Wind Swept

What a windy day we had today!

Chicklet and I ventured outside at lunch time today, but were home within the hour .. it was just too uncomfortably windy and there were twigs and leaves falling from the trees as we walked along. Not pleasant at all. Now, at 8.25pm, there is not a skerrick of a breeze!

We've had a lovely day today with lots of play, although a few 'manic' moments fell in there. Chicklet has had a week of visitors and I think it's all catching up with her. She needs some 'alone' time.

Tomorrow is my last day and I head home in the late afternoon.

I've taken a couple of photos with my phone, but not the camera .. must squeeze some pics in tomorrow before I leave! It may be a while before I get back and they may be living at a new address the next time I come for a visit. How exciting!!

As for my filofax post yesterday, I notice a couple of extra hits and few people went to visit Vegan Chickie's blog site .. certainly nothing to get too excited about .. however that may change during the week.

Time for bed and time for me to plug the power back in to my laptop before the battery goes completely flat.

Nite all.

Filofax!

My oldest daughter, Vegan Chickie, writes a blog.  Her most popular posts are about filofaxes. Hundreds of people visit her blog every day, to see what wonderful advice and tips and tricks she has to share about keeping herself totally organised with her amazing filofax.

She gave me one of her old filofaxes - with blank pages of course - and along with it came stickers and post its and cards and lots of fun stuff, as well as some birthdays already marked and a few reminders.

I started using it at the beginning of July, but I am a novice and not as pedantic or as organised as she is.

She is the Queen of Filofax. The Maestro. The Magician. The Leader of all Filofax users and I shake my head in awe and I wonder from which side of whose family she took the organisational genes!

I do remember her paternal grandmother (hullo grannymus!!) was always very organised with budgets and birthdays and diaries .. so I'm guessing the genes came from that side of the family.

It certainly didn't come from my side of the family, all of whom totally excel at procrastination and doing their (and my) best work under self inflicted pressure!

So this blog post is my experiment. An experiment to see how many hits I get from people who are as addicted to their filofax as Vegan Chickie and who search the internet for more and more good ideas.

To anyone who arrives here today to read my post entitled 'Filofax', I apologise for my trickery ... I've got NOTHIN'!!

But just to appease you, here is the link to my daughter's blog .. I see you quiver with anticipation!

Nite all.

Quickie

I'm off for a quickie visit to my little Chicklet tomorrow!

Woman of Many Talents is heading down that way for a couple of days and invited me for the drive, so I jumped at the chance because my visits are going to be short and infrequent in the coming few months.

So I'm off for an early night to bed for an early morning start.

Still got those sports photos coming .. after the weekend now.

Nite all.

Girl's Day Out

We had a girl's day out today and I had a really nice time.



We saw the movie "Jersey Boys"Big Screen Hervey Bay: Now Showing: Jersey Boys and then had sushi for lunch in the new Stocklands Shopping Centre and had a quick look around. It's quite impressive and will be more-so when all of the shops eventually open.



I still have Touch Footy photos to share, but not tonight, because it's after midnight .. again .. and I have a big day tomorrow.



Nite all.

Viewing Pleasure

For you viewing pleasure …

The family has gone home and we can look forward to seeing them again next year.  We had a great time with them, as usual, and they might even take some extra time off work next year so that we can have fun 'other' than the big tournament.

I spent an hour on Baker's Delight's farm yesterday to get these shots…

… and then we have the super moon shots from Saturday evening…

… and with that, I bid you adieu. Touch footy carnival photos yet to come!

Nite all.

Busy and Late

Just a couple of teasers ...

It's been a pretty big day for me and it's almost 1am, so I'm definitely climbing into bed in about 3 minutes.

I have lots of photos to share tomorrow.

Nite all.

Rain Check

I have photos .. of the Touch Footy tournament AND the super full moon tonight .. but I am exhausted and need to go fall into bed immediately.

