Counting Sleeps

Two more sleeps til Bubbles arrives.

Five more sleeps til Adoring Husband takes me on our early anniversary celebrations.

I'm looking forward to the next three weeks having some alone time with Bubbles and with AH.

AH and I haven't had a holiday (or any time) together since 2012 so this is going to be fabulous.

There will be a lunch with friends, dinners in classy restaurants, a river cruise, markets, shopping, IKEA, a night at the races, walks on the beach and maybe a visit to Montville.

Even though I feel exhausted just looking at that sentence, it's going to be great.

Today started very nicely having coffee with the girls and it was almost midday before I got home.

I'd bought a couple of pineapples so I peeled and chopped them up for freezing. I made up smoothie packs to freeze. Some with fruits and some with veggies. Now there are about 20 packs of fresh frozen food for blending.

AH made up dog food for psychotic dogs Jack and Colli while I did some art in my room.

We watched our usual quiz shows in the late afternoon and had an easy dinner.

The water in the pool is too warm for me to enjoy swimming, which means that it's been about 5 days  since I had a swim! We need another big heavy storm to cool down the water.

I'm working in the morning which means I have to be up bright and early for meditation so I'd best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Not My Fun Day

Sunday was not my fun day.

My ‘to do’ list included:

• 3 loads of washing
• Clearing off the dining table (which was home to a month’s worth of dumping)
• Making up and batching 10 days worth of dog food for psychotic dog Ruby who is on a diet of kangaroo and veg
• Clearing the rear bedroom in preparation for Bubble’s visit this week
• Culling approximately 60 recipe books from the book case

Not a big list but quite time consuming and not at all enjoyable.

I made up for it today (Monday) by staying in bed until dinner time.

I watched a LOT of YouTube videos to determine what to teach in this Saturday’s class and have decided on what is called “chameleon” cells...

I would have practiced today but my studio is, once again, too messy to work in. It doesn’t take much to mess it up. In fact it takes 20 minutes of art to make 2 hours of clean up time. Ya gotta hate that.

My food intake is still on track and my tummy has been super happy for 8 days straight.

I’m looking forward to coffee with the girls tomorrow and it’s already well after midnight so I’d best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Before Midnight.

Quick!

It’s almost midnight!!

Check these out!

Quiet morning in the shop.

Quick catch up with The Motivator.

Hot day. No swim.

Ready to sleep.

Nite all.

Repairing and Regenerating

The human body is an amazing thing.

I saved this four years ago and tonight, I have messaged the researcher who originally shared it to find out if she has any further information. If I hear back, I’ll put the info here.

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Upward of 90% of our genes may be influenced by the foods we eat.

Holy cow.

The existence of epigenetics has been known for some time - the fact that environmental factors such as diet, stress, activity, sleep, and even our microbiome can influence which genes are turned on or turned off. But, new science published a couple of days ago shows just how profound the effect is. 

I'm seriously more excited about this than I am about the measurement of gravitational waves (not that Einstein being correct in his predictions isn't crazy awesome).

The research was performed in yeast, a very common model for measurement of genetic research because its entire genome has been mapped for quite some time, measurement and manipulation is quite straightforward, and many of yeast's important genes and fundamental cellular mechanisms are the same as or very similar to those in animals and humans.

The researchers manipulated the levels of important metabolites in the yeast cells, mimicking the products of metabolic reactions produced when we feed our bodies different foods.

Then, the researchers examined how this affected the behavior of the genes and the molecules they produced. Almost 90% of the genes and their products were affected by changes in cellular metabolism.

We're used to thinking about how our genetics influence how our bodies use nutrients, but this research shows the relationship goes both ways: what nutrients we feed our bodies determines our genetics.
This is just the beginning of what will likely be a whole new field of research and the applications, from development of individualized therapeutic diets for everything from cancer to obesity, to understanding the best medication choices for an individual when warranted.

Maybe even more importantly, this research may help explain contradictory results from different laboratories investigating similar questions related to diet and nutrition. If we can understand the genetic effects on metabolism, we can control for these factors, and design experiments to conclusively answer so many questions that remain controversial within nutritional sciences and complementary medicine.

