Inspired Creativity

The first couple of hours in the shop were steady with customers and sales, but it was quiet enough between customers, that I was able to join the Mandala workshop in the training room, from about midday.

I found it very therapeutic and stayed at the shop until about 3pm trying to finish my mandala. Eventually The Motivator had to leave, so we cleared the training room and packed everything away. I gathered some of the leftover paints and brushes to take home and hopefully finish my work there.

I did a little bit tonight, but my 2nd favourite Christmas movie "Elf" was on TV, so I had to stop painting and watch the movie!

Due to inclement weather, Adoring Husband didn't get the Bali Hut finished today, but he bolted the stirrups to the concrete and built the frame that the roof sits on. With that laid out on the ground, it gives a good indication of how big the hut will be and what we can fit in and around it.

It probably won't be finished before Christmas now because anybody who can help has holiday, family and Christmas commitments. A job for the new year.

Now it's time for me to sleep. I'm done for the day. It's been a pretty lazy afternoon but I feel exhausted.

Nite all.

Winner Winner

After catching the daily bus into The Bay, Mama Mia and I spent a few hours gambling at the RSL.

I was a big winner.

I shouted Mama Mia her lunch and she shouted me a a drink.

Adoring Husband had errands to run in The Bay so he drove in after lunch, and once he was finished his business, he picked us up at 2pm and we drove home.

I spent an hour at home before making myself presentable for the club raffles.

I was a big winner again.

One of us won the Membership draw (it wasn't me) but everyone else won nothing.

AH had dinner all prepared when I got home and now it's time for bed.

I'm very tired and I have to work tomorrow.

The Motivator is running this ...

... while I man the shop.

It looks like something I would LOVE to do, so I'll be watching with enthusiasm between serving customers!

Meanwhile, I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Lovin' Life

A day of rest for me.

While Adoring Husband was mowing the lawn this morning, I rode to the shop to check the mail, get my coffee and visit The Motivator in The Happy Abode.

We had such fun helping a lady from Childers do some Christmas shopping and then gift wrapping her purchases. One of my customers earlier in the week actually recommended our shop to her so she came for a special trip today to check us out!!

She said that she's planning a tour of the area for locals who don't get out much and will bring them to The Happy Abode for a visit and a shop.

Before I got too involved in the day... I just can't help myself, and actually The Motivator and I are both a bit that way inclined on our days off, because it's difficult to leave somewhere that you enjoy being so much ... I forced myself to leave.

It was lunch time when I arrived home so I cooked up the mushrooms that I bought on sale at Foodworks and had creamy mushrooms on toast.

I did a load of washing and then watched a 'made for TV' movie, which was not very good.

The pool was calling me and I'd invited The Motivator and Mama Mia for a swim after work, so I cut up some lemons, put some ice into a container and carried the vodka and tonic out to the pool kitchen before gliding my way into the water.

I did all my exercises and some laps before they arrived and then we spent about an hour together in the pool.

Suddenly AH appeared in his SES uniform and he had to leave for the final SES meeting of the year. We had both forgotten that he was attending that meeting, so he had to leave without dinner. Hopefully they'll feed him on Christmas fare while he's there!

I haven't had any dinner myself tonight, so I might just grab a piece of fruit and have another early night.

If the weather is ok tomorrow, Mama Mia and I will be catching the bus into The Bay. She will be returning home to Sydney next week, so it's probably the only chance we'll have to spend the day together. It should be fun.

There's a little bit of concern happening over the weather and how it's building in the north and south at the moment. Both weather systems are heading in our direction and are predicted to meet right over the top of us in the Wide Bay.

Before that though, cyclone Owen in the north is predicted to be directly over Squirt's location on Magnetic Island at midnight this Saturday.

Wild storms hit Griffith in NSW today causing some flooding and damage to trees ... then Sydney this evening. The road in front of Bubble's house in Sydney is currently flooded and the power lines to her house are sparking.

