April seems to me to have been a flat sort of a month. Plenty happened, particularly in some friends' lives, but I feel fairly flat. I suppose I have been busy with more unexpected work, but I don't remember a great deal about the month. MIL has been awkward and has actually chipped a bone in her foot. Husband told her she needed to be careful or she'd lose her room and be moved to the nursing part of the hostel. I'm sure the foot is sore, but there's little that can be done to help the healing of it and if she does not move, then her hips and legs will seize up and she'll have a major fall. She was refusing to walk even the dozen steps to the dining room, until the doctor told her that she was to get out of bed. Unfortunately for her, the Director of Nursing heard his instructions. She's very grumpy with him, but cannot do anything about it. When she lived by herself, she had a simple solution to things like this. First; she disregarded what the doctor said. Second: she just changed doctors, left her records behind and didn't tell the new doctor much at all.

It's been ridiculously warm here for the last week, far too warm for the time of the year. Today is grey, although it started out sunny and it's a bit cooler. Late yesterday there was a knock at the door and a young friend of all my sons was there with two of his small daughters. He follows the Orthodox faith and their Easter is this weekend. On Good Friday I had sent down to him, several doors down the street, some hot cross buns, straight from the oven. They really enjoyed them and it got quite a few out of the house, away from my husband. He brought with him some eggs he and the little girls had dyed, a candle and a stollen. At least I think that's what it's called. The plaited yeast stollen stands for the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, the candle for light and the eggs for new life. I was touched that he'd thought of us like this. We had some for lunch today. I'll probably have to throw quite a bit out. I won't have any more but wanted to taste it and my husband won't eat it if stale. I suppose I could break it up and freeze it.

Talking about getting things away from my husband...on Friday I wanted to dye some wool I had unravelled from a pure woollen jumper I bought at the Salvation Army store. This needs vinegar in the water for the dye to stick. I don't use much vinegar and it was in a high cupboard. I opened the door and was almost smothered by eight packets of fancy biscuits I didn't know were in the house. Someone, not me, had hidden them there! I've put them back and will keep my mouth shut about them. However later in the week I have to take some biscuity thing out so, just perhaps, there might be only six packets left? LOL

In yesterday's Spectrum section of the Sydney Morning Herald there was a recipe for onion tart by the chef, Steve Manfredi. It was very easy so I made it for lunch. Very nice and quite easy. Pastry, chopped onions, pepper and salt and a bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Put pastry into tart flan and add everything else mixed together. Cook for about 20 minutes at 220 ° Celsius till onions on top are beginning to caramelise. I served it warm with salad. He made a big tart, but I used a small dish which used less than half a full sheet of commercial shortcrust pastry. For the larger dish, he suggested 1/4 cup of parmesan. I'm not sure what I used, but less obviously. It was really nice. If you do this, DON'T try using the ghastly stuff like talcum powder which Kraft tries to pass off as Parmesan cheese. Buy the proper stuff and grate it yourself. It lasts a long time in the fridge and is a totally different flavour to the Kraft which also stinks as it cooks. The real parmesan is pleasant to be near when cooking and tastes wonderful. It's well worth the extra money.

Till tomorrow. I am not expecting work this week, but sometimes there's not much notice. I have a friend from South Africa whom I am planning on meeting for coffee. She's over here to visit family. Arrived yesterday and she'll ring me when she wants to arrange a time. Her mum is very ill with a recurrence of breast cancer. So that might be one day this week.

Just a quick update this morning. It's a bit chilly here after the very warm weather of the last week or so, but it feels nice and crisp. Just how it should be feeling for May. I saw last night on TV that the morning temperature for Orange was -1°. I've always wanted to live there. The weather is much more extreme than in Sydney, but the summer is dry, not sticky. The people are nice and I love the countryside. Nothing likely to happen,however.

