Not The Best

Adoring Husband woke up in a very bad way this morning.

His tremor was so strong and aggressive that he couldn’t dress himself and he woke me up for assistance.

I was racking my brain trying to figure out what he had eaten or what he had done or not done to cause this sudden deterioration.

It took a while, but finally I asked him how long since he’d been for his morning walk.

1 week 😩

So I gave him a piece of my mind and he has promised to walk tomorrow.

By lunch time he had improved enough to drive to Craignish to pick up the FROG box, which we did together. We checked the mail and shopped at the butcher before heading home for lunch.

I spent the afternoon in the kitchen making a big pot of bolognese sauce. I got three meals for three people to freeze for future meals and AH and I had spaghetti bol for dinner tonight as well.

I also did a chicken curry which made six single meals.

I had to cull two drawers of the big upright freezer which contained a dozen tubs of chicken stock that I had made for the dogs almost three years ago. There were two very old containers of pumpkin soup, one of beef cheek gravy, one of cauliflower soup, some frozen celery and a green vegetable mix.

That made room for the new food.

Tomorrow I’ll do a batch of butter chicken and a beef stew.

I pulled out some plants from the veggie pod today. This is what’s in our garden right now.

Tomatoes and thyme thriving in front of the pool fence.

Asparagus and dill doing nicely under the pod.

In the pod, we have coriander, basil, parsley, chilli, rocket, baby cos lettuce now gone to seed and tomatoes.

We are still waiting to purchase some more raised beds and we need to fill our potato planters with soil so we can get them started too.

Tomorrow I need to check on my ginger starter and hopefully make a jug of ginger beer. It’s been sitting in a dark warm wardrobe for 4 days now (maybe 5?).

I cleared a few things out of the fridge to fit the fresh fruit and veg from the FROG box.

So it’s been quite a productive day and I think I can spend tomorrow cleaning the ensuite. I have a special treatment for the tiles and grout and then a whitening agent for the grout which has an anti mould barrier in it. I’ve never used either of these treatments before so it’ll be interesting to see how effective they are.

We want to rearrange our family room/dining room at some stage which will give us a good opportunity to clear and clean the dining table, declutter the cabinet, scrub the hidden corners of the floor and wash the windows. Not sure I’ll have the energy or strength to do that after the bathroom but we’ll see.

I tipped against my football team tonight and they have won convincingly so I’m not happy about that!

Now I’m off to bed.

Nite all.

Rampant Rona

Well, it seems Covid is running rampant through town at the moment!

I personally know a dozen people in our little village who have it. All are vaccinated.

Still, none of the 59 unvaccinated people I know have succumbed to the virus … yet.

I’m sure somebody will catch it eventually.

I was up bright and early (early for me) to meet my art girls for coffee this morning. There were six of us in attendance and we got to catch up with Little T who, in January, was bitten by a spider and spent a month in hospital trying to save her leg! 

Thankfully, she was successful, but it was touch and go there for a while and her leg is still very discoloured - a very unhealthy colour. She’s lucky to have survived.

She is still struggling health wise, which is why we haven’t seen her for some time.

Today, as she stated, was good for her soul, to get out and spend time with friends having a good laugh and breathing fresh ocean air.

It was good for my soul too. We were noisy with laughter and cursing and venting and making fun of ourselves.

What usually lasts for an hour lasted for 2.5 hours and we were reluctant to end the gathering.

I returned home on my trike with the rear basket full of packages from the post office and in time to prepare lunch for Adoring Husband who had been working hard sorting out the pool pump room storage cupboards and clearing some of the Xmas decoration boxes from the family room.

Our house is a shambles at the moment but small steps will get the job done.

Just lately I seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back!

I did a little bit of clearing today but not even enough to make a noticeable dent.

AH has a date tomorrow helping a mate with some carpentry work, so I plan on getting a lot done here at home.

I’m about to make a list but some of the jobs will be labour intensive and time consuming so it’ll be interesting to see how far I get.

Anyway, it’s almost midnight so it’s time to sleep.

Nite all.

Musical Chairs

We were at the shop ready for the carpet cleaner three minutes early.

The carpet cleaner was at the shop twenty minutes late - I was just finding his number to call him when he pulled into the parking space beside us.

Tardiness annoys me but it seems to be a common trait of many Queensland residents so I just have to get over myself.

I expected that he would take at least three hours to clean the entire shop but he took less than two hours and he charged $100 less than I expected so that made up for his tardiness haha.

I dropped the keys off at Elders. It was all very unceremonious and quick. No time for emotional breakdowns.

Adoring Husband and I needed to drive into The Bay so it was nice to get an earlier start than expected.

We had to sign some paperwork for our financial advisors and deliver it, so we got that out of the way first.

Our goal for the day was to find some new dining chairs.

Our dining table is 4cm higher than a normal table, but our chairs are the normal height, so even a tall person feels like a kid needing a booster seat. We all sit on cushions, which is fine to eat a meal, but NOT for games sessions that can go for hours. Very uncomfortable.

