Christmas left overs

There always seems to be food left over after Christmas. This year as we had two Christmas lunches, it wasnt too bad. Warren and I did have left overs for dinner each night. There was a small piece of turkey roll left and this is what I did with it a few nights ago.

I crumbled it and we had it with a salad, even managing to fit half a mango on the plate. Meat salad and dessert all in one.

Sweet Treats

I didnt make very many of these but I did make two just in case no one wanted what I had made for dessert.

These are a couple left over. The front in the front is what I called rum balls for want of a better name and my Mum always used to have rum balls when we went to visit, not sure if she ever put rum in them but that was their name.

I have made rum balls before and they are hard work and make a lot so i made my own version this year.

I had dates and blue berries both dried and I threw them a couple of handfuls each in the Annie thermomix then added some coconut and the rest of the cocoa that I had then about a half a tin of condensed milk. It was still a little sticky when I took the mixture out so I added some rolled oats, small balls rolled in cocoanut, done in less than ten minutes. As I hate rolling them, I got Warren to help so we both had sticky hands.

The Jelly slice was another one that Mum used to make regularly but I got the recipe from a Blgger that I follow. It was pretty basic and easy. One plain packet of biscuits crushed 7 seconds in Annie fixed that, 750 gms of butter? that seems excessive so I halved it and it set just as well. I dissolved some gelatine in hot water and added it to the rest of the condensed milk with some lemon juice and then when that was set added the red jelly on top.

I rarely follow a recipe to the nth degree, both these recipes had called for a full tin of condensed milk whereas I used one for both, now I have a tin left in my pantry.

From the same blogger I read about a Christmas cake/pudding and as that was so easy I decided to make it, I didnt think to take a photo though. We had it as a pudding on Boxing day and I gave some away. I just about followed the recipe!

This is it.

One 750 iced coffee (or you can make your own) I did using three spoons of coffee and two of sugar, adding hot water and then topping up with milk, to make 750 ml, it was about half and half.

A packet of mixed fruit soaked in the coffee mixture over night, mine was a big pack so i used two cup fulls.

Add two cups of SR flour ( I felt it needed more so added an extra half cup)

Then here is the best bit at this time of year.

Line a slow cooker with baking paper, add mixture, place a tea towel or similar between the cooker and the lid. Cook on high for one hour, reduce heat and cook for another three hours.

It is a practically set and forget, the cake of course comes out the shape of the slow cooker, mine is oval but thats fine.

I was making this for dessert for friends coming over and put it on to cook after lunch. Mid afternoon i whipped some cream and I thought i was using the jugs plug but I turned off the slow cooker so of course it wasnt cooked, so well it was good the next day.

Expensive Phone covers

Are they worth the money? I found out this morning that yes they are! Taking Lucy for a bush walk this morning, a park that we hadn't been to before again though it is quite close to home probably 10 kms away.
I must have got too close to a tree as I was checking my phone, got to love the GPS on the phone to make sure that we were going the right way, paths were intersecting all over the place and I didn't want to get lost or too far away from the car as that sun was hot even at nine o'clock.

Anyway i had my phone in my hand and then there was what I call a white flash of pain and I saw an ant, big buggar between my fingers and my phone. It was so painful and I was so shocked that i threw my phone down. It clattered on to the concrete path.

The ant was gone too and i had a red welt on my finger and worried that it would swell, I  tried to get my ring off but it was hot and I was in a hurry and that just made it worse. In the end, I didnt take it off and it didnt swell and now three hours later there is no longer any marks but boy oh boy did it hurt at the time.

Meanwhile my phone is still lying face down on the path, I didnt really want to pick it up, imagining a cracked face or worse. But No, it was all good, no damage done what so ever, working perfectly thank goodness. I have never dropped or thrown a phone before. Thank goodness I did pay extra for a decent case.  

The Ute!

Warren wanted to buy a ute!

So this is it!

