I’ve been working my way through this challenge mostly every day, but sometimes every second day. After all, life does get in the way of blogging challenges at times, doesn’t it?
Day 14 – Done Day 15 – disconnect from the phone Gosh so many of us seem to spend inordinate amount of hours on the phone. Either in scrolling social media, doing work, reading emails, reading books, scanning pictures or social media. It’s endless and the phone seems to take more and more of our valuable communication time. I have even seen older people are scrolling through phones at coffee shops, bus stations or on trains. Even my 90 year old mother in law sends texts and uses an ipad. Can a human race no longer tolerate boredom or sitting with nothing to do?
That valuable time to imagine, to dwell and to think.
Have we completely are we on the way to completely eliminating that from Society because we must be occupied 100% of the time?
Today I thought of it about that and read the prompt. I managed to disconnect my phone, no strike that, didn’t manage but chose to disconnect from the phone for about 8 hours at work.
It is not so hard to disconnect from the phone for more than that length of time, at work. However, I am still working on a screen.
When i have a social engagement the phone is away in my bag and ignored.
I do not check the phone while I am out with lunch with friends or having a coffee with a mate. Do you?
Tomorrow it will be six weeks since I moved into the Home by the sea and I haven’t really cooked a lot since then. Besides working and unpacking, and showing visitors around my new home, I haven’t found time to do any leisure baking. By that I mean more than what is required to sustain life!
I travel a long way to work so I often get back home late in order to avoid the peak hour traffic jams. On those nights, the MotH [Man of the House], improvises or uses the spouse-approved, (and proven), C.Y.O. method. Read: (cook your own).
First cake in the New Home
Having a quiet morning this week, meant I was ready to bake something and Ju-Lyn, over at All Things Bright and Beautiful, provided the final piece of motivation I needed to get me started, posting her Honey Spice cake recipe, (which she had adapted from Anita Bean).
I was determined to try it this morning. The MotH loves having a morning tea with freshly baked treats to the point that morning tea, with him, has become something of an art form.
Sitting together over a cuppa gives us a good chance to talk in a way that we don’t do, for the rest of our busy day – he is often at the hardware, Hi-fi shop, or pet store and I am busy pottering about getting the house in order, if I am not at work.
So back to the delicious cake. It was a throw-it-all together kind of recipe – they are really the best kind, aren’t they? No stress and it cooked beautifully in my new Westinghouse oven. [smile]
I was a little short of ground almond for this recipe, so I topped the measure up with a little extra flour. The recipe adapted beautifully.
With a light dusting of vanilla or icing sugar on top, to serve, this Spice Cake is light and tasty and just the perfect accompaniment for tea.
Ju-lyn had topped the cake with lemon icing, whereas I added a dollop of home made lemon butter, on the side, for a decadent indulgence.
As the recipe worked so well, I was thinking I could even be a little adventurous and add walnuts, next time. Or even try a gluten free version for my diet conscious son.
Will you try it?
Morning Tea Spice Cake Recipe
Adapted from Ju-Lyn’s Honey Cake which was adapted from Instagram @anitabean1
Ingredients
165g self-raising flour
60g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
50g brown sugar
50g runny honey
100ml olive oil
2 eggs (mine were 700 grams each)
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbsp milk
glace icing (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Line a 20cm baking tin, I used one with a hole in the middle.
Mix all the ingredients until well combined.
Spoon the mixture into the tin and smooth surface with spatula.
Bake in oven 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the tin to cool for at least 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool.
Dust top with icing sugar and serve with a dollop of cream, or lemon butter.
I have got to go have another piece now. Join me for morning tea at the Home by the Sea. I will begin posting weekly morning tea recipes.
Will you join in – posting a recipe? #joinmefortea
The workers have really ramped up the action a notch.
This is happening just outside our backyard, right now.
Perhaps the tradies are getting a bonus to finish before Christmas? the MotH asks.
Tradies or Tradesmen?
I’m not sure if other countries call workmen on construction sites:-‘tradesmen.’
We don’t either.
In Australia we always like to shorten things, especially names, so tradesmen and not called tradesmen, but “Tradies.”
