I miss my sister

DAY 28

I've been missing my sister Alison lots and lots and lots lately. There is a big gap in my life where she was. Maybe it is because we don't seem to be able to get it together enough to talk like we used to - time differences and my lack of broadband or a landline at home means we can only talk when I am at work - which never allows for anything other than daily happenings.

I miss Alison and her ability to challenge me, to call me out when I am being selfish, to remind me that I am not alone, to advise my dating life (or lack there of) and to do what sisters do - be there always.

Al wrote about missing me a couple of weeks ago on her blog. I love how she talks about the joy of having a sister who has all the same shared memories. I am missing making new memories as well. The every-day memories. The cup-of-tea-and-a-chat memories. The quick-escape-from-the-kids memories. The lay-in-the-backyard-with-a-book memories.

I miss you Al, and I know things won't change with absence.

Giving #3

DAY 27

I think the reason I am beginning to love Christmas is that it gives me a reason to do lots of cooking with chocolate!

I had to bring a $5 gift to a party last week - so instead of buying a block of chocolate I decided to make the most amazing choc chip biscuits and my favourite chocolate sauce. I'm keeping the sauce recipe to myself (can't give away all my secrets) but trust me - you will love the cookies!

Whenever I cook these I have to stop myself eating more than 4 at once - they are that good! I have started doubling the recipe and storing 1/2 in the freezer for the next time I need something quick.

Linda's Choc Chip cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp water
2 1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-3 cups choc chips (white, milk, dark combination - whatever you want)

1 - Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2 - Add eggs and mix
3 - Add remaining ingredients4 - Roll into small balls and place on baking tray. Press down to flatten slightly.

5 - Bake 10-12mins at 180c

Enjoy!

Photo Friday

DAY 26

A Friday ritual - celebrating a special moment from the past that I don't want to ever forget.

Is the love of books genetic?

DAY 25

I was just going through my photos from over the weekend and smiled when I came across these two pics of my nieces happily reading new books that my mum got from the Op Shop for them. It reminded me of the many, many, many happy hours I have spent with my nose buried in a book.

For as long as I can remember books have been a constant friend. As a kid mum would read a story to us every night before bed - with many fights developing between Alison and myself over who got to choose until mum devised a clever alternating schedule with her choosing on Sunday night! Both Alison and I count 'Go Dog Go' as one of our favourites.

It seems that most children love books and stories but the love seems to steadily decrease every year they are in school, and by the time they hit high school the only reading they do is study, not pleasure. That is sad. Books were a great way to discover that I was not the only one going through puberty in such an awkward way.

I recently read some teen 'vampire' books and they made me smile - books where describing a kiss can take a whole page, and a breakup can take a whole chapter. Ah life is so much simpler in high school - more drama but less to lose in the game of life.

I hope that Ava and Eden keep on with their love affair with books. As Aunty it is my duty to ensure they keep up the literary traditions of our family.

Speaking of reading - I just started this last night and it is great!

The President's Wife - Thea Welsh

The first Christmas party

DAY 24

The season has begun, although the stores have been right in to Christmas for the last month already. I feel like it is nearly time for me to join the Christmas bandwagon.

Truthfully, for the last couple of years I have not been a fan of all the Christmas hoopla. It has tended to be a reminder of the things that were missing in my life. With no father, husband or children of my own, the season has felt a little empty, like a birthday cake without candles.

This year is going to be different. I am going to try the 'if you can't beat them, join them' approach to traditions. Come December I will deck my house with a Christmas tree (which the cats will delight in climbing daily) and maybe even a wreath on the front door. I will remember the things in my life I am grateful for, rather than lamenting the absences. I will celebrate Jesus' birthday and I will rejoice in the safe passage of another year.

Last night I had a great time celebrating another year with the technology team from church. The wood-fired pizzas were a highlight. I wish I could have one of those ovens on my back deck!

Ava likes birthday cake

DAY 23

Who am I kidding - I think I like birthday cake even more than Ava does - and from her grin that means a lot of birthday cake love.

