I could be so sore just from walking! I walked more than 10,000 steps each day, which is much more than I've walked in years, but this kind of pain did not equate to walking.

I actually started to panic just a little and wondered what kind of medical condition could cause my muscles so much pain. Were they wasting? Were they seizing? Even my days of intense sport and gym work never delivered this kind of after pain.

Then as I searched my memory banks for all of the activities over our time away, I remembered the twelve flights of stairs! When the lifts in our apartment block stopped operating on Thursday morning, I decided to walk down from the twelfth floor to the ground floor.

At the time, when I reached the bottom, I thought to myself "That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected!" I even moved down the stairs quite quickly because there was a couple from NZ almost running down the stairs ... they were older than me (probably early 60s), and much bigger both in height and weight.

I didn't even attempt to keep up with them, and I tried to keep my movements smooth while using the rail to support myself so that my legs didn't take all of my weight the whole way down. I certainly hope that couple are suffering as I am!!

It was difficult for me to reach the seat of my trike this morning because I have to stand on tippy toes for my butt to slide onto the seat and it hurt too much to do that.

I've used my doTERRA ICE blue rub to massage my calf and thigh muscles which has helped considerably, but still, the pain is intense!

I sent a text to the three other girls who walked down SIXTEEN flights and they too, are in pain.

A sports therapist told me today, that I will feel worse tomorrow. If that's the case, I will be staying in bed all day and Adoring Husband can go buy a bed pan because I will be incapable of moving. I think she is wrong and if she is, I will take pleasure in visiting her to prove it.

I was able to shuffle my way around the local markets this morning. There was a new stall selling different flavoured balsamic vinegars, oils and spice mixes. I bought two of the vinegars, one of the spices and ordered two others to be picked up next month.

I also bought another crystal and a yellow lead light cross to hang in the frangipani trees in the front garden.

Then it was time to come home and put my feet up. I cooked lunch/dinner mid afternoon and then watched the football all afternoon and evening.

I hope my night in bed is more comfortable than last night because I really need to catch up on a week of broken and disturbed sleep.

So thanks for listening to my whinge.

Nite all.

PS A quick shout out to poor Rebel Mardi and The Lifesaver who have been very ill this week. I'm thinking of you and hoping that you recover quickly. Sending love and sympathy in your direction.

Home Sweet Home

It took Woman of Many Talents and I about six hours to drive home from the Gold Coast today, but we had four stops along the way.

The traffic was quite heavy, so even though we had an uneventful trip, the speed fluctuated as the traffic conditions changed throughout the trip.

When we got to the north side of Brisbane, there was an accident on the southbound freeway and the traffic was at a standstill for many kilometres. We were very grateful to be on the other side of the road and going in the opposite direction.

Woman of Many Talents had been very sick for the entire four days that we were away. She was in bed for most of it and had to visit a doctor and have blood tests, take antibiotics and keep rested. Luckily, she had recovered well enough to drive home and we planned for frequent stops so that she wouldn't tire and regress.

We stopped at Forest Glen and had brunch and a drink at the Organic Food Market cafe, then we did some shopping in the marketplace. It's one of the my favourite places on the planet because it sells all of the things that are important to me.

Fresh organic food, gut healing drinks, wild caught salmon, good quality supplements and probiotics, coconut yoghurt and ice cream, paleo foods, kombucha, kimchi, great books, organic make up and skin care ranges, essential oils, non toxic cleaning products etc etc.

I also bought half a dozen cakes from the cafe to bring home to Adoring Husband. They are all organic, gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and are absolutely delicious. I cut them all in half and we are eating them at our leisure. My favourite is the chocolate chia cake. YUM!

I had a bit over an hour when I got home, to catch up with AH, unpack and then get ready for the club tonight.

It was a quiet night with only four ladies at the table and one of us was lucky .. it wasn't me.

I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight, so I'm signing off here!

It's good to be home.

Nite all.

Final Night of Fun

It's been a fabulous few days of fun.

Lots of laughter and snorting (Tweedle Dee).

Not as much drinking as I expected.

Lots of shopping.

Good food was enjoyed by all, except the usual suspect ... Reality TV Queen!

Only one night of partying in the party room, which ended at 8.30pm because the party animals believed it was midnight when it was only 7.30pm! The sad realities of ageing!

I left the party early tonight when the party animals (aged 56 and 67), were attempting to 'plank' while taking selfies and they got so boisterous, it was impossible to have a conversation!

The weather has been perfect.

Very loud snoring reported by quite a few ladies.

My best buy of the trip was a pair of shoes by Gino Ventorri, made in Brazil. Like walking on air! I had them on for nine hours and only took them off to climb into bed. We walked for five of those hours.

My close call was a dress that I tried on yesterday and loved immediately, but it was too formal for anything that I would attend. I decided to sleep on the decision and go back today, but when I tried it on, it fell flat. I'm so glad that I didn't buy on impulse yesterday. I was going to share the photo here tonight, but decided against it.

It's difficult to choose my favourite meal of the trip. The food at the Garden Restaurant at Jupiter's last night was divine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Massaman Beef Curry at the Thai restaurant at lunch time today.

All of the wine has been delicious, except for the house Sav Blanc at Jupiters, which was the most expensive and the most disgusting.

Thumbs down to the taxi driver who complained because my fair was a measly $7.40 from Jupiters to our apartment block.

Thumbs up to our waiter (Mike), at Jupiter's last night, who went above and beyond to make our night enjoyable and memorable ... we gave him a $25 tip for his efforts.

Thumbs down to the germs that put four of our ladies out of action during the three days here. Two with the flu, one with gastric and one with a lung infection.

