EMB

EMB = Emotional Monkey Business

If this doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you have no heart!



I didn't even wake up until 8.30 this morning! Well, actually, I woke up a few times before 8.30, but closed my eyes and drifted back into that lovely lazy blissful sleep. It was a very pleasant way to ease into the day.

So I missed seeing the boys, but I still rode down to order my usual morning coffee and got some food to cook so that we had healthy munchy stuff while we watched the football this afternoon.

When I got home, I created the most delicious breakfast I've tasted for some time! I chopped up some banana into nice sized chunks, mixed coconut oil, coconut sugar, salt and chilli powder together in a cast iron frypan and threw the banana chunks into it. Cooked over a high heat until it caramelised.

In another pan, I cooked the bacon. I chopped 4 small pieces of haloumi cheese and fried it in the bacon fat til it browned and then I dry roasted some pine nuts.

Threw it all on a plate, drizzled some maple syrup over the top of everything and sprinkled the pine nuts over the top.

I'm drooling just remembering how delicious it was. I'm making more tomorrow morning!

I had a couple of hours with The Motivator this afternoon, which was fun. I only meant to be there for an hour, but when I looked at my watch, two hours had passed! I'm going back tomorrow to pick up my crab order. YUM.

Happy to say that I have four out of five of my footy tips correct so far.

I had until midnight tonight to create a photo for the April flickr challenge, so threw this together about an hour ago. The theme is 'Abstract'. This is not a bad effort for a 90 minute deadline, but the other submissions are amazing, so once again, I am making up the numbers.

Now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Luckily For Me

What luck!

Adoring Husband contacted Harvey Norman about the food processor. They advised him that it was purchased on 16th April 2015 and therefore the 12 month warranty had expired.

Luckily for us, AH always does his research before making these phone calls, and because we couldn't find the receipt, he had gone onto the website for this particular brand and discovered that it comes with an unconditional FIVE year warranty (and so it should, considering it's price!), so he brought this to their attention.

Harvey Norman keep a record of all our purchases, so we know that if we can't find our receipts, they can provide us with a copy.

Upon checking their facts, they asked AH to bring the offending processor into the store - I believe that they still weren't sure of the facts.

Not long after he hung up, they phoned back, apologising profusely, stating that they would replace the food processor with a brand new machine, but they had none in the store, so they would place an order immediately and could we bring the broken processor into the store at a time convenient to us.

I should think so!

We drove into The Bay today to buy BGWLBH a birthday present.

I have actually ordered a gift for her online and I was hoping it would arrive today. I've been tracking it and it was in Brisbane yesterday, so it was touch and go whether it would arrive on time. Unfortunately, it didn't make it, and I REALLY wanted her parcel to arrive before her birthday next Friday, so the next best option was to buy her something else in The Bay and get it in the mail today.

You see, Monday is a public holiday, so it was imperative that I got the parcel in the mail today.

I had an idea for a gift that 'I' would love to receive and hoped that she would also love it, so it was a double purchase. AH bought one for me, while I bought one for BGWLBH. It took a little while to find exactly what I wanted, but luckily for me, it was pretty painless.

Afterwards, Adoring Husband wanted us to have a nice lunch together, but I explained that we must get home with enough time to wrap the other gifts (this one was gift wrapped by the store) and get to the Post Office before 2pm to catch the last mail of the day.

So, luckily for me, he reluctantly, and feeling very hungry, drove us home.

I wrapped the gifts, wrote little notes for each one, added a longer note inside the card and jumped into the car and headed to the Post Office.

By now it was just after 1.20pm, so at this point, we still had plenty of time to spare. I took a few minutes to decide on the packaging, selected a box, filled in the address and signed the declaration .. just as I finished signing, there was a black out!

Because the PO is attached to the local supermarket, the power generator won't support the PO, so the shutter was pulled with no indication of how long this power failure would last.

Ugh!!

Now what?!

Luckily for me, Adoring Husband came to the rescue with the declaration that we would drive to the Howard Post Office (about 20 minutes away) because they had a later time for their last mail pick up.