If someone says they will, “See ya in the arvo,” or “See you thissarvy”– they don’t mean they will meet you in some seedy bar in town, they mean they will see you after lunch, in the afternoon. If I was to say to a friend, see you in the afternoon, I would almost sound British!
But I digress.
Tradies might be Electricians, Carpenters, affectionately also called ‘Chippies,’ Plumbers, Crane drivers, Tiler’s, Glaziers, Concreters or anyone that performs a trade and often this is related to construction.
These guys and girls, do a certain amount of study at a vocational college but most of their training is practical, on the job. It is usually an apprenticeship of three or four years. They are often very fit, strong and heavily tanned young men and their language is often colourful.
So whatever you do, when you visit Australia and the Home by the Sea, don’t ask for few ‘chippies’ with your meal! See you later on thisarvy!
There is a new visitor to the Little Home by the Sea. And his name is Billy!
We have decided. And he can’t disagree too vocally.
Isn’t he cute?
This little green tree frog has made our yard his home and is eating the annoying moths that we seem to have in our patio area. (Not the MOTH, of course).
Frogs are indicative of the health of the environment, so I feel this is a good indicator for our new estate, where wildlife would be greatly disturbed by the earthworks.
This is a good sign for our nearby wildlife corridor.
Did you know that you should always have wet hands if you try to touch or pick up a frog?
Otherwise, your touch can burn their skin.
Last night I swear I even saw a Joey in our street but it ran like a cat and no hopping was evident, so perhaps it was just a feral cat.
The wind in your hair, the smell of salt water in one’s nostrils, and the laid back lifestyle. That is what we think of we most of us think of living at the beach.
Four weeks ago, we moved to a home by the sea, after more than 35 years living in the suburbs but that wasn’t the original plan.
The key to the Door
After selling the house my husband had built with his own hands, we went looking for a minimalist low maintenance lifestyle close to family and friends. We were, for quite some time, set on re-locating to a townhouse in the inner city and having a weekend flat at the beach. The Minimalist Inner city lifestyle. Close to restaurants, all kinds of services and facilities and unfortunately, the sort of place, workers and commuters all love to live. So it is busy, too busy for us now that we are nearing retirement and the quieter lifestyle that provides.
Sometimes, the universe intervenes. We searched and searched to find the right townhouse for us. It wasn’t there. Or, if it was, someone else got there first and outbid us. I must admit we had a contract on another, but it didn’t feel right and there were problems so the contract was terminated. We decided the townhouse hipster lifestyle wasn’t for us. All the time, the universe was sending us here, to the sea, where we wanted to be.
The city life Millenials love
The adult kids moved out, as there was no way that they were going to live up near the beach, some 20 kms away from the trappings of work, friends and the inner city lifestyle.
So it is quite a change – a sea change to move in to the house we have been designing and building for the last year.
The Moving process, of course, is not at all fun. Most of our old furniture didn’t fit into a townhouse – so we disposed of it. We had so many boxes packed away in storage, and a lot of new boxes for the new furniture. They all had to be unpacked and removed.
But that is all behind us now. The boxes have been recycled, the packing materials dumped and we settling into our new routine.
The Universe was right, and we were lucky to find the right piece of land, negotiated with a builder at the right time and voila, now our house is our home.
Now we are ensconced in our new house and we are happy. We’ve met many new neighbours, many in the same stage of life as us, and travelling to work hasn’t even taken near as long as I thought.
The MOTH is busy with little tasks around the house, and happy again, and the Schnauzer is thrilled she has a yard to play in once more.
Would I build a house again from scratch? Yes, most definitely.
My work takes me into the community working with people of all walks of life and I do enjoy it. Recently, I was required to catch a high school bus, with one of my clients, something that came with a few shocks and a few delightful surprises.
School Day Memories
Not having caught a school bus for many years, the prospect of doing so had me thinking of the halcyon eighties – read: the days before public transport was air-conditioned whereby temperatures inside a bus packed full of students surpassed 45 degrees Celsius, or way over 120 degrees F.
Just the kind of temperatures that makes the skin on your thighs stick like super glue to those hard vinyl seats buses are famous for. Fun? Not!
