Sometimes  

Posted by: reflective moments

Sometimes I feel lonely
sometimes I need my space
sometimes there are no problems
sometimes I've got too much to face

Sometimes things go right
sometimes things go wrong
sometimes I fit right in
sometimes I just don't belong

Sometimes I want to laugh
sometimes I want to cry
sometimes I want to live
sometimes I want to die

Sometimes I want to face life
sometimes I want to be gone from sight
sometimes I want to run
sometimes I want to fight


dancing in the rain


Sometimes I want to sing
sometimes I want to shout
sometimes I know the answer
sometimes I'm in doubt

Sometimes I'm happy
sometimes I'm sad
sometimes I'm scared
sometimes I'm mad

Sometimes I want to win
sometimes I want to lose
sometimes I listen to music
sometimes I watch the news

Sometimes I make decisions
sometimes I'm told what to do
sometimes I find life hard
sometimes so do you.....

ANZAC Day  

Posted by: reflective moments

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corp who came together to fight in WW1


These ANZAC biscuits were baked by the soldiers mothers and wives and sent to the solders fighting in the war because they kept for a long time.

ANZAC biscuits (cookies in America)

 

Ingredients

1C rolled oats
1C unprocessed bran
½ C brown sugar
½ C wholemeal flour
1½ Weetbix biscuits
110g butter
2T golden syrup (be generous if you like them softer)
2T treacle (be generous if you like them softer)
1t bicarb soda
1/2t sea salt

Preparation method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
 
2. Heat butter, golden syrup, treacle in microwave or on stove till butter is melted and combine.
 
3. Combine all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.
 
4. Spoon into biscuit sized shapes on a greased baking tray. (or press into small greased tin if you want more of a slice. Bake for 15 minutes.
 
5. Remove tray from oven and allow to set for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to set completely. If doing the slice version, make sure you cut it before it sets (it can go rock hard).

Easter greetings  

Posted by: reflective moments

PhotobucketEaster in Australia    Photobucket




                    
In Australia Easter is celebrated with public holidays, church services, eggs, and fun. It is celebrated in March or April, which is autumn unlike other countries in the Northern Hemisphere where it is spring.  In Sydney, Australia there is an agricultural show known as "the Royal Easter Show". Which has displays of the countries best produce, farm animals, parades, rides, fireworks, food, sideshows etc.  Australians enjoy the Easter holidays, which heralds the end of summer. Especially the children, who love Easter eggs, chocolate rabbits, and time together with the family.


Wishing all my friends a very happy family time this Easter 


Photobucket

I am only telling you...  

Posted by: reflective moments

How many times have you been told that by someone who is confiding in you only to find you are not the only one keeping her/his secret.

Years ago pregnant women were not allowed to play Squash.  (a couple of years later that ruling changed and I played till 7mths pregnamt)  Anyway. I digress.... one of my close friends came to me and confides she is pregnant and was pulling out of pennant but wanted to keep playing in the social pennant... I said okay as long as you don't tell anyone because if it is reported to me I will have to tell you to stop playing.  No, no, Bren I am only telling you as you are my friend.  Imagine my shock when a couple of weeks I am down on the court playing her and wrong footed her and she fell over flat on her tummy!!  When the whole gallery gasped  with horror.... now normally this would not stir more than someone calling out "are you ok"  I was gobsmacked and when we came off the court and back upstairs the rest of my team come to me and said "did you not know she was pregant"  before I could reply one of my friends said you looked shocked... well, yes I was as I believed I was keeping her secret and nobody else knew.

Can you keep a secret? Keeping a secret for someone else is a huge responsibility.  When you are asked to keep a secret, you need to be able to keep your word. If you can’t, then your word means nothing and you are not respecting your friend. No matter how stupid, inconsequential or controversial the piece of information is, if it’s not for you to share. If you have a misunderstanding with your friend it doesn’t give you the right to tell the secret to others as retaliation. If you do so, you may cause irreparable harm to your friendship.

            Looking back  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Looking back to the day
            When a frown simply faded away,
            Wondering where I went wrong.
            Has it really been so long?

            Did I really once smile
            At silly things, silly rhymes?
            But I've fallen victim of the times,
            Fallen and lost my own style.

            Reverse the clocks,
            But still move forward,
            Avoid stumbling blocks,
            Speak without words.

            Looking back, now, to the past
            I see where it stopped so fast.
            Looking forward to a day
            When my frown will again fade away.