I also find a lot of optimism in this research. Yes, there's still a ton to learn, but it tells us that our genetics are far more pliable that previously thought, which means there's a lot more power in our hands to take control of our health.

______

Original article:

Alam MT, et al “The metabolic background is a global player in Saccharomyces gene expression epistasis”. Nature Microbiology, 2016; 15030 DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2015.30

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As far as I can tell, this means that your diet, designed specifically for you and your genetic composition, could potentially repair any damage caused by medical conditions and diseases that you’ve had in the past or are currently enduring.

That will be a game changer.

In the meantime, doing simple things like removing damaging refined sugar from your diet and drinking lots of filtered water to keep your body and organs hydrated and help your body clear toxins is an excellent way to start because those things have already proven to work.

What have you got to lose?

Had a quiet day at the shop.

Created a story for the newsletter about last weeks art class. Paid another bill that arrived today. The day passed surprisingly fast because I was shocked when Adoring Husband arrived to pick me up.

Im pretty sure some of you can relate to this ...

Nite all.

Storm Free

Finally.

A storm free afternoon so that I could go for a swim!

Because of all the recent rain, the pool is extremely full with a crispy cool edge to the water. Just the way I like it!

I swam for about 30 minutes and then sat under the Bali hut for another 30 minutes.

I tested out some new insect repellant candles that I bought online from Settlers. They worked a treat! No midgie bites and I was outside until 5pm! Impressive!

Here is the website if you’re interested. Settlers

Look who turned 9 today!! She called ME at work this morning with FaceTime and even though there was a customer in the shop, I sang happy birthday very loudly and very badly. God I miss her so much and it has been FOREVER since I got to hug her.

Happy birthday to my amazing Chicklet 🥰😍🥳

It was a slow and steady day in the shop. I paid a bill and created the three ads for the newsletter - it’s been a while since I actually sent the ads through on time so I’m kind of waiting for the walls to crash in!

I filled my belly with healthful delicious food all day. Food diary:

Breakfast: 1/2 sml tub plain coconut yoghurt with chopped banana and 6 raspberries. Coffee.

Lunch: 6 baby cos lettuce leaves filled with 1 avocado smashed with tuna, onion, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Dinner: 1/2 Peking duck breast with 1/2 head of broccoli (steamed and tossed in grass fed butter), grilled mushroom and a hash brown. Coconut ice cream for dessert.

1 litre of water all day. I need to improve on that.

So this is how I’m going to be accountable for my food intake - you have no choice but to tolerate the addition of my food diary to each blog post.

It’s almost 11pm and I’m in bed, but now it’s time to sleep 💤

Nite all.

Woeful Five

Our trivia team is called the Fab Five.

Tonight we were the woeful five!

I believe we came second last. This is the second time we’ve done that. Even last place wins some chocolate!

For many reasons, none of us were really on point tonight.

Ah well, perhaps next month will be a better one for us.

I woke at 6am and lay in bed considering whether to attend meditation or not. In the end I decided that the benefits were worth making the effort. I was right and I’m glad I went.

Afterwards, I grabbed a coffee before sitting, very briefly, with some of the meditation ladies while they finished their coffees and while I waited for Adoring Husband to pick me up.

With a trip into The Bay on the cards, we stopped for me to have a quick change into some presentable clothes and off we went.

First stop, Office Works. I 💕 love 💕 Office Works. You know that.

Second stop, Tinkerbells. I 💕 love 💕 Tinkerbells. My Goddesses of Fortune had JUST been delivered that morning, so even though I was only stopping by to pay a deposit, I was actually able to pay for them and take them home!!

I also bought this beautiful pendant ...

And put this one on layby.

I had made enquires about this one way back in August last year, so I was pleased that it was still in the shop. It was obviously meant to be! It’s an Aqua Aura Quartz.

Third stop, Aquavue for a delicious lunch of garlic prawns and a watermelon frappe.

Fourth stop, Stocklands, for a small grocery shop.

Fifth stop, Craignish to pick up our FROG box (organic fruit and veg that we order every week).

Arrived home at 2.30pm. Took forever to unpack everything because of course I had to slowly browse through all of my lovely purchases and soak it all in.