So please take a rain check and I will make up for it tomorrow.

Nite all.

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Ok, so I know that I promised photos and something 'other' than study updates, but ...

At 11.50am today, I was preparing to type up my assignment document to submit for marking.

All of my assignments have a cut-off time of 11.55pm on their submission dates, so I assumed that the assignment which was due today, was the same.

You know what they say about 'assume'? It makes an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me'. It certainly made an ass out of me!

When I checked the submission time, it showed 11.55AM instead of PM!!!

It took me well over an hour to type my answers into the submission document so I was more than 90 minutes late with my submission.

I was horrified that I'd made this mistake and felt sick to my stomach because I had worked so hard to finish it by the due date and I had almost lodged it last night .. but it was late and I (thought) I knew that I still had more than 24 hours left to lodge it.

I sent a message to the supervising teacher for this subject today, complaining about the time discrepancy.

I took responsibility for not checking the time myself, but questioned why it was the only assignment with a time difference.

Because these messages are public for all students doing the same subject at the same time .. I have received feedback from 5 others who made the same mistake and are also not happy.

Anyway, I have not heard back from the teacher regarding this issue, BUT she has already marked my assignment and I received a mark of 95.8% which is another Hight Distinction!!

I am shocked and amazed!

I was expecting to lose approximately 10% from my possible mark for the late submission, but I didn't lose any marks for it being late.

Whoda thunk?

The other assignment that I thought was due next Friday, is the first assignment that I submitted a couple of weeks ago, so I have a week's breathing space and two weeks until the next assignment is due (at 11.55pm!).

What a relief :)

Go me!!

Now I'm off to bed and I hope to be up early enough to go with the family to the Touch Carnival at 6.30am tomorrow .. I'm not confident .. perhaps I will make a later appearance!

Nite all.

Almost at the finish line.

I have finally completed all of the questions for the second assignment, but I think I misunderstood one of the questions, so I will have to redo it tomorrow morning and I'll submit both assignments together. Then I can then relax for the weekend .. YAY!

On Monday, I'll have to start the next assignment, which is due the following Friday and then another one is due the following Friday after that! Full on!

Our visitors have arrived and unfortunately I haven't been able to spend much time with them yet, but I'll make up for it after tomorrow.

The big touch football tournament starts tomorrow morning, so the days will be full of sports and activities.

Tomorrow, I should have photos to share and maybe some news OTHER than study stuff!

Nite all

QUEENSLANDER!

What a great way to end the State of Origin series!

My team didn't win the series this year - I should remind you that we won the last 8 years in a row - but tonight they played the final game of the three game series and won by a very large margin. The final score was 32 - 8.

Adoring Husband and I watched the game at the local pub with one of our favourite families .. my cousin Nellie and her husband and two young kids, who are here for the third year in a row to participate in a big touch football tournament that is held in The Bay.

There are something like 3000 kids from all over Queensland participating this year, so it is a very large tournament! Apparently the largest in the southern hemisphere.

Anyway, we ate dinner at the pub restaurant and then moved to the bar where we all made a LOT of noise for every one of the 32 points scored and had a really good time.

I've still not finished my assignment, but I'm getting there and I think I'll finish with time to spare ... just!

It's definitely time for me to hit the hay. I've had 6 wines tonight and although I'm not drunk, I'm feeling a bit sleepy.

Nite all.

P. S.

Despite my better judgement, I took time out from my studies to have morning tea with the girls today. It was a good start to the day and helped me start the study day nice and fresh.

I got a lot done today and the second assignment is looking good at this stage.

My reward for working hard is to watch the movie "PS I Love You" which is playing on Foxtel tonight. Adoring Husband is enjoying it with me :)

He had to take one of the psychotic dogs to the vet today, for a couple of reasons, so hopefully she will be ok now.

Harriet, the new chookie, was finally welcomed into the henhouse, so she will be warm and protected for the night.