There is a huge line of storms heading in this direction and who knows what will happen when everything collides? Fingers crossed it will be a fizzer and we will simply receive some much needed rain.

No damaging winds and no flooding.

Bed time for me.

Nite all.

A Stretched Day

It was a long day.

I enjoyed it.

It started with a panic stricken Adoring Husband rushing inside and asking me to follow him outside to identify a snake ...

Luckily, it was a harmless python, so AH used a rake to put it into a bin with a lid and then set it free in the National Park bushland.

Meditation, as always, was fantastic and the strength that we talked about practicing this week was 'Calm' - which was very appropriate for me after a week of feeling the opposite of calm!

Even though the caravan park is very empty at the moment, there are a lot of holiday-makers in town and thankfully, they have been coming into the shop to purchase Christmas gifts for grandchildren.

Secret Santa gifts are still selling like hotcakes and it's funny how I can predict who will walk out the door empty handed, who will spend much less than the suggested value, who will spend EXACTLY the suggested value and who will not care how much they spend - as long as the gift is appropriate.

Adoring Husband came to the shop at closing time and brought in the flags, signs and seats before rushing back home because he was worried about the air conditioner breaking again.

What he didn't do was take the 'open' sign down and replace it with the 'closed' sign.

A customer walked in within seconds of him walking out. It was about 3.15pm.

She spent almost $100 and left, but returned about seven  minutes later with a friend. She spent another $25 and the friend vowed to return tomorrow to purchase her Secret Santa gift.

It was 4.20pm by the time I left the shop and pedalled home.

Adoring Husband had disappeared by the time I got home, so I turned on the oven and put the chicken in to cook for dinner, changed into my swimmers and headed outside to the pool. I followed my usual routine, doing my exercises and laps and enjoyed about an hour in the water.

I paired my phone to the new sound bar and played music from my playlist. The water was the perfect temperature and I only left the pool to finish preparing dinner, otherwise I might have stayed for another hour or so.

I love our pool.

Tonight, we tried the new boneless chicken from the butcher. We chose the one with bacon and the meat was very tender, but I wasn't a fan of the bacon, so I'll try the plain one next time. We had leftover mash and broccoli from last night and I char grilled some zucchini and tomato to go with it.

I think I'm ready for bed now.

Nite all.

Testing Tuesday

The air conditioning and the universe have tested us further today.

Four hours after the air con guy came this morning and claimed to have fixed the problem, part of the ceiling in the kitchen collapsed and more water leaked from two new places - one in the kitchen and one in the hallway.

The guy returned and fixed the new problem - hopefully - but now we need to repair the hole in the ceiling ...

The air con company will come to the party and pay for part of the repairs but won't take full responsibility.

Now to get some quotes.

After a very quiet morning in The Happy Abode, the afternoon picked up and one of our very first customers from last year's holiday-makers came in for a visit. She has returned for a three week holiday and was both surprised and impressed with how much bigger our range of stock is now.

I mailed a purchase to Western Australia!

It's bin night, so all the bins got emptied and Adoring Husband wheeled the sulos to the front footpath for me.

The Motivator, Mama Mia and I cleared the training room of the remaining 'paint and create' workshop mess, in preparation for the meditation class tomorrow.

I rode home and after AH gave me a rundown of all that occurred in the house regarding the air conditioning problem, I changed into my swimmers and spent about 90 minutes swanning around in the pool, doing my exercises and swimming a few laps in all the different styles so as to stretch as many muscles as possible and then floating with my ears underwater to listen to the silence and rid myself of all the negative energy that washed over me today.

Bed is now calling me - even though AH has Star Trek blaring on the bedroom TV (I'll change the channel when I get in there - he is snoring loudly) but I'll probably be asleep inside thirty minutes.

Before I go ... a big congratulations to Rebel Mardi and The Lifesaver on becoming grandparents again to a gorgeous little baby boy named Jack. So wish I could have a cuddle! Big hugs to you all - especially to Mini Mardi who did all the hard work!