By now, I'm feeling very stressed and anxious!

Twenty minutes later, we walk into the Post Office and discover, luckily for me, that their last mail goes very late in the afternoon, but just to make sure, we sent it Express Post!!

On the way home, I'm thinking about cooking up a feast for AH to make up for the fact that he missed out on lunch (especially because he also hadn't had any breakfast) and by now, it was after 2.30pm.

We arrive home to discover that the power is STILL out! We checked the Ergon Energy site to find that the time frame for a fix was 'unknown' so this meant no cooking .. no feast for AH!

Desperate situations call for desperate measures, so it was last night's leftovers of cold sausages and onion gravy, followed by a bowl of the ice cream that had destroyed my food processor. That was satisfying enough to please his belly AND luckily for me, made him choose to accompany me to the club for raffle night!

The final 'luckily for me' moment was when the team that I selected in my tips for tonight's NRL game, actually won .. unlike last night's team!

Seems like it might be my bed time.

Nite all.

 

Wreck it Roz

So I was making some ice cream tonight.

Frozen banana, maple syrup, nut butter, coconut milk and shaved chocolate. Chuck it all in the food processor and whizz until it's smooth and creamy. I've made it twice before without any issues.

Not tonight.

I turned on my very expensive food processor and it went clunk, clunk, bang, bang, crack, crack, SILENCE.

When I pulled it apart, the bowl had a small crack in it and beneath the bowl, the base was shaved and shredded and split. It's not very old, so we're hoping it's still under warrantee. I have no idea how or why that happened, but I'm not happy Jan!!

I actually did some housework today and then cooked up a big lunch of sweet potato mash, broccoli, carrots, sausages in onion gravy. I am a bit partial to sausages with onion gravy.

We had a big lunch because Adoring Husband had SES training tonight.

Remember the other day when I posted the link to cleaning soap scum from your shower? No? Well here it is again ...

Cleaning Soap Scum

I tried it today and it was pretty good. You need to wear a face mask, because the fumes coming from the mixture are pretty strong! I used 'Earth' dishwashing liquid, instead of 'Dawn' and it possibly isn't the best one to use because it is lacking a lot of the ingredients that are in the more toxic dishwashing liquids like Palmolive or Sunlight or Morning Fresh.

It definitely reduced the scrubbing/rubbing/wiping time considerably and it worked well on the tiles and the chrome fittings too.

I will use it again.

I found this today and thought it was very moving .. both happy and sad.

I can't believe that it's rapidly approaching 1am already. Best head to bed.

Nite all.

Lovely Lunch

Hervey Bay Golf Club was the destination for lunch today.

I ordered 'main meal size' Grilled King Prawns, which should have had 6 king prawns on a bed of rice with a seafood aioli. Well, I received 6 king prawn heads, but only 4 bodies! My generous friend, Chef Pat, who was sitting beside me, offered me one of her prawns, which was lovely.

I was encouraged to tell the staff about the shortcomings of my meal, but when I told the woman taking our payments, she simply said "Oh ok, I will let him know."

I didn't complain, but stated a fact. Perhaps I should have made more of a scene, and perhaps I should have said "Well let me wait here while you tell him now."

I don't believe that she let anybody know, so this evening, I constructed an email to the club and sent it via their website 'contact us' facility, explaining my displeasure at both the meal, and the response I received when I advised them of their error. It will be interesting to see if they respond.

Today, I chose NOT to have more drinks at the Speckled Hen's house, as a few of us usually do after our lunches, and they drove me directly home instead. I walked in the door, to discover that Adoring Husband had eaten the last four of the muffins that I made yesterday, so I stepped into the kitchen and immediately made another dozen!

That was six hours ago and there are STILL a dozen muffins in the kitchen as we speak!

I'm now going to bed, to take advantage of the deliciously cool breeze floating through the bedroom window.

Nite all.  

Giggle a Day

These gave me a good belly laugh. I hope they shoot some happy endorphins through your face and brain!



