Simple Saturday

I was in bed by 9pm last night, and I'm pretty sure that I fell asleep the instant that my head hit the pillow. I woke at 1am for about thirty minutes and again very briefly at 4.30am for about thirty seconds. It was 7.30pm when I finally woke for the day.

When I opened my eyes,  there was my morning coffee sitting on my bedside table (thank you Adoring Husband), so I chose to spend even more time in bed with my iPad and it was about 9am when I finally climbed out of bed to welcome the day.

I took the opportunity to cook up a big breakfast for AH. Bacon, eggs, tomato, mushrooms and avocado. It turned out to be a good move because he got a callout for a land search with the SES almost the second that he took his last mouthful.

That meant that I had a very quiet morning and early afternoon at home alone. I did some washing and watched a movie and ate half a kg of organic red grapes! Delicious!

When AH arrived home, I cooked up some lamb back strap for a late lunch.

We spent the afternoon watching the Auckland Nines. AH's team is one of only two that have won both their matches so far. Last year, they got into the finals but lost the big game. We're hoping that they can go one better this year. My team is not doing so well.

Today has been rainy and quite a bit cooler than the last couple of weeks, which has been pleasant. Instead of keeping the house closed up and the air conditioner running all day, we could open some windows and let some fresh air in.

During my facebook browsing today, I came across this fabulous video that I simply had to share here. I love it so much. It warmed my heart.



I also loved these quotes...

On that note, it's 11pm and I am going to get some sleep.

Nite all.

Short and Sweet

I believe that a solid night of sleep is calling to me. It has been months since I chose bed at 9pm so I am outta here.

I thought that Margaret Pomeranz choices for movies might appeal to you.

Movie choices

Let me know what you think! Your reviews will mean more to me that Margaret's.

Nite all.

Movie Improvement

So, five strangers, Adoring Husband and myself, all watched 'Sisters' today at the cinema in The Bay. It's the final week for the viewing of the movie, so it only cost $9 - that was a bonus! It was funny - a big improvement on last week's movie, that's for sure.

Afterwards, we went for a drive along the esplanade to see the damage from last week's storm, but they've cleared the debris so well, that it's difficult to tell where the damage was, along the foreshore. The caravan park at Scarness is closed, has obvious damage and there is still work going on, but otherwise, you can barely tell there was a storm. The clean up job by council and SES crews has been pretty amazing.

We bought a blood pressure monitor today.

I am 55 years old and almost everybody I know has blood pressure problems, mostly high, and they have been prescribed medication for it. Adoring Husband had high blood pressure a couple of years ago and was given a period of time to lose weight and reduce his blood pressure, which he did, so fortunately, he didn't have to take medication.

So I figured that we are at the age where we need to monitor it, and since I don't consult doctors, I can do it myself at home. As of today, I am happy to announce that both of us have perfect blood pressure and perfect resting heart beats! Yay for us!

The video that I am sharing with you today is one that I found on my 'on this day' memory page in facebook. It was shared on my page by The Nikonian way back in 2013, a week after the tornado, when our power and our internet coverage was intermittent. I didn't even know it was there until today!

She shared it because she knew I would love it. She was right! It's brilliant. A belated thankyou to my friend :)



It's pouring with rain tonight and by the look of the BOM, it's not going to stop any time soon. A nice night to fall asleep to the sound of rain on the tin roof. So...

Nite all.

Morning Laughs

The highlight of today was most definitely morning tea with the girls. There are two highlights to mention.

The first highlight was the delicious paleo apple and walnut muffins that The Blonde Bombshell baked this morning and brought, still warm, for us all to savour with our tea and coffee.

I believe there were nine of us this morning and the biggest highlight of the day, was when we were joined by our old friend Tweedle Dee! She moved down south about seven months ago and we've missed her crazy sense of humour and her hilarious stories.

She cracked us all up and we cackled like hens for a good two hours. My cheeks ached from smiling and laughing so hard and it was well after 11am by the time I got home.

