sunny saturday

Morning all. We're off to vote in a tic - I'm hoping there's a cake stall selling pretties such as these - ooooooh.

Enjoy your Saturday lovelies xx

drawing the line

My first election in which I was eligible to vote I just voted for the party my dad voted for. One mark, above the line and I was outta there. However, pretty soon I realised that I could have more power. While my single vote may not elect a party - voting below the line was the clearest message I could send saying "I like YOU the least". Oh, the fun I had choosing who I'd put last on my senate sheet. For years Mr Fred Nile got the tick. Then Pauline Hanson came along and I had to decide "Who's the least worst?" I did a bit of sleuthing, checked out a few of the party's How To Vote cards and walked out knowing that when the numbers were added up my least-liked pollies were getting a message.

That's why I was dumbfounded when I heard Mark Latham was advocating a Donkey Vote - leaving the papers blank to "Show 'em". Um, show 'em what exactly? That you don't care who runs our country? That you don't care who's in senate that can pass or block important policy? That you can't be arsed finding a political party or independent you believe will best represent you in parliament?

This matters. I want to know that my vote can send people who have similar opinions to my own to hold a position of power. Wendy from Family First? Um, she's in the "Hell No" pile. I've seen a few of her opinions retweeted on Twitter and at first giggled thinking she was a faux twit. Nope, she's just a twit in the oldest sense of the word. Scarily there are some ignorant, obstinate people out there who can hold more power than an entire political party. If my placing them at 99 on the senate sheet can help stop that then yay, the political process has power.

Now, I'll be standing on crutches filling out my how-to-vote cards tomorrow. It won't be comfortable, but I've found a site that helps. https://www.belowtheline.org.au/ is a site where you can sit back in front of your computer, go through your options and print out your very-own How To Vote card that you can take into the polling booth and copy while you're standing there. Much less time consuming than trying to work out who's the best and worst of a very bad bunch.

We live in a democracy where we have the ability to vote and have our votes counted equally. Let's take advantage of this shall we?

PS: I customised my How To Vote in 15 minutes - and that included time spent pulling up a new window to google unfamiliar parties such as Senator On-Line and Building Australia. I made a PDF and printed it and it's ready to go - looks just like the real senate paper. Now I have that song "I've got the power!' in my head...

guess who?

Unless you sneakily spied her name on the cover is there any way you'd guess this was Marion Cotillard on the cover of the Septembre issue of French Vogue? Eyebrows huh - who'd've thought they were so defining.

I do love this cover though...

friday fleurs

Here are my birthday hyacinths, now gone, but not forgotten. I do love a scented flower, and if they've got pretty blooms much the better. I noticed that our jasmine's now starting to bloom so I'll have to ask my gal to pick me a stem or two to place in a little jug beside my bed - dreams are always sweeter when they're scented with home-grown flowers.

My gal and I are off to a friend's house this afternoon for a mums and kids catch-up. She has the perfect outdoor entertaining backyard with a big veranda, pool and massive yard for kids to play in. She's also the perfect host so it shall be buckets of fun. I'll only have the one champers - can barely negotiate stairs and crutches when I'm not tiddly {ps: the french word for tiddly - pompette - "Je suis un peu pompette" sounds much nicer than "I'm a little sozzled" does it not?}.

Hubby and the gal are going to finish off painting the hall and the vestibule area outside the study - and they'll probably go for a bike ride or 70. They went out last night to buy a bike pump and came home with a new bike for a certain young miss. She needed it. We worked out that she was 17cm too tall for her other bike. Five foot tall at the age of 10 - with her legs taking up around 4 feet of that height... So she's now got a pretty pale green adult-sized bike. Chuffed? Oh yes indeedy.

Enjoy your friday. I'm going to spend the day writing. I have a footstool under my desk to elevate my leg and I'm ready to go. Speak to you soon.

dr google

At best, I'm a suggestible hypochondriac. When I read about a symptom, I will then tend to experience it. So you can imagine what Dr Google's like for me. While I'm waiting till 9am Monday to have my knee injury officially diagnosed, I've been calling on good ol' Dr Google to help me sate my curiosity. Bad move.