            Tonsils out at 30,,, Easy Peasy or so I thought  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            One day when I had taken my son to the dr for yet another bout of tonsil problems my dr turned to me and said "open mother" as he came towards me with a tongue depressor.... To my horror he tells me I am infecting my son and if I had my tonsils out my son will be fine. (my daughter had already had her's out)


            Appointments are made the hospital booked and off I go.  Now, I admit I was a bit blase about this.... my daughter had, had her's out at four and was fine. 

            The next morning I am prepped for surgery, got told off by a very officious nurse to stop reading my book as I need to be sleepy.

            Operation over, I hear people saying my name, then I am crying and trying to scream.  Gosh the pain was incredible.  Not only that but, it apparently took a while to bring me back.   I had, had an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic.


            Next thing I remember is that I am back in my room which to my disgust I am sharing with 3 other elderly women.  I had booked a private room and my dr changed it he told me later. Said a private room would have kept me too isolated and I needed company, okay, I swallowed that story without an argument and found out later what really happened was the shortage of beds.

            I got a shot of something that sent me to sleep and woke up with a dowager sponging my forehead and the other patient from the bed opposite also sponging me.  I had been crying in my sleep and here they are like mother hens fussing over me.  I felt such a fraud.  after all I ONLY had my tonsils out and the dowager had cancer and her breast removed and the other one had a drip of some sort hanging off her.

            I had slept albeit fitfully the rest day away and now it was dinner time....  food had arrived.  Now, I was looking forward to the jelly (jello) and icecream as is the usual fare for tonsil patients instead I get a roast chicken dinner.... OMG the pain!   I had tried some mash potato with the gravy and the salt stung so much (may be the reason I do not eat salt) One of my carers in the bed opposite rang for a nurse who rushed in saw what was wrong (I was sobbing like a baby)  said a boy up in the children's ward had also had his tonsils out and was insisting on "decent food"  so she swaps our plates over.... Oh how wonder that icecream felt slipping down my throat. 

            Next day my dr comes in.... I ask why my tongue is so swollen and stuck to the roof of my mouth and why do I have such painful earaches and why is my chest so sore?   He tells me I had quinsy and my tonsils burst!!
            And that I don't want to know what they did to my tongue and my chest soreness was from where he leaned on me..... My earaches were caused by tissue from the burst tonsils.

            Every day when my dr visited he would sit beside me and give me a cuddle and repeatedly said "the closer you are to ten the easier this is"   One of the nurses said he is a softy and when I had been crying in pain he would come out of my room blowing his nose.

            The dear ladies over the way continued to sponge my forehead, and croon you poor thing to me ... Gosh I felt such a fraud I knew I was going to get better but was very unsure about these 2 sweet ladies.

            Eventually I started to improve.  The twice daily sometimes more old fashioned vicks in hot water and a tent made from towels as an inhaler helped.  I had to do this myself on a needs basis and not wait for a nurse.  Fine by me.

            And I cannot leave out the twice, sometimes 3 times daily injections of morphine.  I was beyond pain on morphine.   One night a friend dropped in just as I was in the middle of a Morphine high,... I frightened the life out of her, there I was sitting in the middle of the bed with the waste bin firmly clasped in my hands as I tried to be sick and telling her this was great stuff and I was going to the mall when I got out to get more....  I was so beyond pain and was even able to talk what I thought was normally instead she later told me I was slurring my words all over the place.

            Eventually the old dear with the drip thing goes home and I am left sharing the room with the dowager, what a darling old lady she was.  Eventually she too goes home and 2 more patients take their places.

            Now, I knew from my daughter's overnight stay that I should be home with my children by now and had been nagging my dr for a few days to let me leave.... finally on the eleventh day I was allowed  to go home.... to bed.   I had lost 11 kilo in hospital and was so weak for quite a few weeks .....  guess living on jelly and icecream will do that to a person.

            During my recovery I had to take my son off to the dr with tonsillitis again.  And this time he tells me my son will need his tonsils out.  I was like HEY!!  you told me to have mine out so he wouldn't need to!!  Words can not describe how upset I was with the pain I went through thinking I was saving my little boy from this ordeal to be told he had to get his out.  Somehow I felt tricked....  And like a child of course he sailed through is operation.