Nite all.

Hooray for Monday

I began my day with a celery juice and a swim in the pool with some aqua aerobics thrown in for good measure.

An excellent start to the day.

Our Mondays in The Happy Abode seem to be busy lately.

Because so many shops are either closed all day or they close early, people come to our shop because there's nowhere else to go and it's funny at the moment, because there are three different birthdays happening this week and people have been coming to The Happy Abode to buy gifts - each of the birthday girls LOVE the colour purple!

I thought all the customers were buying for the same person, but after making a few comments and asking a few questions, I discovered that they are three different people who live in three different places - our town, The Bay and the Sunny Coast! All three love purple, so almost all of our purple 'stuff' is gone from the shop.

The Gypsy was in today and we talked and talked and talked ... as we do.

There were some familiar faces come for a visit and some new faces from Bundaberg and Gold Coast.

Adoring Husband arrived at 3pm to buy our afternoon coffee and to help close the shop. He drove home and I rode home on the trike.

As I neared our house, I noticed that the electrician van was in the driveway - they must have arrived before AH because he had parked on the grass at the side of the driveway.

I walked inside to discover the place in a bit of a shambles because the ceiling had water dripping through the light fittings onto the kitchen bench - a LOT of water! AH was in stress mode.

The electricians climbed into the roof in search of the problem and found that the air conditioner was leaking from a three way pipe connection. They took towels to soak up the water that was sitting in a large puddle and to remove the wet insulation.

Thank goodness they were here. They were so helpful. They even took out the light where the water was leaking, pulled it apart and sprayed stuff through it help it dry thoroughly before being re-installed - which they will do in a few days.

The air conditioner is still under warranty, so hopefully we won't need to lodge an insurance claim.

While the electricians were here, we discovered that the pool umbrella wasn't 'grounded' when it was installed, so for legal purposes, THAT needs to be done and could be a job bigger than Ben Hur!

Ugh.

While all that annoyance was happening with dogs barking, water dripping, electricians coming in and out of the house and climbing up and down from the ceiling, AH searching frantically for our insurance information AND the phone number of the air con company and half of the power to the house being turned off for different reasons, I received a phone call from Bubbles to confirm the dates of hers and Knight in Shining Armour's visit in February.

That was a shining light amid the frantic drama!

*Happy Dance*

All that drama has left me feeling slightly drained.

On that note, I am off to bed.

Nite all.

Day of Rest

... and it was.

I remained in bed until well after midday and the only reason I removed myself from that position was to watch a movie on Netflix.

I could have watched it in bed on my iPad, but I believed that Adoring Husband would enjoy it with me, so I got myself dressed and invited him to watch it with me in the lounge room.

That was pointless.

I should have stayed in bed.

He spent 2/3 of the movie reading his iPad and the end of the movie mixing up the dog food ready to freeze in packs.

Then he politely asked "Did you enjoy the movie?"

🙄

The movie was called "Dumplin'" and starred Danielle Macdonald and Jennifer Aniston.

Yes I enjoyed it - life lessons with a bunch of warm and fuzzy and involving real people.

Afterwards I watched the first three episodes of the new season of The Ranch. One of the main characters, played by Danny Masterson, was killed off (because Masterson has been accused of four counts of rape and was sacked from the series) and under normal circumstances, I would have been sobbing at the way they killed him off in the show ... but knowing why, I was kind of numbed to the emotion of it.

The show must go on ... and I just discovered that one of my favourite actors, Dax Shepard, has taken on a recurring role in the series, so that makes me happy!

While I was in bed this morning, Adoring Husband made a run into The Bay to pick up some mulch and then created this ...

... he's a star.

Here are the rose quartz rocks that I told you about ...

Well, we're about to begin another week. I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Happy Monday 😎

Nite all.

Arty Farty

I believe that it was a huge success.

