Arles and Pets

I am not really very good with animals. I think a part of that is being allergic to some of them. But equally another part is not having very much exposure to animals. So while I appreciate them, I am often awkward around them.

In the photo above I am reaching down to pet a cat in Arles. Arles is a country town with a population of about 50,000 in the South of France.

My husband took this photo of me and - apart from it being mostly a photo of my backside - I think it is a great photo. The composition and structure is excellent.

But you should know that in this photo where I am reaching down to pet a cat - that is purely a pose. I did not actually touch the cat.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you are all having a great day celebrating with your friends and family!

Card ratio

I send Christmas cards to my friends and family each year.

And each year I notice that the ratio of sent to received cards is not exactly even.

Last year I received about one for every two cards I sent. This year I sent 17 and received 7. The ratio doesn't seem to be improving - does it?

But don't worry, I will carry on....

Sigh...

http://tcns.blogspot.com/2008/12/damn-chains.html

Photo of the red shoes

Cuckoo, Cuckoo!

My goodness....what was that noise?

Oh, it was just my cuckoo clock.

When I was in Switzerland earlier in the year I bought a cuckoo clock. It has taken us a while but it is now on our wall and I love it.

But let me tell you every time the little cuckoo pops out and sings "cuckoo, cuckoo" it scares the hell out of me!

Red shoes

I bought a pair of red shoes a few weeks ago. They are gorgeous! I am completely besotted with them. And they seem to draw a lot of attention from other women.

A lot of my friends, family and work colleagues commented that they are "nice" or "cute", which is lovely.

Some random strangers have made slightly stranger less lovely comments - the best of which were:

"isn't it only clowns and hookers who wear red shoes?"

"I love your red shoes, you could be Dorothy from the wizard of oz, there is no place like home" - this was made by worse by the fact that she did actions with her feet - tapping the heels of her shoes together as she said "there is no place like home".

Random House Publishing

A strangest thing happened to me yesterday.

A parcel was delivered to my door that I was not expecting. Tom found it and called out to let me know that it had arrived. "What did you order" he asked. I thought about it for a moment, racking my brain to think of any recent ebay or phone purchases. I buy a lot of things on the net or over the phone and have them posted home. It is not unusual for packages to arrive at our house but I could not think of anything I had bought recently.

So I took the package inside and opened it. The package was from Dymocks (the bookstore) and in it was a book.

It is a book I have never seen before, by an author I have never heard of.

Also, I have never ordered anything from Dymocks. So how on earth did they get my name and address details? And why did they send me this book?

Apart from a GPO Box in Sydney there were no contact details on the package, so I may never know what the story behind this random gift is.

But I am going to read the book. It looks ok and it would be awful to waste it.

Water anyone?

I used to drink a lot of cordial. In the last year I have stopped. I have always known that I should drink water and not cordial but I never really liked the taste of water. It tasted bland and yuck - nothing compared to the sugary goodness of orange cordial (my favorite).

When I first did weight watchers I swapped from regular cordial to diet cordial to save on the calories and sugar. That was fine and I got accustomed to the taste very quickly.

Recently I have been reading about how bad artificial sweeter is for you. And I know that pretty much everything is bad for you in some way or other but does make sense that a synthetic product designed to mimic the sensation of sweetness without the kilojoules would be bad.

I thought about going back to regular cordial but I didn't want to add the calories back to my diet. I couldn't decide which type of cordial to buy; diet or regular. And because I couldn't decide I didn't buy anything. So I started drinking water.

And do you know what I discovered? Water actually tastes good. It was just that my taste buds were all stuffed up from drinking too many sugary drinks and didn't like the water. Now they are retrained not to expect sugar the seem to quite like water.

Water anyone?

Council pick up

The local council is currently having a pick up in my area.

What does this mean for me?
That my entire suburb looks like a dump while people pile mounds of junk they don't want on the footpath for collection. It is very ugly and untidy.

Did I participate?
Yes. I put out one old table. That is all. Not twelve old mattresses and all the old clothes that I have been going to give to charity - like one household I drove past.

Funniest thing
I was amused by my neighbor who put out an old cane old lounge suit only to have it taken by a passer-by within minutes of hitting the footpath. She was happy it was going to a good home but not so happy that the people who took it had left a really ugly lounge suit in its place. Obviously they have only room for one couch and hers was better that the other one they had picked up.

1st week December - in which I ace my two uni subjects

I got my results for my two uni subjects back.

I did well, although not as well as I wanted to. But I am not disappointed. I did well and I am happy with my result.

The interesting thing is that I got the same mark for both subjects. I got the same exact percentage as well as the same grade. What are the chances....?

You can't take teenagers anywhere

You can't take them to see the British Museum in London



You can't take them to see the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna



And you can definitely not take them to a Mozart concert performed in the Fortress overlooking Mozart's hometown Salzburg.





(Thanks to Tom for the photos)

My favorite joke

Husband : "What did you make us for dinner tonight darling?"