            Before my son has his operation I had to go for my checkup.... still mad about being tricked I was very grumpy with my doctor, who tells me the tone of my voice has changed.  I shrugged like who cares I am too mad with him... then he tells me he loves my new voice that I sound like a young Katherine Hepburn who he loved. If that was meant to be flattering it was't and it didn't endear him to me as I always thought her voice to high pitched and squeaky.  He who had seen through many trials and the birth of my children.  Who btw guessed the sex of  both my babies.  Laughed as I left the consulting room.

            I still remember  the first time he laughed at me and oh, how hard he laughed when on my first consult with him I shyly asked for the contraceptive pill.  And when I told him the dr I went to had turned me down and said his name my dr laughed even harder.  Turned out the first dr was head of the Catholic family planning.....

            I tell you it can only happen to me



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            Friendship ponderings  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Lessons I learnt while reflecting about an internet friendship......

            True friends are hard to find, most of the time, people end up with the wrong people. With the increasing selfishness and cut throat competition between peers, it has become more difficult to find a person, who can be blindly trusted and to be there in times of need. Also, with increasing interest of people in gossip and cheap plots, betrayal of friendship has become very common. One more reason because of which friendship these days do not bloom is self- engrossed nature of most of the people. Coping up with a broken friendship is quite hard, But, life goes on and you make new friends. You push away your hurtful past and learn a valuable lesson from it.

            Accept Reality
            When friends let you down and are not there for you when you need them the most, its very heart wrenching. Sometimes the reason why friends betray you is just not known, which leaves you with a feeling of guilt that may be something went wrong from your side. In case of betrayal, being at the receiving end leaves you hurt, confused and angry. You demand answers as to why have you been betrayed. The talks end abruptly, letters remain unanswered and there is no contact whatsoever. Hate it as much as you want, you will have to come to terms with reality and accept that things were not meant to be.

            Do Not Drag Issues
            There is no point in dragging along a friendship when you know you are not comfortable with it. End it politely and quickly and most importantly, don't regret your action. If you start feeling sorry, you are putting yourself in trouble. There is a reason for every action you take and you must have thought a lot about it before taking a decision. Learn to trust your gut feelings and have confidence in yourself. Make sure you don't end the friendship (however short it may be) with bitter feelings and make it a bitter experience for yourself as well.

            Take Lessons
            Once you overcome the depression phase, you will be surprised to see that it was not very difficult. All that you needed was to make yourself understand that this friend was not meant for you. Also, remember these betrayals are experiences that teach you valuable lessons in life.

            Three passions have governed my life  

            Posted by: reflective moments


            The longings for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of others.

            Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness. In the union of love I have seen in a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

            With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of others. I have wished to know why the stars shine.

             Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens, but always pity brought me back to earth; cries of pain reverberated in my heart of children in famine, of victims tortured and of old people left helpless. I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.


            This has been my life; I find it worth living.





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            When a dentist is not a dentist  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Feeling very independent at about 17 I took myself off to the dentist he was a new dentist in town so I didn't have long to wait for an appointment.  So, the day comes and off I go to keep my appointment.   I was full of confidence expecting a filling was all that was needed.  When I realised he was getting ready to pull out the tooth I queried what he was doing and he said... the tooth needed to come out. All I could think was thank goodness it was a back tooth.  Well, later that day my face starts to swell, it swells that badly that my eye closes. Friends and mum were telling me to go back to him but I had no intentions of ever going back to that dentist.   By the time the swelling goes down and I can open my mouth I go to my doctor for him to have a look at the inside of my mouth which was so very sore but no where near where the tooth was pulled out.  The dr looks and finds that the dentist had slashed the inside of my cheek.....  I never went back to that dentist not even to complain I just wanted to stay well away from him.   About a month or so later he made headlines in the newspaper because a patient he had done something similar too had taken him to court and it turned out he was going to jail for impersonating a dentist.  Yep that is right, he was not a dentist which is why he would only pull teeth.  Turned out he was a dental technician!!   Took me a long time to go to a dentist. after that.   Finally, I could put it off no longer, I had to go and again, when telling a friend at Squash about this dentist she exclaims OMG you aren't going to blood Murray are you!!  Yes I was, and he was called blood Murray because he likes to see blood. Which is what I was saying to Morva ... that this new dentist doesn't fill teeth he only pulls them!!  Another squash team mate finds out about my dramas with this new dentist and it turns out she had spoken to her husband who just happened to be a dentist.  Imagine my relief to finally have a dentist I could trust....  While Richard's surgery was miles away from home it was worth the trip and his wife Jenny would come over and we would visit and I would be invited out the back for a cup of tea....   Eventually life changes as it often does and now I am living in a different town and in search of a dentist,  One day I am telling a friend that I think I had found the perfect dentist however when I told her his name she freaks out and says he lives next door to her and she would never go to him.....


