Foolish Disappointment

April Fool's Day has been quite a disappointment for me!

I only heard two jokes all day.

The first was a newly discovered albino spider ...

... and the second was that Jarryd Hayne had quit NFL and had signed with the Roosters for the remainder of the 2016 season.

That's the best we can do????

I ate the last of my salted caramel coconut ice cream tonight. I feel sad about that .. however, it WAS delicious!

I spent a couple of hours with The Motivator this morning. She is off to Sydney tomorrow for a couple of weeks. Thinking that I could cull some clothes that are too big for me from my wardrobe, I took them to her place. She was very appreciative, and in turn, handed me some clothes from her wardrobe that don't fit her any more and now I've ended up with the same number of clothes PLUS one back in my wardrobe!

I had a lovely evening at the club tonight. Only one couple was missing from our group, so there were a lot of us and there was lots of loud conversations happening. There were not as many tourists at the club as I expected, which was a pleasant surprise.

I'm feeling very weary now, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Heaven in a Bucket

OH-EM-GEE! OMG! OH MY GOD!

By a happy accident, I found some coconut ice cream today.  I need to buy a pallet load and set aside one whole freezer specifically for this ice cream.

It is gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, soy free, vegan and organic. The brand is 'Zebra Dream' and it's salted caramel flavoured. They use Himalayan salt which is a bonus! It's expensive, but when you find something that good, expense is no object!!

I wish I'd bought two tubs of it, because I've already eaten half a tub! The tubs are only half a litre.

I spent the day in The Bay with Adoring Husband. I bought a couple of t-shirts, a top, a necklace and a drink flask, lots of delicious organic fruit and veg, some grass fed beef, a dvd that I already have (it's difficult to keep track when you have more than 400 dvds!), and I had the clasp on my 13 year old watch repaired/tightened. I love my watch. I don't think it's going to last much longer.

No guitar practise today or tonight. I thought I would give my ever tender fingers a break for twenty four hours.

I've been watching movies all night. "Nights in Rodanthe" (sob sob) and "Suddenly 30"

It's one minute to midnight. I should try for some sleep.

Nite all.

A Bit of Blah

I had a really great day today.

It started with morning coffee with a few of the girls, followed by lunch with the ladies and ended with a couple of drinks at one of those lady's houses.

I made sure that I sat with different people for lunch. I usually sit with the same friends each month and I never meet any of the new people, or catch up with other friends, so I made a conscious effort to be sociable and have lots of chats with different friends. I caught up on lots of news.

This was a good idea and I really enjoyed myself.

After lunch (which was delicious), a few of us played the pokies for a while and then drove home to The Speckled Hen's house, where we all had a drink and I was the first to leave and walk home.

I made a nice dinner of lamb rack and vegetables.

But I've been sitting here since Adoring Husband went to bed, feeling very blah. I can't tell if I'm angry or stressed or sick or sad or what. Just plain miserable really.

So I'm off to bed hoping that I will wake up in a better frame of mind and feeling happy.

Have a happy Thursday everybody.

Nite all.

 

Play Rest Play

That's the advice that I've been offered. Play, rest, play.

I've been practising on the guitar and my fingertips are now very tender. This means that I can't practise as often as I want! I need to toughen up the tips of my fingers and apparently the best way to do that is to practise in short sharp bursts until callouses develop.

It's a pretty thought isn't it?

I've also been sharing guitar stories with an old work mate who now lives in Canberra. She has recently separated from her husband of twenty something years and is creating a new life for herself, which includes learning how to play the guitar.

She is a little more advanced than I, because she has both a teacher, and a mentor, so she learns something new and then visits her mentor, to practise with him .. while eating food and drinking wine .. that's gotta be an amazing combination!

She sent me this today ...

It's all gobbledy gook to me, but that's the challenge! I want to understand it by the end of the week and maybe even play it!

Adoring Husband was out for the morning, so I got to spend a lot of time with my guitar, hence the tender fingertips, but this music arrived late this afternoon, so I haven't had a chance to play yet.

Anyway, I LOVE my guitar! (in case you hadn't noticed)

I'm looking forward to my tomorrow, which is hump day for most people. Coffee in the morning with a couple of the girls - specifically Lady Lynn - and then the monthly lady's luncheon.