Our visitors arrive tomorrow afternoon and we'll all be heading off to the pub to watch the third State of Origin match. Go QUEENSLAND!

Nite all.

Halfway There

One assignment down and one to go.

I don't think I'll have the second assignment finished before our visitors arrive on Wednesday afternoon/evening, but I'll give it a good go.

I think the one that I just finished was REALLY difficult, so I'm glad that I got it out of the way first. I had to do so much extra research, aside from the text book and the lessons provided, to make sense of some of the information.

I think ... or should I say ... I 'hope' that this next one is pretty straight forward. It shouldn't frazzle my brain the way the last one did.

I can only hope!

So obviously, my day has been full of study and not much else. I did cook lunch and dinner in between all of that ... mealtimes come as a welcome distraction and helps free my brain of so much intense thinking. Then I sit down to a fresh start.

Poor Adoring Husband is copping the brunt of my mad dash to the end and is doing a pretty amazing job of keeping everything else running smoothly, including the housework that I have neglected for weeks.

My one gripe with him is that he must learn to not have such loud and long conversations with the animals! It's very distracting. We have 8 animals ... 3 dogs, 4 chickens and a cockatiel, so that adds up to a LOT of distraction!

We've hit another cold snap and the nights and early mornings are so cold that it's very difficult to get out of bed in the mornings. After the sun rises, it quickly reaches a very pleasant 20+ degrees Celsius, but according to my weather app it was 3C this morning, but felt like 0.08.

I shouldn't complain though because Number One Son had to pedal to work in -6C ... yes that's MINUS 6 degrees celsius! Ugh!

Anyway, enough of this frivolity.

Nite all.

Paradise

Yes, we are living in paradise.

Another gloriously beautiful sunshiny day with the maximum temperature 21C.

I spent about 90 minutes enjoying the Wintery sunshine this morning, but unfortunately the rest of it was spent inside studying.

Study Study Study ... the story of my life.

I think that once the panic of this semester is over and I can start the new semester fresh, I will be able to manage my time in a much more controlled fashion.

My problem is that it took me a long time to find a routine and to figure out what was expected with the assignments.

There was a lot of procrastination in the first 6 weeks, which you would expect from the Queen of Procrastination!

The other thing that I've noticed, is that the content of the lessons have become more complex and detailed as we got closer to the end .. which just adds to the panic.

So my plan for next semester is to getting a running start and get as much done, as early as possible, then spend the last couple of weeks revising everything and double checking my assignment work so that I can refine and hone them to perfection by the time I submit them.

I have learned a lot during this first semester and I've learnt that I'm not as smart as I thought I was!

Anyway, this has been my break .. I now have to sneak another hour of study in before my reward .. watching the finale of 'House Rules'.

Oh, and for those of you interested, Harriet has settled into her new home very nicely thank you.

Nite all.

So Little Time

So much to do, so little time.

I'm sure it's time to panic!

Studying on struggle street and I feel like time is slipping through my fingers way too fast. I'm doing everything to convince myself that I can do this, but OMG, it's going to be tight!

Ugh.

We had a knock at the front door this morning and I answered the knock to find a stranger standing before me. He announced that our neighbour had told him that we had chickens. He advised that he had a black laying hen that he needed to remove from his brood of hens because the others didn't like her.

So we agreed to take his hen, whom he had named Lizzie.

Of course, I can't have a hen named Lizzie, among my 'beginning with 'H' girls', so I renamed her Harriet.

Now we have four hens and they are named Helen, Happy, Hector and Harriet.

Happy, the other black hen, became very loud when we introduced Harriet, and she stood on the highest spot of the garden yelling and cackling for a long time.

Helen, the brown hen, became a little aggressive and gave Harriet a few nasty pecks to show her who was boss and Hector, the white hen, hovered very close in an intimidating kind of way.

