Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Food Delights

I cooked a lamb rack for dinner tonight accompanied with potato, pumpkin, carrot, asparagus and kale.

I seared the lamb rack in very hot coconut oil in my cast iron frypan, then lay it on a bed of fresh rosemary, chopped garlic and thick slices of onion. I baked it in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

I chopped the potatoes, pumpkin and carrot into evenly sized pieces and coated them in a mixture of cumin, turmeric, chilli powder, salt, lime juice and coconut oil, then lay them on a tray covered in baking paper and baked them in the oven at 180C. They took about 45 minutes turning them once.

The asparagus were blanched in boiling water, butter and garlic.

I tore the kale into small pieces, then rubbed the leftover coconut oil mixture into the leaves and put them in a low oven (120C) for an hour, to make kale chips.

It was all so delicious, I could have eaten a second helping!

Lunch was home made gf garlic toast with tomato and cheese melted over the top.

Watermelon for afternoon tea.

I think I'm about to have some red papaya, strawberries and banana for dessert.


Adoring Husband and I had a fairly productive morning around the house, but by lunch time I was well and truly spent and needed a nana nap right after lunch!

It has been a very lazy afternoon.




Only one more day of rest before the study begins. Time to activate the brain again.


Nite all.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Something New

A quick and easy Friday night post of my favourite quotes found in facebook this week.






... and just because it's Halloween. I am totally against Halloween, which is an American tradition that Australian business and media have cashed in on ...



Last year, we were not at all prepared for Halloween and had to turn away children knocking on our door. This year, I bought some sugar filled crap to dish out to them, which really goes against the grain. Next year, if I'm on the ball, I can make some healthful sweets and cakes to hand out instead!

Nite all.

PS Just want to acknowledge Jamie's birthday. He would have been 36 today.


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Welcome to the World

What luck!

Today, I went to check the second nest and saw some movement! This is what I found ..


So there are at least two chicks there, possibly three, but only time will tell. It's very exciting! For me anyway.

I attempted to give one of the psychotic dogs a hair cut this morning but she was cranky and horrible, so the job didn't get finished.

My second text book arrived today, so now I can officially begin studying! The book looks incredibly intimidating, to say the least, but I'm pretty excited about what's next to learn.

Today, I've started a health journal for myself, and am in the process of setting one up for Adoring Husband, so that he can document the 'possible' healing journey that we are about to embark upon.

Finally, this afternoon, I rode down to the river because the soft cloud was looking promising for a pretty sunset. Unfortunately, as often happens to our sunsets, a bank of cloud appeared from the West and snuffed the sun, so I rode home the long way, just so that I could enjoy the lovely evening light.

Adoring Husband had SES training tonight, so it's been very quiet here on the home front.

I'm trying for an early night, so ...

Nite all.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Surprise!!

I have had suspicions for some time that there might be two chicks in the Tawny nest, but two days ago, I conceded that I was wrong and there must only be one.

It seemed to me that each day, the chick looked a bit different. Some days it seemed too small and some days it's eyes seemed smaller and darker, but then I thought that maybe the nest was quite small and it just depended on what position in the nest that she was situated on any particular day.

So today, as I was trespassing to get my morning shot of the Tawny family, I climbed the stairs to the house (which is an empty holiday rental property) so that I could get a better angle and was taking photos for about ten minutes, and just about to return to my trike, when I saw movement to the left of the chick.

This little clump of feathers appeared from under the parent Tawny and suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at me!


How adorable is he!? Quite a bit smaller than his sibling and he has a bit of a grumpy face, but still very adorable.

I was so excited, I was talking to them in a very high pitched voice (which might explain the weird looks on their faces!). Looking forward to searching them both out every morning now.

The other nest that I've been watching is still pretty quiet, although the parent Tawny is sitting much higher, or taller, in the nest, so I think the eggs have hatched and now it's just a matter of time before they poke their little white faces out to take a look at the world.

I'm checking them every day.

I had a nice lunch with the ladies today. There were about 15 of us. The food was pretty average, but the wine was good and the company was excellent.

Next month, we are taking the river boat across the river to have lunch at the Woodgate Bowls Club. I've already booked and paid for my spot, so I'm IN!

Nite all.


Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The Dealer

Adoring Husband and I visited The Dealer today.

