Water, Bridge and the Gold Coast

I found my camera! It had been missing for a week, so you missed out on dramatic shots of us angst and nit ridden; a near 2 meter carpet snake in our driveway and various school holiday antics.

We still have nits (we think), its paranoia central here, this is the first time the kids have had them - they always love my long, clean, healthy hair - but its also the first time they've been resistant to oil and essential oil treatments.
So after some internet and soul searching I decided to do the insecticide treatment :( and that was sad.. after all the organic food and chemical avoidance's and we go ahead and spray it on the skin sigh. Well we've got another treatment to go next week, lets hope that's the end of it!

My head hair is now long past the small of my back and I was very close to shaving it instead of treating it, kids weren't very amenable to shaving theirs off though :D!

Bits of news include enrolling the kids in the last 2 months of soccer and I've started cooking nearly every night in an attempt at being a 'real' wife :P. Oh and I started a new diet which is 'insulin reducing', so sugar, wheat, potatoe, banana, grape, rice (except basmati), dried fruit, fruit juice free. I haven't cemented the fine details of the diet yet, but its to be used in conjunction with a progesterone cream (of which I am severely deficient) and exercise!
So it looks like all my prayers are coming true in a scary and hard work necessitating way doh!!

So far I've made spelt spaghetti with sugar snap peas, zucchini, green onions, sausages and brollini; sweet potatoe mash and ah.. a middle cut of beef boiled in garlic thyme and wine which was actually reeeally yummy; and tonight we had sausages sweet potatoe hash brown and homemade tomatoe sauce baked beans :). Introducing even slightly alternative cooking to my picky family is, well, intimidating but, I'm hopeful :).

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I thought I'd show you those Gold Coast shots that I actually blogged about months ago but never posted. So briefly (unlike my original draft ;)), Blythe had a reward chart which she completed over 6 months and her request was White Water World so I paired it up with a Bridge Congress (which is a huge annual Australian event) and we drove down Friday, went to WWW, stayed in a nice hotel; then the kids went home with Phill, Dad arrived and we played in the congress Saturday, Sunday, Monday.

The 'green room' was a single loop that shot you out into the huge funnel and so fast up the side that you think you're going to loop which is freaky as you're only sitting on a tube! And then gravity swings you up the other side and back and forth you go as you get funneled out the end! Although the green room had the biggest thrill, the orange one was much more fun because it had a shorter queue, heh, and went for four times as thrilling long.

It had been rainy and cold on the drive down and the kids prayed earnestly on the way and we decided to go and see (I'd packed other clothes and raincoats in case we went elsewhere!). As we arrived we could see the horizon shrouded in grey with a blue patch just above the park.. and.. it was even warmer.

Blythe and Daddy headed straight for the big stuff, while Dev and I went in search of 'squirting things'.

We found some squirting things.. apparently they weren't 'the ones' but nothing a bit of exploring, sun baking and general monkeying around couldn't fix.

I went on three big rides with Blythe which was pretty hilarious, I don't know why but I couldn't stop laughing, my mouth filling with water! We went on the Octopus first, I got stuck on the lip at the top, I felt like a flopping fish out of water! lying on my mat, trying to get unstuck!


Dev was scared stiff of 'The Bucket'; now this was one serious bucket!

Teh Bucket, nuff said.

There was a wave pool which was good fun, Dev and I spent most of the time there and playing with the camera. We left the big rides to Blythe and Daddy (and the queues!). Blythe and I floated in huge inflatable rings and when the waves started I got the giggles and when you're hanging nearly upside down its very hard to stop the giggles!


When we got cold we headed for the hotel and found Mantra on the Park on the forth time looping round the block and had some yummy Italian food.

The kids played 'Bang' and let us sleep in :). That's our room's view and there's some funky cafe decor.

We had 5 sessions of bridge that were about 4 hours long each; there were four sections: novice for under 100 points, restricted for under 300, open, and senior for those over 75 years I think (given that the average age of bridge players is about 70 that's not such a restrictive section ;p). Although I'd only been playing 2 and a bit years and had less then 50 points! Dad had nearly 200 so we were pegged in restricted. This was very intimidating! These players were either very good and had been playing for at least 4-5 years or were still good and had been playing for 10-20++ years!


