Sunday Funday

Probably my most delayed post to date so I preface this entry with an apology. Although I don’t believe I have any avid readers that count on my entries to get them through the day, so I’m sure no one has been hurt by my complacency and laziness. So on a chilli Sunday morning in Capel, with David at work, the housework finished yesterday, too early for breakfast, Dumbo playing in the background, it now seems like the perfect time to dedicate to an update.

So we’ll start with Tuesday 14^th, Valentine’s day, which was the first time Dave and I have officially celebrated the day, with us going to dinner and exchanging presents, it made the day so much more exiting. David and I went to CapelVale for their special valentine’s dinner, and had the prelude picnic (we thought we were pretty fancy as we were escorted to our private candle lit vine row where there was a picnic set up and each received a glass of sparkling). We then went inside for a five course shared tasting menu. It was beautiful but, true to the nature of a lovely winery, was a tad exxy so David definitely won himself some points by handing over HIS plastic at the end of the night hehe. Thanks David!

Work has been getting more and more hectic but I’m so happy with being able to manage my own caseload and being able to (using departmental guidelines of course) work the way that I like to work. Bit of a pain in the bum though, I’m yet to be paid for any of my Bunbury working days! For some annoying reason (and in typical payroll fashion) there has been an error and I haven’t yet been put on their payroll. So looking forward to an almighty pay this fortnight – yahoo!

Last weekend saw the (temporary) separation of David and Emily. I drove up on the Friday and spent Friday night with my beautiful girlfriends at Tradewinds for Pashley Rascoe’s birthday! Hehe. It was wonderful to see everyone and give/receive lots of well overdue cuddles. And of course, it was wonderful to wish the birthday girl a ‘happy birthday’ in person. In the morning I ventured out for a final grocery shop before heading off to Merredin for the weekend. I wanted to do something special for the gang so I bought lots of yummy breakfast goodies and planned to make little ham and egg brekkie shells. After a quick bite to eat and cup of coffee to fuel up for the drive, we headed north east and were Merredin bound. It was a lonnng drive but made easier being in good company and also eased by the excitement of the night ahead and seeing our friend’s little house! It was such a gorgeous house – we must’ve said ‘oh my god, I love it!’ and ‘its so big!’ that many times!! A night of fun, frivolity and fajitas lay ahead, and it was just so nice to have that uninterrupted time with my dearly loved friends. Sunday afternoon, back in Perth, gave me another catch up w a good friend. It was fantastic to see her and hear how well her training was going. She’s, very enviably, training for the goal of competing in the Busselton half iron man in 10 weeks! (Enviable that she has the fitness, motivation and dedication, not so envious because I know how many tireless hours have gone into it!).

I started the working week feeling uber out of sorts. Feeling absolutely exhausted and had no idea why – so it was a very slow start for this ole broad. But come Wednesday, I perked up and started to feel like myself again! Dave and I have logged a few running kms this week, and I’ve been feeling pretty good! I’ve added a few more recipes to my repertoire and met my February goal of 5 new recipes! This week I tried Teresa Cutter’s ‘10 minute lean and green chicken stroganoff’, I absolutely loved it but Dave found it a bit unsatisftying and advised me he found it better suited as an entrée than a main! The zucchini in it tasted soo yummy and it was such a filling bowl of yumbo. My other dish was from Gwenyth Paltrow’s cookbook (not only is she freakin beautiful, her recipe book is full of wholesome and nutritious recipes that she apparently does cook herself for her family – I’ll give her benefit of the doubt I guess), which was for Fried Rice w kale and spring onions. I made a big batch that will hopefully keep well and I can take for lunches during the week. It was a lady from work’s final day so I also tried a new desert recipe for her and made flourless chocolate cakes. I really liked them! It was made w almond meal and cocoa w oil rather than butter – and it was an absolutely amazingly simple recipe and uber healthy.

Saturday saw me kill time in town and have an appointment w a naturopath. I was very very surprised that given the health and environmentally conscious population in the South West (also colourfully referred to as ‘hippies’) there weren’t more naturopaths or homeopaths down here!! The one I booked into see was the only one down here that popped up when I did a google search. I guess its quite natural that, as I am relatively healthy and don’t have any real ailments as such, it was a fairly straight forward consultation. But I guess it was reassuring and lovely to be told that I’m on the right path and am so far living the healthiest and most wellness oriented life that I can be. Snaps for meeeeeee!

