To Your Knees

Grab a tissue and sit down for this one. If this doesn't bring you to your knees, nothing will.



Yes, I am procrastinating. I should be studying, but the neighbour has his kids for the weekend and he lives in a raised house with timber floors. I swear every time they walk anywhere in the house, they are pretending to be giants, because their footsteps echo with a boom through my house and unfortunately, my office window is directly opposite his house/verandah. Boom. Boom. Boom.

It's just one of those things .. you know those little things that you just can't stop from driving you to a point close to insanity? Like the continuous sound of pigeons cooing in your back garden or like chalk on a blackboard or the touch of knitted wool to someone else. Anyway, it can't be helped, so I have to find a way to deal with it!

I had a good night's sleep .. about 7 hours last night, but I still didn't care to get up out of bed this morning. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Sitting in bed til mid morning, reading or facebooking on my iPad, or playing with my new app that teaches me about the skeleton and other body parts.

Adoring Husband bought my morning coffee and delivered it bedside for me, so I had no reason to get up til I felt like it.

I made some chicken nuggets for lunch today, with a sticky sweet and spicy sauce. Instead of using breadcrumbs, I used (what I think was) LSA, a combination of ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds. This mixture was in an unmarked plastic bag in my pantry. It looked and smelled like LSA, so I am assuming it was exactly that.

I coated the bite sized chicken pieces (which I cut up from boneless thighs)in tapioca flour instead of cornflour or regular flour, then egg and then LSA seasoned with Himalayan salt and cracked pepper. I baked the nuggets in the oven on a greaseproof paper lined tray for about 20 minutes on high (220C).

The crumbed coating turned out quite hard and crumbly, but not as crunchy as breadcrumbs.

The sauce was 1/2 cup raw honey, 1/3 cup of my home made spicy tomato sauce, half a teaspoon of H salt and a teaspoon of garlic powder, well combined and heated in a saucepan on the stove. The recipe that I based and modified my lunch on, stated that the sauce should be poured over the nuggets at the 20 minute mark and then cooked for a further 10 minutes in the oven, but I poured the sauce into ramekins to dip the nuggets into instead.

Served with a garden salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, onion, avocado and pear.

A very pleasant lunch .. nothing to RAVE about .. but nice nonetheless. 

I guess it's time to get back to my studies. A good procrastinator knows when to stop procrastinating.

Nite all.

A Good Time Had By All

Ok so woopsie!!

Funnily enough, we were just talking last night (at the crazy karaoke night) about how amazing it is that I can still write and post on this blog after a Friday night of wine.

Ironically, I was in no fit state (after the crazy karaoke night) to write and post on this blog last night, after drinking too much wine.

A good night was had by all.

No, we did not get up and sing, but we DID sing along, sometimes very loudly, and we DID stand up and dance, near our table. We laughed at the bad singers, were amazed by the good ones, awe struck by the brilliant ones.

We were both horrified and amused by the antics of some local personalities whom we have never seen in an intoxicated state before.

We drank three bottles of wine between three of us .. well actually .. one of us was a driver and only drank two glasses of wine all night .. so really, two of us drank two and a half bottles of wine between us.

I'm hoping that my partner in crime didn't feel as poorly as I did during the night, when my body felt the need to purge itself of some poisons/toxins/alcohol. A confession that I'm sure conjures a pretty picture for you all!

Luckily, and I'm not sure how, I was not hung over when I awoke this morning. No headache, no nausea, but I did feel like there was a disconnect between my body and my brain. That feeling has gradually improved as the day has progressed and I am surprised at how well I have recovered.

I really must learn to pace myself.

I did take a photo with my phone, quite early in the night, but it was before the real action started and it's not worth sharing here. I attempted to take a video on my phone, but in my inebriated state (and never having used the video function on my phone before) I had no idea what I was doing and only managed a 4 second video of blurred action.

Anyway, next year, we have discussed practicing a song before the June long weekend. Mardi and Lady Lynn are going to be my 'doo-wop' girls and we are going to work on a routine. This will require equal amounts of alcohol as that which we consumed last night, to give us the courage to get up and sing and doo-wop. Only time will tell.

Some more quotes to share.

Nite all.  

Fabulous Friday

I studied!!

I studied bones.

It was incredibly interesting and I will share some of the details in another post, but not tonight.

Our neighbour across the road, who goes fishing in his boat every single day that the weather is fine, delivered a bag of fresh fish yesterday.