I call his doctor 'The Dealer' because every time AH has an appointment, he comes home with a new prescription for another drug.

The Dealer, again, called me The Bodyguard when we walked into his surgery, and I plan on being the 'ever present' bodyguard forever more!

He suggested another drug today (just like last time) and even drew a lovely little diagram with a graph and percentages to try to convince us how successful this drug would be.

The calculations which he attempted to construct in his head, were not convincing, and I don't think he was convinced either. There was a bit of babbling going on.

So, we left with an appointment card for AH to see someone else about some helpful exercises that he will need, to improve parts of his health (in place of the drugs).

'Apparently' there is nothing natural that we can do to improve this part of AH's health (I love how medical practitioners and specialists ALWAYS say that ... like they've EVER attempted anything natural!). 'Apparently' this is a natural ageing process that can only degenerate as he gets older.

We'll see about that.

Then we had a lovely time in AH's computer record, removing some medications from his list of 'active' drugs .. and there was a good number of them .. until there was just one left.

Can you see the beaming smile on my face? Can you hear my audible sigh of relief? Can you sense how proud I am of Adoring Husband for avoiding those toxic substances and attempting to allow his body to become strong enough to fight disease and illness in a more natural way?

There are still health issues (aside from his Parkinson's) that we have to address and I'm working on those issues as quickly as I can - my education as a process is intense and time consuming. There is just so much to learn and absorb, but I can see progress happening in my own head!

We will get there.

Tonight we had a few storms roll over us. Lots of noise and a hell of a light show with just a couple of short sharp showers. We could have done with some decent rain, but unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.



I hid inside the house until the storms were a LONG way from us, and I took these photos from my outdoor area with the camera pointed between a couple of houses.

The light show was impressive and I wish I was brave enough to set up the camera on the beach because THAT would have been gobsmackingly amazing!

As promised, dinner last night was this ...


The chicken breast (a recipe given to me a long time ago by Lady Lynn) was butterflied, pounded and then I rolled crumbled feta cheese, chopped sundried tomatoes, oven roasted pine nuts & almonds in it.

I placed the rolled chicken on a bed of sliced onion, sprinkled a combination of lime zest, thyme, oregano and minced garlic over the top, covered it with baking paper and baked it in a 180C oven for 45 mins, but I think it only needed 35 mins because it was a bit dry.

The cauliflower rice had toasted pine nuts, onion, chilli, lemon juice and coriander tossed through it.

The cucumber was thinly sliced, mixed with shallots and coriander and then soaked in lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and cracked pepper.

You can see the leftover stuffing mixture from the chicken in the middle of the plate too.

I just want to end with my favourite quote from Winnie the Pooh.


Nite all.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Fuzzy

Here are the photos from yesterday that I promised.




The final photo for the facebook B&W challenge ..


Tonight I made Lime and Coriander Cauliflower Rice with Rolled Stuffed Chicken and Lemon Cucumber Salad.

The photos and recipes for that will be in tomorrow's post.

That is all!

Nite all.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Sleepathon

Can you believe that I was in bed by 8pm last night?!

I got out of bed just before 8am this morning!

Unbelievable!!

The last time I did that, was a few months ago, when I arrived home one Friday night from the Bowls Club very drunk and fell unconscious on the bed at about 7.30pm .. but I did wake up at about 1am and spent a good deal of time in the bathroom before collapsing on the bed again a couple of hours later.

Last night, I was very sober, and I woke up at midnight, got out of bed to find Adoring Husband sound asleep in his recliner lounge chair, so I returned to my bed and immediately fell right back to sleep.

It's been a LOT of years since I was able to sleep that many hours in one night and I certainly felt very good for it this morning.

My B&W photo for day 4 of the facebook challenge ...


... and our little Tawny chick continues to grow bigger every day ...


I had a very social morning today and didn't arrive home until lunch time. During my socialising, I got some great photos of a little Wattlebird chick sleeping in it's nest and then a couple of Pale Headed Rosellas eating buds from a Bottlebrush tree, which I will share with you tomorrow.

After crunching through some sand crab for lunch, my afternoon was very quiet. No cooking. No cleaning. Nothing exciting. No visitors.

A little bit of study and research on gallbladders and how they work when they're healthy and when they're not so healthy. There is always something new to learn about the human body and all the bits that make it up. Loving it.