            Honestly, I sometimes wonder if I should have called this blog "It can only happen to me"


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            Can cook won't cook  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Still on the MIL theme...

            A friend posted a very funny blog post about her MIL's stomach which led me to thinking about my MIL.  K and I have been together over 25yrs. And while the Inlaws live 3hrs away and we always prearrange our visit, So she knows we are coming I have never had a cooked meal there.  Well, I have had meals but never home cooked.   She has a beautiful home, every mod con in her designer kitchen and yet I have yet to see her use them, She must use them sometime surely, just not when we are there.   I would love to know why this is.

            The last visit when again she knew we were coming, MIL asked if we were staying for dinner  HUH!!!  It was already 5pm when we arrived. I was embarrassed but K said yes we would stay for dinner. So she goes to the phone to ring FIL who fortunately hadn't left his office to pick up some takeaway on the way home.  After the call I said I hope we are not being too much trouble and I did get a reply along the lines of now with the 2 of them she does not cook as it is too much trouble.  
            Which left me thinking wouldn't having visitors be a good excuse to cook up a storm but apparently not. 
             Looking back on the 25 plus years I have known her and even when we have stayed there we have had to fend for ourselves. 


            I guess it must just  be a case of can cook won't cook.... 

            Can divorce be contagious?  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Following on from my previous divorce stories....

            I, being the first to be so radical as to leave a wealthy husband and the status that all brings brought shock and horror from my sisters and some didn't speak to me for years.  I am sure divorce is not contagious and that meeting K did not mean he was going to be attracted to them and race them off.  Yet, one did say her husband said she was not allowed to meet K!   Another, years later when we were finally speaking again, with a cynical laugh said she is now where I was and I am where she was. Guessing she meant she is now better off than I am now. Really, I felt like saying who really cares but bit my tongue.    One thing I did learn from my divorce is happiness far outweighs money, particularly money combined with a miserable marriage.

            I have a sister who, when I got divorced sent me a religious card of forgiveness... telling me god loves me and so does she.      She spoke too soon, as a few yrs later her lay preacher husband left her for her best friend..


            So, can divorce be contagious?

            Or is that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones?
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            Mother-In-laws  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Or as mine came to be known as.... Poor Amy.

            Our wedding day became a "poor Amy" day.  Poor Amy she is going to miss G, Poor Amy this, Poor Amy that....

            Poor Amy's neighbor greeted us at the gate when we arrived back from our honeymoon with "poor Amy, she has missed G so much"

            Our house wasn't quite finished so we were to stay with G's parents for a month.  That lasted all of a week, As G.s mother used to come into our bedroom every morning and wake us up with "do you have any washing?"  Huh!! 

            A bigger martyr of a MIL nobody ever had.

            The sad thing is G's father adored me and me him.  He was a wonderfully, kind hearted man who every year grew flowers to bloom in time for my birthday and would arrive early on the morning of my birthday with his arms overflowing with flowers,  He looked on me as the daughter he never got. G was an only child.

            MIL kept a very careful eye on the building of our house.  She was there twice a day checking on things....

            At Christmas time I always dreaded her gift to me.  No MIL should ever buy their DIL sexy nighties ... It is just wrong. Plain wrong.

            As we lived around the corner G would drop in to see his mother on his way to work, on his way home for lunch and yes you guessed it on his way home in the evening.  I soon discovered she was cooking for him grrr so instead of fussing over his lunch I made vegemite sandwiches and left them on the bench top and for dinner I would make enormous meals and watch him struggle to eat..  Eventually he stopped his mother from cooking him dinner as he was putting on too much weight,

            So instead of meals for dinner she would bake for him.  Sponge cakes. slices and the like.  I once in the early days of marriage asked for "her" sponge cake recipe.  FIL was over and looked in the oven and asked me if I was making a pancake... I said no that is the sponge recipe from mother. Yes I had to call her "mother"  He said he would check with her about the recipe.  He smelt a rat whereas innocent me didn't.  Turns out it was not her recipe.

