Messages From On High

It's only three days till the big day for Lucy and Brad. The clock's ticking and final preparations are underway. I've finally solved the problem of The Cupcake Icing vs The Weather. We're ditching the buttercream in favour of Italian Meringue. There's a little more work involved but the white is whiter and it has a better hold for the hearts. Phew!

This is Lucy's second marriage. And Brad's. And we're all hoping that it's a much better fit for both of them than their first partners. My Mum, who could win a gold medal for worrying, has been praying hard that it'll be right. Today in her prayers she asked God for a sign to put her mind at rest. Unfortunately while she was praying a really big thunderstorm was on the way. Lots of thunder and lightening! And, would you believe it, a bolt of lightening hit the roof of her house and sparked a little fire. The first Mum knew of it was her dogs going insane, barking at the firemen.

Poor Mum's now hoping that the lightening bolt wasn't a rather strongly worded message.

The Tale of Two Days

Picture this. Sitting under sails at a coffee shop with your BFF having breakfast while overlooking the beautiful Broadwater on the Gold Coast. The sun's shining (the first time in at least a week) and there's a gentle breeze. The coffee and the food is delicious and the conversation doesn't stop and is punctuated with laughter.

That was my morning yesterday. I'd promised my friend Natalie a full day in her first week of holidays and we picked a beauty. I left home at 6:30 am and arrived back almost 12 hours later and in all that time we didn't run out of things to talk about. We managed to squeeze a little Christmas shopping into the day as well and I crossed another two people off my list. Woohoo!!

And then today was back to reality. An early start with speed session - Kenyans again but this time I completed the session (even if I didn't quite reach my time goal on the last k) Home for breakfast, ironing and a few other fun chores (please note the heavy sarcasm). Then off to the shops for a quick coffee with my sister, more Christmas shopping (three more people ticked off). A drive out to the cake decorating supplies shop to by buttercream whitener. (who knew there was such a thing and titanium dioxide doesn't sound like something we should be eating) Back home to stay - a quick batch of brownies for the sister who owns the cafe and has a ridiculous amount of catering to do tomorrow. A long chat with a client who was dropping off fabric then the afternoon filled with cutting, drafting and sewing.

I mad a prototype of Lucy's wedding cupcake on the weekend to see how it would stand up to the humidity. A bit of googling had provided me with a useful tip - to add a small amount of cream of tartar to the buttercream to give it a bit more body. It worked! And I was really happy with the result.



Just imagine the icing white and the larger heart more tilted. I sent the picture to Lucy and waited for the response ... She liked it but she was wondering if the hearts weren't too much.

I must say I didn't react well. I've spent a LOT of money and LOTS of hours on this project and the hearts were her idea. BUT it is her wedding and she should have what she wants so even though I complained to my husband and my sister Julie, I didn't say anything to Lucy. Then I talked to another sister, Fiona (getting confused with all these sisters yet?) and she suggested I leave the problem with her and she would talk up the hearts and Lucy would change her mind. And sure enough that's exactly what happened. And I'm relieved that I haven't wasted all those $$ and hours.

My Week

One of the Rockettes is convinced she's about to become a Mother. Maybe because it's Christmas - the anniversary of the first virgin birth (she hasn't had any contact with a rooster). She's stopped laying and refuses to leave the nest and tries to claim the other chicken's egg as her own.




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Look at that face. Does she have the soft maternal features of a Mother? I didn't think so either. She looks a little evil - like she'd peck out the eyes of her first-born.

I've spent a lot of hours this week making these.

They're to go on the top of my sister's wedding cupcakes. But the weather has not been kind for cake decorating. It's been so humid/rainy/hot that the hearts aren't setting hard and the butter cream is too soft to hold the limp, saggy hearts. I'm really hoping the weather improves by next weekend or we'll have to go with plan B (whatever that might be)

And then there's this. My last Rhythmic costume of the year.


Then I got to see the costumes I'd made for the Commonwealth Games in a magazine! Seriously cool!!!

Strangers

I was sick last night. Full-on, throwing up in the toilet sick. And to tell the truth, I'm still not feeling great this morning but I wasn't sick enough NOT to do the weekly grocery shop. I do this every Thursday and it's followed by a cup of coffee with my Mum, who also shops on Thursday.

Because of my dodgy stomach I probably shouldn't have had the coffee - but I love my coffee and I couldn't resist. But it didn't sit well and the conversation with my Mum had to be halted every so often so the waves of nausea could pass. I'm sure my body language wasn't that great and I certainly wasn't my usual cheery self.

It ended up being a short coffee. I raced off home and started work for the day but just a little while ago I was interrupted by a really nice, concerned text message. "Are you okay? You seemed a bit down this morning." Thing is - I couldn't tell who my lovely, concerned friend was. The caller wasn't in my contacts. And apart from my Mum, I hadn't seen or talked to anyone who would have my phone number. So I texted back - "Who is this? You're not in my phone contacts. I'm not down - just feeling a little sick"

The reply read - "It's Lizzie silly!"

Ha Ha! Wrong number. But this Lizzie-who-I-don't-know is a lovely, caring, human being and a kind friend. Wish I could meet her.

I also went past a woman that I don't want to meet this morning. She was driving an SUV with personalized number plates that read - NAG. I don't know if that's a personal quality that I'd like to advertise. And if they were a present from her husband I'm thinking that couples therapy might be a good idea.

T.M.I.