I have no idea what kind of fish he provided .. just that it was white fish.

I have to to admit that I was a little concerned while I was eating it today, that it might be sea perch .. which I am allergic to .. but after 4 hours, I was feeling relieved that I was wrong.

It usually takes about 90 minutes for my allergy to sea perch to set in, but it was the same for sea scallops and the last time I ate sea scallops, it took 4 hours for the nastiness to set in. Just as I was feeling excited that my allergy had become non-existent, a wave of nausea flowed over me and I ended up spending hours and hours in the bathroom.

So this time, I waited for four hours before I felt safe.

I coated the fish in a mixture of tapioca flour, turmeric, cumin, salt and pepper. I fried it in my cast iron frypan in a shallow layer of butter. Absolutely delicious.

There is a big lawn bowls tournament happening in town this weekend, (which is the Queen's birthday long weekend) and on Saturday night, there is a karaoke night at the bowl's club. I've organised with the girls to catch the bus to the club tomorrow night for the occasion and hopefully, we will have a chance to get up and sing.

I'm hoping for a Bohemian Rhapsody singalong .. or there are other options suggested! Let's wait and see!

The boys have decided not to attend. We girls should have some fun anyway.

Enough of this frivolity.

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Sweets for my Sweet

I stopped to visit The Motivator again this morning. She is a great time waster and before I left, I bought four nice big cooked sand crabs from her. I ate one of them as soon as I arrived home and cleaned the others to put in the fridge for later. Yum.

While Adoring Husband was in town this week, he stocked up on my nuts and other ingredients for our sweet nibbles, so this morning I spent some time making a mess in the kitchen and made a chocolate cheesecake and some energy balls.

Adoring Husband does enjoy the energy balls, though I have to keep an eye on him or he would eat a dozen or more every day! He doesn't have a 'stop' button or a 'full' button and has a habit of doing everything to excess!

I guess, these days, with our healthy way of eating, it's not really such a problem.

For lunch, I used the leftover mini meatballs from last night's dinner, and heated them up in a spicy, buttery, curry soup. It was quite delicious for a quick made up nosh up.

Dinner tonight was an easy crispy skinned salmon steak with salad.

So all of that was my way of procrastinating and avoiding my studies and I didn't even sit down at my desk all day. Tonight I feel quite guilty about that, so tomorrow, while AH has SES duties, I will take advantage of the quiet time and do some cramming.

The new Flickr photo challenge theme for this month is the 'Golden Hour' which is the first hour after the sun rises or the last hour before the sun sets. I love that time of day for photography, but I am rarely outdoors at that time, it is also the coldest part of each day, so it will definitely be a challenge for me this month!

Having just spent some time clearing my wardrobe, I appreciated this facebook quote today!

Nite all.

What day is it?

I woke up this morning wondering what the hell day it was!

At first I thought it was Thursday and my brain was sorting through all the facts that would provide me with a conclusion as to what day it actually was.

I had lazily opened my eyes a little earlier, to see Adoring Husband in his SES t-shirt, so I immediately thought to myself, AH goes to SES on Thursdays .. but then I realised that he goes on Thursday 'nights' NOT mornings.

So then my brain tried to remember the order that AH told me he had SES duties this week .. which did me no good whatsoever because he has SES stuff on every day except Tuesday this week!

I tried to remember what I did yesterday. Aha .. morning tea with the girls and the barbecue last night .. yesterday was Tuesday!! Which makes today Wednesday!!

Then I remembered that I had a date with The Motivator this morning, so I got myself motivated to start my day!

It was very chilly this morning and apparently it was 8C when AH was out in the car earlier. It was chilly enough that I needed to wear something more substantial than just a t-shirt because there was a cold sneaky breeze to add chill to the air.

Down by the river, it was warm enough basking in the sunshine, but when the clouds skimmed over to hide the sun, the chill returned to the air. It's definitely the beginning of Winter.

I had an interesting morning with The Motivator and learned all about some skin care and health care products that she has started using. She is positively glowing, and it's especially noticeable after she had quite invasive surgery that has taken a couple of months from which to recover.

I am seriously considering trying them myself and have been given some information to study.. I will investigate further and get back to you!

This evening, I'm thinking about making some energy balls .. or perhaps waiting til tomorrow morning .. physically, I'm feeling very lazy, but mentally, I have all these energetic ideas that I don't have the physical motivation to complete.