            G had an accident that landed him in hospital and by now we had our first child a girl.  Much to FIL's delight. On this particular day at the hospital the maiden aunts were there with MIL and FIL.  They doted on poor G and kept saying sorry to poor Amy, and poor Amy this and poor Amy that.  Hey, I am his wife what about me and his child I felt like shouting as she lapped up the sympathy,

            Even my friends started to call her poor Amy.  It wasn't long before I felt suffocated.  You see we lived in a Court so the only way in or out was past MIL's house and if I tried avoiding her and went left I had to drive past his aunt's house.   Oh how the phones would run hot between them whenever I went out. 

            The one and only time I yelled at MIL was when she entered my house for the umpteenth time without knocking.  That particular afternoon I was naked in the bath with my toddler and suddenly there is MIL standing in the doorway with no intention of leaving till I yelled at her to get out,  From then on she at least rang to ask if she could come over or at the very least knocked first.

            Just remembered, she knew my movements so well that she would be out the front of her house sweeping the path every time I went past and if I didn't go past she would ring G at work.

            The final straw for me was when G's father passed away and G was figuring out how to extend the house to accommodate his mother.  I bit my tongue as I was silently thinking over my dead body.

            Eventually, I left him.  Once his father was no longer there to support me things went from bad to worse, G would never hear anything bad about his mother, in his eyes she was a saint.   He was brought up by his mother and her mother who lived with them.  FIL was an engineer and worked away from home.

            The day I finally left in swept MIL to take charge of my house. 
            She was a great actress and never said anything bad about me to the neighbors.  FIL saw to that lol  So, at her funeral a few years ago former neighbors and relatives are saying to me "poor Amy" she loved you, you know.  Poor Amy always spoke well of you,  I just nodded as I knew from the horrible divorce she hated me. she even wrote an affidavit saying I had let her down as I was to help design her new kitchen and now who was going to help her,  I think she was wanting compensation.   Every day in court there she was holding G's hand.  I was convinced I wasn't just divorcing G but also his mother. In fact I am sure I was.

            There are many more horrid and sometimes very nasty MIL from hell tales but I like to think that when she died FIL reunited with her and gave her a sound ticking off.

            On a happier more positive note MIL number 2 is lovely.  She had a MIL from hell who followed them out here from England and who she called "the duchess"  MIL mark 2 tries very hard to be a friend and not an MIL.  She only gives advice when asked,  such a rarity for a mother who also loves her first born son.

            Love the second time around  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            Love is lovelier
            The second time around
            Just as wonderful
            With both feet on the ground

            It's that second time you hear
            Your love song sung
            Makes you think perhaps that love
            Like youth, is wasted on the young

            Love's more comfortable
            The second time you fall
            Like a friendly home
            The second time you call

            Who can say
            What brought us to this miracle we've found
            There are those who'd bet
            Love comes but once and yet

            I'm oh so glad we met
            The second time around




            Relationships, I find them so utterly confusing,  Are we truly meant to mate for life?

            having a mate for life means, marriage for 50 - 60 years, partner passes, and surviving mate lives with fond memories until death. Never to partner with another.

            Even this is open to interpretation, intent needs to be considered. Does not the widow/widower plan for a lifelong partnership even if the spouse passes prematurely? Does a new partnership negate the intent of the first?

            Personally I don't think we are meant to mate for life, not that I am such a liberated female ..I am not.   However, if one person in a relationship grows and the other doesn't they can find their needs and wants in a relationship changing too.   Till, eventually one or both find they no longer have anything in common.   My first marriage was like that.  I kept exploring different jobs, different sports, different ways of doing things whereas my husband hated change.  We would go house hunting and find what I thought was a dream home (far away from his mother) while looking at the house he would be full of excitement but, by the time we got home he would be finding fault with what I found.  Finally, I gave up.... obviously, he was comfortable where he was.  He was an only child and we built a house just around the corner from his parents.   It, took me only a little while to realise his mother was never going to let go of him. I was young and too blinded by love to see this before I married him and perhaps like all innocents I thought I could change him.

            Then, his father who was the glue that held us all together died and her dependency on her son increased.  I tried hard to save that marriage I honestly believe I did; but he was spending increasingly more, and more time at his mother's.  Which led to us each doing our own thing.  On reflection, if I hadn't been so naive when I married him....I would have given a comment by one of her neighbors more thought....."poor Amy, she has been so lost without G"  that on the day we arrived back from our honeymoon.