So now I'm off to bed for my usual midnight sleep time.

Nite all.


Saturday, October 25, 2014

Sooner or Later

I'd hoped to write a decent post tonight, but I'm feeling decidedly tired. How sad that I'm thinking about bed at 7.30pm on a Saturday night!

Maybe it was the hour long walk along the beach this afternoon?

So I will share with you, my third photo for the B&W 5 day challenge on facebook ...


... and now I have some kitchen debris to clean up after dinner, that's if I can stay awake long enough!

I have a few photos of the baby Tawny Frogmouth to share tomorrow, so watch this space.

Nite all.

Last but not Least

Here is the final episode of The Truth About Cancer series. It's not on youtube and you only have 48 hours to watch it from this link.

This episode is full of interviews with survivors of colon, breast, kidney, testicular, lung cancer etc., who have used either a combination of conventional cancer treatments with natural therapies, or they have only used some form of natural therapy.

It's very interesting to hear their stories.

So I thought I would post this a little earlier than usual, so that you have a chance to watch the final episode before it's removed from the free watch site.

I will do another post later this evening, separate to this one.

See ya later.

Friday, October 24, 2014

TGIF

It's been a great day!

I got to spend time with a woman who has a very similar belief system as me, as far as health, nutrition and mental/emotional/psychological health is concerned. We spent about an hour together this morning, maybe more, and we will definitely spend more time together in the future.

She lent me a book, which I began to read today, but I realised that nothing else would get done if I continued, so I put it down and plan on looking at it again tomorrow.

I can't wait to talk more with her!

I've watched some great videos on Youtube today regarding the Lymph system, cancer treatments, Parkinson's treatments and so much more ... I have bookmarked the last page that I looked at so that I can continue in the coming days.

So much to learn!!

Yesterday, I was invited, by The Best Cousin in the World, to participate in a B&W photography challenge on Facebook. Here are my first two submissions ...



Meanwhile, here is Episode 10 of The Truth About Cancer ..



Now it's bed time, so I'm off!

Nite all.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Movie Solo

Today, Adoring Husband had to go into The Bay to run some errands, so I decided to go for a ride with him and had him drop me off at the cinema to be picked up a couple of hours later.

I went to the movies alone.

Because of the Parkinson's Disease, Adoring Husband struggles to sit through a movie for a couple of hours. There is no support for his head and neck in the cinema seats, so the tremor puts a lot of stress in that area, causing him some pain afterwards.

I imagine that for any other couple, this might be a problem, but luckily for us, I really enjoy going to the movies solo!

Today, I saw the movie "Tammy" starring Melissa McCarthy and Susan Sarandon. There were quite a few other big names in it too. Kathy Bates, Allison Janney, Dan Aykroyd, Toni Collette and Sandra Oh.

I quite enjoyed it, but I suggest that you don't go rushing out to see it. It's one that you can wait to watch on dvd in the comfort of your own lounge room.

Episode 9 of The Truth About Cancer ... (it's so nice to know that some of you are watching these!)



Now I have to give Adoring Husband a neck and shoulder massage ... because I love him :)

Nite all.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Waiting for the Heat

Apparently there is a heat wave heading in this direction, and in a few days, our temperatures are going to soar over 30C - which to any of you living inland, may seem like a reasonable temperature, but on the coast, with the humidity - it's really quite an oppressive heat.

I've so enjoyed our mid twenty temperatures of the last few weeks and the lovely cool nights with the breeze blowing directly through our bedroom window. I guess it had to come to an end eventually.

The boys at The Seat of Knowledge were excited and amused to see the photos of themselves that I posted here yesterday and I made sure I showed as many local people as possible, including The Little Gnome's female neighbour, who had a good giggle.

Very tempting to pin the photo in the local notice board, perhaps with a note attached, 'for a good time call ... ' but then maybe not lol.

Not much to report today, but here is episode 8 of the series The Truth About Cancer ...

The first doctor who talks, Dr Nicholas Gonzales, is an amazing and highly intelligent man, but he talks very very fast. It's almost like his mind is so full and overflowing with information that he can't get it out fast enough! He had me in awe and if you can keep up with what he is saying, you will learn a lot!

I took a lot of notes during this episode!



It's heading fast toward midnight so I'm outta here.

