Happy 15 Birthday Lola

Hard to believe that our little fur-baby Lola is 15 today.  Seems like only yesterday that she joined our family weighing in at under 1kg.  She might be getting older and slower, but she still brings us joy everyday 🐾🐾

With her hearing and eyesight going, she's become a bit grumpier (haven't we all) with other doggies we meet when out and about.  Luckily most dogs seem to realise that she is a senior lady and just give her some space.  Still on her allergy shots, cushings medication and her arthritis isn't going anywhere, but that doesn't stop her from enjoying going out or 2 or 3 little walks a day.  And on longer walks, well the pram has come in handy. 

Nothing wrong with her sense of smell and appetite though. I think she would have had a red hot go at eating the whole chicken if we'd let her.  

So happy birthday Lola the Explorer - your exploring days might have changed, but you're still our gorgeous little girl 💟💖💗

1 year ago today......

Laz's Lane and Rita's Way - first tick off the the list

While I’m on a bit of a streak, I thought I’d write about my first tick off the 2021 list. 

Laz's Lane and Rita's Way are community laneway projects in Carnegie and having lived there for a few years, I’ve been meaning to go back and visit. What a wonderful surprise!

I think the story behind them can best be described by the info found on site:

Laz Stark lived in Graceburn Avenue in Carnegie and was a bit of a local legend. After Laz died in 2018, residents decided to turn the laneway into something special and named it after him.  

Laz's Lane runs from Koornang Road through to Graceburn Avenue, near Carnegie Primary School. It’s filled with colourful paintings and art works, cabinets containing figurines, mosaic art, a little library, and Angel wings - plenty of pic opportunities. 

The Garden and Gallery continue to be added to and all the art and plants have been donated and are maintained by volunteers.

It really is a wonderful display of community diversity and worth a look. 

Rita's Way is named after local artist, Rita Santucci, whose colourful mosaics and artwork can be found dotted all around Carnegie.  Rita’s Way is a newer project, just on the opposite side of Koornang Road. It too includes lots of beautiful ceramic art, paintings, and planter boxes and is a work in progress.   

You can read more about Rita in this article from The Age. 

And if you want to know more follow the Carnegie Community Laneways Facebook page. 

2021 - a year of HEALTH

Always loved a good list and back in 2015, the year I turned 50, I started the 101 things to do in 2015 list.  That then kind of expanded into a bucket list of all the places and things I wanted to do before I kick the bucket.  Many things were unrealistic but adding to it was nearly as much fun as planning days out to tick things off.

For the next few years, I added and ticked things off regularly.  Then when I had a whole year off, it kind of stalled a bit.  That was back in 2019.  As for 2020, well, let’s not talk about that one.

So I spent some time re-visiting the lists.  Removed a lot of things and started a new 52 things to do in 2021 list.  Plenty of space to add things as the year progresses.  Also as my word of the year is HEALTH, I though I’d better throw in a few things around that.

Still working out what my year of HEALTH will look like – but if Rebel Wilson can dedicate a year to feeling better, so can I.  Of course I need to lose some weight and get fitter.  I just signed up to NOOM.  Actually I started the 2-week trial 2 weeks before Christmas (probably not the best time) and unsurprisingly, haven’t lost any weight – but haven’t gained any, so that’s a win at this time of the year. My 4-month program has now kicked off and I’ve given myself to the end of April to lose 10kg.  Each day you work through a few little psyche tips and quiz’s, weigh yourself and log your food. Which is actually quite scary and makes you much more conscious of what you’re actually eating and in my case that’s not enough vegetables and way too much crap. 

Now in the past, the only commitment I’ve really stuck with is avoiding the gym, so now the challenge is to NOOM each day, walk daily, start the day with 30 sit ups and 30 push ups and do 20 minutes of weights 4 times a week.  Small steps. 

More veggies required.  I’m going to cook through a vegetarian cookbook, with my ultimate goal to stick to a 95% vegetarian diet by mid-year.

What else am I trying to incorporate into my year of health? Daily Meditation.  Dabbled a few times, but pretty crap at it.  So just trying 10 minutes at a time.  Breathe in. Breathe out. Easy. Not.

Also decided I want to go on a little retreat this year.  The ones in Byron Bay look lovely but are expensive and one slight problem is that I don’t really like Yoga, apparently that’s OK.  I also looked at Aruna Giri in Healesville – but then saw that it involved silence and maybe (OK definitely) that’s not for me.  I think I need to start off “lite” so have decided that the 2-night Inner Joy Retreat at Happy Buddha in the Blue Mountains is the perfect beginners retreat.  Now if only we’re allowed to travel……

Oh and to get into the zen mode, I've been reading about and ordered some essential oils. 

