Tis the season to be social.

I thought we were going to have a very quiet Christmas as our family get together had been held a couple of weeks earlier.

Our daughter in law asked us to join her family for lunch on Christmas day, which was a pleasant day, over the years that Fiona has been part of our family we have met on several occasions so we knew all of them. Nineteen sat down to lunch, it was cold meats and salads, so sensible at this time of the year. So many people try to keep with tradition and have a roast dinner with all the roast vegetables followed by pudding, great in the UK but definitely not for our weather. Although the weather was hot it was not unbearably hot which is often the case on Christmas days gone past.

In the Christmas week, we had our tax done which meant preparing lunch, then we had friends over for dinner the same day, only time we were all available.  Then Christmas. Monday and Wednesday saw us entertaining friends that we hadn't seen since we had lived up here. Both couples now have family living in Queensland and had travelled here for Christmas.

It was great to catch up, one couple we met when we were first married about 40 years ago and hadn't seen them for fifteen years. The second couple we met later, Warren worked with the wife in a small office and the boss, his wife and the other couple and us used to go to dinner in and around Canberra on a regular basis.

Today we have delivered the car to the new owner and have tidied up the loose ends caused by making changes. All ready now for the New year. A happy and safe 2016 to all.

A year long money challenge

 I love a good challenge, it seems to keep me focused. One that I entered into twelve months ago was to put aside one dollar each week and two dollars the following and so on. I think some bright spark said that it would add up to almost $1200 if it was kept up.

Me, being me thought I would do it twice, one adding up and the other going down. $1 to $52 and $52 down to $1. I drew up boxes in my diary so that I could cross them off as I put the money into the money box. I bought quite a large one that didnt have a stopper so that I was not tempted to help myself tt it at times.

Having the actual cash in hand became difficult so I arranged for $106 to go directly into my saving account from my pay, as I couldn't keep it up. That was good and I did not take anything from there all year.

This morning I decided to see how much money was in the money box as I had continued to put coins in it when I had some and thought about it. The only way in was to cut it, a tin opener didnt work but a sharp knife and a block to knock it in did.

Look at all that lovely money, even some notes, I must have been flush that day.

I counted it all and there was $322 altogether. 

Warren came in and saw what I was doing and remarked that it was from the shell, he was gifted an expended artillery shell years ago as a leaving present and we have always used just thrown loose change in there, sometimes it would be used to get some coin. 

We decided that we might as well count and cash in the shell money as well. Only once had it ever been full although we had cashed it in usually when we moved houses as we didnt want to carry such a heavy thing with us.

Inside we found a piece of paper which stated $397.85 when full it was dated 13 Dec, the last time it was emptied. The shell was about half full and had $122.85, lots of five cent pieces and no notes.

Warren had to go out this afternoon so he offered to take it to the bank although we are keeping out some two and one dollar coins for our trip, often they are needed for different machines and they can be hard to come by.

My new challenge for the new year will be to try to travel for $800 or less a week and keep the food bill under $100 for the week. Both I think will be a challenge but I will see how many weeks I can achieve it. 

Feeling flat

Sunday the power went out and stayed out for some time. Its amazing what you think you will do only to discover it cant be done because there is no power.

Someone came and looked at my car and bought it, yay! but sad to see it go.

No power, feeling sad so I told Warren we were going out to one of our favorite places for lunch.

Favourite but we havent been in about four months. We seem to have a few of these all approx thirty minutes drive away. Thank goodness we know the "back" way and didnt need to go on the highway as that was bumper to bumper, We went over the highway and could see cars banked up for as far as the eye could see.

We always park at one particular park and then walk, getting our exercise at the same time, the cafe is about a ten minute walk. It seemed that many people had the same idea as the footpaths were crowded with people walking and stopping to chat or to check out the menus. Note to self, we don't need to go on a Sunday or a holiday day any more.

Darn it our cafe was closed thankfully though only until new year. We wandered back down and found a pizza place that was not crowded and ordered two small pizzas, not cheap but def up market pizzas.

We sat watching the cars go by and a little farther away was the beach and the sea. A very restful lunch with excellent food, think we have just added a new fav eating place. Pizzas were so filling that we had enough to take home for dinner. Who would have though, bacon mushroom and avocardo would taste so good, the second one was pepperoni and prawns, the prawns were massive. Yum.

Batteries restored, we wandered back along the beach front and home.

An annoyance of mine

Sometimes its the little things that get to me, or maybe I am just being picky.

I was presented with a secret Santa gift in the lead up to Christmas. This was in our ladies group and we set a limit of $5 and gifts are put in a central place and then each person selects one.

Mine was diary and a box of chocolate, very nice and suitable. When I got home, I noticed that there was a price tag still stuck on the back of the diary of $4.50. Why should that annoy me? It made the gift fall in the limit (although the box of chocolate would have pushed it over). I think it annoys me because I feel people haven't cared enough to remove it. Years ago I used to receive gifts on behalf of our children and from one particular person prices tag were always left on, I felt then that it was purposely done to show how much they had spent.

Probably because of this, I make sure that I remove all price tags before wrapping.

I already have a small diary for next year I was given one early this year that has two years in it so i didnt need another. I re gifted the diary as part of another secret Santa that I was involved with, it did go to another state. I am not sure if I re gifted it because of the price left on it or because I really have no need of another diary? Hummm not sure. Luckily for me and others around, not too much annoys me.

Revamping a favourite shirt

While de cluttering our wardrobes a couple of weeks ago, I didn't really want to throw out one of my favourite shirts. I have had it a few years and the pink was quite faded.

The pink was a linen and needed to be ironed but the black was T shirt material.