Wife : "Reservations"

Thanksgiving

As an Aussie I don't really understand Thanksgiving. It is something about Pilgrims and Indians I think?

Anyway the thing I like about Thanksgiving is the idea. It is nice to give thanks for the good things in our lives.

I would like to give thanks for my life

for my husband

for my parents

for my brother

for my friends (even those who leave me to have wonderful adventures overseas)

I know how fortunate I am and I give thanks.

Birthday Book

Tom gave me lots of lovely presents for my Birthday (Thanks love!). One of them is the latest Jamie Oliver recipe book Ministry of Food. It is a great recipe book with wonderful pictures of each dish and easy to follow instructions using simple ingredients.

The book also contains a message. A message about eating well and being healthy enough to enjoy life. The name of the book is based on UK Ministry of Food that was created during the Second World War to make sure the food rationing was working and make sure people knew how to best use the rations of food they received.

It is a great reminder that knowing how to cook nutritious food from scratch is an important skill and one that fewer and fewer people have these days.

I see great value and worth in being able to cook. It is something I enjoy almost as much as eating - and we all know I enjoy eating!

Biscuits in the swamp land

In June Tom and I visited France. We stayed in Arles and drove to a near by walled city called Aigues-Mortes which is in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. The walled city was amazing but what really caught my attention was the biscuit shop.



It is better if we don't discuss how many euros I spent on biscuits and better still that I didn't work out how many Australian dollars those euros equated to. Sometimes it is best not to do the currency conversion - it is just too upsetting.

The biscuit shop was probably the most impressive in the world. It had HUGE quantities of biscuits piled up for purchase. They all melted in your mouth - and probably, once melted, oozed straight to my thighs.



It also had all manner of sweets, lollies, fudges and other diabetic coma inducing goodness.




I have never seen anything like this in Australia and, to be fair, that is probably just as well.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my Birthday. Happy Birthday to me.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

This teacup and saucer may not look like much - especially since I have posted a photo that can really only be the arse-end of it - but it is beautiful and special to me.

My Grandmother - who turns 90 in February - gave it to me. It was purchased by her mother, my Great-Grandmother when my Grandmother was a child. When it was purchased it was already over 100 years old. Apparently there was a store which was closing down and my Great Grandmother bought it in the closing down sale. This was probably in about 1930 or so. It is nice to think that some things just don't change and that stores have been having closing down sales forever.

Anyway my Grandmother inherited it from her mother and she has given it, and it's twin, to me.

I am a little bit scared to use them. I use the china I have that is 100 years old all the time but these are almost 200 years old. It seems unlikely that I would be able to replace it if it broke.....

Welcome everyone from WTBAY!

Thanks for visiting and for your comments!

Have a great day everyone.

Photo de moi

Ever have trouble finding a nice photo of yourself?

I have hundreds of photos of myself that I don't like. And I don't think that it is because I necessarily look bad in these photos - that is not why I dislike them. It is because in the photos I don't look the way I see myself.

I have a specific picture in my head about the way I look. About the way my face, hair and body looks. It coincides with the way I look at myself in the mirror when I have my stomach sucked in, my chin raised slightly and my shoulders back. Clearly I don't picture myself hunched over or mouth wide open laughing. But that is how I often appear in photos.

I am fortunate that I have a husband who takes great care to get really great photos of me. He is better than most professional photographers because he understand how I see myself. He knows the image I have in my minds eye. And he can re-create that in a photo. It is real skill.

For example


So this photo might not be how I look all the time, because the reality is that I do often sit with my shoulders hunched and I very often laugh with my mouth wide wide open. But this is how I see myself. This is what I look like to me.

Bridesmaid Surprise

I think that the best thing about being a bridesmaid is getting to spend time with the bride's other close friends and family. So essentially the best thing about being a bridesmaid is the other bridesmaids.

Don't get me wrong, being in the wedding is wonderful, making a funny speech is great, looking awesome in your flash bridesmaid dress is a blast and being so close to the celebrations as two people publicly commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives is brilliant.

The other bridesmaids are the best because they are unexpected.

I have had the privileged of being a bridesmaid twice. Both times I was surprised and delighted to find how much fun it was to spend time with the other bridesmaids, particularly those I didn't know very well.

I suppose it makes sense that we would get on well since we have the same friend but both times it was unexpected and lots of fun. It made being a bridesmaid even better.

I love weddings and I loved being involved in the two weddings that I bridesmaided in.

Here is a photo from my wedding, which even for me, Bridezilla, was a really fun day.

Housedress

Everyone has their favorite clothes. My favorite clothes at the moment are my two house dresses.

I have has house dresses since I was in my mid teens. I bought two cotton dresses that looked a lot like sacks and then grew too tall for them. So they were then sack-like and prostitute short. Clearly my mother would not let me wear them out of the house - so they became house dresses.