Nite all.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Days Alive

Today, on his birthday, Adoring Husband has been alive for 20,819 days.

I have been alive for 19,904 days.

That's quite a lot isn't it? I've never really thought about it, but I was expecting the number to be higher.

Anyway, we should make each day count.

The bakathon began this morning ...




This cake took quite a while to make and has a LOT of ingredients.  I had to make my own date paste by soaking dates for some time in hot water and then whizzing in the blender until it became a creamy paste.

Ingredients include zucchini, walnuts, avocado, eggs, coconut flour, tapioca flour, almond flour, cream of tartare, bicarb soda, raw cacao powder, honey, vanilla extract, date paste, to name a few.

A syrup made of honey, water and coffee was brushed over each layer of the cake before the icing was added. The icing included avocado, date paste, honey, cacao powder, coconut cream, coconut oil and salt.




I actually added some whipped cream and blueberries to this, but forgot to take a photo!

Adoring Husband enjoyed a very large slice and it was similar to a brownie on the outside and then soft and moist in the middle. I liked it very much, but it was very rich .. I certainly couldn't eat a piece as big as the one AH ate!

AH spent his birthday working on the front garden, which I must say, is looking much better than it has for quite some time. There is still a little more to do there, and next he has to get the veggie garden moving out the back.

I picked a very large bucket of cherry tomatoes from the garden today, most of which, I think will go into the dehydrator for semi-dried tomatoes. The asparagus is still producing nicely too, but the lovely laying chooks have slowed down a little.

This month, our flickr group challenge is themed 'Odd One Out', so my boys at The Seat of Knowledge helped me out with this little number.


and of course, I had to get a shot like this, for future bribery and corruption purposes.


Believe me, the photo looks much better than the reality of it!!

That's about it for my day .. aside from a really nice morning tea with Lady Lynn. Everybody else was busy with life today, so we met early for a coffee together. I really enjoyed our short time together.

Here is Episode Seven of 'The Truth About Cancer' for your viewing pleasure ...



Nite all.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Happy Birthday Adoring Husband

First and most importantly ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADORING HUSBAND!!


Let's see what the day brings!

Birthdays for AH are very tricky. This is the man who has everything. This is the man who buys what he wants as soon as he wants it. This leaves little for the rest of us to consider.

We once passed a rule that he wasn't allowed to buy anything for himself for the last 3 months of the year .. so that we had a chance to get something that he wanted for his birthday and Christmas.

I think that rule only lasted one year .. he just couldn't control himself for that long.

So material gifts are not really an option, unless it's a fun gift that has a special meaning behind it.

I just have to find a way for AH to feel as much love as possible during the waking hours of his birthday and hope that he feels special!

I bet this is how he really feels today .. instead of his 57 years.


I was hoping that he would go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight so that I could spend a few hours in the kitchen and prepare some party food for tomorrow .. but as Murphy's Law dictates .. it just didn't happen.

Now I am rethinking my strategy.

Here is Episode 7 of 'The Truth About Cancer'

A warning before you watch this one .. there are a couple of short parts during this video where the doctors either talk REALLY fast, so they are difficult to understand, or they use jargon and medical terminology that might leave you a bit confused.

Don't give up. Try to push through it because those parts are only short and the video is still full of important health promoting information.



Time for me to at least attempt to make a birthday cake!

Nite all.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Another Lazy Sunday

The usual start to the day, although a bit late because I slept in.

The lovely Spring weather was welcoming and the river was a vibrant blue as the tide came in .. apparently, I was 30 minutes late for a pod of dolphins that swam up river close to the Seat of Knowledge! How disappointing! I will attempt to get there earlier tomorrow morning, because today was the second day in a row that they've appeared. Third time lucky for me I hope.

On my way home from coffee, I stopped to buy some fresh cooked sand crabs. My timing was perfect because they only had 6 small crabs left.  I paid for 4 of them and he gave me the last two for free!

I spent the first hour after I got home, shelling crab. Ugh. That was a job and a half.

So Adoring Husband made egg rolls for lunch and we filled them with baby spinach leaves, raw onion and crab meat. Perfectly delicious lunch.

The rest of my Sunday, I spent lazing on the couch, sometimes dozing and watching trashy TV shows and a Leonardo Di Caprio movie. My favourite kind of Sunday.