Thumbs up to the Manager of the shoe shop that took back the shoes I couldn't wear and gave me a refund (after she showed me the 'Office of Fair Trading' information and we shared a war of words and after I told her that she couldn't legally refuse me). She did the right thing in the end and I appreciated her eventual positive attitude.

Thumbs down to the broken lifts in our apartment block, which meant me, having to walk down twelve flights of stairs to exit the building (14 flights for one other lady and 16 flights for two others!) Luckily they were repaired within a couple of hours.

Thumbs up to the coffee shop attendant who gave me two free muffins with my coffee this afternoon, because they were about to close and she had leftovers. Even though they are not gluten free, I can give them to the ladies to enjoy on the train tomorrow.

Thumbs up to the health food store across the road who stocked CoYo coconut yoghurt and Zebra Dream Salted Caramel Coconut Ice cream.

Thumbs up to the ladies who acted as my pack horses when they were coming home early and brought my shopping home so that I wouldn't have to carry so much home myself.

Thumbs up to the manager of our apartment block who immediately came to the rescue with a new fuse when our hot water went on the blink this afternoon ... and for providing the key to an empty apartment on our floor so that we could use that hot water if ours didn't heat up in time.

Thumbs up to the new day beds at Pacific Fair, where you can put your feet up or have a nap at half time during the shopping expedition!

Finally, thumbs up to Mrs Bucket for organising another successful lady's trip away!

It will be great to get home and sleep in my own bed. I haven't been able to fall asleep before 1am on any night since last Saturday and I've had to be up early every morning, so I think my body might crash land tomorrow night!

I've had a great time and I'm so glad that I decided to come on this trip .. it was touch and go for a while.

There are four ladies who usually come on these trips, but didn't attend this one, for various reasons. All of the other 'regulars' mentioned how those ladies were sorely missed. So Lady Lynn, Rebel Mardi, Beauty and Tweedle Dum .. know that you were thought of often, mentioned frequently in our conversations and very much missed by us all.

I will be driving home tomorrow with Woman of Many Talents (who has been ill for the entire three days). The remaining ladies will be travelling by train.

Farewell to the Gold Coast and I'll see you next year!

Nite all.

Wish You Were Here

Having a wonderful time.

Wish you were here.

Please send money!

Nite all.

We are here!

After a long trip on two trains yesterday, one of which I sat with an elderly lady who also has a daughter living in Noosaville and who co-incidentally was travelling from Cooroy to the Gold Coast as well. That made the trip go much faster because we chatted all the way from Brisbane to Nerang where I disembarked.

I checked into Jupiter's Casino where I had a king room with water views for a very reasonable price and then spent many hours playing poker machines. I won more than enough money to cover my accommodating and meals, with some to spare for shopping. I had an early dinner in one of the restaurants .. roast pork with apple sauce, which was delicious.

Even though the bed in my room was absolutely glorious with massive comfortable pillows, I struggled to get to sleep after spending so much time surrounded by poker machine music and bright lights, so it was after 3am when I finally fell asleep.

I was woken briefly at 7am by the noise of construction work going on outside my room and then I luckily woke up at 9am, which gave me enough time to shower, repack and check out before 10am. At 9am the room was pitch black with the big heavy curtains pulled closed over the windows, so I don't know how I woke up on time.

There was supposed to be a free buffet breakfast included in the price of my room, but I don't normally eat breakfast, so I got myself a delicious coffee on the way out and caught a taxi to South Pacific Plaza where we are staying for three night.

A very nice apartment with gorgeous views ...

I've already spent my winnings from last night and have cleaned out Oasis Shopping Centre of everything that I liked there. Tomorrow, all twelve of us are off to Pacific Fair for the day and then we are dining at Jupiter's Casino tomorrow night.

We ate at Kurrawa Surf Club tonight. All but two of us ate seafood platters ...

I had a garden salad with grilled salmon and Tweedle Dum had roast chicken breast with veg. Mine was absolutely delicious.

So far, we are having a good time and I am enjoying myself very much.

It's now almost 11pm, and we need to meet for breakfast at 8am tomorrow, so I'd best catch some shut eye. A big day of shopping ahead!

Nite all.

Let the Fun Begin!

Our last day together and Chicklet wanted me to make and draw dragons .. especially 'Toothless' from 'How to Train Your Dragon'.

I had never seen that movie before, so after spending an hour or two, making strange creatures with pipe cleaners, paddle pop sticks, pompoms, sticky tape and scissors, we sat down with lunch, in the play room, to watch the movie.

Now I know how to make all sorts of different dragons! This is the first dragon in the making...

Then we made a video to send to Mama, but this is just one frame of it, showing Chicklet putting another cuddle on the cuddle door (each heart represents a cuddle that she wants from Mama).

We also played some more Zombies v Plants and of course Batman came into the equation again. We made finger puppets and Vikings and Viqueens.

She once again, curled up like a dragon and fell asleep, but a little later tonight than last night.

Now it's time for me to do the same. I have an early start tomorrow and I'm off to meet the girls for our Gold Coast getaway! Let's hope the rain hasn't caused too much damage down that way and my travel plans go smoothly!

Nite all.

Happy Saturday

I woke up feeling much better today. Stomach cramps gone and plenty of energy to take on the world and Chicklet!

We had a happy day with lots of laughter and playing. Whenever her energy levels looked like getting out of control, we would take some 'quiet time' and bring things back to a sane level.

The Batman and Friends figurines got a workout today and we played hide'n'seek with them for a good couple of hours. The 'Zombies v Plants' game app also got a good workout. I downloaded a version of it onto my iPad and we swapped games competing for the championship. She is definitely her Grandmother's Granddaughter ... so competitive!!

She showed me lots of apps on her iPad and explained how to play each one, which was fun.