The Motivator's 'Paint and Create' morning resulted in some beautiful art work and left me feeling very envious!

The paying guinea pigs - being the first participants in the first workshop - left feeling very happy with their pieces of art and happy to return next week for the next instalment.

It was also a good sales day in the shop, thanks to a frenzied one hour period, otherwise I had time to make up two gift packs and wrap them and do a few other chores including follow up of phone sales.

Somebody from Bundaberg bought one of my calendars via phone call and I will mail it to her on Monday.

The weather was looking ominous this morning so Adoring Husband drove me to work, which meant that he had to also pick me up after work. He helped us close the shop and bought our afternoon coffee.

I was supposed to have a date with The Blonde Bombshell this afternoon, but I accidentally (or should I say 'foolishly') ate some dip with gluten while I was at work, so my afternoon was spent purging the unwelcome gluten from my body instead.

Ugh.

No swimming today due the inclement weather and Adoring Husband laid some sleepers as an edging for a garden bed, which he will fill with some kind of mulch. I will take a photo of that tomorrow, along with the rose quartz crystal rocks that I forgot to photograph today 😳🙄😲.

I am watching "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" with Jerry Seinfeld. It's a bit of everything - funny, deep, ridiculous, interesting, quizzical, questionable, normal, warm, stupid ... I've seen some of the re-runs, but I never watched Seinfeld back in the 90s and I've never been a big Jerry Seinfeld fan. I do like the Jerry Seinfeld of today and I like the way he relates to the other comedians.

I need to go to bed now so that my body can heal from the gluten contamination.

Nite all.
 

The Waiting Game

I've had two days off work and for one and a half of them, I've been waiting for electricians who never turned up and the delivery of the Bali hut that was two hours late.

This left me half a day to get done what I had already put off for two weeks because of other commitments (not mine) and this also meant that I had less time to enjoy the process and had to move my butt much more quickly than I'd have liked so that we could squeeze everything in.

I found some beautiful big rose quartz rocks and purchased three of them to place strategically around the pebble garden beside the pool. (I'll take photos tomorrow)

I also found a stunning giant Citrine crystal cave reduced from $3600 to $1800.

I did NOT buy it.

If I'd had a spare $1800 to toss around, I would DEFINITELY have bought it ... but I already have a fabulous pool in my back yard with a Bali bed, a giant umbrella, fabulous outdoor furniture, stunning garden pots yet to be filled, a water feature to bring peace and tranquility to my world and a Bali Hut in pieces waiting to be constructed.

For ten years I have imagined a pool in my back yard, but not once in my dreams, did it look as fabulous as it does right now and it's not even finished yet!

I visited Tinkerbell's on the Esplanade in search of a blue kyanite ring and while it's not quite what I had in mind, I found this little beauty ...

I absolutely love it.

Adoring Husband purchased a wireless speaker for the pool area ...

... and it sounds great.

I decided to attend the club tonight and just as I was about to walk out the door to get a seat on the bus to come home, one of my numbers was called and I won a $50 meat pack! Right in the centre of it was crumbed steak, which means that every piece of meat in the pack was contaminated with gluten so I can't eat any of it!

We will save it for our first pool party to feed the hoards. (You know who you are 😁🤪😍)

It's almost 11pm and I have to work tomorrow, so I'm off!

Nite all.

Bit of a Waste

Adoring Husband and I spent the entire day at home waiting for electricians who never arrived.

Apparently they'll be here on Monday. This has been a wasted day and we could have been in The Bay getting a lot done from our 'to do' list.

The other disappointing news was that the stirrups to hold our Bali Hut securely to the concrete can no longer be provided to us by the company from whom we purchased the hut. The hut will be delivered tomorrow (Friday) but we need to have these special stirrups made for us by an engineering company - we hope the one in The Bay can do that, and we hope they can do it before Christmas!

Bugga.

My first box of calendars arrived today! They're now at the shop. Adoring Husband purchased one, as did The Motivator. I wasn't expecting that lol.

