Food on my Mind

It's been a foodie kind of day today.

My usual lazy morning in bed, so I didn't actually leave the house until about 9.30am.

Into my trike basket, I packed Paleo recipe books and a shoe box (containing shoes) for The Motivator and a container of frozen butter chicken (from our freezer) and three dvds for Mum H, who is bored at home and recovering from a form of stroke (blocked spinal artery). She is doing ok, but is weak and tired .. as you would be after something so major.

I bought my coffee and a few groceries before dropping in to see The Motivator, who was multitasking. She was selling a boat load of sand crabs, and between customers, was sitting outside sorting through her Paleo recipes. She's been busy making bone broth and activating nuts and butter chicken and planning her paleo future.

Two and a half hours later, I said my goodbyes and headed up the hill to see Mum H. The timing was a bit off because a friend of hers was turning up an hour early to take her out for drive, so I didn't get to spend much time with her. I gave her the chicken and the DVDs and high tailed it home.

First of all, I browned the lamb shanks and and filled the slow cooker with goodness to simmer on low for eight hours.

While that was cooking, I prepared a chicken curry to freeze for future meals ...

During that cooking process, I munched my way through two sand crabs that I'd bought from The Motivator.

Dinner was a big bowl of raspberries, blueberries and salted caramel coconut ice cream. I didn't take a photo of that though .. I was in too much of a hurry to eat it!

While watching the football tonight, I planned my first week's menu on the AIP (auto-immune protocol) paleo program and printed out the shopping list. I don't officially start until next Sunday, so I have plenty of time to get organised.

So, as you can tell, food has been the order of the day.

Now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Movie Sadness

The following pictures represent me at the end of watching the movie 'Me Before You' today ...

I look forward to buying the dvd so that I can watch it at home in the privacy of my own lounge room, so that I can sob hysterically without worrying about other patrons.

Fabulous movie.

Go see it.

Take tissues.

Lots of them.

I had a great morning with the girls. Lady Lynn picked me up just after 8.30am and we met Rebel Mardi at the cinema. Luckily, we snared our favourite seats and we all enjoyed the movie and the crying from the back row.

Afterwards, we walked across the road and enjoyed coffee and cake in a comfortable and quiet cafe located at the back of a home decor store. It was very relaxing and the cake (gluten free white chocolate and macadamia nut brownie) was delicious. Rebel Mardi and I shared one because the pieces were HUGE. Lady Lynn thoroughly enjoyed her date scone too.

I arrived home to make the marinade for the chicken wings that we're having for dinner and a salsa to go with it. Adoring Husband will put the wings in the oven an hour before I get home and it will all be ready to sit down and watch the footy when I get home tonight.

It was a great day. Now I need to make myself presentable for a night at the Bowls Club.

Nite all.

Movie Fun

You've just got to go to this website ... 52 Shoes ... and enter the competition! Create shoes to go with the outfits that they provide. You can enter as many times as you want. It's so much fun! I spent hours in there yesterday afternoon/evening and have lost count of how many shoes I created. Imagine winning 52 pairs of shoes ... one pair per week. My idea of heaven.

Adoring Husband and I saw The Nice Guys today and absolutely loved it. Put Ryan Gosling in any movie and it's a winner for me! Tomorrow, I'll need the tissues when I watch 'Me Before You' with the girls. I saw the preview for it again today and it looks both warm and fuzzy, as well as heart wrenching. Ugh.

Chicklet looks like she had a lot of fun at Movie World today, in her new Bat cape ...

Precious little possum.

With that, I'm off to bed. I'm feeling weary and have an early start tomorrow.

Nite all.

Out and About

After four days of self imposed quarantine, I rode to our meeting place and sat with four of the girls for morning tea, which was really lovely, and then I visited The Motivator. I haven't seen her for about six weeks. She was away for a month and then I was away for ten days and for the last few days, I didn't want to pass on any of my germs.

We had some good Paleo discussions, because she has decided to give that a try, and we had lots of catching up to do with plenty of news to share. She lent me her Pete Evans 'One Pot Favourites' recipe book, and I've selected a couple of those recipes to photocopy and use later, and I will loan her my recipe books to make her paleo journey a bit easier.

It was 1pm by the time I arrived home. Luckily, I had oxtail casserole in the slow cooker ready for lunch.

I had choko, sweet potato, onion, carrot, celery and garlic in the slow cooker with the meat, so I put all of those vegetables and some of the stock in the blender and blended it into a delicious thick sauce. Then I put the oxtail pieces into a saucepan with the sauce and reheated it all.

