What a lot of worrying.....

When I was younger, I was very good and not worrying or stressing about stuff.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more and more of a worrier. My Mum always used to talk about how she would wake up at 4am worrying about something and not be able to go back to sleep. I’m not quite at that stage yet but I have been known to wake myself up around 5am with a worrying thought and be unable to get back into Deep Sleep afterwards…

When I look back, I did used to worry about stuff but I was just good at letting it go, especially to go to sleep. These days, worrying and being stressed and anxious seems to affect my sleep a lot (that, and sleeping with The Englishman, who is a light sleeper who can’t handle noises and cannot turn over quietly and easily in bed!). It’s one thing I really dislike – losing sleep, or at least not getting good quality sleep, in the name of things I cannot do anything about.

Normally its just work stress but at the moment I have a bunch of other things rolling around in my head. I’ve been holding on to them since at least Sunday, which is unusual. Normally by now the Englishman would have asked me what was wrong and managed to get me to have a really good cry about it and feel a bit better and less stressed.

The Englishman has asked me a few times, but he’s currently dealing with his own stressors (serious work stress, plus his parents visiting us) so I haven’t wanted to dump on him…. And I knew he wasn’t really up for dealing with me having a cry and needing support because he hadn’t insisted on me telling him what the problem was. He usually insists to the point where he gets angry and this week, he hasn’t. He’s had too much going on himself and he’s really needed me to take care of things at home and also be able to listen to his problems. Neither of which I’ve really managed to do.

What I have managed to do is keep the house to a minimum level of tidy/clean, cook some dinner tonight, NOT yell or get angry when he threw a tantrum at the shops and walked out, and when he said he really needed to sleep after listening to me finally tell him some of what’s been worrying me and start to cry, let him sleep and come out here to the lounge and type this blog entry instead. Because otherwise I would have kept him awake while I tried to stop bawling my eyes out ! Coming out here and typing this has helped a little already and I know eventually I’ll get my cry and my proper hug and I’ll feel better. Just not today.

Anyway, this entry is a little bleak so apologies to whoever reads it! There is nothing seriously bad going on, just a few extra things to worry about. And with In-Laws staying, non-stop weekend plans, work stress and yucky weather, its just gotten on top of us at the moment.

I know we’ll get through and things will get a little better (especially once we sort out a new fridge – GAH!) but right now I just wish I was still good at putting my worries aside at bedtime.

Fingers crossed I’ll drift off a little easier now……… -_-  zzzzzzzz

Dinner at Aria

My Englishman and I at Aria

It was my birthday over the weekend – one of the big “0” birthdays. As has become a bit of a tradition for my Englishman and I, dinner at a fancy restaurant was on the cards. The Englishman had booked 6 months ago and had not told me where we were going. I found out on my birthday morning when I opened one of my presents and found a Matt Moran cook book “Dinner at Matts”. I knew straight away what that meant – we were going to Aria for dinner!!!!

So on Monday night, we both got dressed up to the nines and caught a taxi to Opera Bar. The weather was abominable but there were still a lot of people about, being so close to Christmas. We had a drink at Opera Bar – a beer for the Engilshman and a ‘Twisted Collins’ (fig and pear flavour) for me – and looked out at the dreary scenery. Then, up to Aria for dinner! We chose to have the Seasonal Tasting Menu with matching wines as this gave us a chance to try a few different dishes in small doses and really get a feel for the food.

The food was overall, delicious. It was well cooked, well seasoned and beautifully presented. Some of the dishes were served on black stone instead of traditional white crockery, which fitted with the dishes. What appeared to be a 7 course menu however was really a 10 course menu! With 2 appetisers (one at the very beginning and one between the mains and dessert) and petit fours with coffee, it was a LOT of food. Plus matching wines which couldn’t go to waste!

We had a number of different people look after us throughout our evening. The gentleman who took our order, got our cutlery (and brought more at ‘half time!’) and took our photo was friendly, had a sense of humour but remained very professional. The woman who mainly served our dishes and explained them was a little dry and humourless and almost looked like she wasn’t interested in her job. The sommelier who served our wines however, was fantastic. Knowledgeable, but not reading from a script, she gave us lots of information and really explained why each wine had been chosen to match each dish. This was great as a few of the wines seemed like an unusual match until the sommelier explained and we then tasted. Then, they made sense.