Inside a high school bus from the Eighties
These ‘overheated tin cans on wheels,’ were filled with the happy chatter of school kids, but the fetid air was mostly punctuated with wafts of poorly maintained engine emissions as the diesel engines laboured up and down suburban hills via their given routes. Ah the joys, I thought.
Typical Eighties Council Bus Photo Credit: BCC
The aisles were more often than not strewn haphazardly with school bags, of various shapes and sizes and the floor looked much like the shores of a tropical paradise post-tsunami. The omnipresent group of testosterone-filled teens adorned with lanky locks, smelly armpits and hefty doses of attitude, were constantly jostling for the privileged rear seats where the cool kids sat. Fun, I remembered. Maybe.
When the sought after back seats were already taken, the not so cool, lanky lads would hook their wrists into the straps that hung down the aisles, thereby securing their upright stability when the bus was in motion.
However, this also meant their sweat-stained, stinky armpits were fully exposed to the passengers sitting opposite. After a full day of [hyper] activity at school and minimal ventilation inside the bus you could imagine the atmosphere was close to combustion!
Image Credit: Cartoon Stock
That’s right – year round subtropical summer is really great if you’re relaxing on the beach; not so great if you are travelling around on public transport. Even in winter, our sun is strong enough to induce a sweat with only the mildest amount of physical exertion. So, perhaps my armpits were not as sweet as a daisy, either! Oops – Note to self: arms down by your sides.
All up, I foresaw this upcoming bus trip as a bevy of aromatic armpits, filled with gum chewing teens shouting a cacophony of lewd/suggestive comments amidst their smartphone induced haze, complete with earbuds perpetually insitu. What WAS I letting myself in for, I mused?
If you are imagining this scene as I did, you’d be wrong.
For it might surprise you to hear this recent bus experience made me smile, a lot.
Waiting at the Bus Stop
The first kids to arrive at the designated wait zone for the bus were smartly dressed – shirt tucked in, hair neat and tidy! I was a little surprised but not completely convinced my stereotypes were not up to date, so I decided that a strict school uniform policy accountered for that anomaly.
Next, I was warmly greeted by a fifteen something teen who introduced himself as Colin. Colin politely asked if I was catching the school bus too. Manners? Surely this wasn’t the norm, I thought?
Add to that, another student followed Colin’s introduction in a similar fashion offering to mentor the student I was there to assist. [How sweet is that?]
I then passed several minutes exchanging small talk with these kids about favourite subjects and activities at school, when a young lad moved directly in front of my line of sight, enquiring as to whether I liked, ‘tea.’
A little confused, I replied that yes I did, in fact, like tea.
“I thought so,” he said, sporting a huge grin.
“Can you tell me why you thought that?” I asked, clearly unsure of where we were headed with this discussion on hot drinks.
“Well, Grandmothers like tea,” he said.
Me: Oh, he thinks I’m a Grandmother! I thought, under my breath. [I am not a Grandmother, btw.]
Let’s hope he was alone in this, I thought!
Me: “Can I ask you what makes you think I’m a Grandmother?” I asked.
“Your hair,” he said. “Grandmas have grey h….,” his voice then trailed off.
Me: “Oh, okay, so you think if my hair was grey, I might be a grandmother?” I suggested gently.
“Err, now I’m not so sure,” he responded, craning his neck to see the back of my head.
“No… it’s blonde,” he discovered dejectedly. “Oh.”
I guessed he was a little embarrassed. I was just about to reassure him all was okay when…..
“As*hole!”
This loud interjection created more than a few horrified looks at the bus stop.
“RILEY!” – said the boy, Colin, in a reproachful tone suggesting that he was embarrassed by Riley’s behaviour. “You shouldn’t say that.”
“A*SEHOLE!” – Riley said again, shouting louder this time. There was no sign of regret in his face.
Colin: “You’re not allowed to say that, Riley!”
Me: (thinking in my head) Admonishment from a peer? I like this Colin kid. Seems to be taking a responsible, leadership role.
“Sorry,” Riley muttered, his eyes now downcast.
Thinking that most high school bus stops would hear much more colourful language than this, I started with,
Me: “Listen Riley, it is oka…”
Riley: “A***hole, Bum, Sh*t.”
An awkward silence descended on the bus stop, then –
“Ah… Sorry.” Riley in a softer tone this time.
