Coffee Catch-Up #14

If we were having coffee I would tell you how excited I was to welcome my 800th follower to my blog this week. My current goal is to have 1000 followers by the end of 2016. I enjoy my blogging community and I have learnt a lot over the last 2 years as I’ve visited your blogs. We are all unique and together we make each others world’s brighter.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I enjoyed working at my new hospital. They are a great team although they use a slightly different system to what I am used to. However, I quickly settled into my new rhythm and was lucky enough to work a few more shifts than I was originally booked for, which helped expedite my knowledge of how things are done.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I enjoyed my birthday last Tuesday. My husband made me breakfast before he had to leave for work so I took myself shopping.  I even managed to get myself a $20 birthday discount when I bought myself some new clothes. Bonus! I then caught the train home with my daughter who taught me how to hunt Pokémon before cooking me dinner. The one thing that I was looking at when shopping was a Fitbit however I have yet to decide if I would use it enough to justify the cost. If you have one what has been your experience?

If we were having coffee I would tell you I was grateful on Thursday night after Toastmasters to be able to watch the Semi Finals of the Toastmasters International Convention 2016 from Washington DC. What amazing speakers. It was also exciting to be able to cheer on one of our fellow members, David Griffiths who came third. It was hard to pick the order of the winners although I do think that the 3 people who placed were the best speakers.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I have enjoyed the bits of the Olympics that I have seen and was particularly excited to see some of the people my children used to compete against, do personal bests and in some cases come home with an Olympic medal.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that last night we enjoyed cooking pizzas in our outdoor pizza oven and chimney. The smokey flavour was awesome. One problem we found with the pizza oven was that it was too small to cook the bigger pizzas in. We solved this problem by using our chimney but it wasn’t nearly as effective at cooking them as the pizza oven. So with our new-found knowledge, when we move we have decided to buy a new, bigger pizza oven that takes all pizza sizes. We also secretly hope to be able to cook other foods in it using our various sized camp ovens. Cooking over fire – there is nothing like it.

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2016-08-20 19.37.22If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world? Let me know in the comments.


Share Your World – 2016 Week 29

What is the perfect pizza?

I like a spicy pizza but not your ordinary Mexicana. When I make a pizza at home it has a pesto, chilli sauce and tomato paste base topped with the following ingredients:

  • roast pumpkin
  • roast sweet potato
  • roast capsicum
  • olives
  • cherry tomatoes
  • feta cheese
  • jalapenos
  • dried chilli flakes
  • fresh capsicum
  • bacon/chicken/hot salami/pepperoni  (which mix of these meats I use depends on my mood)

Once my pizza is cooked, I top it with rocket, sour cream and avocado (if I have any.)

What is your favorite time of day?

My favourite time of day varies depending on what I have on but it is always based on the one thing – ME TIME. I love the quiet time each day when I can do whatever I choose. It keeps me sane in this crazy world.

Show us two of your favorites photographs?  The photos can be from anytime in your life span.  Explain why they are your favorite.

I love this photo of me taken on one of the bridges crossing the Ottawa River, Canada. As we walked from the Quebec side of the river back into Ontario I am not sure which state I am standing in at the time but as we loved them both, it doesn’t matter. It also reminds me of the fun we had walking in the first serious snow we had during our 6 week trip to Canada. We kept believing it would come and eventually it did. I think it was also the last time I wore those jeans as they finally wore themselves out in Canada after over 10 years of faithful service. The colouful hat scarf I am wearing I made close to 30 years ago and is very unique. It remains in good condition however, as Australia doesn’t have enough days cold for me to wear it in.

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This photo the original of Inspiring Max’s profile picture was taken 5 years ago from Melbourne’s Aquatic Centre. My daughter and I were there for her last School Sports Australia Diving competition which marked the end of an era for us. At the time there was a lot of difficult things happening in our lives that got worse as the year progressed. However, never being one to focus on the negative, if I needed an extra boost of positivity that everything would be alright in the end, I would get out my double rainbow, feel inspired and keep going.

Another thing I love about this photo is that it was one of the first photos I have taken that I was really proud of as you can see the individual rainbow colours on both sides.

Complete this sentence:  I’m looking forward to…. 

moving back to Newcastle and commencing nursing in a new hospital. I have been working towards this for over 12 months and now it is getting very close.

Bonus question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

My husband starting his new job and getting together with my family without having to rush back to Sydney to work. In the next eek I am looking forward to my future employment being confirmed and maybe even a start date given.

Share Your World – 2016 Week 29