Because Harriet didn't know where the roost was, she attempted to climb the mango tree for the night .. until Adoring Husband showed where her bed was. The other girls sent her to the doorway for the night, but at least she is safe and warm.

So, once again, our family has grown.

I'm sure that I'm going to wake up one morning to find an alpaca in the back yard!

Anyway, I'm thinking of squeezing another couple of hours worth of study in before bed.

Nite all.

What the!?

After five hours of study today, this was the last paragraph that I read ...

"Few fatty acids occur free in foods or in the body. Most often, they are incorporated into triglycerides - lipids composed of three fatty acids attached to a glycerol. To make a triglyceride, a series of condensation reactions combine a hydrogen atom (H) from the glycerol and a hydroxyl (OH) group from a fatty acid, forming a molecule of water (H2O) and leaving a bond between the other two molecules. Most triglycerides contain a mixture of more than one type of fatty acid."

What I actually read was "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"

It was at that point that I realised it was time to stop studying for the day!

As I reread that paragraph, I'm not exactly sure when it might be a good time to recommence studying!

The panic is still welling within, but I continue to look at the inspirational cards taped to the bottom of my computer monitor and it gives me the motivation to power on. Thank you Vegan Chickie.

While I attempted to get to bed early last night, I got involved in a movie called "and then she found me" with Helen Hunt (who was also the director), Colin Firth, Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick.  It sucked me in and I watched it to the end.

The last 30 minutes I watched from bed, but it was well after midnight when I fell asleep.  I woke at 8.15am but didn't rise til after 9am.

I went for my morning ride in the glorious sunshine, got my morning coffee and was home an hour later to get stuck into the books.

Therefore, no photos and no facebook quotes to share.

Time to get my footy tips in and then get ready for a night out at the club. I have won $45 worth of restaurant vouchers, so Adoring Husband and I are going to have a free meal at the club restaurant with a few friends.

Nite all.

Exhausted

I can't begin to tell you how exhausted I feel tonight!

I'm functioning on one hour of sleep, after staying up all night and watching Kyrgios lose his match against Raonic at Wimbledon.

He seemed to have lost his spark and I guess the 5 set match against Gasquet and then the huge win over Nadal took it's toll. He only had 24 hours to recover and it just didn't happen for him.

Still, he was gracious in defeat and his tennis future looks bright.

Today I received a special envelope in the mail, beautifully addressed with calligraphy and containing some timely motivational and inspirational quotes on cards.  I have them stuck to the front of my computer screen to remind myself to keep going.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie for giving me the gentle shove that I needed with just a week left to finalise 2 of my assignments for the semester. I have two others that I haven't even started that need to be complete by the end of the first semester which ends mid August.

Far out!

No more sleepless tennis nights for me!

Since my brain was too frazzled to study, I spent some time in the kitchen and made some pumpkin soup, some banana bread, some failed potato croquettes that became simply 'mash', a big jug of freshly squeezed orange juice and Adoring Husband helped me crumb 24 fish fillets. So at least my day wasn't a total waste!

Now I'm going to try to study for an hour or two before bed. Not sure if my brain can manage it, but we'll give it a whirl.

Nite all.  

Winner!

I sat up until 4.30am watching a magnificent game of tennis between the Australian, Nick Kyrgios (ranked 144 in the world at the beginning of the Wimbledon tournament)  and the number one player in the world, Rafael Nadal.

The Australian won in four sets!

He was brilliant.

He outplayed Nadal from beginning to end and it wasn't like Nadal played badly either. Nadal fought hard and used his usual psychological tactics with time wasting to try to put Kyrgios off his game, but the kid wasn't fazed by any of it and remained level headed throughout the match.

Even serving for the match, he remained calm.

Just amazing for a 19 yr old and such a nice kid too. Articulate and humble and polite and seemingly unaffected by all the attention.

Unfortunately, he plays again tonight, so I have to stay up and watch him again!