I guess procrastination will win out tonight and I'll find my mojo tomorrow before I sit down to study.

Nite all.

Last Tuesday

It's the last Tuesday of the month.

That means a barbecue at the park, on the river for a large group of us.

Unfortunately, a large number of our large group were not available tonight.

There are usually about 20 of us, but tonight, only 6.

Travelling holidays and other commitments reduced our numbers considerably.

Even though so many of us were not available, it was still a very pleasant evening and the weather was very mild, the sunset quite glorious and the company friendly and comfortable.

I took a photo of the sunset, with my phone, but it was not very good .. instead I am going to share Mardi's phone photo which she took before the rest of us arrived. The horizon is a little crooked, but it's still a lovely pic. I hope Mardi doesn't mind me sharing her pic ...

Adoring Husband bought himself a new laptop today.

I warned him that I didn't want to hear any swearing from him as he set it up, but (and I knew this would happen) he could not help himself. The clawing questions and random swearing came thick and fast. Study was out of the question and my frustration was almost overwhelming.

It's possible that I could move out for a couple of weeks until he has set himself up .. perhaps a trip down south to Chicklet's house is on the cards.

The only other alternative, is to drink copious amounts of alcohol from early hours of the day, to help me cope with the stress of it all.

After 4 days of cursing because of failed technology and then new technology, I am dreaming of an 'island of calm'. I am pleading with the gods of bliss to bring me to that island in a smooth and floaty manner.

Anyway, for the first time in a couple of years, I had to use the public facilities, and on the way back to our barbecue area I stopped to chat with a couple of older gentlemen who were fishing on the river bank.

They had grandchildren and great grandchildren and one of them thought that I was 35 yrs old and didn't believe that I had a grandchild. I hugged him and announced that he was my new best friend. Admittedly, it was very dark and he was very old, but I'm more than happy to tell the story of the man who believed that I was twenty years younger than my actual age!!

It has been a great day .. morning tea with the girls, shopping in The Bay with AH, a pleasant evening at the park and I think I might get another early night tonight. What is the world coming to??!

Nite all.

I'm a Monday Person

I do like Mondays.

Adoring Husband spends Monday mornings fulfilling SES duties, so while I plan on studying every Monday, I always spend a couple of hours tidying my desk, emptying my email inbox, figuring out what order to study my three subjects for the week and planning lunch!

I only spent one hour actually studying today.

I cooked up a fairly substantial lunch of roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and balsamic vinegar, sweet potato chips, steamed snow peas and smoked cod with a leek and white wine sauce. We had chocolate brownies with strawberries and cream for dessert.

Dinner tonight, for Adoring Husband, was a nosh up of cabbage, mushroom, onion and zucchini in a chilli, tomato and white wine sauce, served with crispy skinned chicken.

My dinner was a glass of Oyster Bay SB and three deliciously sweet passionfruit (kindly donated by our neighbours).

Here is the framed photo that I mentioned a couple of days ago.

I feel a bit of a chill in the air tonight .. good sleeping weather. There have also been some beautiful Winter sunrises, so I'm thinking of going to bed early and attempting to get out of bed before the sun tomorrow morning for some sunrise shots. I always have good intentions the night before, but the bed just feels so cozy and comfortable in the darkness of early morning and it's difficult for me to get myself moving!

Wait and see.

Perhaps a concerted effort to get more hours of study in tomorrow .. after morning tea with the girls.

So I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Sensational Sunday

I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday with Lady Lynn and Mardi. We drove into town and watched this movie ...



We loved it! Great movie.

Afterwards we enjoyed a little retail therapy, which is always a nice way to end a good day.

I realised, 30 minutes ago, that I hadn't done my photo for this month's flickr challenge, so I grabbed this one that I took on Friday morning and submitted it 10 minutes before the cut-off time of midnight! Whew! The theme is 'Wheels'.

It won't win anything, but I like to submit 'something' each month, just to participate. Every so often I get a pearler, but it's been a while since I've done any good in these challenges.

I made delicious chocolate brownies for dessert this evening and served them with fresh strawberries and cream. Adoring Husband does enjoy a nice dessert after dinner.

True to form, it's after midnight, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Pleasurable.

Adoring Husband had SES duties today, all day.

I arose early and cooked up a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, mushrooms, spinach and avocado so that he could make it through the day, particularly because yesterday was not as nourishing as it should have been and he was lacking energy when he awoke.