After I took the meat off, I put the bones back in the slow cooker with the remaining stock, added some more vegetables and water and they will cook for a further twelve hours to make a delicious and rich beef bone broth.

With all of the immune boosting goodness that I've been pumping into my body, I forgot about my black seed oil! I found it this morning and took half a teaspoon of it. I felt a difference within thirty minutes! They say it cures everything except death!

Adoring Husband informed me this afternoon that his throat was feeling a bit tender, so I pumped him full of vitamin C, probiotics, honey/lemon/ginger drink, chicken bone broth and half a teaspoon of black seed oil. By the time he went to bed, he said the tenderness had gone! Let's hope it's gone for good and it doesn't sneak it's ugly head back in tomorrow.

I've invited AH to the movies with me to see The Nice Guys tomorrow. I've heard all good reviews so far, from friends, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

There was no phone call from Chicklet this afternoon, so she must have been too worn out. She'll have double the stories to tell tomorrow! I hope she got to meet Batman.

Two more scarves arrived today.

It will be an early night again for me. Look at this! Finished by 8.30pm!

Nite all.  

Hangin' in there Tuesday

So, I'm still hanging in there. The bug hasn't taken hold of me, but I can still feel it lurking.

After drinking a large mug of bone broth while having a late morning in bed, I eventually managed to package up the remaining chicken bone broth and freeze 15 days worth of it.

Blending some pineapple, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries and mint, made for a refreshing drink full of vitamin C, to have with lunch.

I was enticed out to the shed this morning by Adoring Husband, who was still sorting through 'stuff' that has been stored for years. There has been some brutal culling performed and our sulo bin is more than full for tomorrow's pick up service.

AH and I went through a large box of photos today and tossed out quite a few old rolls of film and boxes of slides. They were mostly of his three Auntys' many Australian road trips and overseas cruises.

Knowing how much time, effort and expense went into this massive collection, it seems such a shame to be getting rid of these memories, but there is no-one left to appreciate them and AH's kids are not interested, so it is obviously the end of an era, and we need to let them go.

The important photos will all be scanned and stored on usb sticks. AH has many, many more photos than I do, although my little sister 'Squirt' has boxes of our family photos stored in her roof in Blackwater. It must be time to get them down here, so that we can scan them and store them more securely.

A very very young Adoring Husband, long BEFORE he was my Adoring Husband ...

Or in his dancing days leaning against Johnny O'Keefe's Cadillac (I think this is his favourite pic of himself) ...

By noon, I was well and truly done, and after making lunch, plonked myself down on the couch and took the lazy way out for the remainder of the day.

Late this afternoon, I received a phone call from my little Chicklet, who is currently enjoying a holiday with her Mama and Dadu on the Gold Coast.

In her very excited voice, she told me all about her day yesterday at Sea World and then today at Movie World. She saw dolphins jumping out of the water high as a building. She saw a Polar Bear. She saw penguins swimming in the pool (so far the only photo taken on the phone) ...

She touched sting rays and starfish and sea slugs. She walked through the underwater tunnel and saw giant turtles and sharks and it was heaps better than Underwater World on the Sunny Coast.

At Movie World, she met Catwoman! She saw The Flash (who was only walking) and Green Lantern and Superman. She saw the Bat mobile and the Bat Glider. She saw Tweety Bird and Bugs Bunny. She saw a 4D movie of Wile E Coyote with the 3D glasses and wind and water. She got a giant lollypop. Tomorrow she hopes to meet Batman!

It was awesome listening to her talking so loudly and so quickly, trying to get all the information out at once. Yesterday was the BEST DAY EVER! But today was EVEN BESTER THAN YESTERDAY!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night's phone call to hear all about Batman!

Bed time for me now!

Nite all.

Easy Monday

Today, to give my body a chance to concentrate on healing, I took it easy all day, catching up on all the TV shows that Adoring Husband recorded for me while I was away last week.

I diffused eucalyptus essential oil in the lounge room. Spoon fed myself raw honey with chopped garlic. Drank chicken broth and fresh juices. Popped vitamin C and probiotics. Sat in the sunshine for twenty minutes.

Tonight, as I did last night, I'll make a honey, lemon and ginger hot drink to sip while I'm reading in bed.

My throat is no longer sore or tender, but there is a bit of a tickle there, which disappears whenever I eat the honey and garlic mixture. The tissues have had a bit of workout, but I'm not getting worse, so that is a big positive for me.

