Christmas in Town

Adoring Husband arrived home before midday, but was here just briefly before heading off to fulfil SES duties for the town Christmas party.

I had been asked by the Progress Association to attend the event and take photos. My heart really wasn't in it. It gets tiresome when so many volunteer or town groups request photo shoots of events, only offering credit for the photography.

I think I might have to create a minimum fee for these groups, because the shoots are rarely fun and I have no control over where the events within the events take place, so the lighting is often harsh and difficult to work with, which then requires time to edit the photos to look presentable. It's a real chore and takes time that I resent losing.

More than two hours of my valuable time was spent waiting for something worth photographing, to take place.

At least I caught up with a few locals that I haven't seen in some time. I won a frozen chicken, which I donated to an elderly couple because it wasn't GF and we wouldn't be able to eat it.

Here are a couple of photos from the event.

Lamb shanks were on the menu tonight and I had them in the slow cooker for some time and served them with mashed sweet and regular potato, cauliflower, zucchini and a tomato and onion gravy. It was quite delicious and there's plenty left over for tomorrow's lunch.

It's now after 10pm and I'm ready for bed.

Nite all.

That's it from me.

Here it is 7.45pm and I am feeling quite done in.

Admittedly, I have spent a couple of hours at Woman of Many Talents' house and enjoyed a wine or two ... or three.

I believe, looking at the evening's TV that is on offer, tht I am going to be in bed incredibly early .. like in the next thirty minutes!

I have shown off my new teeth all over town today and the discussions that have ensued have worn me out completely.

My sincerest apologies to everyone who hoped for more from me tonight.

Nite all.

Home and Smiling

What a day!

The Bare-chested Chef drove Vegan Chickie, Chicklet and I to Tewantin, where we girls shuffled into Zabe Espresso Bar for our morning coffee and some breakfast.

This cafe is a bit retro/nostalgic where the decor is all mismatched furniture, old lounge chairs that look like they came straight from Grandma's house, old leather sofas, distressed timber tables, wireless sets and radiograms from the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, record players, timber cabinet stereo units and an old upright piano in the corner right in front of the window.

The numbers for the tables when you order are old 45 vinyl records in their covers. The walls are plastered with old news articles from every decade that you can imagine, one wall covered in different music sheets, while the floor is polished concrete.

We ordered coffee, a bacon and egg frittata for me and a reuben toasted sandwich for Vegan Chickie.

It was quite busy, so the only seats available for us were a couple of old two seater granny lounge chairs that were backed onto the music sheet wall and were separated by a small round timber table. It wasn't very conducive for chatting but was reasonably comfortable.

The coffee was DELICIOUS (just as it was the last time I was there) and the food was nice too, but I am unable to chew at the moment - having lost all of my back top teeth and the gums still stitched up.

Apparently, chewing with the front teeth covered in porcelain veneers is not an option - taking a bite is ok, but chewing is not, so I attempt to soften and mash my food with my tongue and the roof of my mouth. My food options are limited and it's quite possible that I will lose some weight over the next few weeks until my mouth is filled with usable teeth!

There was an elderly man sitting across from us who drew our attention to an even more elderly lady, who had just seated herself at the upright piano. He told us she was 94 years old and there she sat in a blue pants suit and a white crocheted beret with her granny trolley parked beside her.

Her first song was 'Keep Your Sunny Side Up' from way back in 1929 and almost immediately, my eyes filled with tears .. I have no idea why she affected me that way! Her next song was 'It Had to be You' and still I felt emotional.

She was so old and frail and hunched over that keyboard, yet her hands and fingers just glided over the keys so naturally.

I thought I remembered that there was a florist next door to the cafe, so as we left, I was relieved to see that I my memory hadn't failed me. I stepped inside and with Vegan Chickie's help selected the biggest brightest, sunniest yellow gerbera from the bucket. The woman behind the counter wrapped it in clear plastic and tied a bow around it and I returned to the cafe, waited til the old lady finished her song and then presented her with the gerbera.

I thanked her and told her that she played beautifully and that she had brought me such joy and had made my day (mind you, I said this fighting to hold back my tears!).

She was so pleasantly surprised and thanked me profusely, telling me that 'I' had made 'her' day. She told me that she almost hadn't made it there today because she had a terrible night of cramps in her legs. She said 'Lucky I don't need my legs to play the piano!'

We then walked across the road to a little boutique where Chicklet began to try on all the lady's shoes that were at her level. Vegan Chickie started to tell her to leave them alone, when I said "Leave her alone! That's MY girl!" (I'm passing on my shoe fetish!). Chicklet then piped up very loudly "Yeah Mama, leave me alone! I'm Bozzy Wozzy's girl!"

Every time she tried on a pair she would announce "These ones look good on me!"

So after a little retail therapy - read - buying Chicklet a thousand and one stickers from the cheapie shop - we headed up to the park that was being redesigned and constructed for three weeks, six weeks ago! It's still not ready!

We sat down at a picnic table and called the Bare-chested Chef to come pick us up.

There before us, slowly gathered a group of middle-aged people with musical instruments. Banjos, guitars, ukeleles etc setting up their music stands with iPads and soon they were all playing and singing together. There were about ten of them.

We gave them a round of applause at the end of their first song and them climbed into the car to head home.

The rest of the day was spent playing games with Chicklet, watching the 'Bolt' dvd, creating pictures with the newly acquired stickers.

The Bare-chested Chef drove me to the train station and kindly waited with me until the train arrived (5 minutes early!) and I had a very peaceful and relaxing trip home with only 5 of us in the end carriage.

