29 question meme

29 Questions

This was started over at Odie at The Simple Life,then when I wandered over to La Tejana, there it was again,so i pinched it too, you know I like the meme things.

1. What time did you get up this morning?about 9.30, I stayed up reading blogs till about 3am

2. How do you like your steak? Well done. Rarely eat a good thick steak, too expensive.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Women, with my Gemma, must be 2 or 2 years ago. I mainly watch DVD's at home.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Winners and Losers, great new Australian series. Another reason I was up so late last night.Had to wait for it to upload onto the website so I could watch the finale. Hubby watches something else.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I love Bali,the ancient Hindu culture, the noise, the smiling faces, the bartering, massages, great food, I would love to spend a year there, not sure I could handle the heat year round though.

6. What did you have for breakfast? A cup of tea.

7. What is your favorite food? anything creamy like past carbonara, garlicky potato bake etc

8. What food do you dislike- fish, I'll eat it if it doesn't taste fishy!

9. What is your favorite place to eat- Anywhere I don't have to cook.

10. What is your favorite dressing. Sweet onion dressing from Subway.

11. What are your favorite clothes- soft flowy dresses,or jeans and nice top.gotta show some cleavage oo

12. Where would you visit if you had the chance- Lipari in the Aolean Islands, Italy, where my grandparents are from.

13. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 full, never on empty.

14. Favorite time of day- late afternoon

15. Favorite sport to watch- not a sports fan really, but rugby league ,would love to go to an actual game again, atmosphere used to be fun when I was young.

16. Favorite fragrance- Whatever I was given last..Marouska at the moment.

17. Favorite fruit/vegetable. grapes, natures lollies

18. People watcher? Yes! Danny was always telling me not to stare.

19. Are you a morning or night person- Night, I stay up half the night then sleep in.

20. Do you have any pets. Milo, he is a Jack Russel/Silky cross. Mother and daughter cats ,Sasha and KittyKat. Kitty for short . A pair of scaly breasted lorrikeets Cheeky and Birdy who will bite each other while stating "good girls"

21. Any new & exciting news to share- nothing you all don't know about. The wedding is 6 weeks away and creeping up fast.

22. Any pet peeves? People who sigh loudly with impatience in queues

...we are all waiting.......

23. Favorite flower- Roses, they are just pretty and classic.

24. Do anything spontaneous lately? pfffffffffft

25. Last vacation- 2 weeks in Bali Oct 2010

26. Last person you went out to diner with- Hubby in Bali,,,,,,,,,,,,

27. Favorite color- PURPLE

28. How many tattoos do you have? 2, a fairy on my chest and a floral swirl on my hip.

29. What habit or habits do you need to stop? Going to bed late and waking up late.One day I should give up smoking I guess.

Sunday Blather

Sleepy quiet weekend as usual. The weather is starting to warm up a little, and not using the fire much. There could possibly be still frost but I'm never up that early to notice.

On the downhill run to the wedding now ,with 7 weeks to go.

Wedding dress has had the beading put on the back,the bridesmaids dresses and flower girl dresses are ready to go. Need to finalise hair and makeup lady and find something to wear in the girls hair.Booked my hair appointment....I was shocked.$55 for 1940's pinup hair. I'm told its a good price. You can tell I don't visit the hairdressers much.I won't look like this of course but my hair will be something like this minus the snood but with a fascinator with small veil instead .Hopefully I won't look toooo silly.

Still sorting the catering situation, the school fell through. Menu has been simplified and I'm going to buy BBQ chickens cooked locally....literally 300meters from the hall. Making lists and ordering the bits and pieces like salt pepper sauces sugar etc, it all adds up. My neighbour is sorting some local teens out for us, for food handling and serving the buffet and cleanup on a volunteer basis, so fingers crossed it all works out.

Finally have a lead on a vintage car .Living in the country is great, people are always trying to help out and someone always knows someone else......I started with one phone number for someone from a car club and am now on to my 8th call, this one looks to be a winner, might have an old red Jag, going to see it next week.Also remembered we need cars for the bridesmaids, friends have 2 black Holden commodores, not vintage, but we'll just photograph the black bits !!