Bec is coming down today. They seem to have settled in. The house is quite pleasant, although she cannot understand how the agent returned the bond of the previous tenants. She said the place was filthy. I hope this new baby and Mya starting school next year will help her to settle down. I know bright children can overcome constant moves, but surely it would be better if they didn't have to. And problems don't stay behind at the old address. They move too, and often resurface quite quickly. They need to be faced and dealt with.

I think I've said before that she's a really good hairdresser. She does the hair for several people at their homes and needs supplies- colours etc. She hasn't yet found a hairdressers' supply place locally so she's coming back to the one she knows near me. They'll have lunch here and then go back.

She was able to get Mya into a pre-school within walking distance. A little boy moved out of the district. It's only two days, 9-3, instead of three, but it's $9 cheaper/day and the children are given a hot meal at lunch where she had to pack Mya's lunch before.

Last night I made a chicken dish with a lot of vegetables and a tin of tomatoes. Served it with some pasta. I cooked it for several hours at a really low temperature in the oven and it was very tender. Fortunately, there's enough left for tonight too, although I don't think I can get away with pasta a second night. Might have to do rice. Breakfast is muesli with some frozen blueberries and other berries. I've had that and need my coffee. That just leaves lunch to be sensible. Probably a ham and salad roll.

The place needs a good vacuum and tidy. My husband decided to start sorting his videos last night. Well overdue. However, her couldn't get the VCR to track properly so he could see whatwas on some of his unlabelled tapes. They've been left, I discover, in a pile on the floor and the TV is pulled out to get at the shelf behind. A closeknit group of friends is coming here this week, so I need to tidy. We meet regularly for a chat and often for a meal. We had a fish and salad night last week at another member's place. Very deep friendships among all of us and a lot of support for anyone in trouble. Perhaps the best part is knowing that it is a safe place where we can say whatwe want to. At least I don't have to tidy for my net friends. I belong to several knitting groups, one very large nearly 9000 members. The main rule for that one is stick to the group's purpose, knitting hints and problems. It's far too big for anything else. Obviously that's not the same as my small group of net friends where, once again we support each other. Quite a few have met from the small group, but even those who haven't are close friends with all.

I found a small online shop in Victoria and have ordered some more sock wool from them. I'd rather support Aussie businesses than overseas shops. I ordered Sunday evening and have just had an email saying goods should arrive today or tomorrow at the latest. It's my first time for buying from them, so have replied thanking them for their prompt service. Still can't beat Wednesday morning ordering and Monday morning delivery of a large box from Canada.

Now I'd better get some bonus points for some energetic housecleaning!! But first,my good coffee.

Just noticed I was complainng about the housework. Strange isn't it- no matter how much is done, there's always more to do and more the next day and so on. I just emptied the ironing basket last Friday, and there's a pile in there again! I loathe ironing. Particularly business shirts. Business shirts XXXL or size 44-46. There's just so much of them. And so many.

My weekend was busy. Saturday was spent in my favourite academic environment at Macquarie Uni. There was an all day conference there. Lunch is supplied and it's always well done. Half bagels with lots of different fillings. This year there was Turkish bread as well. Fruit, juice. Morning tea is those yummy Portuguese tarts, muffins etc and afternoon tea is put on by the Uni Co-Op Bookshop with savoury nibbles, wine juice etc. Somehow, around all this food is fitted six sessions and a key note speaker as well.

Most of the family met at a local park for Mother's Day yesterday. We had takeaway coffee from a local coffee shop and no cake! MIL was not impressed with that. Of course we couldn't leave MIL out. My husband never thinks of asking my mother to functions like that. Mum was away yesterday and could not have come, but he did not know that and didn't think to ask her. He's even arranged dinners for my birthday and MIL is asked and Mum isn't. Two DILs fixed that one last year. Asked us to Mum's for afternoon tea. When we arrived we found a big birthday spread. I had had my suspicions but said nothing. Andrew happily chased the ibis around. Revolting birds and very dirty. One son called them flying rats and that's about it. My husband was in their flight path and just as we were leaving, one left its calling card on his head and dribbling down hisneck. He was already in a fairly dirty mood and this was the finishing touch.

