Nice to see you!

Three major events occurred for me last year (2010), all in the space of about 2 weeks. I turned 50. The following day I got married. Two weeks later, my oldest daughter became pregnant with her first child and my first grandchild.

Most middle-aged people will tell you that in their minds, they still feel 20 something. It's the same for me.

Wasn't it only yesterday that I was planning a night out with guys from the surf club? That gorgeous new perm. Flaired, cuffed denims and the red t-shirt with the off-the-shoulder frill. Corked platform wedgies. **sigh**

Suddenly I'm looking in the mirror and wondering how 30 years can flash by so damned quickly!

So here I am in cyberspace, sharing my genuine shock and horror with anyone who'll listen and maybe I'll even meet some other over 50s who find themselves in the same predicament!

Welcome to my dilemna!!

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Short and Sweet - enjoy it!

"Our Brain & Body Runs Better on Fat, Not Carbs" by Nora Gedgaudas (2012)

This is just a short 6 minute video of Nora Gedgaudas talking about fats and carbs.

Nora is the author of Primal Body Primal Mind, of which I own a copy, but haven't had a chance to read yet - along with 6 other books on my desk that I've only glanced at! One day!



To learn more about Nora, go here.

I had a quiet morning at home while Adoring Husband worked at our local markets, cooking breakfasts to raise funds for the SES.

For lunch, I cooked up a delicious roast chicken with garlic onion gravy. Roasted sweet potato, parsnip, carrot, capsicum, zucchini and beetroot accompanied the chicken along with some steamed broccolini.

Of course, today was Super Saturday for football and there were three games to watch on TV. AH didn't quite make it through the third game and headed off to bed.

We'd had a light dinner of chicken wings with a salad of baby spinach, rocket, onion, cucumber, avocado and pear dressed with balsamic vinegar.

The reason I always share a description of what we eat, is so that you can see that eating Paleo is nourishing and far from boring.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try a recipe from Pete Evans' new 'Going Paleo' book. The crispy skinned chicken recipe has been getting rave reviews, so I'll take photos and share the recipe, if it's as good as they say.

Time for bed. I think I might use my lavender essential oil tonight to lull me into a relaxed state of snoozing.

Nite all.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Senseless

Such a senseless tragedy.

In the Riverina, the community of Leeton is in mourning over the senseless loss of one of their own.

RIP Stephanie Scott.

My heart aches for her fiance, her family, her friends, her students, her work colleagues and her community.

The feeling of safety and security from living in a small country town is lost forever and life will never be the same for everyone involved.


Two senseless murders in the space of a month, both too close to home, leaves me reeling and questioning everything.

Nite all.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Emotionally Intense

Well I finally got to the boxes behind my desk today.

It was intense, to say the least!

All of my father's medical records and reports, as well as court reports related to the compensation claim made by my mother.

There were 8 large manilla envelopes filled tight with information and I read every page of it.

I assume it's because of my studies, that I can decipher and understand much more of the medical information this time round. Last time I read it, I skimmed over and skipped a lot of the medical jargon, but I looked at everything in detail today.

Honestly, there were so many reports saying the same thing, but in different words, and it was like reading a horror story over and over and hoping that the ending might change each time.

It was an emotional roller coaster for most of the afternoon and when I saw all of the information that Mum had to chase up on her own, over a two year period, I wonder where she got her stamina and emotional strength from.

She also had to endure psychiatric and psychological assessments to determine if she was eligible for compensation relating to shock and trauma for his wrongful death. Reading the specialist reports for these was heart breaking and I was left wondering if I did enough to help ease her pain.

I believe, after reading every detail of Dad's arrival at Gladstone Hospital, and the treatment that followed, that they got off very lightly for their errors. One simple mistake upon his arrival, that both Dad and his mate questioned, sent him slowly spiralling into a painful death spin. A split second bad decision by one staff member, changed our lives forever.

What followed were more stupid and simple mistakes, but they could have been avoided if the first one hadn't been made.

As I read the final note on his hospital charts - 'time of death 1.50pm' - I could feel myself at his bedside again, listening to that heart monitor as his heart stopped beating and we could see the line on the monitor go flat.

I was 37yrs of age but felt like a young child and as one of his brothers hugged me, I said "I'm too young to lose my Dad".

I remember being in the car on the drive home from the hospital and watching all the people continuing to live their lives, shopping, driving, walking, catching the bus, chatting in the streets and thinking to myself "My world has stopped, my Dad is dead, and nobody knows and nobody cares." Such an empty feeling that day.

Still, I wasn't the first person to lose a parent and I wasn't the last.

On a lighter note, I also found printouts of all of the emails that Adoring Husband and I wrote to each other in the first couple of months after we met online.

That was also an emotional ride! But a much happier one .. ah the romance of it all. As I read through those, I could remember that wonderful high that we were riding and the excitement of knowing there was a new email to open when we got home from work, or when we arrived at work in the mornings.

I remembered the first phone call and then the email that followed as we described our nerves leading up to making the call and the relief when we were able to chat as comfortably as we had been able to write.