This post is probably in the realm of too much information. So if you're squeamish about bodily functions best look away now.

This morning was speed session. Now for speed session I have to take some special precautions. I've had three fairly good sized babies and sometimes, the extra strain of running speedily causes some unwanted issues. (For the slower among you who take a while to pick up on things - issues = wee and precautions = pad) Ha ha - now I bet you're wishing you looked away.

We've been having lots of rain so the humidity, although it wasn't actually raining at the time, was 93% and when the sun came out it may as well have been raining with the sweat my clothes had to soak up.

After the session I went to shower at the athletics track. First of all I had to go to the loo to remove the aforementioned pad but, maybe due to all that sweating or substandard adhesive, the pad was already loose and it fell into the toilet. Oops! I knew it couldn't stay there because it might clog up the works so I tore off a piece of loo paper to fish it out with. I tried to turn and fish while still sitting but, being slippery with sweat, I slid off the seat. That has to be one of the most awkward moments I've had. I hope I don't have to explain the bruise on my buttocks to my husband.

(Disclaimer - the buttocks in the picture are not mine. Note the arm - it's way too hairy to be mine.)

Walking the Red Carpet.

I'm not comfortable being in the limelight. I hate being centre of attention and I'm always going to be this way. But there are moments that attention is thrust on you and you have to run with it with poise and grace and a great deal of blushing.

I had one of those moments two nights ago. It was our running squad's Christmas/End of Year party and I'd been looking forward to it for about a month. It's held at the Chalk Hotel which is one of the club's sponsors and they always put on a pretty good buffet. But that wasn't the only reason I was looking forward to it. I was getting a night out - no kids and no husband. I was being driven there by my Tuesday breakfast friend and running companion, Jenny. And I was going to spend time with my wonderful running group.

We arrived and settled into conversation. I got to chat to Leanne who'd just run her first marathon over in Athens! Amazing stories and an incredible race. We were deep in conversation when Coach Chris tapped me on the shoulder and said "Look who I found."

Talk about confused!! When I looked around there was my husband, Iven, who I'd left at home cooking dinner and hanging out washing. Huh?? What was he doing here? Iven explained that Jenny had organised for him to come to surprise me. I still was a little baffled but what the hell...

Dinner was served. Yum! My only complaint was that the plates were too small. I wanted to try everything and everything that I tried tasted really nice.

Once dinner was over the formalities began. Coach Chris presents awards every year. Encouragement awards, supporters awards, performance awards and the two top awards - Member's Member and Member of the Year. The first of these is voted on by all the members and the second is selected by C.C. He worked his way through them all and got to the Member's Member. He explained that it was the first year and it had been organised by one of our sponsors. The sponsor had tabulated the results and he had no idea who was to receive it. I was sitting right at the back and Mike, one of the runners, turned and pointed to me and said that he'd voted for me. And then C.C. was announcing the winner - apparently Mike wasn't the only one who voted for me.



I had to give a little speech. I have no idea what I said - just that I was dying a little inside. (I spent hours later on that night not able to sleep wondering if I'd said something stupid and embarrassed myself)Photos were taken and then, mercifully, I escaped down to the back of the room.

And then C.C. announced the Member of the Year. Me?!! Again! OMG - it felt like I had won an Oscar. There was a huge round of applause, more photos but I was allowed to get away without a speech this time.



After all of that I was surrounded by people wanting to congratulate me, hug me, kiss me, buy me drinks and tell me how well deserved my win was. I have NEVER felt more important, influential and loved. It was actually quite a heady experience (and not because I accepted all those drinks). It was a fantastic night!

I've been basking in the warm glow ever since. The thing is - I know I'm pretty ordinary, definitely not exciting. I work from home, have raised my boys and I live a quiet, uneventful life. I don't see myself as special so it astounds me that other people do. It's so nice to know that I can be who I am and be accepted by people from all walks of life. They haven't put the labels on me that I put on myself.

But the nicest thing that happened to me that evening was a comment from Iven. He told me that he was really happy that other people were acknowledging what he had known for years - that I was really special. Iven - you don't often say a lot but when you make comments like that you just make me melt. Love ya Hon!

So my trophy shelf is looking REALLY cluttered and full now. I'm thinking that we may have to build an extension!

Tale of Two Birds

I spoke a little prematurely yesterday about no injuries. It was raining pretty heavily most of the day and one of the chickens was doing fence patrol when she caught sight of a small sodden lorikeet hopping around our back yard. I was in the workroom and her antics attracted my attention and, being an ex-vet and lover of animals (except the ones that poo in the middle of the night where you can walk in said poo), I thought it was up to me to rescue the poor defenseless creature.

I got a towel and threw it over the lorikeet. It wasn't happy about having his freedom curtailed and his squawks made the dogs almost manic. I took it up to Sam so he could look after it while I was looking for a cage. I opened the towel a little but put my finger too close ...



Those birds have really sharp beaks! But that HAS to be the end of my injuries for a while - that's the third one and bad things only come in threes. Don't they?!!

My second birdy tale involves the Rockettes. They've been a little parsimonious with their eggs lately and when I went down this morning I reached under the one on the nest to find there were NO eggs. They've often given us one egg but never none. I lifted her up a bit to make sure I hadn't just missed feeling it and, sure enough, nothing! But she was being really patient with being disturbed so I gave her a nice pat and some kind words and, like magic, an egg appeared. Talk about fresh!