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, December 19, 2015

Party Time

So I finally provided the photos for the 70th birthday that I attended a few weeks ago.

I also sent through some of the photos of the town Christmas party to be published in the local newsletter, the rest will be published in the January newsletter.

Other than that, it's been a quietly productive day for Adoring Husband and myself.

Tonight AH attended his SES Christmas party, while I attended a different party at a friend's house. I had a nice time. Good food. Good friends.

AH came to my party after his finished, but we were both home just after 10pm.

It's a sign of our age, when two parties are over by 10pm!!

You will love this ... Every Child Should Have a Pet

That's it. I'm done. It's rapidly approaching midnight (as usual) and I feel the need to sleep.

Nite all.


Dreams Come True

It was a lot of fun catching up with The Sex Therapist tonight.

Surprisingly, dinner was very nice at the club restaurant .. again. That's twice in a row now.

It's very late and I'm very tired and I wish I'd taken a selfie with The Sex Therapist tonight.

Here is a very cute video.



Nite all.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Last Minute Hey

Hey!

It's almost 1am and I've been watching many many episodes of 'New Girl' on my laptop. Time has passed so quickly and now I'm trying to decide between doing an 'all nighter' watching the entire two series, or going to bed now.

I think I'm ready for bed.

I can't say that I've ever been a One Direction fan. I've never really taken much notice of them, until this week.

I've watched three interviews with them and this video of carpool karaoke with James Corden and from what I've seen, they seem like nice boys. That probably makes me sound like an old lady, but I think I'd like to listen to some of their music.

I have my favourite .. I wonder if you can guess which one it is!!



Ok, one more episode of New Girl and I'm off to bed!

Nite all.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

The New Tuesday

Wednesday is the new Tuesday.

Morning tea with the girls on Tuesdays, has been changed to morning tea with the girls on Wednesdays. I know I'm not alone when I say .. I'm already feeling a bit discombobulated! How silly that such a small change in routine can have such a big impact!

Aside from the fact that Wednesday is delivery day for the butcher and a mega-sized semi-trailer pulled up near us, blocking the car parking spots and idling it's very loud engine for about fifteen minutes, it was a very pleasant morning .. as it always is with the girls!

From there, I rode to The Motivator's house with my second coffee for the day and we spent a couple of hours catching up with each other's news. She had been on holidays for a couple of weeks while I was on the Sunny Coast, and then she had business in Sydney, so there was much to talk about.

When it was time to head home, I remembered my meat order from the butcher, so I pedalled to the shops and returned Adoring Husband's call that I'd missed earlier. We decided to get a coffee (Yes! My third for the day!), so he met me at the shops and took the groceries home in the car.

Poor AH had to eat a late lunch (last night's leftovers) because it was almost 2pm. I had a text match with BGWLBH (I thought that I ALMOST convinced her to come up for Christmas, but alas no) while the pumpkin cooked for the dog food. By the time I got the dog food sorted it was after 3.30pm and then we had to clean up the kitchen. I sat down for an hour and it was time to start dinner!

During my hour break, I found this, which I thought was cute enough to make me giggle ... Dogs who have no understanding of personal space.

I've decided to make a 'to do' list of all the things I need/want to do before Christmas. It starts a little something like this ...

  • Bath and groom the dogs
  • Clean my office
  • Wash the windows
  • Get my ironing up-to-date
  • Clear the back office ready for Vegan Chickie and Chicklet's visit for Christmas
  • Wrap the Christmas gifts
  • Mail some Christmas gifts
  • Plan Christmas table decorations
... there will be more to add to the list and I have to complete the chores on this list by 21st December, which is when I travel down to the Sunny Coast for my next dental appointment.

Now, if I could just rustle up some time management skills and some motivation from somewhere ... well, you know the rest. *rolls eyes*

I must admit that my solid eight hours of sleep last night has breathed some motivational fire in my belly .. hence the 'to do' list!

Now, to get another early night, to fan those motivational flames!

Nite all.  

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Going Solo

I had a great day on my own in The Bay, despite only having four hours of sleep last night!

It seems that raw cacao powder is something that I should avoid in the evenings. It is a natural stimulant and we had a nice dose of it in the chocolate brownies that I made yesterday and which we ate with dessert.

I went to bed at midnight, but was still wide awake at 1am, so I got out of bed and sat in the lounge room. I heard a knocking coming from the hallway and when I looked up, I saw a dirty stinking toad trying to jump up the wall!!! Ergh!!!!

So I threw a towel over him, picked him up and was intending on tossing him out the laundry door, but when I opened the door into the laundry, THERE WAS ANOTHER TOAD!!!!! ERGHHHH!!!

I had to go searching through the entire house then .. luckily, no more toads to be found .. whew!