We sat on at least 50 different chairs today.

Only three of them were perfectly comfortable and a good height.

One was only available in black and most of our furniture is white, brown or charcoal grey. Black velvet would be very out of place.

One was heavenly comfortable, available in multiple colours and I absolutely loved them BUT at $690 (on sale from $790) per chair when we require six chairs, a total of $4140 was just a touch more than we wanted to pay for our new chairs, especially when they don’t go perfectly with our table.

You may ask - why not just buy a new dining suite? I LOVE LOVE LOVE my table and we have a matching tall end cabinet with glass doors. The set is very much my style so it’s staying put. This is the set …

The third set of chairs were on sale in the back corner of Early Settler, but they are a silver grey low chair with a wrap around back. Not sure about the silver grey colour.

After 3.5 hours, we were done with chairs.

I should mention that in that time we selected a new lounge suite, recliner chair and outdoor setting for the pool. We didn’t buy them yet, but we desperately need a new recliner for AH - this was supposed to be a quality leather chair 3 years ago …

The descriptions ‘quality’ and ‘leather’ are both highly questionable today.

I found my dream modular lounge - oversized and cushiony and perfect. The saleswoman emailed a quote through this afternoon for that and a black leather recliner and now we need to make a decision. 

Actually, I’ve made my decision, now it’s up to AH 😜

We stopped at Pillow Talk and bought some thick chair shaped cushions to try on our dining chairs. We are going to sit at the table tomorrow on the new cushions, play some games and see how our backs and butts feel after an hour or two.

Our next option is a trip to Bundaberg.

We did some groceries, got a boost juice and headed home.

It was almost 4pm when I sat down feeling ‘done in’. AH cooked dinner on the barbecue while I did my share in the kitchen and we ate early.

Now it’s almost 10.30pm already!

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Back To It

Today was much more productive than the last few days.

Even though I still didn’t get out of bed til pretty close to noon, I was able to get a bit done.

The drizzling rain hindered my efforts to get my art space unpacked and organised.

To be able to move forward with that goal, I need to remove my trike, Adoring Husband’s bike and a few other bits and pieces to give me the room to move around and get properly organised. 

The rain prevented me from doing that today.

I unpacked one small box, cleared some paperwork from the dining table, found a home for some stuff that was delivered last week, did 2 loads of washing, watched a movie with AH, did a roast chook and veggies for a late lunch.

Oh … and I showered for the first time in three days 😳 and washed my hair.

I could smell myself 😵‍💫

Tomorrow morning I have to be up early to meet the carpet cleaner at the shop and then I hand over the keys.

All over red rover.

Last week, I sent a package to my Melbourne family and in it was a basic ‘How to Draw’ book for Chicklet who is 11 yrs of age. She has shown a real artistic talent and drawing/sketching is something she enjoys.

This is what she’s done so far and now I’m inspired!

When I purchased her book, I chose one for me too. “The Complete Book of Drawing - Essential Skills For Every Artist”.

I haven’t drawn anything yet, but have been reading it today and both refreshing my knowledge as well as picking up some new tips.

I feel like I have too many other important jobs to do before I can reward myself with some art. So my inspiration will go towards finishing those jobs first.

Tomorrow I have to be at the shop early to meet the carpet cleaner and after that I’ll be returning the keys to the Real Estate.

All over red rover.

AH and I will be making a trip into The Bay after that. Things to do, people to see, places to go.

So now I lay me down to sleep.

Nite all.

Worth It

Sunday was my bed day.

All day.

I got up to put fish in the oven and then again to take the fish out of the oven.

I binge watched the final series of Grace and Frankie … I cried.

I watched the footy.

I napped.

I played Words With Friends.

I journaled.

I Facebooked.

I interacted with Adoring Husband five times.

That’s it.

It’s almost 11pm and sleep time for me but I just remembered I have chicken stock to package up and freeze first.

Bugger.

Nite all.

Yuk Kinda Day

I’ve had an upset tummy since last night.

My sleep was interrupted and I couldn’t get comfortable.

Now, after more than 24 hours, my tummy is still feeling a little tender but it’s much improved.

I was gentle with it drinking lots of filtered water and warm chicken broth. I ate a kiwi fruit, a small boneless chicken thigh and a piece of toast with melted lactose free cheese.

I think it was caused by the prawns that I bought from Coles. I usually buy them fresh locally but I saw these in the Coles deli and they were ‘Product of Australia’ so I took a risk.

My energy levels were extremely low today and all I could do was package the bone broth and fill the slow cooker with the next batch.

Adoring Husband was helping a mate do some carpentry work in Maryborough so I prepared a sweet chilli chicken dish in the oven for his dinner and planted myself in front of the telly to watch football.

I almost considered going for a swim but I couldn’t find the energy to get changed or even walk the distance to the pool, so it remained an unfulfilled idea in my mind.

The final episodes of Grace and Frankie were released today and I started to watch them too.

