November 2023

Hi friends I hope you all had an amazing weekend! It sure went fast, didn’t it? I’m excited to be back today joining Holly and Sarah to share a bit about my weekend. My Website Is Finally Working Properly! Oh my goodness I’m so relieved that my website is up and running smoothly again. I’ve had all sorts of trouble with it for the past week and a half. The images on the homepage were all distorted and updating plugins didn’t fix the issue. Saturday morning I checked my site. I saw that there on the home page was a spin-the-wheel competition to win an iPhone. Instantly I knew that my website had been hacked because there was no way that I was giving away any iPhones! Sometimes, I try and see if I can sort out any technical issues myself but hacking is a whole different ball game! Even though I mainly set my website up by myself with the help of endless hours of YouTube videos. I’ve lost my confidence when it comes to all the tech stuff. So I got in contact with my childhood friend who co-owns a web design company with her husband and she fixed my site in a snap. Phew! A Rainy Saturday Despite the miserably, cloudy day, Steve and I caught up with some friends at the Ramsgate Farmers Market. We had a look around the market for a bit before we grabbed coffee and a gozleme to share. We sat under a tree and caught up on all their exciting holiday stories. My friend and her husband recently got back from their five-week holiday in Greece. It feels as if almost everyone we know has been overseas in the last couple of months! In the evening I got busy prepping for our cousin connect gathering on Sunday. This time around we changed it from Saturday to Sunday. I did as much as I could to get ahead as I knew that I wouldn’t have much time on Sunday because everyone was coming over for lunch instead of the usual dinner. Sunday Our Cousin Connect was such a busy and fun time that I forgot to take many pics. Before lunch, we started with a cob loaf dip as an appetiser. I haven’t made this in ages but it was a big hit and everybody enjoyed dipping their crusty bread into this cheesy deliciousness. I made a pasta salad (forgot to take a pic) and a southwest salad. We also had fall-apart roasted pork leg and chicken skewers. For dessert, I made a chocolate fudge brownie in a round tin because I didn’t have a square one. We enjoyed this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Perfect comfort food for a cold rainy weekend. I wonder where spring has gone?? After our long lunch, we played some Jackbox games which had us in stitches. They are so fun to play! It was wonderful to be together chatting, laughing and catching up. We even got onto planning Christmas. It will be here before we know it! This year my cousin and her family will be hosting. To make it easier for everyone, we’ve decided to share the load. My aunt is in charge of the turkey and I’ve volunteered to take care of the ham. I’m planning to glaze it with the most amazing macadamia, lime and ginger sauce. The rest of the cousins will contribute with cheese platters, salads and desserts. Gosh, it’s almost hard to believe that we are organising Christmas already! Cat Update! Hooray! I didn’t think I would see the day when I felt comfortable enough to have both cats roaming the house freely. Mochi the kitten and Sushi are now friends…well sort of. Maybe calling them friends is a bit of a stretch. But they do tolerate each other. They usually start their interaction by rubbing noses and then slapping each other a couple of times before walking off. Haha, it’s funny to watch! I am so happy that Mochi doesn’t hiss at poor old Sushi anymore. But she needs to learn to let her use her kitty litter in peace. Instead of using this most inappropriate time to play with her tail. She’s such a kid!! And that’s a wrap! It was a pretty amazing weekend that flew by all too fast. I hope yours was a good one too. Have a wonderful Monday and I look forward to being back here on Wednesday. See ya!      