Ahh ,Gemma has changed her mind on the cake,so have to go see the cake lady about that, and I have to get some flower and ribbons this week to make the cake toppers.

Still waiting on people with RSVP,so counting them in anyway........sigh.

Accomodation for everyone has been fun and we have booked out 2 and half pubs, some rooms at the convent B&B and a couple of cabins at the caravan park.

I decided to hire chair covers and sashes, and table runners with a lace runner that goes over for $100 from a girl whos wedding is after ours. Saved over 600 dollars doing it that way.Candles are coming from a lovely friend and some vases from another. Fairly lights are being unpacked from the xmas boxes.

Still have to get tulle,lots of tulle, its a big hall, and some water crystals.

Still have to take up my dress, buy Les shoes and take up his pants ........

It seems most people have got into the spirit of the theme between the wars and we should see a lot of people dressed up.

So much to do...........

Other than the wedding which seems to be the topic of conversation every time I open my mouth...........

Chloe rode her pushbike to work the other day and her arm has been painful ever since, I think she may have overstretched the healing tendons and muscles,so its back to walking tomorrow.

I was over in Canberra a couple of weeks ago and drove her in and back during the night. It is a really lonely road and these HUUUUGE KANGAROOS are so creepy and line the road like sentinals just staring........I can't even imagine walking past them, but she does. The make creepy noises in their throats apparantly......shudder. I guess they must know her scent now, they don't make any move toward her, they are just ...there....watching...

I tried giving her a driving lesson in the bubble car, but with size 11 feet, she could not feel any give in the accelerator at all,so this time it will be shoes off and use your toes. Both the brake and accelerator pedal were under the one foot, so we ended up in the bushes .

Danny is off to Packapanyal for a month for driver training, he was hoping for field, but will have to wait for that one. At least he's doing something and it will mean he will have full licence instead of P plates for his civvie licence.

Oh... tomorrow I'm FINALLY sending in my application to TAFE to study communications and media cert 4,so that might keep my brain ticking along. I have been going to study something all year.............

my life in food

I'm on roll now haha!!




The first solid food ,if you could call it that ,that I remember is Weetbix with hot milk ,soaked and sprinkled with sugar. I had this most mornings,or toast and honey until I left home at 18. My kids had the same .Today I don't like it at all, but the smell always brings back memories of mum.

Most nights in our house were meat with 2 veg. The meat was either sausages, steak, lamb chops, hot dog frankfurts or smoked cod boiled dry. The veges were always mashed potato, and either peas or beans, occasional broad beans(yuk) sometimes carrots, brocolli or coulliflower.EVERY NIGHT!!! We had to eat everything on the plate and mum was not the best or organised cook, so if she thought she forgot to salt the spuds or veg, she would do it again.


Desert was always tinned fruit and vanilla ice cream.....if we(me and my 2 younger sisters) had eaten all our dinner.

There was always fruit in season. My dad grew up in an Italian fruit shop and so we always had plenty of fruits.

Porridge! My mums dad, my Pop ,came to stay with us, and taught us to make porridge.It was a real production to get it how he liked it, apparantly a fuel stove is best. He served it with brown sugar. I hated it at the time,it looked icky and gruel like ,as in oliver: "please sir can I have some more" .Funnily enough I quite like it in winter now.





Spag bol. My grandparents on Dad's side were Italian, so we ate spaghetti when we visited. I remember being told "Mangare" and taught to twirl it around my fork. And mum learning how to cook it from Nonna, then trying to replicate it at home.(this is the 60's it was foreign food!!!)

I spent 4 days a week with my Nonna and Nonno for 3 years while mum and dad worked, they were under strict instructions not to teach me Italian as I was Australian.Nearly 50 years later Dad regrets not letting us embrace our heritage at the time, but times were different then and dad had grown up with discrimination .




Crostoli, My nonna used to make the pastry biscuit, lay it out on the table and cut it into strips then plait it together, it would be deep fried and then a syrup and fine sugar sprinkled on it. YUM.

always always, she would have an enamel tub full of hard red jelly, that made that suction sound from the spoon when she dished it out....sigh.... and a big scoop of vanilla icecream that never seemed big enough.

