Reflection

The decade that was.

It has only just occurred to me that today is the end of the decade. Compared to 1999 it is going out very quietly. Remember Y2K? New Years Eve 1999 saw us "celebrating" the end of the century. We, (my husband, myself and our daughter) were in Wales, UK, staying with wonderful friends we had met back in Australia, some years before. I think in December 1999 I had high hopes for the new century. I always remember that when I was in school I used to think that the year 2000 was a lifetime away, and I would be really old as I would turn 41 in 2000. How funny that is now.

In hindsight this decade didn't have a great start. New Years Eve day 1999, our friends were having a combined party with their next door neighbours, unfortunately the neighbour's mother/grandmother became gravelly ill and was rushed to hospital. The party was cancelled. We decided to have a low key affair. I was suffering from the flu ,and had been very sick all day and dragged myself out of my sick bed to join in the "festivities" in the evening. My "angel" who was 6, stayed up long enough to see the fireworks. We had an uneventful night but when it came to midnight, my ex-husband, E's father, wouldn't even wish me Happy New Year, let alone share a kiss. ( I should have figured then, shouldn't I).

Eighteen months later, we separated. I finally saw the light, that I did not need to be married to someone who verbally abused me, who treated me badly. It took a long time to recognize the fact that I had been a victim of domestic abuse. It was a long time ago that we separated, and eventually divorced, but I am very, very glad that we did. When it happened, it shook me to the core as I always believed that marriage was for life, (til death us do part), and I would do anything to keep the marriage working. It also took me a long time to believe in myself and to realize that I had done the right thing by both myself and my daughter.

The last eight years have flashed by very quickly. I was determined to bring up my daughter in a stable home, where she would always feel safe and where there were no "surprises". I kind of put my life on hold for her. No regrets. Now she is 16 and is about to start her last year of school and then possibly go to university or travel overseas. Who knows what is in store for her. She will get her drivers licence this year, so she will be a free spirit, and won't be relying on me to get her to places. Kind of sad that she is growing up, but, I am proud of her as she is a great kid (most of the time).

I am looking forward to this new and exciting decade that will have a whole lot of possibilities for me. I have only great expectations for this next decade. I am not going to have any New Years resolutions, they always end up being broken. No, this year I am just going to look forward to what life will offer, and not dwell on the past.

I can't wait!!!!!

PS. I normally don't dwell on the past. Especially the distant past, but, I just felt that this decade needed closure and this was a good way to deal with it.

2010

I just found this on a blog, here. I think it sums me up perfectly. How many times have I vowed to lose weight, how many times have I tried, succeeded, then put it all back on again. This sounds like a much better idea, and I am sure my friends are going to love me for this, ha ha.

Christmas day table

Here is the table that my wonderful friend J, whipped up on Christmas day. She raided the neighbours garden for the beautiful red flowering gum. A unique Aussie take on Christmas decorating, and it matched the Christmas crackers too.

A belated Christmas post

A few photos from Christmas. As it is hot here in December, I prefer to use cool colors on the tree, and use cool color lights. It doesn't quite give the same cosy atmosphere, but when its 30 degrees (86F) you don't need to be cosy.

Some of the presents waiting under the tree.

Cookbooks

This could be my place. It would look like this if I acquire more cookbooks.

I need this.

Aaarrrghhhh! I have too many cookbooks. I would love to have more but I have no room to put them. My bookcase is overflowing and every spare shelf in the kitchen cupboards not filled with utensils is filled to overflowing with cookbooks. What do I do????? HELP!

A. Do I actually get rid of the ones I have never used, even though they have pretty pictures?

B. Do I go thru them and copy the one recipe I do use from the book, and then get rid of the book. (sensible option).

C. Find another space to put my new ones?

Any suggestions?

Sunshine Hmmmmmm

Back in April when I started this blog, my first post was about the amount of rain we were having. I now wish I hadn't complained so much. Unfortunately since July we have hardly had any rain at all. I live in a sub tropical climate and although we have a dry few months from the end of July to November, by now we should have had heaps of rain. It has been soooo dry that a lot of my plants are starting to look very, very sick. We have had a few thunderstorms and usually they would inundate us with rain, but no such luck. Today it was looking very ominous.

And even more ominous.

Unfortunately, as promising as it looked, and we were all crossing our fingers, we only had 4mm (0.15inches). We need at least 3 times that in one storm to get things back on track. Hoping the forecast storms for tomorrow will bring the much needed rain.

Unexpected Visitor

Yesterday I decided it was high time I cleaned up some of the junk that had been accumulating on the verandah. Whilst moving some of the things around, I saw movement under the water tank that is sitting on the verandah. At first I thought it was a python...yes...unfortunately they are common around here. although not very large, and it has been quite a few years since the one and only one that made its home at our place. It didn't stay for long, and I haven't seen it since (huge sigh of relief).

After my heart skipping a beat I took a very cautious closer look and found this.

I am not sure how or why he/she ended up sitting in an empty plant pot under the water tank, but it sure gave me a fright and I am sure I gave it a fright too, when I started moving things around. This morning it was gone, hopefully to a much more appropriate home for a Ringtail possum.

Panang Pork Curry (Panang muu)

I have finally decided that buying hundreds of cookbooks and lovingly reading them from cover to cover, bookmarking fabulous recipes and cutting out hundreds of recipes from magazines has to have a purpose. So I am now.............ta dahhhh............................going to try and aim to cook at least one recipe from each cookbook I have, and also start using some of the recipes I have cut out or printed out and stashed in my recipe folder. It's the old 80/20 principle, 80% of the time I cook 20% of my recipes, or in my case it's more like 99% of the time I cook 1% of my recipes.

Tonight I just produced the most wonderful Penang Curry. I found the recipe, Panang Pork Curry on the Taste website you can find it here . It was amazing, now I never have to go to a restaurant to have Penang Curry again. The only change I made to the recipe, I substituted Valcom Penang Curry Paste, for the red curry paste. It was absolutely fabulous.

Once I get my camera working again, I hope I will be able to start taking photos, but in the meantime, at least you can see what it looks like on the Taste website