Because no two injuries or symptoms are exactly alike I could have anything from a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament that may well require reconstructive surgery to a simple cartliage tear or strain that just requires rest.

A sensible person would stop googling phrases such as "Knee popping sound".

Oh, to be a sensible person...

magical moments

Some times it's really important to make the effort. Last night I slowly hobbled out of my house to take my daughter and niece to see a play. An amazing play. A beautiful play. And a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

A theatre company from Verona were in Australia and for two nights they were performing Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince at the local Italian football club. For $15 you got a meal, dessert and a play. Bargain. Two men took to the little stage: parents sitting at the tables sated after finishing fine bowls of pasta, kids perched on the floor in front of the stage. Simply by cutting pieces of paper into a series of shapes these two men drew us into this beautiful tale. A tale of friendship, good deeds, sacrifice, hardship and the ultimate happy ending. In a mix of English and Italian, with much humour and enthusiasm we were all taken away and ensconced in this beautiful story.

I may have had to negotiate many damned tricky stairs on my crutches to get there - but to see the look of delight on my daughter and my niece's face was worth it. And, not-so-secretly, it was totally worth it for this big kid too. I might be walking on crutches - but I will be off them soon and back to normal. I might never play netball again, but I've had years of playing fun behind me - and years of coaching to look forward to.

Walking in someone else's shoes, or in my case, in crutches really makes you consider the hardships so many people undergo daily. My grandfather was involved in a serious motorbike accident when he was 18 or 19. It smashed his knee severely and he spent the rest of his life using a cane or crutches to get around. Every. Day. He lived to his 80s so that's 60 years of never rising easily from a chair, and awkwardly negotiating steep, narrow stairs that are barely wide enough for a foot, let along a foot and two crutches. My pain can be dulled by nurofen, he lived with pain every day. But he still lived a full life. He used to go out the front of his house, dive in the lake a swim a mile every day before breakfast until the last few years of his life. He drove his ute around town with his beloved dog Missy in the back, he went away on shooting trips with his friends and he laughed. A lot.

He cooked a mean stew, and always had a spoonful of honey in his tea from an enormous bucket that was kept on the kitchen bench. He lit the open fire every day and toasted bread on a long, home-made toasting fork. He smoked a pipe or rolled a cigarette and sat in the same chair in the corner - the one with the best view down the hill and over the lake.

I miss him. His advice still rings in my head. He taught me about financial responsibility and about what's important in life. He called me "Iddles" or "Uncumfoodles" and my daughter "The Perfect Baby". I still have two treasured photos of four generations of my family: my daughter, me, my dad and my Poppa.

He was my Happy Prince.

tea time?

I'm loving this whole having-people-do-things-for-you-while-you-just-lie-on-a-couch-scenario. So far my in-laws have washed and remade my daughter's bed, mopped the kitchen floor, tidied kitchen cupboards, watered the garden and made me cups of tea. AND there are two meals ready to go in the fridge. I love these people.

Now, I was just going through my iPhone photos and found this close-up I promised of my violet tea cup - pretty isn't it? It's one of a matching pair that resides on the wee bookcase in my study and I heart it so.

You know what else I heart? Clean hair. Yep, managed to stand on one leg long enough to wash my hair which was so desperately in need of a wash it'd almost merged into one giant dreadlock - or, my greatest fear - undergone felting {a weird condition where girls with long hair can just wake up one morning and their hair has all fused together, felt-like, into a dreadlock - used to be the condition I feared most after spontaneous combustion... yep, used to watch far too many of those "Freaky But True" TV shows...}.

just lolling around

So, I'm just lolling around with my knee elevated - but not looking anywhere near as glamorous as this. Sadly there are no tasty morsels within arm's reach either. My in-laws are coming down today to help attend to my needs as I lie with bags of frozen peas clamped around my knee - bless their socks. Husband has meetings in Sydney so I needed to organise school pick ups {thank you lovely friends} and so many other tasks.