In case you don't know, a house dress is a comfortable dress that for some reason or other can only be wore around the house. The reason it should not and can not be seen outside the home varies. It could be a bleach stain, an ill-placed tear or, as in my case, it is in some way indecent.

The reason that these dresses are kept, and not discarded, is generally because they are comfortable. Oh so soft (after being washed a thousand times) and oh so comfortable to wear.

My two original house dresses lasted me until about three years ago. I threw them both out in a wardrobe cleanse and I have been sorry ever since.

This year I decided I needed some new house dresses. It seems that for me they always come in pairs.

I bought one in the post Christmas sales. It is 100% cotton, navy blue, and has really big pockets. I think that, if I am honest, it is probably a top. But I love it. I wear it around the house in summer when it is hot and I am cool. The down side is that I can't really answer the door in it and I have to put shorts on with it to go outside to hang out the washing (or put another way, I should put shorts on with it to go outside and hang out the washing).

My other house dress I got more recently. It is 100% cotton, with navy blue and gray horizontal stripes (I know - fashion suicide), it has pockets on the front and a tie at the waist. Unlike my other housedress this one is quite long which it makes up for by being way to low at the front. But on the plus side I can answer the door in it so long as I don't bend forward.

It is great to have something so comfortable and soft wear when I am doing jobs around the house or studying.

So now you know, if you come around unexpectedly to my place, there is a reason I take so long to answer the door....

The Paris Incident

Part 2 of the funny things that happened to me while traveling in Europe and the UK

Tom and I stayed in Paris for a few nights earlier this year. We stayed in a self contained apartment in the Opera district.

It was great. Finding it was not.

Traveling can be stressful. It is difficult to find your way around in a new place when none of the signs are in your language. It is even more difficult when you don't have the correct address.

I had booked our accommodation on the internet before we left home and had the details with me. Unfortunately I didn't really pay much attention to them before we left. I knew we needed to go to a street called Bergere which was near the Grand Boulevards metro station.

Tom and I arrived by plane from Edinburgh. We had been up very early in the morning to travel to Edinburgh to catch our plane to Paris, so even before we started our travel we were tired. We had a good flight from Edinburgh to Paris and after getting our luggage from the carosel we headed to the train station to find a train.

On the way to the train station I spotted a bus service that went to the Opera district, so we hoped on hoping it would take us close to where we wanted to go. It dropped us off about 1 kilometre from the station we were after and we walked from there, daypacks on and suitcases in tow.

Once we got to the station we were after I took out our maps. I located Rue de Bergere and happily we were just nearby. So I set off to look for the apartment. By this time we were exhausted. It was late in the afternoon and we had been up since before the sun was. I had been wearing my daypack which weighed about 12 kilos and pulling my suitcase which weighed about 20.

We had some trouble locating the apartment. When we reached here


Tom and I disagreed on what number we were looking for on Rue de Bergere which lead to this conversation

Me: (with tone) We are after number 6 Tom. There is no number six here.
Tom: No. We want number 5.
Me: (loudly) No. 6. I am sure it is 6.
Tom: No it is definitely 5.
Me: (yelling) I don't f*&king care what it is! There is no number 5 or number 6 on this street and we are completely f*&king lost!

Yes. That right. I had a tantrum on Rue de Bergere in Paris. I swore (and I very very rarely swear) at my poor husband who was completely correct. We were after number 5.

The problem was that we were not after Rue de Bergere. We were after Cite de Bergere. Which we discovered after looking at the travel docs again.

This was not good. I had no idea where Cite de Bergere was. None of my maps were detailed enough to include it. I began to think that maybe we were in completely the wrong district. Would I have to drag my suitcase and my tired self across to the other side of town?

After the exchange of a few more curt words, Tom bravely asked direction from a lady in a hotel and she said

"Oui, Oui, Oui, a gauche, a gauche, a droite"


which meant - Yes you stupid Australian Tourist can't you see you are right near that street. You just need to go left, left and then right.

So when I had had my explosion at Tom we were approximately 50 meters from where we wanted to be. As you can see on the below picture. The little man is where we were arguing and Cite de Bergere is the lane nearby




..que the James Bond music...

So we found the apartment building. The next hurdle (apart from not killing each other before we had a shower and a rest) was to get into the building.

Now when I had booked our accommodation I had been given a code into the building. We had the code. We entered the code. The code got us into the first door of the building. Then we entered a second code to get us through the second door of the building.

The number was not 007 - but it should have been.

Once inside the second "chamber" we turned left and on the wall was a safe. We entered a third code into the safe and it opened to reveal an envelope with our name on it. In the envelope was our room key.

So we had the key and the note attached told us that we were in room 3. We located room 3, used the key successfully to get into the apartment and collapsed on the bed.

Ah Paris in the springtime....so romantic

The assignment is over

Finally the assignment has been completed.

I am so relived that it is over. It was horrible, or more specifically the topic was horrible.