I DID sleep from 4.30am until after 9am today, so I am not completely sleep deprived, but I feel that I might struggle to remain awake if this match goes for too long.  There are two games before his, so I can't imagine when his might start.

This morning, Adoring Husband had breakfast of bacon, eggs and tomato waiting for me when I got out of bed and afterwards I went for a ride in the glorious Winter sunshine to get myself a coffee.  I sat in the sun on the river's edge and soaked up some vitamin D for a while before coming home to get into some study.

It took a while to get focused after such a late night, but I contributed some more to my assignment and every little bit helps!

My river was amazing and beautiful this morning.

The question was already asked "One or two too many wines???"

I just wanted to take a sharp angle shot :)

It has occurred to me that I can do some more studying while I wait for the tennis to start!

Nite all.

Awww Moments

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning tea with the girls this morning and then hit the books for a pretty productive day of study. Partially completed one of my assignments, so I've momentarily taken the edge of the feeling of panic that has been rising within for the last week or so.

This evening while I've been waiting for the tennis to start, I edited another photo from the Bunya Mountains weekend.

Superb Fairy Wren ...

... and I decided to share some cute and fuzzy pictures from my facebook visit this afternoon.

Two day old hippopotamus and then the rest speak for themselves.

Now, I think I have about an hour, before a tennis match that I don't want to watch, will be finished, so that the one that I DO want to watch begins, and I might squeeze in some more productive study while I wait.

Nite all.

See the Sea Snake

A quick visit to The Seat of Knowledge this morning reaped rewards for me!

Luckily I am known in town for my obsession with the camera, because as soon as the people saw this vision on the sand, they called me over immediately.

I've never seen a Sea Snake until today ...

At first, he appeared to be in distress, because he was on the sand, right on the edge of the water, so that each time the water rippled in small waves over his body, he squirmed and struggled as if he was either in pain, or unable to find the strength to get himself deep enough to swim.

But then a man walked over and gave him a soft nudge with his boot and the snake found his way and swam into the river towards a squadron of pelicans.

I expected that the pelicans might get spooked by the snake and fly off in a panic, but they weren't the slightest bit perturbed and just quietly moved aside for the snake to swim past.

So that was my exciting start to the day.

I didn't get much study done today because I cooked .. I made cheesy chard quiche with sundried tomatoes for lunch which we ate with a garden salad.

Then for dinner I made a pizza with a pureed chicken breast and coconut flour base, which was interesting and tasty, but too dry. Adoring Husband didn't like it and I'm not sure how I can make it less dry next time.  I'll have to work on that.

My Aussie tennis player is not playing tonight after all, so I get to have another early night in preparation for a late night tomorrow night.  He doesn't start til 10 pm our time, so it MAY be a late night, or Nadal could take him out in straight sets and it could all be over before you know it!

I have a little video of my Chicklet practising her fine motor skills .. she makes my heart melt and I've watched this about a dozen times already.

Nite all.

Missed it

Well, I went to bed and missed the big match! Luckily Nick Kyrgios won his match, so I get another chance to see him play .. only this time it will be against the great Rafael Nadal tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, here are my last 4 #100happydays challenge photos...

One of my practise shots for the red balloon challenge.

A female galah balancing on a wet wire fence.

I found a pair of Tawny Frogmouths sitting in a big old mango tree near the Seat of Knowledge.

At high tide on the beach this morning were two White Bellied Sea Eagles, two Whistling Kites and two Brahminy Kites.  I watched them for about an hour.  A Brahminy swooped for food, but I missed the shot. I did manage a reasonable shot of the White Bellied Sea Eagle. One day I'll get the money shot.

Adoring Husband made a delicious Osso Bucco in the slow cooker, for dinner tonight. It was a lovely end to a lazy Sunday.

If I get a good nights sleep, I'll be alert for a study day tomorrow and then I can stay up for the big tennis match tomorrow night.  That's the plan at this point in time.

Nite all.