I made a really nice soup for lunch yesterday. I had a lot of carrots so cooked some in some stock with some onions. Added a good dollop of Thai green curry paste. Blended it with the stick blender and added one of the tiny tins of coconut milk. It has made about seven or eight serves, so I don't regret the tiny tin. I know some use coconut essence and light evaporated milk. I'd rather go without than do that. It was very nice and there was enough left for a couple of lunches.

I kissed little Tora as they were getting in the car. She didn't want to get in. Asked why,"I want two kisses from Grandma." She's a sweetie. The baby who is 7 months had had only twenty minutes sleep all day. Her eyes were glassy but she wouldn't go to sleep. However, she was quiet and not crying. I did get a few smiles from her. Andrew was excited. His soccer team, six year old children, had WON! He was thrilled.

And now I'll do that ironing before preparing baked chicken and loads of fresh vegetables for dinner.

Wednesday, 11th May

Two days, two walks. That's a bit of an achievement these days. The weather outside has been beautiful, warmer than in my house. However, my arthritis has been playing up and I really don't feel like doing much. Today I dug around and found a script that was almost a year old for some anti-inflammatories. I've been able to manage without them for quite a while, but need them now. Walked to pharmacy and had script made up. I also treated myself to a new lipstick. I've recently gone through some old handbags and pitched a few out. One old one with a brush was so dried up I couldn't even think of using it. Hardly wear the stuff but like to have it available.

Yesterday I walked down to the local op shop run by the Salvation Army. It's very big and aatually has some good stuff. Poked around in the books for quite a while and bought two,including a Spike Milligan novel which I will give to one of my sons, a big fan of Spike.Walk was about 25 minutes. I then caught the bus to Burwood and from there walked home, about another 25 minutes.

My baked chicken the other night was very nice. There was loads leftover and also some delicious gravy I made. I often can't be bothered making it but was glad I did. I've just sliced a lot of the leftovers into some of the gravy and will do some more baked vegetables. Two roast dinners in a week should shut my husband up about them for a while. Last night was more chicken - thighs this time,sliced and cooked with some peri-peri sauce, a heap of veges and served with rice. There's enough for another meal for my husband which is good as I will be out tomorrow night.

Time is creeping on. I'd better get the washing off the line before it gets that chilly, damp feeling.

Fairly mixed few days here. My husband had the day off on Friday which was our wedding anniversary. He wanted lunch out as that suited his plans, so out we went. I wanted some light café, bistro sort of food. He wanted a MEAL. Doesn't he always? We went to the bistro in the pub at Summer Hill. I went there with a girlfriend a couple of months ago and had a lovely lunch. Toasted turkish breaad, dips, avocado, salads etc. The place was packed then. This time there were only three people in the bistro. I looked at the menu and asked what had happened to all the lovely food which had been hard to choose from. New people in the place. Menu was totally uninteresting. T-bone steak and mushroom sauce, T-bone steak diane, peppered T-bone steak and... I stood up while my husband was trying to choose a sauce and said there was nothing there that interested me in the slightest and walked out. We drove past the local café where I know I would have had what I wanted. He somehow didn't hear me say to stop. On to Burwood where this place was too noisy, that place smelt of oil and so on. I was so annoyed and totally fed up. This happens every time he decides to do something like this. It was now 2:00pm and we'd been looking for almost two hours. I was all prepared to come home and have a toasted sandwich. We went into the café where I'd had morning tea with my friend on the day of his dad's funeral. They have meals as well as coffee.

He ordered the dearest dish on the menu. Called land, sea and air. Very 70s. I was expecting the prawn cocktail. A big piece of steak, a big piece of chicken breast, prawns and chips and salad. Either the steak or chicken alone was more than I would have given him for a meal. I had grilled fish and salad. Now all the meat and fish was well cooked, very hot and quite moist. I think my fish must have been frozen, not fresh. It had absolutely no flavour to it. As I said, it was hot and well cooked,but tasteless. I put about five lots of lemon on it and eventually resorted to some salt.

