Footy Finals

Wahoo!!

Up! Up! Cronulla! The boys in the black, white and blue.
Up! Up! Cronulla! The name of the Sharks fit you.
Sharks! Sharks! forever. Go out and play without fear.
Now's the time to see good football, cause the Sharks are here!
Up the Sharks!

That was for Adoring Husband's benefit :) His beloved Sharks defeated the Canberra Raiders tonight in their first finals game! One down, two to go.

As I sit up in bed typing this, the rain is pelting down outside. There are a few storm cells passing over us this evening, but I don't expect it to last for more than an hour or two. I'm looking forward to falling asleep to the sound of the rain tonight.

Minecraft update: We only played Minecraft for about twenty minutes today, when Chicklet's iPad went dead. She'd used up all the charge on her battery!

Right at that moment, she decided that she was starving! So I made her a snack to eat while I prepared dinner.

Our Day 6 envelope contained a Superman lego figurine and the requested drawing was 'Bozzy Wozzy flying a kite while standing on the roof of our house' - I still didn't take a photo of it! I must remember to do that.

The colouring in sheet was the Triumphal Arch (I think). There were cardboard press outs of 'camouflage woman' and 'abracadabra' (I've never heard of them before) as well as a cityscape by night.

For lunch today, I created Wonder Woman (kinda/sorta) ...

Note the star on her headband and the lasso, which is made of a long bean and an egg ring. I never tell Chicklet what it is before I give her the plate. She doesn't even know I'm doing it, til she sits down to eat. She saw the star and knew immediately who it was!

I seemed to play a lot of the Minion game and Plants v Zombies on my iPad, while Chicklet lay on the bed watching and encouraging. The rain prevented us from going to the park, but hopefully we'll have a clear day tomorrow.

Today, Vegan Chickie flew to Vienna ...

She's having a great time and loving every second, although her feet are sore from so much walking and she's quite tired from fitting so much in to such a short period of time.

Tomorrow night, she flies to Amsterdam!

Sleep time for me ...

Nite all.

Mine Mine Minecraft

Minecraft update: Today, she sent me to the other side of our Minecraft world to build my own house. I was happy to do this, because I have not built or created anything yet, due to little miss minecraft's control issues! I was looking forward to the experience and the practise!

So I begin my walking journey, when she snatches my iPad from my hands and begins to build a railway line for me to follow to the other side of our Minecraft world. It took about ten minutes, to build a line long enough that her house disappeared on the horizon behind us.

She hands the iPad back to me and says "There you go. You can build your house there."

I take the iPad from her, keen to finally be able to build something of my own. I put my first building block on the ground, when once again, she snatches my iPad away from me and says "Here, I'll do it!"

She then spends twenty minutes building a house, complete with flowers in the corners, paintings on the wall, beds in the corners, a caldron and a chest to store weapons and food.

You must understand that she has her own iPad and we are both in the same Minecraft world, but using separate devices. Well, 'we' aren't really using separate devices ... Chicklet is multitasking on both of our devices, while I look on in awe and amazement!

Our day wasn't only Minecraft.

Unfortunately, it was too wet to visit the park today, but we spent a lot of time on various crafts instead.

There was some catching up to do from yesterday, when we failed to finish the activities in the Day 4 envelope from Mama. The Day 4 picture request - draw a baby elephant on a tall mountain eating spaghetti. I really should take photos of these drawings shouldn't I?

We coloured in the picture of the 'Louvre Pyramid', completed the 'join the dots' picture of Bad Bot and did an amazing colouring in job of that one too. The word for the day was 'outside', so we practised that.

The picture request for Day 5 (today) was - draw three frogs playing musical instruments in a boat on a chocolate river. The lego figurine was The Joker. The tattoos were Minecraft dogs. We coloured in the Picasso painting 'Girl Before a Mirror' - I feel that ours is much better and brighter and more lovely than Picasso's version! The word for the day was 'dishwasher' so we practised that one too.

Chicklet then had to draw what two people look like when they are NOT superheroes. A picture was provided, of these people in their superhero costumes and Chicklet had to use her imagination to show them in normal clothes. There was a lot of giggling involved in this process.

Next, we painted the plaster seashell fridge magnets.

That was a lot of fun!

By now, it was time for lunch. As Dadu suggested last night, I created a Batman lunch that was incredibly successful.

Finally, and much to her excitement, it was time to play Minecraft!

I am pleasantly surprised by my energy levels since I arrived here. I've made a concerted effort to avoid potato chips and I'm not including white potatoes with meals. I've eaten delicious, nutritious, healthful food for every meal. I start my day with warm lemon water, followed by chicken bone broth with a teaspoon of collagen powder stirred through it.

The Bare-chested Chef has kindly bought me a coffee every morning before he goes to work, so I'm drinking one coffee every day. I'm eating lots of organic green vegetables with a small amount of protein and including half an avocado with each meal.

I'm feeling much more energised and haven't felt sleepy in the afternoon since I got here - which was starting to creep into my afternoon regime because of poor food choices.

So I have kept up well with Chicklet for the entire day every day.