Adoring Husband was waiting, as always, with open arms and now I am home safe n sound.

Boy, I sure fit a lot into three days. It's now 1am and I NEED to sleep!

Nite all.    

Feelin' Done In

It has been a long, stressful, tiring two days of dentistry.

Happy that it's over. Happy with the results so far. Need to learn how to both smile, and talk, again.

Right now, I need to sleep.

So here I am in all my 'straight from the dentist' glory (I softened the pic to reduce my ragged look) ...

Now I really need to sleep.

Nite all.

A Bit the Worse for Wear

Yes, after two hours in the dentist's chair and after the needles wore off, I'm feeling quite a bit the worse for wear tonight.

A complete clean and scrape, removal of some infected gum, two full teeth extractions and two surgically removed broken teeth roots and then a flushing cleanse of the gums. Five stitches and about fifteen needles later, I walked out feeling on top of the world!

I can't say that it was a pleasant experience, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was bearable and she was kind and patient and tolerant and understanding. She gave me a stress ball to play with at about the halfway mark after I held both of my hands up and they were trembling uncontrollably.

She was quick and efficient and kept me informed of everything that she was doing while letting me know as each tooth came out ... I couldn't feel a thing from the bottom of my eyelids to the bottom of my chin!

Just as I thought I was in the clear she asked "Will you still be here tomorrow?"

I told her that I was booked on the afternoon train to go home and she said "I've had a cancellation tomorrow afternoon, so I could fit you in for the next part of your plan."

I asked her if she thought my mouth and body would cope with so much work in such a short space of time and she told me that because I have removed gluten, dairy and sugar from my diet, my mouth and body will heal much faster AND because there is so much infection in my gums, getting rid of it as soon as possible will help my body to thrive.

That made sense to me, so I decided to change my travel arrangements and will return to the dentist's chair for a FOUR HOUR visit tomorrow (or today, as you are reading this).

I bought a bottle of very strong colloidal silver from her (because I left mine at home), and it was very reasonably priced at about half the price that the chemists charge for weaker strength. So I've been flushing my mouth with that and I've taken my Reserve which is full of antioxidants and my super strength vitamin C to promote healing.

Despite all of that, there is some swelling, tenderness and discomfort tonight. Vegan Chickie has given me a sheet of Nurofen Zavance, so if the pain gets worse during the night, I've got that to fall back on, but it will have to be pretty bad for me to resort to that.

I've already had a couple of naps that lasted about an hour each and hopefully by morning I'll be feeling ready to cope with the next leg!

I can't quite believe that I'm doing this!

I can only have cool fluids - nothing hot, and I have to stay out of the sun for a day because heat increases blood flow and can induce bleeding in the wounds. So I've had a fresh watermelon, pineapple and mint juice, courtesy of Vegan Chickie, some room temperature bone broth and lots of water. Surprisingly, I don't feel hungry.

My Chicklet family are taking very good care of me.

Now I need to sleep it off.

A big thank you to my friends and family for their messages of encouragement and support .. you know who you are. I truly appreciate you and you need to know that you helped keep my strength and determination on track.

Warm hugs to you all!

Nite all.

Train Travel with a Difference

It was a fairly hectic morning, although I was able to do everything I needed to do, with time to spare.

I batched up about a dozen containers of chicken bone broth and then used the remainder to make a casserole for Adoring Husband, hopefully to keep him fed for the two nights that I'm away.

I packed a small backpack with some make-up and toiletries. I have almost everything that I need permanently based in my second home now, so I can travel light from now on.

I showered, washing, blow drying and straightening my hair and applied make-up .. all of which are fairly epic tasks that require about an hour to complete.

We arrived at the train station with about 15 minutes to spare, but the train arrived ten minutes early!! Unheard of!!

It was the old diesel train, which takes three hours to travel the same distance that it takes the tilt train two hours to complete.

This train is quite dark and dingy, with no TV screens for entertainment and quite a bit less leg room with their seats. I was seated beside a young man who was feasting on a train meal heated in a foil container, which smelled delicious but looked pretty dodgy.

I decided to head to the front of the train to get my free coffee, using the voucher that they issued when they checked my ticket. When I finally got there (and it's a hell of a hike along 5 carriages, opening four doors between each carriage and stepping over the old wobbly carriage connections), the club car was only partially filled, so I took ownership of a booth and set myself up with my ipad and settled in for the trip.

It was very spacious and very comfortable with big windows that let in plenty of light. I was having a wonderfully peaceful time, when the queue to the kiosk suddenly seemed to grow longer snaking through the carriage, past me and reaching the door at the other end. Everybody was talking and it was noisy and much less comfortable. The people standing in the queue had trouble keeping their footing as the train snaked around some tricky bends.

A woman, I guess in her late 60s (her oldest child was a 44 yr old son), requested permission to sit at my booth, just until she ate her meal. I welcomed her and even offered her the cake that came with my coffee, which she accepted with gratitude.

She was a woman 'of God' and her job was to assist recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. She had recently returned from six months working in China in an orphanage and had sole car of eleven children with Cerebral Palsy. One of her sons was a Pastor in the church (I'm not sure which religion) and she had many a tale to tell.

Once I got over my initial dread that I had to endure this woman for the entire trip, and opened my mind to what she was talking about, she really was a very interesting woman. Every so often she would preach a little and tell me about how the "Lord provides for us all" or "Lord heals us all" or "Lord blesses us with something special every day" etc etc etc., but generally she kept it about her experiences with broken young people and described many success stories and the sort of work that she does.