We had great seats in the restaurant – right at the window with an unobstructed view of the Opera House. It was perfect for people watching! The restaurant was a little noisy however – it was very busy although there were a few empty tables, and the air con above my seat was a tad too cold.

Neither of us was impressed with the toilet facilities. There was nothing wrong with them per se, however they were pretty standard and without any of the trimmings you would expect in such a high end restaurant. They really just had lots of clean hand towels, but that was it.

This was my dessert - just a bit of Birthday 'specialness'!!

If you’d like to see what we ate and what I thought of it, check out my website, Monstercake, for a run down of the menu and my ‘review’.

Ankle - Day 3

Just thought I would post an update photos and show how much 'progress' my sprained ankle is making.

It's starting to go an interesting colour!

I made it to work today so my foot has not been particularly elevated for the past 8 hours, although it has been compressed in one of those stockings people wear on planes......

 I think it looks just as puffy as yesterday, possibly worse......

My toe pointing is making some progress however!

Inspiration...

After spending all day at home immobilised today, I discovered a great little blog by Lady Daa Doo which inspired me to get back on here and do some more blogging.

Her Lord Daa Doo sounds suspiciously like my Englishman, she grew up in a country town like me (I have to face it, Newcastle is a country town!) and from the blog posts I've read so far, she loves a laugh, a glass of wine and getting creative now and then.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep up the inspiration and blog a little more.........

Sprained ankles hurt!

I sprained my ankle on the weekend.

Thankfully, luckily, I didn't sprain it until halfway through Sunday. So I still got to enjoy my weekend.

On Saturday the Englishman and I had a sleep in and once we got moving, we both had very different ideas of what we wanted to do. I wanted to 'explore our local area' while the Englishman wanted to 'go shopping in the city'. BOR-ING! I've been shopping in the city before and besides....I'm broke.......

Instead, we ended up just walking up to our local shops and getting a pizza for lunch, renting some movies and having eggs on toast for dinner. Simple, easy, and cheap.

Sunday, I finally got my way and the Englishman agreed to go on a 'bushwalk' in close by Hunters Hill. There was a reserve with nice boardwalks and some off road terrain as well. It sounded pretty and to be honest, I wanted to just get outside and do something that felt a little like exercise.

The walk was fine, and pretty, and peaceful (although you could see houses above some of the trees and the main road was humming away in the distance) and as we headed back to the start, the thunder rolled and the raindrops started falling, so we decided to run back to the car along the road.....then we veered off the road and onto uneven ground and about 3 steps in, I went down.

The Englishman has never heard me in pain and now says I am not allowed to have babies if I make that much noise when I sprain my ankle!

Mind you, I didn't cry, I actually laughed and also swore A LOT and then wanted to just get up and go home....seeing as it was also raining and I was getting wet and cold!

I forgot how painful, and how much of a hassle having a sprained ankle is!

I made it home and up the 3 flights of stairs to our flat (pulling myself up the banister, fun!) and it took most of the afternoon for the pain to die down. Still, I thought I'd be right to get to work today, that somehow with all my following the RICE rules it would be miraculously much much better and I would be able to just limp a little.

No such luck. It wasnt really feeling any better this morning and although I think the swelling has gone down now, I think thats mostly due to the compression stocking I've been wearing for the last few hours.

Here's a few photos for graphic effect:

Looking much better than yesterday but definitely still swollen!!

This is an illustration of my current range of movement - my ballerina pointy toes ain't working so good.....

A close up - I only realised when I took this that it has started to bruise already.....

My Englishman has been pretty good at looking after me but it has been partly out of guilt - he felt like it was his fault for not agreeing to go bushwalking on Saturday (although I've told him it's definitely NOT his fault!). He's been good at cooking and fetching, but he does have a low tolerance for small requests so I've tried to keep them to a minimum, and I've also done my best to get up and 'try to do it myself' which helps with the sympathy factor ;-)

The magic of reading

I confess: I'm a total bookworm.

