1000 Gifts

I've been set this beautiful challenge by a friends blog. 1000 gifts, things I am grateful for, things that make me smile. I am a week and a day late, so I have posted 40 on Tuesday rather than 20 on Monday. Will try and get into a groove next week!

OK, here goes!

1. Coffee made just the way I like it from the Little Leaf & Bean
2. Meeting tiny little Henry for the first time
3. Riding on the back of Andy’s motorbike through the hills
4. Watching our ‘baby’ grow in the garden (a plant Andy put in)
5. Judy and Andrew’s hospitality
6. Playing Rapidough with the Spads
7. Angus & Oliver, my 2 nephews
8. Shopping for yarn at Spotlight with a new friend
9. Crochet on the train
10. Sitting quietly with Andy, listening to ‘Slaughterhouse 5”
11. Long holiday afternoons on the couch watching Charley Boorman with Andy
12. Cross stitch
13. Sushi made by Andy
14. Coffee from Emma’s new coffee machine
15. Subsequent drinking of said coffee on Emma’s patio
16. Craft morning with Sarah
17. Surprise coffee with Mum
18. Watching Sex and The City while I fold and iron
19. Afternoons off work
20. Lying in my bed, knowing that by grace, I am safe and dry
21. Mars bars
22. Steam cleaned carpet
23. Home made pizza
24. My camera
25. Catching up with Poppy (Andy's Grandad) at Church
26. The coffee machine at work
27. Sauvignon blanc
28. Hearing ‘Iris’ by the Goo Goo Dolls on the radio and remembering the day I met Andy (Oh my, that is cheesy!)
29. The Leunig card at my desk from my new friend
30. Andy
31. Waifs tickets
32. Impromptu emails from a dear friend suggesting after work coffee
33. No dishes on the sink
34. Folded and pressed washing
35. Photo’s at my desk to remind me that I am loved
36. A new year, a fresh slate
37. Emails from Kate
38. Brighton sunsets
39. Frangelico
40. The double headed agapanthus that popped up in the garden

Wow, that was so fantastic to do! I encourage anyone to sit down and do this! It is so uplifting! It is amazing, we spend so much energy sweating the small stuff, but struggle to celebrate the equally small, but beautiful stuff! Trust me, it is energy well spent!

Saturday Science Experiment!

To Reboil or Not to Reboil?
Just recently, my Mum was flicking though my 'Modern Household Manual' and snorted when she came across something about not boiling water which had already been boiled (eg. You fill the kettle, make a cuppa and then when you fancy another cuppa an hour later, you just flick the switch and reboil the water that is already in there). Apparently my Grandmother was a stickler for not reboiling and seldom drank tea at my Mum's house because Mum is a 'reboiler'.

So I did some research and found that there is actually a fair bit of stuff written about how reboiling takes oxygen from the water, making the tea 'flat' in flavour. Hm, fascinating! I am a tea drinker from way back, call it my British heritage, call it my Nanna alter-ego, I just love a cuppa....I am also a reboiler. Perhaps I am selling myself short on my tea drinking experience! Time to hit the lab!

I'm going to make 2 cups of tea. One using water from the kettle which has been boiled previously and the other with water that will be drawn cold from the tap and boiled only once. For both cups I will be using tap water.

Both will be made in cups identical in material, capacity, and colour - white bone china (a wedding present from Aunty May - Thanks Aunty May!).

Both cups of tea will be made using Dilmah tea bags.

Both cups will be filled to the same level and will be tasted black.

Tasting will be done by myself and will be blind tested by Andy.

Outcome
Well, I made my two cups of tea and took them both to Andy to have him taste test them. The only difference he picked was that he thought the 'fresh boiled' tea had a very slight metallic taste to it. I couldn't really taste much difference at all, if I did, it was so subtle, that I am not going to bother with emptying the kettle and refilling it with fresh water every time I want a cup of tea.

After all that, I put a slug of chai syrup in each of the cups and we enjoyed a lovely cup of chai each!