I was impressed with her enthusiasm and positive outlook (considering her work) and how strong her faith was. When it was time for me to disembark, I shook her hand and told her what a pleasure it was chatting with her. She promised to pray for the Lord to heal Adoring Husband of his Parkinsons .. so I expect his complete recovery by the time I return home on Tuesday!

The Bare-chested Chef was waiting for me at the station (he picked me up during his break from work) and I arrived at the house to find a very excited little Chicklet laughing with delight that I had returned so quickly. I got thirty minutes of chat in with Vegan Chickie, before it was time for Chicklet to get my undivided attention.

We had a lovely afternoon playing with the giant spider that I'd brought with me (a leftover decoration from Halloween). Vegan Chickie had made a delicious meat and veg casserole for dinner and after we ate, there was more play, bath time, story time and then sleep ... but only after Mama came to the bedroom!

Vegan Chickie and I then had some time together and now I am ready for sleep. Oh and VC fixed my new phone with all of my contacts and email!! It took her less than two minutes .. honestly *rolls eyes* .. it was so simple, I feel like a right doofus!

Tomorrow is the big day, and now I'm starting to feel nervous and anxious. Wish me luck!

Nite all.  

Damaging Weather

So it seems that last night's storm caused a bit of damage on the river ...

This particular boat broke from it's mooring and wiped out three other boats which also came away from their moorings. The other boats were retrieved and had varying degrees of damage, but this one came off the worst for wear.

When I left, there were three cars on the river bank, all with ropes attached to the boat and all attempting to get the boat upright. I doubt that they would have been successful.

We've had another storm tonight, so it will be interesting to see or hear the outcome of this little debacle.

The other interesting thing that happened by the river today, was seeing a family of galahs teaching their babies how to get seeds from pods in the trees.

This little one seemed very curious about me and wasn't at all afraid.

He didn't move until the rest of the family took flight very loudly and rapidly, so he followed close behind.

Adoring Husband bought me an early Christmas present yesterday .. a new Apple iPhone 6 Plus. I spent this morning trying to back up my old phone and restore it to the new phone, but I was only partially successful and I can't seem to get my contacts or my email restored.

That is frustrating!

I'm counting on Vegan Chickie to press a couple of buttons for instant success when I get there tomorrow.

Luckily, I had organised to spend some time with Woman of Many Talents today, so I was able to ease my frustrations with some wine and a good old girlie chat for a few hours.

It was quite late when I finally made my way home, so I cooked a quick dinner and then made up a batch of dog food.

I leave at lunch time tomorrow for the dreaded dental trip to the Sunny Coast. I'm looking forward to my appointment, but with some trepidation .. I doubt that my long time fear of dentists will ever disappear completely, no matter how good the dentist is, but I haven't felt comfortable smiling for a long time now and my crooked loose front tooth has limited my food choices, so I'm excited about getting it all fixed and my mouth being healthy again.

This appointment is going to be the longest two hours of my life!

It has just ticked past midnight, so I'd best get some sleep!

Nite all.

 

Counting Down

Just four more sleeps til the beginning of my oral adventure!

I booked the return train trip to the Sunny Coast this morning.

It's been a quiet day for me. Just some cooking and a little housework.

I am very distracted tonight! I have no idea why!

Nite all.

The First Step Toward Christmas

Today, the question was asked "What is the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease?"

According to the National Institute on Ageing (NIA), Dementia is a brain disorder that affects communication and performance of daily activities and Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that specifically affects parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.

I hope that satisfies your curiosity.

Today was a perfect day to travel across the river on the ferry to attend our Christmas version of the lady's luncheon.

We were, however, a little disappointed to discover that one of the club buses had broken down, so a group of us had to wait at the ramp while the first group was taken to the club in the bus and then it returned to pick up the second group.

The club did not disappoint. It was warm and welcoming, the staff were friendly and the food was good. 

We handed out our Christmas presents (we had to take a gift to the value of $10 - but I'm certain that a few of the gifts were more than that - also some of them were much less!) and the Speckled Hen made us sing a line from a christmas carol to receive our gift.

We all ordered our meals.

We sang happy birthday to Lady Lynn.

We got to play the pokies for only 20 minutes, when the first group were called to the bus for the trip to meet the ferry.

It was a nice ride back across the river. 

The day seemed to go so quickly!

Adoring Husband couldn't come to pick me up, because the workers were still at our house and their van, which they were working out of, was parked in the driveway. So I walked to the shops, where I bought some meat for dinner and ordered coffee.

Some friends, who had just arrived home from Brisvegas, pulled up in the carpark and offered me a lift home, which I accepted, but suddenly my phone rang and there was Adoring Husband telling me that the workers had gone and he could come get me after all.

I couldn't wait to get home and check out the new blinds.

We now have exterior blinds fixed to the Western side of the house covering four windows. They are slatted and have the winding mechanisms inside the house so that we can open and close the blinds from the inside.

I cannot believe the difference they make to the temperature of those rooms! The rooms are at least ten degrees cooler!

Our bathrooms are so hot in the afternoons from about 2pm onwards, that it's impossible to get dry after stepping out of the shower. It's like being in a sauna and it's very difficult to put on make up while the heat causes you to perspire. Many times I've brought the pedestal fan to the doorway of the bathroom, so that it can blow on me while I apply make up.