One of her stories described the lifetime search, for a hat to suit her. A lady in a hat shop even told her that there was a hat style for everyone, but after she had tried on all of the styles in the shop, even the hat lady told her there was nothing!

So I asked her to try on my hat and ... wahlaa! It looked great!

Tonight there were dinner arrangements made for a big group of us to meet at the pub and I promised Tweedle Dee that I would bring one of my hats for her (I have 4 of the same style hat).

The routine of my life is so ingrained that I was halfway through cooking dinner when I remembered that I should have been at the pub ten minutes ago!! By the time I finished dinner, it was too late for me to have a shower (and I desperately needed to wash and blow dry my hair) and get ready, so I messaged my apologies to the group.

Then I remembered the hat! So I asked Adoring Husband to drive me to the pub, where I rushed into the restaurant, looking like a grubby old housewife, and presented Tweedle Dee with her hat. There were welcoming cheers all round and photos were quickly taken and I disappeared from the pub as quickly as I had appeared!

I'm so pleased that I did that because I got to give her a goodbye hug and show her that I wasn't fobbing her off for dinner. I hope that one day I get to visit her at her new home on Bribie Island. She's just so happy and full of love and laughter.

We miss her a lot.

Adoring Husband and I have a movie date tomorrow morning. Our plan is to see 'Sisters' - however - 'The Choice' starts tomorrow and I do want to see that too. Perhaps we can save 'The Choice' for next week!

I should probably go get some sleep, since we have an early start tomorrow.

Nite all.

Fixing the Mental and Emotional

Tonight, after a conversation about my fear of not just storms, but the possibility of approaching storms and also other strange quirks in my personality, including my refusal to get counselling for the PTSD that resulted from the tornado in 2013, Vegan Chickie described me as ...

"A riddle wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma"

Many many years ago Winston Churchill described Russia this way, though I doubt that he uttered those words with love, the way (I hope) that Vegan Chickie did!

It is true. There is healing required. I've worked so hard on my physical health, but have neglected my mental and emotional health. Counselling is an option that I 'may' consider in the future .. maybe.

Meanwhile, there are lots of other things that I can try, like meditation and mindfulness!!

My brother told me about a series on the ABC about training your brain to do all sorts of things. I believe there were two seasons of this show and I found them on youtube tonight. I haven't watched an episode yet, but I have watched a few of the short segments and this is one on mindfulness ...



I would like to find the time to watch a few more of these shows. I might discover some new ways to nurture my mental and emotional state.

Again, it's heading towards 1am and I need to sleep.

Nite all.

Impulsivity

I made the impulsive decision to head into The Bay with The Reality TV Queen today, to share her belated birthday lunch at the RSL. She received a meal voucher from them for her birthday and she had to use it before the expiry date, which was actually yesterday, but even though she went in there to use it yesterday, she'd accidentally left the voucher at home in another handbag!

After explaining her situation to the lady at reception, she was lucky enough to have her voucher extended so that she could use it today! That was nice of them.

While I was in town, I bought myself a set of sketch pencils in a case from the art and craft store. I also bought an A4 size sketch pad.

It's been quite some time since I practised my art and, like anything, it takes a lot of practise to be proficient. I'll see how my motivation levels go.

I actually wanted to buy some oil paints and brushes to get back into painting, but a 37ml tube of reasonable quality oil paint costs more than $25. I would need at least six colours to start and I'm not sure if I can stay motivated enough to justify paying that much for the supplies.

If I focus on the sketching and the spark comes alive inside of me, than I will certainly outlay the money for some new supplies.

My other purchase today, was of something that will surprise you I'm sure ... shoes! Just some fancy green and blue bejewelled thongs.

While in the shoe shop, we were advised of the storm warnings that were current and the flood warning for the Burrum River, and as it began to rain, we rushed to the car hoping to beat the storms home.