We read three stories tonight and when I told her to curl up like a dragon ready for sleep, she rolled over and without uttering another word, was asleep within five minutes.

I calculated that we received about 60mm of rain overnight and today. The wind didn't get too bad and the room that I'm sleeping in, on this visit, is much quieter in the wet weather, than the back room. I noticed that the weather was coming from that direction, so it was quite loud against the windows.

The Bare-chested Chef was surprised that I slept so well because, as he stated "It was a loud night!"

I'm missing watching the football with Adoring Husband tonight, but keeping an eye on the scores. It's Super Saturday and three games are being shown live on Foxtel. I'm disappointed that my team lost against the Auckland Warriors tonight.

Looks like it could be an early night for me .. ready for a big Sunday .. final day of babysitting, and the weather will be much improved, so we might get to the park and have some outside play time.

As always, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with Chicklet. She's crazy and fun and clever and a real joy to be with - exhausting but wonderful!

Nite all.

Struggle Street

I am struggling with some kind of gastric bug at the moment. I've had some very mild stomach cramps for the past 48 hours, which were noticeable, but not uncomfortable or painful. I thought my body was doing a good job of fighting off whatever was trying to attach itself to me.

The cramps have been much stronger, although very intermittent, and quite painful this afternoon and evening.

Only one other brief symptom to go with the cramps, so I guess my body is still doing a good job of fighting it ... and it may explain why I slept so much yesterday afternoon and last night.

I just hope that I don't pass it on to the family .. especially to Chicklet!

We had a big shopping spree today!

Vegan Chickie will be pleased with the new 'noisy' toy that has joined the household. A walking, roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex! Ten Batman figurines with suction cups to attach to a special story book. Zootopia stickers and activity books. New highlighter pens and textas. Some silver angel costume wings, which have been renamed 'dragon wings'. A Bat pen. Dinosaur stickers.

We still have two full days of play left and one day that we won't be able to leave the house due to inclement weather .. which has the potential to turn into a serious weather event .. so it was important to have plenty of activities to keep us occupied.

I had some 'time out' in my bedroom before The Bare-chested Chef went to work, so my body had a chance to rest a bit before the onslaught of full-on Chicklet play!

She didn't want to go to sleep tonight and claimed that she wasn't tired. She wanted to have a staring competition, but when I told her that the winner would be the first person to fall asleep, she changed her mind. She then suggested a counting competition, which I won, because I counted so loud and so quickly, that she kept losing count! Then I suggested a competition to see who could be quiet the longest - she spoke first to declare that it was a tie! Then we had a competition to see who could keep their eyes closed the longest, but she spent the entire time asking me if I had opened my eyes yet.

Finally, I suggested that she curl up like a dragon - because dragons are always exhausted from flying and breathing fire and rescuing people - and then she might find it easier to fall asleep. So rolled onto her side and curled up like a dragon, pretending to curl her long tail around herself, and she was sound asleep inside five minutes!

So I'm off to sleep now, hoping to wake tomorrow, cramp free and fighting fit enough to take on a crazy Chicklet and a possible serious weather event.

Nite all.

It Eluded Me

After watching an exhausting State of Origin game last night (which, as you can tell by the above pic, my team won!), the adrenalin took too long to subside and I could not relax enough to sleep.

It was after 1am when I finally drifted off to sleep and for some strange reason, I woke up more than twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off, so I was wide awake again at 4.20am. Ugh.

Thank goodness I put yesterday's coffee in the fridge when I wasn't able to drink it all. I heated it up this morning and drank it on the way to the station. At least that kept me alert for most of the uneventful trip.

The Bare-chested Chef was waiting on the platform for me and we drove home in time for me to give Vegan Chickie a hug and wave goodbye as The Bare-chested Chef drove her to Brisvegas for her flight to Perth. I'll be gone before she returns, so I won't get to see her again until July!

I had a lot of fun playing with Chicklet for the next five hours. There was lots of dinosaur play, hide and seek, creating pictures and stories with stickers and pencils on paper, lunching and playing Angry Birds on the iPad.

By the time The Bare-chested Chef returned, and struggling to cope on 3 hours sleep, I was out on my feet, so as a good tag team does, I left Chicklet in his capable hands and climbed into bed for a nana nap. That was at 2.30pm.

I woke at 4pm and used the bathroom. I was going to head outside to the living room, but I could hear Chicklet and her Dadu chatting away and they sounded so relaxed and happy together, that I decided to lie back down on the bed and listen to them for a while, without disturbing them. Listening to them made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Next thing I knew, it was 6pm! I had drifted back to sleep and this time, when I woke up, I could hear them talking to Vegan Chickie on the speaker phone. She had arrived safely and Chicklet was chatting away, so again, instead of disturbing them, I decided to wait until the phone call was finished before making my way out.

Next thing I knew, it was 7.40pm!!! I had drifted off to sleep AGAIN!

By now, Chicklet was in bed and The Bare-chested Chef was cleaning up in the kitchen.

So my day has consisted of 2.5 hours of travelling, 5 hours of playing and 5 hours of sleeping!

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, but I'm still feeling very relaxed and drowsy, so after a few pages of my book, I believe I'll be back in dreamland before long.

I should certainly have plenty of energy for a full day of play tomorrow!

Nite all.

One More Sleep

I'm very close to being fully packed. I just need to put into the suitcase, the make-up and toiletries that I'll use to get ready in the morning, so it's all good! I am surprisingly well organised.

I enjoyed morning tea with the girls today. As predicted, they all had fabulous holiday stories to tell and they obviously had a great time on each of their trips away. There were six of us until The Speckled Hen and her daughter and grandson appeared, so our table was very full and very loud!

It was quite late in the morning, by the time we all went our separate ways.

