Windy Misty

What a digital passport will look like - compared to current banking

With plans for a drive into The Bay, I set my alarm for an early start so that we could find a nice spot for breakfast but the original plan went awry and we left later than planned. BGWLBH had already eaten a hearty breakfast, so I missed out and settled with a green juice from the Stocklands Su Jus Cafe.

We had a list that included Coles, newsagent, chemist, bank, Choice, Bunnings, Spotlight, Maxine’s and four op shops.

The weather was not pleasant for gallivanting all over town with misty rain, gusty wind and very cool temperatures.

We didn’t get everything we wanted but we stocked up on macrame rope for some projects that BGWLBH has in mind and a diamond drill bit for another project.

It was a long busy day and when we arrived home at 3.30pm I headed straight to the kitchen to prepare a Massaman curry for dinner, complete with rice and papadums. 

I was hoping to enjoy a crab sandwich but the two crabs that I picked from Craignish were dry and tasteless and very little meat. The prawns were equally tasteless so I seasoned them heavily with salt and pepper. Very disappointing. I won’t purchase again from Craignish. It’s not the first time their produce has disappointed.

The curry was a success and for dessert we had picked up some goodies from Su Jus. Mini peach and passionfruit cheesecakes and a blueberry muffin. They too were a success.

We are hoping for another cold wet windy day tomorrow so that we can laze around in our rooms reading and binging and maybe doing some art.

I know that I am exhausted right now and need to sleep.

Nite all.

First Swim

The weather was very odd today.

Rain was forecast but none came.

It was mostly overcast with an unreliable breeze which made it warm and muggy and quite uncomfortable.

I was up early and helped BGWLBH cook poached eggs and bacon for breakfast for the three of us.

I returned to bed for an hour while Adoring Husband stacked the dishwasher and settled in front of the TV for the Bathurst race.

BGWLBH moved into the art space to finish the treasure chest and work on some frames.

After about 90 minutes, I headed out to the Bali hut where I found BGWLBH relaxing on the lounge.

I dipped my toes in the water, then stepped in up to my knees and after two minutes decided to change into my swimmers and jump right in!

I must admit it was a little chilly but I swam three laps and then floated on my back for about ten minutes before climbing out and wrapping myself in a towel. My first swim of the season complete - five days later than last year.

The air temperature was warm so I was quite comfortable sitting under the Bali hut for an hour and didn’t need any distractions like electronic devices. Just sitting and enjoying the moment, taking in the sounds of the birds, the new wind chimes under the hut and the neighbourhood activity.

After another hour, I returned once again to my bedroom where I turned on the fan and dozed in the cool air.

At 4pm I sat with AH watching the the last 20 laps of Bathurst but there was an accident which slowed the cars down so I decided to start dinner.

Bangers and mash with tomato and onion gravy, snow peas, asparagus and carrots.

It’s been a decent Sunday. Not even a little bit productive but very relaxing and I enjoyed my swim.

Nite all.

Doris Night

I’ve just finished watching two Doris Day movies.

Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk.

I adore Doris Day.

I made myself poached eggs for a late breakfast and sat at the table chatting with BGWLBH while she ironed.

I was a bit productive today and spent an hour in my old art space doing some more clearing - which involved decluttering some clothes, unwrapping some crystals from the shop and transferring them to my big rose quartz bowl, moving some books, adding to my lead pencil collection and re-organising my art pens/pencils, water colour pens, textas, pastels, highlighters and other assorted drawing implements.

The whale photos from last Thursday finally got edited, although there weren’t as many as usual due to the fact that the whales were quite a distance from the boat this trip.

After I’d had enough of that, I sat under the Bali hut for an hour enjoying the sound of the wind chimes hanging above me. 

I dipped my toes in the pool water but it’s still not quite warm enough for a swim.

My afternoon was spent lying in bed for an hour before enjoying a messy hour in the kitchen preparing spicy coated chicken with garlic butter asparagus and roasted cherry tomato with onion.

We played trivia for a while before discovering Calamity Jane on Foxtel.

I’m not sure what tomorrow will bring. I have no plans but I do have a number of options so I’ll just wait and see.

Nite all.

Out To It

After a huge day out on the water for our third whale watching trip, I fell into bed at 6.30pm on Thursday night and was instantly asleep.

I slept until midnight when I needed to pee, immediately fell asleep again until 4am - I think the noise from Adoring Husband preparing for work woke me but I went straight back to sleep until 6.30am.