These new blinds don't just make a difference to those rooms, but also to the entire house. I've been raving about them all afternoon and I believe they are our best investment into this property so far. I LOVE LOVE LOVE them and I'm so pleased that AH suggested getting them. Best idea EVER!

Once again, it is rapidly approaching midnight, so here I sign off.

Nite all.

The Life of Me

This is SO 'me' and Adoring Husband can vouch for it!

I've been watching the final of XFactor Australia tonight and I'm pleased to say that my pick Cyrus Villanueva won. He seems like a lovely boy (19), very humble and he has a great voice.

Let's see if he fades into obscurity, just as all the other XFactor winners have in the past!

I've had a lovely day today, starting with sitting at the Seat of Knowledge with my boys, followed by morning tea with Mardi, Beauty, Maid Marian and the Reality TV Queen and then I invited myself to a day in The Bay with Reality TV Queen.

The day included a visit to Bunnings.

Everybody knows how I detest Bunnings and when Adoring Husband needs to go there, I demand that he drop me at a different shopping centre before he goes. I avoid it all costs.

So, as I was walking towards the entrance with my friend, I literally bumped into one of AH's SES colleagues! I made him promise to NOT tell AH that he saw me voluntarily entering the Bunnings premises and he agreed, but I don't trust him, so I had to confess my sin when I returned home.

AH was shocked and stunned!

My day also included another shop that I have only ever entered once and that is the Chemist Warehouse behind Aldis.

We had lunch at the RSL Club and then visited Dr Dan (Dan Murphy's) before returning home.

I was home before 3pm.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day because our lady's lunch group are having their Christmas party at Woodgate, which means a ride across the river on the ferry and the weather forecast is good. There should be 23 of us wreaking some havoc at the local club. I'm looking forward to it.

Today was the 18th anniversary of my father's passing. I can't believe it's been that long. It still feels like it was just a couple of years ago.  How time flies.

Happy birthday to my little sister, who turns 43 tomorrow (25th). She will be celebrating on Magnetic Island where she arrived a couple of days ago and spent some time catching up with our cousin. This is me catching up with him last year ...

Last, but definitely not least, a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Lady Lynn. We will be celebrating with her at the Christmas lunch, so wine will definitely be on the agenda!

Once again it's almost midnight, so I'm off!

Nite all.  

Movie Date

We were so looking forward to watching the final movie of 'The Hunger Games' series.

Even though neither of us had read the books, we've really enjoyed each movie as it was released and we were hooked from the very first viewing.

But I have to say that today, I was disappointed.

I really hated the last ten or fifteen minutes of the movie. The ending was really weak and left me feeling flat. My inner dialogue was 'Really? That's it?'

After the movie, we had an hour to kill before we were to attend an appointment with Elston, so we got some groceries from Nana's Pantry and Coles, attended the appointment and headed home.

We were sitting on our couch at 2.45pm eating a quick light lunch made with leftovers from last night.

It's almost 1am!! How the hell did that happen!?? Time flies when you're having fun!

Apologies for the short post tonight. I lost control of my evening.

Nite all.

Slovenly Sunday

Yes it was pretty slovenly.

Not a lot got done, apart from me cooking three meals.

We had a big breakfast.

Protein and a tossed salad for lunch.

My favourite was dinner. Butterflied lamb leg with creamed garlic cauliflower, bok choy and mint sauce.

The mint sauce was a made up concoction.

I took a handful of mint leaves and put them into the mortar and pestle, added a pinch of himalayan salt and a pinch of coconut sugar (the grains of these help pulverise the leaves and balance the sweet and sour flavour), a drizzle each of olive oil and maple syrup and pulverised until it was smooth and runny.

It only makes a couple of tablespoons of mint sauce, but it's just enough to drizzle on the lamb and add that delicious minty flavour that we all love.

Dessert was blueberries, strawberries and chocolate cream.

I think I've eaten more today than I have for the last month!

We watched the Amy Schumer movie, 'Trainwreck' today, and though I felt it started a little slowly, I really liked it.

We are going to the cinema tomorrow to see 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II'. It will be the beginning of a very busy week for me and I'm looking forward to it very much.

In the next two weeks, I have a couple of Christmas parties plus the town Christmas party for which I've been booked as official photographer. I have two days on the Sunny Coast for my first dental visit and Adoring Husband will have a trip to Sydney for his annual visit to Mum.

The Motivator and I also have a Jeunesse presentation planned for the first week in December.

So it's all happening.

... and now I lay me down to sleep.

Nite all.

A Little Disturbed

Something disturbing (to me anyway) happened during my day of medical assessments at the Sunny Coast last Wednesday.

My eye was poked and prodded by both an Optometrist and an Ophthalmologist. They lifted my eyelids and touched the insides of my top and bottom eyelids and stretched the skin around my eyeball, as well as putting drops of dye in my eyes and touching the dripping liquid as it fell from my eyes.

Neither of them used gloves at any time.

I didn't see either of them wash their hands before they began the consultation .. which is not to say that they didn't wash their hands .. they may have done so before entering the room, but at the time I felt a little uncomfortable and perhaps I should have asked them.

My eye has much improved, without medical intervention, although yesterday (Friday), a couple of people asked me if I was okay, because of the redness in and around my eye, but it improves more and more with each passing day.

I've spent today doing very little except cooking a delicious roast chicken, veg and gravy for lunch and watching movies with Adoring Husband.