Adoring Husband spent the day in the back yard clearing out the storage shed. He worked hard and got rid of a lot of 'stuff' that we no longer want or need. We found some stuff that we thought we'd lost in the tornado damage and found thousands of old photos that need to be scanned and saved to pass on to (mostly) AH's family.

I did manage to put on a batch of chicken bone broth to slow cook for the next 24 hours ...

Some more scarves arrived in the mail today. There are another dozen coming this week, but this is my stash so far ...

I'll add strings of beads and crystals and old jewellery to make a beautiful bohemian window cover for my studio/workspace, which will be moved into one of the bedrooms in August/September. That gives me plenty of time to create something arty farty and very bohemian.

I found this very interesting article about cholesterol today .. and the fact that it was published in mainstream media, means that my friends who only give credence to medical information that they see or hear about in the mainstream news, might take some notice.

Clearly, I need another early night to help me fight the bug, so ...

Nite all.

Sickly Sunday

Well, thank goodness the doTERRA ICE blue rub and some magnesium oil took most of my muscle pain away overnight. I only have a slight niggling pain when I stand up now and it doesn't hurt to walk.

I used the doTERRA rub three times yesterday, the last time was immediately before bed when I sprayed the magnesium oil on first, followed by the rub. I'm impressed with it's effectiveness.

I think I mentioned that four of the ladies were ill while we were away and one of them, with the flu, was sharing our apartment.

It seems that my body was working so hard to fix the muscle pain, that my immune system weakened and I am now experiencing some of the early signs of the flu.

You know that raw uncomfortable feeling in the back of the throat and intermittent runny nose?

I'm pumping myself full of raw garlic (antibacterial, vitamin C and potassium) which I'm chewing and swallowing slowly, so that the antibacterial properties have a chance to touch the tender area of my throat. I follow that with a teaspoon of raw honey.

I've doubled my probiotic (because healing begins in the gut) and my vitamin C intake.

I blended a big batch of

• watermelon - vitamin C for immune support
• organic pineapple - the enzyme bromelain and vitamin C, both of which encourage healing
• organic ginger - which has broad spectrum antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant properties
• organic lemon - vitamin C and flavonoids to fight infection
• organic strawberries - providing lots of antioxidants like vitamin C for boosting the immune system.

I'm diffusing francincense essential oil to promote healing.

I'm drinking home made chicken broth with turmeric (anti-inflammatory) stirred through it.

Lots of filtered water to keep my body hydrated.

I will definitely have an early night and hopefully some good solid sleep will give my body the final surge of healing power so that I wake up tomorrow as good as new!

So that's the continuing saga of my health - thankfully, none of it is serious and can be easily healed and hopefully, the sun will be out tomorrow so that I can soak up some healing vitamin D.

Nite all.

Another Super Saturday

The pain that I have experienced in my legs last night and today, has been so intense, that I hardly slept last night because even the slightest movement shot incredible pains through my calves and thighs.

When I attempted to get out of bed this morning, my legs almost collapsed from underneath me and it took a good five minutes to shuffle into the ensuite for my morning pee!!

I was confused and wondered how the hell I could be so sore just from walking! I walked more than 10,000 steps each day, which is much more than I've walked in years, but this kind of pain did not equate to walking.

I actually started to panic just a little and wondered what kind of medical condition could cause my muscles so much pain. Were they wasting? Were they seizing? Even my days of intense sport and gym work never delivered this kind of after pain.

Then as I searched my memory banks for all of the activities over our time away, I remembered the twelve flights of stairs! When the lifts in our apartment block stopped operating on Thursday morning, I decided to walk down from the twelfth floor to the ground floor.

At the time, when I reached the bottom, I thought to myself "That wasn't nearly as bad as I expected!" I even moved down the stairs quite quickly because there was a couple from NZ almost running down the stairs ... they were older than me (probably early 60s), and much bigger both in height and weight.

I didn't even attempt to keep up with them, and I tried to keep my movements smooth while using the rail to support myself so that my legs didn't take all of my weight the whole way down. I certainly hope that couple are suffering as I am!!

It was difficult for me to reach the seat of my trike this morning because I have to stand on tippy toes for my butt to slide onto the seat and it hurt too much to do that.

I've used my doTERRA ICE blue rub to massage my calf and thigh muscles which has helped considerably, but still, the pain is intense!

I sent a text to the three other girls who walked down SIXTEEN flights and they too, are in pain.

A sports therapist told me today, that I will feel worse tomorrow. If that's the case, I will be staying in bed all day and Adoring Husband can go buy a bed pan because I will be incapable of moving. I think she is wrong and if she is, I will take pleasure in visiting her to prove it.