There is a character in a book series that I love (Janet Evanovich's - Stephanie Plum series) who loves birthday cake more than anyone I have ever heard of. When things are tough, bumbling bounty hunter Stephanie heads to the bakery and takes home an unwanted birthday cake - usually with something like 'happy 50th birthday Barney' written on top of the icing. She then proceeds to eat the whole thing with glee.

I can empathise with Stephanie - though my weakness is actually hot chips. Those little parcels of crispy, salty potato-ey goodness are my happy place. They also send me straight to 'fatty-boombah-hips-land' but sometimes it's worth it.

Anyway - just a quick post tonight as I am out the door to my first Christmas Party of the season - bring on the festivities!

Giving #2

DAY 22

This weekend I spent 4 hours in the kitchen. I turned this....

In to this:

Chocolate Sauce | White Choc Macadamia Cookies | Chocolate Chip Cookies

And my favourite thing of all..

Chocolate Fudge strawberry & cream birthday cake.

I think that might have been my favourite 4 hours so far of the last couple of weeks!

Photo Friday

DAY 21

A Friday ritual - celebrating a special moment from the past that I don't want to ever forget.

What a great idea!

DAY 20

The guys from the office have been off in New Zealand this week, and Dave came back with this great pic for me! He said he was walking down the street in Auckland and pulled up short when he passed this store and thought of me.

I checked it out and 'Living and Giving' is a homewares chain with 15 stores around NZ. They say "Our vision is to offer our customers the latest in style - whether it is for their homes or for a gift. Our buyers travel the world to find products that will translate to our wonderful mix of casual yet sophisticated living.".

I think it's great to see the 'living and giving' name on a store front. I am looking forward to doing some giving myself this weekend with a birthday lunch for my brother and mother on Sunday. It will be a busy Saturday in the kitchen - one of my favourite places to be!

The search continues...

DAY 19

So, I've been online dating on and off for the last 2 years. I'll have to admit that I like and hate it depending on the day.

My sad state of affairs is that the pool of single guys with a similar faith and outlook on life all but dried up 4 years ago. I guess there was a limited number to start with and once they married my female friends things started to get difficult.

I resorted to online dating as a way to expand the pool. Living in a smallish town like Toowoomba I have to be willing to move to another city for love. It comes with the territory.

So in the last 2 years I have gone on quite a few first dates. I have even done a skype first date. I am happy to report that I am becoming a small talk professional. I can keep the conversation going for at least an hour given a companion who will listen and nod their head intelligently from time to time.

So the dating saga continues. I'll fill you in on any developments, but for the time being just wish me luck!

Camouflage Cats

DAY 18

I came home the other day and couldn't find the girls. After some hunting I eventually found them - blending in to their surroundings like chameleons.

I wonder if these two are smarter than they have led me to believe?

New music: Passenger

DAY 17

If I were still being grateful (which I am trying to be) today I would be grateful the joy of discovering new music.

Passenger (aka Mike Rosenburg) came across my path when he was the support for Boy and Bear on their tour last month. I was blown away by his set, so I downloaded his newest album (legally of course) the next day. I don't think there has been a day since then that I haven't listened to at least one of his songs.

Mike played in Toowoomba on Saturday night which is a rarity - as most musicians find Toowoomba to be a little too small to add a tour date to. It was a great show. Loved every minute of it.

I go to quite a few shows in the course of a year - 60% for work, and 40% for fun. Live shows are always that much better when you know and love the music. The rest of the time it tends to be a long hour of noise.

Enjoy some Passenger - it's a nice way to start the day (or whatever time of day it is!).

PS - I know it is too big for the screen but am willing to put up with it if you are.

Photo Friday

DAY 16

A Friday ritual - celebrating a special moment from the past that I don't want to ever forget.

Giving #1

DAY 15

So this 100 days is all about living and giving, but up until now I haven't done any giving. Today that changed as I finally had a reason to do some cooking from Nigella's 'How to be a domestic goddess'.

My ex-housemate Naomi is having her pre-wedding kitchen-tea this weekend and I promised I would cook her something of her choosing from the book. She chose 'Passionfruit Cheesecake'. I decided to do individual servings instead of one big cake and I think they turned out pretty well.