Before we even got to the outskirts of The Bay, the rain stopped and even though there was plenty of water on the sides of the road, the skies cleared and the sun was shining by the time we arrived in my driveway.

It's still terribly hot and uncomfortably humid. Storms are forecast for the rest of the week, but the weather should cool down by the weekend. We can only hope!

I shared this video on facebook this morning. I think it runs for about 18 minutes and is a viewing 'must'!



It's well after midnight, so I'm outta here!

Nite all.

Loving the Shoes!!

Adoring Husband had two call outs today, with the SES. One in town and the other in The Bay, so he was gone for most of the day.

I spent part of the day cooking a roast lamb and veg meal, which was originally for lunch, but ended up being for dinner.

I spent part of the day watching a movie.

I spent part of the day trying to think of an interesting 'water' photo to take. This month's flickr challenge is themed 'water'. I couldn't think of anything, so I went outside after the rain and tried for some droplets shining in the trees, but unfortunately, my camera seems to have lost it's ability to focus properly, so I will need to get it serviced and/or repaired.

I spent part of the day looking through all of the photos that I've taken in January, with the hope of finding one with water in it, that I could work on, and submit for the challenge.

I spent part of the day watching a storm on the BOM that firstly hit Emerald and brought with it two quick inches of rain and 85kph winds and which I then warned my sister about. It seems that the storm, once again fizzled before it got to Blackwater.

I spent part of the day watching the tennis final between Djokovic and Murray. I'm glad that Djokovic won!

I spent part of the day browsing shoes ...

Gorgeous aren't they!?

I spent part of the day wishing that I could sit on my couch eating junk food, like chips and chocolate and ice cream and lollies. That doesn't happen very often! I didn't eat any of those things and I know that I'm feeling better for it tonight! Mentally AND physically!

So you see that my day was again, not very productive. It's too hot, humid, wet and/or stormy to get productive.

I can't believe that it's now after 11pm! I thought it was much earlier than that!

Nite all.

Again?

Another day of storms .. but not here.

Bubbles has been without power for a few hours after three severe storms in less than 24 hours down in Sydney.

Vegan Chickie had to have sandbags delivered by the SES when the first severe storm brought so much heavy rain in such a short time, that her back yard flooded and the water was lapping at her back door. Her house was struck by lightning, a light globe exploded and her new modem was fried in the incident.

My sister, in Blackwater, had a massive storm approach from the west, which then split in two and skirted the town. This has happened two afternoons in a row now. The first afternoon, the storm split in two, skirted the town and then rejoined after it passed!

There is a storm passing over us as I type this, but it is not bad one. There is some severe looking weather moving towards us from the north at the moment, and it looks like Gladstone is getting hit.

With all the storms about, the weather is not cooling down at all. The rain just makes it steamier and more humid than ever. There are mushrooms growing in our back yard.

Adoring Husband has been on standby all day and was expecting to be called into The Bay to help with the clean up after the damaging storm there.

One man died and two people were struck by lightning in The Bay last night.

I triked down to the river late this morning. I didn't plan on going there, but as I got closer to the turn for the shops, I noticed something in the sky. It was a beautiful BIG white bellied sea eagle soaring low on the strong winds barely at tree height and right on the river bank.

Unfortunately, I have not been carrying my camera with me every day, as I once did, so I couldn't capture it's beauty. Instead I rode to the river path to sit and watch it in all it's glory. Sometimes, I would follow it along the river until it stopped to float in the sky again, when I would stop to observe for a while.

It was amazing and beautiful and perfect and I'm kind of happy that I didn't have my camera because it meant that I could really be in the moment.

After a visit to the butcher and supermarket, I came home to do very little. I cooked lunch and dinner, but otherwise a lazy day, which I enjoyed very much.

I'm watching the women's Australian Open tennis final right now and the German girl Kerber is currently beating Serena Williams, which is a big surprise .. however the game isn't over yet and Williams has a habit of coming back from behind!