My assignment was partly on wrongful life claims. This is the claim that where a Doctor fails to diagnose a condition which leads to a child being born disabled the child should be able to sue the Doctor for wrongful life. i.e. because the Doctor did not diagnose the condition the child was not aborted as it should have been.

Wrongful life claims are not recognised in Australia or the UK but are in some other jurisdictions.

Reading case after case about children born severely disabled who are suing on the assumption that it would be better if they were not born made me sad. I am probably the only person in my course who found it so upsetting.

Anyway the upshot of this post is that despite the tears that this topic caused me to shed in distress and frustration, it is completed. I don't have to look at it again.

A friend indeed

A clever blogger today said

Everyone "will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything.

No one in particular will remember how you acted during the boom times"

I think that is really true.

For example - I am super stressed at the moment about my uni exam and assignment which are both due/happening on Monday. This afternoon my boss said I could leave a little early to get home and do my assignment rather than waiting for her to finish a meeting so that she could talk to me. She remembered what was happening in my life - despite the fact that she has a billion things happening in hers and was kind when I needed the extra time and support. I could have kissed her - except she is in another state.

Small acts of consideration for others are not difficult or taxing but gee they make a big difference.

My Royal Crown Derby

I think the only appropriate word for this collection is splendid.

It was Tom's grandmother set and she left it to him when she passed away. I think he might have been her favorite because she left him quite a few very nice things. Luckily my husband is the type of man who appreciated things of beauty (which is obvious since he loves me!) and we both adore this china set.

I used it yesterday when I had a cup of tea with breakfast. It was so delightful to drink from I ended up drinking a whole pot of peppermint tea!

Saint Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

Part 1 of the funny things that happened to me while traveling in Europe and the UK

Tom and I stayed in Vienna for two wonderful nights at the beginning of June this year. Austria is my favorite country outside Australia. There is a certain irony that the two countries have such similar names.

On the day that Tom and I arrived in Vienna, Tom was exhausted from the flight from Paris and decided to have a sleep. I on the other hand was raring to explore so left the hotel with my travel book and my purse. I was fairly well dressed, in a skirt and top, and (with the exception of the guide book) didn't really look like a tourist.

I walked down the Graben (Vienna's classy equivalent of the Queen Street Mall) to the massive Saint Stephen's Cathedral.

I had read in my trusty guide book that there was a tour in English each day at 3:30 pm. All the other tours were conducted in German. As I walked into the massive church my watch read 3:35. I found the tour was only just starting. They were a group of about 20 people listening to a charming young Viennese man explain the history of the back stained glass window in English. I surreptitious joined the tour.

The tour was great. It was lovely to hear about the working of this huge church and the history behind the works of art within it.

The tour even included a look at the front alter and pulpit which was cordoned off to the public. The guide led us through the barrier to the front portion of the church and then replaced it so that no one else would follow us in. He showed us the three alters including one which they claim has the shroud of Jesus below it. There were a few churches that I visited that made this claim. Perhaps they shared it out?

Anyway as we were approaching the end of the tour one of the young girls in the group spoke up. She let the guide know that "we" (the tour group) were a choir from the US and asked if it would be ok for the group to sing a hymn.

It was at this point that I realised that I had not found the English tour. I had accidentally joined a private tour of the Cathedral.

I didn't know what to do. I briefly considered singing with them, but they had a choir master with them who, I thought, would probably dislike a random Australian girl with (at best) an ordinary voice ruining their harmonies.

I would have run immediately except I was locked in. The barrier had been closed when we came down to the front of the church and I had not paid any attention to how it was closed or how it could be re-opened.

So I thought I would just play it cool and sit down on one of the front pews and listen. It seemed like a couple of the other ladies were going to do that too. But I had no such luck. The entire group moved into lines and began singing.

So I had not other choice. I fled. I walked quickly away from the group. I hurdled the barrier (in my skirt) and I was free.

The real shame was that they sounded so beautiful. The choirs voices carried around the cathedral and everyone who was there stopped what they were doing to listen to them.

Except me. I just kept walking.

Great expectations

For work once I went to a leadership week. Now I know everyone else in the world hates these and will moan and groan and see no value in spending time doing this sort of thing BUT I love it!

I learned a lot in this week. One thing in particular, which has been hugely useful to me in my life, which I really honestly didn't know before.

Here is how it happened...

We were talking about how you know some things about yourself that no one else does, you know some things about yourself that everyone knows, and there are some things about yourself that you don't know and neither does anyone else. And then there are other things that you don't know about yourself that other people do know.

Now I have always been fairly self aware. I know how I react to things and I can effectively moderate myself. So I didn't really think that there was anything that other people know about me that I didn't know about myself. I was wrong.

As part of the week we had the opportunity to give each other feedback about what we though were the things that we knew about people that they didn't know about themselves.

Two brave and kind friends of mine told me something I had not worked out myself.

I am a perfectionist.