First I cut away all the pink and used it as a pattern. The collar and front was going to be a challenge and I thought I dont need that bit as it is really too hot here to wear button up and collar that so I left it out. 

I sorted through my fabric and came up with a flowery piece that I have had for years.

This was the result. 

I made the sleeves a little longer than the original and as there were heaps of material, I also made a skirt.

I decided that I would have a new outfit for Christmas day but it meant that I had to do a bit of sewing yesterday morning before we left for our lunch.

As I had received a Secret Santa parcel from a forum that I belong to, it had arrived earlier in the week but I waited and put it under the tree. In the parcel was a Christmas stocking with nail products and I did my nails, toe nails as well before going out. I felt a new person.

Tax Time.

Our accountant visited us yesterday to do our 2014/2015 tax. Yep! he does house calls all up and down the east coast of Australia. we werent available the last time he was in the area so it had to be put off but as he does it we have up until May the following year so no dramas about the time frame.

Bruce our accountant brings everything with him, he used to travel with computers printer, paper, pus all the cables about three or four big bags but he has reduced it to two as now it can be done electronically.

He always has stories to tell us about what he has been up to in the year. He travels a lot and does very different things. A very enjoyable three hours spent in his company finishing with lunch. i always give him lunch or we take him out to lunch.

Our bank account will be a little better off and I passed on my mobile phone that i bought in China. He couldn't use the new iPhone that he bought, it was too big so he handed that over to his son and bought a small one which was then too small. Mine was in between so he has gone off with that quite happy. As I was gifted a smart phone from my daughter, I was only too glad to be able to pass my phone along. a very productive day, I like those.

Its Christmas Eve and to those who are reading my blog, I wish you and yours a Merry and safe Christmas.

My Christmas presents to myself.

A few weeks ago i completed a tote bag and sent it off to its new home. I liked the pattern and design that much that I wanted to make one for myself. I had bought two pieces of fabric at the same time with one for me, the fabric was on sale for $5 a metre, very good price as it was quilting fabric, anyway I bought half a metre of each. (usually around $18/20 a metre)

There seemed to be quite a bit of fabric left over so I made a shopping bag to go inside the tote and I covered a book as well, which will also be used/carried in the tote.

I didn't have enough black to cut the handles for the tote on the basis so it has the bicycle fabric for handles. The shopping bag has black handles which was cut on the straight and it has rounded corners at the bottom. i did have to piece to pieces together to get enough to cover the book/dairy, a couple of the wheels are a little elongated but from a half a metre of fabric, it was good value. i think there is enough scraps to make a coin purse as well. I love the colours and as this is the only bag i will be taking on our trip, it will get a lot of use. 

E books and Technology!!

Last week I was all set to do a course at the library about E-books online, borrowing from the library.Three years ago that was the main reason that I bought a tablet but found that any books I could assess were very old and nothing that I wanted to read so didnt go on with it. Surely there must be a better/different way to do it. I had booked into the course about a month ago, they hold them every Wednesday but of course that had been a work day for me. I got a phone on the Tuesday, reminding/checking that I would be attending. Yes, yes, i would be there.

Famous last words as on Wednesday, I got out of bed and something was not right with me. I waited a couple of hours and then rang the library to tell them I would not be there as I did not want to be away from my own toilet! I felt fine but not able to go out. Bummer!

Back to the drawing board as I read a lot and I know that I will miss going to the library and picking out my usual six or eight books that I read every two to three weeks.

I can and have down loaded books on to my tablet before but the app had seemed to have disappeared. Apparently it was due to having a couple of big things on there like Face book. Warren took that off so I could load reading books. Great, I trolled through and selected some books, I start with the interesting looking free ones.

Then it asked me for the secret number on the back of my credit card, no problem. Except that earlier in the year we had had to get new ones and my old credit card details were locked in the tablet.

I went through all the settings looking to change it, I asked Warren (def my go to person on tech stuff) he didn't know and said to just keep looking. After an hour of going back and forth, I thought i found it once, it said new cards and I clicked on that to delete it, went back and found the books that I has selected, not an easy task, put in secret number, Barp, Barp, not the correct number, so that didn't work.

It had my credit card number which was xxxed out except the last four digits which of course isn't the ones on the new card. In frustration, I clicked on the number and it took me off to a new screen where I could delete and put in new details. Taddaah, finally. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours then selecting and down loading my reading material for the first few weeks at least and now i know how to do it, i will probably never have to do that again.

Making a New Clock

I do like clocks and we have a few around the house. I had one in my sewing room but it was looking a bit worse for wear. It had been white but over time the white had yellowed and even though it still worked, I did think about replacing it but that was as far as I had gone with that idea.

Strolling or trolling through the internet a week ago, I saw a re purposed clock and thought what a good idea, I could probably do that and promptly thought no more about it until I was looking cleaning/clearing out some drawers and came across an embroidery hoop.The clock that i had seen used a hoop.

This is how I spent some of my morning.

Using a large dinner plate I traced around it, the material I had bought years ago to make myself a skirt for work, however I don't wear pink and these days I don't wear skirts.

I have a bottle of odds and sods buttons and was able to select twelve pink ones.

The clock mechanism and hands came from the original clock and the colours suit the room as the curtains are a mauve colour.

A new clock with nothing spend except a bit of time.

A Ginger Bread House

Today Aidan has been with us and we made a kit that I had bought earlier in the year. I had seen one done a couple of years ago and thought that they looked quite cute.

Goodness knows what it will taste like but it smells good, gingery without too over powering.

We had fun and it wasn't that difficult.