How the points work: every time you play at a club it takes about 4 hours and you get a percentage, 50% meaning you got average on everything which is actually a decent score, anything more then 50 means you did better then most, so the top third at the session scores points. Depending on how many people are there it could be anything from 0.20 to 0.60 of a green point. In club competitions you get red points which are about 0.40 to 1 point ans then there's state and national competitions which are gold points which can get you twice as much as green or even more.

Over 2000 people played in the pairs event.
Sushi is Good.
Hordes of bridge players (ie: -mostly- retired, resort attired older folk) descend upon Broadbeach; we played 'pick the bridge player' :).

The first two sessions was to grade us, out of 126 pairs and we did pretty well and got into the "A" grade, got into the top 20 in fact. There was only one other pair from our club in Buderim so a little friendly encouragement (read: rivalry ;)) started, they came about third in the grading!

The first two sessions after that were a bit disheartening, mistakes happened, so did bad luck, and some arguing, we got 49% and 49%. This didn't do us any good on the competitive front or the relationship front.

I had some prayer and realised that we came to have fun and that my outlook was all wrong. This cheered me up :) and the next day I prayed that we have fun! oh and please God, I don't care about winning but please, please no more bad luck ;), we've had our share!

Well it was an odd day, the cards were extreme (they're always randomly dealt before hand) but we had decided to just have fun and the cards favoured us and so did luck. You could watch your progress being projected on the big screen throughout the day and we kept going up and up. Our poor compatriots kept going down and down although they'd been having a very good time coming in the top 5 and 10 previously. Suffice to say we came first by a large margin with a smashing 67.81% (actually 66.67% but there were two errors against us)! Our fellow Buderimites came 8th and what gracious fellows they are.
This big finish brought our poultry 16th place to 4th place overall! We got a shiny pen and $100 prize heh :). But I tell you what, we had fun ;) :p.

Our weekend netted us over 11 gold points.

We had some really yum food there, I highly recommend Valentino's for pizza, Oberoi's Taj Indian before 7pm - $10 dinner! Alto for breaky/brunch, pricier but good and best of all Sushi4U (lol) - sushi and yum cha - cheap and authentic!

Then we drove home in a deluge; that storm ended up flooding low areas and causing huge traffic and detours, fortunately we got home safe and sound. I took some really cool shots though.. something about driving at night in the rain with the glowing fuzzy reflecting lights is entrancing.

We went for a drive one morning and found this huge Asian super store... these looked like frogs eyes but turned out to be some lotus or sesame or otherwise innocent drink.
There were crowds on the beach waiting for the tsunami to arrive doh!!
Yum Cha is Good!
Rainy drive lights.

Summer Simple Pleasures

Or, upside down AU Winter snippet :)

As per Whirliegig's post I'm adding some snapshot memories.

These are the flourless chocolate cupcakes, featured in my recipe of the month, in their various stages: being stolen by Phill before I put the topping on, being iced (the cupcakes not Phill), smothered in cream cocoa and cinnamon.


This sunset is the most spectacular I've ever seen.. I chased it home all the way from work, barely looking at the road :p, it was a river of gold. Flecks of dove grey, pink and gold gathering into one clump of pure gold ripples ahh. The fluff ball clouds covered the entire sky from powder puffs to steaming banners on the other side. Was bitter sweet because I didn't make it to the camera in time, but here's the after glow:

No Bars Hold

So, I was having a discussion with my man this morning, what was it even about..? Oh yeah, he'd bought a game to play for his work commutes and he'd finished it in one night. And how he pointed the finger at me for being extreme, well I thought that was about as extreme as it got as far as self-discipline went; you know.. no bars hold!You're probably thinking 'what?!'. Well I hadn't understood the original term so I knew it sounded something like that and I understood it as much as ever. My husband thought this was very funny, and proceeded to crack all sorts of jokes about chocolate bars and prison bars..

I got dressed, sorted clothes, played puppies with Dev, had a deep and meaningful with Blythe and Phill made a passing comment about breakfast bars and I remembered! no holds barred!!!

I laughed so hard the tears streamed. I laughed that I would say something I didn't understand, I laughed that I didn't turn a hair, I laughed that I didn't mind looking like an idiot, I laughed that I didn't understand the original term so I wouldn't realise I'd gotten it wrong anyway!! I laughed at what Phill must have thought, I laughed at how ridiculous the comment was and most of all I laughed that it took me an hour and a half to figure out :D.

Belly laughs are soooo good to start the day :). So remember No Bars Hold! If anyone asks, of course you know what you're talking about ;).