I’m also trying to get back into the habit of reading. Somewhere along the line last year, maybe because of no train travel, my reading dropped right off.  Which is a shame, because I love reading. So a relaxed target of 26 books on the list.  Oh and I’m listening to random podcasts when I take Lola out for her little walk each day. 

Not sure where I'm actually going to find all the time to do the above and work, but I'm going to be so friggin healthy, calm and in the moment, that I won't give a fuck.

Turning 55 certainly made me think that if we’re going to hit the road soon as Grey Nomads, we better be ready.

New Year, New Word

New Year’s Resolutions, goals, plans for the year and lists. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s go ahead and make them – but be flexible and be prepared to change them.  If my 2019 list of things to do was neglected, then what can be said about my 2020 one?   

Time to re-visit the lists – not to add anything, but to take things off.  Why? Because 2020 has shown me that my bucket lists need to be smaller. Do I really want to “Visit the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida” or “Drive a Ferrari/Maserati/Lamborghini?” No.  I don’t even like driving.  Because 2020 was a year to re-evaluate what’s important and what’s not.

I also like to choose a word for the year.  My word for 2020 was BEGIN.  Maybe it should have been STALLED. Do I keep the same word for a second year and take 2?  Do I choose a new word? 

I revisited the great list of words I had last year, deleted a few, added a few and still have a long list of possibilities:

FLEXIBLE	RISE	ENOUGH	ACTION
KINDNESS	RESPECT	DETERMINATION	CHANGE
CALM	CARE	STRENGTH	DIRECTION
CHALLENGE	HEALTH	LISTEN	POSITIVITY
FOCUS	ACCEPT	RELEASE	CONFIDENCE
BEGIN - 2020	FREEDOM - 2019	BRAVE	DIRECTION
HOPE	ENERGY	PRESENT	LEARN

Once again, I narrowed it down to 5 and then waited for one of them to jump out at me. I’m leaning towards HEALTH.  A year to focus on improving my health. And I think I'll keep Begin - because I kind of feel it didn't get a chance. 

Brownies

 I do love a good brownie. Preferably chewy in the middle and a bit crunchy around the edges. However, we are trying to cut down on sugar (it’s been 29 days since my last chocolate – although there have been a couple of chocolate biscuits), so when I spotted these “noshu” 99% Sugar Free brownies, I thought I’d give them a go.

So last night, I decided I’d whip them up (just call me Sara Lee).  Alarm bells rang when I did the spatula batter taste test and was left with that artificial sweetener taste in my mouth. Panic not I thought, smells OK, chocolatey, the things just need to cook.

30 minutes later, out they came.  I impatiently waited for them to cool a bit and then cut off my fave bit – the corner.  Still warm. Mmmmm, get in my belly – guilt free chocolate goodness.

I managed to swallow the mouthful and was left with this awful taste in my mouth.  The box lied. These are not delicious. These are not fudgy. These are not brownies.  I should have mentioned that they are also gluten and grain free.  And as for the suggestion on the box to add “Noshu sugar free choc chips,” I don’t think it would have been any sort of improvement.  

Never been a fan of artificial sweetener.  Luckily, I rarely drink soft drink, so I’ve never needed to grow to like Coke Zero.

As for these “not-brownies” well you’d need to be either very, very desperate for a chocolate hit or stranded on a deserted island.  And that’s why I ended up having to eat 4 chocolate biscuits to get over the disappointment and get rid of the yuck taste in my mouth.

I’m not much of a baker (let’s face it, I’m not much of a cook), but I used to make brownies from scratch until I discovered that not all packet brownie mixes are bad.  In fact, the Green’s Triple Choc Fudge Brownies are delicious and a bargain when half price at Woolies!

Verdict? Stick to the real thing or skip them all together.  Oh and if you want to make your own from scratch, this is my favourite recipe:

125g butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 1/2 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1.    Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line a medium square baking dish with baking paper.

2.    Melt the butter. Add cocoa and beat until smooth.

3.    Beat the eggs and vanilla essence and add to the cocoa mixture.

4.    Add the sugar and walnuts and fold in the flour until just combined.

5.  Bake for 25-30 minutes. Depending on how gooey you like them

You'll Never Walk Alone

 

My current work set-up (dining table in the lounge) is right next to a large window giving me a good surveillance point for all the comings and goings of neighbours and their dogs. I feel like like a Spanish Abuela peering over a geranium covered balcony.  I recognise the regulars by their dogs rather than their mask covered faces and occasionally wave when they happen to glance in.  We’re all nosey like that – looking in at windows.

