A Day For Mothers

I've been searching on Youtube for short meaningful videos about mothers. I really wanted to find just the right one to share here. One that would provide insight into my relationship with my mother. I couldn't find anything suitable. They were too soppy, too full of 'God' and 'Prayers', and overflowing with way too much love.

Don't get me wrong. I loved my mother. And she loved me .. in her own special way.

There was a lot of distance between us, both physically and emotionally. My mother carried a lot of baggage from her own childhood and because of that created a lot more baggage with and for me. I know that she was doing the best that she could, using the example that had been set for her and doing everything that she could to not make the same mistakes that her mother did with her.

Of course, with all of those good intentions, she made lots of her own mistakes. Big ones.

In turn, I had my own good intentions of not making the same mistakes that she did, and of course, made my own mistakes as a mother. Also big ones!

The first memory I have of feeling rejected by my mother, was when she caught my father having an affair. She left him for six months. She left my brother and I with him. He worked away, so he had no choice but to put us into foster care. I was four and my brother was about 6 months old.

The second memory I have of feeling rejected by my mother, was when I was six years old. At the age of five, I had appendicitis with complications during surgery. Less than a year later, I had a clot in my tubes which required more surgery, also with complications. She sent me away to live with my grandparents claiming that I needed time away to recover fully and get strong. They were travelling in a caravan around Queensland at the time. Apparently, I was with them for a year.

I remember living in a cane field outside Mackey and in a caravan park in Cairns and there was lots of driving!

Anyway, there were many other times when my mother had me feeling rejected or unimportant in her life and as a result, I became rebellious and out of control as a young teenager. Funnily enough, she believed that it was my father's long work absences and his surly attitude that caused it. She had me believing that too.

It's only recently that I figured out how her own behaviour affected me in such a negative way.

Having said all of that, she was a strong woman who had to deal with a lot of crap in her own life, from a young age. It made her pretty tough and she coped with everything that life threw at her with courage and acceptance and handled it all with strength and dignity (most of the time) and mostly alone. Due to work commitments, Dad was rarely there for emotional support, that's for sure.

There were phases and stages in my life, especially as my kids came into the world, when she was my rock and my best friend. I almost always lived thousands of kms away from her, so we spent hours on the phone together talking about everything baby and child related. I can't even imagine how I would have managed those first few years with the kids, without her love and support, even though it was from afar.

When my husband and I separated, she wanted the kids and I to move to QLD to live with her and Dad til I got on my feet, but I refused. I didn't want to rely on them. I didn't want to hear them say 'I told you so'. I didn't want them to take over raising my kids. I didn't want them telling me how I should live my life. I didn't want my kids to experience what I did as a child.

So I guess that seeing her raise us, mostly on her own, gave me the belief that I could do that too.

She taught me how to cope with life crisis' and to just get on with it.

She taught me to not suffer fools.

She taught me to not rush into life's big decisions, to think long and hard, but when I make a choice, to stick by it.

She taught me how to adapt to all the changes that the journey of life brings .. both the expected and the unexpected.

She taught me, in a strange way, about loyalty and about supporting family and the people who you love and who love you.

Even though she got to spend so little time with my kids, I recognise and know now, that she adored them. I feel a little regretful that the kids and Mum didn't get to spend more time together. I understand now, how important Grandparents are in a child's life, and my choices created a big gap in all their lives.

So now, without my Mum for 11 years this year, and wishing desperately that I could share my perfect little grand daughter with her, I'm actually missing her this year, more than any other year. So many times when Chicklet says or does something amazing, I want to call Mum and tell her all about it. She would have loved how clever and how sassy and how crazy my Chicklet is. I've imagined her laughing til she had tears, at Chicklet's antics.

With a few sooky la la tears rolling down my cheeks, I share this photo of my young Mum, well before I was even a twinkle in her eye ...

... and I wish all the Mums out there, a very happy Mother's Day. If you are lucky enough to still have her in your life, enjoy the day with your Mum, otherwise enjoy your day as a Mum yourself, and have fun with your family. Feel the love from a phone call or a text or a card. It's all precious.

And on a lighter note ...

Nite all.    

R & R Reward

After my big day of cleaning yesterday, today, I had fun with Adoring Husband in The Bay.