We followed our usual routine from dinner onwards tonight and my 'warm and fuzzies' were brought to the surface with three beautiful expressions of love from my little Chicklet as she fell asleep holding my arm.

Chicklet - "Bozzy Wozzy?"

Me - "Yessy Wessy?"

Chicklet - "I love you"

Me - "I love you too my perfectly wonderful little Chicklet!"

Two minutes later ...

Chicklet - "I love you Bozzy Wozzy"

Me - *giggles* "I love you."

Two minutes later, as she is dozing off ...

Chicklet - *whispers* "I love you."

And with that, she was fast asleep.

Now I shall do the same!

Nite all.

Out to Get Me!

Minecraft update: She trapped me in the outside pen with the sheep, chickens and bunnies until night fell. This is when the creepers, skeletons, zombies and deadly spiders come out to play. I had to fight off a skeleton (with her help) and she finally built a step for me to escape and seek refuge in our house!

I swear this girl has evil within .. and I can't figure out where she could possibly have received that gene.

She follows me around in our new minecraft world that she built today and steals my meat and wool when I kill the sheep (which she thinks is hilarious!). She called me to the door of our house, and within an instant, she broke the door and bricked me up inside what became my own personal tomb!

She is definitely taking advantage of her 'slow to learn' grandmother and has discovered hilarious ways to amuse herself, while causing me no end of confusion and frustration!

I will be happy to see the back of Minecraft at the end of this three weeks!

OR *insert evil laugh here* I will practise until I become so good, that I can beat her at her own game!!

Anyway, my brain hurts.

We had some fun park time today. We played hide n seek - in a park that literally has nowhere to hide - and played 'tag, you're it' .. the only way I could win that one was to run around and around the bench seat. My super power in this game, was that I could run in tight circles, while she ran in wide circles, which meant she had more ground to cover.

Eventually, she threw herself down on the ground and lay flat on her back, huffing and puffing, absolutely exhausted! I laughed a LOT.

We spent about twenty minutes pretending to be robots. Chicklet was Robotic Bird Woman and I was Robotic Whale Woman. She showed good robotic stamina, not coming out of character even once.

There was some REALLY HIGH swinging to be had and some 'follow me' time.

We had so much fun and activity today, that we didn't even get to draw Mama's picture request. We'll have to draw two pictures tomorrow.

Our tattoo for the day was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but The Flash was still looking good, so we decided to wait another day for a new tattoo.

Lunch was a fire breathing dragon ...

The plate was completely bare when she'd finished! We left the adzuki beans off the plate this time.

We read her current favourite storybook about a year on a farm and within thirty seconds, she was sound asleep. 7.20pm and all was peaceful in my world.

Vegan Chickie ticked a few more things off her European bucket list today, one of which was 'eating Belgian waffles in Belgium ...

... how delicious does that look?

I reckon I could almost suffer a bout of my gluten intolerance sickness to experience that gastronomic delight!

It's time for me to rest up for my next big day of Chicklet frolicking.

Nite all.

I Killed a Pig!

Another typically full-on day with Chicklet today.

She slept well, with no nightmares last night, so I got to have a lie-in. I woke at 7.30am but stayed in bed for an hour and eased myself into the day. The Bare-chested Chef was kind enough to buy and deliver my morning coffee before he headed off to work. I couldn't have asked for a better start to the day.

Chicklet and I opened the Day 3 envelope from Mama and found the Wonder Woman lego figurine, two temporary tattoos (Chicklet chose 'the flash' today), a word to find in the house (Vegan Chickie has stuck words over different items in the house and Chicklet is given a word every day that she has to find and match), a colouring in sheet, a puzzle sheet and a letter from Mama with a drawing request, telling us what she will be doing in Europe today and also telling Chicklet how special and how loved she is.

So we put together the lego figurine, adhered the temporary tattoo and matched today's word. We played Minions, then Plants v Zombies, then we created sticker pictures with the superhero stickers. We made a delicious lunch ...

She obviously is not impressed with adzuki beans!

We coloured in the picture from the envelope, did the puzzle and drew Mama's requested picture (draw yourself, dressed as Wonder Woman, in space, with a pet giraffe).

We went for a walk to the park, where she climbed the slippery dip, played on the swings, climbed under, in, and on the cave. We played hide n seek there and took a heap of selfies.

The afternoon session was for Minecraft. I think I have improved by 0.03%, although I did die twice today .. and not because Chicklet killed me off. A 'creeper' got me both times and I didn't even see one of them coming!

I killed a pig and a sheep all on my own! It was to get food and wool .. because I almost died of starvation. Chicklet hid the 22 golden apples, one of which would have saved me, so I had to go murder some animals ... and the worst part, is that they run when you hit them the first time, so you have to chase them to kill them off! Barbaric!

We talked to Mama on the phone. It was only 6.30am in Paris and she was preparing for a tour of the artist Monet's house, among other things. She sounded very sleepy, but happy!

Monet's yellow dining room ...

Vegan Chickie on a red bus ...

After our chat, we played some more Minecraft for a while, until Chicklet's iPad battery went flat.