I love to read! Ever since I was able to read, I loved to pick up a book and get lost in the words. At 6 years old I would get lost in Enid Blyton - Noddy books and The Adventourous Four...a little older and I read the Magic Faraway Tree, the Wishing Chair, and discovered the Babysitters Club series. I'm pretty sure I read every one!!

When I hit high school I discovered John Marsden and the 'Tomorrow' series. Other favourites included the good old 'Point Fiction' series - Horror, Thrillers and everything in between.

At some point towards the end of High School, a boyfriend introduced me to Fantasy Fiction and I've never looked back!

While I will read just about anything, it is still good old fantasy that gets me hooked everytime. The worlds conjured up by the authors, the ideas explored and the characters created, while sometimes are a bit 'same same but different', many others have different ideas, different themes and are just plain good fun.

Favourites in the land of fantasy fiction include my first fantasy fiction book Magician (Raymond E Fiest), the Wheel of Time series, a bit of Stephen Donaldson (although I found him difficult at times to read), Sara Douglass, Terry Goodkind, of course Harry Potter........

The reason for this post is twofold: firstly, I'm currently re-reading a series of fantasty fiction books that I began in high school but have had to wait 10 years for the final book. The series is known as the 'Obernewtyn' series and is by Isobelle Carmody. I quickly re-read the first 3 books and I am more than halfway through the 4th (which is bigger than the 1st three put together!) I still have another entire book to read after this which is so exciting!

Secondly - I was struck the other day by how well I can zone out everything else when I'm reading.

I was sitting in our lounge room the other evening, reading. The tv was on and my Englishman was watching tv and net-surfing. A couple of times, my Englishman made a comment about something on tv....well, I barely even caught what he said, never mind what he'd seen on tv! My mind was so focused on my book that everything else was totally 'zoned out'. I even had to get him to repeat what he'd said as I really didn't hear the words......totally lost in the story.

Now, why can't I do this at other times??????

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner...

I think I've said this before, but my Englishman and I both love to cook :-)

Mostly, the Englishman cooks dinners and I do baking, but I also like cooking dinners! So, when I get the chance, especially if I get home before him, I'll often either have something in mind to cook or quickly find a recipe according to what we have in the cupboard.

Today, I got home super early so was keen to cook something nice for tea! We've had some porcini mushrooms in the fridge for a week or two after buying them for a chicken and mushroom pie recipe, so I wanted to use them before I forgot all about them. We had chicken breasts in the fridge and normal mushrooms as well, so I wanted to try and find a recipe that would use these items but also utilised other things we had in the house (and avoid needing to go out and buy anything if possible!)

I ended up picking a simple recipe for Chicken with Porcini Mushrooms from www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes . I ended up using this as more of a base for the recipe and made the following changes:

* I added fresh mushrooms as well as the porcini mushrooms

* I didn't have any wine (the horror!) so used the liquid that the porcini mushrooms were soaked in instead.

* I didnt have any cream, so used evaporated milk - less fat and cheaper!

* Instead of a whole onion, I used half a small onion and a few baby leeks.

* I didnt have any tarragon so just went without.

* We served it with a small amount of pasta and lots of asparagus and carrots :)

Last time I used porcini mushrooms, the reconstituted liquid was used in the recipe and it just made sense not to waste it. Mind you, while we were cooking it, the Englishman commented that the liquid smelt like "a pet shop" - its pretty pungent! Once you add the cream/evaporated milk the smell and taste calms down though, and gives it another layer of flavour.

Another tip - before adding evaporated milk, always take the pan off the heat and let it cool slightly. If you add it while the pan is hot, it'll separate and will look pretty yuck!

Anyway, The Englishman got involved and cooked the chicken as I'm not keen on cooking whole chicken breasts, and I did the preparation and got the pasta and vegies cooking while setting the table (women can multitask!). Despite the Englishman's reservations, it turned out delicious! I wish I'd taken a photo but I guess that just means I'll have to cook it again...........