I know that seems like a big thing to not notice - but seriously I didn't know. But I am so glad they told me because it makes understanding how I react to some things so much easier.

For example, I may seem silly, but I think I am going to die if I don't get top marks for my two uni subjects this semester. I got back one terrible (read average) mark and it feels like the world is falling in.

There is a small chance that while working full time and managing a household I have set the bar just a little to high....

I luv your blog

Thanks Swift Jan for luving my blog. (I luv yours too)

Here are some of the blogs I luv

The Talking Budgie
Hippomanic Jen
Givinya de Elba
Crazy Sister
Cam DS
The pegless one
Tia

and one I hope to luv soon

GlenKitty
(once they leave the country and start blogging)

Once upon a time

Ahhhhh and the novels start.

Once upon a time there was a girl who was studying at university. Instead of studying for her business and pysch exams she read books, cleaned her parent's house, rearranged her room and baked naughty goodies like cakes and biscuits.

Then the girl grew up. She became a woman and decided to do some more study. Instead of studying for her law exams she read books. Though to her credit she has not yet cleaned her parents house, or rearranged her room. Don't ask about the naughty goodies.

(If you don't understand why you can' ask about the naughty goodies read this)

Yes the girl, now woman is me. I love a good read. Especially when I really should be doing something else. So today I bought two new books and then rediscovered a whole series in my shelves that I would love to read again. Just like my uni study it has been ten years since I read these books and they are great.

The series is called The Song of Albion.


There are three books and, as I recall, they are all excellent. I would highly recommend them to anyone not studying for their final exams at the moment.

They are written by Stephen Lawhead. He is a great author and has a lovely way of interspersing his faith into his science-fiction novels.

Yay - groceries

Well the groceries arrived. They were not as exciting in real life as I had built them up to be :(

I got everything I ordered and two freebies on top of that. :)

One of the bottles of cordial I had ordered leaked in the truck (but it was in a bag so it didn't get one anything else) so the driver called the service people and had the amount refunded - plus I got to keep the rest of the cordial.

The driver was very friendly and polite. I was happy with the customer service.

I was a bit disappointed that the $6 chicken I had ordered turned out to be $18. But I called the service people and they refunded me some of that money. So I am happy enough with that.

Overall it was great to have my groceries delivered.

I have my next delivery organised for a fortnights time.

Today is the day

My first online grocery order is due to arrive this morning.

So here I am waiting with baited breath.......walking to the door every five minutes to check if it has arrived yet.

It is tragic to be this excited about groceries

Recovery

I had really, really bad hay fever yesterday. The completely debilitating kind, with constant sneezing, and zero ability to think.

If you haven't suffered with hay fever yourself it is difficult to understand the intense discomfort that this condition creates. I get it as a result of my allergies. I am allergic to a whole range of things including dust, mold, some foods, animals and grasses.

I have been getting hay fever since I was in primary school. Over the years I have tried every antihistamine known to man, but now none of them work on me. I still take them occasionally just to check if they still work.

So what is it like to have hay fever?

Well it starts with sneezing. Then my nose simultaneously starts running and becomes completely blocked so I can't breath through it. Now as I blow my nose for the hundredth time I start to think that I am getting dehydrated, so I have a couple of glasses of water. And the sneezing continues and continues and now I have a very full bladder. It is unpleasant. By now the foggy head thing has started. I start to talk more slowly, I have to really concentrate to remember what I am talking about or what I am saying. And for some reason I am hot and sweating. I have a temperature and I am still sneezing. And this will last until I sleep it off, whether it starts at 8 am or 8 pm.

Why does all this happen?

My body thinks that when I get dust up my nose (or some other allergen into my system) that it needs to attack it. So it creates the sneezing, temperature etc

So you can imagine that I am not up to much while I am suffering from this.

Also in the last few years it has been affecting me for longer - while the hay fever will stop when I sleep, I am more and more often unable to do much the day after either.

Today for example, I slept for about 14 hours last night. I woke up a bit before 12 today and have spent all day resting. I am physically exhausted and will no doubt sleep well again tonight.

But through all this I am blessed. I have a wonderful husband who will always jump in and take care of me when I don't feel well. Last night he cooked veal schnitzel with parsley potatoes - doesn't it look great? It tasted even better!

What year do you belong in?

You Belong in 1953

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Well clearly this is wrong because I belong in the year I am in, but I think I would have liked the 1950s too :)

small win

I have lost 1 kg this week. Yay for small wins!!

New outfit

I went shopping today at.....well......lets call it...... afternoon tea. I had seen the above outfit in the Jacqui-E catalog which I get emailed and thought:

that is cute. I should go and try that on.

What I didn't think was:

that is cute. I should blow my entire birthday present budget on buying that entire outfit.

But as it turned out that is what I did.

It is super cute - very girlie. I wore my hair down today, which is usual and I wore a dress to work which is very very very unusual. So I was obviously in a girlie mood and this outfit is the result.