I was able to shuffle my way around the local markets this morning. There was a new stall selling different flavoured balsamic vinegars, oils and spice mixes. I bought two of the vinegars, one of the spices and ordered two others to be picked up next month.

I also bought another crystal and a yellow lead light cross to hang in the frangipani trees in the front garden.

Then it was time to come home and put my feet up. I cooked lunch/dinner mid afternoon and then watched the football all afternoon and evening.

I hope my night in bed is more comfortable than last night because I really need to catch up on a week of broken and disturbed sleep.

So thanks for listening to my whinge.

Nite all.

PS A quick shout out to poor Rebel Mardi and The Lifesaver who have been very ill this week. I'm thinking of you and hoping that you recover quickly. Sending love and sympathy in your direction.

Home Sweet Home

It took Woman of Many Talents and I about six hours to drive home from the Gold Coast today, but we had four stops along the way.

The traffic was quite heavy, so even though we had an uneventful trip, the speed fluctuated as the traffic conditions changed throughout the trip.

When we got to the north side of Brisbane, there was an accident on the southbound freeway and the traffic was at a standstill for many kilometres. We were very grateful to be on the other side of the road and going in the opposite direction.

Woman of Many Talents had been very sick for the entire four days that we were away. She was in bed for most of it and had to visit a doctor and have blood tests, take antibiotics and keep rested. Luckily, she had recovered well enough to drive home and we planned for frequent stops so that she wouldn't tire and regress.

We stopped at Forest Glen and had brunch and a drink at the Organic Food Market cafe, then we did some shopping in the marketplace. It's one of the my favourite places on the planet because it sells all of the things that are important to me.

Fresh organic food, gut healing drinks, wild caught salmon, good quality supplements and probiotics, coconut yoghurt and ice cream, paleo foods, kombucha, kimchi, great books, organic make up and skin care ranges, essential oils, non toxic cleaning products etc etc.

I also bought half a dozen cakes from the cafe to bring home to Adoring Husband. They are all organic, gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and are absolutely delicious. I cut them all in half and we are eating them at our leisure. My favourite is the chocolate chia cake. YUM!

I had a bit over an hour when I got home, to catch up with AH, unpack and then get ready for the club tonight.

It was a quiet night with only four ladies at the table and one of us was lucky .. it wasn't me.

I am very much looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight, so I'm signing off here!

It's good to be home.

Nite all.

Final Night of Fun

It's been a fabulous few days of fun.

Lots of laughter and snorting (Tweedle Dee).

Not as much drinking as I expected.

Lots of shopping.

Good food was enjoyed by all, except the usual suspect ... Reality TV Queen!

Only one night of partying in the party room, which ended at 8.30pm because the party animals believed it was midnight when it was only 7.30pm! The sad realities of ageing!

I left the party early tonight when the party animals (aged 56 and 67), were attempting to 'plank' while taking selfies and they got so boisterous, it was impossible to have a conversation!

The weather has been perfect.

Very loud snoring reported by quite a few ladies.

My best buy of the trip was a pair of shoes by Gino Ventorri, made in Brazil. Like walking on air! I had them on for nine hours and only took them off to climb into bed. We walked for five of those hours.

My close call was a dress that I tried on yesterday and loved immediately, but it was too formal for anything that I would attend. I decided to sleep on the decision and go back today, but when I tried it on, it fell flat. I'm so glad that I didn't buy on impulse yesterday. I was going to share the photo here tonight, but decided against it.

It's difficult to choose my favourite meal of the trip. The food at the Garden Restaurant at Jupiter's last night was divine, but I thoroughly enjoyed the Massaman Beef Curry at the Thai restaurant at lunch time today.

All of the wine has been delicious, except for the house Sav Blanc at Jupiters, which was the most expensive and the most disgusting.

Thumbs down to the taxi driver who complained because my fair was a measly $7.40 from Jupiters to our apartment block.

Thumbs up to our waiter (Mike), at Jupiter's last night, who went above and beyond to make our night enjoyable and memorable ... we gave him a $25 tip for his efforts.

Thumbs down to the germs that put four of our ladies out of action during the three days here. Two with the flu, one with gastric and one with a lung infection.

Thumbs up to the Manager of the shoe shop that took back the shoes I couldn't wear and gave me a refund (after she showed me the 'Office of Fair Trading' information and we shared a war of words and after I told her that she couldn't legally refuse me). She did the right thing in the end and I appreciated her eventual positive attitude.