We watched the start of 'The Minority Report' with Tom Cruise, but got bored with that so we switched channels and watched my old favourite 'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion' (I never tire of that movie and it makes me feel good every time I watch it), then we watched the 2014 version of 'Godzilla' which was typical American rubbish and we are currently watching 'Winter's Tale' with Colin Farrell, which is a little tricky to follow .. it's one of those movies that you have to watch every minute, otherwise you easily get lost.

I also watched this today .. Adele pretending to be an Adele impersonator .. which kind of moved me.

Finally, as we edge ever so closer to the Christmas season, I thought most of my friends would enjoy this little game ...

Have a happy Sunday!

Nite all.  

Weather and Veg

Quite pleased that I don't live in Griffith right now ...

Who would have ever thought that our Spring/Summer weather in Queensland would be more pleasant than Griffith's?

Found this today that I thought was interesting. I never considered using the sprouts from old garlic to flavour salads. I like the idea!

It's four minutes to midnight on a Friday night and I'm off to bed, but try to remember ...

Nite all.

In the arms of Home.

It was just before 8am and there I was, still in my pyjamas and all snuggled up with Chicklet on my bed, watching the kid's movie "The Boxtrolls" on her laptop. Dadu had just served her breakfast in bed and she was pointing out some funny stuff in the movie, when my phone rang.

It was Adoring Husband. I answered it thinking that he was going to tell me that he had just left, or that he was at Gympie and wouldn't be long. Here is the conversation:

Me: Hullo
Him: Hullo Darling, how are you?
Me: I'm great! How are you?
Him: Good. What are you doing?
Me: I'm in bed with Chicklet watching a movie.
Him: Well, do you think you could come open the front door for me?

Luckily, I had packed my suitcase last night, but it still took me a good hour to pack up the rest of my gear, have a shower and get ready for the day.

Don't get me wrong. It was wonderful to see his smiling face at the door and we needed an early start, but none of us were prepared for his early appearance! I think we all felt a bit discombobulated, so Chicklet kept him occupied while we all got ourselves 'together'.

When we were finally dressed and ready to face the day, we all climbed into our cars and drove to Sunspace, where we sat outside under the awning, enjoying a tasty breakfast and coffee and sunshine. Chicklet got to run around in the big garden space and Vegan Chickie got to have food stolen from her hand by a Butcher Bird JUST as she was about to place it in her mouth! It all happened so quickly!! Shocking!

We left there at 11am, saying our goodbyes to the Chicklet family. Little Chicklet was disappointed .. I think she was expecting AH and I to tag team .. that I would leave and Poppy would stay with her!

We had a smooth run home and picked up our FROG box on the way, as well as our regular order from the butcher, checked the PO Box and bought coffee .. oh how I missed my coffee! The coffee that I had while I was away was pretty good, but only one of them was as good or better than my usual coffee from here.

It was about 2.15pm when we pulled into our driveway.

The entire afternoon was spent unpacking. AH and I unwrapped last year's christmas and birthday gifts that my niece left on Chicklet's doorstep for us at 11.30 last night. My sister failed to send them last year and decided to get her daughter to drop them to me on a trip to Brisvegas! So that was fun!

I unpacked the FROG box and the butcher order, then unpacked everything from my time away. Of course I had to cull quite a few items from my wardrobe before I unpacked, so that there would be room for my new clothes!

I watched some X-Factor that AH recorded for me and then made dinner .. crispy skinned chicken with sweet potato chips, fresh asparagus and beans from the garden tossed in butter and garlic, a thick chunk of zucchini fried in beef tallow and some kimchi.

AH complained about how much mess I made in the kitchen, so I told him that he would be cooking from now on!

Now I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed ... although I must say that my 'other' bed was very comfortable too and I slept well most nights. I, and the other visitors have worn it in well.

It's good to be home and I really hope that Vegan Chickie gets over her illness and jetlag soon so that she can enjoy being home too.

Nite all.

What a Day!

Me + buses = Epic FAIL every time!

I thought I was being very clever looking up the bus timetable and planning my own way to Sunshine Plaza this morning, so that I could arrive on time for my 8am dental appointment.

I got the Bare-chested Chef to drop me at Civic at 5.35am so that I could catch the 6.05am bus, which would get me to Sunshine Plaza at 7.20am. It would be a thirteen minute walk from there to my appointment, so I figured I could grab a coffee somewhere beforehand.

Well, 6.05am came and went, and there was no sign of any public transport so I looked up the timetable again only to discover that the timetable was from 2011!! I found the current timetable and there was no bus until 7.10am which would get me to Sunshine Plaza at 8.17am!!! It meant that I would miss my appt completely.

So I calculated that if I got off the bus at Sunshine Coast Airport and caught a taxi, if all things went to plan, I would only be about 5 minutes late for the appointment.

Of course Murphy's Law dictates that all things do NOT go to plan.

It was 7.57am, there was one taxi on the rank and the driver told me that he could get me there in six minutes. I felt that this was a good sign. Until the first red light .. and then every red light for the entire journey! At 8.07am, the receptionist from the dental surgery phoned me to ask if I was still coming. It was 8.14am when I walked through their doors, after paying $28 for the taxi ride!

I had a nice taxi driver though who told me how he had his amalgam fillings removed about four years ago and his health had improved so much, he took up surfing again. He was 62!

Anyway, my dentist was very understanding after I apologised profusely and she didn't try to rush the appointment. She took photos of all of my teeth and gums from every angle and then took an x-ray with their special machine that emits lower nasties than a regular x-ray.

She then showed me every photo, one by one, explaining what needed to be done with each tooth and in what order she would do it all. She showed me the x-ray and pointed out all the problems in the gums.