Next we wrote a letter to tell Mama what we did today. We do this every day on the back of the letter that Mama leaves in the envelope. Mama will have her same 22 envelopes to open when she gets home, containing pictures, letters, words and any other interesting things that we do while she's away.

We had a nut bar for afternoon tea, then a boiled egg for dinner. Tidying up time. Bath time. Story time. Bed time.

When all was quiet in my world, I washed the dishes, hung BCC's work clothes out to dry and did a load of Chicklet and my washing. Gave a very tired Adoring Husband a quick phone call - he'd been working on the lawns all day - and now here I am!

I'm not sure yet what tomorrow will bring.

I found this last night and wanted to share it with you.

I want to be Dr Amy Myers. She is the best of both worlds and is so articulate and intelligent. As a qualified doctor, she knows that modern medicine is failing us .. if only there were more like her. The health of the world would be in a much better place.

She explains it all so clearly. Please watch .. even if you are not a Pete Evans fan, you need to listen to Dr Amy Myers.



I guess that's enough for one night. I need to recharge, so ...

Nite all.

Rude Awakening

As you know, for months now, I have had lazy starts to my days.

Even if I wake at 6am, I still stay in bed for hours on end, reading, playing, writing or listening to something.

This morning was quite different!

At 4am, I was woken from a very sound sleep by my bedroom door opening and a little voice saying "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I had a terrible, terrible nightmare." as she ran to my side of the bed and threw herself into my arms, which, at the time, were wrapped around a body pillow.

She spent the next three hours in my bed and at one stage I heard her say 'You are such a kind Bozzy Wozzy'.

It was well after midnight when I fell asleep, so it meant that I was functioning on 3.5hours of sleep - not conducive to calm and peaceful grandparenting.

Thankfully, the Bare-chested Chef bought me a coffee from the bakery before he headed off to work, so at least I had a heart starter to help ease me into the day.

Chicklet's big plan for the day, was to teach me how to play Minecraft.

A fruitless exercise, to say the least.

She is so fast at swiping and tapping and poking and prodding and manipulating the features of the game, and while doing so, leaning across in front of me, obscuring my vision, that I haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of learning anything about the game.

She also gets so excited about playing, that she talks ten to the dozen, so she is virtually impossible to understand!

Her frustrations were obvious when I was 'killing' sheep, instead of shearing them. Smashing windows instead of looking through them. Adding concrete blocks inside the house, instead of opening doors. Falling in the water because I had no control over where I walked. I even killed one of our pet cats, much to her horror!

In the space of an hour, she had created a whole world for me and built a two storey home made out of bricks and glass, with a pig killing area in the garden, a bunny enclosure, sheep yards and cattle yards, chests full of items that we might need in case of an invasion by 'endermen', 'zombies', 'creepers' and 'skeletons' to name but a few.

She was constantly yelling at me to 'Control your pig Bozzy Wozzy!' 'Stay out of the water Bozzy Wozzy!' 'Stop killing the sheep Bozzy Wozzy!' 'Shut the door Bozzy Wozzy' 'Hurry inside, the sun is setting Bozzy Wozzy!'

I had no idea how to do (or stop doing, as the case may be) any of those things!!

So she simply snatched my iPad from my hands and inside three seconds, had fixed what I had broken, and surprisingly, still wanted to continue playing!

This went on for six hours.

Yes, you heard me correctly.

Six hours.

My only relief was a couple of toilet breaks and a water bottle refill.

And still ... after six hours, I was none the wiser.

BCC saved the day when he returned home on a work break at 3.30pm and I was left alone in my room to breathe and doze for half an hour.

It was just what I needed.

After BCC returned to work, we did some drawings for Mama, practised writing some words, did some sticker art and some colouring in. Chicklet ate a bowl of raw bok choy, snap peas and carrots for dinner before having the mandatory bubble bath. Then we read the new farm book before finally dozing off to sleep at about 7.15pm.

One thing I did learn today ... that I need to put a cap on the number of hours we spend on Minecraft!!  If I had any mental energy left right now, I might even practise for an hour or so, but I am well and truly Minecrafted out for the day!

Vegan Chickie is in Paris ...

... happy as can be.

Nite all.

 

The Journey Begins

Day one and Vegan Chickie landed in Hong Kong on her way to Paris. This is sunrise over Hong Kong ...

She checked the first thing off her bucket list for this trip - 'eat a dumpling in Hong Kong'

Meanwhile, in Australia, the Bare-chested Chef had a day off, so I took it pretty easy. Enjoyed a late morning in bed while BCC and Chicklet played Minecraft on their iPads.

Eventually, I decided to go for a walk to the local shopping centre for my morning coffee. I made a deal with BCC that if I didn't feel like I could walk back, I would call him and he would come and get me.

The day was quite nice. Overcast with a cool breeze. Great walking weather. I chose to take the road route to the shops instead of the forest walk. The forest walk is too remote for me to feel safe walking there alone - unfortunately, in this day and age, it's something that needs to be taken into consideration.

