Hello?

I know, it's very cheeky of me to think that anyone would still be around after completely neglecting my ever-faithful readers for the last month, but I thought I'd better pop my head in.

In my defence, I've been exceptionally busy since I last spoke with you, not to mention horribly ill for the last couple of days (it's so nice to be able to sit up for any length of time!)
Mind you, I'm not completely better yet. I got hit with a very rapid onset cold on Monday night, and have been in bed since. In fact, I'm writing this while all snuggled up. I think I've got a little bit of a chest infection to be honest, so if I'm not better tomorrow, it's back to the doc. I don't want to get pneumonia (again).

So, my last post was on the 29th of August. I've had many adventures since then: There's been a strike, which is always interesting, if nothing else. There's been lots of work-related hi-jinx with some new, and very interesting and fun, colleagues - did you know it's been a whole year since I started my new job? And I still love it!
I've also started my other casual job doing some tutoring at the Uni. That's been a lot of fun too, though at times frustrating (I'm a little pedantic about spelling and these are university students - I'll say no more...), and scary (do I really know enough to teach at a university level?). I'm even giving a lecture next week, which is even more scary! Still, I'm glad to be doing it. It's a nice kind of teaching.

We had Father's Day, which was a pretty quiet affair, with my Dad away and me not 100% (what is it with me lately?), but the boys did some nice kite flying:

We have also been busy creating a 'Lego Room'. We have an old trailer/caravan thing that's been sitting out in the backyard full of junk, so we cleaned it out (chucking most of the junk out thank goodness!), and moved all the Lego from Oliver's room.

Last week, James and I went to see The Living End at the local uni bar. We probably wouldn't have gone if not for the whole Sam thing. As you know, The Living End was Sam's favourite band, and I had said that I would go the next time they were here. If Sam was alive, he definitely would have been there with me (it was over 18s, but we would have worked something out!), but it was good having James there, as he gets it. So once again, it was a good night tinged with sadness. It was a pretty good night, they always play well and they played enough of their old music to get most of the crowd involved.

I also spent last Saturday night being extremely wicked at the Hen's Night of a good friend: drinks, dancing, strippers, you know - the usual. You know, despite the horror of finding myself at Mooseheads (check out the photo!), it was actually fun, and a bit of an ego boost, as many boys came up and tried it on with me, and not just the ugly desperate ones!
It was a great night in which I (of course) had a bit too much to drink, which was a bit silly as the next day Oliver and I were due to take part in the annual Canberra Times Family Walk. 


Luckily, I was spared any sign of a hangover and we had a pleasant (if very cold) 5km walk around the lake. It's the second year we've done it (my friend Deb went too with her daughter Lucy), and it's lots of fun for a good cause (The Heart Foundation).

Phew! It's no wonder I've had no time for blogging! I will try to get back in here regularly, but it doesn't look like slowing down. We're going on a holiday soon (robbers beware, our house will be inhabited), plus it's not only social season (have you noticed that the social engagements seem to pile up when the weather starts to warm up?), but it's birthday season around our place. This month we've got Anthony's mum's 60th (it was on Tuesday but we're having lunch on Sunday); then in October we've got Oliver and Anthony(40!), as well as Anthony's brother Tim; then in November we've got Anthony's brothers Phil and Christopher and foster sister Ange; and finally in December there's James, my Dad and me! Lots of cake. Not so good for me who is now on a no-cake diet!

Actually, that's the other thing. My doctor told me the other day that I'm 'this close' to diabetes. So I'm going to lose some weight. No, I really am! It may well take up the bulk of my future posts.

So until the next one, much love to you.

Another test I didn't want to take

On Saturday, I got the fright of my life.

I came home from the markets to find Anthony unconscious in the backyard; face-down in the mud.
Despite prodding, poking and yelling at him, I couldn't get a response, so I called an ambulance.
In the meantime my lovely neighbour, who is a nurse, came over and was doing the 'talk to me, move a finger if you can hear me' sort of thing, and generally reassuring me.

My parents also turned up, and went about looking after Ollie.

By the time the ambulance had arrived (about 10 minutes later), and moved Anthony into it (with the help of another paramedic team - two bloody ambulances outside my house! - 30 minutes or so later), he was still unconscious.

He kind of came to in the ambulance, but couldn't remember anything. It was another hour or so in the emergency ward before he started making any sense at all, but he was still sleepy.

Finally, after 5 hours, a CT scan and a lots of worried calls and messages from our family, I was able to take him home with a pretty nasty concussion.

It turned out that he had banged his head pretty hard on the monkey bars we have out in the backyard (we have a pretty amazing playground out there).

So, he was OK. A bit of a headache, but OK. But I've gotta tell you, I was a little freaked! It brought up a lot of memories, and was an extra worry I didn't need. But I guess it wasn't his fault.

But I'll tell you this, I don't need any more of those kinds of tests thank you very much! That's it! I think I've proved my worth now. Looking forward to calm times ahead...