Twelve hours!

I woke up so refreshed and calm and relaxed.

It was wonderful.

The whale watching day was great. Better than our August trip but not as good as September. The whales weren’t quite as active but the weather was glorious and the water was every shade of blue, the sea was calm and the sky had scattered clouds keeping the temperature mild.

As we arrived home AH was preparing to leave for an SES meeting. It was ‘fend for yourself’ dinner night which was why I fell into bed so early.

Today was Op Shop day.

BGWLBH and I have some crafting ideas so we decided to do an op shop crawl all over Hervey Bay to find some supplies. We were very successful but boy were those op shops busy! There were a couple of locations that we couldn’t even find a parking space.

We returned home with three big bags of photo frames, cups and bowls and lots of jewellery pieces and chains.

I still have to complete two or three other projects before starting the next one but watch this space in the coming weeks and months to see our plans come to fruition.

Tonight was the usual chicken by AH for dinner and we created a special dessert combining the failed apple and blueberry muffins with stewed apple and pear which turned out quite nice. BGWLBH even went back for seconds.

It’s almost 11.30 pm so it’s time for sleep.

These photos are from the trip home after whale watching. The sky became quite grey and there were rain squalls in the distance. I haven’t uploaded the whale pics yet. I’ll do them over the weekend.

Nite all.

Learning Experience

There were only three of us at morning tea.

Myself. The Silver Fox. A newbie.

The newbie, who I shall name Oceans 11, (because of her vast array of ocean themed tattoos) is going through a very difficult time having recently lost her 41 yr old daughter to rapid onset bowel cancer. Just twelve weeks from diagnoses to her passing. She left behind a husband and two sons aged 12 and 14.

On top of this grieving, Oceans 11 is dealing with many other issues in her life that require time, effort and energy that she is struggling to muster. Her daughter’s death has hit her hard and she’s struggling just to get through each day.

When she saw me, she literally fell into my arms and we hugged while she cried on my shoulder for a solid ten minutes. It felt nice to give her a safe place to do this because she is under pressure from many close to her to “get over it”.

She plans on getting a tattoo to honour her daughter’s life. This is what she gave me …

This is my first idea …

I’ll let you know what she thinks after I see her next week. I’ll draft a couple of other ideas so that she has options. She might not choose any!

It was a very long morning with lots of deep conversations, lots of dark secrets revealed and very private and personal information shared by all of us. While it was cathartic and soothing in some ways, it was also draining and devastating in others. Sharing other people’s traumas can be traumatic in itself.

After Oceans 11 left for a Drs appointment, Silver Fox and I chatted for another hour. We always find a lot to talk about and surprisingly have a lot in common.

So it was 1pm by the time I returned home. 

Adoring Husband and BGWLBH were sitting down to lunch so I unpacked the FROG box and made myself a cup of tea. I did the garden tour to see what was thriving and what wasn’t and then sat down to sketch the tattoo idea while watching my quiz shows.

I cooked a whole chicken for dinner with sweet potato, potato, pumpkin, onion, cherry tomatoes, beans, snow peas and broccoli and of course home made gravy.

It was delicious.

After dinner I attempted to make some apple and blueberry muffins - BUT - the recipe stated 300gms (3 cups) of coconut flour. When I added all of the ingredients, it did not form a ‘batter’ as the recipe suggested, but a very dry, crumbly mixture.

After much head scratching and rereading the recipe four times, I googled 300gms and discovered that it was equal to 1.27 cups NOT 3 cups as the recipe stated!

So I tripled everything else in the recipe hoping to create this batter. It didn’t work very well and while the muffins were ‘just’ edible with the apple and blueberry sauce that I had in the fridge, it was a waste of about $25 worth of ingredients.

Not happy Jan!

By 7.30pm I was able to sit down and watch The Block.

Suddenly I see that it’s after midnight!! Far out! 

We have another whale watching trip tomorrow, which means an early start so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Baying It

BGWLBH and I headed into The Bay this morning.

We had a list which we completed but it was a day of very slow service.

On average, I reckon we had to wait about 10-15 minutes to be served in most places, whether we were standing in a queue, waiting on our own for somebody to serve us or waiting for whatever we ordered.

Su Jus Cafe is fast becoming my “unhappy” place. Today was the the third time in a row that we had to wait.

