A Day At the Zoo

 

Australia Zoo that is,  I haven't been there for years and it’s still very impressive.   What I love about it is it’s so clean and the animals are so well looked after, the Sunshine Coast is so lucky to have this wonderful attraction. I remember first going there back in 1996 it was so small compared to what it is today.

When I used to work the early shift at the bakery the old men would gather outside in the car park and stand there and talk for 30-60minutes nearly every day, these guys on the rock just reminded me of that.

Love the otters, I could just stand and watch them for hours they are so entertaining.

The girls were waiting in line for their turn when Tess saw the Koala poo on the girl that was nursing him so when it came to their turn she promptly made Lucy hold the koala, not that Lucy minded at all.

The Irwins.

The croc in the throes of a death roll.

I would be running too.

That feels soooooo good.

This little one had an itch that just wouldn't quit .

A little Tasmanian Devil.

A gorgeous dingo, just love them.

The tigers were hard to photograph as they were behind glass or thick perspex. As you can imagine I took hundreds of photos, haven't even touched on the birds    It was pretty yucky weather but we had a great day.

Fashionista? I don't think so.

We were very grateful for these raincoats.

That’s it for now

Bye

Your Invited to Lunch- Don't look if you are squeamish

I was on the computer listening to the birds outside when I heard something fall out of the tree and hitting the ground.  Thinking it was a branch, ignored it,  Milly was out side pacing back and forth and making a funny noise.  Time to go out and investigate and this is what I found.

You can see the snake’s mouth, this was not a small possum.  I will just add the possum was dead when they hit the ground. My neighbours and I stood and watched for almost an hour it was fascinating.

Look how wide that mouth has become. (below)

I took about 200 photo’s but this one below is my favourite all done but for the tail.

All gone, then the snake stayed in the one spot for about 30mins then very slowly went on his way.  I was able to get about a metre away as this snake was so full it wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Something nicer to finish this post off with

I'm Back

 

I cant believe I haven't posted since the end of February , I do have a reason not a very good one but one anyway.  I really haven't done anything worth blogging about, same old same old but the reason for feeling like this I'm convinced its the Champix tablets that I have been taking to give up smoking.  I'm still not smoking it’s been 13 long long weeks. I wouldn't call myself a non smoker, far from that, I'm a smoker who is dying to have a cigarette but wont.  I find I walk slowly through the plumes of smoke where the smokers gather outside shopping centres etc. and I take in the deepest breaths I can.  I had a friend come over yesterday and she kept moving away from me, please stay nearby I was thinking.  How long is this going to go on for?  Anyway I would never have stopped smoking without the tablets but they really did my head in.  I've had no motivation what so ever to do anything so as a result I'm behind with everything . It was like having “baby brain” as I wrote in an earlier post at first they made me fall asleep  while I was driving, then after a while I wasn't sleeping at all.    One weekend I was paying a rather large bill and put the money into an account that didn't exist and then found that the bank staff didn't work on Saturdays (which was advertised that they did) I think it was a long weekend.  So I had an anxious wait until I could contact the bank and let them know what happened.  Oh it should be back into your account in a couple of days but if not phone us on Thursday or Friday, lucky for me it appeared three days later.  The most stupid thing I did was stop taking the tablets three weeks ago.  I didn't even give it a thought that I would be giving up the tablets cold turkey, dumb dumb dumb, told you my mind wasn't in a good place. I had a good week last week so I might be getting back to normal I am craving a bit more than I was but I will get over it.  The good thing is my mind is much more with it.

The other exciting thing is my girl turned 18, I'm seriously too young to have an 18 year old.  So we had breakfast with her and some of her friends, then sent them on their way to the Gold Coast for the weekend.  The funny thing is that Tess wanted Tony and I to go with her but we thought the kids would cramp our style and to be honest my clubbing days are well and truly over.

They stayed at the The Towers of Chevron Renaissance     which was a really good price $350 for a two bedroom apartment for two nights, Tess said it was lovely it was right in town close to the shops and nightclubs.  Then on the Saturday night we had booked them with a limo tour, well it was actually a stretched hummer.   I was really happy with this, they were taken to various nightclubs around the coast, when they arrived they were escorted into VIP areas and had security with them all night.  Tess only took three of her friends but she said the group below were a lot of fun, they were all in the hummer together.  The cost of this was $120 per person

 

She had such a good time, she doesn't look 18 does she :)

Went Shopping

We don't have many vintage or “French” style shops or none that I have found on the Sunshine Coast I'm guessing there are probably some in Noosa but I rarely go there. So Bed Bath & Table is becoming a firm favourite.  Scored these last Thursday night.  I've been after a clock for the lounge room I know what I want but cant find it.  So I got this for the time being.

 

Love this it’s so cute

Have no idea what I'm going to do with this but it was $50 reduced to 19.95

Hope everyone had a great weekend

Jackie

A Day In my Life- Monday

I enjoy reading these kind of posts so  I was inspired by Libby from Life is a Journey not a Destination to do one myself.  So here is my day.

Woke up at 5.50, Tony always makes a me a cup of tea, got up and did a quick tidy around the house and threw on some washing.  Woke the girls up at 7am, usually they are up at 6 and leave for the bus at 7 but Tess has been missing the early connection bus to Tafe so I have been driving them most mornings.  Made breakfast, Hash browns for Tess and a peach smoothie for me.  I prefer to use fresh fruit and didn't have any silken tofu which really makes it creamy and smooth but it was still nice.

Dishes done and we were out the door by 8am.  I don't get to drive much any more Tess has driven over 30 hours already (that’s with 3 driving lessons).

a self portrait by Lucy lol.  I dropped Lucy into town to meet up with her friends and then they walk to school.  I was able to talk Tess into going and getting me a coffee from Michelle’s while I minded Milly.