It's not as far as I remembered, only fifteen minutes each way, but it's quite hilly, so the walk is a touch more strenuous than the flat roads at home. When you have a five year old dawdling along beside you, the trip takes quite a bit longer too, but today I was alone, so the walk was quick - even for my little legs.

The coffee was delicious and well worth the walk.

As soon as I arrived home, Chicklet decided that we needed to go to the park, which is only a two minute walk from the house, so me, my coffee and she, walked to the park and played on the swings, climbed the timber cave and while Chicklet successfully climbed the slope of the slippery dip to the top of the tower, I attempted several different access points to the tower without success!

I swear that they made this park for giants or acrobats, because you need to be incredibly lithe and agile to be able to stretch your legs to reach every climbing point!

We played for almost an hour and then I cleared all the litter from the park. Three empty cans of bourbon and coke, two broken and melted cigarette lighters, an almost empty packet of cigarette papers, three empty lolly packets, an empty packet of chips, a dozen cigarette butts and a plastic bag.

My good deed for the day complete, we wandered home.

BCC and Chicklet went for a drive to get some lunch and I returned to my room for some more quiet time.

They played Minecraft all afternoon, while I dozed, read, played and drank kombucha in my room.

At 4pm I chucked the organic chook that I'd bought at the markets yesterday, into the oven, stuffed with lemon, garlic and coconut oil, lightly coated in himalayan salt and pepper. Next to it, a good portion of sweet potato to be shared between BCC and I.

I made up the most delicious salad to accompany our chook. A couple of different varieties of kale, finely shredded. Some torn lettuce leaves. Finely chopped fresh mint leaves. Roughly chopped snap peas and fresh beans. Julienned carrots. Diced avocado. A handful of adzuki beans. Diced cucumber. Roasted slivered almonds. A small sprinkling of crumbled basil pesto feta. A good splash of coriander/lime dressing.

Even BCC commented about how tasty it was!

After dinner and after Chicklet put away her toys, I gave her a bath and then BCC read to her before she quite quickly fell asleep.

I think Chicklet struggled a little bit today and was in the mood for a fight, but some quick side stepping, some momentary distractions and some gentle persuasion curtailed most collisions.

BCC has six long days of double shifts from here on in, so it will be Chicklet and I conquering the world together.

I need to make a concerted effort to take photos!

I was introduced to this webcam today ... White-breasted Sea Eagle nest ... there is a chick in the nest. There were originally two but one of them disappeared at about the 2 or 3 week mark. There is a Facebook page with lots of photos too.

There is an amazing woman by the name of Kym Bradley, whom I only know through a photography page in Facebook, called 'Birds of Oz', where more than 10,000 bird loving photographers from around the world gather to share photos of birds.

She spent a few hours taking photos of a Wedge-tailed Eagle in Canberra today and shared those absolutely amazing photos on Facebook. I have messaged her to get permission to put a couple of her photos in here, but she must be in bed by now, so I'll have to wait til tomorrow.

She is the one who introduced me to the White Breasted Sea Eagle webcam today.

Kym is a wonderful nature photographer and is one of a very few among those 10,000 that I truly look forward to seeing her work when she posts.

Ok, well, it's 11pm, so I'd best get some sleep in preparation for a big Chicklet day tomorrow!

Nite all.

No More Sleeps!

It's been quite a day!

We planned on leaving home at 7am and we were both awake and out of bed before the alarm even sounded.

In one hour, I finished packing, finished clearing out the fridge, had a shower, tidied up a few odds and ends, checked off my 'to do' list and as we walked out the door, Adoring Husband asked me if I needed a hat ... lucky! Because I forgot to put that on my packing list!

We left the house right on time.

There were a few lunatics on the road this morning. Overtaking illegally, overtaking and cutting us off, trucks overtaking legally but without enough room left on the overtaking lane to get past and plenty of others taking unnecessary risks.

No wonder that stretch of the highway is notorious for accidents. There is nothing wrong with the road. The real problem is the stupidity of the drivers.

We made the mandatory stop at Sexie Coffee. Adoring Husband ordered his usual Jumbo Cappuccino and I had a large latte, which, as always, was delicious.

Our next stop was Gympie for a GF Beefy's Meat Pie - my last indulgence before commencing my three week kick start to better health.

The final stop before arriving at the Chicklet destination, was the Noosa Farmer's Markets.

OMG! Why didn't I know about these before now??? What a fabulous market. So much goodness in one market!

We were there for perhaps 30 minutes - a speed shopping expedition - and I bought (all organic):

• A bag of mixed kale leaves.
• A bag of romaine lettuce leaves.
• A bag of carrots.
• A bag of snap peas.
• A bag of green beans.
• A large punnet of strawberries.
• A large bag of apples.
• A bunch of spring onions.
• Half a cabbage.
• Four cucumbers.
• A hand of lady finger bananas.
• Five avocados.
• A bottle of chilli, lime and coriander dressing.
• A tub of basil infused feta cheese.
• A tub of sprouted Adzuki beans (yum!)
• Three bottles of ginger kombucha.
• An organic pasture raised rump steak.
• A packet of organic pasture raised pork sausages.
• A whole organic chicken.
• Four organic lamb loin chops.
• A packet of slivered blanched almonds.
• A packet of pine nuts.