Then I remembered trivia, so the race was on to prepare dinner and make ourselves presentable for a night out.

Tomorrow is a work day and it’s already 11.30pm so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Recovery

I was feeling well enough to enjoy Tuesday morning coffee with the girls.

Before that, Adoring Husband and I cleared the training room at the shop in preparation for meditation on Wednesday morning and I packed away all the washed art tools that were piled high on the kitchen sink.

Even though the weather was warm and steamy, coffee with the girls was enjoyable and lasted til about 11am. Aggie was kind enough to give me a lift home so AH was surprised to see me walk through the door.

I made myself a smoothie with cucumber, celery, apple and baby spinach whichtided me over for lunch.

Truth be told, I was too nervous to put real food in my tender tummy for fear those dreaded cramps returning!

At 3.30pm I attempted 6 rice crackers with avocado mashed with lemon.

It had been almost 48 hours since I’d eaten solid food and thankfully it did not result in any pain.

I made myself a small meal of chicken, mushroom and spinach cooked in my bone broth. I only ate half of it and all was calm on the belly front.

I think I’m in the clear!

Chicklet’s dragon finally got finished today. Unfortunately, due to my illness, I didn’t finish it in time for her to receive it before or on her birthday, but better late than never. It isn’t as good as I’d planned and in the end it was quite rushed, but I think she’ll like it.

If I want to attend meditation in the morning, I’d best get some sleep!

Nite all.

Bug Off!

This is the second tummy bug I’ve had in less than seven weeks.

This one was worse and really took a lot out of me. I’ve slept the second day away and still feeling pretty weak. I can’t get enough fluids into me and my tummy protests when I try.

I gotta focus more on my diet and health. I’ve been very lazy and neglectful in that regard.

Time to start loving myself like my life depends on it! Which is also the name of a book that I read before the tummy bug hit me!

I missed out on lunch with the girls today too and I was really looking forward to that. Only four of the six of us ended up going for lunch and shopping.

The art class on Saturday was a big success. I forgot to get a group photo, but here are some of the work they all did ...

Obviously my body knew that something was coming on because I went to bed early on Saturday night and stayed in bed all day Sunday until all the action started during Sunday night. I was so sick I didn’t once look at the clock, so I don’t know when it started, but the action finished at about 8am this morning. I know that time because Adoring Husband left for golf then.

So rather than give you any more juicy details, obviously there is nothing else to talk about except the beautiful rain that has been falling heavily in patches every day.

I hope that tomorrow I will be well enough to meet the girls for Tuesday morning coffee. Wish me luck.

Nite all.

Getting My Art On

I had a very pleasant day at the shop today.

Not a lot of sales, but strangely there were four different groups that came in at different times, each with one or two men who wanted to have long and detailed chats about art and photography while their friends and partners wandered through the shop!

It’s not unusual for a man to want to chat about such things, but four in one day is VERY unusual!

I spent most of the day setting up the training room for our art workshop on Saturday and even had time for a little practice ... I didn’t take a photo.

Two things to share today.

A dust storm rolled into Griffith on Wednesday evening ...

I remember them well. Close your windows every time you go out because you never know when these buggers are suddenly going to appear and whip red dust through your house! Made that mistake once ... only once!

This is the original track of the cyclone that’s going to form, but apparently it’s going to go even further south and northern NSW will be in the firing line.

I headed to the club tonight and had another nice win on the pokies which will pay for my Goddess Fortuna statue that I ordered through Tinkerbells today.

She is going to bring even more good fortune into my life!

Now I’m off to bed so that I can be fresh for art tomorrow.

Nite all.

Practice

Adoring Husband and I spent a good portion of the day in The Bay purchasing supplies for the paint workshop this weekend.

I found some great bargains!

I had a bit of a practice on the jellyfish this afternoon ...

These are on small canvases and we’ll be using much bigger ones on Saturday.

We’ve had more beautiful rain overnight and today. Everything is green and lush again BUT apparently there is a cyclone forming in the Coral Sea and if it does form, it will head straight towards us!

The only good thing about a cyclone is that some drought affected areas out west might receive some much needed rain.