January

Well, as promised, I sat down on the last Thursday of December last year and wrote out a bunch of resolutions for January.
Here they are!

Create Make something from one of the craft books I got for Christmas

Move Hit the gym 3 times a week - class, cardio, whatever, as long as I go there and sweat for at least 40 minutes!

Connect We've been promising to have dinner with our friends Amy and Iliya. I am going to invite them round for tea this month.

Eat Pack lunches for work, allowing for one day of the week where I spoil myself with a bought lunch - this harks back to school days when Thursday was 'lunch order day'. Pie with sauce and a small iced coffee! (Not really my speed these days, more likely to opt for noodle soup or a yummy foccacia!)

Work Here's a challenge - cut back on Facebook at work! No more than 3 times a day (and I have to make them no more than a couple of minutes! My other work resolution for January is to clear out and re-organise my emails.

Finance Establish a budget/savings plan for 2011 and work out how much I will have saved for my trip by the end of the year.

Home Get back into the clean habits that I learned from www.flylady.com

Wish me luck! I will post an update on here at the end of the month and let you know how I go! In the meantime, I am thinking about rewards I can give myself at the end of each month if I achieve all my goals!

New Years Resolutions (yeah, I'm getting in early)

I’m going to try a new approach to new years resolutions this year! Last year, I resolved to clean my shower alcove more regularly and pay my bills on time. There is mould in the shower alcove and I have just had a second reminder about my Telstra bill. I am one of the 95% of people for whom New Years Resolutions fail!

Why do New Years resolutions fail? I think it is because we expect things to change overnight, where in reality, the only real thing to change between December and January, is the date! We’ve been doing things a certain way for at least a year and our brains are wired to do them that way. To expect major changes in behaviour between the 31st of December and the 1st of January is fairly unrealistic.

I am going to try and change my odds for 2011, by setting monthly resolutions. Instead of starting 2011 saying “I’m going to go to the gym 5 times a week, eat my 2 & 5 fruit and veg every day, drink 8 glasses of water a day and visit my great Aunt in the nursing home every Sunday!” I am going to start each month by looking at the important elements of my life and setting a realistic goal for each one. If one month, I don’t achieve one or more of the goals, I will be able to asses if I am setting the bar too high or perhaps not trying hard enough.

The areas that I have decided to set goals in are;
• Create
• Move
• Eat
• Connect
• Work
• Finances

Create: Making sure I spend quality time being creative. I let my creativity lapse for so many years because people told me it wouldn’t put food on my table, but I rediscovered it earlier this year and realised that it is food for my soul!

Move: Exercise is important. I have a gym membership, but this resolution won’t be limited to ‘serious exercise’, but also to things like bushwalking, dancing and hippy stuff like yoga!

Eat: Food is also important, I am going to try to set myself goals to try new (healthy) recipes, experiment with new fruits and vegetables and generally expand my gastronomic repertoire!

Connect: Making sure I spend meaningful time with special people. I want to write more letters, make more surprise phone calls, entertain people more at home and generally nurture my relationships with both my family and my friends.

Work: Ah, the thorn in my side. I want to make headway with work, either by finding new work or making my current work more meaningful. Doing courses, doing little experiments like my “Find one thing a day to like about work” and generally shifting my attitude.

Finances: Setting myself a monthly savings target, working out ways of earning money on the side, possibly through my creative pursuits. This will ultimately go towards my much anticipated and disappointingly postponed trip to England to see my dear friend Kate.

So my one new years resolution will be to post an update on how I am going with all of this on a monthly basis. Andy plays basketball on a Thursday, so I have I have written an appointment in my diary for the last Thursday of every month to sit down and work out my resolutions for the following month. Maybe I’ll take myself to a coffee shop to do it, or down to my local pub for a pint and a ponder! Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll be creatively fulfilled, have perfected the rumba, know how to bust out a mean artichoke casserole for my friends followed by pomegranate and persimmon crumble, be happy at work, whatever that may be and be cashed up en route to the old country!!!