Under normal circumstances I would have woken Adoring Husband and made him get out of bed to remove the disgusting creatures, but that raw cacao powder must have had a weird affect on me!

I finally climbed back into bed some time after 2.30am and still I lay there for about twenty minutes before drifting off to sleep. I woke just before 7am and knowing that they both had to work today, I sent texts to Woman of Many Talents and to Mardi asking them what time they were leaving.

I got my first response from Woman of Many Talents and she picked me up at 8.10am. We drove into The Bay and she dropped me at the ABC shop where I bought a 'make your own Christmas bauble' pack and a take away coffee.

Eventually, I found my way to the cinema and I bought a ticket to see The Dressmaker. Surprisingly, and considering that this is it's second last week of viewing, there were twenty other people seated in cinema 3 with me!

I enjoyed the movie very much.

Liam Hemsworth was oh so deliciously gentle and dreamy. Judy Davis was beyond superb (I adore her). Hugo Weaving was amazingly flamboyant. Kate Winslet was wonderfully strong and brave. Sarah Snook was delightfully plain AND splendidly glamorous. Shane Bourne was brilliantly evil. Rebecca Gibney was marvellously flaky. I was surprised by the number of well known Australian actors that filled all of the other roles perfectly.

I think I need to buy it on dvd when it's released.

Afterwards I did some more Christmas shopping and got myself another top (because I so desperately need more clothes!).

When I got to the bus stop to catch the bus home, I was lucky enough to run into Mum H. I say 'lucky enough' because the bus now stops at a completely different place than when I last caught it (which admittedly is about a year ago). Otherwise it may have driven off without me and I wouldn't have even known!

That was my day and now I'm feeling extremely tired .. my four hours of sleep has caught up with me and I'm ready to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Nite all.  

Monday, December 14, 2015

Fast Work

I am a regular 'faster', but not on purpose! I didn't know that it was contributing to my health in a positive way. Sometimes I fast because I'm too lazy to go to the kitchen, or too lazy to prepare something. Sometimes I fast (especially since going Paleo) because I'm just not hungry, and Adoring Husband worries that I'm not eating enough.

Apparently, even a mini fast has a positive effect on your health. We eat dinner at 6pm most nights, sometimes earlier. Friday nights are the exception. Most days, I don't eat until midday or as late as 2pm, which means a minimum 18 hours without food.

Excluding refined carbs and sugar means that the good fats, proteins and nutrients that we eat, provide a long slow release of energy instead of the short quick bursts that carbs and sugars provide. For that reason, we can go for long periods without food and not experience any ill effects.

This TED talk, by the current Chief of the Laboratory of Neuroscience at the National Institute of Ageing, explains why fasting is good for you. He is also a professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University, and one of the foremost researchers in the area of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying multiple neurodegenerative disorders, like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, so sometimes it gets a little scientific, but don't give up on it .. it only goes for 15 minutes.



We had a quick trip into The Bay today because it's already time to make up another batch of dog food! The chooks needed some food too.

I made some gooey chocolate cupcakes that, unfortunately, didn't turn out gooey at all, but they taste good chopped up with blueberries, boysenberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries and then topped with chocolate cream :)

This tickled my fancy today ...


I'm thinking about going to the movies tomorrow, by myself, to see the Dressmaker. I'm pretty sure that 23rd December is the last day that it's showing and tomorrow is probably the only chance I'll have to see it before it finishes at the cinema.

So I'd best get some sleep because it will mean an early start tomorrow!

Nite all.



Sunday, December 13, 2015

Forever Editing

Ugh!

I spent the entire day editing photos.

My joy and love for photography has definitely waned over the last year or so. I continue to offer my services for free. The Progress Association, Burrum Heads Newsletter, Village Voices, Volunteer Fire Brigade, Amateur Fishing Club, SES, ANZAC parades, the town Christmas party, local fund raising activities, birthday parties etc etc.

These things take a minimum one hour of my time, sometimes four or five hours, just to take the photos. These could mean very early mornings or very late nights.

Then comes the editing. Six hours today and I probably still have another two or three hours of editing left to do.

So before the recipient even sees these particular photos, from one of the shoots, you get a sneak peak.






 
I took so many photos of the grandkids all doing crazy things. They were a lot of fun. It was requested that I walk around the party and take candid shots as well.

There were a LOT of people gathered in the barbecue area, around the pool, in the large shed and inside the house, but the lighting (bright fluorescent yellow tube lights) was absolutely dreadful everywhere except in the shed, so I've had to do some really heavy editing to make them look even halfway respectable.

Anyway, that was my wasted Sunday, while Adoring Husband wandered around town with the SES selling Christmas cakes.

My brain is very tired, so I'm off to bed now, to be ready for more editing tomorrow.

Nite all