Sunday 6 June 2010

Firstly, I must say how bloody quickly this year is going!! I can't believe it is June already. Soon enough (2 weeks, 10 working days!) I'll be finished in my job and heading up to Forster for 5 days of sun (hopefully), fun (definitely) and relaxation (without a doubt). We had planned to go for 7 days, but we've got to come back earlier because I've got to have a final test to diagnose what I'm fairly certain is coeliac disease. I've been pretty ill the past couple of weeks, but I feel like I'm starting to turn a corner now.

The reason I think I might be turning a corner is because my wonderful boyfriend Mark has spent loads of time doing research into different diets, health regimes etc and we've started on a raw food kick. We're doing loads of awesome juices (lots of green juices but some fruit as well) and trying to eat 2 out of three meals raw each day. This is proving to be difficult but an awesome challenge. Mark discovered (and is somewhat in awe of...) a dude called Dan MacDonald and has been watching his YouTube posts with excitement. He even befriended him on Facebook, then I jumped on the band wagon and did it too!! Dan talks a lot about his diet and being "present" - experiencing everything that is going on around you and really living for right now.

Needless to say, we're slowly moving towards being shaggy-haired hippies ourselves and loving it. We're not even close to being raw food vegans, but we're certainly eating much better and feeling better for it! Today we drove out to the Eastern Suburbs and bought a second-hand wheatgrass juicer and Mark is going to sort us out a tray of fresh grass tomorrow which should be great!

To go with our new-found hippydom, we've begun discussions on how possible it might be for us to convert a bus into a motorhome. Now this might sound crazy, but check this out: The Alice Project (it's basically my dream convert-o-bus, only missing a toilet/shower). You can see the possibilities for yourself!

Winnebago-style travelling is something I've wanted to do for quite a few years - I'm really not the camping type, but I've wanted to get out of the city and live a peaceful, simple life for a while but hadn't really had the right circumstances or I guess the right person in my life to do it with before now! Mark is really handy when it comes to constructions and repairs, but also he's totally into the idea! So watch this space - bus updates to follow...

In other news, on Friday night I made a Moussaka. I started at about 6:30pm, and it wasn't finished until about 10pm as I grilled all the veggies etc before I made the sauce (yes, I could have multi-tasked but I was also managing the needs of two puppies and a boyfriend). I served some out into a container for my Dad because he likes eggplant and my Mum rarely cooks it and covered the tray to pop it back into the turned off oven to cool down. As I went to put it in the oven I must have touched one of the still warm shelves and the fright caused me to drop the entire dish onto the door of the oven, upside down. So my perfectly, excessively time-consuming moussaka was ruined - but not lost.

Handy-man Mark came to the rescue with a turner and a big spoon and scooped what could be salvaged into a container. So now although it's not in the perfectly formed layers it was originally in, it is edible and oh-so-tasty. Can I just add a warning though - if you ever make a moussaka and you happen to use 1kg of mince as I did, combined with all the other ingredients it really is too much to go into one baking dish and it will inevitably end up on the door of the oven. So you see, it was never my fault. It was bound to happen given the sheer contents and therefore the weight of the baking dish.

Mark is in a very cool band and sometimes they do open-mic nights. I missed the last one they did last Monday night but I'm going along tomorrow as I think it's going to be the last one for a while - their drummer's wife is having a baby soon so I think they wanted to get one last gig in before he's relegated to sleeplessness for 12 months. I'm not sure why they are doing two so close together, but there you go. One of the guys' in the band has a GF who I don't really get along with - she's one of these people who likes to exclude people who do not lavish her with attention I think. Anyway, I am just going to try and stay out of her way and not let her bother me. I don't like catty, bitchy-girl behaviour so none of it sits well with me.

One thing about Mark...he's 38, but acts much younger. It's weird for me - I forget how much older he is and am so impressed when he knows a lot about stuff - but he's had a lot more years than me to develop this knowledge. (I am writing this because I've been teasing him a bit recently about being an old bloke and I expect at some point he'll probably read this so I'm just using the internet to reinforce my views on his oldness).  We play quite a lot of video games together - our main ones have been Super Mario Brothers on Wii and Lego Star Wars on Wii. He always accuses me of killing him, pushing him into lava etc. I'd like to use this forum to deny the allegations and state uncategorically that at no time during our play have I caused his character to die. In fact, I've carried our team to victory repeatedly. *pokes tongue out at Mark, who does not have a blog so cannot retaliate* Maybe you'll start your own blog hey babe? Ha! =)

Mark's puppy Arnie lives with me at the moment as his older dog has some behavioural issues that rub off on Arnie when they're together. Arnie and Jeff get along so well and he's learning more and more every day from Jeff. Jeff has been moving into adolescence I think and is pushing the boundaries a bit but he really is such a great dog. Still loves cuddles and just hanging out and he's SO good looking! Because we've been doing a lot of juices we've started to feed the pups a mix of raw oats, cooked brown rice, kangaroo mince and the pulp from the juices we've made. They love it!! They also get a chicken wing to chew every day but I think I need to revise that part of the plan as they seem to finish them about 3 seconds after they've been given them!

I've been putting off reviving the Ark because I can't decide on the next genre to cover. I'm dreading doing rock because it is just SO broad and will take AGES to complete - especially given how inconsistent I am with this! So can anyone suggest a good genre for me to get back into it with?? I've done Metal and Punk so far...

- B xxx