Thursday nights would be late night shopping, a big production with us kids tagging along, bored and helping drag the goods into the house. Our reward was fish or potato scollaps with chips, brought home wrapped in newspaper. Dad was funny, still had to have his on a plate,sometimes with salad, but us kids and mum would eat off the newspaper. Less washing up. Those days 2 peices of fish, medium serve of chips and half a dozen scollaps was $3. The same today =$26.



Pizza hut came to our shire in about 1972 offhand. In '74 my friend Lee_Anne had her 12th birthday there.When it first opened it was a "proper" restraunt, tablecloths,candles, table service, menu, wine menu. Very posh, we dressed up in our long dresses.It was the first time I had pizza. My Italian grandparents did not eat or make pizza, said its nothing like that in Italy, its more like what we call foccacia bread which they would have with a meal not as a meal.



KFC came early in the 70's too and it was a treat for us for a birthday or visitors. Here is the ad that introduced Australia to KFC

Late in the 70's mum got creative, and every sunday would make curried prawns and boiled rice. We could eat this in the loungeroom, a huge treat, while watching the Muppets, and Tom and Jerry.Dad loved these shows.

Mum was working night duty in a nursing home and us girls weren't a lot of help being selfish teens and so would wake her up with a cuppa and with a view to her getting dinner ready. We would all talk till about 5 mins before dad got home and then rush to get a salad together so he wouldn't have to wait to long for food. My sisters and I can still recite our salad recipe : Lettuce, tomato, beetroot, cucumber, pineapple ,cheese, ham!!!

1979 ,Maccas came to town~ there was an opening promotion, if you could recite the ingredients like on the add in 20 seconds you got a free big mac : 2allbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheeseoniononasesameseedbun

my favorite back then was fillet of fish, fries and a strawberry thickshake!

chinese food.Australia was thin on the ground for "foreign" food until the early 80's unless you lived in the city.Out in the suburbs it was fish and chip shops. I was 16 before I tasted chinese food. My friends took me out to dinner. I didn't know what to order, and they told me to try the sweet and sour. It was good, so it was all I ordered for about 3 years until I met Les and he talked me into trying other flavours.

I still eat more maccas than I should.

I pretty much eat anything now and still have a soft spot for red jelly and vanilla icecream....sigh

My life in shoes

Lacking blogging inspiration you are given THIS today....My life in SHOES!!!




1963,Baby me, all 6lb 20z wore these. How did I get so big???

At some point I learned to walk and I wore shoes like this, mum favoured black or white,shiny shoes, I don't remember any other coloured shoes growing up,or perhaps in the 60's that's all you could buy.

Oh wait, I did have a red pair of these jelly shoes when I was 3, I remember they had a ribbed sort of sole and I was forever getting rocks caught in them and walking on what felt like a huge lump.Mum used to be forever picking small rocks out of them with a matchstick. they were also like walking in a bucket of water on a hot day.

1968 School shoes.Koalas and Clarkes.I remember blisters and bandaids for the first 2 weeks of every year .I had to walk to school about 1km, ouch! Wore these for about 11 years except for summer time in highschool.

In primary the school shoes were teamed with these lovely fold down long socks, that never stayed up and yet we got into trouble off the teachers as they sunk ever downwards. Elastics under the fold helped but were annoying.

In highschool we were allowed to wear the shorter ones,though the uniform notes stated long socks were compulsory.There was much debate and argument from many an 11 yr old girl and their mother over this. Most of us wore the long ones and changed into the short ones 4 houses away from home. We were not walking the gauntlet in those long ones. I wasn't getting my head flushed for wearing the wrong socks! Oh! the endless scary stories about highschool that were bandied about to terrify us on the first day.


In 3rd form onwards in summer we were allowed to wear these Jc's which we all loved, they were so comfy.
when I wasn't in school shoes or "best" shoes for church or grandparents, then I was in thongs. (Or flipflops for the non aussies) .they didn't have lime green back then though,they came in black white or red.the little plug thing that goes through the shoe would wear out slowly and bang one day would pop through and you'd have to go home barefoot.

