Author: inspiringmax

Coffee Catch-Up # 28

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If we were having coffee I would ask you if you were going to watch either football grand final this week. In Australia, we have two main codes of football. The AFL ( Australian Football League ) and The NRL (Rugby League). Personally, I follow both codes, but neither of my teams made the grand final this year. Last night Richmond Tigers 81 beat Geelong Cats 50. This game was held in Queensland for the first time because of COVID. Tonight the Rugby League grand final is being played in Sydney, its usual venue. In this game I am supporting Penrith Panthers, a local team against the Melbourne Storm. May the best team win!

If we were having coffee I would ask you if you saw the kite surfers at the beach over the last few weeks. The flat surf has been perfect for them. I was mesmerized watching them jump the waves moving in and out.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how happy I was with the gluten- free short crust pastry I made last weekend. I have never made it before. Actually I’m not a confident pastry maker. My last attempt at regular pastry was probably 10 years ago. But necessity is the mother of invention so I am on a mission.

The GF pastry was much softer than regular pastry, which meant it was harder to handle. Initially, this caused me some concern. However, I quickly realized if I cut it to the appropriate size I could hand mold the pastry into the pie maker. Fortunately, this rustic method resulted perfectly shaped pies with an amazing taste. Interestingly, the GF variety also had less fat coming out in the pie maker. Therefore to simplify my life once I have used up my shop bought regular pastry I will used GF for everyone. Simpler and cheaper. All I need now is a GF puff pastry recipe.

If we were having coffee I would tell you my getting organized strategy is working. I have been working on my blog more, although not as much as I would like. I also now write a weekly meal plan. This keeps me accountable and makes life easier by ensuring we have the food needed in the house. I am also walking to work again 2 days a week which I enjoy.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about the purple sweet potatoes my husband harvested a few weeks ago. I roasted them and have enjoyed them with varies meals. It is the first time we have grown sweet potatoes and we were surprised at how many came from one plant. Some could definitely enter a weird shaped vegetable competition.

If we were having coffee I would tell you I was surprised at how much I enjoyed being able to touch my mother for the first time since March recently. She is in residential aged are and to keep everyone safe we have been restricted to window visits. However, recently due to low COVID numbers we are now allowed limited access with permission. Hugging is out, but due to her physical condition she requires help to stand. It was by giving her support in this way, I realised how much I had missed her physical touch. I’m a hugger from way back. So I will be very happy when hugging is on the can do list again.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world. Let me know in the comments.

Peter Brock World

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Last weekend was the 2020 Bathurst 1000. This years race was special because it was the final race for Holden’s factory team. The reason for the change is because the factory closed earlier in the year and the Holden brand has been retired. Thought Holden’s history at Bathurst it was well known that “when Holden cars won on the Sunday, Holden sold cars on the Monday.” To help keep up tradition Holden won their last Bathurst 1000.

Holden’s most successful racing car driver was Peter Brock. To this day his record of 9 wins at Mount Panorama Racing Circuit, Bathurst still stands. For this reason he was known as the King of The Mountain. Since his death in 2006, the winner of the Bathurst 1000 (The Great Race) has been awarded the Peter Bock Trophy.

In celebration of this great Australian race car legend, Bob Kollns created Peter Brock World at Bob’s Shed, Quirindi. Peter Brock was a crowd favourite and nothing was to much trouble for his fans. Kollns states that he had met Brocky on a few occasions and has many signed pieces of memorabilia in his displays.

Above are replicas of some of the cars Brocky raced over the years. I loved learning the stories behind the legend especially from his early career.

Peter Brock died doing what he loved. He was driving in a car rally in Western Australia. A national tragedy, when the country was still mourning the loss of Steve Irwin, (The Crocodile Hunter) 4 days earlier.

I think the following classic cartoon says it all.

Remembering Helen Reddy

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Helen Reddy was one of my favourite singers growing up. She sang many songs I loved. And I was super proud she was Australian. I am Woman, her most famous song has been the theme song to my life and woman everywhere. It was first recorded in the early 70’s when I was becoming a teenager and adjusting to my unique personality. I love the chorus:

“Oh yes, I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman”

After listening tonight to the first and last versions, more than 50 years apart, I think I like the later version better. Not something that can be said about many singer’s voices.

I also love Helen’s version of You and Me Against The World. She stated that she changed it to be about a mother and daughters relationship. I am sure it will be a song that is giving her family peace as they deal with their loss.

“And when one of us is gone,
And one of us is left to carry on,
Then remembering will have to do,
Our memories alone will get us through
Think about the days of me and you,
Of you and me against the world.”

Amazing woman, amazing life and unforgettable music.

First Fleet Memorial Gardens

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The First Fleet Memorial Gardens are a long way from Botany Bay where they first landed. They are nearly 400 kilometres away in the small village of Wallabadah. But why? In true Australian honesty on the entry to the Gardens is a sign telling everyone that they were the only Council who would grant permission to build them.

The gardens are the brain child of Ray Collins, OAM. A stonemason who discovered he was a descendent of the First Fleet. His dream then became to build a permanent memorial to acknowledge all who first settled our beautiful county. The convicts, marines and their families alike.