Whisper Challenge 1

Whisper Challenge 2

Whisper Challenge 3

Whisper Challenge 4

When I rode to get my coffee this morning, I took some old scratchies to be checked by their scanner and discovered that we had won $18, so I bought $18 worth of new scratchies and won absolutely zip! Ah well.

I spent some quality time with The Motivator this morning, which was most enjoyable. She and her fiance, 'The Mighty Fisherman', gave me four crabs for my birthday!! What a lovely surprise!! I came home and spent 40 minutes removing all the meat from the crabs, then sat down and took 10 minutes to eat it all! Delicious :)

BEFORE I sat down to eat my crab meat, I whipped up a batch of Adoring Husband's favourites, the apple and walnut muffins. I made a dozen and I believe there are only three or four left! Lucky they are healthy!

I'm looking forward to lunch with the ladies tomorrow, but I haven't heard from my lift yet, so it may be touch and go!

Finally today, I have this link that some of you may find exciting!!

How to Magically Remove Soap Scum Without Scrubbing.

Nite all.

Being a Woman

"And the beauty of a woman, with passing years, only grows." - Audrey Hepburn

Feminism (noun) - the belief that all people are entitled to the same civil rights and liberties and can be intellectual equals regardless of gender.

Some women who should be celebrated and better known than they are ...

Roslyn Sussman Yalow won the Nobel Prize for her development of RIA (radioimmunoassay)

a technique that is used to measure small quantities of liquid in human blood.

Barbara McClintock, the first woman to win an 'unshared' Nobel Prize in Physiology,

for her theory in transposition - the idea that certain genes turn on or off 

physical characteristics.

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women

About International Women's Day

My day of empowerment included riding to the Seat of Knowledge, buying coffee, visiting a friend for morning tea, watching a movie, watching the football, cooking dinner and thoroughly enjoying every minute of it!

Now, I'm off to bed for another good night's sleep.

Nite all.

Anniversary Number Six

Adoring Husband and I spent a lovely day together, celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary. He brought me coffee so that I could enjoy a leisurely morning in bed, followed by two enjoyable hours at Arkarra Lagoon over lunch, then we drove into The Bay and shopped at Pandanus, before heading to the Boat Club for a quick 30 or 40 minutes of unsuccessful gambling.

We drove home and he dropped me off at 'Woman of Many Talents' house, where she and I spent over two hours catching up on all our news.

Later, I watched the Cronulla Sharks beat Penrith Panthers in the only NRL game played today and we had curried sausages for dinner - nice and easy out of the freezer and reheated.

So the weekend was fantastic, with all the celebrating of the birthdays and the anniversaries!

Now I'm off to bed. I was thinking of having an early night, but I've just looked at the clock and it's already 10.45pm. Ah well, I guess it's better than midnight!

Nite all.

I Made it!

Fifty six today! I made it!

It's been a great day.

Spoiled rotten by Adoring Husband and BGWLBH.

Saw my boys at the Seat of Knowledge this morning, then had morning tea with the Blonde Bombshell. Spent the day with AH, followed by drinks with my new neighbour, and few other friends, next door. AH then cooked dinner for me!

I received birthday phone calls from all of my kids AND my sister AND Lady Lynn who sang to me with her perfect birthday singing voice.

All in all, a perfect birthday :)

I opened my birthday parcel from BGWLBH at 1.30am (yes .. this morning!), then surprisingly, had a text conversation with her after I sent a thank you text to her .. I certainly wasn't expecting her to be awake at that time!! Therefore, I didn't get to sleep til after 2am, so I am feeling decidedly tired tonight.

On that note, I probably don't need an explanation for providing such a short post tonight, and I am off to rest my weary head.

Happy birthday to me!!

Nite all.

Unbirthday

I had a very happy 'unbirthday' this morning with my Chicklet family.

An 'unbirthday' is the birthday you have when you can't be with the family for your actual birthday.

My 'unbirthday' throne, where Chicklet called me Queen Bozzy Wozzy ...

... and my delicious unbirthday petit fours ...

... gluten free, but not paleo!

The train was very full and loud and cramped on the trip home. Perhaps it was just because there were so many people, but the seats seemed smaller and space between them seemed smaller too.