We shopped for necessities. We shopped for the pleasure of shopping. We shopped for food. We checked on the status of my charm bracelet at the jewellers. We did grandbaby shopping. We did doggy shopping. We did salted caramel ice cream shopping. I even stepped into BUNNINGS!! And you know how much I HATE Bunnings!!

We lunched at Wild Lotus.

We returned home to view my beautiful, shiny and clean workspace!

Tonight was the usual Friday night raffle at the Bowls Club, but the crowd was much bigger than normal and the noise was almost unbearable. No luck at our table, which seems to be the norm these days!

I've been hanging out for the new Karaoke Carpool with James Corden and it finally came through on my feed today. Such fun with some amazing back seat visitors in George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Now I feel the need to sleep.

Happy birthday BGWLBH. I hope you've had a nice day :)

Nite all.

Mission Accomplished

I used almost every procrastination tool that I had, to avoid having to clean my work area today.

I prepared a beef casserole in the slow cooker. I made up a big batch of spaghetti bolognese sauce. I did two loads of washing. I did some ironing. I cleared out some clothes from my wardrobe (a whole garbage bag full).

Eventually, I worked for two hours in my work area. Then I had to ride to the butchers to pick up some meat that I had ordered in the morning. I bought a coffee while I was there. When I returned I spent another two hours in my work space.

Finally, it was finished! The 'before' and 'after' shots as promised.

I have to say that I am well and truly done for the day! I think I'll sleep well tonight.

Adoring Husband spent the day on Fraser Island doing SES 'stuff' and took this photo as a storm cloud passed near the beach ...

... how amazing to see a water spout form right before your eyes! Apparently there was another one off to the right of this. It's a shame that all he had was the phone to get the shot.

I have another big day planned for tomorrow. A bit more cooking and a bit more decluttering. So I'm off to bed to wind down with a bit of meditation before sleep.

Nite all.

Kinda Kondari

It was a lovely morning tea with the girls today, where we gently celebrated Rebel Mardi's birthday with home made carrot and pecan muffins (by me) and orange and date muffins (by Beauty), and with a happy red balloon tied to her chair .. that was a sign for any passers-by to wish her a Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Rebel Mardi/Kaz :) I hope you enjoyed your day and felt some warm and fuzzies.

From there, the Speckled Hen, Reality TV Queen, Chef Pat and I headed into The Bay to test out the restaurant where we will be lunching with our lady's group this month. I liked it very much. Even Reality TV Queen gave it the thumbs up! She had grilled fish with chips and salad and even though the fish was well cooked, she said it lacked some flavour, but overall, was nice.

Kondari Resort

I had Barker's Creek pork cutlet with chilli glaze sauce on a bed of mash and salad. The pork and the glaze sauce was delicious. I barely touched the mash, but the salad choices from the salad bar were great.

The Speckled Hen had Lamb's Fry and Bacon. Chef Pat had Battered Fish and Chips. Four satisfied customers.

The pub had a nice atmosphere and the staff were friendly and welcoming, so I'm looking forward to returning there at the end of the month.

Today is May 4th ...

... one more time with feeling ... May the 4th be with you!

Tomorrow is Thursday and I have set myself the mission of cleaning and decluttering my work area. It's going to be a massive undertaking and I hope to post the 'after' photo here tomorrow evening.

Wish me luck!

Nite all.

The Monthly

Well, here we are on the first Tuesday of the month, and we all know what that means! Group barbecue on the river ... except ... they've closed off the park by the river and we've had to find a new location for the next 6-8 months while they build the controversial boat ramp near the Lions Park.

Our only other option is at the other end of town in a park on the waterfront, but the water and beach are obscured by trees and bushes, so we don't have the lovely views of the water and the sunsets that the Lions Park affords us.

Almost everybody was available tonight, so it was a noisy and happy group with lots to talk about. I wonder, if the people in the houses across the road, were disturbed by our excitement?

I made a delicious salad that I plucked from Pinterest this afternoon. It was Roquefort Pear Salad and it was even better than I expected! I replaced the Roquefort cheese with Feta cheese and I did my pecans on a tray in the oven with maple syrup and himalayan salt.

ALL of the dishes on the table (we all contribute a plate of something) were delicious and I commented that the entire meal was better than restaurant quality. We make a great team!

Now it's almost midnight and I have a big day tomorrow, so I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Procrastination and Distraction

My day began with such good intentions!