I cooked up a big batch of beef ribs, some in the slow cooker and some in the oven. That was our quick easy dinner in preparation for State of Origin tonight. Yes, it's that time again! The first of three State of Origin games! I even delayed my trip away, so that I could watch the game with Adoring Husband.

It's our thing.

He supports NSW and I support QLD.

This is where I get to brag that since we've been together, his team has only won three series' and my team have won nine. Yay us!

I need to go now and get my State of Origin gear on. Adoring Husband has been wearing his blues gear all day and is fully prepared already.

Talk to you from the Sunny Coast tomorrow night.

Go QUEENSLANDERS!

This is a photo that I posted yesterday of a sunset on the river here...

I thought I'd show you the 'before' photo. It really wasn't much of a sunset and this is straight from the camera (actually this photo was taken ten seconds before the top one, but is identical except for some space on the right) ...

I'm just a rookie photoshopper and have no idea how to use anything but the basic tools in the program.

So now you know.

Nite all.

It's Oily

It's a habit that I still have feelings of guilt about, but I continue to laze in bed every morning, for as long as I feel it necessary. This morning, it was well after 9am when I climbed out from under that warm bedding.

Because I can!

After I bought my morning coffee, I decided to accompany Adoring Husband into The Bay. He only needed to buy one thing and I wanted to get some Black Seed Oil from Go Natural, across the other side of town.

While we were there, we stocked up on coconut ice cream too!

I hear you asking "What is Black Seed Oil?"

I'm glad that you asked!

Black seeds come from the Nigella Sativa flower, and it’s origins are from North Africa, Mediterranean/Europe, and Asia, but are grown all over the world now. Black Seed Oil is known as one of the most effective natural remedies in world, for many different ailments.

Cleopatra used it as part of her beauty routine, King Tut had a bottle of it with him in his tomb because he wanted to take it to the afterlife and the Muslim prophet Muhammad stated that black seeds can cure everything but death.

It's known as 

• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-oxidant
• Anti-fungal
• Anti-cancer
• Anti-asthmatic
• Anti-histamine
• Anti-viral
• Anti-coagulant

It promotes heart health. Lowers blood sugar. It strengthens your immune system to fight colds and flus. Reduces high blood pressure. It promotes natural deep sleep and has been known to eliminate insomnia. It prevents and eases muscle cramps. It has been an effective treatment for convulsions. It can lower anxiety and help with depression. It improves liver health and also digestion. 

There are lots more uses for it and there has been success with various cancers and protecting from the harmful effects of cancer treatments. 

You can read more about it here. 

AH has some spots on his arm that I will use this oil on .. I will report back with the results.

I enjoyed a couple of wines with The Blond Bombshell and Reality TV Queen this afternoon and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with the girls at morning tea tomorrow. There have been a few trips away, so there should be lots of stories to listen to!!

Nite all.

Happy Monday

How cold was it on Sunday night!? I was sleeping on top of the doona and under the light duvet and spent half the night shivering, but couldn't bear the thought of exposing my body to the cold air long enough to get under the warm bedding! Crazy.

The temperature got down to 7C this morning, which is very cold for this part of the world, however, once the sun rose, the weather warmed up quickly and it turned into a pleasantly mild day. Mild enough for me to comfortably wear jeans!

On my way to get my morning coffee, I bumped into Reality TV Queen, who was walking two borrowed dogs and she invited me to accompany her into The Bay while she bought a new toilet seat and some accessories for one of her borrowed dogs.

I eagerly agreed, even though she intended on visiting my least favourite shop in the universe .. Bunnings!

We also shopped in K-Mart, which is one of my favourite shops for reasonably inexpensive goodies. I got some more tea towels to replace my turmeric stained cloths, a new bed for Ruby and a clothes stand for when I do my ironing.

The RSL Club was our lunchtime destination and it was there that we discovered Chef Pat who was having an early lunch, and then while we were looking for a table to sit down, we found Shazzam with her husband, so we sat with them to eat, which was very pleasant!

A quick flutter on the pokies and then we were off to the supermarket for some groceries and we were home by 3.30pm. It was a good day and it's always nice to spend some quality time with Reality TV Queen. She's a crack up!

I sold the fourth of my five text books today, through Gumtree, so I'm pretty happy with that kind of success inside one week. I still have one book remaining, which is the most expensive of the books, but time will tell.

I hear a warm doona calling my name tonight! I will climb under there immediately, so that I don't have to think about it again before morning. Cosy and comfy straight away.

Nite all.

Last Sunday of Autumn

I don't know if you've seen this before. I saw it for the first time, a few years ago, and was amused, amazed and entertained, so when I saw it pop up on my Facebook feed today, I thought I'd share it here for your enjoyment.



I did what I do best on a Sunday morning, and stayed in bed, reading and playing on my iPad til after 10am. I did this while Adoring Husband was working his butt off, whipper snipping and mowing the shop lawns and then doing our lawns.

While he was finishing our lawns, I went for a ride in the glorious Autumn sunshine to get my morning coffee. I rode the long way and meandered along the river path, playing my music really LOUD through my earphones and stopping to chat with a couple of the shop owners before I decided to head home.

Off in the distance, I watched a Whistling Kite climb high in the sky and then dive bomb so fast toward the tops of the tall trees, it was a spectacular dive! I stopped, watching and waiting for it to fly back above the trees, to see what it had caught.

It never came back up, but not far to the right of the trees, I saw my favourite bird, the White-bellied Sea Eagle, soaring in slow motion and forming a V with it's huge wing span. Suddenly from nowhere, two Whistling Kites began dive bombing it! It quickly flew over my head and towards the river, with the two kites close on it's tail.