After I visited my boys and got my coffee this morning, I came home and spent more time in the kitchen, making a big pot of tomato sauce and I have another batch of chicken stock brewing as well. For lunch, I made the same breakfast as Adoring Husband enjoyed earlier.

I have to say that the organic, nitrate free bacon from Wippell's is absolutely delicious. It's how I remember bacon was as a kid. It's cut thicker and it's not pink like the dyed stuff you get in the shops these days. The rind turns to crackle so easily under the grill and the smokey taste is delightful. I will double my order next time.

While we were in town yesterday, we bought some Cleaver's grass fed beef from Coles. That's what we had for dinner tonight, and I can't recall the last time I had such tender and juicy steak at home. I can't even remember what cut it was, but it was like a fillet mignon. I seared it on both sides and then put it in a hot oven for 10 minutes. Perfectly delicious.

I'm not usually a fan of beef, but I would eat this cut from Cleaver's on a regular basis.

I also spent some time sorting through my wardrobe and the massive pile of clothes that I had in the spare room and filled two big bags, one with jeans and capris and shorts and the other with dresses and tops. I was quite brutal. I needed to be.

I framed my Rainbow Bee Eaters photo (I will take a photo of it tomorrow, to show you) and got all my washing up to date and even though it's only 9pm, I'm feeling very weary, so I think I might head to bed and see how many hours I can snooze before my body thinks it's had enough.

I have a date with the girls tomorrow, which I am very much looking forward to,

Nite all.

Saw the Movie

Saw 'That Sugar Film' tonight, with Adoring Husband and Apple.

Begin whinge ...

The ticket stated that the movie commenced at 6.30pm. We arrived at about 5.50pm and were about 5th & 6th in the queue, which started almost at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the various cinemas.

The host arrived and took our ticket numbers to mark us off his list, advised us that we would be announced into the cinema at 6.20pm.

We waited and waited and waited.

We wanted to buy water to take into the cinema, but the confectionary bar didn't open until 6.15pm, by which time there were 80 other people attempting to buy popcorn and other junk food, so we gave up on that idea.

The queue grew until it reached all the way back to the building entrance, and one of the staff asked us all to move closer together, so that people could fit inside the building.

Finally, at about 6.45pm, the host announced that the movie wasn't starting until 7pm and we could make our way into the Cinema.

It was a BIG crowd, almost completely filling cinema 1, and in front of us, were two women who I guessed to be mother and daughter .. the mother being about 75-80 yrs old and the daughter being about 20 yrs younger.

They both walked into the cinema eating a choc top ice cream cone. They chatted to each other all the way through the movie, so they missed quite a bit of the information being conveyed, and at the end of the movie, the mother loudly declared "everything in moderation".

The woman beside them decided it was a good idea to play with her phone for the last 20 minutes, so I had a glaring bright light in my eyes for that period of time .. very distracting.

There must have been half a dozen people in the cinema with terrible barking coughs and each took turns coughing loudly throughout the movie. If I knew exactly who they were, I would have walked over to each of them, grabbed them by the ear and led out of the cinema demanding that they take their dirty stinking germs home and go to bed!!

... end whinge.

The movie was interesting and very informative. It was also entertaining and had people like Hugh Jackman and Stephen Fry providing some of the facts. It was certainly an eye opener and quite shocking in parts.

I can't wait for it to be released on dvd around the end of July and will definitely get a copy .. perhaps some of my friends and family will receive a copy for Christmas!!

Adoring Husband and I actually drove into town at about 1.30pm because we had a few things to do before the movie. I got some great bargains .. a pair of jeans, some shorts and a top at fantastic sale prices. I printed some large copies of a couple of my photos and bought a nice frame for one of them. We priced some laptops and desktop computers for AH - depending on whether his current devices can be repaired or not. We had coffee at a new coffee chop and did some grocery shopping.

So, it's fair to say, after 5 hours in town, that we were not in the mood for waiting in queues or attempting to listen to a movie over the top of elderly chatter, or barking coughs. Also, AH had very little for lunch and I had nothing .. so I guess you could say we were a little 'hangry' (that's a combination of hungry and angry).

On a more positive note, this morning I caught up with a friend who I haven't seen for a couple of months. I'll call her 'The Motivator'. She has recently had major surgery on her shoulder, so has been interstate and out of action for a while. We don't get much time together very often, but when we do, it's quality time and we fit a lot into it, so I had a great morning.