First aid kit

We have a very small first aid kit for the caravan and I think we have only used it a couple of times. I cut myself on a knife while washing up and needed a band aid for a couple of days.

But embarking on a trip like we are going to do, we thought we may need some more things namely bandages and a bigger bag/kit whatever to put them in.

This is where re purposing comes in. When I tided/cleaned out the pantry, way in the back was a wooden box with two empty bottles in it, they held port but of course that was long gone. The box was a com memorable box from when the pay corp (Warren's Army crop was founded/formed) and we didn't feel ready to just throw it out. The bottles went out though!

Nice sturdy wooden box with a sliding lid.

First I painted it red. I had a tube of red paint that was in my sewing room, why? who knows but at least there was a use for it.

Then I covered some packing foam that we had keep "just in case." and put it in the sides and bottom, like the packing boxes in China, except I am not as good at doing that as they are and I didn't leave it in but I did leave the bottom one in to absorb any bumps along the way.

I have included a few more things that we might need and Warren wants me to buy some strapping bandages again just in case.

Pockets

What is it with pockets and men or should that be men and pockets?

Yesterday Warren's brother Barry and his partner came for lunch. Barry is known to be tight, if one is being  rude or careful with his money. Maureen remarked that she had taken Barry shopping earlier in the week and persuaded him to buy two pairs of pants and three shirts.

Warren replied that he lives in what he calls tennis or golf shirts, a T shirt with a collar. Barry said that he needs a pocket and Warren agreed that he likes to have a pocket as well but many of the collared T-shirts don't have pockets.

I said that he always tries to get them with pockets but not always possible but he doesnt ever use the pocket anyway.

Apparently Barry does use the pocket for a pen and notepaper but the note paper is cut up to fit cardboard and he writes phone numbers and messages on it and transfers to each shirt. Now that is recycling.

Helping out in the community

Yesterday our local paper landed on the door step, I don't often read it but thought I would give it a flick through. During my flicking there was a advert asking for help for families for Christmas and listed the families and their ages and a phone number.

I decided to ring and check it out. They were asking for a hamper or similar and a gift for the kids. I was given family No. seven. They also asked if there could be a gift for mum as well as the two boys, which to me was a given. If Mum is having trouble making ends meet then she is probably doing without, so of course I would include something for her.

I figured that I had a week and was thinking of making PJs but no they asked if it could be delivered as soon as possible. Of course thinking about it, that made sense. No fresh meat or fruit and vegetables could be included as they had no refrigeration at the centre.

I left to shop this morning at 8.15 am but shop were already busy. I had two boys three and ten. I did buy some boring stuff like socks and jocks, again could help them out.

This is what I ended up sending, I had the gift bags and bon bons were left over the cane basket came from the teddies picnic earlier in the year. 

I had enough stuff for three or four presents each.

Funny thing, I was buying some salmon and the small tins 210 gms were $2.30 and I grabbed two for the basket, then I wondered how much was a bigger tin of 420 gms, same price! I changed the smaller tins for the bigger tins. There was no tinned ham but I found enough to fill it, I know it was heavy. It did feel weird not buying meat or F & V

Let it go, let it go

Like the Frozen song I needed to let some things go, like lots of clothes. I am ashamed to say that a few pieces of clothing I had not worn. Earlier this year, I did do a big shop through a store on-line, they did have amazing savings and I bought a bit. Yes, I saw pictures of the clothes but when they arrived they were flowery!

I really dont like flowers on clothes that much and rarely wear anything flowery and all of the shirts had flowers on them! It was a case of what was I thinking?

Now that I have finished work, I am donating them to go to a better cause and hopefully some one will get some wear from them. There were a few other things that are not me anymore and it must have been a good day to "let it go" as Warren also got into the act and between us we have seven bags and boxes to take to the op shop. Even the Christmas tree is going as it has not seen the light of day for about five years and I do have a very minimal one made from branches and tinsel that I prefer to use now.(Besides I made that one)

I now have more empty coat hangers than one with clothes hanging on them. Eight bags would be a better number so I will pack up some of the excess and add to the pile.

Next to go through and discard are the book cases, we have two in our bedroom and many books that we will not read again plus I am sure I have too much stuff in the kitchen cupboards, casseroles and the like that I used when there were five of us. I dont even make casseroles any more.

And They are off!

After two years (or more) of planning Sheridan and family were due to leave at 10 am yesterday morning on their epic (to borrow a word from Aidan)trip around Oz.

Of course not everything goes to plan. The car had been serviced and had a clutch replaced last week. Sunday there seemed to be a leak. Phone to dad/Warren who says it has to go back.

We offered them the use of the Jeep to get them on their way and drove down on Monday morning. in the meantime, they had delivered car to repairer and had been told it was be ready after lunch, only postponing the start by four hours. As we were already on the way when they got that news, we left the Jeep there "just in case". Car did take longer to fix but back on same day.

As they were heading North they drove both vehicles and Dennis (caravan) and we met them out on the highway to collect the Jeep. I did take a photo of them packed and ready to take off but only had my phone. Now if I could work out how to go from the phone to the computer and my blog, I could post the picture but as I don't know how to do that, the photo stays put. They drove off at 5.45 pm, a little behind schedule but not too bad. First stop wasn't far and we did get a message that they had arrived and were settling up in the fading light.

Starting to make it more real for us as we are now down to 28 days until we leave and there is quite a bit that I want/need to do around home first.

Family Christmas Lunch

Another year when the weather got in the way. Last year we chose to meet about half way for all of us and have breakfast at the beach. Pancakes, egg and bacon plus croissants hot coffee was all organised. Warren and I went early to snag a table and set up, breakfast was for 9am, it was Sunday after all.  Thirty ks from here and the weather was awful, very windy so a very late breakfast was changed to our place.