I said that after such a meal, I was not making him any dinner, so he went to Coles and bought camembert, blue cheese, some sharp cheddar and something else. That was his dinner. So the anniversary lunch was in keeping with the tone of the whole week.

Saturday was much better. I had been asked to write a couple of things and had the whole day alone till quite late. I had a good time doing some research and writing without any interruption except for meals. I had a great pile of steamed vegetables and some smoked cod which I really like but he hates. So I keep some of the packet smoked cod in the freezer for opportunities like that.

Sunday saw me reminding him that at some time in the next few weeks we needed to take the bassinette to Tim and Bec for the next baby. This was new for me as a baby and probably 50-60 babies have used it over the years. Friends, family, near and far relations etc. It's bigger than many now. Has adjustable arms to support netting and is very airy being made of strong wicker work. Apart from being dusty, it's almost as good as new. We couldn't get it in the Subaru and it didn't want to come apart in the middle so we swapped cars with eldest son who has a Citroen Berlingo, a two seater like a delivery van. Went in, no trouble.

Miss Four looked at me as if I was crazy when I told her the bassinette had once been her bed. "Grandma's really flipped this time," was obviously her thought. They weren't expecting us and already had people coming for dinner so we left there about 6:30. Drove past the club near them, intending to go in. Absolutely packed, so we drove into Woy Woy. Now this was Sunday evening but absolutely nothing was open. Ended up at Mum's Kitchen at Umina which is usually packed, both eat-in and take away. It was empty. They were preparing to close at 6:45(!!) but agreed to serve us. It sells all sorts of fish dishes. A highlight of these is cooking, fish,scallops etc on a large heated stone, but this was not available as they were closing. I had a second grilled fish. Just over half the price of Friday's piece, just as well cooked and had some flavour. Altogether, a fishy weekend.

I've decided that my mind can cope with exercise if I don't think of it as such. Now how crazy is that. If I walk to do something, go somewhere in particular, that's fine. If I decide to "go walking", I can find every excuse under the sun not to go. Incidental stuff is just fine. Planned and premeditated is not. So whatever. Now I have to find things to do to convince myself to get out. Very weird.

I had quite a bit of that incidental walking yesterday. Certainly unplanned. I was catching the bus home from church yesterday when it becam apparent that the one I really wanted just wasn't coming. It was at least 25 minutes late. So I caught another one, planning to get out near where my son and DIL live. However, I was mistaken as to its route and I had to get out and walk back to the next station. Much further than I anticipated. It was quite hot walking in the middle of the day,so I ws pleased to get home and have several glasses of water. Even with the bus I had hoped to catch there would have been at least a 15 minute walk home from the bus stop. Not that thatamount is far, but every little helps.

My husband had bought prawns the day before, some green ones which had to be peeled and some already peeled. Sometimes I wonder just what he listens to as he bought Royal Reds which he knows I don't like and never buy. Fishermen at several co-ops on the north coast won't send Royal Reds to market because they have to be sent frozen and go very mushy. Fine when sold off the boat fresh. We'd eaten the green prawns the day before and I had to use these so I curried them. Talk about mushy! They went from a reasnable size to quite small and went quite tough. Obviously they were mostly liquid. I was not impressed and I think he only ate his because he had bought them. He likes the biggest king prawns he can find.

MIL continues to deteriorate because she does only what she wants to. That means she never gets off her bed all day, most days, except for meals. She won't go to activities and even refuses to do puzzles and such things which she used to enjoy doing. She's very doddery and has been warned that she might have to give up her room and go into the nursing section. If that happens, and at some stage it is inevitable, we will never hear the end of it. She'll be in a ward with several others, some of whom may have dementia. Her mind is going, but she certainly doesn't have dementia, just is very peculiar. But then, I think she's been peculiar most of the time I've known her.