Getting informed

"You read the paper, watch the news
and you think you're well informed
Well I got some news for you my friend

That headline that you read
the story that broke
it was a scandal - yeah a scam
political masterstroke
Tell you what they you want you to hear
close your eyes and open your ears"
Lies - The Waifs

I am really keen to get more informed about current events, politics and the like. I don't want to be one of these people who pontificates at length about stuff, but to be able to put forward an informed, well thought out opinion about things that are going on, would be nice.
Up until now, my view has been one of....well, apathy. I start trying to learn about something and it all gets too complicated and I find myself drifting off. I had all good intentions of 'voting below the line' at the last election, but I got there and looked at the options, realised I knew nothing about most of the candidates and felt instantly intimidated by this big fat complex system.
But how does one become informed without influence from one side or another? As the lyrics posted above point out, the media is hardly a credible source. I learned this very quickly during a brief stint in a Communications job. The media team were constantly putting out spot fires lit by over-zealous journalists trying to pin the latest 'health crisis' on one or two people (usually our CE and Minister - two regular blokes trying to do a bloody big job).
I am keen to hear from all of my unbiased information seeking friends. Where do you get your information which subsequently forms your opinions? Do you spend hours researching, or is there some place where you can get the raw facts, which you process in your own way/time? Do I have to sit and read Hansard (because that would really make me want to stab myself in the eye with a blunt object!) or am I doomed to be a nice person with no idea?

Irresponsible desicions

I stood on the edge of the platform, the canyon yawning before me. I was harnessed in, but I couldn't actually see what the harness was connected to, or how it was going to prevent me from making 'Annie Jam' of myself on the rocks below. It was cold and the river below looked like iced coffee, flowing quickly over the stones. I suppose it would be quick, in the worse case scenario.
My understanding was that I would step off the platform and be suspended above the canyon and when I said go, the guys would flick a switch or cut a rope or something and I would be in a 60 meter free fall followed by a massive arc across the canyon. I clarified this with the guys, "So when I step out, I'll be suspended?"
"Yep!"
"Will I drop at all?"
"Oh....about 6 inches, not much."
Gingerly, I stepped one foot out, bent my legs and as the other foot left the platform, the world went a different shape. It felt like a few seconds passed before I realised I was in freefall. Icy wind whipped upwards, swallowing the long vowel of the expletive that I yelled when I realised what had happened.
Seamlessly, the loud rush of air ceased and I was floating above the river, gently swinging back and forth. Peace. It was the most peaceful feeling. I spread my arm out to feel the cool air whooshing past (the other arm was hanging on firmly to the harness) and whooped with delight. I did it! I stepped over the edge of the platform into the unknown and despite the uncertainty, despite the frightening rush and despite the slight discomfort of the harness, it was so worth it for the amazing feeling that followed.

To be continued....

Me Time

My last post is a picture of Greta Garbo, the woman famous for her line "I want to be alone." Just of late, I have craved time alone. Time with no plans, just me, maybe some wine, maybe a book or maybe just nothing. It is interesting that I crave this so much, because those who know me, know that I am hardly a shrinking violet. I guess I am probably fairly intense in a face to face situation. "Chatty" is a word my partner politely describes me as. And I am. I rarely shut up. Sometimes, I should shut up long before I do, because sometimes I say stupid stuff, just because my mouth happens to be open with words tumbling out and I struggle to stop them before they do. Often these situations are a defence mechanism to hide the fact that I am feeling uncomfortable or ignorant or intimidated.
I guess having always been a talkative person, I have kind of developed a bit of a reputation for it and I guess I feel an unconcious need to uphold that reputation. If ever I go to a social event and I am not being "chatty", people start to panic and think I am ill, or mad, or bored, or upset. Generally speaking, if I am like that, it is because I have reached the point that I am currently at. I need some time out. I need time to not talk, to regroup and think, to drink some tea, read a book, watch a film, clean out my third drawer, go walking in a picturesque reserve or write a cathartic blog about spending time alone.
Don't worry, I'll be back with my infamous ability to "talk underwater with a mouthful of marbles" as my mother so affectionately described it!