Rock on to this year and Jason says that the weather cant be bad two years running so we try again but for morning tea and lunch. I cooked most of Saturday 
and it was raining, this time we went to Jason's house. I was doing the main course and saw green pickled onions and marinated mushrooms, trouble was opening the Bl........ jar. I used a trick i learnt in China, attack the lid with the point of a knife. As you can see, i had to attack it several times. I ended up cutting the whole top out using the steel knife that we won in A supermarket in Shaoxing. It was a collect stamps type of thing and when we had enough, I picked this big knife, it is great. Got it home by putting it in the suitcase.

On tooth picks I had green onions, ham, red caps and mushrooms, very Christmassy.

This is all the food that I had to pack, I was worried that it wasnt enough. A rice salad with prawns, a chicken roll, heaps of chicken wings, roast pumpkin pies, two Costco salads and smoked salmon on crem cheese and rounds of bread.

Warren and I had left overs for lunch chicken wings and salad, dinner was scrambled eggs with some of the rice through it. Normal meals from tomorrow.

The Car (my car)

Since we have bought the Jeep the Hyundai has been driven almost solely by me and we  have come to regards it as "My" as opposed to the Jeep which of course is "his" car.

Sadly we are trying to sell my car as I have finished work and there is no further need for us to have two cars especially as we are going to be away for six months in the Jeep and caravan. The motor bike is registered and can be used as a second vehicle if we need a second one. Yep, can just see me jumping on the bike and riding down to the shops if Warren is at tennis in the Jeep.

Although I do have a bike license, I have not ridden a bike since we were on the farm property many many moons ago so if there is a desperate need, it would either be a taxi or the bus which does come to the bottom of the street. Besides Warren did insist on me sitting astride the bike before he bought it. I hoighed (hiked)my leg over it and could just touch the ground on either side with my tip toes.

These are a couple of the photos that have gone up on the selling site.

The road worthy was done on Tuesday and it passed with flying colours. There have been several people looking at it but so far no-one has been in contact but its early days yet.

Retired (again)

Yesterday was my last day at work and so I am retired again or as my daughter likes to put it for the fifteen millionth time.

I think I have retired five times not fifteen million.

First time I took a redundancy back in 1996 and thought that I would enjoy retirement, we had a new house on some land and I was looking forward to gardening sewing and all those other household chores that seemed to get done in a rush.

 Over the years I had become pretty good at getting things done quickly and so by 9am house work was done. Gardening was hard work and once it was done only required a bit of weeding, didn't even need to water as we had a septic which used the sprinkler system once it had been treated. Although we had two and a half acres we also had a ride on mower. Sewing, well, I was no longer going to work so no need of any more clothes. Basically I was bored. When a course was advertised in the local newspaper to do a secretarial work including touch typing, I was there, as I had always wanted to touch type. A few months into the course  local business wanted a secretary/receptionist for a couple of days a week. Yep, I could do that, I stayed for five years.

Retirement number two as we moved states to be closer to family and a warmer climate .

As house prices had increased we couldn't just sell one house to buy another so started looking for some work. That was difficult so ended up in China teaching English for seven or eight years. Warren decided that he wanted to be at home (Oz) once he turned sixty so we said goodbye to China.

 Retirement number three

A conversation between myself and daughter resulted in me nannying for her, she paid me what she would have paid for childcare plus a fuel allowance to get there and do any ferrying around of the boys that was needed. I did this for two years until Aidan was five. Warren wanted to return to work in China so we went back for one more year. Not sure if this was retirement probably not as I went from one to the other.,

Retirement number four.

Quite happy at home, Warren played tennis twice a week and had taken up archery. I was sewing up a storm for charity, all was good. Daughter rang and asked me about doing some work at her school. One of the teacher aides was taking a five week holiday in term time and they needed some one to fill in. Sure, I could do that. Towards the end of that five weeks, I was asked if I was interested in a casual position of three days a week. I really enjoyed the work so said yes.

A few years ago we had agreed to do a "Big Lap", date was set, caravan bought and so I have retired for the fifth time to do that. My boss said yesterday that she hopes I will come back to do some fill in work every now and then, we shall see what develops.

Thirty days, one month until we leave on the Big lap. We have bought our tickets to the tennis and have booked a caravan site in Melbourne as it will be school holidays as well as the Aussie Open, we haven't booked anywhere else as yet.

Aussie Open!!!!!

Warren asked me to think about something tonight.When I asked him what it was, he said that we will be in Melbourne when the Australian Open (tennis) is on and did I want to go????

That was a yes of course. I have not been to an Aussie Open in twenty years. I remember walking from the Railway station to catch a tram and i saw this kid carrying an armload of racquets. I found out later that it was Lleyton Hewitt! (I am a bit of a fan!) He is a South Aussie as I am.

He was fifteen and it was his first Open as a senior and this year will be his last Aussie open.

There is no draw done yet, that is only done a couple of nights before they start so will have no way of knowing who we will see but who cares.

We are going to the Aussie Open, that's the plus side, the negative side is that we will start spending the savings that I have put aside for our trip.

Card holder

Coming home from work the other day, darling daughter says "Do you think Dad could make something for Aidan?"
"It depends what it is and when you want it"

She wanted something that Aidan could put his cards into to and she would like it before they left on holidays in a week's time.

They had been playing cards and Aidan was having a hard time putting his cards into a fan and so she thought of a card holder for him. She was going to ring Dad and ask him.

I mentioned it to Warren so that he could be prepared and he said that it should be easy! Way to go.