The weathers been rather cold (for here) but today we had a lovely spring day and nature thought it would prove it ;). These are currently brightening my garden.

Well, welcome back me? or about time!! or Who?! :P

Yeah... I've been through some gloomy moods since my last blog entry. I got half way through typing up my Gold Coast trip blog when I realised - I wasn't any good at writing.

You guys don't want to read a journal entry, boring! Either I keep it short and sweet or make an interesting story. So, I'm going to practice that, I'm not a writer but I don't want to give
up altogether, lets see what I can do after some training.

These big mummas are coastal golden orb-weavers. They showed up oo, this year only and now they're Everywhere! They make golden webs and they've nearly encased my balcony lol. I don't mind them, they keep the bugs down, I just don't want to run into one in the middle of the night in a mad rush to get my washing in :P. They can grow as big as your hand.

Personally, my hormones are out of whack, but I got some blood tests done; 'seeing' a doctor, attempting to eat better :P, so we'll see some progress.

I've learnt something interesting though, when I can't control my chemical responses reasonably or in other words my emotions are irrational! - after suffering ups and mostly downs for months I realised that 'hay yes, I might be sad today, but its just an emotion and I don't actually feel sad'. Make sense? I might be more sensitive, prone to disappointment and easily brought to tears and over worry but I realise that I'm blessed, I'm loved, I'm actually happy underneath and I suddenly know whatever I feel isn't true. To take everything I feel with a grain of salt and say I'm ok. And you know, it makes the WORLD of difference. The difference between coping and not. If I don't feel like doing anything, I still do and I feel good by the end of the day :). Instead of the opposite which I would if I took my moods as an excuse and indulged them (which is soo easy to do when you feel depressed).

My 'babies', these are the offspring of a net-casting spider, I think! There are stacks!! They've spread all around my comfy balcony chair, I might have to do something about all these spiders if I ever want my balcony back.

That'll do for a bit of deep self revelation ;).

We've had an interesting term, Blythe got a bad review in the beginning of the year so to bring the responsibility back to her I instituted a homework 'catch-up' schedule (for this term).

For an extra hour after school every day she'd do times tables, maths trainer, spelling, story writing, handwriting etc. I tried to make it varied and fun(ish) so school work wouldn't be seen
as punishment. I tell you what though I was sick of it! lol, it meant we had to cut back on our normal after school outings and I was spending my cooking/tidying time doing homework. And if we missed it, I'd feel guilty.

It did make me realise how little I knew about the world though and how I'd like to expand my kids education myself (and to pull out my finger!).

Today we start our school holidays (for 3 weeks), yay :) and I've got a plan for the first time, not just lounging around!

Phill starts a new job in a week. It doubles his hours from 20 to 40 and triples his pay. He needs to commute 4 hours a day though, so he's going to see if he can stomach it. I hope so as he has a plan; down the track is a regional manager position which he can do here on the Coast. His new job is IT help desk for public schools; so a secure job and he can work from home half the time after a probationary period.

Blythe had an 8th birthday party, she themed it a pajama party. I'd bought 40 silver and gold helium balloons and Phill blew up about 50 white ones so the lounge room looked like it was floating in clouds ;). Every thing was silver and gold, I made two moon and star cakes and we played all sorts of games. The girls mostly liked Limbo and the boys (Dev and James) played with Dev's Thomas train tracks!

I've been having all sorts of interesting ideas: investments, careers, projects, business', all of which I have no training with or can't afford! But they're good ideas :). Naturally, being me,
I want to do all of them and don't feel thwarted. The perfect friend/partner for me would be a doer! Someone who could take all this intellectual creation and give it life. In a perfect world.. :). As a result, I may be studying next year with the aim of creating a fulfilling and economically viable path for myself :).

I've been reading unearth this lifes blog (I haven't been reading blogs since I stopped blogging!) and I'm very inspired and motivated to make a healthier lifestyle for my family.

I've never gardened.. ever, I usually kill green things :(, so my aim in being self sufficient in the vegy and fruit department might be somewhat of a challenge! :D

So far we'll wait to see where we're living (considering the big job change) and then I might need to learn a few things o.o !!

Look what I found prowling my garden!
And something tha'ts actually happy its raining non stop.

I wont be making any promises with my reblogging, but I'm hoping to maintain it again; daily, weekly, monthly? Ever is a good start ;).


So its very nice to 'see' all you fine folk again :D, see you round!