I also bought and shelled 6 crabs,  four of which, I ate when we got home from the movie tonight.

I am sated. I am tired.

Nite all.

Where did it go?

My study plans for today seemed to have evaporated into thin air!

The morning started out so well, while Adoring Husband was cleaning out the back bedroom so that it could, once again, become his office, I was studying hard.

But .. as I've mentioned here in the past, Adoring Husband has a love/hate relationship with technology .. he has some kind of negative electrical energy swirling around him and when he touches anything electronic, everything turns to .. you-know-what!

Firstly he turned his desk top computer on, only to discover that it's power supply had failed. Much swearing and loud frustrated grumbling occurred, which seemed to go on and on and on and on.

Then he tried his laptop. Same problem. Much louder swearing and frustrated grumbling occurred. He announced to the entire neighbourhood that he could not believe this situation in which he found himself!

In between all of this, he brought piles of notepads, paperwork and photos to my desk, asking me where he should put it and asking me to go through it when I had a chance.

Considering how long it took me to get my desk clean enough to commence this semester of studies, I had to go through the piles immediately, so that took 20 minutes out of my study time.

That's about when I decided that the last hour or more of my studies had been wasted and that I should just give up.

I gave AH a piece of my mind and decided to prepare lunch.

After lunch, I attempted to study again, but then remembered that I had to send a parcel to Best Cousin in the World (should have been sent on Monday!), so I rode to the Post Office and by the time I got home, realised that the dog food needed to be made up, so that took over an hour.

I had an hour to spare before preparing an early dinner for AH who had SES duties tonight and had to leave home earlier than usual. So I cooked Butter Chicken - nice and easy and pretty fast.

All thoughts of study now slipped far, far away from my mind.

The day is gone and here I am at 11.30pm wondering what I've achieved for the day. Zip.

So, I guess I shall go to bed and attempt to make tomorrow more productive.

I'm looking forward to seeing 'That Sugar Film' tomorrow night, but disappointed that I'll be missing out on my Friday night at the Club with the girls. That's my favourite part of the week!

Nite all.

Being Present (or not)

Here's an interesting read ...

When did we decide women should shave their legs?

We ladies had a great day at The Boat Club in town today. There were about 16 or 17 of us and the club bus drove all the way from The Bay, out to our town to pick us up and drive us back in to the club.

Some of us shopped at the little boutique near the marina before heading into the club where some of us ordered coffee, or played the pokies before lunch.

Lunch was delicious and I enjoyed salmon steak and salad while sharing a bottle of wine with Lady Lynn.

We presented Cuddlepie with a farewell bottle of champagne and a card - just in case - and we hope that she is still in town for next month's luncheon, but you never know and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to tell her how much we have appreciated her humour and her company over the last few years.

At 2.30pm we all climbed aboard the bus which brought us home again.

I took my camera with me and lugged it around all day, then didn't even take a photo!! Honestly! Not even with my phone!

Sometimes I question my 'presence'.

Anyway, tonight is the first State of Origin match and it's about to begin, so I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Bee Amazing

I discovered this today and found it captivating, so thought I'd share it here.



My local people were very happy with their photo restoration and showed me another that they hoped I could fix. I'm pretty happy with the finished product here too. It's actually a very large photo - slightly bigger than A4 size.

Considering the median age of this town (59), I could probably make a nice little income doing this on a regular basis!

Anyway, I sacrificed study to do this job (you can tell how sad I am about that, can't you?).

I spent a couple of hours with four lovely ladies for morning tea, then I delivered a parcel to The Speckled Hen at the hairdressing salon, took the restored photos from yesterday to their rightful owners, visited 'Apple' to check on the details for tomorrow's luncheon, came home and scanned the new photo for restoration, worked out what I'm wearing tomorrow, cooked a late lunch for Adoring Husband who arrived home from SES duties, did some research and sent emails to two companies on the Sunny Coast, restored the above photo, cooked dinner and watched junk TV all evening.

What a busy, but fairly unproductive day for me!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's luncheon with the girls. Best get some sleep.

Nite all.

Back Garden Ruckus

I was in the kitchen when I heard a ruckus outside.

I looked up, and even though I wasn't wearing my glasses, I could see through the sliding doors, a large bird sitting on the trailer outside. The trailer where the ride on mower lives, and a Willy Wagtail was making a hell of a noise while dive bombing the bird, which was completely ignoring Willy.

