The third day of the challenge tells me to Remove negativity in my life – well they picked a difficult time to do that.
I am so focused on the situation with the fires and the lack of political leadership, I let fly this morning on the phone at a bigoted old conservative voter.
“But what Can they do?” I was asked by this old man.
They can fund the Fire Service, and buy planes to fight the fires.
“Ah,” the old man said, ” It is the Greenies fault, they won’t let them do anything.”
Apparently a small number of Green party politicians in the upper house of Government, prevents the Government from any kind of legislative change or action.
This is the mindset of the ignorant.
The Prime Minister does nothing, except reiterate like a broken record, “I understand people are angry,” and it transpires that the State Premier of NSW has cut funding for the Rural fire service and equipment, right before the fire season started. What impudence.
Volunteer fire fighters are fighting fires without breathing masks or protective equipment, risking their own health and lives. Unconscionable actions by the Government continue, and very little comments from those who sit in their air conditioned offices overlooking Sydney harbour or Canberra.
People are missing, thousands of homes burnt to the ground, 11.3 million acres of bush and more each moment – lost. To say nothing of the loss of animals, the loss to biodiversity and contribution of smoke and carbon to the atmosphere. Unprecedented climate conditions and the politicians do nothing.
So perhaps I really do need to remove negativity in my life today.
I am too churned up and after anger, follows sadness.
That helps no one.
I have to let it go, breathe and find a way to channel the anger into affirmative action.
Suggestions:
Sign a petition for action on climate change
Write a letter to your local parliamentarian requesting support for renewable energy and more funding fire services, fire management plans and fire fighting aeroplanes
Do what you can locally in your own back yard to help the plastic, (ie reduce plastic use, compost scraps, fire-proof your property, plant trees).
Join a Community group involved in rehabilitating bush, promoting land management
Donate to raise funds for those who have lost their home to fire
Share information on social media
Exercise your well considered democratic right at the ballot box.
This blog wasn’t intended as a tag a long challenge blog but bringing in the New Year seems like a good time to try something new for a month. Take a big breath and dive in, Amanda.
Um… already I see a problem.
How can I identify the goals I want to achieve in the one moment? I don’t feel that organized. Here goes:
Day 1 – Goals for 2020
Return to pre-Christmas Weight
Organize my hobby space
Paint at least 10 projects – preferable 20 – 30, but that is possibly too ambitious
Finish reading the Nordic crime novels on my shelfs
Exchange books at the book exchange
Read one Non-fiction theoretical book on my shelf
Organize my genealogy notes and develop a workable template for collating information
Edit the book I am co-writing with blogger, Mabel Kwong
A holiday somewhere for birthdays/Easter at the beach? Wait, I live at the beach now….
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.
A Home by the Sea 
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