For the first time in about two years, I had to sit beside somebody! He was an old man, originally from Howard, now living in Maryborough, who once worked in the mines at Howard and later, he worked on the railway. He knows my boys from the Seat of Knowledge and he was in for a chat.

Our chat would have been very pleasant, but he obviously had a hearing problem and his speaking voice was so loud, it filled the carriage! After a while, I pretended to sleep, because I felt that the other passengers were sick of hearing his life story at full volume.

Unfortunately, there was another passenger on the carriage who also wanted to discuss her life story at full volume. She was much younger, with no hearing problem, but very full of her own self importance and full of confidence that she could change the world (obviously one train carriage at a time).

She explained that she believed that this would be her last life on this earth, and she needed to use all the knowledge that she had gathered in her previous lives, to spread the word and educate the young people of this world to make a difference.

She believed that the problem with young people these days was generational and that she could provide the hope and the values that they need for a better future.

I wondered how she was going to bring hope and values to the youth of the world, while standing on the Gympie station platform, with a group of other passengers, smoking in a 'non-smoking' area, while making her son stand alone in the middle of the platform away from the smokers.

She believed her four year old son was a very old soul with a wonderful warmth about him and beautiful manners that brought her such joy. She believes that he is so charming because of their nomadic lifestyle (that is another story that I won't go into).

We learned that her father left the family home when she was six and that she was forced to live on the streets at the age of fourteen, but through her own tenacity, she developed good morals and values that made her different to the lost youth of today.

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

I can't tell you how grateful I was when the train pulled into Maryborough West train station, which was her stop. I'm sure I could physically feel the relief that settled over the remaining passengers - I could almost sense an impending round of applause!

I hope that she CAN make a positive difference in the world. I hope that she CAN do everything that she believes of herself. I just hope that my future doesn't include a shared train trip in the same carriage with her, because I don't want to listen to her story again.

It was fabulous to see Adoring Husband's smiling face when I finally arrived at my destination and we even got to enjoy our afternoon coffee together before I got ready for my weekly jaunt to the Bowl's Club.

Just two glasses of wine tonight.

It's already well after midnight and I don't feel the slightest bit tired! Perhaps I should have had more wine!

Nite all.

Moulded Bozzy

This is a quick and short post because I'm exhausted and need to sleep.

It was almost 3am before I finally fell asleep this morning and the alarm woke me at 6am. I really thought I'd conquered this fear of dentists, but obviously not, because I couldn't sleep AND my eye is infected again .. the same as the last three times leading up to a dental visit .. UGH!

The dentist almost suffocated me this morning taking moulds for my back upper denture. Gross man! It was extremely unpleasant, but on the positive side, she was very fast. I was sitting in the chair at 8am and walking out the door at 8.45am in search of a good coffee!

I decided to go to the movies on my own, to see 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2' and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was all alone in the cinema until about 2 minute before the movie began, when about 20 or 30 people came in.

After the movie, I found my favourite shop and bought a couple of tops and bottoms. Then I discovered a remote controlled dragon for Chicklet. She loves it and we spent all afternoon playing with it and trying to perfect the very touchy remote. It's tricky, but fun!

It's been a very long day, mostly because I didn't eat and fuel my body, so I've been running on empty for most of the day. Self inflicted, and I know better.

Tomorrow morning I am having a pre-birthday celebration with the Chicklet family before I head home. By pre-birthday celebration, I mean balloons, coffee and cake!

Right now, I need desperately to close my eyes and head off to dreamland.

Nite all.

Busy Bozzy

Let me see ...

• Frogs v Dinosaurs
• Wile E Coyote v Road Runner x 2
• Sink or Swim crocodiles
• Sink or Swim frogs
• Colouring in with magic water
• Building a doll/dragon house from a box
• Driving dinosaurs in shoe cars
• Coffee date
• Watching Captain Planet and the Planeteers
• Creating art on the iPad
• Playing games on the iPad
• Reading stories

I think that's all.

We seem to have fit quite a lot into about sixteen hours of 'awake' time.