The ships of the First Fleet were:

  • Sirius
  • Supply
  • Charlotte
  • Scarborough
  • Prince of Wales
  • Lady Penrhyn
  • Friendship
  • Alexander
  • Borrowdale
  • Fishburn
  • Golden Grove

To make it simple Ray has listed the members of the First Fleet in two ways. There is a large story board that lists all First Fleeters alphabetically as well as specific information about them. He has also created a winding path divided out separately for each ship. In this space was a list of everyone on the ship.

My husband and I both knew that there were people on the First Fleet with our names. We have no idea if we are related to them but were excited to find our names. We found the Scarborough had both of our names on it and I also had someone on the Charlotte. It turned out that most of the people with similar names were convicts although I think one of my husband’s namesakes was a lower ranking marine.

As luck would have it we actually met Ray Collins while staying at Quirindi. He is an interesting man happy to share his knowledge and experiences.

Ruby Tuesday#2 Quirindi

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Well, our first trip in Ruby was memorable. It started when the Antarctic blob hit Australia. This was a blast of extremely cold weather that brought snow to parts of the East Coast that hadn’t seen snow in over 15 years.

During out first trip Ruby moved about an inch to the right and was obstructing the driver’s mirror. This meant upon arrived in Quirindi Caravan Park, we had to take her off the ute. This was a double challenge. Partly because the weather was freezing, and secondly, because I am not great at directions. We could get her either centred or square on. But we struggled to get her both centered and square on quickly. After about half an hour, we had succeeded and we were inside celebrating preparing for our firat night in Ruby with the air conditioner on heat thawing out.

The quote “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans” by John Lennon totally described our first Ruby trip.

We had planned to spend our first night in Ruby, at Wallabadah Free Camp. This is half an hour south from our eventual destination. When we arrived at Wallabadah, we discovered the free camp was closed. Later in fact, we discovered all free camps in Liverpool Plains Council Area were closed due to COVID. The advantage of needing to change our plans was that w2e stayed in a paid caravan park and had electricity so we could keep warm.

Quirindi is a small town on the North West Slopes in the Liverpool Plains Shire. The area itself has a rich agricultural history and the main street pays respect to the area’s heritage by displaying the original stock brands on the footpath.

Photo credit; Liverpool Plains Attractions

Our overnight stay in Quirindi means there is still more to explore. Over the next week I will share with you the attractions we visited.

  • First Fleet Memorial Gardens
  • Who’d A-Thought It Lookout
  • Bob’s Shed
  • Peter Brock World

I hope you enjoy getting to know parts of Australia’s secret gems through the Ruby Tuesday series.

Sydney 2000 Olympics 20 Years On

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Today is the 20 year anniversary of the opening ceremony of Sydney 2000 Olympics. I remember the excitement and anticipation. The question on everyone’s lip was “who would light the flame and how?” Most people agreed with the top secret choices. Cathy Freeman – our biggest medal hopeful, an Aboriginal and a woman. The Sydney 2000 Olympics also celebrated 100 years of women competing in the Games. I think the concept of creating fire from water was very clever given Australia is an island.

https://youtu.be/RtUZDS7P5s4

It wasn’t until after the opening ceremony that Australia and the world was told a secret. When the flame (ring of fire) stopped on the rise to the cauldron, it wasn’t for dramatic effect. There was a problem. But, fortunately it was fixed just in time.

To celebrate today’s milestone, the Olympic cauldron was re lit. It now permanently resides in Cathy Freeman Park, Sydney Olympic Park. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions Cathy Freeman was unable to attend today’s ceremony in person.

Photo Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

When we lived in Sydney our house was in the suburb of Newington created from the old athlete’s village. One thing that disappoints me is apparently there is no list of which athletes/countries lived in each house. I would love to know the history of our house.

I loved living so close to a major part of Australia’s history. I loved spending time in Sydney Olympic Park and wished I had attended Sydney 2000. Despite this I was grateful to have attended the Paralympics and experienced some of the excitement.

The lighting of the cauldron today was not the first time it was re lit. I have seen it on a few occasions. I love it. It is an amazing experience to look up and see it burning. For me was like a beacon of hope making me think of the future and possibilities of life.

See photos of my previous visits below.

https://www.inspiringmax.com/weekly-photo-challenge-sydney-2000-flame/

Let’s Get Organised

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Let’s get organised. This is going to be my focus from now until the 2021. If 2020 is remembered for anything, I want it to be making a road map for my new life.

In general, I am a happy, positive, successful person. However, there is another side to me. I am a great procrastinator and leave many things to the last minute. The side effect of the later is that many things I start or want to start don’t get completed.

So to help motivate me on September 13, Positive Thinking Day, I am going to use the following quote.

Prior to going on holidays, I was exhausted and my life seemed to involve: work – rest repeat. The resting part however involved hours of watching TV. This was a habit I have only recently developed and although it was fun, it didn’t make me the best version of myself. In hindsight, I needed an injection of organisation.