Otherwise the idea of a cyclone at this time scares me!

Also, it’s rotten timing! We have plans for the next month! We don’t want a cyclone forcing us to cancel these plans!

I’ve just received a message that The Motivator is not well 🤒 so that means I’ll be working tomorrow. Time for bed!!

Get well soon TM 😘

Nite all.

Peaceful Epiphany

I had an epiphany at meditation this morning.

It will be a game changer.

More on that when it’s actually changing the game.

As part of her kinergetics training, The Motivator tested me for some allergies and intolerances this morning. Strangely, gluten wasn’t as bad as yeast, MSG and fluoride. It was just a quick run through because time was short so there will be more testing at a later date.

It’s all very interesting.

There is another art workshop this weekend ...

There will be a couple of young new faces attending this week so it should be fun.

We’ve had a couple of inches of rain today and it’s really coming down heavily tonight. It sounds fabulous on our tin roof and I’m looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of it.

This looks like good road trip material ...

I think I like the blue one, although the green one has lots of space to spread out comfortably.

Nite all.

Low Energy Day

As promised, this morning during coffee with the girls, I said I would post this advertisement from the Super Bowl starring Jason Momoa.



Apart from a brief visit with The Motivator when she read my Tarot cards beautifully, I have done nothing else of note today.

My day actually began on a sad note when I read my brother’s blog where he described the day that he found our mother after she had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in 2005. It triggered me big time and I lost my breath and fell apart briefly but uncontrollably.

I had to work hard to stop that from setting the tone for my day and it was pure good luck that the next part of my day was having morning coffee with the girls which lifted my spirits.

There was a nap at 4pm.

I made a salad and a peppery mushroom sauce for Adoring Husband’s steak that he cooked on the barbecue.

I made myself a simple smoothie of frozen pineapple, mango and a little bit of leftover watermelon from the fridge all blitzed with coconut water.

MAFS is on TV as I write this and I hope to be asleep early so that I can attend meditation in the morning.

Look at this cuteness!

There’s a bit of rain heading in this direction and they’ve forecast somewhere in the vicinity of 100mm over the next few days so things should green up in the area.

I’ve also got a farewell lunch to attend tomorrow. Hopefully it’s not too wet for that or we’ll be traipsing through mud from the car to the club!

Here’s hoping I have some extra energy tomorrow.

Nite all.

Oz Final

That was a good match.

Djokovic is a great champion.

I love how he understands food and how it effects his mental and physical strength and stamina on the tennis court. I love how he uses affirmations, meditation, manifesting and positive reinforcement to help him believe in his abilities and fight through the tough matches.

I like him a lot.

Dominic Thiem is also a great player and I imagine he will reach number one in the near future and win a few grand slam titles himself.

Now the tennis is over and all the trashy TV shows start this week. Married at First Sight, My Kitchen Rules, Survivor - All Stars and more.

I got my washing done today!

Spent a lot of time in bed this morning - with Psychotic dog Jack who is struggling at the moment and has been off his food a bit.

I just realised that it’s after midnight and I’m expecting a visitor in the morning so I’d best get some sleep!

Nite all.

TM Returns

Adoring Husband and I have been binge watching Grace And Frankie all afternoon.

We’re becoming real pros at binge watching!

After a great day on Friday in the shop, a winning Friday night at the club, a nice sleep in on Saturday  morning because The Motivator had returned, I pedalled in the heat to the shop to catch TM up on what’s happening while she’s been away.

We had a nice couple of hours together and chatted between visitors and customers.

Then I reluctantly returned home on my trike in the heat of the day. The pool water was too warm for swimming so the only option was to eat an ice block on the couch in the air conditioning while binge watching something cool.

And THAT is the extent of my last 48 hours.

Oh and psychotic dog Jack had a nasty night of cramping so spent most of Friday night in our bed. Now he thinks he can spend EVERY night in our bed and is currently crying in the kitchen for us to go get him.

I’m NOT playing that game, though I’m certain that AH will weaken! I’ll keep you posted.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I have a stack of washing to catch up on, but I’m looking forward to a lazy day.

I also have to work on the dragon art because Chicklet’s birthday is very soon! This time nine years ago, I was packing my bags ready to fly to New Zealand for her birth! How time flies.

Sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Unexpected That Was!

What an expected kind of day!

Now that all the holiday makers have left town, I expected that today would be completely dead 💀

I was very wrong!

It wasn’t busy, but the few who came in were ready to open their wallets.

Adoring Husband brought Psychotic dog Jack to the shop so that I could do a quick grooming job on him. We had an appointment with the vet in the afternoon, so we wanted him to look presentable. When I finished the hair cut, AH took him home for a bath, so he was looking spick and span for Dr Amanda.

Not long after he left, I had a new supplier arrive unannounced. He had a van full of clothes, jewellery, scarves and small gift ideas.

I didn’t have the time to see everything that he had to offer. His van was filled to the brim with bags and bags of goodies, but with February, our quietest month of the year just around the corner, there was no way I could justify a big spend today.

I spent an hour with him and purchased a few items of clothing to test the market. He was very pushy and tried his hardest to make me spend almost double the budget I gave him. I had to summon all my “power to discern” and put him in his place as firmly and kindly as possible.

I got the feeling that he was experienced at talking his way over the top of females and having his financial way with them. Even right at the end he tried to con a further $50 off me by offering a discount on something that I had culled from my selections.

After he’d left, I felt pretty good about my assertiveness and I did not spend a cent more than the budget I’d allowed.

AH arrived right on time with Jack and we got to The Bay with enough time to shop at HBW for the handled paper bags that we use at the shop and still were right on time for out vet appointment.

In the past, we’ve taken Jack to two different vets and a dog groomer to have his claws clipped and every time he has screamed like he was being tortured (that’s Jack, NOT AH 😝)

Today, we had warned Dr Amanda. We told her that Jack was old and cranky, that he would probably try to bite her and that he would scream while she clipped his nails.

He did none of those things.

He was nervous and trembling like a chihuahua, but gave her no trouble whatsoever. Jack clung to me the entire time, but she clipped his nails without a growl or a bite or a scream!

She is the dog whisperer.

She said that his heart is good and I showed her a video of Jack cramping. She had never seen nor heard anything like it and had no idea what would cause it. She thought about it for a while a thought of some possible reasons and we talked about how some additions to his diet might help, but at 15yrs of age (that’s 105 in dog years!), we need to expect the strange and unusual.

I’d been stressing about this appointment all day, so we left Passionate Paws feeling very relieved and very happy.

Right now I’m watching the end of the Djokovic vs Federer semi final match. I really like both of these players so I don’t mind who wins.

I’m ready to sleep now.

Nite all.

Early Start

It was surprisingly easy to get out of bed early this morning.

I woke to the happy sound of “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical “Oklahoma” which is my selection for the alarm tone. Sometimes I just lie there a let the entire song play. Sometimes I sing along really loudly and very poorly. Sometimes I hit snooze just so I can hear it again in 9 minutes!

I arrived at the shop well before The Gypsy and opened up ready for the first meditation class of the year.

Five of our regulars from last year were absent but there were some newbies who rocked up and there were only 3 empty seats in the end!

It was an excellent class with great discussions and three silent meditations.

I was lucky to have a 30 minute session with The Gypsy after the class and then we chatted for over an hour, which is always great.

The day was very quiet as far as customers or sales are concerned.

I vacuumed and dusted, tidied the kitchen, decided to buy myself the lovely blue Serenade wallet and even got to do some more work on Chicklet’s dragon painting ...

I actually did quite a bit more after this photo was taken.

Adoring Husband ran some errands in The Bay and picked up my lovely lay by from Tinkerbells ...

It goes beautifully with my Larimar pendant and ring.

I checked the pool water when I arrived home but the weather has been so hot and humid, it was like a warm bath. Very unpleasant.

So I changed into comfortable clothes and rested my butt on the lounge chair to wind down.

I have to say that with the early start this morning and not having an afternoon coffee (I’m trying to cut back to just one coffee a day), I’m am feeling very weary and it’s not even 9pm.

I think I shall watch the Nadal match in bed.

Nite all.

Got it Done

I had ‘stuff’ to do at the shop today and thankfully it was quiet enough to do it but not too quiet to be a bad sales day.