Thumbs down to the broken lifts in our apartment block, which meant me, having to walk down twelve flights of stairs to exit the building (14 flights for one other lady and 16 flights for two others!) Luckily they were repaired within a couple of hours.

Thumbs up to the coffee shop attendant who gave me two free muffins with my coffee this afternoon, because they were about to close and she had leftovers. Even though they are not gluten free, I can give them to the ladies to enjoy on the train tomorrow.

Thumbs up to the health food store across the road who stocked CoYo coconut yoghurt and Zebra Dream Salted Caramel Coconut Ice cream.

Thumbs up to the ladies who acted as my pack horses when they were coming home early and brought my shopping home so that I wouldn't have to carry so much home myself.

Thumbs up to the manager of our apartment block who immediately came to the rescue with a new fuse when our hot water went on the blink this afternoon ... and for providing the key to an empty apartment on our floor so that we could use that hot water if ours didn't heat up in time.

Thumbs up to the new day beds at Pacific Fair, where you can put your feet up or have a nap at half time during the shopping expedition!

Finally, thumbs up to Mrs Bucket for organising another successful lady's trip away!

It will be great to get home and sleep in my own bed. I haven't been able to fall asleep before 1am on any night since last Saturday and I've had to be up early every morning, so I think my body might crash land tomorrow night!

I've had a great time and I'm so glad that I decided to come on this trip .. it was touch and go for a while.

There are four ladies who usually come on these trips, but didn't attend this one, for various reasons. All of the other 'regulars' mentioned how those ladies were sorely missed. So Lady Lynn, Rebel Mardi, Beauty and Tweedle Dum .. know that you were thought of often, mentioned frequently in our conversations and very much missed by us all.

I will be driving home tomorrow with Woman of Many Talents (who has been ill for the entire three days). The remaining ladies will be travelling by train.

Farewell to the Gold Coast and I'll see you next year!

Nite all.

Wish You Were Here

Having a wonderful time.

Wish you were here.

Please send money!

Nite all.

We are here!

After a long trip on two trains yesterday, one of which I sat with an elderly lady who also has a daughter living in Noosaville and who co-incidentally was travelling from Cooroy to the Gold Coast as well. That made the trip go much faster because we chatted all the way from Brisbane to Nerang where I disembarked.

I checked into Jupiter's Casino where I had a king room with water views for a very reasonable price and then spent many hours playing poker machines. I won more than enough money to cover my accommodating and meals, with some to spare for shopping. I had an early dinner in one of the restaurants .. roast pork with apple sauce, which was delicious.

Even though the bed in my room was absolutely glorious with massive comfortable pillows, I struggled to get to sleep after spending so much time surrounded by poker machine music and bright lights, so it was after 3am when I finally fell asleep.

I was woken briefly at 7am by the noise of construction work going on outside my room and then I luckily woke up at 9am, which gave me enough time to shower, repack and check out before 10am. At 9am the room was pitch black with the big heavy curtains pulled closed over the windows, so I don't know how I woke up on time.

There was supposed to be a free buffet breakfast included in the price of my room, but I don't normally eat breakfast, so I got myself a delicious coffee on the way out and caught a taxi to South Pacific Plaza where we are staying for three night.

A very nice apartment with gorgeous views ...

I've already spent my winnings from last night and have cleaned out Oasis Shopping Centre of everything that I liked there. Tomorrow, all twelve of us are off to Pacific Fair for the day and then we are dining at Jupiter's Casino tomorrow night.

We ate at Kurrawa Surf Club tonight. All but two of us ate seafood platters ...

I had a garden salad with grilled salmon and Tweedle Dum had roast chicken breast with veg. Mine was absolutely delicious.

So far, we are having a good time and I am enjoying myself very much.

It's now almost 11pm, and we need to meet for breakfast at 8am tomorrow, so I'd best catch some shut eye. A big day of shopping ahead!

Nite all.

Let the Fun Begin!

Our last day together and Chicklet wanted me to make and draw dragons .. especially 'Toothless' from 'How to Train Your Dragon'.

I had never seen that movie before, so after spending an hour or two, making strange creatures with pipe cleaners, paddle pop sticks, pompoms, sticky tape and scissors, we sat down with lunch, in the play room, to watch the movie.

Now I know how to make all sorts of different dragons! This is the first dragon in the making...

Then we made a video to send to Mama, but this is just one frame of it, showing Chicklet putting another cuddle on the cuddle door (each heart represents a cuddle that she wants from Mama).