So I hurriedly grabbed my camera from the bag, which was conveniently on the floor near the door, and checked the settings (which is unusual for me because I usually take a dozen shots and THEN check, only to find everything is overexposed, and while I'm fixing the settings, my subject suddenly disappears) and then I stood in the open doorway and fired a few shots.

At this point, the Goshawk, jumped up onto the ride on mower seat and ruffled his feathers, as Willy got angrier and louder and closer.

I got a couple more shots in and then checked what I'd done and by the time I looked up again, the Goshawk had disappeared.

I rushed outside to check that he wasn't attacking the chooks because I remembered 'The Nikonian' telling me once, about losing a number of her chooks to a Goshawk. My chooks were very quietly huddled in the chook pen waiting for the coast to be clear.

Today is the tenth anniversary of my Mother's passing. I can't believe it's been ten years. Life zips by so fast. As most of you know, she died at the end of the first State of Origin match in 2005, so even though that game was on 25th May, the first SoO match will always be the anniversary to me .. especially because she loved football, and SoO in particular. Miss you Mum xo

I had a good study day, although ironically, by the end, my brain was hurting from studying about the brain! Still a lot to learn.

Nite all.

Hard Work

I've spent the evening attempting to restore some old photos that were given to me by some local people.

Before ...

After ...

They also wanted me to crop the groom out of the wedding photo to match the photo above.

Now I am definitely ready for bed.

Nite all.

Food Hoarding

I was having a discussion with someone recently about hoarding.

Adoring Husband's mother was a hoarder and it took us a LONG time to clean out her house of 30 years worth of hoarding. At least she was a tidy hoarder and everything was stored in boxes which were neatly stacked against the walls, albeit six boxes high and three or four deep!

AH shows signs of being hoarder material, but isn't too bad. I must admit that I too have the makings of a hoarder, but tend to pull in the reins just in the nick of time.

I do admit, however, to being a food hoarder! I only just realised this morning that I do have this problem.

I guess it's worse because we live fairly remotely and we don't have instant access to 'uncommon' foods like the organic nuts and seeds, coconut in it's various forms, raw cacao, non-grain flours, quality himalayan salt, fermented foods & vinegars, some herbs and oils.

So when I buy it, I buy large quantities and store it in our increasingly shrinking pantry. Our pantry is not a walk-in and has very deep shelving, so when I need to find something, I'm often completely emptying it, to access the particular item I require.

I try to make a list of what we need, but sometimes, I'll see something and can't remember if we are running low or not, so buy it 'just in case', only to discover that I still have plenty at home.

This means more storage containers and more space filled and less room available and great difficulties seeing what I'm actually looking for at any given time.

My future plans involve renovating the kitchen to include a large walk-in pantry with enough shelving and power points to permanently set up my blender, food processor, dehydrator, juicer etc., so that I don't have to be dragging these things in and out of cupboards every time I need to use them.

I use my blender and food processor almost daily and I would use the others more regularly, if I wasn't put off by getting down low to drag them out of their storage spot, because they can be quite cumbersome.

I have many ideas, which simply makes it a jumbled mess in my head. I need to find a professional who can make ordered sense of my jumble and who can create my dream kitchen.

Anyway, I'm writing this in my study break, so I'd best get back to it.

Here is a photo from the archives. One that I have never shared before ..

Afternoon all.

Sleepy Me

I slept in.

I woke at 8.30am and stayed in bed until 9.30am.

Adoring Husband had bought my coffee and delivered it to my bedside, but I slept until it had gone cold. He was good enough to reheat it for me and I lazed around until it was study time.

I did go for a trike ride and I checked the mail before discovering that it was a public holiday for the Post Office due to the Fraser Coast show. That was a shame because I was expecting a parcel today.

I missed a birthday .. one of my boys celebrated his 78th birthday today and I thought it was tomorrow. I even have a gift for him .. I guess it will now be a belated birthday gift.

It's a chilly night tonight, so I'm off to snuggle down under the doona.

Nite all.

It's All About Food.

I'm going to try this on the weekend. My mouth waters just thinking about it!



More study today.

My first assignment (chronologically) is an 800 word essay about physiological processes that occur during neuron function, and I have to include stuff about action potentials, axon terminals, components of a neuron cell and describing how structure is related to function.

Yes, it's all gobbledy gook to me too!