THEN, as it got closer to the river, a second WBSE appeared, and the kites, even though they were less than half the size of the eagles, began bombing both of the eagles! So I turned around and I hightailed it towards the river (even though I DID NOT have my camera with me), so that I could watch the action.

As I got close, I lost sight of them through some trees and by the time I got to the river's edge, there was no sign of ANY of the birds, in ANY direction. Disappeared into thin air! Ugh!

It's probably a good thing, because if anything more exciting had happened, I might have been really sad not to have my camera with me!

Most of today, I spent at my lovely clean desk, looking at some old photos and found this one ...

It was a neighbour's birthday cake covered in fresh frangipanis. This happened in January this year and looking at the photo today, I remembered how poisonous and toxic the sap from these flowers is! Luckily, nobody was affected, but I'll make sure I tell them to avoid using fresh frangipanis for decoration on food in future.

This was our dinner tonight. I did duck breast with orange butter sauce, served with bubble'n'squeak.

Now I'm off to bed. It's going to be a big week for me!

Nite all.

Not So Super Saturday

What I dislike about State of Origin time, is that there are less games of regular footy on TV over the weekends.

This week, instead of one game on Thursday night, one on Friday night, three on Saturday, two on Sunday and then one on Monday .. we only get one game each day from Friday to Monday.

I'm pretty sure that everyone in Australia, who dislikes sport, probably enjoys this time of year, which proves that 'you can't please all of the people all of the time, but you can please some of the people some of the time'.

Sadly, my team lost last night by one point. I'm not feeling confident about my choice for tonight's game between St George Dragons and QLD Cowboys either. It's been a 50-50 decision by all the tippers in our club tipping competition, so I guess the game could go either way.

This was my delicious breakfast this morning ...

A whole punnet of fresh raspberries (very sweet) with plain coconut yoghurt, macadamia nuts, pecans, shredded dark organic chocolate, and drizzled with raw honey.

I cooked up last night's winnings for lunch (leg of lamb).

Adoring Husband and I watched a couple of movies today. 'Trainwreck', 'The Ugly Truth' and 'Fried Green Tomatoes' (always a goodie).

Now we are all set to watch the footy!

So it's been a while since I've shared some quotes and memes...

Nite all.

Friday Frenzy

Well, what a quiet night at the club it was tonight! Only three of us, from our group, in attendance and we all won something in the raffles! Thank you Leggy Blonde for pressing the button which brought my number up to win a leg of lamb!

I had a lucky night on the pokies and I haven't checked my keno ticket, so I could be a winner there too!

Our group keno ticket had won $9 from last week, so I replayed that which only won $1, so I added our $16 and replayed it 17 games (for all of our ladies who weren't there this week and wondered if we were millionaires yet). We could be millionaires by the time we check the ticket next week!

I had a terrible night last night. I was in bed by 8.30pm and asleep before 9.30pm. Adoring Husband came home from SES training at some stage and woke me up because I guess he was worried that I was in bed asleep already (I'm ALWAYS up waiting for him, no matter what time he arrives home).

Then he was carrying on like a pork chop because he'd lost his glasses.

I went back to sleep and was woken by the dogs at 1.05am because they needed to go out to pee, so I got up and took them outside.

At 1.45am, Jack decided he needed to go out again, so up I got.

At 2.30am, I was still awake and both Jack and Ruby decided it was time for the third trip outside, except they both just stood at the back door and looked outside. Ruby had a drink and they both came back to bed.

At 3.20am, I had actually dozed off to sleep when Jack woke me again!  I took him outside. Ruby stayed in bed. Jack actually went out to the yard this time.

At 3.45am, I was still wide awake and unable to fall back to sleep, so I decided to sit in the lounge room for a while. There was nothing on TV, so I checked Facebook (as you do) until I felt like I could go back to sleep some time after 4.30am.

Just as I was dozing off (at about 5am), Adoring Husband's alarm went off, for him to get up for work! Ugh!

Finally when I was in a sound sleep, Adoring Husband returned from work (I'm guessing it was about 5.40am) and set the dogs off barking and woke me up yet again.

I was attempting to sleep, but I could hear voices and music, which I assumed was AH watching television in the lounge room, but figured out it was the builders across the road, playing their radio really loud.

I gave up at 7.45am and climbed out of bed to start my day, feeling very cheated and very cranky, and threatening to take the dogs to the vet!

The Nikonian shared this on FB today and I was amazed by these beautiful voices. I knew you would love it too.



Right now, I'm watching my football team lose to the Wests Tigers. There is still 12 minutes left in the game, so I haven't lost all hope, but I know that Number One Son will be sitting on the edge of his seat down in Wagga, hoping that his team beats my team!

I expect that I will be in bed in about 15 minutes attempting to catch up on last night's lost sleep.

Nite all.

Date Day

'Alice Through The Looking Glass' was a great movie .. but I think it needs to be seen on the big screen to appreciate all the affects, the colour, and the magnificence of it.

There was only one other person in the cinema to share the experience .. an elderly lady with a walking frame, so it was almost a private viewing!

Adoring Husband slept through a good portion of it! It didn't 'grab' him apparently.

After the movie, we lunched at Kondari (3rd time in three weeks for me!) and we both had the pork belly. Two big sections of pork belly each. Soft tender meat topped with crunchy tasty pork crackle on a bed of slaw and swirls of chilli plum dressing. Adoring Husband filled his side plate with vegetables and I filled mine with mixed salads. Again, I couldn't finish my meal.

Later, we grocery shopped, bought some replacement fresh yellow flowers for my desk vase, picked up the FROG box of goodies and arrived home a little after 3pm.

Because we had such a big lunch, I didn't have to worry about cooking before AH left for SES training. If he's feeling peckish when he gets home, he can have some of last night's leftovers.

