saturday rolls around again

and i'm glad. i'm surrounded by large piles of books. mostly art books. working in a library is fraught with dangers (if you only knew), the main one being bringing deleted books home. i've got so many it's not funny and with the books i actually buy, well, it's time to get rid of some. the art books i don't want can go to a workmate who's also into art so they will find a good home. most of the others are about sewing/craft so i'll go through them and take some to the charity shop. trouble is they are heavy and with my crook shoulder it's a slow process, hence the piles of books everywhere. i've also got a case full of really great books Liyana gave me so i'll try to sell them on ebay for her. they won't make much money i guess but i'll try. so what are you doing today? me, no plans really. some food shopping and washing, a bit of cleaning. nothing much. tonight is Liyana's last night so we are going out to dinner at henley beach. don't know where yet. she flies out tomorrow morning and i'm trying not to think about it. i was talking to Maz this morning and she said i should go for a holiday and i'm actually thinking about it. as you know i'm waiting for my sister to tell me when she's ready to go to bali again but she's being vague to say the least. i get the feeling she may never be ready. so that means that if i do go back to bali i may have to go alone again. this doesn't worry me too much it's just better with her to do stuff with.
on a very sad note, Maz told me that her mother has cancer in her jaw and is having an operation on monday. she'll be in hospital for three weeks and will take many months to recover. Maz said that she may not survive the op. very sad isn't it?

the fro is gone

temporarily i hope. my son straightened my hair today and i think i made the wrong decision. i wanted a change you see. i have a big birthday coming up and i'm going through my second or maybe third midlife crisis. it's flat as a tack. no really it is. imagine a head full of unruly curls needing a hair cut and now it's very flat and almost straight. there's still a bit of a kink/wave. sort of. you should have seen us. my friend diana told me to put flour in the mix and as she's a hairdresser i did. omg. what a mess. stuff went on ok and sort of dried into a hard shiny helmet. then to wash that off and neutralize. more rinsing and then leave on 'curl enhancer'. yucky stuff. it was in a glass vial so imagine what was in that. we nearly passed out from the fumes of the first mix so had to go outside. this afternoon i got it cut and at a new hairdresser to boot. he's vietnamese and was really very good except that he used those thinning scissor things at the end and the last time i had that done it was a disaster. when i was a teenager in the swinging 60s i always wanted long, blonde, straight hair like mary travers from peter, paul and mary. they were very big in the 60s, trust me. of course i have short, dark and curly hair. why do we always want what we can not have and/or do not have? oh well, at least it will grow out. I HOPE!!!!

the muffin fiasco

no not lupe fiasco, or lupee as i call him, not lupay, blah blah. lupe has nothing to do with muffins, which are cooking as i type. g/daughter's b/day today so got a cheesecake but have been meaning to bake muffins for ages so today was muffin day. i had most of the ingredients but the bananas were frozen and had to buy an orange and an apple. actually it was two apples but i didn't read the recipe very well. grated one apple, got rind from orange, which came all the way from america btw, i can explain, i didn't want to buy an american orange because we have one of the biggest citrus growing areas in the world, but i won't go there today. the mix was very wet and i added more flour. i forgot to mix up the bananas. i really doubt that mushy frozen bananas will work but i have been assured that they will. at least i had vanilla extract. i weighed the dry ingr. but my scale malfunctioned. it's one of those press the button and it goes back to 0 ones. i think i moved the bowl and it may have been a bit (lot) more sugar than the recipe stated. i used the new silicon muffin pans and didn't know whether to grease them or not. there's no fat in this recipe. well, your guess is as good as mine as to whether these muffins will work out. also, i am using one of those convection ovens that mr t is currently advertising from that mail order dodgy place. i didn't buy theirs, i've had mine for ages but i've never used it for cakes/muffins.
footnote: muffins cooked almost perfectly and taste divine. they could have been cooked a few minutes longer and they are slightly doughy in the centre. i'll put them back for a few minutes. i'm having one with a coffee. got to wrap the pressie coz they'll be here soon. yay, almost a success after all that. kitchen is a mess btw. here's the recipe if you are interested:

ingredients For the muffins: 280g self-raising flour 125g caster sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 1/2 cups low fat milk 2 large ripe bananas, mashed 2 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and grated 1 tablespoon grated orange rind 1 teaspoon vanilla extract For the icing glaze: 60g caster sugar 3 tablespoons water 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon preparation method Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease muffin tin or line with paper muffin cups. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir in milk, bananas, apples, orange rind and vanilla extract. Mix lightly and spoon mixture into prepared muffin tin. Bake 25 - 30 minutes or until golden brown. Check when cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of a muffin. The muffins are done when it comes out clean. To make the icing: combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute. Brush icing glaze over baked muffins then sprinkle cinnamon on top.