As I type this, I’m yawning every couple of minutes so I think sleep is calling me. Let’s hope my body has recovered by morning and I can be a little more productive.

Nite all.

Motivational

I found some motivation today.

I was inspired by Sally Holden from Abundant Heart Coaching, who’s Facebook page I follow, and yesterday she did a live feed talking about five ways to find and maintain your motivation when you’ve got stuff to do.

I only found it this morning, which was timely … exactly when I needed it.

My ‘to do’ list has taken a hit and today I - 

• Finalised the power and phone from the shop
• Did some washing
• Sorted and tidied my essential oil collection
• Put together a chicken broth in the slow cooker
• Made a ginger beer ‘starter’ (which needs 5 days to sit before I can make ginger beer)
• Tossed a heap of rubbish that had accumulated in the lounge room
• Prepared Adoring Husband’s lunch
• Dusted a little
• Refreshed the reed diffusers in the bathrooms
• Checked my emails
• Emptied one box from the garage

This is my ginger beer starter …

I used coconut sugar to make a darker batch and it’s now in the closed wardrobe of the warmest room in the house for the next few days.

It’s 3 1/4 cups of filtered water (no chlorine), 5 tablespoons of coconut sugar and 5 tablespoons of grated fresh organic ginger.

I remember when I was a child of about 7 or 8, my mother used to make fermented ginger beer and while we were travelling around Australia she accidentally left the starter bug on the shelf behind the back seat of the car and the hot sun streaming through the rear windscreen killed it.

I don’t have a lot of happy childhood memories but ginger beer triggers good feelings so whenever I find ginger beer at the markets I buy a cup and sit in the moment.

Tonight’s dinner was barramundi and salad for AH and fresh prawns for me.

Now I’m off to sleep and hope to wake with the same level of motivation tomorrow.

Nite all.

Hullo Duchess!

My favourite 85 year old beautiful human being, whom I dubbed ‘The Duchess’, is currently in hospital recovering from surgery.

That’s why it’s important for me to get back to blogging today - especially for her and for Grannymus who’s eyesight is failing her and I’m not sure if she’s even still able to read this by herself anymore.

So hullo to both of you and here is my catch up for the last ten days.

First of all, there are many reasons for me being off line for the last ten days, some good and some bad, but I needed to prioritise a few things in my life and therefore the blog was set aside for a while until I could ‘process’ and ‘heal’ from some of life’s crappiness and find my lost happiness.

I’m almost there.

Roz’s Happy Place is now completely bare and the cleaners were in today. They took four hours to clean floors, walls, blinds, windows, bathroom and kitchenette. They did a good job and I even tipped them on top of their fee.

While they were cleaning, Adoring Husband and I drove into The Bay so that I could spend the Tinkerbell’s voucher that BGWLBH gave me for my birthday.

This was my haul for the day …

What do you think of that beautiful rose quartz crystal cleansing bowl? Pretty special 😍

The first pic is of a ‘Pietersite’ set and is what the voucher went towards. You can read about the qualities of pietersite HERE

We did a few other things in town and stopped for some fresh seafood on the way home.

I prepared lunch for Adoring Husband and shelled my sand crab before we had to do the walk through with the cleaners.

I got to eat lunch at 3.30pm. A crab sandwich.

AH has been working hard to create my new art studio in the double garage. In the space of 24 hours, it went from this …

to this …

but now it’s a bit of a shambles again. I have a lot of work to do. More decluttering and clearing and sorting and organising.

My timing was very good when I put all of the shop furniture and displays up for sale on the local buy, swap and sell site. A Maryborough shop owner was moving to a bigger premises, so he bought almost all of my stuff and came out with mates who had utes and trailers to pick it all up.

I still have 3 small tables and 11 training room chairs to sell.

The air conditioner guy is coming tomorrow to quote for a split system unit to be installed and I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of companies to quote for glass sliding doors to be installed in place of the roller door.

I’m excited that it’s coming together faster than I originally thought. It means though, that the cars will be out in the weather until July when the new carport will be constructed.

On the 14th April, after five months of Covid mandates, we dirty stinking unvaccinated people were allowed to, once again, enter cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs.

On the 19th April, AH and I met an old photography buddy in The Bay for lunch. She was on holidays from Toowoomba and we ate at Salt Restaurant. It was a great catch up and we reminisced about some fabulous weekends of photo shoots since 2010.

We’ve been organising BGWLBH’s move up to QLD. She’s had the worst job down there packing up her house and finalising ties and accounts with Drs, accountants, solicitors, PO, organising insurance and cleaners etc etc.

I had the easy job of organising the removalists and storage for when her stuff arrives.

Tomorrow, I have to finalise a few things for the shop - power, phone, insurance, accounting etc.

We are pretty exhausted and have been too busy to even eat properly, which doesn’t help with our energy levels. At least we are sleeping well.

We’ll get there … eventually.

I think that’s about all I’ve got for today. I need to get some sleep now. It’s been another big day.

Nite all.