What? It's not Friday yet??

My goodness time is dragging on this week!

I really thought it was Friday when I was packing up today. I must be getting very old. I pack too much into a weekend and feel like a 60 year old all week!! (No offense to 60 year olds, I do know some very nice ones :) in fact, they've probably got more 'up and go' than me at the moment!).

Oliver's finally feeling better too. As I've mentioned, Oliver was sick last week, and when it just wouldn't go away, we went to the doctor, who said it was probably giardia. Horrible little bacteria creatures! But thankfully he's on the mend and back at school. He was quite possibly driving Anthony mad!

I'm back to exercising, which is good, because none of my clothes fit properly at the moment! I have a lovely colleague that gave me a bag of shirts, which really helped, but I should really do something more about it! I do that many laps up and down the hill to the library, that I'm getting a good workout at school anyway, but I'm happy to be also doing my morning exercise. I've got a good walking buddy on Tuesday mornings (she will be good for keeping me honest on the very cold mornings), and this morning I walked down to the lake (in minus 3 degrees temperatures) to take some photos. The gym is OK, although I get frustrated with the way people look at me. I guess they've seen me coming there for so long; losing heaps of weight and then putting it all on again (I could just be paranoid)...But I do enjoy the workout.

I'll be glad when this week is over!

Well, the ankle ended up being OK. By the next day, I was pretty much walking normally again. I have no idea what weird stuff was going on! It was almost like it needed to 'click' - you know, like you click your knuckles?

But then, on Monday night, Oliver woke at 1.30am and started vomiting. He then vomited every hour for another 4 hours. Poor kid. By 4.30, he was so frustrated. He said, "I hate vomiting! It stops you doing what you are trying to do!" (in this case, sleep). He then got up and watched TV. I guess it's good he knows when it's a lost cause!

Anthony had one bout that night too. I was OK, but last night was awake most of the night with pains in the stomach. I didn't vomit, but felt like crap. I felt pretty crappy all day today too.

So we picked up a very powerful (and quick) virus, which now, hopefully has moved on...

Because I can't afford to get sick this week! The Book Fair is so busy, and I've had too much time off already!

Not that I'm minding the Book Fair too much. It's very nice to see kids (and their parents) excited about books (my god, I sound like such a geeky librarian!), and we made a fair bit of money already.
Sometimes it feels like the librarian job is a bit of an 'add on', so it's nice to feel like I'm contributing to the school. I am enjoying the job too. My boss asked me if it might be a career path I'd consider, and I must say, I probably wouldn't mind! It would have to be one of those progressive, Technology-rich libraries, where books and computers have equal standing though!

So I've been very busy. It's not so bad, I do like to be busy, and it helps keep my mind off things that get me down, but it is very tiring (especially when you're not 100%!). And I haven't been able to get out and take photos either! :(

Dear Diary,

I went back to work yesterday. It was OK, but by god was I busy!
I already had a lot of respect for librarians, but now I am in AWE. How they manage to teach a full and rich program to a bunch of classes, as well as doing library stuff is (at the moment) beyond me! I'm sure once I get the hang of it, it will be better, but my goodness!

I suppose it doesn't help that I'm still feeling a bit under the weather. I really should try and get to the doctor I guess. Like I said in a previous post, last time I had a sinus infection like this, I ended up with pneumonia. It doesn't seem to be getting any better. This morning I woke at 4am (god knows why!) but couldn't get back to sleep. After a while I got up, thinking I'd go to the gym and then write in my blog. But when I got up my head was so heavy, and I was coughing a bit, so I just lay on the couch for a while. Feeling a bit better now, but I shouldn't really take any chances. Off to the doctor today methinks!

That reminds me, the other day when I saw my lovely (wonderful, awesome, fantastic) brother and sister in law, Laura asked me how I was feeling, as she'd seen my post about being sick.
This happens a lot - someone will mention something related to a blog post, and for a moment I'll think 'how the heck did they know that?'
That's also how I ended up with all the dragonflies. People read or hear about something, and then they act on it. It's almost exponential sometimes too! After my post about the dragonfly, a lovely work colleague presented my with a cute stick-on dragonfly which now sits inside my phone case. Thanks A!)
Despite the initial surprise when someone makes a comment like that, I find that I don't actually mind it. It's funny, I do tend to be quite a loud-mouth at times, and occasionally over-share, but there are some things I don't discuss with many people at all. But these thoughts (and sometimes secrets) do go on here, even though I know (mostly) who is probably going to read about it.

I wonder what it is that makes us more comfortable sharing our innermost thoughts and feelings on (digital) paper; things that we probably wouldn't readily discuss? Perhaps we're afraid of the reaction? Perhaps it gives people time to think about what we've said?