Tomorrow is my dentist appointment - eep.

I will reward myself with a pedicure and shopping at Sunshine Plaza :)

Tonight, I have some Grey's Anatomy to catch up on, so I am signing off so that I can fit all of the episodes in before midnight. I have an early start tomorrow and need to get some good sleep between Greys and the Dentist!!

Nite all.

Pretty Much Ready

I giggled most of the way through this one.



I saw my boys this morning, then visited the Blonde Bombshell for coffee, before coming home to finish off the dog food that I couldn't be bothered doing last night.

There is a second batch of chicken broth ready to be frozen now.

I am partially packed for my trip to the Sunny Coast.

Thank goodness the train doesn't arrive until after midday tomorrow, so I will have plenty of time to finish off a few loose ends before I leave.

After seeing my 'on this day' posts on facebook this morning, I spent a lot of time dreaming about having a clean work area.

I would love to start again just like this, so when I return home from this trip, I'm going to do a complete clean out and declutter. There is a lot of stuff in my work area that is being 'stored' and not 'used' so it's time to get rid of it and make my work space usable and a more enjoyable place to be.

That's my plan for next week!

My other plan for next week, is to enjoy lunch with the ladies - how quickly our monthly lady's luncheons come around!

Nite all.

Autumn at Last.

I recognise this season! The air is clearer, the temperature is cooler, the colours are more vibrant and it's pleasant sleeping weather. Finally!! Autumn is here *happy dance*

Not quite as successful in the kitchen as I'd planned for today.

I did the honey chilli chicken rissoles, the apple and walnut muffins, finished the broth, partly did the dog food - which I'll finish tonight (after I've signed off here), but I decided not to do the chocolate tart.

I cooked duck breast for dinner tonight, served with pumpkin mashed with chilli coconut mayo and roasted walnuts, carrot, broccoli and bok choy.

I have all day tomorrow to clear out the fridge, juice the fruit and finish all our leftovers, so that there is room in the fridge for the FROG box contents on Thursday.

Oh and I have to do all of my washing before I go too!

I found this today and it's pretty spectacular ...



Nothing else worth sharing tonight.

Happy Monday to you all!

Nite all.

I'm a Kitchen Maid

I've spent a good deal of my day in the kitchen, but not enough that I'm sick of it yet.

I've been watching all of the Paleo people on one of the Facebook pages, discussing how they spend a day every week doing a bulk cook and then freezing it, so that all of their meals are prepared and they only have to make the salad or the vegetables to go with it.

Some also make a weekly batch of mayonnaise and then make the coleslaw, they prepare dips to have with their vegetable sticks as snacks, roasted vegetables to reheat etc etc.

There are times, especially when the football is on TV, when I don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, so today, I decided to do a cook off.

• 3 X Curried Sausage
• 3 X Spaghetti Sauces
• 3 X Beef Stroganoff
• 1 X Savoury Chilli Chicken Mince
• 1 Big batch of Pea and Ham Soup (not Paleo)
• 1 Big batch of Chicken Broth
• 2 X batches of Chicken Sesame Rissoles (tomorrow)
• 12 Apple and Walnut Muffins (tomorrow)
• 1 Chocolate Tart (tomorrow)
• 16 days of dog food (tomorrow)

So, Adoring Husband will have prepared meals, if he wants them, while I'm away next week and there will be plenty left for when I return.

The only hiccup was when I dropped one of the pyrex storage bowls onto the tiled floor. Wow! What a mess! Luckily, I hadn't filled it with food, so it was empty, but boy did it shatter into a million pieces and it flew in all directions!

I have a long kitchen with only one entry/exit, which is lucky, because the force of the broken glass was quite powerful. The cupboards and wall stopped most of it but it still found it's way under the pantry door and even as far as my desk which is about 20 feet from where I dropped it.

Adoring Husband came running to my rescue in bare feet, calling out "Don't move!" - so I reminded him how smart it would be, for HIM to put thongs or shoes on HIS feet! I was already wearing rubber thongs.

Between us, we found all the broken glass and cleaned it up pretty quickly, but now I will have to replace the container.