We also played some more Zombies v Plants and of course Batman came into the equation again. We made finger puppets and Vikings and Viqueens.

She once again, curled up like a dragon and fell asleep, but a little later tonight than last night.

Now it's time for me to do the same. I have an early start tomorrow and I'm off to meet the girls for our Gold Coast getaway! Let's hope the rain hasn't caused too much damage down that way and my travel plans go smoothly!

Nite all.

Happy Saturday

I woke up feeling much better today. Stomach cramps gone and plenty of energy to take on the world and Chicklet!

We had a happy day with lots of laughter and playing. Whenever her energy levels looked like getting out of control, we would take some 'quiet time' and bring things back to a sane level.

The Batman and Friends figurines got a workout today and we played hide'n'seek with them for a good couple of hours. The 'Zombies v Plants' game app also got a good workout. I downloaded a version of it onto my iPad and we swapped games competing for the championship. She is definitely her Grandmother's Granddaughter ... so competitive!!

She showed me lots of apps on her iPad and explained how to play each one, which was fun.

We read three stories tonight and when I told her to curl up like a dragon ready for sleep, she rolled over and without uttering another word, was asleep within five minutes.

I calculated that we received about 60mm of rain overnight and today. The wind didn't get too bad and the room that I'm sleeping in, on this visit, is much quieter in the wet weather, than the back room. I noticed that the weather was coming from that direction, so it was quite loud against the windows.

The Bare-chested Chef was surprised that I slept so well because, as he stated "It was a loud night!"

I'm missing watching the football with Adoring Husband tonight, but keeping an eye on the scores. It's Super Saturday and three games are being shown live on Foxtel. I'm disappointed that my team lost against the Auckland Warriors tonight.

Looks like it could be an early night for me .. ready for a big Sunday .. final day of babysitting, and the weather will be much improved, so we might get to the park and have some outside play time.

As always, I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with Chicklet. She's crazy and fun and clever and a real joy to be with - exhausting but wonderful!

Nite all.

Struggle Street

I am struggling with some kind of gastric bug at the moment. I've had some very mild stomach cramps for the past 48 hours, which were noticeable, but not uncomfortable or painful. I thought my body was doing a good job of fighting off whatever was trying to attach itself to me.

The cramps have been much stronger, although very intermittent, and quite painful this afternoon and evening.

Only one other brief symptom to go with the cramps, so I guess my body is still doing a good job of fighting it ... and it may explain why I slept so much yesterday afternoon and last night.

I just hope that I don't pass it on to the family .. especially to Chicklet!

We had a big shopping spree today!

Vegan Chickie will be pleased with the new 'noisy' toy that has joined the household. A walking, roaring Tyrannosaurus Rex! Ten Batman figurines with suction cups to attach to a special story book. Zootopia stickers and activity books. New highlighter pens and textas. Some silver angel costume wings, which have been renamed 'dragon wings'. A Bat pen. Dinosaur stickers.

We still have two full days of play left and one day that we won't be able to leave the house due to inclement weather .. which has the potential to turn into a serious weather event .. so it was important to have plenty of activities to keep us occupied.

I had some 'time out' in my bedroom before The Bare-chested Chef went to work, so my body had a chance to rest a bit before the onslaught of full-on Chicklet play!

She didn't want to go to sleep tonight and claimed that she wasn't tired. She wanted to have a staring competition, but when I told her that the winner would be the first person to fall asleep, she changed her mind. She then suggested a counting competition, which I won, because I counted so loud and so quickly, that she kept losing count! Then I suggested a competition to see who could be quiet the longest - she spoke first to declare that it was a tie! Then we had a competition to see who could keep their eyes closed the longest, but she spent the entire time asking me if I had opened my eyes yet.

Finally, I suggested that she curl up like a dragon - because dragons are always exhausted from flying and breathing fire and rescuing people - and then she might find it easier to fall asleep. So rolled onto her side and curled up like a dragon, pretending to curl her long tail around herself, and she was sound asleep inside five minutes!

So I'm off to sleep now, hoping to wake tomorrow, cramp free and fighting fit enough to take on a crazy Chicklet and a possible serious weather event.

Nite all.

It Eluded Me

After watching an exhausting State of Origin game last night (which, as you can tell by the above pic, my team won!), the adrenalin took too long to subside and I could not relax enough to sleep.

It was after 1am when I finally drifted off to sleep and for some strange reason, I woke up more than twenty minutes before my alarm was set to go off, so I was wide awake again at 4.20am. Ugh.