It may be an early night for me tonight.

Nite all.

Stormy Weather

After 24 hours of warnings, the storms finally hit tonight.

They hit hard and they hit fast and they're still hitting four hours later.

There has been a fatality in Hervey Bay at the caravan park in Scarness. I understand that a man died after suffering head injuries when a tree branch fell on him.

A building on Main Street lost it's roof which led to damage inside the building.

There are power lines down on Denmans Camp Road outside the Girl Guide Hut and thousands of homes have lost power in Hervey Bay.

We had 4 hours of thunder and lightning and wind and rain and now it has suddenly gone very very quiet, but I don't think it's over for the night. There is more weather coming from the north.

Thankfully, there have been no call outs in our town for emergency services.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just our area that suffered. Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Sydney and Brisbane all got ravaged by storms this afternoon and evening.

30,000 homes lost power in Sydney.

I've seen photos of the Esplanade at Scarness and there are trees down and the road is covered with debris.

I think it's safe for me to go to bed now.

Nite all.

Gross Grandpa

Do NOT waste your time going to see 'Dirty Grandpa' - unless you want to enjoy the glorious view of a very naked Zac Efron (which is indeed glorious).

Robert De Niro is my favourite actor, so this movie was VERY disappointing for me.

The profanities were mostly unnecessary, and very vulgar and offensive. There were graphic sex scenes and drug use and so much tasteless dialogue, ugly characters and all political correctness was tossed out of the window.

There were a few laughs, but not enough to make up for the homophobia, racism, sexism and crass jokes about cancer and pedophilia that make you squirm in your seat with discomfort.

Adoring Husband almost walked out before the halfway mark and I believe that if the two main characters were different actors, I probably would have walked out too.

There are no excuses and sadly, I have lost a bit of respect for both Zac and Robert after suffering through this poor excuse for a movie.

Afterwards, some retail therapy went a small way towards improving my day! We drove to Tinkerbells on the Esplanade at Scarness and I bought some oracle cards and a new crystal to hang from my frangipani tree.

I bought a top on sale at Just Jeans and I ordered a book by Christiane Northrup from the ABC shop across the road. "Goddesses Never Age" and you can watch a short video of her daughter interviewing her about the book here. I love her ideas and the way she thinks.

After a very busy and social week, I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow at home catching up on some housework and a photography job that I should have done 2 months ago, but lost the man's email address - I ran into him today and he questioned me about my failure to fulfil his request. Best get onto that tomorrow!

Sleep time for me.

Nite all.

Lady's Lunch

Another successful lady's luncheon today. We did miss quite a few ladies (Lady Lynn, Mardi, Beauty, Long Legged Blond and a couple of others) who were absent, but still managed to gather 18 of us together at the marina.

There was lots of laughter and sometimes the restaurant sounded like a henhouse, there was so much cackling going on!

One serious complaint about the food (no .. NOT Reality TV Queen .. hers was the usual 'minor' complaint), so the majority of us were more than happy with the meals, and our server was warm and friendly, which added to the day.

Most of us walked to the Boat Club afterwards.  I'd had a nice win on the pokies before lunch, so when I paid for my lunch, I secretly paid for everyone's drinks. Karma was kind and I won the drink money back after lunch!

It was nice to catch up with everyone.

I arrived home to the sound of loud talking and laughter coming from one of our neighbours' houses, so I placed my little ladder against the fence, climbed up high enough to see over the top and yelled at them to be quiet!

There was a short silence, until they realised it was me and they all yelled back, inviting me over to share the fun. So I poured myself a wine and got Adoring Husband to drop me off on his way to buy coffee.

It was another neighbour's birthday and Long Legged Blond had baked up a storm and invited the immediate neighbours over for afternoon tea. It was an impressive spread!

After about an hour, we all dispersed and headed back to our respective homes.