            Now, over 25yrs later he never remarried, is still in that same house and has not changed a thing. I find that so sad.  I believe as my children grew so did I and I was so open to new experiences. Still am.  Eventually and inevitably without realising I was looking I met someone else.    K and I have had 25 years together, we are still the best of friends and there is never a dull moment.

             So, what am I getting at with these reflections?    Perhaps that some are fortunate to find their soul mate the first time; others, like me, found love the second time around.


            Happy endings  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            A little relationship humor.....

            She spent the first day packing her belongings into boxes, crates and suitcases. On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things. On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, And feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay.

            When she had finished, she went into each and every room and stuffed half-eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar, into the hollow of the all of the curtain rods. She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.

            When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything, cleaning, mopping, and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, and carpets were steam cleaned.

            Air fresheners were hung everywhere. Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even Paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting.

            Nothing worked. People stopped coming over to visit. Repairmen Refused to work in the house. The maid quit. Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move. A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house.

            Word got out, and eventually, even the local realtors refused to return their calls.

            Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.
            The ex-wife called the man, and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely, and said that she missed her old home terribly, and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.

            Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on a price that was about 1/10th of what the house had been worth, but only If she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and within the hour his lawyers delivered the paperwork. A week later the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the moving company pack everything to take to their new home, including the curtain rods.

            DON'T YOU JUST LOVE A HAPPY ENDING?

            Ooops  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            I threw out hubby's final year thesis ....

            I didn't just throw this balled up box of papers into the bin but, I actually took it to the recycle centre... When I clean I really do a good job.

            Where we lived at the time there was no garbage collection so every 2nd week when I had an RDO I would take our rubbish to the recycle centre.

            I can still see the look of horror on my husband's face, as he calmly came out of his now neat and tidy study to ask me what happened to the box of papers!!

            Oooops!!  Poor hubby, he was devastated and tried to explain to me that it was balled up in frustration .... How was I to know I replied.  After that he had me promise to never touch anything in his study and I never have. He vacs, dusts and straightens it himself.  I think if he could he would padlock the door....

            Einstein Hubby's hero
            Fortunately, he got the highest mark possible for his prac so had passed with flying colours without the paper. Which he did later complete.   And the paper has never, ever been mentioned between us ever.

            His work was of course owned by the University



            His degree ... Physics degree in Electronics


            20yrs later and I still feel sick whenever I think of that day and what the consequences could have been..
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            A Friendship Lost  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            We don't always know the reason why friendships are severed, but one thing is for sure, it leaves a void in those who were part of it.

            © Brenda J. Metz

            I remember the time not long ago
            When we laughed and shared it all
            We were the very best of friends
            Or at least that’s what I thought.
            I often wonder why friendships end
            What happens to sever that tie
            How can someone once so close
            Just wave you off with a good bye
            I must have been lacking
            I must have been wrong
            I wasn’t the friend to you
            That you were to me all along.
            I thought I was loyal
            I know I was true
            But something went wrong
            Now there’s nothing to do
            A friendship lost
            Is a very sad thing
            The angels weep instead of sing.



            Easy to make low carb Scotch eggs recipe.  

            Posted by: reflective moments

            I have been experimenting with different versions of Scotch eggs and settled on this low carb version.....

            Scotch eggs are traditionally deep fried with bread crumbs but neither is necessary and makes for an easy low carb conversion.

            • 4 hard boiled eggs (place eggs in cold water and bring to the boil.. let boil for no more than 12min)
            • Sausage or pork mince
            • spices as desired  
            • (I have diced an onion finely and mixed it into the mince or just used some ground black pepper)
            • grated/shredded cheese (optional)
            Boil and remove the shells from 4 eggs.  On a sheet of wax paper, spread out about 1/4 of the sausage mince and pat out thinly.  Sprinkle some grated cheese on top of the sausage and place one hardboiled egg in the center.  Carefully wrap the sausage "blanket" around the egg keeping all the cheese on the inside.  Make sure to pinch the sausage together where the ends meat to help keep the cheese inside.  Repeat for the other three eggs.  You can fry them or partially fry them (just sear the outside) and complete the cooking by baking them in the oven at 180c/300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.  The sausage layer should be fairly thin so it won't take very long to cook either way you choose.

            There are many, many versions of Scotch Eggs but these cheesy low carb one's are my preference,