After so to-ing and fro-ing, the owner wanted to keep the plates and therefore sell it to us un-registered, he was willing to take $300 off the price to do so. He was also going to deliver it to us and then take the plates. "A mate" had told him that he could change the rego from an existing vehicle to another one that he was buying as that one had WA plates. Started to sound fishy so Warren asked to see the rego papers, it was registered in his name. The story of the take the plates and put on the second vehicle came out after Warren checked that the papers were in order.

Warren being Warren went to the Motor Registry and found out that it is illegal to sell a vehicle with no plates. Several texts messages later, original price and we would get it with a road worthy certificate and plates when we picked it up. The guy had asked for cash, which apparently was a drama for the bank as they required a booking to get that much cash! What the....... they are a bank! 

We did get the money after a bit of sighing from the teller.

Collected said ute, handed over the money and drove away with Warren following. There was no functioning light on the left side and once we got home, he tells me that there is a six inch play in the steering wheel! So much for a road worthy.

Warren went to change the rego over and it was discovered that the road worthy guy had not entered his authority number of the documents! Sounding dogey? you bet!

Luckily there was an older version of computer at one of the booths and they were able to look him up. The new computer systems do not have that on there data base. We were going to have to go back to the seller and then to the RW guy but was saved from doing that.

The seller did seem genuine and said that he had got the road worthy done by an authorized guy and basically he washed his hands of it, he also told Warren that he had spent the money on his new vehicle.

We have the ute booked in for repair, Warren thinks it is a steering arm and it is probably going to cost a few hundred to fix it. I feel as though we got a reasonable deal as utes with more mileage and older were selling for more than what we paid. Ours has hail damage from several years ago and while there is slight dimpling across the bonnet, it does not affect the performance but did lower the price.

The ute will be used as the towing vehicle, in place of the trailer, bike hauler and basic second vehicle, it is manual so I wont be driving it.

Christmas Lunch

Plans change and we ended up being only six for Christmas lunch. Never a hot meal here at home, far too hot to go down that path. It was decided to make a trifle for dessert, some time ago Warren saw a bowl/dish that would make an excellent show piece for a trifle. I think I made one and found that it was just too big for just us. It was also too big yesterday.

I bought a kilo of prawns but I knew they wouldnt go too far so we peeled them and made a salad of them.

I like the colours.

Bush Walking

It was a cool morning and Warren suggested  a bush walk where we have been before. I didnt realize that he wanted to walk the whole circuit. I had said that I didn't want to go  10  kms. He assured me that we wouldn't be going far. The circuit was 4.4 kms

This was early in the walk a tree with massive knots on the trunk

Another tree with lumps and bumps

Coming to the end of the walk.

We were a bit naughty as we took Lucy, she loves going through the bush and we have been here before but accessed it by another road. When we parked there was a signs relating to horse and bike riders and then one at the bottom no dogs. We had checked on the web site and there had been no signs on the other entrance so we took Lucy in anyway but didnt go off the path or let her off. Didnt see any other animals, heard a few birds and we met four other walkers on our way around. 

Rescue dogs

We had some leakage/spillage from our new air conditioner, it was too bad but as it had been installed only a month ago, Warren thought they needed to came back just to check it out.

Two young guys arrived around the appointed time and the apprentice dropped something metal off the truck, poor Lucy jumped as though she had been bitten, she was inside at the time and seemed a bit wary of them because of the noise.

While they were working, I put her on the lead and took her up to the study/kids room with me as they were going in and out the front and back doors. The younger guy came up to ask me something and then asked if she was okay to pat, I said yes but she didnt like loud  or usual noises. he told me that he and his girlfriend had a rescue dog and was very timid. I explained Lucy's circumstances as a rescue dog and when they left, the other guy showed me a picture of his dog who looked a lot like Lucy and she had also been a rescue dog, they had had her about a year.

They put some more tape around the pipes and then poured water through it and we havent had any more spillage/leakage.

 Lucy keeping me company in the computer room, she is not always lying down but it is the easiest way to get a photo of her, otherwise she wants to sniff the camera and then she looks like she is all head and face.

Like this photo. She lay stretched out out on the mat the other day and it was amazing to see how long she was, I took note of where her front and back feet were and got a tape measure and measured where she had been laying, one hundred and fifty cms! oh my goodness! she is long!