A bit later he was in the kids room looking at DVDs, I thought he was going to make the card thingy but asked if he was going to watch a movie. Apparently not.

He used two DVD's that we didn't want to watch again, we have plenty of those, stuck the bottom half of them together, leaving a little gap at the top, wrote his name on it so he knows which way up and its done, ready to go.

Pantry done!

One big thing that I can cross off my list. I did it in fifteen minutes bursts over the weekend and I am always amazed at how much can be done in just fifteen minutes.

I filled the bin a couple of times some out of date things, couple of things I don't remember buying so I am thinking/blaming/assuming the house sitters left it here.

Now that is it clean, tidy and packed in properly, I cant believe how much space there is, I do kept other things in the pantry that are not food and even with that, there is room left over. We don't use a lot of tinned or packaged foods so I suppose that is why it looks half empty

Many of my recipe books are packed ready to go the op shop, I have kept all my Jamie Oliver ones and Symply too good to be true ones and a Four ingredient one that has been signed. Recipe books have been living in there but rarely touched or used so time to go, some-one may make use of them. Of course my two thermomix ones have pride of place but they are now residing in the pantry instead of on the bench.

Monday and normal house hold chores today then I want to get some sewing done. I plan to make a tote bag for myself but I want it smaller than the last one so I will have to adjust the pattern.

Pumpkin pies

I made these for lunch today with some salad. I am looking for ideas to make and take to the beach for Christmas lunch so I am trailing some new things.

I made twelve and after lunch only six are left.

Roasted some pumpkin while that was cooking, I sliced a piece of red caps, a spring onion and three mushrooms.

Added a handful of grated cheese, couple of spoonfuls of ricotta and a glug of sweet chilli sauce.

One and a half sheets of puff pastry filled the bottom of a muffin tray .

Ten minutes in the oven. A nice light lunch which should transport well. I know I will eat them even if no-one else does.

Now to find some other things to make for the Christmas menu.

Jamie Oliver did a great looking salad with whole prawns the other night, think i will have to give that a go.

Our days are numbered!

It has finally hit that we are leaving soon, very soon. I asked Warren to make a chart with the days left to go.

He went to office works and bought a big calendar. I think it is in 37 days!

We have a list of things down the side that we need/want to do before we leave.

I intend to clean out the pantry.

As I was up early this morning, too early to go to the shopping centre, I had some parcels to send, I made a start doing one half a shelf.

I "found" a bottle of cherry sauce, this is good stuff and can only buy it at the source (no pun intended) and the last time we travelled south we bought six bottles. This is the last and I think I have been saving it. Use by date is Dec 2014!

I also pitched some wraps that had gone dry and some coconut flour which doesn't seem to work for me. 

I envy women who have their pantries just so neat, mine is never neat. A shopping trip sees things put where ever they can fit although there is some rules. I have a special place for our milk and the paper products like gladwrap, foil and baking paper.

"My" car needs a road worthy done and that is on the list and an appointment been made for it so that is can be listed for sale. A sad day but we don't need two cars anymore and its not suitable to pull Maggie, the caravan.

Unfortunately as we cross one thing off the list another two seems to be added, need to get working on it, back to the pantry for another shelf.

Bread making

Sherian gave me a thermomix recipe book and most of the recipes in there look easy. I have tried a couple and they worked well.

The last time I went to a thermomix demo, the demonstrator had brought bread that she had made earlier that morning. Oh my Goodness, it was good. The recipe took five ingredients and everything was thrown into the Thermo (Annie)

I am hopeless at following a recipe! One reason is that i often don't have something so I comprise and a further reason is Warren cant have a few items so again I either leave out or swap. My cooking is more the little bit of this, little bit of that, oh, there we go, add a dash of that.

Annie needs a bit more structure to work so I had the recipe and was prepared to cook to the recipe. Sounds too easy, right?

First recipe called for 1.25 cups of water or 300 gms of water, all good, I got out my measuring cup and measured 3 cups of water. Then the yeast, 7 gms or a small packet , throw that in, 20 gms of olive oil, 500 gms of flour.  Oh, SH........., not 3 CUPS of water but 300gms. Recipe writer had said she was used to using cups and spoon measurements so she had given both.

Cant waste it so I increased the flour, doubled it and a bit more. 1.25 cups by 2 equals 2,50 so had to double plus. Continued on, Double checking the recipe!

Annie takes no more than two minutes to mix, then tip it out and leave to rise for 30 minutes. I did use a BIG bowl, the mix filled it! It was to make a scroll, ended up making three scrolls, one with sultanas and cocoa, rolled and cut, filled one tray. Second one was jam roly poly and last one was cheese and corn.

Thankfully I had lots of little plastic bags and now I have a freezer drawer full on snacks, good to have one with a cuppa. I really do need to READ the recipe more than once!

Flowers in the house

I ended up picking the black gladdies and bringing them inside where we enjoyed them for a couple of days.

I came home yesterday and Warren showed me a flower arrangement

that he had done. The hydrangea bushes are outside the kitchen window and are flowering beautifully. The darker smaller flowers are from the Geisha Girl trees/bushes that Warren had trimmed from the front fence.

He thought that they would make a pretty display.

Red hat Christmas party

My outfit for our Christmas party, as it was our Christmas get together, the colours were red and I wore my purple skirt as I don't have red pants or a skirt and I didn't really want to wear black like I normally do.

I bought the shoes which have purple straps but not real sure about them, don't think they are really me. I wore them to work today but think they will be banished to the black hole (back of my wardrobe until Red Hat days when I do wear a skirt some times. My flash hat usually only comes out for special occasions too.

