Post Alfred

Hello to all again after a rather hectic, exciting, messy, disappointing and now a regrouping couple of weeks. 

Firstly I had my birthday on which I  had booked  a fishing charter for the day.  I am not much of a fisher woman but have never been on a open sea (or any sea for that matter) charter.  That was just as the cyclone was building up along the coast, so of course the swell was too dangerous and that was cancelled.  I did spend a lovely couple of hours with one of my girls and her family, by the sea, eating fish and chips so that sort of made up for the lack of fish caught.  Sunday afternoon was a rather glamerous affair at "The Langham", as it is breathlessly called, at Broadbeach with both my daughters and families.  That was all rather special as it is a beautiful venue and we sat sipping wine and snacking on delicacies surrounded by film stars (Jack Black) and other glamerous people. The hotel smells beautiful at all times and must have some sort of fragrance dispensed through the air con or somewhere! So my weekend turned out beautifully and I managed to postpone my fishing trip to May. I try to do something a wee bit different every year for my birthday.....spices life up abit and makes me get out of my comfort zone. I also had a beautiful day at a bathouse with my sister in law whose birthday we celebrated as well. It was in Miami on the coast and called Soak.  Bathouses conjures up (to me) Romans gliding around, enjoying an oil rub, bathing, reading, eating and socializing, finishing off with the oil being stripped from their bodies!  Soak had no oil stripping or food but we did indulge in a cup of herbal tea, 2 mineral pools, a spa and a sauna: not forgetting the ice bath which I reluctantly immersed myself in twice for all of about 5 seconds.  Boy, was it cold and funnily enough, on leaving the ice bath, from my knees down felt numb for about 20 seconds.  Very odd.  Anyway that was my first bathouse trip and also my first ice bath immersion.  Get yourselves along there....it was amazing and all rounded off with a lunch and a wine. As the old saying goes, life is for the living.

The following weekend was a trip to Townsville to visit family and friends but of course that too was canned, thanks to TCyclone.. There was much tooing and froing with ticket changing, will I go, should I stay in case the roof of my home blows off and finally I was forced, due to flight cancellations, to stay and protect my home.  Everyone has their story so I won't bang on.  The power was off again,on again for 5 days and when on, I ate hot food and coffee and watched TV and when off I ate cold bread and boiled eggs and read, gazing thoughtfully out of the window whilst  nursing a glass of red (after 6pm of course).Without wanting to trivialize for those who suffered loss, it wasn't a terrifying blow for me although I did lose a few small trees which I aptly chainsawed up with my new chain saw and bingo! all clear. My golf course lost 100 trees with many more to come down and my workplace blew a power board which resulted in a fire and no work.  No golf, no work! Oh well the filing cabinet and the pantry got a good clean out and have read several books so lots achieved.  I did have alot of still time which is rare for me and whilst a little hard to be still, there weren't alot of options.  Below was the course of the cyclone....such a tricky little turn at the end!!!!

I can't say I got any great shots but will post what I have.  This is from Point Danger on QLD/NSW border on the Wednesday before the cyclone. Must say the waves were impressive but of course they became much higher and robust by the Sunday.

That is my one tall tree blowing but as you can see it isn't exactly bending and not one lemon lost from my tree. Abit like the media shots we see at times really! The second one is of my cut down trees and things tidied up somewhat.  

Onto a more enjoyable topic ....food.  Well I have tried a few things and one of them (and I can hear you all gasping) is spam cous cous.  Cut spam into small pieces and fried them up.  Made my usual cous cous recipe and then added the spam.  Very delicious.  Spam is 92% pork so it should taste good. Made an eggplant lasagne which I haven't done for ages and whilst the picture doesn't do it justice, it was so yummy.  I am hopeless at displaying food hence the picture.  Another exciting find here in Tweed is a pub (The Dolphin) which sells counter meals for $15 and that included a 250 gram steak.  Isn't that amazing given that a steak is usually anything over $35 at the clubs and pubs?  Pays to shop around so if you need a shot of iron weekly, that is the place to go.  The view is nice too......Guavas are in season too and am lucky enough to have some trees around here.  They are full of Vitamin C so if you can get hold of any, eat up. My latest harvest.  I also tried again a ratatouille of which I have never been particularly enamoured .  However this time I took my time, simmered a tomato sauce for a couple of hours, roasted the eggplant and zucchini so they weren't all mushy and before I knew it,  I had a very tasty fragrant vegetable dish to team with my fish.  I know the potato looks like it has come off a bad night but it was all very nice and I won't wait so long now to cook a French vege stew again.

As I mentioned earlier, my golf course was hammered with trees down and the course covered in waterafter the cyclone.  It looked like we wouldn't be back on the course for weeks.  The ground staff and contractors swung into action and you would barely know anything had happened, 2 weeks later.  A group of 100 odd volunteers gathered on Tuesday and we cleared a major amount of the small branches and sticks from the course.  I felt very proud to be working alongside the others.  Volunteers are the backbone of this country and if you can do abit to help, try it.  It was great exercise bending over about 1000 times in one morning!  

So my trip to Japan is only 2 weeks and 3 days away so excitement is building.  Looks like it will be cold as is snowing there at the moment .....well it was, in some parts and on looking at the cherry blossom report, we will hopefully see some blooming somewhere.  I will take lots of food photos and try ease off on the temples!  I am also going to Melbourne this weekend for a weekend of food and fun.  No doubt I'll have some pics.  It is good to visit our own cities and we do forget they are so beautiful.  We can be so busy racing off OS that we forget.  It is not expensive to have a weekend away and there are cheap flights around

Another thing I am trying to introduce to my busy life is a time of being still.  During the cyclone,which I mentioned earlier, there were hours of stillness mainly because there was nothing else to do and it kind of appealed to me!  but alot of us tend to race around like mad people and forget to be still-----in mind and in body.  Easy to keep the body still but not so much the mind. Anyway I'm going to give it a go so come along for the ride.

A friend and I had a lovely day in Brisbane on Friday at the Star Hotel/Casino.  What a class act that place is.  Absolutely stunning and the views.  We sat high above the world, sipping our wine, people watching and enjoyed a pizza ( a salami and ham one)for lunch  - Star style. If you live in these parts, I would recommend going for a look.  There are lots of retaurants and cosy spots to just "be still".

Well I think that is enough for this month.  I hope a few of you try the still thing, (if you're not sick of me saying still by now),  cook a new meal, go somewhere different - and it doesn't have to be far away - and embrace our wonderful world.  Stay tuned for Japan and all it brings.  It is a Wendy Wu tour so hopefully bags will be collected and we will be thoroughly spoilt. 

Sayonara.