 I think that's all. I've already made up two big salads today with the kale, lettuce, cucumber, adzuki beans, avocado, snap peas and a sprinkling of basil feta with a splash of the dressing. SO delicious!!

I don't even know how much I spent at the markets, but after just those two salads today, I feel energised and ready to take on the world!

We left the markets at about 10.45am and headed for my final destination - the Chicklet family home!

After a warm family greeting, it took Adoring Husband quite a while to unpack the car of my suitcase, camera bag, laptop, esky full of food and drink from home and then all the shopping from the markets. Anyone would think I was staying for a month!! Oh!! Wait!! I am!!

Much to Chicklet's dismay, the first few hours were NOT all about her because Vegan Chickie and I only had a few hours til she left for the airport, so we had lots of news and gossip to catch up on, as well as instructions and explanations for the coming few weeks.

It was very frustrating for Chicklet but we eventually farewelled Vegan Chickie as she climbed aboard the airport shuttle bus, and this meant Chicklet could have my undivided attention. Mama had left her a little box of goodies to open after she left, which had a tiny lego figurine and four kinder surprise toys inside it.

We spent some time putting the toys together and playing with them. Then we joined the dots on the dragon picture in her new dragon story book.

She decided that she did not want dinner, but instead wanted to lie on the couch eating grapes and playing on her iPad. She did this while I ate my second salad of the day.

We cleared all of the toys and mess out of the lounge room, had a bath, read the new dragon book, talked about our day and after a while I had to get tough with her and tell her to be quiet and go to sleep! Which she did!

That was my cue to tidy the kitchen and unpack my suitcase, climb into my pyjamas, phone Adoring Husband to wish him good night and then get comfortable in my cosy bed. It's quite chilly here on the Sunny Coast. I even had to search for a jacket earlier in the evening.

I now have all of my electronic devices plugged in and charging.

I just looked at the clock. I thought it was about 9.30 - 10pm. It's 11.15pm! I'm off to get some sleep. I have a feeling that I'm going to need it!

Vegan Chickie should have boarded her plane by now. Her flight is due to depart at 11.30pm.

Happy and safe travelling my lovely daughter!

Nite all.

List Checked

Made a list and luckily I checked it twice, because I missed a task or two!

I've got my washing up to date.

I've prepared 18 days worth of meals for the dogs.

I've got my ironing up to date.

I'm partially packed.

I did the printouts for Vegan Chickie.

I packed the games/toys/stickers for Chicklet.

I've prepared ten meals for Adoring Husband.

Cleaned out the fridge.

I found my sunglasses!!! (not in the fridge)

Thanks to Adoring Husband who spent a good deal of time today helping me search for my sunglasses, my reading glasses and my black glasses case. We still haven't found my reading glasses or glasses case. The sunglasses were on the floor behind the couch.

*two hours later*

I JUST FOUND MY READING GLASSES AND BLACK CASE!!!

In one of the handbags that I had already searched through twice! Under the tissues.

Thanks to The Nikonian for suggesting that I check my handbags. I told her that I had already looked, but then I decided to try there one more time.

So in the space of six hours, I have gone from only having one pair of distance glasses in my possession, to having all three pairs back in my hot little hands. I'm so happy!

Disaster averted.

Now I need to go finish packing and hopefully get an early-ish night. We hope to get an early start tomorrow morning.

Nite all.

Bit of a Date

Today was a bit of a date day with Adoring Husband. No movie, but some grocery shopping and a pleasant lunch at Arkarra Tea Gardens was a great way to spend the day.

Arkarra was incredibly busy and by the time we ordered, there was a 45 minute wait on meals. Soon after, we overheard them tell the customers who were served after us that they had a 60 minute wait!

We did NOT have to wait for the entire 45 minutes and we enjoyed our GF Salt and Pepper Calamari with salad very much.

The day seemed to fly by so quickly!

AH even accompanied me to the Bowl's Club this evening! I had a win on the pokies, but we had no luck with any other of our gambling pursuits. The raffle, Lotsapots, 100 club, Member's draw, Keno, Spin and Win ... all equivalent to 'big fat fail'.

I've made a 'to do' list for tomorrow and a list of packing requirements.

I wish I had something more exciting to share, but I am well and truly ready for bed. It's only 11pm, which is pretty early for me, but I'm done. I'll try to make up for it tomorrow night.

So ... nite all.

Fiery Threat

There was a large bushfire on the outskirts of our town yesterday, which burned through the night and proved difficult for the fire brigade to bring under control. This photo is not mine and was taken from a local property, so it got quite close!

Adoring Husband spent the night at the SES shed providing support for the fieries and didn't climb into bed until after 4am. He spent more time at the shed today and unfortunately there was some unexpected extra work to do with his maintenance job, which he had to attend to this afternoon, so he is exhausted and is currently sleeping in his recliner chair as I type this.

The fieries were successful in their endeavours to kill the fire before it reached any buildings, so we can all rest easy, but now the investigation begins into how it started. They suspect arson.