We took my mum to Dural Country Club on Saturday night. A bit better than many clubs I've been to. I had grilled fish and salad. Mum had a halfsize of baked pork and vegetables. She even had crackling. Certainly there was quite enough in the half size for either her or me. We both had a glass of dry white with our meal.

Not much to report here really. I've been doing some knitting. MIL won't even do that although my husband asked her especially. I'm looking forward to a haircut tomorrow. It's overdue because Tim and Bec moved when it was due and they have been so busy I haven't liked to ask Bec.

Wednesday, 25th May

What a change. I feel as if several kilos went when I had my hair cut. It was so long, I was hating it. We worked out it was seven weeks and I've been having it cut every four for some months. Bec picked me up at Hornsby where she had an ante-natal visit at the hospital. I'd bought rolls, ahm and tomatoes for lunch and we went to my brother's at Wahroonga. Mum's been there a few days getting young Edward off to school as my brother has had to drive to Newcastle for hearings.

Mya wasn't interested in doing her colouring in or playing with what she had brought. So Mum got out the Monopoly set. She has a child's version where rentisn't paid and there are no title deeds to the properties. She carefully counted out money for my mother and for herself. Then discovered there were no dice in the box. Mum suggested they pretend, so here they were, nearly five and eighty-five shaking the pretend dice in their hands and then calling out a number and moving pieces. It certainly looked funny. It would have been good to have had my camera. My mobile is old and doesn't have a camera in it. It didn't take Mya long to cotton onto the idea of buying property and charging rent on it. However, she happily packed it up for lunch when my hair was done.

So some walking was achieved at Hornsby and to and from the stations.

Today I managed to walk some more. I've been somewhat depressed lately and I know walking helps. It's been hard to even get out the gate. A couple of times I've returned home after getting only a couple of hundred metres down the street. Walked to Burwood today as I had something on order which came in at the weekend. The shopping centre was really noisy today. Even the cashier at Coles was complaining.She thught the music was turned up more than is usual. Whatever, I was glad to get outside.

An old friend came to dinner tonight. I made a meaty casserole for him and my husband and curried some lentils and beans for myself. As I'm going out for dinner tomorrow night the leftover casserole will do him for his dinner.There's enough curry for Friday evening and it will taste even better then. I usually mix my own spices but was running late so just used curry powder. It was fine, but my blend suits me better.

Both these pairs of socks are made from an American brand of wool which I bought online from Victoria. This is a bit thicker than I usually use and knitted up really quickly. I started the top pair on Friday evening and finished them Monday evening, even though I was out a lot of Sunday. I called them the equivalent of comfort food. Easy pattern which required almost no thought. I found my copy of Winnie the Pooh on the coffee table and read that while I knitted. Lots of stops to turn pages as the print is large . By bedtime, I discovered that I was well down the foot. Homemade socks are not only warmer than bought socks, but I make them to suit my feet and find them really comfortable. I started another pair as a gift yesterday with lots of blues in it. Discovered that every time there was a particular colour, the wool was frayed through. I emailed the shop, sending a picture and they got in touch with the manufacturer. The first two balls were fine but these were different colours. I think the dye must have been too strong on that colour. They don't want it back and have given me a credit.

Hmmm. Quite a while. Life's been busy and I've done a lot of other things than write. I haven't always been in the mood for writing either.

Last Thursday I met an online friend who was viiting this city for coffee. We found each other with no problems at all and sat and talked over a couple of mugfuls of strong coffee for over two hours. I had taken my camera,intending to ask the waitress to take a photo of us, but it wasn't till I reached in my bag for a tissue on the way home that I found the camera. I've met several online friends and had a great time each time. Last month I was to have met another from South Africa. However, her mum was very sick and we didn't manage to meet. She hopes to move here so better luck next time.

