A day of cooking

Went to a sourdough bread-making course today ... Held up in the hills in a pretty little village called Federal (which appears to have a general store and a Japanese restaurant!)





This was just some of the things we baked! Sourdough bread, sourdough hot cross buns, sourdough buns ... Not to mention delicious buttermilk pancakes, and cultured butter (?!!) made either with dairy kefir or butter milk and yoghurt or sour cream. And then eating said pancakes with either the butter with orange jest and maple syrup, or with herbs chopped through. Utterly delicious!!

And we each prepared and kneaded the dough for a sourdough loaf and brought it away with us, as well as some sourdough starter! A truly great day ... :)

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Late Christmas holiday

Having a lovely time down in Sydney - late Christmas celebrations with family!

Today we went into the city to see an exhibition, and decided to go via ferry. What a wonderful experience - I'd forgotten how I used to love that when I lived in Sydney ... Here are some photos ...






It's very hot here - hotter than home even though that's quite a bit further north. I guess the rainy sub-tropical weather there keeps the temperature down ... as it is, my knees got burnt sitting in the sun on the ferry!

Yoga and other stuff!

I had an amazing yoga practice this afternoon. Amazing only to someone like me of course, but who cares! I could bind on both sides in Mari B (haven't been able to bind on 1st side for about 3-4 years). Binding suddenly appeared to be a future possibility again on 1st side of Mari C, and very close on 2nd side. And I could straighten my legs in Navasana!! Totally unheard of! What is happening?!!

It was amazing because I know I've been struggling, mostly unsuccessfully, to get some kind of consistency / routine going. I'm really only managing 4-5 (short) practices a week at most, and I still haven't made it back to the Shala ... (sigh ... don't ask!!) So there doesn't seem to be any reason / justification for for this ... I guess I'll just have to take it as a gift and hope that at least some of this 'progress' is still there tomorrow!!!

Last weekend some friends from my 'old' Ipswich bookgroup came to visit for the day. It was lovely ... We did yoga on my back deck, went out for a yummy lunch (appropriately at the Yum Yum Tree Cafe just 5 minutes away!). After that we walked down to the beach, jumped around in the surf and then sat and talked for ages in the shady trees at the back of the beach. Just next to this ...



It was just such an enjoyable day ... They're planning on actually having a bookclub meeting here next February - should be great!

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Location:Yoga and other stuff

Musings on Ikea!

Even though I do like their 'stuff', right now I'd like to completely expunge the word 'Ikea' from my life! A couple of times I've had to go to the Ikea store on the way into Brisbane, and it's just a nightmare!! I don't know why, but whenever I've been there for a short while I just want to turn around and escape, run straight home without passing Go, or doing whatever else it was I was supposed to be doing that day!!

And now I'm in the middle of trying to make changes to an existing (very nice!) Ikea kitchen in my new house ... It ought to be easy, but ... I need to add some extra storage (I think the kitchen was designed/installed by a guy and there is way too little cupboard space!). And I also have to move a cupboard so I can put a dishwasher next to the sink (where it has to be according to the plumber!) And OK, a bit of fiddling around by a builder/carpenter to put the extra cupboards under another completely different, higher benchtop. But it took me a while to find/get hold of a recommended person who can be trusted to do this. And then I discover the doors on my existing kitchen are no longer made by Ikea so I also have to replace those doors! And I have to hope that the existing handles have not run out of stock before I get there, as they are also threatening to discontinue them!

I've arranged to go there tomorrow and collect everything with a friend who has a ute (Australian for utility truck!), as despite what the builder said I just know this will not fit into my small Toyota!! So I'm feverishly checking and re-checking my list of what is needed according to the builder. It's well over an hour's drive away so I'd rather not have to keep going back to collect forgotten/replacement items!!

Apart from that - still loving the new place and location. Not loving my seeming inability to get myself to the yoga shala very much. The last time I went I told the teacher I was going to try and come 2-3 times a week. And that was 3-4 weeks ago and I haven't made it back!! Somewhat embarrassing!! I am practicing at home most days, but I know I'm not pushing myself hard enough ... sigh! Hopefully I will get a good routine going in the not too distant future!