Adoring Husband's funny jokes and his descriptions of when and how often he thought of me during the day. How quickly we believed that we were meant to be together, and considering the physical distance between us, figuring out how to implement a long term plan to reach that goal.

Those emails left me feeling very warm and fuzzy.

Then of course, there were my high school report cards when I was 14yrs of age! Here is the first one.

ENGLISH: "Inattentive and talkative"

MATHEMATICS: "Rozlyn is capable of much better work but is very talkative in class"

TYPING 1: "Little effort is made. Classroom behaviour is poor."

SOCIAL STUDIES: "If Rozlyn put as much effort into her work as she does into 'showing off' and distracting others, she could do well. She frequently refused to participate."

FOOD & NUTRITION: "Behaviour has deteriorated this semester."

GROOMING & DEPORTMENT: "A little overconfident - could apply her knowledge and benefit by it."

SPEECH: "Though talkative - is achieving well."

DRAMA: "Needs to co-operate  with the group and make a more conscientious effort."

HEALTH ED: "Satisfactory."

PHYS. ED: "Satisfactory."

FINAL COMMENT: A poor student, Rozlyn will achieve little until her behaviour and her attitude improves. At present, her behaviour is hardly tolerable.

In my defence, this was the 16th school that had I attended and at the time, my father was imprisoned in another country (that's another story), leaving my mother to find work to pay the mortgage, so she was working at Pizza Hut from 4pm - midnight, leaving me (at the age of 14) to babysit my 11 yr old brother and 2 yr old sister.

I consider all of that a good reason for a fourteen year old girl to go off the rails a bit.

Then I found a 'dunny wall' poster that I had stuck on the wall in the dunny when I was 16 yrs old and where people I know wrote their memorable comments. I also had fake signatures of people like Boz Scaggs, Freddie Mercury, Les Gock, Rod Stewart, Peter Frampton and other hot superstars.

My brother wrote the same words on it twice - "Roz is a fat whale." Thanks bro.

There were lots of photos from my previous relationships and from fishing trips with Dad and of the kids when they were little - old Pixie photos - photos of me of various sizes ranging from 'normal' to 'Holy cow! Was I that big???!!'  

So it's been an emotionally intense day for me, having re-experienced the highs and lows of a lifetime of heaven and hell.

The last job for me, is to clean out the magazine rack, which is piled very high with beading magazines and organic gardening magazines. Wish me luck parting with the latter!

I'll take that 'after' photo when I'm done.

Nite all.  

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Cleaning Bug

I arrived home from my trike ride this morning to find half of our house devoid of furniture!

Adoring Husband decided that it was Spring cleaning time in Autumn. So I changed into my cleaning clothes and we got stuck into it!

We cleaned windows together and then while AH vacuumed and steam cleaned the tiles, I cleaned my work area.

Oh dear.

It took me four hours to clean my tall wall unit and my desk area! I know! Right?

I had forgotten how much information I had printed out during my studies and I spent a lot of time sorting it all out from the four different piles scattered over my desk. There were Chemistry printouts, Anatomy/Physiology printouts, practise tests, lesson plans, so many notes, flash cards, essay drafts, formula exercises, diagrams and then there was the paleo information and the recipes.

It was a shambles and it felt like it was never ending!

I did take a 'before' pic and when the job is complete, I'll take an 'after' pic and share them both on here.

I still have to go through a couple of boxes of 'stuff' that has been sitting behind my desk chair for a year or more and also my low side board, which is covered in jewellery making paraphernalia.

I'm thinking about selling all of my jewellery gear. That will be a major undertaking in itself. Sooooo many beads, bead containers, findings, measuring boards, tools, storage drawers, books and magazines. We'll put that idea on the back burner for a little while and work on it later.

So we have cleaning plans for the rest of the week and who knows? It may even be presentable enough to invite people over one day!!

I did have to stop twice to cook lunch and dinner and after standing on hard tiles all day, in bare feet for most of it, my body was certainly feeling a little the worse for wear, so with the promise from the weather bureau of a fresh cool night, I am going to bed for some solid sleep, so that my body can be fresh and ready for another round tomorrow.

So that's it from me.

Nite all.

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Change is coming

Apparently, our weather is going to cool down tomorrow, by a few degrees.

We can only hope!

I'm over the heat. We've had almost 5 months of above average temperatures with horrible humidity to boot.

It's just blurgh.

On an unrelated issue, I'm going to try this ... Chinese Recipe ... for a couple of weeks to see if it has an affect. I've never even heard of it before, but it sounds interesting! I used my first piece of ice this morning and it's surprising how long it takes for one little piece of ice to melt! I will keep you posted on how it goes.

We had a very pleasant evening down by the river for our monthly social barbecue. It was a glorious sunset, but I chose not to take any photos because as beautiful as it was, I have a lot of sunset photos from that spot, so the level of 'spectacular' has to be pretty high for me to get the camera out.

Finally, because I'm ready to head off to bed, I will leave you with a link to a site about gluten intolerance. This blogger's name is Dr Sarah Ballantyne Ph.D. and you can read about her amazing achievements here. She also has some great recipes on her site and in her books, which are on my wish list.