I made some more apple and walnut muffins today, adding some grated chocolate to the mix. I thought they were lovely, but Adoring Husband couldn't even taste the chocolate! His only comment was "they're not as appley".

Must get some sleep now.

Nite all.

Done and Dusted

The Easter weekend is done and dusted. Most of the Fishing competition crowd has headed home and the town is left with a few stragglers who will stay on for the school holidays. I'm happy that it's much quieter here now.

Adoring Husband and I both rode to the Seat of Knowledge this morning, then got ourselves a coffee before riding to the beach where we sat on a bench seat in the filtered sunlight, enjoying the view for about half an hour.

Some more Harry Potter was in store for AH who has spent the weekend watching all of the movies, and today was the final movie in the series.

Before the football started on TV this afternoon, I made a big batch of these ...

Honey Sesame Paleo Chicken

... I added a finely chopped onion to the mince mixture and heaps of chilli to the dipping sauce. It was delicious and there was enough left over for dinner tonight!

My footy tipping has gone very well this weekend. A perfect round in one competition and in the other competition, I am only two points off the lead! It's very early in the season, which gives me plenty of time to fall behind, but right now ... I would like to brag about it!!

No guitar today, although, it's early, so when I sign off here, I may spend 30 minutes practising what I learned last night.

I hope the girls enjoyed the movie (Lady in the Van) today!! I've been wondering all day!

Nothing else to report.

A quiet and happy Easter Monday.

Nite all.

Fingerpicking Good.

A quiet day at home avoiding the Easter crowds in town. So many people!

I had a lazy start to Sunday morning and took my time getting out of bed. I've become very good at that!

It's been a nothing kind of day. Nothing exciting. Nothing of interest. Nothing worth mentioning.

Until ... Adoring Husband had SES duties for a couple of hours this evening, so I spent an hour attempting to learn something that, apparently, should only take 12 minutes!! I practised some 'fingerpicking'.



I don't even know this guy's name, but so far, I really like the way he teaches and I'm going to follow his lessons for a while and see how I go.

It's going to take quite a bit for me to learn - music is not my forte and I don't have a natural gift for it, so I am going to have to practise all the simple things many times over. The lessons that state 'play this in 12 minutes' mean that it will take me about 3 hours and 12 minutes!! If I'm lucky.

It doesn't matter though, because I'm loving it. I love the feel of the guitar, although my short fingers might struggle with the chords. I adore the sound of the strings as I fingerpick, pluck and strum them.

One day, after lots of practise, I hope that the string positions will become very familiar to me and my movements will become second nature. That will be a day to celebrate! I may even make a youtube video of me playing!

I found a great site with lots of scientific information about turmeric. It has references to follow up and links to check. It's especially good for people who have trouble trusting 'non mainstream' information.

Proven Health Benefits of Turmeric

I'm off to watch the end of the first Harry Potter movie. I've only ever watched one of the movies - the one with Robert Pattinson in it - I don't even remember the name of it. I've never read the books. The Harry Potter movies are a new experience for Adoring Husband and I and there is a movie channel currently playing them all.

I hope everyone has had a happy Easter and enjoyed time spent with friends and family. If you're travelling, be safe and find your way home without incident.

Nite all.

Under the Weather

I had a very big night on Thursday night.

Because the club doesn't open on Good Friday, the Friday night raffles were held on Thursday night instead.

Adoring Husband had SES duties, so because he wasn't home, I did not catch the usual early bus with everyone else. I stayed on til almost 10pm.

This meant that I spent almost 6 hours drinking. I didn't count my drinks and I do remember all of the night out, including the bus ride home (the last courtesy bus of the evening).

I don't remember anything between when I arrived home and about 3am.

I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and I will not go into any details.

I finally climbed into my bed at around 4am, very much the worse for wear.

Good Friday was NOT a good Friday for me. I stayed in bed ALL day. I felt like my internal organs were on life support and that I had killed a good number of brain cells. I even took panadol! Those who know me, know that I don't make that decision lightly.

Yes it was self inflicted and I deserve no sympathy.