Had family visiting last weekend, we went swimming, to one of the local Farmers' Markets, and out for a lovely tapas meal in Byron Bay. And there's another 2-3 lots of visitors booked in before mid-December which is great.

News from South Golden Beach

Once again it's way past time for me to post here! And now it's like, so much has happened - where to start?! Well, first of all, I'm all moved into my amazingly wonderful new home! The study is still a 'dump area' but everything else is mostly unpacked/sorted. A few things need doing, like extra kitchen cupboards, overhead fans and more powerpoints, but that'll happen over the next few weeks/ months. And I sit in my living room or on the back deck, and think - how did I get so lucky!!

A friend came down to visit from Brisbane yesterday and insisted on rearranging all the furniture in the living room! I have to say he was completely right - there is now nothing blocking the lovely view through the front glass doors/window. But I had really liked the way it looked before and need to get my head around the new layout!! He did promise to come back in a week or two and help put it back or change it if I wanted ... but I don't expect that will be necessary!

I had my first visitors staying for the weekend last week, and more are booked in for next  month, including my nephew Peter and his wife Tammy. And there are people on the roof right now installing solar panels! I always said that when I moved/bought a new house I would include in my calculations the cost of solar panels, and now it's happening! Although the roof is partly shaded from some big trees, I should get enough sun on them to reduce my electricity bills to either nothing, or a very low figure! And I feel great that I'm also doing my small something to contribute to helping the environment. A win-win situation!!

Health-wise I went for a check-up with my specialist in Brisbane and everything is completely fine! In fact we spent most of the appointment talking about my new house - and he had also bought a place about 20 minutes away a few months ago that he comes to every weekend, so we were comparing notes about how much we loved the area!

The one thing that has suffered over the past few weeks is my yoga practice! There were so many interruptions, and strangely I did find this move much more exhausting than the one from my old house to my rented place! So there were days when I felt too tired to do anything - or just managed 2-3 sun salutes! It's amazing how quickly you (I) can lose strength! But things are getting better now, and I am hoping to start going to classes at Dena's shala in Byron Bay in the coming week ...

Exciting times ... :)

Very exciting times for me at the moment! First of all, my meditation teacher, Maharaji is coming to Australia again. He's doing a 2 day event at Amaroo (near Ipswich) next weekend, and the following weekend he is speaking in Melbourne at the UN International day of Peace celebrations ... I'm going to both and I know it will be just fantastic!

And then yesterday I went to probably my last class at the Gold Coast Yoga Centre ... I'm away next weekend, and the following week I'll be moving into my new place in South Golden Beach (so excited!) so I'll be going back to Dena's Shala after that. Which will be great, but I have really enjoyed classes at GCYC and will miss the community there. But I'll probably come back occasionally to Danny's Saturday led class ...

I'm getting better at the garbha pindasana roll round now, and feel like binding in a few poses like MariC is very close now - on one side that is. I'd love to know what it is that makes things different on different sides. So that I could attempt to do something about it ... !

At home it's all a bit of a waiting game now. Yes I'll need to pack up here, but so much less packing to do this time. I mostly only unpacked the minimum of what I'd need - quite a lot of boxes here that have a few things taken out of them but the rest still packed from the Kholo move. I'm in the process of organising things like internet and phone connection, electricity, insurance (including the infamous flood insurance!) etc etc ... Removalists are booked, I've found a pet motel place to put Miss Squiggle for a couple of days over the packup / move.

Will just have to contain my excitement and anticipation for all of this ... It is coming soon!

Contracts exchanged!

Well, I've been quiet here for a couple of weeks while waiting for the process to get this far! And finally it did today! I've found a house to buy and today contracts were exchanged, so it's safe to say - I've bought a new home!! Real estate agents' photos below ...





Not my furniture, obviously! The top picture is the huge deep back verandah, which is going to be such a lovely outdoor space during summer ... Nice for yoga too!

I'm really happy about this. It's in a sleepy seaside area called South Golden Beach, about 25 mins drive north of Byron Bay (and Dena's shala!) And a 400m walk to the beach!! Hoping to move mid- to late-September.