It's been a very pleasant day of socialising, as was yesterday, and tomorrow, Adoring Husband and I plan on spending the day together. We are going to see the movie 'Dirty Grandpa' with Robert De Niro and Zac Efron.

So it's good night from me!

Nite all.  

Aussie Aussie Aussie!

Oi Oi Oi

Happy Australia Day!

So, I found this little video on gut flora very interesting. It only goes for about 9 minutes and worth watching.



It's something that the Paleo way of eating focuses quite strongly on. Bone broths, fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi and some relishes and pickles, kombucha tea, coconut yoghurt and coconut kefir, as well as good quality probiotics.

All of that, combined with organic fruit and vegetables and grass fed proteins go a long way to healing your gut and keeping it's health strong, which in turn, means that your body's immune system is strong enough to fight diseases and illness.

It also builds a strong, energetic body that can maintain good muscle tone and strength and can repair itself rapidly after prolonged physical activity such as marathons, 2 hour football matches, 4 hour tennis matches etc. A good example of how effective this way of eating is, can be seen in this list of elite athletes who follow the paleo lifestyle:

• Novak Djokovic - world number one tennis player for 4 out of the last 5 years. He finally broke through to number one, the year that he changed to Paleo.
• Gary Ablett Jr - AFL player. Two Brownlow medals and two Premierships.
• Melbourne AFL football team.
• Wests Tigers and Roosters NRL football teams.
• James LeBron and Kobe Bryant - champion professional basketballers in the NBA. 
• Kelly Slater - 2011 World Championship surfer.
• Eva Twardokens - Olympic Skier.
• Phil Mickelson - golfer with too many achievements to list here.
• Frank Mir - two time heavyweight boxing champion.

It shows that it's a sustainable and healthy way of eating for all walks of life.

As you read my post, we are remembering this day three years ago when our town was damaged by a tornado that whipped a path of destruction from one end to the other. You can read my post from 30th January 2013, which was the first date after the event that I had internet access long enough to post, HERE.

I spent THIS Australia Day at the Boat Club with Reality TV Queen and Suzy's Mum, whose name was drawn out to compete in a 'damper' making competition, which she did not win. There were crab races for which the winner won a carton of beer AND their mud crab (which was cooked for them after the race). There was also live music that had everybody (except me) up dancing on the dance floor.

We had lunch before all of that fun started and it was a good day.

The lady's luncheon is tomorrow, so I need to sleep now.

Nite all.

What Day is it?

Sometimes the days run into each other and I have no idea what day it actually is. For example, yesterday (which was Sunday), I was sure it was Saturday. I even missed watching the Lleyton Hewitt doubles match because of it!

I also missed a friend's birthday. Ugh!

So I visited her this afternoon, enjoyed a beverage with her and The Speckled Hen and gave her the gift that I so carefully chose a month ago so that she might feel loved on her special day... instead, she felt loved 24 hours later!

It's been hot and steamy all day. Even the Seat of Knowledge was not pleasant this morning. We can usually rely on a nice sea breeze down there, but at 8am today, it was just as steamy down there as everywhere else.

Storms built up during the afternoon and there was thunder rolling in the sky, but unfortunately nothing eventuated and it is still hot and steamy at 11.30pm. There are scattered storms showing on the BOM, but they are all moving around us and obviously NOT cooling things down.

The edge of a storm skimmed Blackwater and blew down a tree in my sister's front yard. The picture on the BOM showed the storm with a big black centre. Those kinds of storms never end well! Thank goodness it skimmed the town and it wasn't a direct hit.

Sadly, all of the Aussies are out of the Australian Open Tennis Championships, so my interest has slightly waned.

It's way past midnight and before I sign off, I have one photo from our road trip to share. This was taken with my phone and is a little spot outside of Woodenbong.

Nite all.

A Better Day

I've had a much better day today.