Adoring Husband took very good care of me in my hours of need and was much more sympathetic toward me, than I would have been toward him, if the situation was reversed! He has a kinder heart than I.

This is the reason that I did not post here for two days. The first night, I was inebriated, and the second night, I was still in recovery!

I feel fully recovered now and believe it or not, I even had a couple of wines with the Reality TV Queen this afternoon without incident.

Every few years, I do a really good job of reminding myself why I don't party hard any more. I don't want to waste so many days trying to recover!

I think that my recovery day was the second time in five years that I did not open my laptop (the first time was after the tornado hit).

So anyway .. I survived .. I am alive and intact .. embarrassed and a little regretful .. but you're never too old to learn the hard lessons.

I found this today and just had to share it. It's so true of us all.



I'm back!

Nite all.

Friendly

'Friends' is probably my favourite TV series of all time (Sex and the City, Gilmore Girls, The Big Bang Theory, Will and Grace, ER and Cheers are other faves).

A couple of interesting facts about 'Friends' ...

1.  For the first season all six actors were paid $22,000 per episode but by the second season their contracts changed to different amounts for each character. The cast banded together and negotiated until all six of them earned $100,000 per episode. This makes them one of the first casts to negotiate salaries as a group rather than boycotting for individual reasons. By the final season they each earned $1 million per episode.

2.  The show would've been much different had the beloved six not been cast. Kathy Griffin and Jane Lynch both auditioned for Phoebe, Jon Favreau and Jon Cryer both went out for Chandler, and Eric McCormack (Will, from Will and Grace) read several times for Ross.

3.  Matthew Perry went into rehab twice during the show for abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol. He says that while he often came to work hung over, he never drank or did drugs on set.

Speaking of drugs, I found this little piece on addiction very interesting ...



Morning tea with the girls was a lot of fun today. Loud ... but fun!

I'm posting this early today. I am about to clean off my desk, so that I can set it up for guitar lessons. I need room on the desk for my laptop to watch Youtube videos and I need space for my butt on the chair in front of the laptop which will be on my desk.

Here is the 'before photo' ...

Watch this space for the 'after' photo ... I just can't guarantee when :)

Today is Vegan Chickie's birthday! She has had an extended birthday this year and so far, seems to have had a great time! Happy birthday lovely daughter. I hope you enjoyed your birthday picnic with the loves of your life today :)

Nite all.

Cluelessly Strumming

I saw my boys this morning and spent 45 minutes sitting by the river enjoying the view.

You can tell that the season is changing because the air is different, the water is clearer and a deeper blue, and the sea life is abundant and in full view. I could sit on the steps with my legs calf deep in the tepid water for hours. Energising and healing.

I checked for our mail at the Post Office and then visited The Motivator for a couple of hours. She was selling fish, so we had plenty of interruptions from customers, but we still got a few good laughs in.

Adoring Husband was attending to SES duties so I came home and prepared his lunch before he arrived home. I had plans to visit Mum H after lunch, but down came the rains! So we postponed our date.

Instead, I sat on the couch and aimlessly strummed my guitar. I studied my book and attempted to learn some chords, but honestly, I have no idea!! I was going to spend the afternoon in Youtube and watch some lessons, but then I got distracted with housework.

What??!!!

Things are bad when I use housework as a procrastination tool!

I am NOT defeated .. I AM intimidated .. but I can do it! Small steps and slowly does it.

That is my day.

Surprisingly, I didn't require a nana nap today! At 8pm last night, I ate some food with pure raw cacao in it, and have since discovered that it is a stimulant and can cause insomnia! It kept me awake til 4.30am!! I was out of bed by 7.30am, so I've powered through the day on 3 hours of sleep!

I expected to crash and burn some time in the afternoon, but it didn't happen. It's now 9.30pm and I'm still feeling fine. I'll attempt a reasonably early night anyway.

Looking forward to morning tea with the girls tomorrow.

Nite all.

Pretty Chuffed!

So this happened today!!

My bucket list for this year includes 'learning a musical instrument'. I had two instruments in mind, when I made that list and they were piano or guitar. If I was going to learn the piano, I would choose something like a baby grand and definitely not an electronic keyboard. So the difference in the price of a baby grand piano (around $6000 for second hand and up to $19000 for new) or a guitar ($200 - $3500), made the choice pretty easy.