This cooler weather has been a real blessing. The boys on the Seat of Knowledge are even wearing jackets in the mornings! For the second night in a row, I pulled the bed covers over me, but still left the fan running - because I love to feel the breeze while I sleep.

If I could, I'd be like Vegan Chickie and have the air conditioner running even during Winter, so that snuggling under the warm doona would be all the more enjoyable!

I found this today and felt that it would be a warm and fuzzy way to start our Sunday ...

Finally, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to 'Beauty' who celebrated birthday number 52 today (or yesterday, as you are reading this on Sunday)!!

I'm off to watch Brisbane Broncos finish off the Newcastle Knights with a flourish! (I hope I don't live to regret those words!)

Nite all.

In The Air

Do I detect a slight chill in the air?????

Did Mother Nature take note of my request last week to give us a taste of Autumn????

It is absolutely delightful and in the early hours of this morning, I even pulled the bed cover over me ... for the first time in about six months.

This weather is perfect.

So I am going to take advantage of it and head off to bed to snuggle under the sheets.

It has been a long time since I posted some quotes on here, so for your viewing pleasure ...

May your weekend be amazing!

Nite all.

Opening Day

Adoring Husband and I attended the debut viewing of the movie "Allegiant" today.

It was brilliant!

It is the third movie in the Divergent Series. The series started with "Divergent", followed by "Insurgent" and today we saw "Allegiant".

We thought that there were only three movies in the series, and we wondered why this one ended as it did, but I have just discovered that there is a part two to this movie to be released in 2017 called "Ascendant"!! I'm excited!!

The main character, Triss, is played by Shailene Woodley (she has also starred in "The Fault in Our Stars" and "The Descendants").

I have found the series, so far, to be an extreme and symbolic view of how the world is today and I sit on the edge of my seat through the movies taking it all in and wishing I could be half as amazing as Triss!

Today, AH and I were the only two sitting in the cinema until about 2 minutes before the movie commenced, when gradually, 19 others found their way in and sat scattered throughout the largest cinema in the complex.

Now the countdown begins until the final instalment - June 2017.

We tried to replenish our stock of salted caramel ice cream today, but Go Natural was sold out. The salesperson told us that it was the most popular flavour and was always the first to sell out. Apparently, there will be new stock in on Monday ... another countdown begins!

The third countdown for me, is the visit to the Chicklet family next week and what should be my second last visit to the dentist. I can't wait to see my little Chicklet and I can't wait to be finished with the dentist!

Nite all.

I Missed You!

How did I miss posting last night? I don't even remember doing anything important that would stop me from posting.

See, it's another one of those hiccups in my life, where my memory fails me. It's not the only thing I've forgotten this week.

Both of my sons-in-law had birthdays this week, just one day apart. One is the 12th and one is the 13th April. For some strange reason, I switched the dates in my head, and gave one the 13th and one the 14th!!

Vegan Chickie phoned me today and said "You forgot the Bare-chested Chef's birthday"

I said "No, the day isn't over yet. I haven't forgotten."

She replied "Mum, it was yesterday."

I am a BAD mother-in-law!

Let me make it clear that Vegan Chickie didn't phone specifically to tell me that and make me feel bad.

Luckily for my other son-in-law, that she DID call me, because it meant that I didn't miss his birthday completely!

So now I've hired Vegan Chickie as my PA so that she can make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again in my future.

Good grief.

I found this today. An interview with the author of 'Grain Brain' explaining how gut health is so important and how it affects our health, in particular, brain health with neurological disorders like Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Autism, Dementia, Depression etc.

This is only 20 minutes of the complete interview, which I think goes for about 90 minutes altogether. Very interesting and makes a whole lot of sense.  



Finally, I think we should start our day with this wonderful thought ...

Nite all.

Finally .. 'After'

Honestly, I still have to clip her nails and do some more tidying up, but this is close enough for now ...

I was reading a funny article today, about how the younger generations don't understand some of our expressions. This will make you feel old ...