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of Mum's passing. The day was not a sad one for me but I just wanted to acknowledge it. I've mentioned before that because she passed away at the end of the first State of Origin game in 2005, and she loved State of Origin so much, I always feel more emotional about her passing, at the end of that first game every year. The game will be on 1st June.

It's not even 8.30pm and I am going to bed to enjoy some silence and some reading until AH returns home.

Nite all.

Lovely Lunch

It was a great day with the ladies today, but numbers were down. There were some away on holidays, or with sick husbands, or themselves ill. We usually have more than twenty in attendance, but today there was only about eleven or twelve. It was still a cozy number and we had a good time.

The food was especially nice, with a wide variety to choose from the menu, good sized meals at reasonable prices, and they also had a good selection of salads and vegetables to choose from at the 'serve yourself' bar, which is included with every meal ordered.

This is the second time that I've eaten at Kondari, and both times, I was unable to finish everything on my plate.

We have a big day planned for tomorrow, including going to the movies for the first and early showing of Alice Through the Looking Glass. I'm excited!

I'm also excited about 'Finding Dory' which is released next month!



I got my hair cut a week ago and she cut about 15cm off the bottom, which was much more than I asked for, however, it needed a good healthy chop and of course it will grow quickly - it always does.

How unusual for me to be signing off before 9.30pm! I think I may head off to bed to read for a while!

Nite all.

Caught Up

We caught up with the family for lunch today and spent two hours talking about the new property, family stuff and future plans.

The lunch itself wasn't very fulfilling and it's possible that the Cattleman may have gone looking for more food after we went our separate ways. In future, we need to think more carefully about where to eat, so that everyone can be satisfied. Adoring Husband and I are not big eaters these days, so a light salad with a bit of protein is enough for us, but not for most people.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the gang and hope to see them more often now that they live close by.

I think I've convinced Adoring Husband to take me on a movie date on Thursday!! (not that he needed much convincing)



Tomorrow is the monthly lady's luncheon, so I'd best get to bed for a decent night of sleep. It's 11pm and I think I can squeeze in twenty minutes of reading before I send out the ZZZzzzzzs.

Nite all.

Catching Up

Tomorrow, we are catching up with 'Best Cousin in the World',  her husband 'The Cattleman', and my niece 'Rainbow Dory'. I'm sure that I've mentioned my niece before, but under a different name ... only I can't remember the name I gave her, so I have renamed her 'Rainbow Dory' (she does a great impersonation of Dory impersonating a whale!).

I've probably mentioned 'The Cattleman' under a different name as well, but you know, as we go through life, things change, so my nicknames for you will change too!

We've agreed to meet for lunch at one of the nicer pubs in town - Adoring Husband's idea, so I can blame him if the food is bad.

Even if the food is bad, the view will be great and that should make up for it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. It's been a couple of years since we caught up.

This morning, I had coffee with 'The Whinging Pom' and 'Fit as a Fiddle'. We had deep discussions about the deficiencies of the medical profession.

This afternoon, AH and I went for a bike ride. We checked out the progress of the new boat ramp, road along the path beside the river, did a loop of some more established streets in town and then stopped for take-away coffee before heading back home.

I came home and grabbed my camera, because it really looked like a beautiful sunset developing, but as usually happens here, a bank of dark cloud covered the sky in exactly the position where the sun was setting and muffled everything that could have been.

It was a fail.

I returned home to cook dinner and was excited to watch 'House Rules' and 'The Voice' and 'Seven Year Switch Reunion', however, Foxtel was playing up tonight and it froze halfway through House Rules, it failed to record The Voice and it froze for the first twenty minutes of Seven Year Switch. Very frustrating!

I'm excited that 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' begins in cinemas this week. Not sure how or when I'm going to get to see it, but I certainly plan on seeing it on the big screen. Might try for a date with AH on Thursday.

Once again, it's almost midnight!

Nite all.

Silent Sunday

I sat silently in my lounge room with all of the windows closed and the blinds pulled, watching movies. I did put in some effort in the kitchen, when I prepared a lamb neck casserole for dinner, but otherwise, it was a quiet and silent Sunday for me.

The people I know, in this world, have a wide variety of interests and these are some of the activities that they enjoyed this weekend.

• Digital graphic art
• Photo editing
• Attending the v8 super car racing in Winton
• Drinking at the pub on Magnetic Island
• Taking kids to participate in a soccer tournament
• Taking kids to participate in an AFL tournament
• Playing 'tourist' in Italy
• Attempting archery
• Completing a First Aid and CPR course (and I don't mean Adoring Husband)
• Shopping in Sydney
• Oil painting
• Surfing
• Quilting
• Having a Hen's party
• Branding cattle
• Taking the kids to the beach for a picnic
• Gardening
• Psychic reading
• Playing guitar
• Attending a wedding
• Buying a new car
• Caravaning to Yeppoon
• Babysitting the grandkids
• Going to the footy
• Fund raising for charity
• Hiking through a National Park
• Watching superhero movies
• Model motor boat racing

 ... and that's just to name a few!!

Obviously, everyone else in the world had a much more active and interesting weekend than I did! I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed my quiet Saturday and silent Sunday just as much as everyone else enjoyed their exciting activities!

I'm off to bed for an early night and a little bit of reading.

Nite all.

The Long Wait

I've had a quiet day at home, while Adoring Husband has been at the SES shed attending a full weekend First Aid Course.

When the course runs in Burrum Heads, we go to dinner at the local pub, with the trainers, and tonight was no exception. There were eight of us and unfortunately, about 88 others all seated in the restaurant, celebrating somebody's 60th birthday!

AH and I arrived at 6.30pm and we placed our orders at about 6.45pm. They told us there would be a one hour wait for our dinner. Almost two hours later, our orders began landing on our table.