We had Crispy Skinned Salmon for dinner with a hearty salad full of organic goodness splashed with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with feta cheese.

We tried a fabulous new dessert. Dark Chocolate n Berry Mousse.


Ingredients:
  • 2 Medium avocados - flesh removed.
  • 1 Cup baby spinach roughly chopped.
  • 1 Punnet of fresh raspberries (I only had strawberries and blueberries).
  • 1/4 raw cacao powder.
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract.
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup.
  • 1/3 cup full fat coconut cream.
  • 50g dark chocolate.
  • Chopped nuts .. I used macadamias.
Directions:

Melt the chocolate in a double saucepan and set aside.

Combine avocados, baby spinach, cacao powder, vanilla extract, maple syrup and coconut cream and process in a food processor. Slowly add in the melted chocolate and continue to process.

Chop the strawberries (or whatever fruit you choose) and then fold through the mousse.

Set in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes and then serve with fruit on top and a sprinkling of chopped nuts.

For more healthful recipes go to I Quit Sugar where you'll find lot's of yummy stuff to choose from.

Here is Episode Five of The Truth About Cancer.

I just want to say that even though these hour long episodes fall under the title The Truth About Cancer, everything that they talk about is what I deeply believe about health and nutrition and healing the body from the inside out. Not just healing cancer, but any number of health issues from heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure problems, thyroid conditions, arthritis, eczema, asthma etc.

Covering things like hydration, sunshine, sugar, gluten, juicing, vitamins, minerals, herbs, toxins and detoxing, stress and emotions, the benefits of fasting, aspartame, the immune system, just to name a few!

I hope you can find the time to watch these shows because you will learn a lot and I know you will experience some light bulb moments.



That's about it from me.

Nite all.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Growing Bubba

Look how the bubba Tawny is growing!!


If she hadn't opened her eyes, I would never have known she was there. She blended in so well with her mama's feathers .. great camouflage!

I don't think the Tawny in the other nest has hatched her egg/s yet, but I'm checking every day. That nest is a bit higher in the tree, so my photos won't be as close as these.

I had a poor night's sleep last night. One of the psychotic dogs has struggled to adjust to his new diet and needs to head outside a few times each night to 'eliminate'. I had four trips outside last night. So I'm feeling quite weary tonight.

Things had better improve soon, because we need our sleep!

We attended a farewell party tonight for an older couple who have sold up and are heading south. Farewell and good luck to them.

Here is part four of The Truth About Cancer series.



Time for bed.

Nite all.

Friday, October 17, 2014

I Need a Nap

As you know, I didn't go to bed until after 1am (1.30am) this morning and then two of the psychotic dogs woke me at 5.40am because they needed to go outside.

I tried to get back to sleep for another couple of hours but I dozed on and off for about an hour and finally, I got up, because Adoring Husband was in some kind of hurry to go out for a ride.

So we rode to the Seat of Knowledge and then had morning coffee together (he actually had tea) at my usual morning haunt.

Afterwards, I came home and finally organised my beef and vegetable broth.

I took the meat, fat and marrow from the bones to make a rich delicious stew for AH's lunch and added some broth, garlic, cherry tomatoes from the garden, onion, cauliflower, chilli powder, cumin, home made tomato sauce, lemon juice, Himalayan salt and cracked pepper.

AH gobbled down a large bowl of it for his lunch and seemed to enjoy it very much. There are leftovers for tomorrow which I might offer him for breakfast since he has a big day organised tomorrow with the SES.

The rest of the broth filled seven chinese containers for the freezer.

Next, I made a big curried sausage dish, which will be heated up for our dinner tonight when we return home from the club. It already tastes delicious, but I can't wait til all those delicious flavours infuse .. by tonight it will knock our socks off!

Adoring Husband spent the morning potting some new herbs in my herb wall with fresh soil, some water retention balls and some cover for the soil. All of the herbs from the original plantings died, because the soil dried up and we couldn't keep the water up to them.

Hopefully this will do the trick and we will have better luck.

He is now preparing for a big SES day tomorrow. It's storm season and the SES is helping to bring awareness of how to be storm ready around the home, including having an emergency container at home which stores enough non perishable food for the family and pets for 3 days in an emergency.

There is a list of things, for example, a torch with charged batteries, portable battery chargers for your mobile phones, usb sticks or some kind of storage for important documents like identification, stocks/shares info, insurance details etc etc.