I spent the first half of it in bed! I had a take-away coffee, bought yesterday, in the fridge, so I heated it up and climbed back into bed with my 'Create Your Shining Year in Life' workbook, my reading glasses, a couple of pens and started at the beginning (almost always the best place to start).

I got to page 112 of 160,  when Adoring Husband walked into the bedroom and congratulated me for reaching one minute past midday still in bed! That was a shock!

The workbook has a lot of activities and a lot of lists for me to formulate, including '100 Things to do in 2016'. It also asks what I want to stop doing to my body, what I want to continue doing to my body and what new things I want to do. It asks me to talk about all of my relationships.

It asks me about financial goals, travel plans, releasing negative rituals and building new positive ones. What I should celebrate about myself, self care and pampering, setting goals and steps I can take to reach them.

It includes affirmations and dream boards and retreat planning and provides lists of books to read for whichever area of my life that I want to improve or change.

I have a wall chart which is a daily planner, so that I can create a schedule, plan my days, manage my time and get organised ... all of which I don't currently do, but want to ... not in a strict sense, but to help me get stuff done. I'm hoping it will knock that evil 'procrastination' on the head and help me NIKE (just do it).

Here's a question for you. You will either already know the answer, or you will WANT to know the answer!! I believe that most of you, who read my blog are one of these...

A LIBROCUBICULARIST (Lady Lynn, you are probably being one right now!)

You will find the definition at the end of this post.

Does anybody else in town have a problem with ants at the moment? We have ants everywhere! In the kitchen, in the bathrooms, in our bedroom and they don't seem to be heading anywhere in particular. They are not eating any food in the pantry, just creating long lines as they march across walls and bench tops and through drawers. They've been doing it for a couple of months now.

I sprayed peppermint water in their path and they didn't like that, but they only disappeared for a couple of days and then they returned.

I found this recipe which I'm going to try tomorrow ...

One empty water bottle, cut down to about 5cm tall
5 T Baking soda
5 T Powdered sugar (I assume that means icing sugar)
3 T Water

Mix it all together and place some in the bottom of the water bottles. Position them near the ant trails and the sugar will attract them. The mixture will eliminate them.

I'll let you know how successful it is.

I experienced some symptoms of PTSD when a very nasty storm skimmed past us this afternoon. We only took the edge of it, but for a brief time there was heavy rain, strong winds and LOTS of loud rolling thunder. It certainly raised my heart rate and I was shallow breathing when the power failed and the anxiety kicked in - although the look on Adoring Husband's face was equally anxious!

Thank goodness we didn't cop the full force of it. I was planning the dive into the wardrobe with all of my electronic devices!

Well, the tennis has now finished for the evening and again, it is rapidly approaching midnight. Time for bed.

Nite all.

 PS LUBROCUBICULARIST - A person who reads in bed!

Flat and Sad

I have been feeling a bit flat and sad today, and I don't know why.

I slept poorly last night and had a couple of dreams about floods. I looked up 'dreaming about floods' and found this ... "If the flood was gentle and the water clear, you will soon see an end to all the worries that have been plaguing you about a certain matter."

So I guess that's a good thing. If the flood waters had washed me away or was torrential and muddy, my dream would have meant something completely different.

Poor Adoring Husband doesn't know what to do with himself with the tennis on all day. He usually has full control of the TV remote, but twice a year, during the Australian Open and Wimbledon, (and sometimes the US Open) I am the boss of the TV! The US and French Open don't thrill me as much, unless there is an Aussie doing incredibly well.

Tonight, he headed to bed before 8pm and now I am sitting on the couch, with the dogs on the 'storm chair', because we had some threatening weather earlier, waiting for the match with two Aussies.

Bernard Tomic plays John Millman. I think the winner of this match has to play Andy Murray in the next round and I don't hold out much hope of an Aussie win there. Andy Murray has been playing too well lately.

I hope John Millman wins tonight.