I had just started to think that poor Riley might have suffered from Tourettes, when I noticed a wry smile emerge on his face and a twinkle in his eye.
I looked away lest Riley see my own mouth curl upwards into a giggly smile.
Some things are still the same with teens, after all.
This bus trip was going to be okay and the air-conditioning meant it ended up being a lot of fun.
We have a Practical Completion Date for the Home by the Sea, and it is very close.
Moving date will actually be a further couple of weeks after that. That gives the builder a chance to fix up all the defects, (hopefully none or not too many), prior to handing over the house keys to us and us handing him the big fat final cheque!!
It is getting exciting, but also somewhat daunting knowing what I have yet to do, before I can lay my head down on the bed in my new home by the sea.
The Carpenter returned to re-do the beautiful Western Red cedar roof on the alfresco area, and on the front panel above the famed and maligned cornerless window.
Just awaiting a ceiling fan and lights
You can see him there hard at work, cursing and teasing me a little good heartedly for making him re-do the section at the front. He is a lovely guy, despite all his intimidating skeletal tattoos!
And for all his tattoos, I asked him if he would let his young daughter get a tattoo when she grew up.
“No way,” he said shaking his head emphatically!
“Good luck with that,” I thought, under my breath.
Further progress included the installation of the Energy Efficient Air Conditioner (an absolute must in northern Australia). Yay!
I won’t have solar power again for a little while, so the less we use it, the better for the planet, right? Mind you, the breeze that persists at the water’s edge might mean we can save a little of the planet’s ecosystems and shut it off for most of the year.
We see that the house has had a QA check and they have found some, well many spots to touch up with the paint. So there are blue dots of tape sprinkled throughout to identify the spots that need fixing with paint.
The bathroom mirrors and shower screens were installed. And I now have somewhere to hang my towel and toilet roll! Yay for that!
The stairs also were dressed with timber grade handrails this week.
All the timber work is to be stained in a teak colour.
The Lows
We discovered that the lovely oak bedside tables we purchased for a reduced price, during a closing down sale won’t fit in our master bedroom with the existing bed frame. Darn it all.
They can go with the two lamps I purchased that were also a mistake. The MOTH took the opportunity to remind me that I had purchased seven lamps this year! Surely not.
**Lesson learnt here. Don’t buy furniture or lamps, without measuring accurately and before your house is complete.
The Highs
We have a resident Mamma Kanga and Baby Joey in our park and sporting fields. Eager to find some freshly watered green grass, I spotted them safely tucked away behind the fencing this morning.
I am anxious to receive a Practical Completion date for the Home by the Sea, particularly after a rather intrusive incident at our rental townhouse which was detailed over at Something to Ponder About – [StPA]. Should you be interested in how to save a ton of money in real estate advertising fees and piss off a rental tenant at the same time, for no extra cost, you can read about ‘Mrs The World is My Oyster,’ on my other blog.
Despite not knowing exactly when we might be moving in to the Home by the Sea – we do know that the painting is complete and most plumbing and electrical fittings are installed.
Today, I met with the Electrician to position the pendant lights in the lounge area. He was such a very young man, to be in charge, but obviously highly competent at his job. It is a shame he had a long time girlfriend, as I do keep an eye out for a good quality future son-in-law. [lol]
The taps have been installed and we could have indulged in a shower or bath, if we needed to do so. We passed on that opportunity today as I forgot my towel….
The pendant lights were installed over the Island bench and the Oven and Cooktop are in!
Yay! Hot Christmas dinner – here we come!
The stove is an Induction model, and I am a complete novice in that realm, having only used electric ceramic cooktops for the past 25 years! I had to go out and buy some new utensils and pans. It is wide so I am hoping there will be no more juggling trays to fit in all the roast vegetables my tribe loves to eat on Roast nights.
Still to come at the Home by the Sea: Carpets, minor fixes, hand rails, cupboard shelving for walk in pantry and linen cupboard, mirrors and shower screens, as well as Landscaping and Fencing. And then perhaps, we are done! [excluding the re-do of the Cedar ceiling].
Surely not long now till we move to the Home by the Sea.
A Home by the Sea 
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