I have cracks in two of the teeth with the amalgam fillings and cracks also in the fillings which are dangerous to my health. I have five amalgam fillings altogether.  She explained about the gum disease, which she stated is advanced, but they could fix it and as long as I continued my healthy lifestyle, it would keep the disease at bay. She said it was probably hereditary (my Mum had to have most of her teeth removed at the age of 16 because of gum disease).

She advised me to use coconut oil to clean my teeth and not to touch mainstream toothpaste.

She gave me a dental plan for the first two hour appointment which is in two weeks time, when she can do a good amount of the work in one hit.

She was amazing. I REALLY REALLY liked her. She was not judgemental and she was calm and caring and answered all of my questions in a very respectful way. She is going to make allowances for the fact that I will be travelling so far and try to do as much at each visit as she can.

I am actually looking forward to my next appointment with her! Believe it or not!

So I left the surgery feeling very happy and satisfied that I had made the right decision to see Dr Kluge.

As luck would have it, there was a coffee shop nearby with a very friendly barista who made a perfect extra large latte for me.

I walked on to Sunshine Plaza where I was about to partake in some retail therapy when Vegan Chickie phoned to tell me that they were coming to the plaza and that I wouldn't have to catch a bus home. The day was looking up!

I forgot to mention that I have had a problem with my right eye for the past few days. It felt like some kind of infection in the inside corner of my eye, where some hot oil had spattered from some chicken I was cooking one night, but it had deteriorated overnight and I was in quite a bit of pain this morning, so I decided to visit the Optometrist to have it checked ... if you know me, I don't seek professional help unless I feel like I'm in trouble!

So I was able to see a very young optometrist at OPSM almost immediately. He spent quite a bit of time looking and poking and touching and prodding and shining lights in all different directions and puffing air into my eyeballs and asking me to read letters and dripping orange dye into my eyes.

In the end, he had no idea what it was but was concerned that the pressure in the sore eye was a bit high. He decided that I should see a specialist - Opthalmologist - as soon as possible, so he made the phone call and got me in at 1pm today!

A bit more retail therapy to fill in the time, then a coffee while Vegan Chickie and Chicklet ate ice cream (Chicklet's berry sorbet was delicous!) and soon the Bare-chested Chef dropped me off at the eye specialist.

I gave them my details and sat down at about 12.50pm. Some young kid called me into an office and asked me a heap of questions, filling in a card as we talked, asking me to read some letters on the wall, checking the pressure in my eyes (he said they were perfect) and then told me to have a seat and Dr McKee would call me shortly.

At 2.10pm I asked the receptionist how much longer I was going to have to wait.

She went searching for my card and quite obviously couldn't find it in any of the doctor's cubicles, but told me that I would definitely be next if I could just take a seat again.

I watched as three of them searched high and low for my information card. Five minutes later I was called into Dr McKee's office.

I have to say that for the 90 minutes that I sat there, I could physically feel my eye improving and by the time I sat in his office, the redness had gone and the pain had subsided to 'just noticeable'.

He used his machines to check both of my eyes and asked me some questions, eventually deciding that he could see nothing sinister in my eye and that the inflammation looked very much like an allergy to something. He began to write out a prescription for steroid drops saying that it would help with the inflammation.

I asked if my eye would heal itself without the drops and he said 'Yes'.

I replied 'Don't bother with the prescription then, thanks very much.'

Then he handed me some drops to help with lubrication. He said 'you don't have to use them and they have nothing in them to hurt you, but just in case you need them.'

So $110 later, I walked out at least knowing that there was nothing sinister lurking in my eye.

It was the busiest surgery I've seen for a long time. There were 27 people sitting in the waiting area for the entire time I was there. When somebody left, someone else took their place. All but one of them was over 65 yrs of age.

The Chicklet family had bought the groceries during that time .. I promised to cook a baked dinner before I left, so we had a baked lamb with sweet potato, turnip, potato, yellow squash, beans and cauliflower with home made gravy. It was quite delicious, considering how uninspired I was.

After dinner it was bath time for Chicklet and then story time - my last night of stories before I head home tomorrow.

I've packed my complete new Summer wardrobe in my suitcase and will be ready for Adoring Husband when he arrives tomorrow to pick me up. I have no idea what time he's coming and as it's now 9.30pm, he will probably be sound asleep, so I will be pleasantly surprised when he lands on the doorstep at whatever time he chooses to do so.

I really need to rest my eye now. It's feeling very tired and a little painful, so I believe that sleep will be the key to it's recovery.

Nite all.  

Day Thirteen of Thirteen

I'm so happy that she is home.

All is right with my world again.

I no longer have to keep my imagination in check.

I told her, it will be like childbirth .. give me time to forget about the pain .. and she can then plan her next trip!

Chicklet is over the moon to have her Mama home.

The Bare-chested Chef is equally ecstatic .. though more controlled in his excitement!

Tomorrow I have my dental appointment and have an early start, so this is a short post.

I think my body has hit super relax mode and needs to sleep.

Nite all.

Day Twelve of Fifteen (maybe less)

Vegan Chickie has arrived safe n sound in Melbourne where she will spend tonight and will be home some time tomorrow. I have already shed a tear or two with relief. I can't wait to hug her hello.

Chicklet had swimming lessons this morning and I took my camera ...

It's difficult to tell here, but apparently, swimming is her favourite thing!!

She really does love it and her teacher is fabulous with her and with the other kids for that matter. I have more photos but I don't want to use up all the credit on my Telstra travel data stick, so I'll wait til I get home to edit the rest.