Road worthy certs

These are supposed to be a safety net when buying a vehicle. We had gone down the path of buying another ute, test drove it and agreed on a price and as it was private sale, the seller was required to get a road worthy done.

We drove down to pick it up on Tuesday night after the guy finished work.

Warren followed me up the highway and the ute had only one light!

Arriving home and Warren tells me that there is a lot of play in the steering wheel, had to turn the wheel about four to six inches before the tyres would turn, hummmm not right.

Yep, road worthy done on Saturday ticked lights are all present and working, steering and tyres all good.

He has gone over to change rego this morning but we had had to book the ute in to be repaired, rather disappointing.

I would think that the garage doing the inspection was either too busy or too lazy to carry out a proper job.

A Whole day at home.

I could not believe how much we achieved. Warren said the other night that if he was to make a New Years Resolution, which he never does, it would be to simplify every thing at home. We have been trying to cut down on things at home and throw out those things that we no longer want, need or use but it has been pretty hit and miss.

We had no reason to go out today plus it was hot and we got working on disposing of paperwork from the top/kids room. Having a business years ago meant that we needed somewhere to store all the paperwork that came with running a business and so we bought a large filing cabinet. It has held our documents for years. The shredder was used almost constantly today and finally the filing cabinet is empty and we have only a few large envelopes holding our papers for the last seven years by year order. Filing cabinet will be donated.

We are leaving the computer desk in that room and there are some things in the wall unit that we will donate in the next few days, they had been housed in the large unit from the dining room that we sold. There had been a few marks on the carpets and Warren spot cleaned them and it came up a treat. The wardrobe needs cleaning out as well, kids toys that they have grown out of and just things that have stayed around.

We are liking the feeling of space.

Library Books

I like to read, a lot! I visit the library about once a month or more often and for the last few years i have selected large print books. Most of my reading is done when I am in bed and I just find it easier to read the larger print books.

I paid a visit to our local library last Saturday and for it being two weeks before Christmas , the township was very quiet. Our library is located in the next town, not too far away but not where I usually do any shopping. I got a park just out front and was able to walk across the road to the Post Office as I had one parcel to send off and I knew that one would be less crowded than the one in the mall. Yes, i was right, only two people in front of me and as there were three on the counters, almost no waiting.

I checked my books in through self serve at the library and went down the aisles to pick my next lot of reading, I came away with eight books, should be enough to keep me occupied until after the holidays.

Its just a week and three of the books, I had read before! How I missed that I dont know, two I reread as I could remember reading them I couldn't exactly remember the whole plot. The third one, I read three chapters and gave it away as I wasnt that thrilled about it in the first place. A woman ended up with both her mother and her mother in law living with her and her husband had left her in a lot of debt and then there was a murder, yada,yada.

I think i will have to go back next week and take my time to read the first page, thats when i know if I have read them or not.

Attention to detail

is not something that people seem to do much any more.

I had booked a package for the new year which includes motels and tickets to a show. I booked it over the phone but I also had email contact with them.

Last week they sent me vouchers to download and my name was spelt wrong, which is an annoyance in its self but I  am pretty sure that I would not spell my name wrong so they only needed to look at the emails that I sent.

My daughter will be going/coming with me and lo and behold she has been put down as a Mr. Her name can be male or female but predominately female. I dont recall writing her name or referring to her by gender but no one checked.

This has resulted in me sending an email to request the right spelling and correct gender, they have replied with an apology and said that they would have to re issue the vouchers and change names at the hotel.

all that work just because some one did not pay attention to detail, annoying.I'm sure its annoying to them as well.

Turning hamburgers in sausage rolls

A friend was talking about sausage rolls the other day and I thought to myself that I had made any in awhile. Didnt think any more about it until I was shopping and there were hamburgers marked down to $2 for four large ones. Ah! i thought sausage rolls. I got the pastry out to thaw while I put the groceries away and then broke up the meat, added some herbs and some sauces and proceed to make sausage rolls.