Happy reading :)

Nite all.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Betcha didn't know ...

So, who's feeling the after effects of too much Easter chocolate, hot cross buns, munchie foods and alcoholic beverages? I know a few who will be trying to be good this coming week, to make up for too much bad during these past 4 days!!

The worst that Adoring Husband and I did was eat chocolate mousse (sugar free, dairy free, gluten free - but full of delicious taste!) for dessert yesterday. We've had a no chocolate/eggs, no alcohol, no munchies Easter. All good healthy meals keeping us nourished and satisfied :)

I found this interesting article today that I know a couple of you will be interested in, and I know that many of you will not be the slightest bit interested lol.

What your food label really means

Added vitamins: One-dimensional factory versions of natural vitamins found in whole foods: ascorbic acid (man-made vitamin C) is usually synthesised from the fermentation of GM corn, while artificial vitamin E is commonly derived from petrol.

Soluble fibre: A healthier-sounding term for modified starch, which is widely used to reduce the quantity of more nutritious ingredients in processed foods, and keep down manufacturers’ costs.

‘Natural’ colourings: The only difference between these and artificial ones is that they start with pigments that occur in nature. Otherwise, they are made using the same highly chemical industrial processes, including extraction using harsh solvents.

Artificial ‘diet” sweeteners: Several large-scale studies have found a correlation between artificial sweetener consumption and weight gain. Accumulating evidence suggests that they may also increase our risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Enzymes: Used to make bread stay soft longer; injected into low-value livestock before slaughter, to tenderise their meat; and used in fruit juice processing to create a cloudier, more natural appearance.

‘Packaged in a protective atmosphere’: Food that has been “gassed” in modified air to extend its shelf life. It delays what food manufacturers call “warmed over flavour”, an off-taste that occurs in factory food.

Beef/pork/poultry protein: Collagen extracted from butchered carcasses, processed into a powder and added to low-grade meats. It adds bounce, increases the protein content on the nutrition label and, combined with water, is a substitute for meat.

Washed and ready-to-eat salads: “Cleaned” by sloshing around in tap water dosed with chlorine, often with powdered or liquid fruit acids to inhibit bacterial growth. The same tank of treated water is often used for 8 hours at a time.

‘Pure’ vegetable oil: Industrially refined, bleached, deodorised oils. Food processors often add chemicals to extend their “fry life”.

‘Natural’ flavourings: Even the flavour industry concedes that “there isn’t much difference in the chemical compositions of natural and artificial flavourings”. They are made using the same physical, enzymatic, and microbiological processes.

If you want to know more, (and a little warning .. it's a very long read), go here.

Something else that you might find interesting.

The Healthy Star Rating .. and you all know how I feel about that ...


If you're interested in reading an interesting argument against the validity of this rating, go here. If you can see the point of the argument and agree with it, you might like to sign the petition while you're there.

Meanwhile, the lovely Woman of Many Talents was kind enough to pick up my book from The Bay today and delivered it to me this afternoon.

The book is written by Honor Tremain, who was one of the speakers at the health seminar that we attended a couple of months ago. She is a qualified Nutritionist, a health writer and Nutrition Journalist. Her book is called "a diet in Paradise" - use your food as your medicine. 'Simple, easy, healthy ways to live and thrive'.

I've only briefly glanced through it, but it's a good quality book and I look forward to sitting quietly to have a good read before my studies recommence. Perhaps under a shady tree down by the river would be a nice way to pass a morning.

I'm off now to watch the rest of the footy.

Nite all. 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Sorting thru the stash.

To know more about Paleo, click here

Today, I discovered one of the Foxtel channels was running a 'Friends' marathon. So I have been glued to the couch all day watching it.

I actually have the whole series on dvd, so I could watch it ad free any time I like, but instead I've spent many, many hours watching it with stupid ads every ten minutes! Sometimes I wonder about myself.

We enjoyed some Butter Chicken with Cauliflower Fried Rice for lunch, followed by Chocolate Mousse with Berries and Almonds.

I'm not sure if I've given the recipe for the Chocolate Mousse before, but today, I made up the recipe in my head, because I couldn't find the one I usually use.

Two avocados, 1 small banana, 1/4 cup raw cacao powder, 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, 1 can of coconut cream - blend it all in the blender. Put some berries in the bottom of a dessert mould, then pour some chocolate mousse over the top, then add a tablespoon of stewed maple berries, pour some more chocolate mousse and then sprinkle roasted chopped almonds over the top. Refrigerate for an hour or two.

That made 2 large and 2 medium ramekins full of dessert.

Dinner was a Bacon and Vegetable Frittata with a side salad, leftover Cauliflower Fried Rice and fermented vegetables.

So we are full of nutritional goodness today.

Surprisingly, I received the results of my Anatomy and Physiology exam today. I wasn't  expecting to hear until after the Easter break, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I was reasonably happy with 86% considering I spent so much time attempting to conquer Chemistry.

I can only hope for easier subjects in the next semester!

Some more old pics from my stash ...








Nite all.