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.

Lunch at Woodford Pub.

We both worked really hard this morning, me starting nanowrimo and Warren in the garden raking and shoveling. As a reward for our efforts we decided to take ourselves out for lunch. Problem was where? Morning tea time was spent discussing where, a couple of places were dissed as being too far as we still had things to do, finally we chose Woodford but it would have been too hot at the coffee shop so the pub won out. Its over twelve months since we have been there.

This is the side of the pub, its a bit topsy turvy, I think it probably started as a small building and has been added to and added to over the years.

It was very popular at lunch no tables except either upstairs or on the verandas in front of the rough and ready bar, so called as guys can go there for a drink in their work clothes as long as they are wearing a shirt.

We chose the veranda as it was cool and there were not many smokers.

We ordered two entrees and bread, we have been before and their meals are BIG.

Spring rolls, Salt and pepper calamari and a bread (which came out looking like a pizza. There was a salad on each plate so we shared. It was more than enough. The calamari was thick slices and the best I have ever tasted, it was melt in the mouth.

This was what we brought home of the bread/pizza. With a salad it will go down very nicely for dinner.

Its funny but I realised today that we go out for lunch, rarely if ever we just go down to the local places for lunch. It is a real, go somewhere, if we do lunch. Woodford for us is a nice easy drive about thirty minutes away from home, we travel out the back way so quiet roads for about half the way, bit narrow and windy but its unusual to see more than one car on the way. A nice country drive with a pleasant meal at the end then get up and walk out, no prep, no dishes no hassle, of course the bank card does take a bit of a hit. Yes, it would be cheaper to eat at home but we do that the rest of the week.

Just an update on Nano, I wrote 1707 of my daily quota this morning, did want to do 2000 so may do some more later.