We had lunch at the Deception Bay Tavern, $12 meals for seniors and they had set the table nicely with red and green bon bons, it was a nice meal, we had pre ordered and that means we pretty much get our meals at the same time.

We exchange gifts to the value of  $5 and this picture is what I made. Actually I made a bigger one a couple of months ago, it was before 2016 diaries were available to buy . I put it somewhere and then couldn't find where I put it so quickly had to make another with a 2016 diary so that was all good. (The iron mark did brush off!)

Christmas shopping

I went and did the rest of my Christmas shopping yesterday. I know its early but after writing it seemed all November, I wanted to get out and shop.

It was busy! I wanted to buy a wall clock for the staff room at work as in the new year, they are getting a new building Yippee! Trying to get a small present for all the staff was becoming a bit of a nightmare so I decided on a clock.

When we were in China, I bought many wall clocks and knew exactly where to get one and have lots of choice but home???

I tried Target first as I had one of those "spend so much by this date and get extra points" I had activated it so I went there. I am sure their A/C wasn't working, at 9.30 it was almost unbearably hot! They didn't have anything, actually it seemed to be all clothes and toys and Christmas decorations. I didn't want any of those so I left and when to a bargain basement stores.

I learnt in China to ask so at the front door of the store, I did and was shown where to go. There was no choice as they had only had one but it was suitable and after I paid, I noticed the girl had done this to it.

Computer is playing up and won't let me post the photo!!!! What she had done was taken the straps and tied them together, making a loop which was much easier to carry.

A Black Gladdy

We don't have much in the garden in the way of flowers but these came up and now they have flowered.

It was just on dark when I took the photo but I didn't want to wait another day  as our heat at the moment does take its toll on flowers. I think there are four of these altogether.

They are referred to as "Black" but in actual fact they are a very dark red.

Yippee! Finished!

I finished my novel/book at 4.15pm and then my phone dings with a congratulatory email from the organisation in America. At the end of writing once writers have reached the 50K, they need to copy and paste into a screen to validate it. I had 50103 words on my computer but they granted me with 50122 words.

I don't care, its done and I am a winner! My winner's T shirt arrived on Thursday and now I can wear it.

The picture is the front of the T-shirt.

The ABC's of Aging (title of my book) was daunting and a few times I wondered if I could pull it off but its now done and I wont look at it again until Jan some time to do any editing that it needs.

I enjoy the writing but it does take time to do it, for me at least two and a half hours each day to get the 1667 words, depending on whats in my head. I had to take a break this afternoon with 230 to go and then another break with just 50 words then I sat and wrote 200 in one session and got it DONE!

How to spend $1000 without even trying

Our caravan Maggie is an old girl and is doing very well for her age but there are some things that do need to be replaced.

The annex is worn and the last time we took it out and unfurled it, there were quite big patches coming off it and so we decided to replace it.

The annex was around $500 and then we had a couple of the struts replaced as well in the pop up bit.

We are all set, now have a calendar with days to go and all the things that we want or need to do before we leave.

I think we got $22 change out of  a thousand bucks.

Nanowrimo is going well 45759 words so far, five days to go.

Finished tote bag

I saw some material when I was last at Spotlight and thought that it would make an ideal tote bag for my Heart sister in New Zealand. I bought a metre of it and then trolled the internet for a pattern.

I liked this pattern and so I bought it, I think it was $8 on-line but I figured that I would get good use out of it. The beauty of buying it on-line is that the pattern is available almost immediately.

Oh My Goodness, 42 pages of pattern and instructions. I have been sewing for years but some of this I could not make head nor tail from it. There were patterns for some and not for others just measurements.

This was where I had got up to before Nano started and it has been at a stand still with just the top to put in and the handle. I am sure there were many more zips as part of this than I put in but i was happy with a zip on the side, a pocket inside and a zip to close it.

Writing went very well today and I did over two and a half thousand words before lunch so I took some time off to sew and get this finished.

This is the top view and now the finished article.

Very happy with it. I hope she is as well. She loves bright colours, the panel is brighter than it looks in the picture, for durability I put the black with it as shopping bags do tend to get dirty. I haven't shown the inside but it is a light fawn which makes it easier to find things. keys are on the outside and phone on the inside pocket.

Now that I have made one i will make myself one as well, not with the same material though, after working on it for so long i am over that fabric.

Over 43 thousand words to date 7000 to go and six days. I will probably write some more tonight.

Mould!

Yucky stuff. We travel in the caravan with our car fridge and I prefer to move the fridge items between the two when we travel. Coming home the other weekend, this is what I did and took the car fridge inside to unload it, washed it out and packed it away.

Warren did the van and between us we took the linen out of van and washed it etc.

But we didn't think to open the fridge as it had nothing in it right!

A week later we realized that it needed to be opened as it was not switched on.

This is what the fridge looked like when we opened it. Luckily as it was fresh it didn't take much to clean it but it is now on our list of "to do" things when we have finished tripping around. Open the fridge and prop it open.

Less than two months to go before we leave on our epic trip.

I just hit 40, 29 words in nano and taking a break, may write some more tonight. eight days to go.

A rainy day at the beach

Yesterday was extremely hot, we had two grand-kids staying the weekend but I didn't want them going outside in the heat. Today was cooler and we decided to go to the beach for lunch where they could have some fun and run off some energy.

As we drove away from home, it started to rain but we didn't want to disappoint any one so we kept going fifteen minute later the rain was heavier, its a 30 to 35 minute trip. we consoled ourselves that there was a large patio type building to shelter under while we had lunch.

Five minutes away and there was no rain yippee! A mild warm day, we had some time playing in and around the water before lunch arrived.