1979 I was 16 and purchased my first pair of shoes with my own money.Similar to this ,instead of a buckle on the ankle, they had matching rope that tied up around my calf, round and round. it was itchy and annoying, I lived with rope burns, but I loved them.Dad called them my clodhoppers.





79-81 I wore high heels mostly. Hell I used to walk 1.3km to the station every morning and back in the evening in these things, catch trains, buses, walk everywhere. It's a wonder I can stand straight today.

81-95 Nursing shoes, went through a few of these ,mine were navy blue, teamed with those stockings they advertised for the air hosties.

85-91 found me pregnant a few times, so sensible shoes, but nice ones. I went through a lot of slingbacks as well.

1996 I came down with rhuematoid Arthritis and shoes were almost to painful to wear at all, so anything that would fit and not pinch I wore.

Joggers were pretty much it for out of the house.


And I found a pair of boots, that were comfy, wore them everywhere, no heel but at least they were comfy and not joggers.


Luckily today ,thanks to new medication, I can wear nice shoes again. They have to be mid heel and a chunky heel, no stillettos for me, sadly.

And though I'd much rather be able to wear THESE boots, you will probably be more likely to find me in

THESE

Estee Lauder Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator review

I haven't really included product reviews in my blog, but I am impressed with this product and would like to share.

I was lucky to be chosen by Younger You website to test the new Estee Lauder’s Even Skintone Illuminator before the product launch in Australia.

Estee Lauder says: In just 2 weeks: 62% of women showed a significant improvement in skintone in a clinical test. Over time skin looks noticeably clearer and brighter, vibrant and more even-toned. This intensive, yet gentle oil-free serum features powerful technologies to address the look of every key sign of uneven skintone:

1. Triple-Optic Technology provides skin with a brighter, more luminous look from the very first application.
2. CorrectTone Technology visibly reduces uneven skintone in 2 weeks, while anti-oxidants help prevent its re-appearance.

Imagine skin so incredibly clear, even-toned and radiant, you have nothing to hide. Proven gentle and effective for all ethnicities.

With those claims I was skeptical but excited to try it

As you all know I have Rhuematoid Arthritis. My skin was looking pretty rough ,puffy, tired and uneven,small white patches from old skin infections ,darker patches and with big dark circles under my eyes. I also have been plagued over the last few months with a very large area of exma starting from under my nostrils to the side of my nose and mouth, it was flaring and lumpy, itchy every few days, would recede but leave me a bright strawberry mark and then flare again.Horrid.Hence why no photos of me here.....Yes I'm vain....even with you guys...

The product arrived beautifully packaged in an Estee Lauder bag and the bottle is elegant and exxy looking.,I love the aqua colour with the gold.

It is easy to pump,doesn't give you too much,so no waste .It applies well, feels like silk and glides on easily and absorbs immediately. No greasy afterfeel at all.

I had quicker results than the other ladies who left reviews on facebook . Within a few days my skin was feeling smoother, like a babys bum . I think its a brilliant moisturiser as well as illuminator and I stopped using my normal moisturiser.Within the first week the excema seemed to settle. I didn’t expect that the excema would dissapear but it has reduced significantly. I still have a small patch in the crease beside my nose, but the rest is gone. Can’t thank Estee Lauder enough for that one!!! I had been using an antimflamatory cream and an antibiotic cream to no avail.

It is 3 weeks into the trial now , my dark circles under my eyes have gone , my daughters and husband have noticed this and that my skin looks softer and smoother. The little white scarring is gone, my skin looks more even .

I look forward to continued improvement, ahhh if only it could get rid of freckles LOL but seriously, my skin looks and feels better overall everyday.

I am extremely happily extatic with the product and my only complaint is the cost.At $150 for the larger bottle,I'm povo, on a disability pension,it's just beyond my means. I’m using it as sparingly as I can.

Fingers crossed Estee Lauder may notice my review and send me another bottle