I've been editing some of the wedding photos. A small sample ...

There are still so many to get through! So far the brides are happy with the photos that I've given them - about 40 to this point - there will be at least another 60 or more. They have made the photos their profile pic and page headers on their FB pages, so that's a good sign. People have made favourable comments and that's always a relief.

Weddings are so stressful! I don't think I'll do another.

Anyway, I'm all worn out. I did get to have a swim today in the gale force conditions and between downpours - then I dried out and warmed up in the Bali bed with Adoring Husband and two psychotic dogs.

We had a delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage with mash and white sauce. I made an extra large batch of cabbage hoping to have bubble and squeak for breakfast but AH decided that it was so delicious that he had to eat the entire pan of it!

I can't complain about him pigging out on healthy food can I?

Time for bed.

Nite all.

Treatment 4 Me

I only worked half a day today but most of our sales came in the afternoon when I wasn't there!

We sold three more calendars, sight unseen! How weird is that!?

I ordered another batch before the sale ended on the print site but I feel like (and I hope) that we haven't printed enough. This was really just an experiment to gauge local interest and to give us an indication fo how many to budget for with next year's print. It's been a promising start!

When The Motivator arrived at the shop, I shouted myself a treatment with The Gypsy so I relaxed for an hour and let her do her stuff - which she does so well.

We discussed the tightness and problem areas that she found and she gave me dietary and stretching advice to help resolve those issues. She warned me of some emotional release that may be experienced tomorrow (or today as you read this).

I rushed home knowing that Adoring Husband was at a meeting and that our Bali Day Bed was due to arrive any minute.

Thankfully, it didn't arrive until after Adoring Husband returned home and between us, we were able to assemble it in it's permanent position in the corner of the pool area.

It is SO comfortable and I can't wait to laze in it tomorrow on my day off!

By the time we'd finished that, I had no motivation to make dinner, so Adoring Husband and I attended the monthly trivia night on an empty stomach.

It didn't make any difference to our mental abilities ... we were still ... the word 'stupid' might be a bit harsh ... we both had our moments but our scores were average and we had no success with any of the prizes. Between the four of us, we certainly did NOT shine and we missed Blonde Bombshell, who I'm certain would have helped us smash the 'alcohol' round!!

Now it's heading towards midnight and I'm feeling a touch weary, so I'll sign off.

Nite all.

Stormy Change

The day began hot and steamy and as the girls arrived for our coffee morning, they had worked up a sweat and needed some cooling down, so the air conditioner was set to low.

I believed that almost everyone was out of town and that I would be either on my own or only have one lady to chat with, but in actual fact, I had seven ladies in attendance and it was one of the noisiest mornings we've had!

They looked through my clothes, took and/or bought the items that they liked and it was around 11am when the last lady left. It was a good morning, as usual, but we missed The Brains Trust and Lady Lynn.

The shop was quite busy until around 1pm when weather began to develop into a nasty storm, so people were smart enough to remain indoors.

The Motivator had come to the shop to get some work done, but was distracted by talkative customers and ... me.

She too had ridden her trike, so we both had to park the trikes inside the shop and Adoring Husband drove us home as the weather deteriorated rapidly.

AH and I chose to miss the monthly barbecue at the Lions Park, but about ten of the usual group attended despite the rain, which seemed to pass just in time for the event.

We chose to get grilled barramundi and chips from the local cafe. It's been a while since we did that and it was quite delicious.

I now have a corned silverside in the slow cooker so tomorrow's dinner will be ready to reheat ... I hope to have mash, cabbage and white sauce to accompany it.

It's time to begin thinking about my 'word' for 2019. I've started a list and I have one in mind, but it still doesn't feel like 'the one', so I'll keep searching.

Last year's word was 'fearless' because I was terrified of running the photography workshops - I overcame my fear and the workshops were a hit. I will work harder at recruiting for 2019 and make them a more integral part of The Happy Abode space.