I'm already bored of course. Even with Foxtel there's only so much television you can watch - and watching lifestyle food is torturous when you're hungry and can't get yourself anything to eat {well, I've yet to work out a way of walking with crutches and carrying a plate or a cup... I did clasp a bottle of water under my chin yesterday after filling it at the water filter in the fridge}.

Enough of my moaning. Tell me what exciting things you're up to. Geez, I can't even post a What We're Eating This Week post - because I wouldn't have a clue!

oh harry!

New shots released today. Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

ouch

Well, typical, it had to happen sometime...

So, there I was last night, playing netball when my knee seemed to do this strange moving sideways thing, made a couple of pops and took me down. Today it's the size of a basketball and I can't walk on it - making the chances of torn ligaments seem pretty damned likely.

Hubby's off to get me some crutches and today will involve lying on a couch with bags of frozen peas under my knee and on top of it. {just edited this - jeez, I'd written lying on a coach with peas under and on top of it - the coach... I blame some kind of knee-injury-induced psychosis...}

Le sigh.

Who'd have thought my netball career would come to such a dramatic end? At least I've still got my coaching...

cherry bomb

It's a two-shoe day today. The pretty red shoes by Isabel Marant are there for Beth - because it's her birthday. They're the perfect shade of cherry red, with a bow and a rather sexay curve! Elegant, fun and gorgeous - just like she is. And the crazy Lanvin python and mongolian fur numbers? Well, they're just there because they're freakin' fabulous. I would wear those for hilarity's sake as they'd make me, with my long, curly black hair, look somewhat double-ended!

Enjoy your monday my lovelies - I'm off to check out a few blogs and then send off a few story ideas. Oh yes, it's that time of the month... Eek. Wish me luck!

slowly does it sunday

I've discovered that if you drink pretty consistently from 12.30 to 10pm your Sunday morning moves at a very, very slow speed... My catch-up with my old uni paper alumni was fabulous. Lunch and a few beers at the Beach Hotel was perfect - the sky was blue, the ocean magnificent - the ideal spot to chat and enjoy the view. Lunch turned into drinks, which then turned into a meal at the rather lovely Kitchen on Darby Street. A rare steak with bernaise sauce and frites was my way of soaking up just a smidgen of the alcohol. Then it was off to another pub before I had to retire - leaving three die-hard party people on their merry way to yet another pub...

How cute is this window box? We snapped it at an open garden a few years ago and it's what I'd like to include on our shed when we build it. How adorable is the triple-toned glass panelled window?

Off to the Farmer's Markets shortly. Hopefully a chicken golzeme will help me recuperate sufficiently to go for a bike ride this afternoon. Surely if it's combined with a coke zero it'll do the trick. Enjoy your Sunday.

woweeee it's the weekend

Today I'm going to be sitting on the veranda of an Art Deco hotel overlooking a beach. There will be eating, there will be drinking, and there will be chatting. Thankfully it's an utterly glorious day - fingers and toes crossed that we'll see a few whales or dolphins on the horizon. How amazing would that be?

Now, the icecream last night was amazing. Rich, creamy, vanilla-infused and blissful. I'm officially even deeper in love with my KitchenAid - I can't believe I've waited so many years to have one in my life.

Enjoy your weekend x

ooooooh yeah

This here's the french vanilla ice-cream churning in the KitchenAid. 15 minutes of churning and it was done. Now it's in the freezer awaiting its imminent demise...

friday's flowers

Admittedly my last post did feature one very pretty freesia in the image - but I've been saving these lilacs, peonies and roses especially for today. Oh, I wish I lived in the Southern Highlands, or Tasmania, where the climate is ripe for peonies and lilacs. As I don't I'll just have to content myself with holidays during their blooming period. Sounds reasonable doesn't it?

fantastically friday

Hands up if you can believe it's friday... yep, me neither. Excuse me, but where does the week go? I've had a busy morning. My in-laws popped in for a cup of tea and to check out my study {ooohs and aahs were appropriately metered out} and I made up my vanilla custard for my ice-cream. Oh yes, we'll be having fresh French Vanilla Ice-Cream churned in my KitchenAid after dinner tonight.