I've just had some really nice soup for dinner. Homemade sweetcorn soup, made with the carcase of last night's baked chicken. There's enough chicken still in the fridge for a curry or something similar for lunch tomorrow. This soup had a great taste and I put in some of the small dim sum, walnut size, a couple of minutes before serving. Nice and different. We had scallops with ginger and shallots, served with rice, for lunch. Not the best time I've made these, but quite acceptable. All this chicken and seafood probably means I'll ned to do something with meat on Monday. I'm trying not to just cook meat and vegetables and then eat only the vegetables. Need some creative vegetable dishes which can double as veges for the carnivore in the house. I have the old WW vegetarian cookbook and a couple of others, so might have a browse through them tomorrow.

Today I finished the Heirloom Baby wool jumper for the boy due next month. The wool is gorgeous, supersoft, but machine washable. It has blocks of solid colours, stripes of others. It was a pain to knit because I had to make sure the wool ws twisted at every join of the blocks so there were no holes in the vertical line of changing colours. It needs blocking and pressing before I take a photo. This baby is going to be a big boy, but I think it will fit him for a few weeks at least till the worst of winter is over. Colours are white, a brilliant red and royal blue.

I've been walking most days. It helps clear the mind and mine certainly needs some clearing at the moment. The days have been lovely, but far too dry. We really need rain here, as does the whole state.

Friday,June 10th

As my last entry ended, so this begins...the days are still lovely but hopefully a lot of the state may get some rain this weekend. I've just been out for a walk in the middle of the day and it's really warm out there. Almost like springtime, but the air doesn't have the spring perfumes. I couldn't believe how mild it was. I stoppped for coffee on the way but avoided the trendy Croydon Café with its yummy pssionfruit slice. I went instead to the bakery which has quite reasonable coffee, but the cakes are appalling. Apple pies/turnovers inches thick with greasy mock cream, finger buns with garish pink,perfumed iceing, coconut,raspberry slice with a hard base made of imitation concrete about an inch thick. Nothing tempting at all. This place used to have wonderful food but when it was sold, the standards dropped. Instead of homemade sour cherry strudel, they sold poor croissants with square pressed ham and Kraft cheese. Then they wondered why people left in droves.

Here's the front of little Spike's jumper fromHeirloom baby wool. Beautiful to work with and very soft. Spike? My son is a Goons fan and now lives in Woy Woy where Spike Milligan spent much of his time. I think Bec has put her foot down very firmly and the baby will have Spike as a nickname only.

Saw a funny but pathetic sight as I had my coffee. I was near the window and could see an elderly couple who probably came from the hostel nearby. She was sitting in a wheelchair which she was propelling with her arms. He was also helping push the chair up the short, very slight incline. When they reached the pedestrian crossing, she put on the brake, handed him two walking sticks, got out of the chair and turned it around. They waved on several cars and then ventured onto the crossing. He could hardly move with his two sticks and she wasn't much better. Over the road and she got back into the chair, but forgot to put the brake on first. It almost rolled back into the crossing. A few more paces and he collapsed onto a seat on the footpath while she went on. She walked more quickly than she could propel the chair. As I said, it was funny to watch, but really pathetic too.

This is the back of the jumper. I think I must have done something to the flash settings of the camera. These two photos were taken 30 seconds apart, but the difference in colour is amazing. I've finished the sleeves for his big sister's jumper which I started last year. I could see then that it was going to be far too big, so I stopped. Now I just have the front to go. I have quite a few things put away for the baby, I usually buy something everytime I shop. I thought I'd better make sure Miss Four's jumper was finished before the baby gets here.

Busy, busy. That's not really an excuse, I suppose, but it's all I've got. I was preaching at church yesterday and had to prepare. I had a lot of basic preparation from a weeklong conference a couple of years ago where I was the main speaker for the week. Conference lectures and sermons however, are two different animals. One of my sons and two daughters in law turned up for support, as well as a friend. Husband was no where to be seen, but what's new? He left the church a few weeks ago and I didn't expect him to have the guts to turn up to hear me preach. He's always found some excuse not to be there when I've done it in the past. Why change now? However, I was pleased with the way things went. We all went to Thai on King Street, Newtown afterwards for lunch. Thai-illa-long or something like that. Cheap, cheerful service and good food. There's a lunchtime list of sauces/dishes and then you choose, seafood, prawns, tofu, chicken, beef, pork etc to go with it. Prawns cost $10, everything else is $6 and most of us couldn't finish the serve. Little Andrew and Tora loved their rice and satay chicken. Went down really fast. They shared a dish.