Well I best be off and get my Sunday going – I have a very unscripted, unplanned day ahead and need to go and find things to keep me entertained!

Love and cuddles,

Mle x

Stating the Obvious.

Yes - I'm terrible at this whole 'regular blogging' thing. I promise to be better soon. I don't have too much to report so wouldn't want to bore you too much anyway but just haven't had the time to sit and type! In summary, I'm off being very important and fancy so I will update when I have a chance to sit and divulge my adventures and reflect on my continued down south dominance (that's not a euphamism...).

Love and cuddles,
Mle x

Bibbity Bobbity ... Run?

Happy Monday everyone! :) Hope everyone is well and happy and had a wonderful start to their week. So everyone can follow nicely (and tune in and out based on their interests without judgement), I will segment this post into four different areas based on the four overarching themes/dominant goings on in the world of Emily - Domestic Goddessness, Fitness/Training, Work and Social Shiz.

Domestic Goddessness -
So what's been going on in the Capel Kitchen? My resolution for February was to try 5 new recipes that use skills/techniques that I haven't used in the past. I've completed three of the five in the past week and a half. First up, brownies. Now I've made boring ole brownies in the past but after a friend and I hosted a fundraising luncheon last year, I became obsessed with her yummy, moist and perfect brownies. Her secret shocked us all and in fact used pumpkin to keep the mixture so dense and rich. After some realisations that my kitchen is far from fully stocked (Me: 'Uh mum, how do I beat without beaters?' and 'Uh mum, how do I sift without a sifter??') the recipe still came to life and a batch of beautiful pumpkin and ginger brownies was created (and devoured) for a staff meeting at work. Next, a surprise for David's dinner, after he has been uber understanding of my health obsessive nature and avoidance of heavy dinners, I made burgers. But with an emily twist. I made thai turkey burgers, using turkey mince, corriander, chilli, garlic, capsicum and sesame oil in the pattie mixture and topped with salad and chilli/lime dressing on wholemeal buns. Scrumdidliumpious if I do say so myself. And my third (and probably very boring compared to most people's culinary prowess) was terriyaki salmon with brown rice and stir fried green vegetables. The (predicted) tricky bit was actually making the terriyaki marinade from scratch, but surprisingly easier than I had thought and will definitely be making my own rather than buying from a bottle next time! So that concludes my kitchen capers, but as the weeks tick along and weekends without David continue (he's working Saturdays and Sundays from now on) I am hoping those last two recipes will be doozies and I will be able to challenge myself a bit more - I kind of took the easy road with the past three hehe.

Fitness/Training -
It wouldn't be an Emily post without a mileage update! Last week was a good week, with David going back to work and I found that routine was definitely coming easier. So up went the motivational training plan (and cartoon fattie sketches hehe) on the whiteboard. Dave and I have been following the City2Surf  half marathon training plan which it quite do-able in that is works on a slow increase in distance and speed. We've surprised ourselves with how quickly our bodies have adapted and already finding our aerobic fitness had gotten so much better. So (drum roll please those of you who actually cared about the fitness training portion of this post) my total mileage for last wk (Mon to Sun) was 51.5km (31.5km running and 20km riding). My BIGGEST accomplishment however was my Sunday long run, which was 7km straight - my longest ever consecutive distance. I was so happy and felt physically strong and NOT like I was going to die (which is always a pleasant way to feel post run). Bring on Feb 2013 - my international half marathon debut ;)

Work -
I've had a wonderful week at work and it finished with a country speechie team meeting on Friday. It was fantastic to finally put faces to the names of so many people I have spoken with over the past few weeks! I was also blessed to see lots of lovely clients who made me smile. The kidlets from my three year old caseload were absolutely gorgeous and their innocent little comments during the treatment sessions were freakin cute. I've finally established my caseload to have regular clients and treatment blocks booked, with heaps of new assessments chucked in to continue to work on our waitlists. I've been using my iPad in therapy A LOT this week and have found some great programs/apps that have been so well received by the kids and when I get time (and motivation) I will provide a little summary post about some of the best speech activities using the ipad and also an update for my speechie friends on the various resources I've developed. So short little entry detailing the 'work' aspects of my life, but definitely short and sweet, because work's been wonderful and continues to be EXACTLY the challenge and experience I was seeking.