They were ready about morning tea time so I made coffee and put two on a plate to go outside. Lucy was hovering so I told her that she could have a little one and I put that on the plate as well, a little way away as I was worried that it may have been too hot for her.

Warren was mowing the lawn and I loaded up his cup on the plate and grabbed mine, luckily the screen was open. I put the plate and cup down on the coffee table, that one that Warren made, outside and turned back to close the door.

As I turned back to the table, Lucy was leaving the table with her sausage roll neatly in her mouth. She did look guilty though.

What could I say? I had told her it was that one was hers so I didnt rouse on her and although we had been told from the foster lady (who had only had her for a week) that she was a bit of a thief, she had not stolen anything from the kitchen or bench before.

The rest of the rolls are in the freezer to be brought for lunch or snacks on a day that I dont feel like cooking.

Hervey Bay

We went for a drive to Hervey bay on Friday, it didnt seem too far away but driving it seemed to take forever. We changed drivers a couple of times and stopped for lunch.

It was a nice day for driving cool in the car anyway with the a/c on with a few drops of rain which of course turned to full on showers when it was my time to drive.

we left home about 10.45 am and did a detour into the Sunshine coast as you do, there was a van to look at and we were there early. That was one that i liked it had been painted white inside and had new flooring but Warren found dampness and as it was a wooden frame said a loud NO.

We had lunch at Gympie or as the GPS says Jimpie at Maccas. i thought we had been there before but no it had been HJ's we had stopped at as the parking at Maccas was terrible. I drove from there and it was very ark ward to get out of the park and then there was a stop sign, luckily some one let me out, which was good of them.

Arrived at Hervey Bay at 3.15 pm, phew what a drive. Nice place though, we had a drink at the beach before returning home. I wanted a coffee but the coffee places were all closed by the time we got there.

Home at 8.15 pm to a very happy doggie who was waiting patiently for us, after all it was three hours past her dinner time. We had scrambled eggs for dinner.

We have to go back again in late January but we will be better prepared, we thought it was only a couple of hundred kilometres but in actual fact it is 250 kms and a lot of the way was road works so had to slow to 80, 60 and even 40 kms in some places.

The smells of Summer

Walking Lucy in the early morning the other day, it was before too much car fumes got around. There were so delightful smells. Lucy thought so too but she was probably smelling different things to me.

I told Warren that walking her is more a pull than a walk. She has the long lead which will go out to 4 metres and I reel it in or out depending on what she is doing. She will trots ahead and then stop to smell something, she only gets the time between me catching up and going past before I pull her along then, she gets in front of me and pulls me along to the next smell for her.

This was one of the trees in blossom that was smelling the other morning, a nice clean type smell. We have one in the garden but it is only just coming out.

Sleeping on clouds

It has been so hot lately and even at night it is hot. We have been finding that we get hot from the mattress protector.

As Costco the other day, we decided to see if we could buy a new one that would be cooler to sleep. Warren was tasked to find one while I continued to get the things on our list.

He caught up to me with a big bag and said that there was one that was suitable for summer on one side and when it was turned over to the plush side. it was for winter.

Sounded odd to me but it was only a few dollars so we decided to buy and try.

This is it under the sheet, it is quite thick so the sheet sinks into it making the indentations but oh my goodness it is so comfortable, it is what I imagine sleeping on a cloud would be like and surprisingly, to me anyway, it is cooler.

In the West of China we were given a bamboo mat to sleep on, that was fine and cool until Warren turned over in his sleep and woke up in pain, a small splinter of bamboo had gone into his back. No more bamboo mat after that.

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Retirement villages/resorts

Last week we went with a couple to visit one of these places not far from here. They want to be near the beach. The salesperson took us through their display homes and they are homes! no small units about these.

Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, double garage, spacious kitchen dining and lounge areas plus either a study or third bedroom. This room was smallish but still plenty big enough for a desk and/or single bed. The rooms are bigger than the rooms in our house and ours is considered a family home.