Those fish cakes made with kumara were really nice. As I was making them only for myself, I used a pile of chives and a pouch of the tuna with black pepper. Even with the tiny pouch of tuna, I had enough for two meals. In fact I made them again for more people, this time using a tin of salmon. The tuna was better, better texture and more flavour.Tonight my husband will be home for dinner. He went to a conference late yesterday and stayed overnight as it was out of Sydney. I'm making chicken ith a mushroom sauce. Probably mashed potatoes and other vegetables.

I made celeriac soup at the weekend. It's very substantial nad warming. Celeriac, the leafy end of some celery stalks, lots of onion, a couple of small potatoes and some chicken stock seasoned to taste. Saturday here was freezing al day and the soup made a warm feeling in me at lunch.

It's quite early still here,just after 7:00am. Nowhere near as cold today as Saturday. I've had washing on the line for an hour and have done qwuite a few other things too.

This information should probably be skipped if hot chocolate is not your thing. It's not really mine, but I could make an exception for this without too much pursuasion. In Martin Place in Sydney, Level 1, 53 Martin PLace there is a Lindt café. That's right, Lindt of the 85% cocoa dark chocolate fame and the yummy dark one with the orange peel in it. Love that although I can't stand peel in fried fruit and don't eat marmalade either. This café sells hot chocolate and you can choose whether it's made from dark or light chocolate. Now that sound really decadent and just right for winter too. So now you've spent all your points for the day!! Tut, tut. Console yourself that both milk and chocolate are relatively low on the GI index. Certainly high on any index of fat, LOL. I really don't eat much chocolate and would never think of buying any for myself. I could quite easily walk past the chocolates at the supermarket. I only like the good stuff. Cheap Easter eggs and blocks of Cadbury's do nothing for me at all, but the good stuff with a high percentage of cocoa fat is different. One square of the extra dark is better than a whole block of cheap stuff. The café sounds tempting. Just as well I am not near the place when I work in the city.

And now I'm off for a walk. It's now light and not cold at all for the time of day. About 11°. No wind either like yesterday. Good meditation time, walking. Like knitting socks. Calming without thinking too hard.

Cold, very cold here today. I reckon it's probably snowing at Katoomba 50 miles west. I just checked the temperature there and it said 0.8°. I'm usually there for a week at this time of the year for a conference but not this year.

I see people on the WW Forum asking about points for soup stock cubes. At the risk of sounding snobby, I never use them. For a start, I think the flavour is artificial. Who knows what chemicals they have in them like cup-a-soups which taste false to me.Secondly, they seem very salty, even teh salt reduced ones. The tetra packed stocks are quite good at a pinch but it's so easy to make stock and the results are well worth it. Veal bones, lamb shanks, ham bones or smoked hocks, chicken carcases or even fish for chowder, all are easy to make stock from, particularly with a pressure cooker. Made the day before any fat can easily be skimmed from the top and the flavour is fantastic, well worth the small amount of effort and time involved. I can remember my two eldest sons having a weekend meal at husband's aunt's place. "Mum we had soup. But hers came out of a tin. Can you buy it lime that?" They had never seen soup from a tin or packet and were genuinely puzzled. Aged abut 4 and 5 or perhaps 5 and 6 at the time.

Yesterday I went to the quilting and craft fair at Darling Harbour Exhibition centre. I really went to look at wool and knitting stuff but was very restrained in what I bought. It was cold outside but quite hot in there and I bought a chicken salad for lunch. Good slices of chicken and it was only $6. I thought about getting a passout and eating at Darling Harbour somewhere. I doubt I could have eaten for that price anywhere there. Caught the light rail back to Central Station and was at the bottom of the steps when I thought I heard my train being announced. Raced up the steps and onto the last carriage. Just as we pulled into my station, it started to rain. Not heavy rain but superfine and very thick, like fine snow, although it wasn't that, and I had the length of the station to walk. Buttoned up my jacket, took out my hearing aids and walked home, by which time it stopped.