Thought I might add a little reading matter about our health. I've always thought that I needed a lithe and supple body to be able to practise yoga, but yoga moves can be modified and adapted to suit everyone's capabilities. I found this interesting Yoga shown to boost brain power in older adults. I know that my brain power could use some boosting!

I found these videos on youtube. Nice gentle yoga for beginners and seniors (60+). I've watched both of them, but haven't tried them yet myself. They look pretty basic and not at all painful.

Third Age Yoga for Seniors - episode 1 of 2

Third Age Yoga for Seniors - episode 2 of 2

I always like how I feel after 20 minutes of yoga, but I've never been able to get into a regular habit with it. I might try and make that one of my goals this year. I'll add it to my 'life workbook' and my 'shining year calendar'.

Anyway, here I am still writing and the tennis match I've been waiting for, is half over! John Millman needs my support!

Nite all.

Ending The Week

I had a lovely morning catching up with The Motivator.

I had a lovely evening catching up with the Bowls Club poker machines and my wonderful friends at the Bowls Club.

I am enjoying the end of the day watching Nick Kyrgios play in the Australian Open. He lost the first two sets but is playing like a champion now, having won the third set and I feel like he is in control in the fourth set.

I am also feeling very weary and I don't think I can stay awake for the end of the match.

Daria Gavrilova, aka Dasher, won her match in three sets .. very happy with that outcome.

I can't stop yawning, so I'm off to bed to get a good night of sleep (it's 10pm).

Sorry, I have nothing to share to make this post more interesting. I may have pictures of pictures that Chicklet has been working on, tomorrow evening. Maybe.

Nite all.

Just a Bit

So I did 'just a bit' of housework today.

I cleaned out the fridge. I cleaned one toilet. I did three loads of washing. I cooked one meal.

I stopped when the tennis started on TV. Tennis will always win over housework. Come to think of it, just about everything will win over housework.

Vegan Chickie and Chicklet phoned me today and it was nice to catch up with their news. It seems that Chicklet's new favourite person is Aunty BGWLBH. Sideways swinging and funny words have become the foundation for a beautiful friendship! I think that's lovely :)

We farewelled Lleyton Hewitt from the tennis circuit tonight when he was soundly beaten in his second round match against David Ferrer. I will miss Lleyton. He was one of my favourites.

Another Aussie, John Millman, who has been playing professionally for ten years, but has been a very quiet achiever, won his match and for the first time is into the third round of a Grand Slam. He will probably have to play Bernard Tomic in the next round. Tomic has won his first two sets and is looking good to win his match.

BGWLBH arrived home safensound yesterday, only to find the house ransacked. She had been robbed. They even took her pillows and doona!

If that wasn't bad enough, today she had to say goodbye to her best friend, Indi, the dog. She was 16 years old, a beautiful gentle and loving companion to BGWLBH and she will be greatly missed.

So please focus for a moment on sending strength and positive energy down south in the direction of BGWLBH to help her get through this very challenging period of her life. The universe sure sends us some mean curve balls sometimes, but this past six months of hell seems just a bit excessive!

One day at a time.

I think I might be up for an early one tonight. It's almost 10pm and I'm feeling weary after last night's bed time of 1am.

Nite all.

Find a Rhythm

My life needs rhythm.

I need a plan and a routine and I need to NIKE (just do it)!!

I'm talking about housework of course. One thing in my life with which I have always struggled, so if anybody out there has any hot tips for making housework easier, faster, enjoyable or less of a chore, please feel free to share!! The only idea that I can come up with is hiring a cleaner!

I was running late for morning tea with the ladies today because I received a call from Mrs Bucket, a phone call that was very 'newsy' and took some time .. however most phone calls with Mrs Bucket take a bit of time :) It was good to hear from her, even though she had some upsetting family news.

When I eventually got there, I really enjoyed morning tea with the girls. Five of us were in attendance and we did miss Lady Lynn and Mardi and Reality TV Queen and Maid Marian who texted me to ask if coffee was on, but she strangely didn't turn up.