I looked at my desk and work area, remembering that two months ago, I announced here, with an accompanying 'before' photo, that I would clean it out and share an 'after' photo, in 2 days, or two weeks or two months.

Well, the two months is up and this morning, I felt motivated! Here is the new 'before' photo ...

I pedalled to the Seat of Knowledge to see the boys, bought my morning coffee and came straight home to begin my chore.

Where to start?

I decided to start with the drawers of beads, charms and other jewellery making paraphernalia. I checked online to see how other people sell their beads and began bagging them in colours and 250gm ziplock bags.

While I was doing this, I remembered that I was going to make clearing my office, part of my vision board! So with the skills of a great procrastinator, I left the bags of beads and the scales on the kitchen bench and headed into the back room where I had stored my vision board.

I laid it on the ironing board and gathered my books, magazines, cards, pictures and quotes, ready to create a masterpiece. I cut out a couple of pictures and stuck them on the board and then placed other pieces in strategic places.

For some reason, unknown to me, I opened the top drawer of the dresser in that room and began emptying out the contents. I was in de-clutter mode and decided that if I hadn't used anything in the drawers for years, then I needed to remove them from the house!

Twenty minutes later, with that drawer very much lighter and a pile of unwanted 'stuff' on the floor, I turned back to the vision board and while browsing through my life diary, I decided that I needed photos of yoga, meditation, walking along the beach and rebounding for the physical health part of my board.

This led me to the next bedroom where the giant bookshelf is stored.

Big mistake!

Twenty minutes later, I had the dining table half covered with books that I don't want to keep anymore, but none of the pictures that my original search was for!

So, in the space of about two hours, I'd covered the kitchen bench with beads, charms and plastic bags. I'd covered the ironing board and a single bed with books, magazines, cards, quotes, scissors, sticky tape and glue. I'd made a pile of unwanted clutter on the floor of the spare room. I'd partially covered the dining table with unwanted books and I had achieved absolutely nothing!!

Adoring Husband arrived home from his morning at the SES shed and I had to clear as much stuff as possible to organise lunch.

Then we watched two movies together!

Then it was time for dinner.

The story of my life.

Procrastination.

Distraction.

It's all over for me!

Let's hope I can find some dregs of today's motivation, tomorrow, so that I can put a much bigger dent in my original plan that was for today!

*sigh*

Nite all.    

Happy Hummer

I wish Australia had a native Hummingbirds. I love them so much! This is a great story ...



I collected my sand crabs from The Motivator this morning and ate three of them for lunch. I still have two more to pig out on tomorrow, which makes me very happy. I love sand crab season!

I found a great app today. Since I stopped being 100% paleo, my ability to fall asleep immediately has been greatly reduced. At first, I found an app to live stream any radio station in the world, and I was listening to some classic 60s, 70s and 80s music, which lulled me to sleep quite well.

That worked for about three weeks, but soon my brain noise began overriding the music, so today I searched for an app with sleeping sounds, white noise and meditations. It's called 'Relax Melodies: Sleep Zen Sounds and White Noise for Meditation, Yoga and Baby Relaxation'

It has the sounds of river, ocean, rain, winds, birds, flute, piano, thunder, campfire, wind chimes, slow waves, frogs, cat purring, grandfather clock, wind in the trees, brahms lullaby and many many more. It also has guided meditations for sleep therapy, attracting success, creativity, concentration etc etc.

It gives you the option to create your own sleeping sounds by combining the different noises. It also gives you the option to pay money, which buys a large number of other sounds, guided meditations and white noises.

There is a clock so that you can set it to turn off after a certain time.

The ones that disturb me the most, are the running water sounds, because they make me want to pee and then there is a campfire, which would be wonderful to fall asleep to, but if I woke up to the sound of fire, I would be awake and jumping out of bed screaming "I think the house is on fire!!!" Then the adrenalin pumping through my body would stop me from falling back to sleep!

There are a couple of urban sounds too, like the sound of traffic going past your house, or trains in the distance .. they are a bit disturbing, but I remember when Bubbles lived on a main road and came up here to visit, the silence prevented her from relaxing and falling asleep at night, so I guess the traffic sounds would have been helpful for her at that time.

Tonight will be the test for me, so I'll report back tomorrow!

Let the test begin ...

Nite all.

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.