Read the above quote today and it got me thinking about all this walking. Maybe not today because the weather was crap, but on most days, there is more foot traffic than ever before.  Of course, with our limited freedom, it seems a shame to waste it and it’s a small attempt at reducing the extra chocolate calories going straight to my arse.  Sounds right in theory, not sure my input is being offset by my output.

All this additional walking around our 5km must be a good thing right?  We’re meeting neighbours with a wave and a muffled hello. Emilio has spent so much time out in the garden/garage that he’s picked up several new clients and had a lovely lady drop off a bottle of Spanish wine – she has a collie.

So if Nietzsche got it right, there should be a lot of great thoughts and ideas out there right? Could it be that over the next few years we’ll see a huge surge in - well everything really.  Or are people just walking about thinking what’s for dinner, dreaming of their next holiday and wondering how the hell they’re going to survive any more home schooling before turning into complete alcoholics.

Some people make phone calls (pays listening in, never know what juicy titbits you might discover about Ms Jones on the corner), some listen to podcasts and some to music. I now have a fancy new pair of wireless, noise cancelling ear buds thanks to Emi, but I only ever wear one ‘cos I worry about being reversed into and missing out on those juicy conversations.  I’ve been trying to get better at keeping in touch and making a phone call whilst on my walks, but sometimes the lure of late 70’s/80’s music is too strong and I have to play it – loud as possible.  I like to sing- a-long and maybe break out a dance move.  Do people look and think, that’s the crazy lady from number 5? Probably not. People are caught up in their own lives to really give a second glance at anyone else. Unless you’re not wearing a mask – then you get the “death stare.”  I religiously wear my mask.

Crikey, side tracked. Crikey? I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. Where did that come from? Maybe because Bindi Irwin was in the news this week with a gender reveal.  Bit strange describing the size of her unborn daughter as a hatchling Aldabra tortoise.  How big is that? Are we talking baby mice size or new born pug puppies?  Anyway, all the best to them.

Back to walking. Sometime during my year of unemployment/freedom, I came across the wonderful Women on Walks group run by the inspiring Annie.  I wrote a story about the group a while ago.  With group walks currently off the table, Annie came up with a plan to keep us walking and connected by setting little challenges and counting virtual kilometres. 

The first lot of challenges were taking photos of “things.” Gates, door, paths that sort of thing.  All of a sudden I started noticing things I’d walked past countless times before and paying attention. We weren’t just walking around, we were on a super important mission.  We moved onto numbered letterboxes. Low numbers are easier than the high ones. The disappointment was real when after walking 15 minutes along a street, the number was missing.  I found myself walking down streets I never knew existed. I even got a little bit lost one day and admit to having to look at google maps. And now we are just finishing off letters.  So much creativity and virtually we’ve been around Australia, New Zealand, over to China and ended up in Portugal.  All our stops have been documented with awesome info and pics of all the places we visited along the way.   

Looking forward to meeting up with all the WOW’s on a real walk soon. In the meantime, I’ll keep walking and waiting for all those great thoughts to just come flooding in. 

MOJO Month

Extra time, check. Motivation, MIA. 

These last four months have just flown by and I can't say I've completed my best-seller, written a ton of articles, become an expert baker, learnt any fabulous new skills, read a heap of books, got crafty, got fit (fat maybe) or done anything that feels particularly productive.

Whilst Lockdown 1.0 had some novelty about it, this time around, well the novelty has definitely worn off and like most people, I'm over it.  However, unlike the covidiots (WTF are some people thinking) out there, I'm more than happy to wash my hands, wear my mask, stay close to home, socially distance and do whatever we need to do to stay safe and get "over this" - whatever that means.

Lockdown 2.0 is definitely leading me down a path of laziness and procrastination, so time to kick my own butt into gear and at least try and get my writing MOJO back. So I've signed up for MOJO month with the Australian Writers Centre. Here we are Day 1, the main theme being stepping beyond your comfort zone.  "The comfort zone is a beautiful place - but nothing grows there"

Under Operation, our mission for today, should we choose to accept it, was to create an Acrostic using our names to introduce ourselves. Geez, I gave myself 15 minutes and it was harder than it should have been:

Joyfully Usurping Laziness Impatiently Awaiting

Adventure New Travel Inspiration Growth Ushering Exciting Days And Dreams