It's only 8.30pm and I think I'm ready for bed. I only work for half a day tomorrow and I'm booked in for a treatment with The Gypsy after that. I may even go for an early morning swim in the morning before work!

I'm still trying to edit wedding photos.

Nite all.

New Week

Happy Monday to you!

Although, as you read this, it's Tuesday!

It was a steady day in the shop.

Lots of chatting with The Gypsy between her appointments and my customers.

A nice visit from The Motivator and Mama Mia.

I got some jobs done.

I did some phone sales (they phoned me - not the other way round). Weird huh?

I didn't get home until 4pm and I didn't even go into the pool because I had too much to do.

I'm still trying to finish the wedding photos.

I also had to finish creating and ordering the calendars.

At this point, I've ordered a very limited number of calendars, and I expect them to sell quickly - there won't be any re-orders/reprinting because the price is due to increase by a LOT in two day's time.

A sneak peek ...

Numbers will be down for coffee in the morning - in fact, I might even be alone. We'll see!

I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Mighty Hot

It was 32C at 9.30am today.

Adoring Husband spent the entire day between his shed and the new kitchen rearranging things, tidying things, culling things and putting all of his tools and 'stuff' that he's been using in the pool process back into the shed to make room in the kitchen for actual kitchen stuff.

It was a job and a half.

I spent more than two hours in the pool.

I made lunch for us.

I watched 'Slumdog Millionaire' for the very first time and I am very disappointed that I didn't watch it sooner, given that it's ten years old! What an amazing movie ... and I do love Dev Patel.

I edited some wedding photos. SO many MORE to do yet.

I did some washing.

AH found a box of goodies in the shed and I sorted through it. Half of the goodies weren't that good, so they got tossed. The remainder were special items that belonged to Mum & Dad, like coffee cups, a teapot and sugar bowl. There was also a breakfast tray - stainless steel and timber - made especially for eggs and toast.

It all needed sterilising after being in the shed in a simple cardboard box so I boiled the kettle a few times and soaked them, scrubbed them and soaked them some more.

I was lucky enough to find a container of frozen spaghetti bolognese sauce in the freezer, so I heated that for AH's dinner and made some zoodles to have with it.

I have no more frozen meals left in the freezer now, so I need to spend a day in the kitchen and build my stock up again.  

I'm ready for bed now, so I leave you with these ...

That last one was just to keep you on your toes.

Nite all.

Mildly Panicked

At five to nine this morning, I suddenly panicked and wondered whether I should be working in the shop today!

I sent a quick text to The Motivator asking her if she was working. She did not reply immediately, so I rushed into the shower, just in case 'I' was the one who should have opened the shop!

Thankfully, she replied to my text, laughing and telling me to relax and it was my day off.

Whew!

So I chose today to do some landscaping in my nether region (if you get my drift) so that I could wear my swimming costume in the pool.

I bought this costume four years ago before our trip to Magnetic Island.

Mrs Bucket, Woman of Many Talents, Reality TV Queen and I drove north to spend ten days on the Island for Mrs Bucket's birthday. We were staying in a resort with a pool, so I bought the swimmers specifically for that purpose.

I didn't go in the pool and came home from the trip five days early. My swimming costume was shoved to the rear of the dressing table drawer ... until just recently.

I tried them on, only to discover that the sticky plastic patch that protects the crotch area was still intact!

Until today, I'd worn 3/4 yoga pants and either an old swimming top or a singlet into the pool.

I'm here to tell you that swimmers are a pain the butt to put on and I would much rather wear the yoga pants. Humidity is not my friend.

I spent almost two hours in the pool this morning and only got out to make lunch for AH and I.

At 2pm, The Motivator picked me up to attend a La Reve essential oil party that lasted for 3.5 hours.

It was a lovely day and the hostess had gone to a lot of trouble to provide a delicious spread of food and drinks.

I knew most of the fourteen ladies there and it was well after 5pm when I was dropped home.