I have given it to my husband to wrap up for my birthday (which is in a few weeks). If you are all well behaved I might even post a photo of what I look like in the outfit after I "get" it for my birthday.

Flat screen

This is a stomach I am after. I think there may be crunches or sit ups involved in obtaining it? maybe?

On a separate note, it is quite interesting what comes up in Google when you search for "flat stomach".

Food, food ,food

I am so excited!!!

Coles is finally selling online in BrisVegas. So now I can completely avoid grocery shopping. I dislike shopping intensely. I also have no time to shop while the shops are open which usually mean I do a huge mega shops when I do get time or a tiny mini shops in the city during the day and then cart it home on the bus.

But no more! I will have all my groceries delivered! to my door! by someone else!

And as if that isn't enough, delivery is free at the moment. I could kiss them.

So now I get all my fresh fruit & vegetables and meat from Fresh Organics and all my other groceries from Coles Online!

Time for my happy dance....

Starting now

I am not happy with my weight.

I have decided to lose eight kilos by Christmas.

My plan

Food:

• totally vegan during the week - Monday morning to Friday afternoon
• healthy over the weekend and including at least one serve fish and meat
• no sugar - no cakes, biscuits, etc.
  

Exercise

• thirty minute walk with weights on weekdays
• Yoga on Saturdays
• Longer walk on Sunday
  

Other

• printed statement of goal and put on mirrors in bathroom and bedroom.

Reward

• will buy new dress to wear to church on Christmas day.
  

Beauty

I got up early on Thursday to travel to our nation's capital for the day. Because I didn't want to wake up my husband at 3:30 am when I had to get up I moved my good and chattels into the bathroom so that the early morning beautification could occur in there. Here is what it takes to make me presentable in the mornings.....


It seemed like a lot to me. But I can assure you, they are all are absolutely necessary.

The Whole Family

This is one of my sets of china.

It is probably my third biggest set. As mentioned previously it is Royal Doulton Countess. I have the following pieces:-

1. One teapot
2. Two large round platters
3. One medium round platter
4. Two breakfast cups and saucers
5. Eight Tea cups and saucers
6. Eight small plates
   
7. Two milk jugs
8. One sugar bowl

Seems like a lot when I catalogue it like that.

I use it quite often. This is mostly because fine china needs to be washed regularly (at least once per year) to avoid crazing.

This afternoon when my husband (who was studying) asked for a cup of tea I used this set. I thought since I was using it, I should wash it all. So I did and then took some photos so all the folks at home can see how pretty it all is. :)

Exhuastion

I think I am superwoman today. I had a mammoth day. I achieved A LOT!

This morning I got up early, shaved and moisturised my legs (this alone is an achievement). I finished a 22 page assignment (I wrote about 4 pages this morning). I went to my "beauty" appointment and had my eyebrows etc perfected. I put the car cover back on the Merc by myself to stop the birds pooing on my perfectly washed car. I then did two lots of tute questions (I wrote about 4 pages total). I then unpacked the dishwasher and tidied the house, then caught the bus to uni, handed in my assignment, went to a two hour tutorial. Then I had dinner (at 4:30 pm). Then I went to a one hour lecture on statutory interpretation and followed what the lecturer was talking about. Then I went to a two hour tutorial and was the only one there who had done the tute questions so had to answer most of the questions asked by the tutor.

Now I am exhausted and hoping that I will have a few days off to recover.

But hang on....NO. I have to go to work tomorrow and be coherant. The chances of that are....slim.

Kitchen Dreams

Tom and I have a master plan for our small three bedroom house. This plan involves

• more bedrooms,
• a garage that is actually big enough for a car (our current one is too narrow and not high enough for either of our cars),
  
• a walk in wardrobe,
• an ensuite,
  
• lots of storage, and
  
• a new kitchen (with a pantry!!!!!)
  

Reading Givinya De Elba reminded me of my wild fantasies about a new kitchen.

I have a dream, a dream where I have a kitchen that actually has a pantry. A kitchen that has enough room for all of my china (there is a fair bit) and all of my appliances. A kitchen that has a sink with drying racks on both sides. Did I mention the pantry yet?

It seems like such a small thing but we are so short on storage in this house that having a pantry, or a wardrobe for that matter, will be soooooo great!

Cry baby

I found out this week that a woman, who I hold in high esteem, lost her husband. This event made me very sad. It made my cry. And in a way that made me feel like a fraud. I didn't know this man. I had never met him. And yet reading the order of service for his funeral and the eulogy that this woman had read made me cry and cry.

I do tend to be a bit of a cry baby. I cry at Hallmark ads, bank ads and sometimes insurance ads. I cry when anyone dies (even when I don't know them). I cry when I talk about how much I love someone. I cry when I talk about my faith. I cry when I think about the possibility of someone dying. And before you ask - Yes I cry no matter what time of the month it is.