Since returning from holidays where I broke these bad habits, I have returned to blogging and I am motivated to do things differently. As part of my work life, I am frequently telling others that they need to prioritize what they want to have in their life. So now it is my turn to take my own advice.

My secret mantra will be: Prioritize! Prioritize!Prioritize!

To help I have a new way to focus on my accountability when it comes to my organisational skills. After all, I only have me to blame.

Blogging

Learning

Activities

Meal Preparation

Exercise

Does anyone else want to join me in reclaiming 2020 for good?

Coffee Catch-Up #27

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If we were having coffee I would tell you I can’t believe that it has been over 3 months since I last blogged. Initially, this was due to writer’s block. I struggled to come up with any inspiration. I found it much easier when I first started blogging as I followed The Daily Post topics. If you have any suggestions or secrets to overcoming writer’s block I would love to hear them.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how much I’m enjoying using my sewing machine again. I hadn’t sewed for over 10 years but wanted to sew masks for my family. Operation cover up has been a family affair. My husband and I enjoyed going to Spotlight to choose fun materials to match everyone’s personalities. Then between my husband, daughter and I, after several trial runs, we eventually found a pattern that sat comfortably on all of our faces.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about our slide-on camper Ruby home. When it came to preparing her for our recent holiday, the hardest thing was deciding what was essential to take. This was because we were limited with weight availability. To fix this we needed to weigh everything we put in her. And if necessary find a lighter alternative. A bigger ute is able to carry a bigger load, so we will look for a new one before our longer trips. Eventually we won the battle and excluded 100 kilos worth of useful things. The we could legally depart and no longer put our insurance at risk.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was to buy myself a pie maker for my birthday. Today is my first attempt at making pies. I chose a basic beef mince pie for the filling. While cooking it had an amazing aroma. The frustration is the need for a delay between making the mince and making the pies. The reason is the mince filling needs to be cold when it goes into the shortcrust pastry or it will go soggy. End results, worth the effort for both regular and gluten free pies.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world. Let me know in the comments.

Ruby Tuesday # 1

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The past few months have seen my husband and I enter a new stage of our life. We bought a slide-on camper and began preparing to become grey nomads, a much more complicated task than I first realised. So many things to learn and yes we made a few rookie errors.

Over the last fortnight we took Ruby (the camper), on her maiden voyage, travelling around New South Wales. Yes, she is red. Actually she is the only red PUMA slide-on in Australia so there is no hiding. If you see us on the road stop by and have a chat.

On our first night free camping at a truck stop, we got chatting to the young lady behind the counter and she informed us that she had seen us earlier that day parked by the side of the road about 100 kilometres away. She said Ruby had made her smile as she had thought to herself how “cool” she looked.

Travelling in Australia during COVID is a weird experience, because of all by border closures. In New South Wales, we are trapped as you can’t cross the border to Queensland, Victoria or South Australia without a valid exemption, which are nearly impossible to get. Our limited travel options however, weren’t a problem to us. We just found small unusual towns to visit, now we are not limited to finding accommodation enroute.

To celebrate our new life style, I have decided to create a regular new blog feature – Ruby Tuesday – to share our adventures, interesting tidbits and learnings from our travels in Ruby. I hope you enjoy armchair travelling Australia with us.

Coffee Catch-Up #26

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If we were having coffee I would tell you how pleased I was last Sunday to be able to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee at its place of purchase. In New South Wales you can only have 10 people in a cafe or restaurant so I was grateful we chose a less popular spot. Sitting down for a coffee made it feel like life is getting back to normal.

If we were having coffee I would wish you a happy Mother’s Day for a fortnight ago. For me Mother’s day weekend was so busy. It was my mother in laws 90th birthday and the first time I had seen my mother since lockdown. As we were allowed our first visitors to our house, my son and daughter in law surprised me with a special visit. It was the first time I had seen them since their Australian wedding.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I have joined a three week push-up challenge raising funds for headspace. The first time I attempted my push–ups I was able to make 7 which surprised me. Over the next week I have increased my durability to 15.

If we were having coffee I would ask you if you had been to the beach this weekend to check out the enormous surf. It is mesmerizing. This morning we walked from Bar Beach to Merewether Beach. At times you couldn’t see any sand as it was covered in white water from the high surf. it probably won’t surprise you to know the fisherman left catch less, although I would give him points for trying.

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I am today having cooked my first amazing roast chicken. Yes. I have cooked a chook before but not in over 10 years and they usually don’t turn out well. Last weekend my husband and I went to buy a new frypan as the old one was no longer non stick. After exploring our options, I choose the Bacaarat 2 in 1 multi cooker. Today, for some unknown reason I decided to test it out by cooking my chicken. And I am pleased I followed my gut. The beauty of the multi cooker is that it is frypan, grillpan as well as roasting dish and lid. I used the roasting dish and lid for the first 2 hours and then for the remainder of the time let the chicken cook without a lid in the grill pan. No extra oil was used and a flavoursome, moist chicken was the result. With all the oil that came out of the chicken, I am sure it is healthier than the usual shop bought roast chicken.

If we were having coffee I would ask you how you have been filling in your days. Let me know in the comments.