I considered swimming again but chose to sit on the couch and watch a Bollywood movie before reheating the dinner that I'd prepared last night for tonight.

We are watching Mama Mia as I write this ... well actually AH is snoring in the chair beside me and I'm ready for bed now.

Nite all.

Busy Editing

I was so busy editing wedding photos last night that I forgot to do my blog!

I didn't even realise that I'd forgotten to do it 🤪 until Adoring Husband asked me what happened!

All I remember about Thursday is that I worked and it was a pretty good day

The pool got a workout.

I've been exercising - swimming laps - freestyle, breast stroke, side stroke left, side stroke right and backstroke. 50 burpees. 50 twists. 50 running on the spot steps. 10 left and right leg lifts. Lots of floating.

Oh and the umbrella finally arrived!

Now for the Bali Hut and the Bali Outdoor Daybed. Fingers crossed that it's all here before Christmas.

Today, Mama Mia and I caught the bus into The Bay and spent four hours at the RSL. We had roast pork for lunch and listened to the live entertainment of Trevor Judge while we ate. I had some luck on the pokies and bought myself some new shoes with my winnings!

The Motivator manned the shop while I enjoyed my play date.

I didn't arrive home until 4pm and I tossed up between 'a swim' or 'the club'.

'A swim' won out and I stayed in the pool until about 6pm. Adoring Husband joined me for a while too.

He spent the day constructing this ...

It's a path that leads to the pool fence from our alfresco area and it's made out of all the old sleepers that surrounded our raised garden beds which had to be removed to make way for the pool. There is still a bit of work to do on it and there will be grass tufts planted along the edges later as well.

What a clever chook he is!

I'm feeling all worn out now, so it's bed time for me.

Nite all.

What a Day!

There have been warnings for the last 24 hours about how volatile our weather was expected to be, so I was feeling a little uneasy as the time drew near to leave for our lady's Christmas lunch.

The air was hazy and heavy - so much so that it was difficult to tell if the haze was cloud or smoke or dust.

For once, I only looked at the BOM once before I left for lunch and it showed nothing even developing on the radar.

Higgins Storm Chasers warned on Facebook this morning that the weather was so unpredictable that very dangerous storms could develop over a matter of 15 minutes and that we could expect 9cm hailstones and destructive winds, possibly tornadoes.

Scary stuff.

That was at 11am.

Just 90 minutes later, Adoring Husband phoned me to ask if I was ok.

There was nothing much happening around our marquee. Sometimes a strong gust of wind would blow through the trees and bamboo blowing up the leaves that covered the ground, and we could hear thunder in the background, but that's about it.

He told me that a big storm was currently hitting home and that the rain was heavy enough to flood our new outdoor kitchen.

That's when I checked the BOM again and there was a line of very nasty storms to the north of us and to the south of us - a gap in the middle - where we were enjoying our lunch!

The Universe took care of us, just as I had asked earlier in the day.

(I have to mention the amazing lighting in the marquee because The Motivator designed it and supervised the installation. It looks and feels fabulous.)

It was a really nice day and the food was great, though it was cold by the time it reached my table. Three different proteins (ham, turkey and pork) with cranberry sauce and a beautifully presented potato bake on the plate. A plate of salad and a plate of roasted veggies to choose from in the centre of our table. I chose the strawberry tart as my GF option dessert, which was served with a small side dish of whipped cream.

I heard some people complain about the food, saying it was hard, cold and not very tasty, but I disagreed.

By the time we made our way home, the storms had well and truly dissipated and there was hardly any evidence of them, apart from a few small puddles.

The Whinging Pom and I stopped at the bowls club for an hour to play the pokies before we came home. She was very successful. I was not.

After I got home, Adoring Husband recruited my Trades Assistant skills and I helped him finish the pool fence, then I prepared dinner for AH.

Now, I'm feeling quite weary. It's been a big day. Time for bed.

Nite all.