I performed the obligatory taste test and I had to hold myself back from sampling them all. I ended up changing the recipe a little by adding fresh whipped cream to the top - this was mainly to cover the sinking that had occurred. Necessity is the mother of all inventions.

Bon appetite Naomi.

Holiday memories

DAY 14

I've been going through the photos from the trip - I think I took over 3000 so there are a lot to wade through.

I discovered these from a visit to the park with Alison and the kids. Kael is just so gorgeous that I couldn't go past sharing them with you. He was sampling the bark chips. Tasty.

I would also like to point out that Alison is really rockin that mummy hat. Go Al!

Something that tastes better than skinny feels...

DAY 13

It's a sad fact that at the moment my desire to eat food that is not on the diet plan is being heavily outweighed by my desire to be skinny. I assume that the scales will tip the other direction some time after December 26.

Kate Moss (the queen of skinny) once said "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels". I'm not too sure that Kate was ever confronted with a piece of this white chocolate and raspberry gateau though. If she was - I don't think she would have been skinny for too long.

Ah - the joys of loving two things that are complete polar opposites - the love of food and the love of healthy. This predicament makes for a very guilty conscience. The good thing is that there is always tomorrow to climb back on the wagon.....

Sisters - then and now

DAY 12

1985 - the reason's why I love this photo:

1 - I have a mullet haircut and am pretending to be a rabbit. Why not.

2 - Alison (my sister) also has a mullet, is trying to wink and is wearing a dress with Indians on it (apparently her favourite)

3 - Our beloved Kombi is in the background

I can just imaging the photographer saying "do something funny girls" - I think "i'm a rabbit - that's funny!", Alison thinks "look, I can wink!".

Priceless.

2010 - the reason's why I love this photo:

1 - 25 years later, the only similarities that Alison and I outwardly share is our smile and a similar hair length. I like that even though we look so different, we share something that comes from joy.

2 - We both have deep set smile lines. Hopefully a good indication of a happy childhood and many, many moments of shared silliness.

3 - My shirt has a bird on it. I love this shirt.

4 - Alison's shirt has Babushka dolls on it. She loves that shirt.

If I am ever lucky enough to have children, I pray that I may have two daughters - so they can share in what I learned from growing up with a sister.

_________

Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there. ~Amy Li

A quiet summer approaches...

DAY 11

How do your weekends look this time of year? Mine look a lot like this picture.

It seems that everyone has finally emerged from their winter hibernation, blinking in the sunlight and looking a little bewildered - what is this thing called "outside"?

I am a little lost for what to do on my weekends now that my source of entertainment has relocated overseas. For the last couple of years I have fill up my weekends with Alison and the kids and laying around in their shady backyard reading and chatting and laughing. Now there is a gaping hole where they used to be. I get to Friday night and realise that unless I am heading off to my brothers house in Boonah (90mins away), or they are coming here, that there will be no little smiles to brighten up my days.

I have built myself a world centred on other people's families. As an 'unwilling single' I am not sure what is worse - knowing what I want and can't have, and understanding what I have and not wanting it. Maybe they are equally sobering.

So this is what my home weekends look like. Me, with a book, outside in the sun, in a comfy chair, with a cold drink and 'passenger' playing on my iphone.

It is going to be a quiet summer I think.....

Photo Friday

DAY 10

A Friday ritual - celebrating a special moment from the past that I don't want to ever forget.

Sometimes the fight is futile

DAY 9

My mum has spent the equivalent of a week scanning in our childhood photos. I got my hands on them all today and my my there is some fun to be had with these!

Today I am exploring the fact that, despite my best efforts, my trying to be skinny is actually going against nature itself. I think curvy is part of my DNA. As you can see, I was a chubby baby. Looks like my hips have been holding on to the food it loves ever since birth.

Mum says she was very happy to see me so fat - it meant she was doing a good job in the 'milk dispensing' department, especially since I was born 7 weeks premi & weighing 4lb something (2030grams). Little bubba but look at me now - it didn't seem to hold me back at all.

I love these two pictures. My big brother was besotted with me until I was big enough to steal his toys. From that moment on I was nothing but a nuisance.