After swimming, I was dropped off at Tewantin shopping centre, for a day on my own. I was only going to spend the morning out, but I really needed it to do something to make the time go quicker .. knowing that Vegan Chickie was on her way to Melbourne .. I needed to do something away from the house and Chicklet, to get my mind off the craziness that I've created within it.

So I was grateful that the Bare-chested Chef had the day off work so that I could remove myself and partake in some retail therapy to partially heal my damaged soul.

I think it's safe to say that I now have a complete new Summer wardrobe and I won't need to spend any money on clothes for a while! There are some nice little boutiques in Tewantin and Noosaville, most of which are reasonably priced and the people are very friendly in this area too.

Delicious coffee at Zabe Espresso Bar. Very bohemian with free wifi and it's an internet cafe with ipads for public use, comfortable lounges in the back area, magazines and newspapers strewn about and it's obviously 'the' place to go, because there was a queue of people standing out the front waiting for their orders.

I sat in the park to drink my morning coffee and watched the birds .. so many birds! Two parent Butcher birds fighting off Magpies while they took turns feeding their young, Mynah birds building nests by pulling long vines and then streaking across the sky with them, a Kookaburra feeding it's young nested in a hole in a large tree on a main road and a baby Magpie getting a feed from the workers who were creating a new children's park nearby.

Of course I didn't have my camera with me to capture any of that.

At the end of my day, I missed two buses .. I don't even know if they were my buses. They had the right number on them, but apparently there are two buses with the same number that go to different locations. I eventually decided to catch a taxi. Today's taxi cost me $16.30 from Tewantin. The other day I caught the taxi from Civic and it cost me $14.80. Not much difference really.

Chicklet was just waking from a nap when I arrived home. Apparently she'd had a meltdown at the library, so was pretty spent from that. We spent the afternoon playing with the new dinosaurs that I bought her (just a little pack of 8 plastic dinosaurs) and creating some more masterpieces with some new stickers.

I bathed her and Dadu read her bed time stories.

I can't believe that it's already 10.30pm as I type this. I guess time will go at normal speed now that Vegan Chickie has her feet firmly on Aussie ground!

I think it's time to sleep .. hopefully peacefully.

Nite all.

Day Eleven of Fifteen

First of all I would like to thank the friends and family who have called, texted and sent private messages over the last 48 hours to comfort and console me during this stressful time. I have appreciated your moral support, although at times you have triggered tears that I wasn't expecting!

Today has been the longest day in the history of mankind and the universe ... and that is not an exaggeration!

I woke this morning to find a text from Vegan Chickie to say that she had been able to book a flight to London and that she was now going to sleep because she had to be on the plane at 7am.

Of course, 7am in Paris is 4pm here! Which meant a very very very long day of waiting, for me. Every minute seemed like an eternity. Every Chicklet activity seemed to take only five minutes to complete. The more I looked at the clock, the more frustrated I was that time was plodding along so slowly.

Even having Chicklet to care for, did not help keep me occupied enough to make the time move any quicker.

Finally, at 6.20pm I received a text to say that she had "landed in London - next step Dubai"

Funny, I really believed that knowing she was out of Paris, it would help me relax, but it had no affect at all. My stress levels are still peaking and now, I can only hope that when she lands in Australia, I will feel more relaxed.

Meanwhile, my little possum, who knows nothing of what has happened, is having a very restless night. She was sound asleep at 7pm, but woke at 9pm and I carried her back to bed and sat with her til she fell back to sleep, but has just now climbed into my bed at 10pm. She is very unsettled and has a bit of a cough, so I hope she's not coming down with anything.

We stayed at home all day today, watching both of the new dvds, coloring in and making some sea creature masks, we drew some pictures of Poppy Barry being afraid of crocodiles and spiders .. even one with a crocodile eating his shoe! We played catch outside for a little while and then came inside and sang happy birthday to Choco the dog (a stuffed toy bigger than Chicklet .. bought for her by Bubbles during her last visit) and we ate half a dozen of the runny chocolate brownies to celebrate.

Dadu came home for his work break for an hour and Chicklet played with him for that time.

We had a bath, ate dinner while we watched the second half of Open Season (we watched the first half a few days ago) and then we climbed into bed for story time.

Dadu has now arrived home from work and is with Chicklet in her bedroom. She may end up in his bed tonight I dare say. Perhaps she ate too many runny chocolate brownies today! Or perhaps she can sense that we are 'on edge'.

Adoring Husband suffered through some nasty storms at home today and was even called out with the SES to help people with damage.

I'm feeling very tired tonight and it's almost 11pm so I think I will try to get some sleep.

Safe travelling Vegan Chickie xo

Nite all.

Day Ten of Fifteen

Well, as you've all no doubt heard by now, a terrible terrible tragedy has occurred in Paris where 128 people have been killed and 180 injured after gunmen simultaneously attacked six different sites throughout the city.

My daughter is safe and well and in lock down in her hotel room, where she has been since arriving due to illness .. thank goodness for aeroplanes laden with hundreds of people carrying germs, is all I can say! Who knows where she might have been when the shootings took place, if she was well enough to be out and about last night!

There are no words to describe the level of fear and adrenalin that frequently courses through my veins every time I consider what could have happened and what could still happen to my child while she is supposed to be enjoying her dream holiday.

Thank goodness I've had Chicklet to keep me occupied for the day, although I've been 'short' with her a couple of times while I tried to deal with my inner stress and her outer stress at the same time!