I had walked down to Darling Harbour from Town Hall Station into a strong wind. Spent several hours walking and still did not see all the show had to offer. I skipped the teddy bear exhibition and a couple of other sections too. Then I walked home from the station. Had an early night as I could hardly keep my eyes open. I'd had to stand quite a while to even get into the exhibition. The queue stretched inside the whole length of the building, back again the same distance on the outside, down the steps and well over towards the Chinese gardens and then towards the Novotel. There must have been several hundred people, if not a couple of thousand in the queue. When I got in, the place was packed.

Now for some ironing. At least it will keep me warm. Unfortunately one of the items is a very large table cloth which I don't use often just because it needs to be ironed. Good linen which creases easily.

Thursday (again), June 30

Here it is, the lst day of june. I haven't even thought about a new background page for July, let alone got one ready and waiting. Little Miss Two is now Miss Three as of yesterday and I was out there on Tuesday, babysitting. She was more interested in telling me about her breakfast than in anticipating a birthday. She's a big breakfast water, two weetbix and a piece of toast, plus whatever she can crib from her dad's plate. She's a dainty little thing with dark hair with curls such as can be seen on Victorian postcards. She seems to be finally showing the effects of the tosillectomy she had in January. Before that, her throat was constricted by enormous tonsils and she could swallow only tiny pieces of food. It's taken this long for her brain to realise she can eat more and bigger bits. She had a ham and cheese sandwich, her choice, on homemade bread for lunch. Thickish slices and it all went down.

More soup for tonight and more homemade bread. Two loaves this time. One has tahini and sesame seeds in it, the other fresh herbs and cold mashed carrot. This is actually the first time I've made this bread by the recipe. I usually use pumpkin and different herbs to the recipe. And again, it's good soup weather. Not nearly as cold as last Thursday, but very wet. We need the rain so much and it's lovely to see that it is fairly widespread, just not on Warragamba Dam catchment.

The weather has made my arthritis flare up and I've done almost no exercise. I still can't believe the thread of some months ago on the WW forum that kntting earns 1 point/30 minutes. Not when considered relative to other exercise points. More than one person agreed about this. In that case, I am exercising, but really!

At least I am mostly sleeping better in a bed to myself since husband moved into another room after yet another comment from me about his snoring. It's so peaceful and I no longer lie there awake getting angry abut the noise. And then angry again in the morning when he brushes me off with a lighthearted,"sorry." I mean, if he really were sorry, he would have done something about it years ago.

I've finished Miss Four's moss stitch jumper too. This has been going since last year when i made each of the grandchildren a special jumper. Hers was obviously going to be fatr too big, so I put it away for a year. The moss stitch pattern ws just so incredibly boring that it was a big test of self disciple just to make myself work on it. I'm going to knit and felt her a little bag in Barbie pink, her favoutite colour with some of that awful Feathers yarn for a trim. Then I'll fill it with all sorts of things to delight her girlie heart. She turns five at the beginning of August.

Tomorrow sees a man coming to fix my stove. The oven has suddenly become very temperamental and refuses to stay alight unless I hold the knob in all the time. Repairman wanteed to come at 5:30 this afternoon. No way! So tomorrow he's coming "before lunch." If they are still working at 5:30, I wonder what time they start? Hopefully not 7:00am.I thought the stove was about 2, possibly 3 years old. When I found the paper work, I found it was 4 years this month. That's hard to believe.

We've had easy stovetop meals. Last night I made old fashioned savoury mince and mash potato with fresh beans. Loads of vegetables in the mince and I was able to eat some of the meat. Other meals have been mostly chicken or just veges for me.

Till next time. I need to chop the soup vegetables and skim any fat off the stock I made this morning.