By this time, we were all so hungry, that all conversation ceased while we ploughed into our food.

I was disappointed because I was told that the menu had changed since the restaurant was revamped, but it was exactly the same as it always was. Even after 8 years, the menu remains the same. Very limiting for anyone with dietary requirements. It has to be at least a year since I ate there and I won't voluntarily return there for a meal.

Sometimes our lady's luncheons are held there, but the last time, I ate before I went to lunch and I joined them just for the social aspect.

It was doubly disappointing because AH and I wanted to watch his team play against Manly tonight, and by the time we got home, there was only 5 minutes left of the game. Thankfully, his team (Cronulla Sharks) won by eight points, which puts them firmly on top of the ladder!

Some more sad news from the world of celebrities ...

Alan Young (Wilbur, from the TV show 'Mr Ed') passed away today, of natural causes, at the ripe old age of 96!! I think that's a pretty good innings.

Have a happy Sunday everyone!

Nite all.

A Good Hearty Chuckle

Vegan Chickie shared this on FB today and it had me laughing so hard, I had tears. Watch it to the end and I guarantee that you will feel those endorphins surging through your body.



It was just in the nick of time because I was sad to see my Broncos team lose by one point to the Cowboys tonight, but instead of crying sad tears, I shed some happy ones!

Nothing of any significance happened today. We had planned on attending the Maryborough Show for the first time ever, but after the car played up yesterday, I decided that I didn't want to drive in it until it was checked out. Especially out on the highway.

We started our quiet day with a cooked breakfast.

Adoring Husband had a little bit of work to do at the SES shed in preparation for the two day course this weekend, and while he was gone, I did a search for a movie that I've been looking for.

It was a movie that I watched about half a dozen times when I was seventeen years old. I remembered that it was an Australian movie and one of the main characters (who I had the hots for) was American. I remembered that there was a really fast car in it, like a Porsche or a Ferrari (it was actually a Corvette) and I remembered that it was based on the Gold Coast somewhere.

I started looking for it about two years ago, without success.

Today, finally, I found it!!!

It's called "High Rolling" and it was released in 1977. The American actor was Joseph Bottoms and Grigor Taylor was the other lead male actor. This was actually Judy Davis's first movie as well. Other actors in the movie were Wendy Hughes, Gil Tucker, Terry Norris and Gus Mercurio.

You can watch the preview of the movie here.

If you have the time and want to watch all one hour and twenty two minutes of the movie, go here!

I watched it while AH was out and I enjoyed it almost as much today, as I did 29 years ago! The Joseph Bottoms of 1977 still looks pretty hot to me and he is still acting today, but I'm not so smitten with the old Joseph Bottoms (call me fickle).

Young Joseph Bottoms ...

Old Joseph Bottoms ...

Anyway, I relived a little bit of my youth today and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nite all.

All Good Now

Well, thank goodness I recovered from my queasiness and woke up feeling more energised and happy this morning, and ready to take off on the road to the Sunny Coast for my appointment.

We left bright and early. I shouldn't really say 'bright' because the sun wasn't even up properly as we drove off. We had to stop and go back inside because I heard all three dogs barking and shrieking and howling! I ran through the garage and banged on the door to the house as loud as I could (probably woke all the neighbours!). There was instant silence, so I opened the door and yelled at them to behave.

It was quiet as we drove off the second time .. hopefully it stayed that way!

We stopped at Sexie Coffee (of course) for our first morning pick-me-up coffee.

We arrived at our destination an hour early, so we sat in a little coffee shop while Adoring Husband had his second coffee for the day. He left to do his own errands while I attended what I thought would be a two hour appointment, but it actually only took my dentist 15 minutes to do the job and the appointment cost me nothing!

So that was my final appointment for all the repairs that had to be done to my mouth and in future, it will be just the 6 monthly clean and maintenance.

*happy dance*

Afterwards, we drove to Kunara Organic Markets and spent up big on some bulk items. We were surprised at how much cheaper they were, compared to what we spend in The Bay for the same product.

We also sat down in the cafe and Adoring Husband had his 3rd coffee for the day. We each ate a GF chicken and rosemary crepe which was absolutely delicious - but we should have bought two each!

I shouted myself a little 'finished with the dentist' gift before I left Kunara ...

Once we decided that we were too broke to go anywhere else, we drove to Noosa Civic and bought some GF petit fours for Chicklet, AH and I to share, a lemon meringue pie for Vegan Chickie and take-away coffees all round (Number 4 for AH). My coffee was lukewarm and not very nice, so I left at least half of it, which AH consumed (Number 5 almost).

Two hours of playing with Chicklet and talking with Vegan Chickie and it was time to return home. During the drive, AH complained about his tremor being quite bad, to which I replied "It may have something to do with the 5 coffees you've had today!!)

The car began flashing some unfamiliar dashboard lights as we got close to home, so tomorrow, AH has to take it into The Bay to have it checked over. The manual gave strict instructions to do so!

We pulled in the driveway, safe n sound, a bit after 5pm.

The Psychotic Dogs were very happy to see us, that's for sure!

AH was pretty 'done in' after experiencing some pain during the day and still having to drive, so he headed off to bed early.

It's only 9.20pm and I think I'll head off to bed to read for a while. I may sleep well tonight too.

Nite all.

  

Below Par

Just a quickie tonight.

I woke up this morning feeling a bit queasy, but I pushed through it and went to morning tea with three of the girls.

By the time I returned home, I had relapsed a bit, but did some washing and folding and bed making, while Adoring Husband vacuumed.

It was well after 11am when I decided to lie down and read for a while, hoping the 'queasy' would eventually pass. It didn't.