I remember years ago (when I was a teenager), my dad found my diary by accident. He didn't read much (these days, I don't really care if he did, I probably would do the same if I came across something that my kids wrote), but commented on something I'd written about my Poppa (he had died not too long before that). I was a moody teen at the time, and these thoughts were probably not something I was going to talk about with my parents, but in a way I was glad that my dad knew how I felt.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly don't advocate reading other people's diaries, and I certainly wouldn't go looking for one, but what is a blog but a more sophisticated, online version of a diary?

I think for me, maybe I do want to share, but I'm afraid that people don't want to hear about it (or at least want to choose the time and place that they do hear about it). This comes down to some of my longstanding personal issues I guess: I don't want to be boring; I don't want to be a burden; I want to be able to be the good listener...etc...

I'm not going to be solving my personality/self-esteem issues any time soon. In fact I probably never will, but it doesn't matter. I'm happy with this arrangement. I get to say how I feel, and you get to choose whether or not you listen. And please, dear reader, don't feel bad if you don't feel like reading, because I've got it out of my system now anyway!

Perhaps I should dig out some of my old diaries. Should be good for a laugh!

Check out my buns!

This post was written yesterday, but blogger was giving me issues, so I'm only just posting it now.
I had another go at hot cross buns today. Well, it was a cold and rainy day and I didn't really feel like doing housework, so I did some cooking instead.

These buns worked much better. They were fluffy and yummy and everyone liked them (except maybe I'll put less mixed peel in next time).

Hot Cross Buns (2nd try) - From 21st Birthday Cookery Book of the CWA in Tasmania
30g compressed yeast (2 dry sachets)
300 milk
55g sugar
450g plain flour (I used 3 and a bit cups)
1 tsp salt
30g butter (1.5 Tablespoons)
85g sultanas (just under half a cup)
55g currants (just under 1/3 cup)
55g mixed peel (just under 1/3 cup - but I would use less next time)
1 egg
a little mixed spice (I used 1 tsp, but would probably use more next time)

Mix yeast with warm milk, about half the sugar, and 1 tsp of flour. Cover and leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes.
Sift flour and salt, rub in butter, add the rest of sugar and the fruit. Beat the egg and mix with the yeast/milk. Make a well in the dry stuff and add the wet stuff. Work in the dry ingredients from the sides until it is absorbed and you have a soft dough.
Knead well on a floured board and leave in a bowl (covered in a tea towel) for 1.5 hours while it rises.
Knead dough again and divide into balls (the recipe says 24, but I just made a heap of golf ball sized buns). Leave them covered on a warm, greased tray for another 15-20 minutes to rise a bit more.
Bake 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees. While they are hot, glaze with hot milk (mixed with a little sugar) and then sprinkle on some cinnamon.
While I was waiting for the buns to rise, I made a couple of soups (like I said, it was cold and wet).

I made vegie soup for Ollie and I, and Pea and Ham for Anthony (ever the carnivore).

Vegie Soup
Chicken stock (I used the continental fresh stuff)
Some (about a cup) of the tomato puree I made from my crop of yummy tomatoes.
3 big potatoes
2 carrots
2 onions
2 sticks celery (with leaves)
about 1/3 of a cabbage
3 small parsnips
2 zucchinis
3 cloves garlic (again from my garden)
soup mix (lentils, barley etc)
handful of chopped sweet potato (frozen stuff I'd been meaning to cook)

I cooked it pretty much all afternoon, and after I took half out to freeze I added a couple of jalapeno chillis (from my garden). It wasn't bad, but I'll probably add some herbs (or chives from my garden) and more chilli when I eat it again. Next time I might also add some spinach or something.

Anthony likes my Pea and Ham soup (none of them would probably eat soup willingly if I didn't make them, but I love soup and it's so nice and cheap to make), so I made him some of that too.

Pea and Ham Soup
4 bacon bones (I usually use about 300gm chopped ham or bacon, but thought I'd try the bones)
1 packet split green peas
1 carrot
1-2 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 stick celery
about 1/3 cup of my tomato puree

I boiled the bones a bit to see if the fat would come off a bit (some did), then bunged everything together in a pot and cooked it all afternoon. After a couple of hours I pulled lots of the meat off the bones, and then chucked the meat and the bones back in.

I usually mush up all my soups (and my bolognaise etc) with the whizz stick, as I've found it handy in disguising the many vegies I add. Not that my kids are terribly fussy, but I'm in the habit. I don't mind the texture myself.

It's funny how alike both soups looked! But we all enjoyed them, and with a loaf of crusty, warm bread, they were a nice dinner for an autumn evening.
I had a big problem with my ears/pressure on the return flight to Canberra, and have felt sick since, so I think I have some kind of sinus infection. It's weird, because up until the ear blockage thing, I had been feeling fine. A bit of a mild headache, but I had put it down to stress. The last time I had a sinus infection I got pneumonia, so I'm taking it very easy. But I guess if I'm still feeling sick on Tuesday I'd better go to the doctor.
Hopefully a good dose of vegies might help a bit.