It was almost 10.30am by the time we said our farewells and headed home. (this is why my housework never gets done!)

Adoring husband had SES duties all morning, but came home for an early lunch and I had the afternoon to myself, during which I did NO housework, but instead, watched a movie called 'Elsa and Fred' with Shirley Maclaine and Christopher Plummer in it. I enjoyed it very much, because I like both of those actors.

Then I watched some tennis before doing a lamb roast for dinner. I cooked some 'parson's noses' in the oven first and used the fat left over from that, to cook the potatoes, sweet potatoes and pumpkin. The meat was a plain butterflied lamb leg which I browned in the skillet and then baked at high heat for fifteen minutes. I made a gravy with the lamb fat which was left in the skillet, some tapioca flour and some home made chicken broth and served it all with steamed fresh green beans.

It was delicious and AH said the pumpkin was the best he'd ever tasted. It was beautifully caramelised in the chicken fat.

I'm now NOT doing more housework while I watch more tennis. The Aussies are all doing well (except Sam Stosur, who never seems to do well at the Aussie Open) so far, which makes it a bit more interesting.

Found this on Magnesium today, which I found interesting, particularly because BGWLBH and I had discussions about it while she was here.

I have a couple more pics from our time on the Sunny Coast ...

  and these for a giggle ...

And it's good night from me.

Nite all.

Back to Normal

Tears all round as BGWLBH left this morning. I was very surprised to see her car still parked in the driveway when I woke this morning, so I actually got to see her drive away and I wasn't expecting that. It's much easier without 'goodbyes'.

We've had contact during the day and she is travelling well.

So the first half of my day was very quiet with both Adoring Husband and BGWLBH out of the house.

I took the opportunity to take a breath, and I watched one of my new dvds, "Last Cab to Darwin". It was not as sad as I expected, although it was quite dark in places, but funny with typical Aussie humour in other parts. I thought all the characters were well played except for Jackie Weaver. I usually like her, but I didn't like her in this role.

Just as I pressed 'play' on the second dvd, AH phoned to say that he was on his way home, so I paused the movie, made his lunch (duck breast with salad) and we sat down together to watch "Aloha".

It stars Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Emma Stone and Bill Murray. The first half of the movie was a bit confusing trying to figure out what was going on, but it eventually all came together and I enjoyed the movie a lot, with a few tears at the end.

AH is at a meeting tonight, so I get to watch the tennis in peace. At the moment Bernard Tomic is playing Denis Istomin from Uzbek. He is leading 2 sets to 1.  I'm looking forward to Lleyton Hewitt's match tonight against another Aussie, James Duckworth. I hope he does well in his final Australian Open appearance.

I have another photo to share from our holiday. I call it "HIGHER! HIGHER!" which, much to BGWLBH's dismay, is pretty much was Chicklet was yelling for the entire time that she was on the swing.

Time for me to settle into the tennis.

Nite all.

Final Holiday Day

Today was BGWLBH's last day here.

As you read this blog post, she is probably already on her way home.

So we spent the day together at the Boat Club in The Bay. It was a good day. The coffee was good, the poker machines were reasonably friendly .. and by that I mean that we spent four hours there for free and the atmosphere was happy (because most tourists have left town now).

It was a nice way to spend the last day of our holiday.

I have two photos to share from our road trip.

The first is of my Grandfather's name (Francis John Fordham) on the war memorial in Esk. It was revealed to me only last year, that his name was there. Apparently, in his teenage years, he worked on a farm in Esk and joined the Navy at the beginning of WWI. He survived the war and Esk claimed him as their own.

The second is of the river at Wiangaree. Very picturesque.

Well, it's midnight. I'm off to bed. Hopefully I will be awake when BGWLBH leaves tomorrow .. although we both hate goodbyes and I wouldn't be surprised if she left without saying goodbye. It's easier that way. Less painful for both of us. She will sneak out in the early hours.

Nite all.