So I've remained in bed all day. I got out of bed to heat some soup for lunch, to greet Lady Lynn when she made an important delivery, and then to grab a couple of mandarins for dinner.

I'm hoping that by resting up, I'll be ok for the trip to the dentist on the Sunny Coast tomorrow.

I have no idea what's caused this queasiness, but hopefully I will wake up tomorrow with renewed energy and feeling a whole lot better.

See ya tomorrow.

Nite all.

Great Aunty

Yes, I know that I'm a great Aunty!! But I'm actually going to be a Great Aunty!

Squirt (my little sister), announced on Facebook yesterday, that her oldest girl and her boyfriend are expecting a baby, due in December.

I feel a little disappointed that she didn't phone me with the news before announcing it on FB, but I honestly can't remember how I told her about Chicklet! It's highly likely that she is giving me a taste of my own medicine, so I can hardly complain!

Today, I made up a little gift pack, wrote on two cards - one for the Nana-to-be and one for the parents-to-be and sent them off in the mail.

This is how it was announced to her ...

... and also how she announced it on FB.

Crazy family.

I've been de-cluttering, and in the last two days have delivered five bags of books to the local craft store, including self help books, recipe books, novels, autobiographies and books on health. I have about 100 more recipe books that I'm going to take down there as well.

There is still plenty more de-cluttering to do.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Chicklet family on Thursday, which is the day that Adoring Husband and I drive down to the Sunny Coast for my dental appointment. Just a day trip this time, but I'll be babysitting for four days in the first week of June, so that will be fun!

Well, it's 11pm and I'm off to do some more reading.

Nite all.

Best of News

The good news is that the Professor is happy with Adoring Husband's health as far as the Parkinson's is concerned and also there is no sign of the bladder cancer returning. AH's health is as good as it can be, all things considered. *happy dance*

We have really focussed on improving our health and lifestyle, hoping to fight off the diseases that threatened us, so seeing and feeling the continuous positive results is inspiring and encouraging.

I'm actually proud of AH for keeping the faith and maintaining such a positive attitude.

This weekend he spent quality time, between appointments (3 days), with his Gold Coast family, and even got to play Poppy to his two little grandbabies. He and his son enjoyed watching their beloved Sharkies annihilate the Knights 62-0 together, so it really was a very successful weekend all round!

I cooked up a baked dinner to celebrate AH's return home and followed it with the celebratory apple and walnut muffins for dessert.

Before lunch today, I had a hair appointment. It's been about eight months since I've had my hair trimmed, so I asked for a fair chunk to be trimmed off today. It feels VERY short (for me) and is just a bit longer than shoulder length.

In between all of that, I submitted my photo for one of the flickr challenges this month. The theme is 'Patterns of Nature'.

The difficult part of this challenge, is that it's the third time we've had this theme, so trying to figure out a different way to interpret it, is a challenge in itself! I won it last time with the bees on the honeycomb.

There is another challenge themed 'Nature's Image' for this month too. I hope to get to that one later.

It's creeping up to 11pm so I'm off to bed for some reading. Five pages is about my limit before I start to fall asleep, so I think it might take me a while to finish this book!

Have a happy Tuesday!

Nite all.

Take a Look!

You've read here, in the past, about a woman named Jessie Reimers, whom I follow on Facebook on her 'Get a Fresh Start' page, as well as her story with the Doterra Essential oils and her petitions, firstly to get rid of the 'Healthy Heart Tick', which in a way, was successful, but unfortunately led the Aust Govt to produce the 'Healthy Star Rating' which is no better than the tick.

Jessie has a new petition here, which explains why the new rating is very misleading and how companies can manipulate their data to improve their star rating.

Aside from the petition, she has joined forces with other like-minded activists, who focus on health and world truths, to create a series of videos, explaining the tricks that the food industry use to promote their goods and then they recreate that food showing the actual ingredients and the ratios and percentages as stated on the ingredient lists on their packaging.

Today, the first video has been released, and although it is a little amateurish, it is an excellent start to what I imagine will be a very interesting series, and will quite possibly lead to bigger and better things in their future.

It's just under eight minutes long and had almost 900 views in the first four hours after it was posted on Facebook.   

Sometimes I truly believe that people are beginning to understand the relationship between food and their health, but then something happens that will bring me back to reality with a thud.

My voice of experience knows that young people (I was one once!) believe that what they consume in their youth is not affecting them and they will only worry about it 'later, if they get sick'.

Older people (I am one now!) believe that they can continue to eat everything that they've always considered 'healthy' and that prescribed medications will protect them into old age.

So I understand Jessie & Co's obsession and focus on getting the news 'out there' and, knowing how strong that brick wall of ignorance is, I have great admiration for them, as, with the very best of intentions, they continue to fight the good fight.

I wish I had their dedication and commitment. Even though my beliefs are just as strong as ever, criticism, teasing and negativity tend to silence me more and more, so instead of trying to change the world, as Jessie is doing, I withdraw and simply focus on Adoring Husband and myself.

I'm sure that my friends and family are grateful for those tendencies in me, and all I can do is lead by example. The only problem with leading by example, at my age, is that anybody who is more than five years older than me, believes that it is my youth that makes the difference, not my lifestyle.

So I will continue to share information here in my blog, and hope that in some small way, I might make a difference to somebody's health.

All going well, Adoring Husband is due home tomorrow and as much as I have enjoyed a very peaceful and quiet weekend alone, I am looking forward to seeing him upon his return. I may even bake some 'welcome home' apple and walnut muffins!

My written words make so much more sense to me than anything I see in my mind or that comes out of my mouth!

I have an early finish today, because I plan on going to bed early to continue reading Penmarric.

Welcome to a new week!

Nite all.