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, June 18, 2016

Food on my Mind

It's been a foodie kind of day today.

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

Now I'm off to bed.

Nite all.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Movie Sadness

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





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

Fabulous movie.

Go see it.

Take tissues.

Lots of them.

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

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

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

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

Nite all.

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Movie Fun

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

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

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



Precious little possum.

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

Nite all.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Out and About

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Two more scarves arrived today.

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

Nite all.  

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Hangin' in there Tuesday

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

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


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



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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Bed time for me now!

Nite all.





Monday, June 13, 2016

Easy Monday

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

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



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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

Nite all.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Sickly Sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I blended a big batch of

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

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

Lots of filtered water to keep my body hydrated.

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

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

Nite all.