Dropped Tess off at Tafe.  Not the best photo I was taking a lot of these photo’s with Lucy’s camera as it is small.

On the way home I stopped at the post office, Mapleton doesn't have mail delivery lol. I'm glad I did because it was a good mail day.  My Jenni Bowlin monthly kit arrived oh my goodness such beautiful goodies.  If you

want to check out these kits you can here.  Enough procrastination I had a heap of bookwork to do.  It’s hot today so only last about an hour and decide to go for swim.  I let Milly into the pool yard as she doesn't like swimming and will run around the pool poor Fred cant come in because once he gets in the pool you cant get him out.  Every now and then Milly slips in and today was one of them.  She’s not happy

After a swim I'm feeling peckish so had marinated tofu and a boiled egg.  Despite it’s appearance it was very nice.

Got a fair bit done but the heat got to me so back to the pool .  Time for lunch and doing some menu planning for the week.

Pick Lucy up at 3pm then headed out to the fruit shop a 15 minute drive toward the coast.

There was no way I was taking a photo out of the car (that’s why I borrowed Lucy’s camera) there was a lady parked right in front of me that kept looking at me funny if she seen me taking photo’s I think she would have called the police lol. 

I had Lucy all lined up to take a photo of the fruit shop as I pulled up in front a rather large man stripped of his T shirt right in our way so this is the best she could do was the little sign on the front gate lol

We rushed back to Nambour to meet Tess at 4, she had a driving lesson and was being dropped off at the supermarket.  Lucy took this photo of Tess

Shopping done and this is what greeted us as we walked outside. It was only 5.15pm.

It poured down but Tess still wanted to drive I must admit I was nervous but she has to learn to drive in all conditions.  That’s it for photo’s got home, cooked dinner and had an early night (I don't watch tv but did watch Underbelly)  That was my day

Bye for now

Jackie

Life Rolls Along

I started this blog post a while ago.

It amazes me how quickly the weeks fly by It’s a bit scary really.  I haven't done anything interesting lately I had promised myself the last two weekends that I would get some craft time in but that didn't happen.  I'm definitely going to try in the next week or so.

All week we watched in horror as the massive cyclone Yasi made it’s way to North Queensland, one of our friends evacuated and another was going to wait it out, he owns a sugar cane farm I'm not sure how that held up. More flooding in Victoria and horrible bushfires in WA, what is going to happen next.

I dragged Tess down to the local park for some photos we compromised  she could drive if she let me take photos.  I like this tree it has interesting bark, I wish I could find the photos of the girls when they were young in front of this tree I wanted a then and now.

She has been driving a lot and is doing really well she has already done over 10 hours and that’s just short trips, she went to Texas this weekend I told her to do a fair bit of the driving to get her hours up.  She will have to tow the trailer (I'm not sure if she is even allowed to do that).

Then later   it was Lucy’s turn

I like this one, Tess was in the background being a pain in the rear and Lucy was giving her one of her drop dead looks.

I'm not sure if I mentioned before I'm doing Ali Edwards One little Word at Big Picture.  My word for the year is HEALTHY so what have I done to work toward being more Healthy.  I started Body Trim, it’s not a diet it just changes the way you eat.  We have always eaten well but I've been overweight for years, lack of exercise doesn't help nor did the way I ate carbs, lived on them.  Ate like a top athlete but didn't exercise like one lol.  Body Trim is high protein, low carbs so we didn't have to make huge adjustments just eat more protein and eat more often.  I'm never hungry and the foods is delicious .  I find Body Trim easy the only thing I struggle with is breakfast, I have never been a breakfast eater so I've been having this smoothie, I try not to have it every morning but it’s to die for.

It has a lot of things I don't like soy yoghurt, protein powder but mixed with silken tofu, strawberries, and lecithin it is seriously one of the nicest smoothies I have ever tasted and the great thing is you don't feel hungry for hours.

I also want to give up smoking so have started taking Champix I have been taking it for two weeks and today is my last day of smoking.  I'm not keen on the tablets as the make me fall asleep and it’s like I have morning sickness, something I rarely had when pregnant but I will keep taking them and see what happens.  Had a scare the other morning I had a tablet half an hour before I left to take Tess to Tafe she drove there and I was falling asleep in the passengers seat I dropped her and Lucy off and was driving home it’s a 15- 20 min drive I could hardly keep my eyes open and I said to myself pull over, then talked myself out of that. I was going through this rather winding cutting, next minute my eyes flew open and I'm heading towards the bush, squashed the guidepost with a really loud bang lucky I went that way and not the other way as there were three cars heading towards me.  I tell you THAT woke me up, so what did I learn when a medication leaflet says do not drive as it may cause drowsiness, take note because it may just be so.  Very little medication makes me tired I guess that’s why I didn't take much note.  It’s funny because Champix can cause sleeplessness, not on me it doesn't lol.

Anyway to finish off I thought I would share I project I finished a few weeks ago.  I have been meaning to make a bus destination board since last year.  Found the frame at the Op shop for $10, when ever I went to print the destinations I never had enough ink lol but it’s finally done.  I wish I had mixed up the fonts a bit more but I guess if it really annoys me I can print it again.  I saw a large canvas of these at a shop in Bangalow for $800.00.  You have got to be kidding me even the smaller ones are hundreds of dollars, just ridiculous.  I did consider stencilling onto a large canvas but I knew that it would never happen so it was quicker to print them.  I do live on the Sunshine Coast so I could have put the beaches but as I live in the hinterland I thought our bus service would be more appropriate as my girls use this bus all the time.  Not a good photo as the light was not good.

Bye for now

Jackie