Adoring Husband knew about my bucket list and decided that he would buy a guitar for my birthday (which is still a month away), so we stopped at the music shop in The Bay to ask some questions and check out some prices.

The young man who served us, was 30yrs old (I remember a time in my life when I thought 30 was SO OLD!) and he has been playing guitar for 17 years. He pointed out our best options and then played a couple of them so that I could choose the sound that I liked. Unfortunately, the sound that I liked the best came from a guitar that was way too big for me! He explained that getting the smaller size, changed the sound completely, so that wasn't an option.

I sat down and held a couple of them, and strummed the strings (I have no idea how to play) and I eventually selected the one I liked. I chose a book 'The Ultimate Guitar Chord Chart' so that I could teach myself the chords, and the young man (why didn't I get his name?) told us that he gives lessons at his place, which is an option for the future.

I know a few people around town who play guitar. Both of my sons-in-law play.

My best find for the day is Youtube!! Video after video of guitar lessons for all levels of players, from beginners and beyond. Here is the first one on the list.  



So I'm a bit excited!

What else happened today? Lunch on the water ...

It was about 5pm by the time we returned home. A big day of shopping, repairing Adoring Husband's glasses, new head phones because I've broken two sets in the last month, choosing a yoga mat (for meditation on the beach) and some art supplies because I've decided to attempt some sketching.

I've attempted to sketch once or twice in my life. I loved to sketch when I was 14 or 15 and always did very well in the subject of art at school. I had big plans to become a commercial artist, but was gently discouraged by my parents. A couple of times in my adult life, I got the bug, and scribbled a bit, but never pursued it.

To become good at any kind of art, like anything else in life, you need to practise a lot. I've never done that, but I think I could probably do that now. I have the bug again, so I'll see where it leads me. I've posted my 'beginning' sketch here and maybe, in a couple of months, I can post a new improved version, so that you can see my progress!

Finally a quick nosh up for dinner, considering how late we arrived home from The Bay, and by the time we unpacked the car and gave everything a home, a quick dinner was in order.

I'm feeling pretty chuffed about my day!

Nite all.

Another Lazy Sunday

It doesn't get any more lazy than this! I stayed in bed until 10.45am on this fabulous day! How I love lazy Sundays.

Loved this, thought you might too ...

Nite all.

A Quiet Vote

I saw my boys this morning. I don't see them as often as I once did. They are doing well.

It was beautiful down by the river. The water is so clear and clean, that you can watch the different varieties of fish swimming and you can actually see the bottom of the river.  It was high tide and I walked down the steps near the boat ramp until I was knee deep in what was very tepid water. It was very serene and calming.

I planned some time in the kitchen, so I stopped off at the supermarket to stock up on some necessities before I pedalled home and slipped straight into cooking mode.

Adoring Husband's favourites were first off the mark - apple and walnut muffins - next was a new recipe for carrot and raisin muffins. I added flaked almonds to the recipe and they are delicious too! I roasted a chicken in the oven and we had that with salad for lunch.

After lunch, we watched the movie 'Paddington Bear' on Foxtel. That was a bit of fun. Then it was time to vote! We left it later in the day to vote, so that we could go for a walk along the beach afterwards, and still get home in time for the football.

The advantage to leaving it late in the day, is that there are no queues! We walked straight in and it took us all of five minutes to scan our paper, tick and lodge our ballots and make our way to the beach.

Considering how warm the weather was today, it was very pleasant on the beach. The tide was out, but on it's way in, so we were able to paddle knee deep in the very warm water and there was a nice cooling breeze blowing. The puddles and channels in the sand contained uncomfortably hot water, but there was plenty of birdlife around, including two white bellied sea eagles soaring overhead.

I didn't take my camera or my phone, so there were no photographs taken, but we enjoyed the walk and since I wasn't holding my camera, we got to hold hands for a change, which was lovely.

We arrived home in time to catch kick off for the first NRL game. There have been some upsets today and while I started off well yesterday, my tips are looking a bit the worse for wear this evening. But I am not alone there.

Some more fun from Scamalot ...