There were three different designs that they showed us all with great furniture in them and first we were shown through the reception area which looked like the entrance to a fancy hotel, hence I suppose the name being a resort. The dining area with cheaper meals on offer three nights a week, a coffee shop, hairdresser and bar run by residents, then we branched out and saw the swimming pool and spa, alongside was a covered bowling green.

Very nice and very pricy. The units/houses were from $470,000 to $488,000 not much when said quickly, then there was a weekly fee of $137 this was to cover rates, water and insurance plus garden maintenance. They have a gardener who mows all the lawns but there is a small area of garden that people can chose to work in that.

On leaving, there is a 5% per year up til seven years that needs to be returned to the resort. So if one was to buy in for $400K (just for my ease of working out) then a yearly amount of $7000 plus to be paid, then if people were to leave for whatever reason after five years, then $100,000 goes to the resort. A lot of money!

This is a common area.

Red Centre Experience

Yesterday we attended a bbq to learn more about the event happening in Alice Springs in April.It was nice to meet others who will also be going to NT for the Mega event.

It is a Geo Caching event sponsored by NT  government and they are hoping for over 500 people, they havent quite got the numbers yet. The bbq was free and we got some promotional material to put into caches to let others know that it is happening.

It was held on the banks of the Brisbane River not far from the Airport, great place for a get together.

We will be leaving here early April and taking a leisurely trip up and over with a few days in the Gemtree caravan park which is famous for its gem and anything to do with gems. After the event we will go down through Sth Aust across to Melbourne before returning home.

We have house sitters looking after the house and Lucy, she has met them and has given her approval.

NT Government are putting in several thousand dollars to aid tourism and some of it is going to the placement of caches, 1400 of them in and around Alice and further afield. The aim is to have a bitumen road connecting Perth through Alice to Townsville. It will cost millions but will open up the outback no end.

Lighter Chairs

Wednesday we picked up our new suite which we will use in the dining/family room area. The chairs are quite light and easy to move.

There are two chairs and a glass topped table, just enough for breakfast and foot stools.

The footstools slide under the chairs when not in use and are strong enough to sit on.

After almost fourteen years we replaced the curtain as well.

I didnt want the rug but Warren brought it back inside after the new flooring. He wants it to be a "coastal" corner so this is the start the aqua curtains, maybe a new rig when i find something suitable.

Summer Fruits

Got to love summer for the fantastic fruits that are around. When i was a kid we had heaps of fruit trees in the back yard, there were about five different types of plums, one was called a Christmas plum as every year just before Christmas they were all ripe. Mum made jams and also preserved some. Besides the plums there were nectarines, peaches, quinces (Yuk!) but no apricots.

After one summer holiday, going into high school  I was slightly retarded on one side, couldn't walk properly, couldn't write properly and apparently my speech was distorted too. It was picked up at school and I had to have lots of tests and it was put down to the fact that I had too much fruit acid in my body and my fruit intake had to be curtailed and monitored.

No chance of that happening now but then I remember picking five or so nectarines for morning tea, the same for afternoon tea, then there was jam to eat and usually stewed fruits for after dinner.

This is what we had for dessert tonight and it reminded me of my childhood, probably didnt taste quite the same but yummy anyway.

Cut up nectarines and I did have some cream. Of course milking cows when growing up we always had cream, now its a rare occurrence.

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Drinks Anyone?

Earlier this year when we were travelling, it was so hot in Broome, like 40 degree days and we really had to keep up the hydration. I can drink water but it does become boring after awhile just plain water. I was shopping with Sheridan and she was looking for something in particular and said that it would probably be in the sports drink aisle. We found it and I

bought some too. It certainly made drinking water much more easier to do and I know in Darwin warren and I were drinking about three bottles of water each with just two squirts added.

There are several different flavours and most are sugar free so no guilt.

Now that the weather has become hot, I went looking for them in the shops at home and thankfully I was able to find them, they last quite awhile and not expensive I think I paid about $3.45 for each one and there is supposedly 24 drinks in each but of course that depends on how heavy handed one is. While I was writing, I would head up to the computer with one large drink over ice and that would do me for each session.