The first time, we walked to the counter to order juices and cakes ($64 worth) and kept being told “Sorry ladies. Won’t be long” - it took 15 minutes to serve us.

The second time was at the Stockland store where they only had two servers on shift. We waited 15 minutes for our juice and there was only one person in front of us.

Today at the Pialba store, there was one customer in front of us who ordered 2 drinks, we ordered two drinks and ten minutes AFTER we ordered, another customer ordered one drink.

BGWLBH decided to do her shopping in the supermarket while I waited for our drinks.

Twenty minutes later, BGWLBH returned with her shopping, the customer who ordered AFTER us received her drink and another eight minutes later they finally called my name.

In Spotlight there were two customers in front of us and the first one was stocking up on wool and craft items. There was only one check out operator who decided to have a nice chat while she worked. Fifteen minutes later we were served.

We waited a long time for our lunch to be served - long enough that I almost asked them if they’d lost our order.

It was quite tiring. Waiting takes it out of you!

We were home by 3.30pm and we made a cup of tea and went in opposite directions. BGWLBH collapsed on her bed and I collapsed on the couch.

I cooked chicken thighs and pork sausages for dinner, served with a big salad.

We watched The Block and I came to bed.

I feel very tired.

Nite all.

Public Holiday

Safe and Effective: A Second Opinion (2022)

Just in case YouTube take this down for so-called “disinformation or misinformation”, here is another link to access the movie Safe and Effective.

It was quite chilly this morning and I got up early to make breakfast and sat alone under the Bali hut - well not completely alone because not so psychotic dog Colli was hovering for her share of my toast.

Adoring Husband was doing some clearing and gardening around the pool and after I’d finished my breakfast we decided to place some hooks in the rafters of the Bali hut to hang my collection of goodies.

I did a couple of loads of washing, had a little rest in bed before 2pm, watched my quiz shows and then prepared San Choy Bow for BGWLBH, heated a chicken pot pie for AH (one that I prepared for him before we went to Sunny Coast) and I used the leftover rice from last night to make fried rice for me.

Earlier in the day I made an apple and blueberry sauce to pour on the the apple cake that I’d made yesterday.

So I was fairly productive and tonight I watched the final of Farmer Wants a Wife and The Block reveal.

It will be midnight before I know it so I’d best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Sunday Showers

Today was a good day for remaining in bed.

I did not remain in bed.

Our television/Foxtel box lost all free to air channels on Friday night. We tried resetting a number of times as well as restarting, to no avail.

This morning Adoring Husband realised that the NRL Grand Final was on tonight and he needed the free to air channel!

A phone call to Foxtel that lasted probably 40 minutes, if not longer, resulted in nothing but instructions to do what AH had already done and to call back in an hour if it was unsuccessful. AH was very frustrated and very angry during that phone call and it was very unpleasant to hear from my bedroom.

The woman with whom he was speaking remained frustratingly calm and nonplussed.

I chose to leave my bedroom and make breakfast to take far away to the Bali hut until he got it all sorted.

An hour after that first phone call, with the instructions being unsuccessful, AH made the second phone call which, after some time in the queue, eventually connected him to a male who gave him the exact same  instructions.

This time AH calmly went through the process, again unsuccessfully, until the operator connected to our TV and did the same thing … also unsuccessfully … finally offering a new upgraded box for free, which will arrive around 10th October.

He connected AH to another operator who took his details and confirmed that new box would be shipped out free of charge.

Exhausting.

However … no free to air channel for the Grand Final.

We actually have four other TVs, all with free to air channels, in various locations in our house, but they are all about a quarter the size of the main TV. Still better than nothing.

AH chose instead to put the 9NOW app on the smart TV and live streamed the footy - which meant it wasn’t exactly live - it was about two minutes slower than live.

So much trouble to go to for a boring, uneventful NRL Grand Final that failed to get the heart pumping or the blood flowing.

We played trivia under the Bali hut in the rain for about an hour this morning and THEN I returned to bed for the afternoon.

It was a very pleasant afternoon watching YouTube, BitChute and Rumble videos and interviews as well as dozing here and there.

For dinner, I emptied the freezer of two containers of butter chicken and one of bolognese sauce. BGWLBH got butter chicken with papadums. AH got butter chicken with rice. I got spaghetti bolognese.

While preparing all of that, I also cooked an apple slice in the griddle pan, which was delicious straight from the oven!

Tomorrow is a public holiday so I could quite possibly spend another day in bed!

Nite all.