It doesn't matter how old your kids are, you still worry about them just as much, as adults, as when they were defenceless babes.

My heart ached when I knew that Bubbles was huddled on the floor in her bedroom riding out a massive cyclone-like storm that hit Sydney recently that seemed to go on for hours.

I felt like I wanted to throw up when Number One Son was beaten by his neighbour's X-husband not long ago and even sicker knowing that the DVO that was taken out, was just a piece of paper that the violent man could ignore if he chose.

Now, I'm trying desperately to ignore the voices in my head that are continually describing worst case scenarios in Paris and my imagination that keeps playing my own hellish movie productions that never end well.

Thank you to Vegan Chickie, who knows of my fears and is fulfilling my request by texting me every hour to tell me she is ok.

Today has not been the best day for me, but only due to the stress .. any other time, today would have been a breeze.

After our phone call with Vegan Chickie, the Bare-chested Chef dropped us at Civic at about 9.40am on his way to work. My plan was for coffee and a short play in the children's area, before grabbing some groceries and heading home by about 10.30am.

The Barista informed me that the Minions were appearing in the centre this morning and that there were huge numbers of children already accumulated in the play area and around the stage which was set up close to the play area.

Great! Just what Chicklet and I needed, an unplanned event for which we have not been able to prepare in advance. Her level of the 'spectrum' requires planning for these things!

So we head to the play area anyway, buying a Minion show bag on the way for $25 which contained a plastic cup, a plush toy minion, a pack of minion playing cards, a minion cap and a children's beach towel with life sized minion on it. Pretty good value I thought.

Surprisingly, I found a free table to sit at while Chicklet joined the gazillion other kids in the play area. By now, it was about 9.50am and I was assuming, by the size of the crowd, that the show would begin at 10am.

So I sat and I waited, watching Chicklet as she hovered between me and the play area and hoping that this would be over soon .. I hate crowds too .. especially crowds of unruly children!

By 10.40am there is still no sign of Minions, there is a young couple on stage singing Christmas carols, but they are not the slightest bit interested in the children because they seemed to be more interested in how they looked and sounded, taking selfies and quite obviously full of themselves.

Chicklet was now complaining that no kids wanted to play with her, so between us, we decided to leave the area and head to BIG W to find a dinosaur to take home.

After a long decision process and after I declined her request for the $70 T-Rex that moved and roared, we chose a noisy pteranodon with moving wings and glowing orange eyes. We then selected a couple of dvds .. Lady and the Tramp (her selection) and Bolt (my selection) .. before she excitedly requested a balloon.

BIG W at Civic has a whole party section in one corner with a huge selection of balloons which they blow up with helium at a charge of $2 extra. We selected the only dinosaur balloon which was foil and had 'happy birthday' on it. They tied a long piece of string to it and carefully attached it around her wrist and we departed BIG W with the biggest happiest smile ever!

The weather was looking ominous, so we decided to catch a taxi instead of the bus. I called the number and was told that they would be 'right there'.

We waited and we waited.

More than twenty minutes later, Chicklet decided that we should play 'catch the balloon'. It was a great idea in theory, except on the third 'catch', the string detached itself from the balloon and there it floated towards the sky with the ear piercing shriek of Chicklet trailing behind it.

Only Vegan Chickie will relate to the absolute horror that Chicklet was experiencing as she watched the balloon disappear, and as her screaming reached a crescendo, she suddenly turned and began to run - fast - in no particular direction!

MY scream at that moment, was louder than HER scream and it stopped her in her tracks and immediately silenced her, at which point, I grabbed her hand before she could take another step.

So now I had a decision to make .. do I appease Chicklet and take her inside to get another balloon, thereby, more than likely missing our taxi OR do I try to convince her that she doesn't need the balloon,  attempt to get her home thereby, more than likely, tempting a meltdown IN the taxi???

I chose the first option.

We power walked back into BIG W where I was quite rude to the woman behind the counter explaining what had happened. She suggested that they tie the balloon tighter to Chicklet, but I told her that 'as you can see, the string is still attached to Chicklet's wrist! It was the string that you tied to the balloon itself that let go! Thanks to you, I've just experienced my granddaughter's autistic meltdown AND I've also missed my taxi!!'

She was very apologetic and got me another balloon, which she blew up and tied the string extra tight. I attempted to pay for it, but she looked at me with kind eyes and said 'No, just take this one'.

*sigh*

Yes, I overreacted and shouldn't have given her such a hard time, but I my inner stress just took over!

I wanted to say "I'm so sorry, but my daughter is in PARIS!!!!"

We returned to the taxi rank and phoned for the taxi again - I explained what had happened and they sent another taxi, which arrived almost immediately.

We arrived home at about 1.30pm, just ahead of the storms that have been rolling in and over us all afternoon.

We had some quiet time for about 30 minutes.

We played dinosaur games with the new pteranodon.

We made runny chocolate brownies together.

We coloured in the personalised Octonaut pictures.

We watched Lady and the Tramp.

We had GF 'spaghetti with nothing on it' for dinner. Actually mine had chicken, bok choy and creamy lime & cracked pepper avocado through it. Delicious!

We had a quick bath and then two stories. We discussed our best and worst parts of the day and little miss chatterbox didn't want to shut up, until I said "No more talking. It's time to sleep."

I swear she was asleep 30 seconds later!

I think it's time for me to do the same. It's been a mentally and emotionally exhausting day.

Stay safe my child xo

Nite all.