Happy Friday friends! It’s great to be back for Friday favourites with Andrea and Erika. So grab a cup of something soothing and let’s take a peek at some Halloween favourites. Halloween 2023 I joined my youngest cousins for some trick or treating, and we had such a fun afternoon and evening. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Halloween has been gaining popularity in Australia over the years, with more and more people embracing it. While it’s not as massive an event as it is in some parts of the world. It’s gradually evolving into a bigger celebration. There’s no doubt about it, there are plenty of Aussie kids (young and old) who love to dress up and get free candy or lollies as we call them over here! Before I went on my own Halloween fun I left a note on my front door with a cauldron of lollies. In case some kids in my street came knocking. I hope the local kids enjoyed some sweet treats. My aunt picked me up and we drove to my cousin’s house. When we got there they had fun 80s music playing in their front yard and my cousin was there ready and waiting to hand out lollies in his Ken outfit. I won’t share a pic because I’m not sure if he’d want me to. But trust me, his costume was fantastic! Here I am with my younger cousin. She was Dorothy from “The Wizard Of Oz” and I wore a costume from one of my favourite series “Money Heist”. We walked around, got our steps up big time and said hello to the locals who were out trick or treating in big groups. Halloween decorations are still pretty minimal over our way but this giant spider got my attention! I honestly don’t think I could comfortably walk into my house if a huge spider was greeting me like that….shudder! Even the fake ones scare me! We were all starving afterwards so we walked back to the house for pizza. Not sure why the pizzeria we got the pizzas from is called “Ugly Pizza” because they sure tasted amazing! Halloween loot! We were a small group this year as most of the gang from our cousin Connect group couldn’t make it due to work commitments. So this weekend we are having a late Halloween party and dressing up in our favourite costumes. Yep, it’s the first Saturday of the month so that means it’s time for our monthly dinner get-together. Yay! Halloween Fun At Preschool We are mindful that not all children and families celebrate Halloween at our preschool. However, we offered some fun and low-key Halloween activities for those who were excited to join in. Halloween sensory tubs. The kids made masks. Playdough monsters. I read one of my all-time favourite books to the children called “A Dark Dark Tale” by Ruth Brown. My kids used to love this book too! It’s the cutest story that has a big build-up to the funniest ending. The kids loved it and thought it was hilarious. So fun! We also danced to some cute Halloween-themed music like the skeleton dance and sang ‘Days Of The Week’ Adam’s Family style. It was a fun week sprinkled with some Halloween favourites. I hope you had a great week too and are ready for an even better weekend! Happy Friday and happy weekend!

Hey, there everyone it’s so good to be here today for the November edition of Currently hosted by Jennifer from Overflowing With Thankfulness. Holy moly it’s November already and I’m shaking my head in disbelief! Today we will be taking a peek at what we are loving, buying, preparing, excited for and planning. So let’s get started! LOVING Over the weekend I watched a very inspiring documentary called ‘Live to 100 – Secrets of The Blue Zones’. Have you seen it? It’s all about author Dan Buettner travelling around the world exploring five extraordinary communities where people live long fruitful lives. These “Blue Zones” are living proof that a life filled with purpose, social connections, and a diet rich in whole foods can lead to vibrant health and happiness. I loved this documentary and it’s given me so much optimism to do ageing right! BUYING I would love to say that I have been smashing my Christmas present list and I have been buying gifts like a champ. But ummm…….no. I haven’t even thought about it yet. PREPARING At preschool, we are preparing for our Christmas concert. We are in the process of deciding what songs to sing for the parents. During group time we have been busy asking the children for suggestions and getting them to vote on their favourite songs. Do you know how hard it is to get them to vote? It cracks me up because a lot of the kids don’t get the voting process and vote on every song!! Even when we explain to them that they can only raise their hands and vote for one. Nope, all these little hands shoot up after every suggestion haha! EXCITED FOR I have a few things coming up that I am so excited about. First of all, it’s time for our monthly cousin connect this Saturday and it’s my turn to host. Most of our cousins couldn’t come along to trick or treat on Tuesday afternoon so we are thinking that we might turn Cousin Connect into a belated Halloween party. My youngest cousin is performing in this year’s Schools Spectacular. The NSW Schools Spectacular is an annual event where students from all over the state of New South Wales participate in an amazing production. It features performances including music, dance, and theatrical arts. This is to highlight the creativity and talent of all the students involved. I’m excited to go and see my little cousin perform in this event. It will be the first time I will go and see it live, usually, I catch it when it’s on television. In late November I’ll be enjoying some time off that I’ve accrued from attending after-work staff meetings and staff development evenings. This means I’ll have a whole two days off from work. I’ve already made plans to go Christmas shopping with my lovely friend on one of those days. Haha, it’s almost like playing hooky from work and I’m sure that I’m going to feel like I’m being a very naughty kid skipping school! I’m also excited about going to the Danish Christmas markets which I mentioned to you guys the other day. I think I’m generally excited about the rest of the year with so many fun events to look forward to! PLANNING On the weekend when my whole family is together, we will be planning who is going to host Christmas Eve. We always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is a very low-key day. I am the one in charge of the games for the night so I will be starting to plan some fun minute-to-win-it style games soon. Last year was such a hoot and we had so much fun playing crazy games that had us all in stitches. I think that everyone’s favourite game for the night was ‘tortilla slap’ so I may have to repeat that one! I guess that just about covers all that I am loving, buying, preparing, excited for and planning. Thanks so much for being here today. I always appreciate you guys stopping by to have a read. I hope you have an amazing day and I look forward to being back here on Friday!