Thank goodness I put yesterday's coffee in the fridge when I wasn't able to drink it all. I heated it up this morning and drank it on the way to the station. At least that kept me alert for most of the uneventful trip.

The Bare-chested Chef was waiting on the platform for me and we drove home in time for me to give Vegan Chickie a hug and wave goodbye as The Bare-chested Chef drove her to Brisvegas for her flight to Perth. I'll be gone before she returns, so I won't get to see her again until July!

I had a lot of fun playing with Chicklet for the next five hours. There was lots of dinosaur play, hide and seek, creating pictures and stories with stickers and pencils on paper, lunching and playing Angry Birds on the iPad.

By the time The Bare-chested Chef returned, and struggling to cope on 3 hours sleep, I was out on my feet, so as a good tag team does, I left Chicklet in his capable hands and climbed into bed for a nana nap. That was at 2.30pm.

I woke at 4pm and used the bathroom. I was going to head outside to the living room, but I could hear Chicklet and her Dadu chatting away and they sounded so relaxed and happy together, that I decided to lie back down on the bed and listen to them for a while, without disturbing them. Listening to them made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Next thing I knew, it was 6pm! I had drifted back to sleep and this time, when I woke up, I could hear them talking to Vegan Chickie on the speaker phone. She had arrived safely and Chicklet was chatting away, so again, instead of disturbing them, I decided to wait until the phone call was finished before making my way out.

Next thing I knew, it was 7.40pm!!! I had drifted off to sleep AGAIN!

By now, Chicklet was in bed and The Bare-chested Chef was cleaning up in the kitchen.

So my day has consisted of 2.5 hours of travelling, 5 hours of playing and 5 hours of sleeping!

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight, but I'm still feeling very relaxed and drowsy, so after a few pages of my book, I believe I'll be back in dreamland before long.

I should certainly have plenty of energy for a full day of play tomorrow!

Nite all.

One More Sleep

I'm very close to being fully packed. I just need to put into the suitcase, the make-up and toiletries that I'll use to get ready in the morning, so it's all good! I am surprisingly well organised.

I enjoyed morning tea with the girls today. As predicted, they all had fabulous holiday stories to tell and they obviously had a great time on each of their trips away. There were six of us until The Speckled Hen and her daughter and grandson appeared, so our table was very full and very loud!

It was quite late in the morning, by the time we all went our separate ways.

I cooked up a big batch of beef ribs, some in the slow cooker and some in the oven. That was our quick easy dinner in preparation for State of Origin tonight. Yes, it's that time again! The first of three State of Origin games! I even delayed my trip away, so that I could watch the game with Adoring Husband.

It's our thing.

He supports NSW and I support QLD.

This is where I get to brag that since we've been together, his team has only won three series' and my team have won nine. Yay us!

I need to go now and get my State of Origin gear on. Adoring Husband has been wearing his blues gear all day and is fully prepared already.

Talk to you from the Sunny Coast tomorrow night.

Go QUEENSLANDERS!

This is a photo that I posted yesterday of a sunset on the river here...

I thought I'd show you the 'before' photo. It really wasn't much of a sunset and this is straight from the camera (actually this photo was taken ten seconds before the top one, but is identical except for some space on the right) ...

I'm just a rookie photoshopper and have no idea how to use anything but the basic tools in the program.

So now you know.

Nite all.

It's Oily

It's a habit that I still have feelings of guilt about, but I continue to laze in bed every morning, for as long as I feel it necessary. This morning, it was well after 9am when I climbed out from under that warm bedding.

Because I can!

After I bought my morning coffee, I decided to accompany Adoring Husband into The Bay. He only needed to buy one thing and I wanted to get some Black Seed Oil from Go Natural, across the other side of town.

While we were there, we stocked up on coconut ice cream too!

I hear you asking "What is Black Seed Oil?"

I'm glad that you asked!

Black seeds come from the Nigella Sativa flower, and it’s origins are from North Africa, Mediterranean/Europe, and Asia, but are grown all over the world now. Black Seed Oil is known as one of the most effective natural remedies in world, for many different ailments.

Cleopatra used it as part of her beauty routine, King Tut had a bottle of it with him in his tomb because he wanted to take it to the afterlife and the Muslim prophet Muhammad stated that black seeds can cure everything but death.

It's known as 

• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-inflammatory
• Anti-oxidant
• Anti-fungal
• Anti-cancer
• Anti-asthmatic
• Anti-histamine
• Anti-viral
• Anti-coagulant

It promotes heart health. Lowers blood sugar. It strengthens your immune system to fight colds and flus. Reduces high blood pressure. It promotes natural deep sleep and has been known to eliminate insomnia. It prevents and eases muscle cramps. It has been an effective treatment for convulsions. It can lower anxiety and help with depression. It improves liver health and also digestion. 