My gal has a friend staying for a sleepover tonight and I reckon I'll get some serious brownie points for serving fresh ice-cream. So much so that the main course will barely matter.

It's an absolutely beautiful day today. The sky's blue, there's no wind, and my garden's looking fit to burst with spring's promise. I have lanky stalks and white buds on the primula's that are circling the dovecote, my violas have their pretty faces dancing in the sun, the roses are covered in new red shoots - and the jasmine has me squealing in delight at the promise of its sweetly scented display.

Did I tell you that this weekend I'm catching up with my buddies from the Uni Newspaper days? 20 years on we've arranged a catch-up and I can't wait. Funnily enough we've all gone on to work in the media - nice as that was the aim. I'm sure there'll be some hilarious reminiscing going on. If you hear laughter carried down the ocean from Merewether you'll know who's to blame...

testing, testing

Okay, fingers and toes crossed that this post works. I'm just back from a lovely girly lunch to celebrate my birthday - hurrah! I'd written two posts this morning that vanished in a sea of HTML and then crashed Safari so hopefully this'll work.

Now, guess how much my Sushi-lovin' gal would adore these Hello Kitty morsels? Cuteness incorporated or what?

technical glitch

Okay, I'm not sure why - but blogger's refusing to allow me to post pics today.

I'll be back with a regular post as soon as some form of normality's restored!

oh pulease

So, as you may have heard, it's my birthday today... and, as such, I'd decided not to work but to potter. As part of this pottering I thought I'd treat myself to a movie. I know! In the middle of the day!! Well, you can imagine my delight when I spied the name John Corbett {aka: Chris in the morning, aka: Aiden from SATC, aka: Tara's husband in United States of Tara aka: yum} so I settle in to watch I Hate Valentines Day.

I lasted 35 minutes. Now, as much as I love John Corbett, apparently you can double that love and turn it into loathe and you start to get an idea how I felt about Nia Vardalos's character. Damn. That wide-eyed ingenue look works rather well when you're actually a wide-eyed ingenue but I was having trouble accepting it from a grown-woman.

Erk.

Did anyone make it further into the film that I did? Was I just in a mood? Did my advanced age leave me with little or no regard for coy glances and hair flicks that belonged in the swimwear shoot for Australia's Next Top Model {btw: how GOOD is this series becoming...}.

I'm normally pretty forgiving of characters in films. Books I may well fling across the room in frustration {Lady Chatterley's Lover I am referring to you...} but films, I guess because I know they'll be over with soon I give 'em two, three, four, five chances.

How about you? Does your loving or loathing of a character influence your viewing or reading?

what's cooking wednesday

Things are slowing down now. Netball's finished {well, until Twilight Netball starts next month} so that's making my meal planning a little different. Here's what we're eating this week:

Tonight: Well, it's my birthday so we're off to Bistro Tartine. French yumminess shall be consumed - and washed down with French bubbles...

Thursday: French lessons: I didn't make a chicken curry last week, so I'll make it this week. Complete with rice and garlic naan.

Friday: My gal's been begging for salmon so salmon it is. Served with lemon roasted potatoes and garlic greens. For dessert - well I'm glad you asked. My freezer has been rearranged and now the KitchenAid ice cream bowl is freezing in preparation for some vanilla bean icecream. Oh yes.

Saturday: I'm catching up with my old alumni from the Uni Newspaper - so it's only the boy and the girl at home. They can create home-made pizza.

Sunday: Toasty roasty. Last week I bought a divine pork rib roast and roasted it on a bed of rhubarb. This week I might aim for Saltbush Lamb.

Monday: Early game of netball. Chorizo pasta bake and salad.

Tuesday: Ballet: pork and cider casserole with greens.

What's on your plates this week?