Social -
So this is likely to be a VERY short synopsis because, without sounding like a very very sad sack, my social life hasn't really 'thrived' since being down here. BUT I also took up a few opportunities on the weekend to ensure I wasn't left in my own company for too long (some people still don't understand how I don't enjoy time on my own but I just cannot stand it - what can I say, I'm a really annoying personality hehe). Saturday started with a trip into Bunbury where I met up with a lovely group of ladies who are all signed up to do the next round of Michelle Bridges 12WBT (a fitness program I did 2 x last year). We met to do our fitness test for the start of the round which involved a 1km time trial, wall sit, sit up, push up and flexibility tests. It was lovely to mingle with people other than my darling housemate (sorry David hehe!) for a bit of a change and it was lovely to be surrounded by such wonderful people embarking on such a healthy and positive journey. Then my darling friend came for a very long (and very appreciated drive) from Perth to keep me company. We parked our asses at my little wooden table and shared a cupper and 5 hours of chatting about everything and anything. An absolutely blissful Saturday afternoon :) On Sunday I was up bright and early and headed to Capel church for their very very early country service! It was absolutely bizarre to be in a parish that was the smaller than the size of a football team!! After mass I headed into Busselton to meet up with a friend that was a couple of years above me at uni who has recently started up her own practice down here. It was soo lovely to sit and chat and catch up on all things big and small. But also, it was really reassuring and comforting to have someone from a professional point of view that I could chat with regarding difficult clients, logistics of working in a country town and just general speechie banter. The 3 hours flew by and it's nice to know that I have a friend I can call that will be keen for a chat if anything personal/professional comes up :) I finished my Sunday watching the film 'The Help' w Emma Stone. It was such an amazing film that I originally had noooo desire to see (sorry mama!) but absolutely loved!! I also got out 'Aristocats' but that may wait til a while, hehe.

So my apologies to anyone that I may have bored poop-less, but this was my weekly summary and so I thought I'd share for anyone interested ;)

Wishing everyone a lovely week filled with lots of success, smiles and cuddles.

Mle xx

Wonderful weekends, electricity failures and ham-hair.

I hope everyone had an amazing weekend, as I did. It was such beautiful weather, definitely some welcome relief from the sauna inducing heatwave we've been experiencing over the past few weeks! I firstly want to apologise for the extreme delay in post updates, Dave and I are sans internet at home as our USB stick thingo ran out of credit and we haven't had a chance to top it up yet. So I got to work at a ridiculous hour this morning to sneak use of the internet before 8am when the first cab off the ranks arrives, hehe.
The weekend was incredible with a visit from my lovely mama and dada, and with Dave's parents and my aunty and Adam ("eek Dave, it's the landlord, hide the smoking parafanalia, asylum seekers and the non-toilet-trained pets) joining us on the Sunday for lunch.

The weekend started with a blissfilly boring night in on Friday as Dave had a date with the cricket and I decided to use the time to work my brain and do a bit of study (yes, yes, don't say it, I know!). Sidenote for my speechie friends - For those of you who have Rhea Paul's textbook on assessment and intervention in childhood speech/language disorders, and like me used it more often as a door stop than as a learning aid, go back and have a read!! It actually has a lot of useful information and clinical anectdotes where you can see how the theory of what we have learnt was applied in a realistic clinical setting.

My Saturday began with a run and ride to get myself mentally psyched for the Donnybrook Food and Wine fest, where I planned on tasting every possible taste-test option available. Mama arrived by train (oh how 1960s') just before midday so we headed straight to the food and wine festival that had promised to be a culinary shmorgesbord!! Well, it was 'good' and there were a few little quaint stalls that sold really lovely things and offered tasters like marinated feta (drool) and raw cacao treats (surprisingly very very yummy, but not-suprisingly very very expensive!). But overall it was a wee bit of a let down because there wasn't the yummy options that we were expecting and it was quite a stock standard range of produce. But, at $5 a glass for taste tests, Mama and I drowned our sorrows (a few mLs at a time) in yummy wine tasters! My favourite was the plum port and apricot liquer mmm. I still maintain my Poppy does the best Tawny Port I have ever had, but it was really nice trying all the others and I splurged in my first bottle of White Port! I quite like port because you can't indulge in a few full glasses like you can easily do with wine, you simply have a few sips (usually about 4-5) and then you are satisfied and your belly is all warm and it's, simply put, such a nice feeling!! So, as I do try to cut back on my alcohol intake, port will remain my poison of choice. My delicious, warm, calming poison*.