Q: Why do we say "hang up" a phone?
A: Phones used to have two parts to them, a base and a receiver. In order to end a call, the receiver had to be placed on the base.

Q: Why do we say "dial" a phone?
A: To call someone on an old phone, you had to stick your finger in a rotating dial at number positions that would turn the dial for various lengths of time when released. You had to dial the entire number every time.

There were others, but these two related more to my generation (and older) than those others.

Then I found this ...

Introducing kids to rotary phones

How funny! Technology has changed a lot in the last twenty or thirty years!!

Now I'm off for some more guitar practise and then another early night to bed.

Nite all.

Who Knew?

I knew that my gum disease was affecting my overall health, but as time goes on, I'm learning more and more, how vitally important is our oral health. I found this article incredibly interesting and full of information that we all really need to know.

Gum disease opens up the body to a host of infections.

The scary thing is that I had no idea that I even had gum disease, and it was chronic! The dentist wondered why I couldn't taste it or feel it, but the only indications that there was something wrong for me, was that two of my front teeth were being pushed out of the gums until they looked like vampire fangs, and one of them was very loose for a long time. I had no idea that it was gum disease causing that.

There was no bad taste in my mouth, no pain or tenderness for years until it became painful to bite with one of the crooked teeth.

I left it way too long before I finally found the courage to visit a dentist. The first dentist put the fear of god in me (as if I wasn't already terrified) and my chosen holistic dentist has worked hard to keep me calm and keep me informed about the work required.

She even printed out a dental plan with a step by step process and price list. The fact that I misplaced the dental plan before the third visit tells you something about either my apathy, or my confidence lol.

I still only have a vague idea of what's coming next, but I DO know that the worst is over, so I'm not concerned about my dental future. My next visit is 21st April, not too far away.

I enjoyed morning tea with the Blond Bombshell and Reality TV Queen today. The chocolate tart didn't get touched yesterday during our gathering, so I took half of it home and left half of it there, with an invitation to share it for morning tea today. We ate it with raspberries, strawberries and dollop cream. YUM!

Adoring Husband and I attempted to finish the grooming of Colli today. We've done two short shifts, where I was able to clip her four legs and paws, snipping my own palm in the process! I clipped some of her neck and face, but she became very agitated, so I hope to finish off her face tomorrow.

I would groom her more often, which would make the job a lot easier and more pleasant, if only she would be nice about it, but she's not, so I keep putting it off, which just makes the job more difficult. I think in future, I will suck it up and do it once a month before it gets to this state.

I admit, I only have myself to blame.

Anyway, as you can tell, I've posted this nice and early today. I'm aiming for an evening of guitar practise and then an early-ish night to bed.

Afternoon all.
 

Saturday Gathering

The local markets were on in town today, so I visited Adoring Husband as he helped the SES cook the bacon and egg rolls and the sizzling sausages, and while I was there, I supported the local stall holders.

I bought some home made cards, some hand crafted towels, some massage cream to help AH with his aches and pains and a stained glass owl to hang in my frangipani tree.

From there, I came home and spent a couple of hours in the kitchen making chicken meatballs in honey chilli sauce and a chocolate tart.

My plan was to finish Colli's grooming, but the kitchen took too much of my time, so she is on hold until tomorrow. Here is the 'before' photo ...

Poor thing. She is half done and is running around full of energy, like a great weight has been lifted from her shoulders! I look forward to showing you her cute little face tomorrow.

I pedalled to the Blond Bombshell's house this afternoon, with the basket of my trike loaded with the food that I cooked and some wine.

There were about fifteen of us gathered (not all at once), each of us arriving with a plate of food, so we spent the entire afternoon eating and drinking until we couldn't swallow another bite!

It was a pleasant afternoon, although I must say that I wasn't feeling very well for most of it. I can't even pinpoint what was wrong, but I felt weak and a touch nauseas and a bit clammy. I'm feeling fine now, so I don't even know what it could have been.

I only had one glass of wine and then drank water for the remainder of the day.

I brought home a doggy bag for AH and he got to eat some party food too.

That was my day, and once again, it's almost midnight.

Nite all.