... and I could really relate to this ...

Adoring Husband was called out tonight for a search and rescue on the Mary River at Maryborough. Some kids were seen in a boat (which they stole) on the river and later the boat was seen upturned floating in the river, and no sign of the kids.

The first two rescue boats that were sent out, broke down, so a boat was brought in from Tiaro and also from Burrum Heads. This all happened at about 8.30pm. At 11pm, AH phoned me to say that the kids had been found, alive and well and that he would be home soon.

I imagine that those parents are feeling a mixture of relief and anger right about now!

I'm feeling a bit tired right now so ...

nite all.

Friendly Friday

There is a full documentary on Youtube, but just this short video is amazing!



Today has been a nothing kind of day.

I spent a lot of time monitoring Griffith's weather via the BOM and eldersweather.com, after I saw a weather warning for that area on FB. They had storms and terribly strong winds all day, with gust reaching 102kmh!

BGWLBH said that a tree in the school playground split apart and another friend reported a mini tornado on the outskirts of town. Fallen trees caused blackouts to 2000 residents. It all seems to have calmed down now, but the bad weather lasted for hours, and I'm glad that I wasn't there to experience it.

Here's an interesting article from the Paleo magazine How Paleo Can Help Cure Your Chronic Illness

It was very quiet at the Club tonight with only six of the usual fourteen of our group there, and only four people on the bus to come home. No fighting for a seat tonight!

I'm two out of two in the footy tipping so far! Wahoo! Good to see Parramatta defeat the Bulldogs tonight.

That's all I have to say.

Nite all

 

Making Sense

I follow a young woman on FB named Jessie Reimers. She has high functioning Aspergers on the Autism Spectrum. She is both inspiring and worrying.

I met her eighteen months ago, in The Bay, at a health seminar. We shared common beliefs as far as food and medicine and health is concerned and she was fighting her inner fears, to stand before a crowd of about fifty women, to talk about essential oils. It was her first experience talking in front of a crowd as she endeavoured to sell Doterra Essential Oils.

Since that day, she has become one of Doterra's highest selling members. She has come a LONG way and in 2017 will be embarking on a year long tour of Australia, spreading the Doterra word.

She is very open and honest and really doesn't have a filter (an Asperger's trait), so she often purges her negativity and self doubts on FB for all the world to see. On the other hand, she also regularly counts her blessings and talks about all the wonderful positive experiences that she has welcomed.

She has many loyal followers and she has appeared, a number of times, on TV promoting her petition to stop The Heart Foundation and their 'tick and star' programs.

Today, she posted this link about Aspergers, which I found very interesting. Many of these traits I could strongly relate to, and I wonder how many of my friends feel the same way? As BGWLBH often says, "we all have a little bit of autism in us".

It was raining this morning, so I didn't pedal to the Seat of Knowledge. Instead, I spent thirty minutes standing at my ironing board and then showered and washed my hair. I sat at my desk for about an hour editing some photos, then Adoring Husband and I went for a drive to check the mail and drop the usb stick with photos off at Mardi's place.

I cooked a big lunch and spent the afternoon watching a couple of movies. Adam Sandler in 'Bulletproof' and Gwyneth Paltrow in 'Emma'. I really enjoyed 'Emma', which surprised me, because I'm not generally a fan of period movies.

AH picked up the FROG box this afternoon and has tonight, attended SES training at the local shed.

Great to see Cowboys thrash Roosters 40-nil tonight in the first NRL match of the weekend!

That's if from me.

Nite all.

Intermittent Kind of Day

Word of the day: 'Ubuntu' (n) A quality that includes the essential human virtues; compassion and humanity.

What a 'weathery' kind of day!

Intermittent heavy showers. Intermittent strong gusty winds. Intermittent sunshine.

The day started out warm and steamy. At morning tea, three of us used our fans to cool down, but by mid morning, the rain came and the temperature dropped briefly. In Queensland, the rain doesn't cool things down, it just creates more steam and humidity!

There were eight of us at morning tea today and there was lots of loud chatter going on. Many different conversations happening at once. I wanted to be involved in all of them! Unfortunately I'm not talented enough to listen to four conversations at the same time.