A family meal, we had eaten some before I thought to get the camera out. Surprise surprise we couldn't fit it all in, so a couple of potato cakes and a few chips were banished to the bin.

Then it was off to the playground.

We were lucky that it did not rain while we were there but it rained going and coming home and it had rained at home quite a lot, sometimes it is just luck.

Egg plant

I learnt to love egg plant while we lived in China. It was my favorite dish and one of my students grang mother's showed me how to cook it. Unfortunately Warren cant eat soy sauce so i have had to make it different so that he can eat it.

We have two plants but they both died and I replaced them but it is quite awhile since we have had home grown egg plant.

This was what I made. I don't use very much oil, maybe a teaspoon ful and then water so they are more or less steamed. I added some red capsicum and parsley to finish off. Some sweet chilli and bbq sauce over rice. Very moorish which is just as well as there are quite a few more to pick.

Lost glasses

This morning I got up as usual although it was a bit later than usual. Two grandkids were staying over and i knew that one in particular would be more than ready for breakfast. Warren does okay with cutting up apples but cheese toast done in a certain way confuses him and he always says wait for Hanna.

I had a shower and was dressing up to putting on my glasses and I couldn't find them! As i wear my glasses all the time, they are usually on the side table but no they weren't there. I hadn't taken them into the bathroom, I did check.

Nope couldn't find them, I had woken during the night and read for awhile so I knew that I had them only a few hours before. I asked Warren if he had seen them, no he hadn't. We both looked under the bed in case they had fallen. grandkids don't come into our room so I didn't think that was a possibility. I do have a spare pair but as I don't use them very often i wasn't even sure where they were.

As I turned to go out of the room, I saw them as the light shone on them.

I think I had grabbed them ready to put on and then realised that I needed to dress first as I couldn't put my shirt on with my glasses on. Amazing how we can get out of routine so quickly. 

 

Cheap petrol (I wish)

Driving home the other afternoon after work and my little petrol man's light goes on. I hate it when that happens, Warren always says that I have between 60 and 80 ks before I run out completely.

I have found a couple of better roads to travel on to and from work, cutting out eight lights and all but one petrol station.
The petrol station that I do go pass is not one that I would usually stop at, as it seems to a higher price most times. Anyway I pulled in there and thought that I might as well fill the car. I was watching it fill and then it got to $49.56 and I thought gee thats not too bad and as it was hot I decided to treat myself to an ice cream.

The station is being renovated and are operating out of a container, they had drinks fridge but nothing much else, no ice creams so I grabbed an iced coffee and went to pay.

"$73, thanks" my first thought was that the iced coffee must be dear then I said "$73! are you sure?" She said 'Ah, yes but I'll check" then it hit me the cost/price was above the litres and i had looked at the litres not the dollars. Duh, I had filled the car from almost empty. Hopefully the tank will last me for two weeks.

Not much happening here so little to blog about but I do have over 32000 words written for Nanowrimo, on the downhill run now.

Hump day

Yesterday was hump day for nanowrimo (national Novel writing month) and at the end of the day I was one day in front.

It has been a hard slog though and I feel as though I am going to run out of material.

I am learning some things along the way. I am writing a tongue in cheek book on Aging using the alphabet.

Last night I was on the P's and of course in aging just cant go past peeing, which lead me to prostate and I learnt so much about that, heard about it many times but now I am up with it.

Being hump day the count for the day was 25,000, half of the 50k required to get a "win" and I had a total of 26762. Every day the count goes up by 1667, of course one doesn't have to write every day of November to gain a win. I know some who write 10K in a weekend to catch up but that is not me, I prefer to write something every day if at all possible and this year so far I have.

Now I have my coffee and the house is quiet I have exercised my fingers and I am off to write.

The Dressmaker

Sheridan and I went to see this movie yesterday. It is an Aussie made movie set in Australia in the 1950's. I heard some-one refer to it as a dark comedy. It does have comedy and drama and glamour in fact it ticks a lot of boxes. I enjoyed it and will probably see it again as there were some scenes that I would like to revisit.

All Aussie actors except for Kate Winslow and while she was good in it, her age didn't seem to fit to the rest of the characters.

Remembrance day

This is what November eleven was called when I went to school or Armistice day. People call it by different names and I heard an explanation on the radio.

I guess it is correct.

It is Armistice day if you are celebrating the end to arms (basically the end of the war).
It is Remembrance day if you are remembering the people who died in the war.
It is Veterans day if you are celebrating the people who survived and returned from the war.

So basically all of the above can be correct.

At work on the day, the younger group had a session in the big hall for the first lesson. It was not to do with Remembrance day but what struck me was the number of kids who were wearing a red poppy, it must have been about three quarters of them. I had to quickly go and buy one before the eleven o'clock call.

As it was a Wednesday, we were in class and a bell rang to announce the time, in class every one stood and observed the minutes silence.I didn't know how it would go as some of our students just cant seem to be quiet at all but you could have heard a pin drop in that class during that one minute, I was super impressed.

Spicy sticky legs

While I at the beach I read about making a home made marinade for chicken legs. I dont buy things like that because I dont know what's in it.

As usual I didn't follow the recipe exact but I use what I had.

It consisted of Costco's BBQ sauce which is okay for us to eat (no gluten) honey, mustard, garlic, ginger, tomato sauce and sweet chilli I mixed it all together and then coated the chicken with in and left it sit for awhile.

Later I baked them in the oven,did some rice with peas and half a sweet potato, an easy tasty dinner with left overs for lunch, always good as I take my lunch every day.

Day ten for nanowrimo and I have finished for the night at 18682 so I am two days in front which is good as I don't write as much when I go to work.