happy birthday

my grand daughter, Jourdain, is nine tomorrow. she's an aries like her nana. (omg) they are coming for lunch, last week they had car trouble and didn't get here, so i'm really looking forward to that.

and now for a rant:
i'm so tired this morning, the fu(king dog next door woke me up. it barks at dogs in the park next door. the neighbour was banging around too. i was so frustrated that i screamed shut up at the top of my lungs and it actually stopped. get out of town. i was in my kitchen and it was out side so you can imagine how loud my scream was. bastard dog and inconsiderate bitch owner. sorry for the language. i'm tired.

a little bit delicate ... sorry

i don't mean to offend but i've had a medical problem (woman troubles) that required a swab. now i know i'm a bit older than most of you but you could have knocked me over with a feather duster this afternoon when i visited the doctor and she let me do my own. that's taking DIY a bit far isn't it? is this normal these days? usually when you have a medical problem they don't even bother to look. when's the last time a doctor actually examined your stomach for example? or maybe it's just my doctor. btw, i only had to wait for fifty five minutes. wowsers

a garage sale

i've never done a garage sale before. interesting experience. everyone warned us we'd be woken up early by the professionals but we weren't. probably coz they couldn't find us. having to go up two flights of stairs may have put some off. god knows how many times i went up those bloody stairs. i put balloons and a sign on my car parked on the road outside in the morning. went up the stairs (again) and they were gone. blew off most likely. i put some more on later in the morning. weather wasn't fab but cleared up in the afternoon. liyana had the brilliant idea of doing a letter box drop but didn't tell me about it until it was too late. we had quite a few customers but didn't do terribly well. things were cheap but she didn't sell the fridge, washer or bedroom suite which is a shame. the washer is a year old and fabulous. trouble is, you can get a warranty and a water rebate if you buy new. it's an electrolux and electronic. going really cheap people. hahahahaha. bedroom suite is leather bedhead, black wood sides and drawer units and a fab gear back support mattress. she paid mega bucks for it and may have to give it to the salvos. she leaves in two weeks. she's coming over to watch dancing tonight (damn) as she sent her stuff up to queensland the other day. she gave me her slow cooker which is quite good. i made a stewy thing in it last night for the kids' lunch today. they had car trouble and haven't arrived yet. it's four pm. oh well. i've got a chicken thingy in it with rice for tea but it might not be ready by then. if not i'll put it on the stove. it's got everything in it, whatever was in the fridge basically. the stew was really delish btw. i still have my washing on the line from this morning and it just rained. damn. you won't believe this but friday night i slept at liyana's for an early start to the garage sale. it was hot in her bedroom and i didn't sleep very well. in the middle of the night i heard her growl, you know like you are really pissed off with something, and woke to see her storming into the lounge room in the darkness. apparently she objected to my snoring. i warned her i snored. she said she could still hear me from the lounge room. how rude of her and she's the one who kept me awake all night tossing and turning and making growling noises etc.

my busy long weekend

we didn't get to the gallery. couldn't find a park anywhere in the whole of adelaide so we went to norwood again and had lunch, shopped a bit and then went to the movies to see slumdog millionaire. when liyana goes to cairns in a few weeks i'll miss going to the movies. the movie was fantastic but a little disturbing in parts. at least the ending was good. it deserved the oscar. i was going to see the g/kids on saturday but didn't get there, so saw them yesterday after the girls left. they came over for lunch and didn't leave till 4.30 pm. great lunch, i made another chicken salad with feta, lime, chicken natch, roasted pumpkin, tomato, lettuce, coriander, mint and i forget what else. it was a hit. i am watching underbelly on the teev, i missed the first one coz i was in bali. i don't know it's good i suppose. matthew newton is excellent as clark. i can't stand him and his father even less, but, you have to give it to him, he's good in this. a real sleeze bag. i'm off tomorrow, my son is coming for breakfast then he's going to do my hair for me, bless him, then i'm going to the optometrist, then physio/acupuncture, then i'm going to try and get a haircut. i tired to get into see the dr but can't until next week. bummer. my lovely indo. coffee tastes fab in my specky new coffee cups. i must take a pic and post it.

art gallery

i am going to the art gallery today with liyana. last time we went to town we went to the museum. i had daughter problems yesterday so didn't see the kids. maz is supposed to be coming over for lunch tomorrow so maybe after that i will go up and see them. weekends are so busy these days we don't get time to chill out. i bought some lovely coffee cups yesterday that are very specky and were on super special so that's good. watched silk last night. was ok, nothing specky. saw babel on friday night. now that was good.

i've got the blahs

i don't know why. i'm a bit depressed. i feel a little unwell, nothing specific, just like i'm coming down with something. maybe i just need a holiday or a decent sleep.