Later, I gathered my camera gear (for the first time in months) and took photos of Mardi's house, inside and out. I haven't edited the photos yet (FYI Mardi and The Life Saver), so that job is on top of my priority list!

By the time I arrived home, I was starving! I'd only had a lemon and ginger tea all day and it was 11.30am, so headed straight for the kitchen and cooked up a concoction of chicken, mushrooms, leek, kale, garlic, chilli and cashew nuts. It was quite delicious and very satisfying.

Adoring Husband was called out to an important SES meeting for the afternoon, so I took the opportunity to do a couple of jobs around the house. I had to pedal down to the butcher between rain showers this afternoon because there was no dog food for the psychotic dogs.

I used my intuition to determine when AH would return home, and timed dinner to perfection. More chicken and lots of vegetables. Steamed broccoli, roasted cauliflower, roasted zucchini, steamed beans and baked sweet potato discs. Two main meals today and I'm feeling very sated!

It's a pretty boring kind of post today.

I'm looking forward to another early night.

Nite all.

Jiggedy Jig

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

After a morning of playing hide n seek with Chicklet, it was then time to leave.

The Bare-chested Chef and I took Vegan Chickie and Chicklet to the bakery, where we said our goodbyes and then he and I drove to Cooroy, where he dropped me off with my luggage and I spent a very pleasant morning browsing and shopping and savouring a delicious fresh juice made with beetroot, celery, cucumber, spinach, apple and ginger. I also bought some fresh fruit to munch on. The red grapes were divine!

When I made my way to the train station, there was, just like my last trip, a large group of young people waiting for the train.

They were part of an adventure tour and were heading to Rockhampton, where they would disembark and travel further north. This is information that I caught by listening to snippets of conversations. All of them had back packs and other assorted travel bags, which covered a large area of the platform.

One of the girls was sitting beside me on a bench seat and asked if I had a pen that she could borrow. As I searched through my handbag for a pen, she pulled out a beautiful leather bound journal. She expressed overwhelming gratitude when I handed her a pen, explaining that she had lost her pen at the last place where the group stayed.

She had a Canadian accent and it was obvious that she was keeping a journal of her travels in Australia, so I told her to keep the pen. Again, she expressed her gratitude and I know, without a doubt, that my pen went to a good home!

A second group of young people arrived at the station, but without a leader. They had been told that the train arrived at 1.40pm, so half of them walked across the road to get food. By this time it was 12.40pm and train was actually due at 12.58pm. So there was a mad scramble to get them back to the station.

The second group had no idea where they were even going, so the leader of the first group decided to take charge, made some phone calls to Queensland Rail and found out how many there should be in the group and what their destination was.

By the time the train pulled into the station, she had everything under control. She was a high energy kind of girl, not that much older than the people in both groups and she was loud! With 35 young people in their late teens to organise, I guess she had to be loud.

I had a seat to myself on the train and I attempted to read one of my new books, but I just couldn't get into it, so I was a sticky beak and watched and listened to an older woman talking to a younger man about her tattoos.

She may have been a professional tattoo artist because she was scrolling through her phone and showing him photo after photo of tattoos. It seems her favourites were the eagles and she talked about taking pride in the feather detail.

Other than that, even though it was quite full, my carriage was very quiet. I decided to listen to the radio for the remainder of the trip.

The train was running about twenty minutes late, but Adoring Husband was there waiting. It's always so good to see his face when I step onto the station platform at my destination.

The psychotic dogs were happy to see me and I was happy to be home.

I'm looking forward to seeing the girls for morning tea tomorrow. I might even get to bed at a reasonable hour!

Nite all.

To the Point

Just a short post tonight.

Vegan Chickie and I saw the movie "The Lady in The Van" today. We loved it.

It's not a movie for everyone. The pace is quite slow and nothing really happens, but Maggie Smith is absolutely brilliant in this role (as she is in everything!). The other characters in the film are perfectly cast and you almost feel like you're part of the neighbourhood.

I'm so glad that I got to see it, because it's one of those films that you can easily put off seeing, until it's finished at the cinema, and then you forget all about it.