Love that little bikini too....

Friends don't let friends run away

DAY 8

Molly (the dark one) and Lulu (the light one) are very good examples of kids. I let the girls play outside in their new 'kitty coop' unsupervised for the first time on Sunday morning while I was curled up in bed with a headache.

After a while, Lulu kept coming in and out of my bedroom, crying and acting like a nervous nelly. After about 15minutes of this I got up to see what Molly was up to.

Molly was up to no good. She was nowhere to be found.

I tracked her sneaky escape to some pushed through wire in the corner. Molly had 'flown the kitty coop' and instead of following, Lulu decided to stay back and tell a grown-up what she had done. The good news is that after an hour of wilful abandon, Molly was found scampering around my front garden like a kid after a rainy day.

This reminded me so much of my primary school years with my little sister Alison - I was Lulu, and Alison was disobedient Molly. Alison would do naughty things, and I would tell on her to mum. Alison had all the fun, and I would follow the rules.

I'm glad at least one of my cats is like me - otherwise they would both be galavanting the streets - cruising for boyfriends and booze (haha).

Men with power tools

DAY 7

As an early Christmas present to my two cats I decided to turn a 6m space down the side of my unit in to a purpose built kitty coop. This way the girls can play outside without escaping, being cat-napped or run over by cars. My Uncle Rodney kindly offered to do the building for me - along with the dubious help of my cousins.

I was given a brief yet valuable insight in to living with men - throughout the course of the day I witnessed:

1 - Darryl drilling a hole in to Anthony's shirt

2 - Uncle Rodney pretending to chop off his finger - with authentic tomato sauce blood

3 - Uncle Rodney shooting Anthony in the butt with the staple gun

4 - Numerous hammer incidents

5 - Untold numbers of verbal sledgings

I love these guys but for the time being I am very glad I share my house with females only. I am also very grateful for these men who come wielding power tools and leave useful things that won't fall down after they have gone.

Vampires and Zombies and other scary things....

DAY 6

Ironically, I managed to finish these two books over the Halloween weekend and together they both covered topics including zombies, vampires, mythical creatures and feasting on the brains of the newly dead. Fascinating stuff and not my usual literary material.

I did, however, love both books. I thought the ‘Vampire Academy’ by Richelle Mead was going to be a try-hard Twilight band-wagon jumper but it actually had some merits of it’s own.

It seems most writers of vampire fiction take their own stance on how vampires exist. In Mead’s version vampires live by drinking the blood of willing ‘feeder’ humans who experience a euphoric high from the transaction. Vampires become ‘evil vampires’ when they kill someone while feeding. Good vampires are protected by a race of half vampire/half human hybrids who can both walk in daylight and have extreme strength and speed.

The storyline of this series is based around a princess of the royal family, her female protector and their life at the vampire high school (hidden in the Montana wilderness). Enter good-looking protector mentor, strange and disturbing happenings at the school, bitchy teenagers and nasty teachers. Couldn’t put the book down on Sunday and ended finishing it in one day. Impressive even for me.

The other book, ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith is quite a deviation from my usual reading material. I normally stay right away from the classics because they bore me to tears. Thanks to Mr Graham-Smith I can once again enjoy the genre. He has re-written the storyline in the same style, but included the problem of zombies rising from the earth in search of fresh brains to devour.

The Bennet girls have been trained by Chinese Shaolin masters in the art of war and spend their time banishing the undead along with reading, card games and flirting with eligible bachelors like Mr Darcy. I really loved this book too. Maybe it was the fact that the traditional simpering female characters have been given some power for once.

I did take note of this one section, as I found it very amusing. Mrs Bennet comments when told they will have a dinner guest:

“Who do you mean, my dear? I know of nobody that is coming I am sure, unless Charlotte Lucas should happen to call – and I am sure my dinners are good enough for her, since she is an unmarried woman of seven-and-twenty, and as such should expect little more than a crust of bread washed down with a cup of loneliness.”

Thanks God I am not living in Jane Austen’s England. I will take my ability to live independently over the dashing Mr Darcy any day of the week.