Lots of research and youtube videos and google searches and text book reading and study site tutorials. Taking lots of notes and creating simple sentences to describe complex details. From what I've read so far, there aren't going to be too many simple sentences!

Anyway, I've created a time line so that I can study efficiently to make the most of the time leading up to each exam and assignment - hopefully my nemesis, 'procrastination', doesn't defeat me. I've made a late start to this semester already, so I have to run a steady race.

Adoring Husband is on SES duty again tonight and I am enjoying Masterchef on TV. I think that I'm a pretty good cook, but I would never make a chef, let alone a masterchef!  Their attention to detail is way better than I am capable of, and their final results mostly look like 'fine art' on a plate. The pressure is also pretty intense and on more than one occasion, I've shed a tear with one of the contestants, Georgia Barnes.

She's my favourite.

I have 1kg of almonds in the dehydrator as we speak, after soaking them for about 15 hours yesterday (activating them) and I will probably put them in the oven briefly, to give them that final roasted flavoursome crunch. AH and I just finished the chocolate tart that I made on the weekend with the last of my recent batch of almonds in a crumbly nut base. Very delicious.

I adore that crumbly nut base and I need to figure out what sort of filling I will put in the next tart!

Anyway, into bed early for me.

Nite all.

Just Briefly

I've been going through some old photos and came across this one from two years ago. One of my favourites.

... and a sunset photo, also from 2013 ...

I had a morning of study and then an afternoon catching up with the last season of Nurse Jackie, so it's been uneventful.

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Wishing I'd done that.

It's difficult to find 'short' stories from the people currently undertaking the paleo lifestyle. Most of them have so many health issues that their stories are too long and detailed to post here (I know you would be bored with them - astonishing as they are!), but here is a nice short one with obvious results.

*Note to self-smile when taking selfies (took me until week 5 to do so!). When I started the 10 week program, I was too frightened to get on the scales, so I decided to take weekly selfies to see if I could notice any changes. I rarely weigh myself as I prefer to go by my clothes and how I am feeling. I am starting week 12 this week along with my husband. We haven't been 100% but have made big changes to our diet/way of life and are gradually introducing it into our children's diet as well (aged 9 & 11). I am sleeping better, my severe headaches have all but gone, I definitely have more energy and most importantly FEEL better within myself

These photos were taken on weeks 1,3,5,7 and today at the start of week 12.*

I wish I'd thought to take 'before', 'during' and 'after' photos during my paleo lifestyle change.

Something that I found interesting today ...

A large study coming from researchers at the Uppsala University in Sweden found that drinking milk led to an increased mortality rate and actually made bones more prone to fracturing, not less.

The study was recently published in the peer reviewed British Medical Journal, and was specifically conducted to examine whether high milk consumption is associated with mortality and fractures in both men and women.

The study took place across three different counties in Sweden, and used data from two large Swedish cohorts, one with 61,433 women aged approximately 39-74 years old and one with 45, 339 men aged approximately 45-79 years old. They were all administered food frequency questionnaires. The study used “multivariable survival models” that were “applied to determine the association between milk consumption and time to mortality and fracture.

To see the results and more of this story go here.

Anyway, I got some much needed study done today.

My first assignment is to create a 'Materia Medica' .. I know .. right?

Materia medica (English: medical material/substance) is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing (i.e., medicines).

The first assignment is a Materia Medica on a given selection of Vitamins and the second one is on Minerals.

I like it and I think it will be very interesting. So far, the only vitamin I've researched is Thiamine and there is a lot to learn, and record, about each vitamin. Apparently, this will be a very useful tool to refer to in my future, if I choose to become a professional Nutritionist or Naturopath, so I'd best do a good job of it!!

Had a great morning tea with three of the girls.  Mardi was there to celebrate her new status as grandmother and we were joined by Cuddlepot and Cuddlepie. Cuddlepie has sold her house and will be moving away soon, which is sad because she is well loved by many people in our circle. She's a laugh and a half.

Maid Marian and the Leggy Blonde didn't turn up, so I will have a bone to pick with them next time I see them!! You know who you are!!

We had our stove top replaced today, so all is right with my cooking world again :)

The two psychotic dogs who partook of the bird that they caught in the back yard are seriously struggling with their digestion at the moment. I'm hoping that the trouble will pass and won't require a trip to the vet, but they are feeling very sore and sorry for themselves right now. I doubt that they will have learned their lesson, but I hope I catch them BEFORE they consume it next time!!

Nite all.