The training room is now ready for our first day of meditation on Wednesday morning, which I am really looking forward to!

It was tricky finding spots for the artwork that still hadn’t dried from the weekend workshop because it needs to be where curious fingers can’t poke and prod - yes even adults have poking prodding fingers that can destroy a piece of art - just ask The Motivator about that!

Had some new stock arrive today and already sold three pieces - two of them before they even hit the shelves!

There were also some fun customers come visit during the day as well as a few of my girls this morning after coffee. That broke up the day and delivered a few good laughs.

It was a very hot and steamy day and there were many moans of pleasure from customers as they walked from the heat and humidity outside  into the air conditioned space.

The day passed rather quickly and while it was tempting to jump into the pool when I arrived home, the air conditioning inside was way too nice to leave.

Instead, I did a load of washing and watched a couple of quiz shows before preparing duck with sweet potato and salad for dinner while watching the Feds win his very long tennis match against an unfamiliar (to me) American?

I’m now watching Djokovic, but I think I’ll retire to the bedroom and watch the last of his match in bed. Hopefully he will win quickly but he is having problems with his contact lenses in the third set, so he might not win this one as easily as he did the first two.

I also have some homework from my counselling session that I need to complete so I’ll do that in bed too. That will be a good way to finish my day.

I am a good listener 🤗

That last one is for everybody, but especially the Garden Guru!

Nite all.

Self Caring

I had an amazing 2 hours with The Gypsy this morning.

An hour of counselling and an hour of combined Zen Shiatsu, Cupping and Bowen Therapy. I reckon I could have gone another hour. I had lots of knots and tight bits!

Of course I didn’t do any of the things that I planned in the afternoon. My instructions were to “rest” and “drink lots of water” so I had another afternoon binge watching Grey’s Anatomy and then spent less than an hour in the pool in the late afternoon before preparing to watch the tennis 🎾 tonight.

Nick Kyrgios put in a good effort against Nadal, but I think Nick’s five setter a couple of days ago took a lot out of him and he was unable to fight hard enough for long enough tonight. He ran out of both mental and physical energy.

Now I’m going to follow number three on that list and prioritise sleep. Bed time for me!

Nite all.

Weekend of R & R

Thanks to Adoring Husband for manning the shop while I ran the art workshop on Saturday morning, because we had a really enjoyable time throwing paint around and it ended up being a successful sales morning as well.

He had to call me out of the training room a couple of times but the ladies were fine with that, as was I and I got to chat with some of my favourite customers.

Being on my feet all morning, I have to say I was absolutely exhausted by the time we left the shop at 1pm so I parked myself on the couch and we binge watched Greys Anatomy until the tennis was worth watching. Adoring Husband NEVER thinks the tennis is worth watching, but he usually finds something else to keep himself occupied.

It’s only for two weeks 🤩

I received a lovely surprise today when Chicklet discovered my YouTube channel and sent me an excited message saying “OMG Bozzy Wozzy! No way! You have a YouTube channel! I’m dyeing!”

I put a video up 2.5yrs ago when Tracey and I made the decision to open The Happy Abode and the plan was to make progress videos as we went through the process of building and designing. Of course none of those videos ever landed on YouTube and I can’t seem to find the short videos that I took, so until I do, my fame and fortune will have to wait haha.

It was very nice in the pool today, as was sitting under the Bali hut eating hot chips from the cafe for lunch.

We watched a few of the new episodes of Grace and Frankie this afternoon, but that had to stop so that I could watch Ash Barty play her third round match of the Aust Open. Now I’m watching the Feds play his match. He had a bad start but is finishing well.

Monday morning I’m looking forward to an appointment with The Gypsy for a treatment. It’s been so long since I spoiled myself with a treatment.

I’ll catch up on some washing and tidy up my studio. Maybe I’ll even do some art!

I’ve made bone broth for the dog food and bone broth for me. I had to clean out a couple of drawers of the freezer to fit it all in, but some of that meat that I tossed had to have been in there for a good 5 years! I think it’s time for a massive clean out of our three freezers!

Not right now though. It’s time to sleep.

Nite all.