After the movie, we browsed through a second hand book store, where I bought a series of Susan Howatch books, enjoyed lunch at the Canteen Cafe in Noosa and then partook of a little retail therapy. I got a nice shell pendant for myself, and a little decorative owl to hang in my frangipani tree.

We arrived home to house that had been turned upside down because The Bare-chested Chef and Chicklet had built a dragon fort out of all the furniture and blankets in the house!!

Chicklet said to me as we drove home (they came to pick Vegan Chickie and I up) "You won't believe your eyes!!" and she was right!!

It was a very good day and I am feeling quite worn out. 10.30 seems like a good time to close my eyes and drift into dreamland.

Nite all.

Lack of Control

So I am a Grey's Anatomy fan and I watched all four episodes last night, which meant it was after 12.30am when I turned off the light and fell asleep. I am certainly a glutton for punishment, but I just have no control when it comes to Grey's.

You simply cannot keep up with a crazy Chicklet after a late night like that!!

Chicklet was struggling with life today, so we decided to not go out for breakfast as planned, and stay at home for some quiet time, so that she would be ok for her swimming lesson tomorrow.

It was 'touch and go' for most of the day, but we had fun none-the-less.

We started by creating some artworks to send to BGWLBH, including an invitation to Chicklet's sock party, which was today, so BGWLBH didn't attend.

At the sock party, we each wore socks and we danced. I taught Chicklet how to do the 'Dead Ant' which was a crazy thing that our group did at the club and at our parties. Someone would yell "Dead Ant" and everybody would drop to the ground onto their back with their legs and arms pointing skywards and flailing about. Yes, I see the frown on your face. It's a true story!

We also played Knight vs Dragon. Chicklet set up a shop and we played 'shops', where I would come to the shop as a different creature each time (dog, cat, dinosaur, dragon, giraffe, bunny) and buy her wares. When I ran out of money, she would give it all back to me so that I could buy more stuff. I wish all shop keepers were so generous!

We played in the sand pit and made sand castles and sand muffins.

We walked around the garden and picked the 'wish flowers' so that we could make a wish.

We watched the movie 'The Little Prince'.

Finally, it was bath time, story time and then bed time.

A fairly full and busy day considering it was 'a quiet day at home'.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much Chicklet has improved with her swimming tomorrow and then catching a movie with Vegan Chickie afterwards.

Bed time for me now.

Nite all.

Our Mind has the Power

Some interesting reading matter about how the body is capable of healing itself - how the placebo effect is more powerful that anybody first realised.

So powerful, in fact, that the drug companies are having trouble getting their medications approved, because the people who received the placebo, had just as good results as the people who received the real thing!

The mind and the human body are truly amazing.

Why Is The Placebo Effect Exploding In The U.S. But Nowhere Else? - Forbes:

Placebo Effect Grows in the US

Altered Placebo and Drug Labelling Changes the Outcome

Healing with the Power of Placebo

Adoring Husband drove me to the Sunny Coast today so that I could spend three nights with the Chicklet family.

I spent the day playing with Chicklet who was very hyper and full of exciting playing ideas that sent her into overdrive.

The one time I got her to sit still on the bed with me to watch a dvd, she saw a GREAT idea and jumped out of bed urging me to follow her so that we could create our own igloo!

We played 'Three Little Pigs', 'Dragon and The Three Bears' (as opposed to Goldilocks and TTBs), we made a litter of dogs out of toilet rolls, we experimented with chalk dust to see what colours we could create and then massaged the dust into some pet dinosaurs and crocodiles, we played on the swing, we played hide and seek, we played tag (she is much faster now - I can't catch her and she CAN catch me!) and we did some drawing and cutting out.

Yes, you might say that I'm feeling a little worn out and after the 'TAG' fiasco, I may be feeling a little sore tomorrow!

We are starting with an early breakfast at The Bare-chested Chef's restaurant tomorrow morning and according to Chicklet, we will be having a 'sock party' some time during the day. Who knows what that will entail???

I'm off to catch up on some episodes of Grey's Anatomy and then fall into a deep slumber.

Nite all.

Hullo Goodye

This is short and sweet.

We are off to the Sunny Coast tomorrow, so I'm heading to bed for a delicious night of sound sleep.

Check this out ... coconut oil

Nite all.