I am not sure what it is about me, or women, that makes us more emotional. I am sure there is some hormonal explanation to do with the amount of estrogen or something. But I do often wonder - what purpose do my tears serve?

Afternoon tea

I made sultana biscuits this afternoon to take to the in-laws for afternoon tea. But I could not help myself, I had a few with a cuppa just to taste test them. Quality control is important you know.

Also please note my beautiful Royal Doulton Countess tea set that I bought on ebay and had shipped to Australia at huge expense last year. So worthwhile. I just love it. Now if I could just learn to love washing it up!

Mobile Phone Race Face

Have you ever noticed (Gosh that sounds like a stand up comic) the look on peoples faces when their mobile phone rings? They get this funny look of intense concentration. I call it the mobile phone race face.

Women are especially bad mostly because they know the ring tone is coming from the depths of their purse and it will take all their skill and luck to find it before it stops ringing.

I have done it myself many times. Usually I get to the phone just before it diverts to voicemail and it is all I can do not to answer with "What?" when I pick up. There is usually a sense of "why are you calling now? I was nowhere near my phone and had to scramble to find it". The irony is that I have the mobile so that people can call me anytime. But to be fair I often prefer text messages - which I can get to in my own time.

Mild Vegetable Curry

Ingredients

1 large brown onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon keens curry powder
2 carrots
2 large potatoes
1/4 small pumpkin
4 sticks celery
1 head broccoli
3 cups vegetable stock

Method

Heat oil in pan, add chopped onion and curry powder. Cook over medium heat 2 minutes. Add stock then carrot, potato, pumpkin and celery. Cook over medium-high heat for 20 minutes. Add broccoli. Cook for further 10 minutes. Serves 4

I am singing the assignment blues

I handed in two assignments this week. And I have another due next week which, based on the last assignment of this type, will be huge. But I am lacking the motivation to really get into it.

The pressure of the due date hasn't set in yet. I often rely on that last minute "oh my goodness this is due really soon" panic to drive my uni related motivation. But today is a still a while from the due date so I am just not feeling it.

I think I am just going to close down all other avenues of entertainment (log out of gmail, facebook, blogger, taste and send Tom into another room) and force myself to do this thing.

*sigh* Here goes...

Weekday Vegan

I love meat. I love chicken. I am reasonably keen on fish when served with chips. But during the week I am a vegan.

I eat no meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, butter or cheese. I do this to maintain my weight and because I LOVE VEGETABLES and eating lots of them makes me feel great.

My staple week day meals are pumpkin and spinach lasagne, vegetable curry and avocado on toast. I also make a mean burrito and potato & cauliflower soup.

Tom is addicted to my vegan sultana biscuits and I would make them more often for him if only so many of them didn't end up in my little belly.

On the weekends it is more difficult to not eat animal and animal products so I just eat what everyone else is eating. More often than not we eat out on the weekend and go to our families' place for dinner. I don't like to make a big fuss about what I am eating so I just don't usually tell people about the vegan thing.

I do not eat a mostly vegan diet because I am concerned about the treatment of animals. It is not that this does not concern me, it just isn't the reason I chose to eat mostly fruit and vegetables.

The best thing about eating vegan during the week is that I don't have to worry about how much I am eating. I can pretty much eat as much as I feel like. I can eat carbs. I love pasta, rice and all things bread related.

I also eat mostly organic food. It just tastes better.

So there you have it.......my complicated diet explained in one small post...

Cosmetic purchases

My fabulous beauty therapist recommended a website http://www.strawberrynet.com , which is run out of Hong Kong and sells big brand cosmetics at vastly reduced prices.

I was brand loyal to Estee Lauder for about 10 years but this year I have changed over to Christian Dior. Why chose Dior? Because there was someone at the counter to help me. She spent time with me choosing a foundation for my pale white skin.

I am really liking the DiorSkin Forever in Ivory and it is SPF 25, which will hopefully help keep my skin pale white. But it is pretty expensive at about $80 a bottle - which lasts me about six months. So on my beauty therapists recommendation I ordered some from strawberrynet.

It arrived about 7 days after I ordered it. Unfortunelty I didn't order Ivory. I ordered Light Beige - idiot. Must be more careful in future.

Anyway when it arrived I emailed them and they said to post it back for a full refund. Now that is a good returns policy.

I have since also ordered the biggest bottle of toner you have ever seen in your life (who knew 400ml was so much?) and the correct colour foundation. Both of which turned up with zero hassle.

Now I am thinking that I need some more lipstick....

Spare time

Where did my spare time go? I think I must had dropped it running for the bus or maybe I put it through the washing machine to many times?

I used to have heaps of time to relax, watch TV, surf the net, read home-maker magazines, experiment with recipes, review my plethora of recipe books, reorganise my china collection, alphabetise my DVDs by the director's country of origin and generally indulge in whatever activity I wanted.

It seems that the choices I have made in my life have led to a marked decrease in the amount of spare time that I now have. I now get approximately none (note Yes Minister reference)

Why?
I chose to start some more study.