Meanwhile, my editing skills have been sought to repair or improve a photo that was poorly taken. I don't think I can make much of an improvement, but I'll try (like I have extra time before I go away to do this!). There are times when 'no' should be my appropriate response.

I've been searching through the official trailers of movies that will be released in 2017 and sadly, there are MANY superhero and marvel movies. Plenty of science fiction and horror movies. Very few romances or comedies - well none that have trailers or previews right now anyway.

I'm looking forward to the new Bridget Jones movie that will be released on 15th September. I will be on the Sunny Coast, but I have a date booked to see it with Adoring Husband upon my return!

Three more sleeps til I see my little Chicklet!!

So much to do, so little time! I need a 'to do' list ... we all know how successful my 'to do' lists are!

I'll think about it tomorrow. Right now, it's time for bed.

Nite all.

A Bit of Programming

I have been very unwell all afternoon. I don't know if it was something that I ate, but my tummy has been very unhappy for a good six hours now and it's most unpleasant.

It's well after midnight and I've wanted to go to bed for some time, but I was just too uncomfortable. I am now much improved, so I'm heading to bed momentarily.

Adoring Husband is on SES duty, as a deliberately lit bushfire roars out of control in our local area. We can see the glow of the flames from our house, but luckily, the weather is quite mild with no strong winds, so hopefully they can control it soon. AH expects to be out all night.

I found this very interesting video this evening ...



The need to conform is strong in some people, less so in others, but this is quite confronting and makes you think! Well, I HOPE it makes you think! I think we need fewer conformists and more rebels or free thinkers.

Anyway, the psychotic dogs are harassing me to go to bed, so I'm off.

Nite all.

Feel The Love

This is the song that Adoring Husband and I played while we were signing the register at the completion of our wedding vows. I just love it and it always makes me feel emotional when I hear it.



I actually got out and about today. I went for a ride and finally got to visit The Motivator and her Mum, who is still here on her extended holiday. I took a dozen eggs to her and she responded by giving me a sand crab and a bottle of delicious green salad dressing!

I worked on some photo editing .. learned how to use some presets and actions .. but just when I was ready to use them on some real photos, I got a phone call from Chicklet and Vegan Chickie!!

I was happy to put the editing on hold so that I could chat with them for about 45 minutes. Only five more sleeps until I get to spend about three weeks with Chicklet while she babysits me!

After our phone call, it was time to cook dinner and then I was in for an evening of trashy TV viewing, after massaging some healing oil into AH's aching joints.

'Married at First Sight', 'Winners and Losers', '800 Words'.

I'm looking forward to lunch with the ladies tomorrow!

Here it is 11.30pm already and it's time for bed.

Nite all!

Never Too Late

Every now and then, we all need a little inspiration. 

... and one more for added interest ... It's never too late

So I'm just going to keep trying different things until I find something at which I am brilliant.

It's been another quiet day for me .. no motivation to try anything that I might be brilliant at lol.

I edited another of Mardi's photos ...

My brain seems to be fuzzing and fizzing and frazzling and generally being uncooperative. Poor food choices, not enough sleep, not enough sunshine and not enough activity. 

I've lost my sunglasses, so if there are any clairvoyants out there who might have an idea about where I should look ... feel free to speak up!

Having mentioned that I'm not getting enough sleep, here we are at midnight as I sign off.

Ugh.

Nite all.

A Bit Blurgh

I've been feeling a bit blurgh today.

You know. Just one of those days.

Nothing bad has happened.

Apart from a quick ride to get coffee, I hibernated with the windows closed and the blinds drawn.

I bet some of these songs trigger some long lost memories for you ...



Who knew that 1970 was such a good year? I was 10 years old, but I know most of these songs, and there are some real legends here - gone but not forgotten.

Let's hope for a brighter, happier day tomorrow.

Nite all.

What List?

I made a list in yesterday's blog post about all the things that I was going to get done over the weekend, while Adoring Husband was at First Aid Training.

I bet you can guess how many of those things I've done today.

If you guessed 'none', you would be so wrong!!

If you guessed 'all of them', you would also be so wrong!!

I did one of those items on the list.

Let me refresh your memory. I planned on editing photos, experimenting with ginger, cleaning, visiting the motivator and spending long mornings in bed.

I bet you can guess NOW, what part of the list got done.

Yes! I had a long lazy morning in bed. Haha.

It was a glorious Winter's day and I didn't waste it completely. At midday, I jumped on my trike and headed to the river, where I rode along the path and took in the sights.

There were a LOT of families and couples walking along the path, and quite a number of them eating ice cream cones that they'd bought from our local ice cream vendor.

The tide was low and on it's way in, so there was plenty of beach available and people were standing along the edge of the water with their fishing rods and buckets enjoying the sunshine and testing their luck.

The Council Caravan Park is quite full with visiting tourists at the moment and many of them were sitting in groups, in their folding chairs, overlooking the river, discussing their recent travels.

There were many people out on the sand flats at the mouth of the river, throwing sticks for their pets or playing ball or chasing each other through the huge puddles of salt water or collecting shells or just strolling hand in hand with their partner.