At the Beach.

It's summer time and we are at the beach for a few days. The weather had been hot so it is an ideal time to pack and enjoy the sun, sand and sea. I like going to the beach but I don't like swimming in the sea which is probably lucky as the weather has turned to almost winter again.

This was the caravan park yesterday. It rained later and again during both nights that we have been here.

The beach is just through the pine trees, I took the photo from the back of our van. Beach views at the park are $50 a night and one row back and the rest are $44 a night. We joined the Park company so we get 10% off but I am glad we are only staying three nights (for the cost). There is a pool and kids were making good use of it over the weekend but there has been no-one in it today. I would like to go in but too cold.

Each evening Warren and I have wandered over to the beach and paddled and walked and it was surprising warm, well much warmer than I expected.

Nano is doing well, I am up to 15760 words, about 800 written today already and about to start my second stint for the day.

Reject Shop shopping

We came away in the caravan with no shampoo and then we found that "some-one" had taken the dish washing liquid out of the van and that same some-one has forgotten to buy yoghurt that was on his list and so we had to go shopping.

From the last time we were out in the van I realised that there was no serving spoon to dish up a meal, its a bit hard using a soup spoon to do it. Our cheap cutlery set was just that and when I spread butter with it last night I felt a crack. We bought a good set for home a few years ago from Aldi of all places, a good plain set with no craving on the handles, I said that we should keep an eye out for similar for the van.

Our list had serving spoon, shampoo, washing up liquid, coffee and yoghurt. This was our shopping at the Reject shop.

A cake caddy, always handy, this is for home, not the van, there is also pegs as although we don't need them, some-one complains about some of the pegs we have so I took the opportunity to get Warren to choose the pegs that he likes and wants to use. After all, I don't want any excuses so that he can't/won't do the washing and hang it out.

Coffee, three in one that we used to buy all the time in China plus an ordinary jar for home. A birthday card as I do have a birthday gift to send when we get home. Yay, a cutlery set just what we wanted, shampoo a big one for him and a little one for me and we bought two more decent sized cups for the van and sticky tape, that was not on the list and I am not sure why someone bought it.

All this for $43, cant beat that. Had to go to Woolies to buy yoghurt.

Washed cups and cutlery and tried one of the 3 in 1's, oh my goodness it was good.

Nano words at the end of day seven is 12542, I am about half a day in front.

Broken Glass

I was making a white sauce the other night. I usually make it in a saucepan on the stove top but I got a bit lazy or smart and decided to make it in the microwave. I have made gravy and jellies in the MW but not usually white sauce.

I got out my trusty glass jug and put some butter in it and set it to about a minute, I figured that would be enough to melt the butter. I was at the sink facing away from the MW when I heard a loud noise. At first I thought it was thunder again. There have several storms around lately. I turned back to the MW to continue with the sauce, opened the door to see the glass jug in three big pieces. The glass was quite thick so I don't know why it broke but break it did. So I had to clean it up and make sure there were no small pieces still there. I then used a plastic jug to make the sauce but it wasn't the same. Think I will go back to the old fashioned way of making my sauce.

day seven of nanowrimo and I am up to 11920 words, by the end of today the quota is 11167 so I am in front and hoping to keep that way.

Taste Testing

I attend a cooking class with year eight's and last week after a demonstration of what they are cooking next, the teacher has a taste test. As the kids were at tables of four, she had a plate for each table and each food.
First food was strawberries. the kids were to taste and write down what is was in they knew, the flavour, sweet or savoury, they liked it and would they eat it again. Strawberries were easy and they all knew that, all but one student ate one and said that they would eat it again.

The next tasting was purple cabbage, the class was mixed on that one and there were only a few kids who knew what it was.

We tasted about eight things altogether all fruit and vegetables.Parsnip and asparagus they had been lightly cooked were two that none of the kids and even the other teacher aide, a guy in his sixties knew what it was.

Day five of nanowrimo and I am up to 7651 words, I have written 2000 so far today and hope/plan to do another thousand or so. At the end of day five should have 8334 under the belt.

Melbourne Cup

We had our Melbourne Cup luncheon for our Red Hatters today. One of the group offered their home and we only had thirteen but that was plenty. We chose a theme of coming dressed as something starting with the letter C (for the Cup).

My first thought was a clown or a card and several people did give me suggestions as well. I settled on a card.

This was my hat and I bought two metres of white cotton material and made a simple shift, just by sewing up the sides and making a hole for my head then I glued playing cards on it front and back.

As I was preparing food to take I didnt wear it until I had delivered the food. Last year, every one brought a plate and there was so much food so the Queen and I decided to buy or make the food. We still had too much but it was better than last year as with the heat its so hard to keep everything cold. Luckily our hostess has a second fridge on her patio and she had emptied it for the day.

Our food also had a theme of C, we had chicken, coleslaw, Chinese fried rice, cups of lettuce/salad, curried eggs, cherios, a couple of plates of sandwiches consisting of cheese, corn and chicken (not altogether but three types. Crackers and dip followed by a cheese cake. 

It was a good day, we had sweeps and I won a first second and third, I did enter all three sweeps twice, costing me $21 and I won $52 so a good win, I cant remember winning a sweep before. 

Some of the other outfits were a Cat, a celebrity, a cook, a captain, a cappuccino(she was dressed in the colours of a coffee) someone came as themselves as her name starts with a C, a Countess and a cowgirl.

Bit of fun and everyone enjoyed it even though it was 33 degrees our hottest day yet. Then the race was won by the only female jockey, which was a first.

Third day of Nanowrimo and I am up to 4963 words (should be 5K by the end of the day) I will write for another half hour or so.