There are lots more uses for it and there has been success with various cancers and protecting from the harmful effects of cancer treatments. 

You can read more about it here. 

AH has some spots on his arm that I will use this oil on .. I will report back with the results.

I enjoyed a couple of wines with The Blond Bombshell and Reality TV Queen this afternoon and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with the girls at morning tea tomorrow. There have been a few trips away, so there should be lots of stories to listen to!!

Nite all.

Happy Monday

How cold was it on Sunday night!? I was sleeping on top of the doona and under the light duvet and spent half the night shivering, but couldn't bear the thought of exposing my body to the cold air long enough to get under the warm bedding! Crazy.

The temperature got down to 7C this morning, which is very cold for this part of the world, however, once the sun rose, the weather warmed up quickly and it turned into a pleasantly mild day. Mild enough for me to comfortably wear jeans!

On my way to get my morning coffee, I bumped into Reality TV Queen, who was walking two borrowed dogs and she invited me to accompany her into The Bay while she bought a new toilet seat and some accessories for one of her borrowed dogs.

I eagerly agreed, even though she intended on visiting my least favourite shop in the universe .. Bunnings!

We also shopped in K-Mart, which is one of my favourite shops for reasonably inexpensive goodies. I got some more tea towels to replace my turmeric stained cloths, a new bed for Ruby and a clothes stand for when I do my ironing.

The RSL Club was our lunchtime destination and it was there that we discovered Chef Pat who was having an early lunch, and then while we were looking for a table to sit down, we found Shazzam with her husband, so we sat with them to eat, which was very pleasant!

A quick flutter on the pokies and then we were off to the supermarket for some groceries and we were home by 3.30pm. It was a good day and it's always nice to spend some quality time with Reality TV Queen. She's a crack up!

I sold the fourth of my five text books today, through Gumtree, so I'm pretty happy with that kind of success inside one week. I still have one book remaining, which is the most expensive of the books, but time will tell.

I hear a warm doona calling my name tonight! I will climb under there immediately, so that I don't have to think about it again before morning. Cosy and comfy straight away.

Nite all.

Last Sunday of Autumn

I don't know if you've seen this before. I saw it for the first time, a few years ago, and was amused, amazed and entertained, so when I saw it pop up on my Facebook feed today, I thought I'd share it here for your enjoyment.



I did what I do best on a Sunday morning, and stayed in bed, reading and playing on my iPad til after 10am. I did this while Adoring Husband was working his butt off, whipper snipping and mowing the shop lawns and then doing our lawns.

While he was finishing our lawns, I went for a ride in the glorious Autumn sunshine to get my morning coffee. I rode the long way and meandered along the river path, playing my music really LOUD through my earphones and stopping to chat with a couple of the shop owners before I decided to head home.

Off in the distance, I watched a Whistling Kite climb high in the sky and then dive bomb so fast toward the tops of the tall trees, it was a spectacular dive! I stopped, watching and waiting for it to fly back above the trees, to see what it had caught.

It never came back up, but not far to the right of the trees, I saw my favourite bird, the White-bellied Sea Eagle, soaring in slow motion and forming a V with it's huge wing span. Suddenly from nowhere, two Whistling Kites began dive bombing it! It quickly flew over my head and towards the river, with the two kites close on it's tail.

THEN, as it got closer to the river, a second WBSE appeared, and the kites, even though they were less than half the size of the eagles, began bombing both of the eagles! So I turned around and I hightailed it towards the river (even though I DID NOT have my camera with me), so that I could watch the action.

As I got close, I lost sight of them through some trees and by the time I got to the river's edge, there was no sign of ANY of the birds, in ANY direction. Disappeared into thin air! Ugh!

It's probably a good thing, because if anything more exciting had happened, I might have been really sad not to have my camera with me!

Most of today, I spent at my lovely clean desk, looking at some old photos and found this one ...

It was a neighbour's birthday cake covered in fresh frangipanis. This happened in January this year and looking at the photo today, I remembered how poisonous and toxic the sap from these flowers is! Luckily, nobody was affected, but I'll make sure I tell them to avoid using fresh frangipanis for decoration on food in future.

This was our dinner tonight. I did duck breast with orange butter sauce, served with bubble'n'squeak.

Now I'm off to bed. It's going to be a big week for me!

Nite all.