Saturday night saw the arrival of me daddy - fresh off the green where he had slaved away tirelessly all afternoon trying to get the big ones closest to the little white bocce style ball (that is sadly (?fortunately) the extent of my bowling knowledge!). We explored Capel town and had dinner at the local tav. Suprisingly, I actually really loved the tavern. It's beautifully set out inside (not abiding by stereotypical country pub decor rules at all) and the meals were huge and not too badly priced. AND they had fish and veges on offer - rather than typical greasy pub food menus, their range was actually quite gourmet and (dare-I-say) healthy! So two opposable thumbs up from this health-obsessed foodie.

Sunday was a lovely day, starting w Mama and I exploring the Busselton Markets and having breakfast and coffee at Urban Coffee House (my new favourite place in ole Busso). True to character, I had the Margaret River muesli w natural yoghurt and hooley dooley it was yummy! Mama was impressed with the quality of their coffee (I told you so!) and it was nice to sneak in some more girl time before meeting w the boys later. I'm such a mummy's girl (or maybe just an all round 'family girl' because I get homesick and miss everyone!!) and this weekend was exactly what I needed! The day continued to be brilliant with the rest of the clan (Dave's parents and my aunty and Adam) joining us for lunch at The Deck at Port Geographe Marina. Dave and I tried this place out a few weeks back and it's absolutely stunning. It's deck faces out to the marina and the layout inside is really spacious and modern. The food was also really good (last time I had grilled fish on salmon and leek mash - yummmm!). So we piled out onto the deck and basked in the summer sun and had a beautiful Sunday luncheon. We made a detour to Simmo's after I 'subtly suggested' ('insisted and whinged') that we all go for icecream. I think they must've been flat out with the Jetty Swim in the morning because, disappointingly, there were only 6 flavours to choose from when we got there! But I had my icecream and I was happy :):)

Saying bye to everyone was hard, even though it'll only be a few weeks between cuddles. But the weekend was just so lovely and I was surrounded with so many people that I care about that it was hard to wave them away!

It's been a wonderful working week so far and promises to continue with busy days coming up for me. I have such a more positive mindset and am overall a lot happier if I am busy. On my admin days I tend to have really negative thoughts and constantly second guess myself and become bogged down in insecurities. But the other day my client's mum (after her little boy had done a really good session, and I was singing his praises on how quickly he had picked up the skills we had targeted) said "Well, I think it's because you're a great teacher". Something so simple, and potentially a little bias because he'd had a really good session, but it was really touching and reassuring to know that I'm not doing too badly down here :)

So cheers to a week of half marathon training, successful therapy sessions, yummy dinners and plenty of smiles.

Mle xx

*Disclaimer - I am not an alcohol nor do I have an 'unnatural' or 'adoration based' relationship with port. It's just these were the only words that fittingly described it. Albeit a little too emotively!

**The crytic blog title explained - Well the wonderful weekend is an obvious one. Electricity failures refers to my favoruite little Urban Coffee Shop suffering from power outages on Tuesday morning and I couldnt get my morning coffee (bought coffee is a once-a-week treat for me). Wahh. And, perhaps the most cryptic of all, 'ham hair'. Embarrassingly (but since do I have any shame really so of course I'll share the story) and weirdly, I woke up and the house smelt weird. I didn't know if Dave had left his sandwhich making aparatus' out or what but could not for the life of me work out where the 'ham-like' smell was coming from! It followed me around the house, from room to room, and really puzzled me (I hadn't had my coffee so understandably the ole brain was not functioning at its most optimum capacity). Then it dawned on me that it was my hair. It was only for about 5minutes and then the smell passed so I'm thinking it was more the way my nose was processing smell that morning but never-the-less I was blessed with the gift of HamHair for a short while. Please let me know if you've had a similar experience or if I am, in fact, going mad!