I only have two degrees which is clearly insufficient, so I have decided to go for a trifecta and do another one. This one specifically relates to my work. So I have also decided to change jobs to one that is much less related to my study. The move is due to take place this Thursday. I am still wondering if this move is the right decision but that is a topic for another post....

I realise that it is entirely my own fault for not having much spare time anymore. I make choices like working full time, studying, eating food I have prepared myself, washing my clothes, spending time with my family and family in law, and sleeping which make my life busy.

This realisation does not make me any happier about the fact that there are still 8 seasons of the x-files that I have not yet watched and that I will not have time to make veal schnitzel with dill potato salad for quite some time.

Trench

I bought a funky new trench coat in royal green from Jacqui-e today. It is a great fit and despite the fact that it will no doubt be out of fashion by the time I finish this post I am very happy with it. Now if the weather would just stay cool long enough for me to wear it a few time before it gets put away for summer that would be great.

The Seekers

This is the photo Tom took while I was singing.....


Close the door, light the light, we're staying home to-night
Far a-way from the bustle and the bright city lights
Let them all fade a-way, just leave us a-lone
And we'll live in a world of our own

We'll build a world of our own, that no one else will share
All our sorrows we'll leave far be-hind us there
And I know that you'll find, there'll be peace of mind
When we live in a world of our own

Oh my love, oh my love, I've cried for you so much
Lonely nights without sleeping, while I longed for your touch
Now your lips can't evade the heartache I've known
Come with me to a world of our own

And I know that you'll find, there'll be peace of mind
When we live in a world of our own
And I know that you'll find, there'll be peace of mind
When we live in a world of our own

Depression

I was a bit out of sorts and sad this week. I felt like I was being excluded by the rest of my team at work which really upset me. I was very down in the mouth as Tom would say. My uni work feels like it is spiraling out of control. I have one particular assignment that it HUGE and it feels like I will never finish it. It is due to be completed in 5 days - and I have a test on that same day.

But regardless of all that I am feeling better today. I have a plan of attack and although I am stressed about getting everything done I am not down about it anymore.

Upgrade to Business

We have been upgraded to Business class for our flight from Singapore to London. This is the 13 hour 41 minute flight that I was dreading the most. I have been patronising my amex card heavily to get the points to request an upgrade. I only had enough three days before we left and it has paid off because we will be flying this leg in business. Yay!

This is what I have to look forward to:-
http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying/travelClasses/internationalBusiness

It will be sleeping tablets for the return flight :)

Changi Airport: Qantas Club lounge

All I can say is "hot shower".

I feel so much better. After walking around all day in our tourist clothes, Tom and I have had a shower and changed at the Q Club. I feel human again. And I look a LOT better.

Adventures

Well our big trip has started....

On Saturday Tom and I flew to Singapore to start our holiday. We have had two days and nights here and decided that we love Singapore.

While we were here we have been to the asian civilisation museum, checked out Boat Quay, been to China town (and bought $10 sunglasses), went to the markets at Bugis Junction, had lunch at Raffles, had dinner on Orchard Road, had copious yum cha and been to more shops and shopping centres than I care to remember.

Singapore is humid and hot but not unbearably so. The public transport is really excellent and very cheap. And when I say excellent Tom and I haven't had any problems at all.

We are staying in Royal Plaza on Scotts which I would highly recommend. They didn't have any record of our booking when we arrived but the lovely receptionist Jaquelyn sorted that out without bating an eyelid and even upgraded us to a better room. Buffet breakfast is included and I have fallen in love with a dish called " fried carrot cake". Ironically it has no carrot nor cake. It is in fact made mostly from raddish and egg.

I took Tom to my favorite Singapore department store "Tangs" and we shopped and ate more food. I made him try the "glutinous black rice dessert" which I had last time and he loved it just as much as I did so that was good.

We bought some electronic equipment from a "dealer". The haggling was fun but tiring. Pretending to leave is the best tactic but it is hard to do it without feeling rude. I think the best way to get a bargin is to not actually want to buy anything. I bought something almost accidently from one lady. I offered her about 5% of the asking price and she agreed to sell the thing to me. She said she would sell it to me as a good luck sale so that other sales would come her way. That just confused me but I definately got a bargain.

It was strange but even in the markets some things didn't seem to be negotiable - maybe I just didn't look interested anough but no one offered me discounts on bags. I found a couple of nice laptop/sholder bags but they were too expensive (ie same as I would pay in Australia) but when I said that to the shop girls they just smiled and walked away. Odd

One of the best things we have done while here is have a 45 minute foot massage with reflexology and a hot tea foot soak. Mine was very gentle and relaxing. It was great. Tom's man absolutley hammered his muscles - he received what I would call deep tissue massage. I don't know how he sits through it because it looks very painful but there is no doublt it is great for your muscles and he legs and feet were better for it.