Before I returned home, I picked up a few groceries to replenish the stocks of coconut milk & cream that I'd used for the curries on Thursday night.

After my hit of Vitamin D, I hibernated in the lounge room and watched a couple of episodes of Grace and Frankie before the football started.

I've only got one of my tips wrong this week so far, but it's enough to put me out of the running for any prizes in the competition. This means, unfortunately, I'm now just in it for the thrill of beating most of the men in the tipping comp. That's ok too!

Tonight, now that the last game of the day is over, I'm watching one of my favourite movies. "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda. It's such a feel good movie.

Looking forward to waking up tomorrow and feeling motivated enough to do all the other things on my list.

Nite all.

All Over Red Rover

Another family holiday done and dusted.

After twelve days of fun and sunshine, Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour flew home this morning.

The psychotic dogs are missing them very much, especially Jack, who has been absolutely spoilt rotten and molly coddled beyond all recognition.

It's now very quiet in our house and Adoring Husband has a big weekend of First Aide training happening with the SES so I will have the house to myself. I plan on editing photos, experimenting with ginger, cleaning, visiting The Motivator and spending long mornings in bed.

I didn't get a chance to post here last night because we all had a very late night.

We invited Best Cousin in the World and Marco Polo to our place to meet Bubbles and KISA for the first time. What started out as a planned barbecue with salads, Adoring Husband as the cook, ended up being a full day in the kitchen for me, because AH was required at SES training for the evening.

KISA is not a cook, not even on the barbecue, and I didn't want my guests to have to cook their own dinner, so I opted to cook a couple of curries. Curries are not my forte. I cook a reasonable Butter Chicken. That's it.

BCITW and MP are Indian Food connoisseurs, and I did not remember this fact until my pots were on the stove simmering away, at which point, I regretted my decision immediately. *rolls eyes*

Anyway, I did a Beef Rendang and a Butter Chicken, with boiled rice, Naan bread and natural yoghurt with cucumber and coriander. They turned out quite nice, though not as full of flavour as the Indian Restaurants, but acceptable.

For dessert, it was chocolate mud cake with chocolate icing and sprinkled with candied pecans. The pecans were candied with maple syrup mixed with a ginger powder that I made with BCITW's and MP's ginger from their farm.

I marinated slices of ginger in a flavoured balsamic vinegar, then dehydrated it in the oven and then ground it to a powder in the food processor. To taste it on it's own, it was very strong and very hot, with a sweet tangy flavour. Because of the strength of heat and flavour, I only used one teaspoon of the powder in three tablespoons of maple syrup.

I drizzled that mixture over pecans and cooked in a hot oven for 12 minutes. After it cools, the syrup mixture hardens to toffee and then I chop the pecans and toffee into small pieces, and then sprinkled it over the icing on the cake.

Surprisingly, the ginger could barely be tasted, so next time, I will add a couple more teaspoons of the ginger powder.

After dinner, and while we were affected by an unknown number of alcoholic beverages, we played Cards Against Humanity. It started out very even, with each of us winning a game. I'm sure MP hit the lead there a number of times, but in the end, I was the victor! Which just shows how sick my mind is!

A good time was had by all and Adoring Husband came home in time to join in for an hour before he had to go collapse in bed.

Everybody went to bed, except for BCITW and I. We sat up talking until 1.30am (I'm certain that she wanted to go to bed at least an hour earlier, but was too kind to tell me to shut up and go to bed!). I could have written a blog post because I lay in bed for almost two hours not able to sleep. It was almost 3.30am when I finally fell asleep.

We drove the kids to the airport this morning, washed the car in The Bay, did a little grocery shopping and came home with just enough time to enjoy a coffee and some nibbles before getting ready for the club.

Tonight, I won $80 on the keno, two pots in the 'lotsapots' and a pie pack in the raffle, which consisted of a large curry pie and a large apple pie direct from the bakery.

I arrived home in time to watch my team, the Brisbane Broncos, defeat the top team in the competition, the Melbourne Storm!! Yeeha!!

Now, it's well after midnight and I am off to bed. I'm exhausted.

I can't believe that I did not get one photo of Bubbles and I together while she was here!

Nite all.  

Pausing the Binge

I am not binge watching tonight! Tempting though it is! I need a good night's sleep. Frankie and Grace will have to wait.

Surprisingly, after yesterday's activities in Bundaberg, the kids are feeling the pain today. They discovered muscles where they forgot they had muscles. Even more surprisingly, Adoring Husband and I are not!

Our own Australian version of Cards Against Humanity arrived in the mail today, so we played for a few hours this afternoon. Best Cousin in the World is visiting us tomorrow, to meet Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour, so we plan on introducing her and Marco Polo to the game. I hope that their sense of humour is as sick as I imagine it to be!

AH and I spent the morning in The Bay attending the yearly financial planner appointment. Quite dull really.

