Bit Late

Here we are on our holiday week on the Sunny Coast.

The trip here was just horrible with the weather turning bad between Tiaro and Gympie. In some places, the road had huge streams of water flowing in the tyre tracks because the rain was so heavy.

The car aquaplaned a couple of times, so we stopped at a servo and waited for the rain to ease.

All we could have was a coffee while we waited because there was nothing gluten free on their menu.

After about 30 minutes, the rain had eased enough to make a move, but all the way, in patches, the conditions were difficult to manage.

We used the satellite system as our navigator, which took us to the completely wrong destination and the lady at the reception desk said that there are three locations that satellite systems go to for their address and people get lost all the time. We didn’t feel so stupid after that.

The lady at reception was just lovely. So warm, friendly and welcoming.

We found our room car space way down in the bowels of the earth and then brought all our luggage to our apartment via the lift but then the electronic key did NOT work so Adoring Husband brought our reception lady up and she showed us that it DID actually work. 🙄

In our defence, the handle does ‘stick’ a bit.

We were very happy with our apartment ...

... we dumped all our gear and headed out to check the nearby restaurants. Eventually we chose the fish and chip place because they catered to our dietary requirements and we had the choice of battered or crumbled fresh fish.

After such a stressful trip here, we decided to get takeaway and eat in our room on the first night and the food was absolutely delicious!!

Of course, I did squeeze in some retail therapy before the shops closed ...

It was lights out by 10pm but I was awake again by 2am and did not get back to sleep. I always struggle on the first night out of my own bed.

By 3.15am I was sitting in the lounge room feeling sorry for myself.

At 5am I was watching the runners from my balcony as they jogged in the pouring rain without any protection.

At 5.30am I was noticing people parking their cars and walking across the road in the direction of our building, then leaving 5 mins later with coffee in their hand. If I wasn’t so lazy, or worried about disturbing AH, I would have got dressed and gone in search of said coffee!!

It’s now 6.40am and I’m hanging for some caffeine, so it might be time to disturb AH.

I’ll be shopping this morning and sleeping this afternoon!

Have a wonderful day!!

Day of Lists

Today’s lists include:

• A list of duties, in order, for the cleaning job
• A list of possible psychotic dog problems and how to fix them
• A list of names and phone numbers of the people most able to help in certain situations
• A list of ‘must dos’ on each day
• A list of last minute packing needs before we leave
• A list otherwise known as an itinerary
• A list of spices required for dinner tonight - butter chicken

Bubbles went with Adoring Husband to learn the job this morning and then after lunch she and I played Yahtzee all afternoon.

The weather was really not conducive for swimming today, but that gave Bubbles time to work on her relationship with the psychotic dogs. Their age and inability to see or hear properly has left them a little tentative in her presence ... which is very unusual and a little disappointing for Bubbles.

No doubt she’ll have them wrapped around her little finger before she leaves, but it’s taking longer than usual.

This is a short post because I’m in bed ready to sleep and there are two buzzing flies annoying the hell out of me right now. I’m about to go to town with the big green fly swat!

Nite all.

Feeling My Age

Luckily for me, I had a good night’s sleep because it was an early start for me and I was at the shop at 7.30am setting up for the art class.

Bubbles joined the table and created some art too so there were 6 of us, including me.

It was a fun group with a couple of new ladies. It seems the email that I sent out to ten people last week didn’t reach its destination, so that’s why our class was a bit short.

There was the usual hearty laughter during the class as well as the long silences as we all focussed on the job at hand.

It seems everyone was happy with their effort.

By the time the class was over and most of the mess was cleaned up, my feet were killing me and I was exhausted!

The only thing to do was jump in the pool to cool down and soak up some magnesium to soothe the tired legs!

I cooked up a roast lamb with veggies for dinner and at 7.20pm I looked at the clock and groaned because I was certain it was 9pm!! The best I could do was push it to 8pm and then I dragged myself to bed only to be informed by Adoring Husband that he’d made up the dog food today but left it in the pot on the stove, so we dragged ourselves OUT of bed to get that organised.

I’m done now.

Happy Sunday to you all 😎

Nite all

No More Sleeps

Wednesday was a great day at the shop.

Good sales with a few visitors in town and still enough time to set up the training room for the art workshop on Saturday.

We had to rush into town straight after closing the shop to make a 3.30pm appointment with our financial planners.

We were late only because we got every red light in The Bay and there was a bank up of slow moving traffic. Something we’ve never encountered before.

It was a good meeting which ended right on 5pm and because we hadn’t planned dinner, we drove to the supermarket and I bought some wild caught salmon.

Today (Thursday) has been relaxing.

Adoring Husband jumped into the pool after mowing the lawn so I climbed out of bed and joined him. The water was lovely and cool and we took each of the psychotic dogs in for a swim. I did a few laps, tried unsuccessfully to convince AH to do some moving exercises in the water. We played catch with the ball for a while.

AH eventually deserted me and I enjoyed some time under the Bali hut on my own.

I did some washing, gave psychotic dog Ruby a bath and put some drops in her eyes. We had some more wild caught salmon for dinner. I love that stuff.

Bubbles arrives at 11am tomorrow (Friday) and we are ready for her! I can’t wait for a Bubbles cuddle!

The Motivator had another great day at the shop today, so things are going quite well for the ‘usually quiet’ February.

It’s almost midnight so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

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.