ANYWAY ... I'm not going to list everything here, but the SES will be in Hervey Bay at Bunnings, tomorrow (Saturday 18th October), giving a demonstration and providing all the information that you need to be storm ready.

So we've both been pretty busy today and are looking forward to a beverage with friends this evening.

The third movie in The Truth About Cancer series is here ...



It's time for me to go make myself presentable for public viewing.

Nite all.

RDJ Lover

Do you know what RDJ stands for? Robert Downey Jr of course!

Adoring Husband and I went to the cinema today and watched the movie "The Judge" with Robert Downey Jr,  Robert Duvall and Billy Bob Thornton among others.

It was a powerful and gut wrenching movie with great acting and a very moving storyline. If you go, take tissues!

We had a big day in The Bay today, and it's already 1am. I have bone broth in the slow cooker that I was hoping to strain and freeze tonight, but it's too late, so I'll let it simmer for another 6 hours and do it tomorrow.

I also have a large saucepan of cooked spinach, chard and kale ready to whizz and combine with the broth.

Anyway, before I head to bed, here is Part 2 of the series The Truth About Cancer for you to view, if you are so inclined.



Nite all.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Choice is Yours

I have just begun watching an eleven part series on The Truth About Cancer.

This is not the sort of information that you will find in mainstream media (unless the ABC got involved .. and we all know how much trouble they are in at the moment) because mainstream medicine/pharma would put a quick stop to it.

So it takes little people like me to spread the word by sharing it in social media sites like facebook, twitter and blogs.

No matter how cynical you are of anything outside of mainstream medicine, when you listen to the doctors, naturopaths, scientists, researchers and medical authors in this video, talk about what cancer is and why it develops and why the current treatments have such a low success rate, it will all make a lot of sense to you and you will want to know more.

28 Doctors 11 Scientists 9 survivors talking about their education, their experiences and their beliefs.

Knowledge is power, so if you have an hour to spare, watch it now, or bookmark it for later, but watch it to the very end.



I will put each Episode here for you to access.

The choice is yours.

Nite all.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Fruity Freeze

I made some ice cream last night. I made it in my new Breville Boss.

I threw in 2 frozen bananas, a box of frozen raspberries, a tin of coconut cream and 1/4 cup of raw honey and pressed the 'frozen dessert' button.

We ate half of it last night while it was like a soft serve dessert and I sprinkled crushed nuts over it and then grated dark chocolate over the top (the refined sugar free kind).

The rest, I put into the freezer so that it would freeze overnight.

Tonight I scooped frozen chunks out of the container and did the same thing with the nuts and chocolate.

Delicious. Thanks to The Nikonian for sharing the recipe on which I based this one.

I woke up today, to the sound of an amazing morning storm. One almighty crack of thunder shook the house and scared the hell out of the psychotic dogs. It seems that the creeping fear that the tornado planted inside me has waned somewhat and I felt mostly calm as the storm passed over us.

This afternoon, Adoring Husband and I went for a long walk on the beach. We calculated that we walked for about 5km as the tide went out and both of us left our phones at home, so there were no interruptions. It was very therapeutic.

The rest of my day was spent reading a book called 'Shaky Past'. The life story of a man who has reversed his Parkinson's symptoms through a combination of therapies.

He credits learning to love himself without condition, laughing, meditation and counselling at the top of his list, followed by Aqua Hydration Formulas, Bowen Therapy, diet, exercise and the love of close friends.

This is the first book that I've read since the Twilight Series, which I read about 5 years ago. Usually, I fall asleep after reading 3 pages, so for me to read a whole book in a day!? That's pretty amazing.

I was impressed with the man, how he survived the traumatic events in his life (which he feels contributed to developing this condition) his struggle to find answers and his never ending belief that 'something' would work eventually.

Tomorrow, I will start his next book 'Stop Parkin' and Start Livin'', which delves more deeply into his healing process ... although he states quite clearly that he doesn't believe that he is cured, just that he has reversed the symptoms.

Anyway, I will report back on that one when I'm done.

Once I've read the book, I have to focus on my studies. My second text book should arrive this week, so it will be 'head down, bum up' after that.

I'd really like to go see the movie 'Judge' some time this week too .. hint hint AH.

Nite all.