The weather has turned from glorious mild Wintry sunshine, to overcast with intermittent downpours of cool rain and bursts of gale force winds. Tomorrow is going to be 5C cooler than today, which is fine by me. I LOVE the cooler weather. It will be nice to lie in bed late again tomorrow and perhaps Adoring Husband will bring me coffee to start my day on a perfectly wonderful note!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a busy few days for us, so I'd like to start it in my happy place :)

Right now, it's time to drag the psychotic dogs out of Bubble's and KISA's room and put them to bed. Then it's time for me to follow suit. My pillow awaits me.

Nite all.

Bundy Tuesdy

After another late night (or should I say early morning) of binge watching 'Grace and Frankie', I struggled to get out of bed this morning. REALLY struggled.

We agreed, last night, to leave home at 8.30am to reach Bundaberg before 10am.

I got out of bed at 8.20am, showered and dressed and was sitting in the car by by 8.45am, which I thought was pretty good going.

There was a lot of traffic on the road, and also a lot of roadworks, but we had a pretty good run, stopping along the way at Childers to get coffee, before reaching Bundaberg by 10.20am.

The Bundy Bowl and Leisure Centre was our destination, where we planned a family fun day.

First game off the rank, was Jurassic Putt Putt ...

Knight in Shining Armour won that round. Thanks to one VERY VERY bad hole for me, I came last!!

Next game was 10 Pin Bowling ...

We played two games and Adoring Husband won that round by a long way! It was a lot of fun, but I've decided that it's NOT like riding a bike (although AH might disagree).

Next, we tried Laser Tag. AH and I have never attempted this activity before and I have to admit, I was dubious and hesitant, but it was actually a lot of fun. Adoring Husband said he's never seen me run so much and we are all preparing ourselves for sore muscles tomorrow after 30 minutes of fast and furious war games!

Unfortunately, the packs on two of our vests didn't register any activity, so Bubbles and I didn't get a score for our efforts. Knight in Shining Armour won that round, even though only he and AH got a score.

To compensate for our failed packs, the girl gave us $20 worth of tokens for the games arcade, where, between us, we won 264 tickets, which we traded for a number of dinosaur related toys and will give to Chicklet at the next visit!

We left the leisure centre at about 1.20pm and drove around the corner to The Waves Sports Club in search of some lunch.

What a nice club it is! The staff were all very friendly and welcoming and the atmosphere was lovely. AH and I both had Veal Scallopini with salad for lunch, which was GF and delicious. Bubbles and KISA shared some hot chips and cheese/bacon/garlic focaccia bread, which they seemed to enjoy.

The bathroom at the club was so classy and beautiful, I was tempted to take a chair in there, just to sit and feel the ambience!

We left Bundaberg for a good run home, stopping again at The Drunk Bean in Childers for another of their delicious coffees.

The psychotic dogs were very excited to see us arrive home at around 4.30pm.

I think the day well and truly wore us all out, but I believe that 'Grace and Frankie' may get another workout tonight, if I can just find my second wind!!

I'm about to cook up some quick tacos for dinner.

Nite all.

Shop til we Drop

Adoring Husband had a busy day today, so the kids and I went in to The Bay for some retail therapy.

Each time we left a shop with arms full of shopping bags, Knight in Shining Armour would take the bags to the car and we would start again!

Because of this tactic, we didn't feel like we did that much shopping ... until we arrived home and began emptying the car!!

It felt like the week before Christmas .. you know how you rush out to buy those last minute gifts? The car was chocka-block!!

I ALMOST bought two pairs of shoes. Common sense prevailed.

It was a full day of shopping and I think that I almost wore the kids out ... rookies. I'm yet to find anyone who can outshop me and still have energy to burn haha!!

We have a day of fun planned for tomorrow, which I will explain in full at the end of the day and I hope to have some interesting pics to share as well.

Last night I binge watched 'Grace and Frankie' on Netflix (thanks to Bubbles) and I still have more episodes to watch. It stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda and Martin Sheen and is only available for viewing on Netflix. What a great show! I watched it for four hours!

Thanks to the Cronulla Sharks football team, I missed a perfect round in the footy tipping this week (along with 11 other people!). Not happy Jan!

I'm off to watch some more G&F (even though I have a big day tomorrow) because I'm hooked.

Nite all.

Catch Up Sunday

Can you believe that I stayed in bed til lunch time today!?

I had an early night, but slept til 9am and then stayed in bed until after noon, reading and playing games on my iPad. It was especially nice because of the mild Winter weather.

By the time I got up, I had just enough time to do a baked Sunday dinner of butterflied lamb with veg and gravy, before getting ready for drinks at The Blonde Bombshell's house.

Bubbles and I spent a couple of hours enjoying the company of my good friends before texting Adoring Husband to come pick us up. We took the Cards Against Humanity game with us because I thought we would all get a good laugh, but Chef Pat was in attendance and her poor eyesight prevents her from reading ... I don't think she would have enjoyed sitting on the side lines watching us play this crude game.

We all had a light dinner and then laughed over some more Cards Against Humanity.

I've enjoyed my day of rest.

A big week has been planned for the remainder of our time with Bubbles and Knight in Shining Armour, so I'd best get some beauty sleep. It's after 1.30am!!

Nite all.