I was thinking the other day that since I started reading LJ agan I hadn't seen as many meme's...

From: leecetheartist

'Rules' such as they are:
Post this meme and your current wallpaper.
Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

( My Wallpaper )

"See!" I say to myself, "Today WAS better than yesterday! Nothing bad happened. You managed to get up on time and you worked hard."

"You had a good lunch. You walked to your mum and dad's house (2.5 k - only 20 mins but still walking!). You had a lovely time at family dinner and enjoyed time with K (one yr old niece)".

"Tomorrow you can keep up your good work."

Myself is very nice to me sometimes.

I had a blah day today...

Not sure why... (maybe it was not being able to go swimming this morning, maybe it was a change in meds, maybe it was the headache, maybe the weather (although it was a beautiful day and I did go outside), maybe it was the excitement of working again...)

I am trying to ride it through...

"Its just a bad day" "You are allowed to feel like this sometimes" "Tomorrow will be a better day"


In the spirit of trying to remember the good things:
1. I received the contract for employment today
2. I have been catching up with my favourite comic, Bellen! (smiling is always helpful)
3. Royal Show this weekend

Today I am thankful for... in no particular order...

Baths
Hot water - especially since a little while ago we were without it for nearly 3 weeks
My macbook pro - so shiny and silver and it gives me so much love
Puggle, Bilby and Cygnet (oh, ok ... and their parents too!)
Thumb tacks

All the cool kids are doing it.

Because girliejones and catundra and others have, I'm gonna too!

Our Virtual Quilting group started this month and we all received our material with excitement.

I have never done this sort of thing before.

The centre weave design did not work quite as I hoped, I think for two main reasons:

1. There were 6 strips each way, 3 of each colour, which did not make a distinctive pattern I had hoped for

2. Trying to keep the weave straight meant keeping things tight from both directions which meant I was pulling both ways and I think that made it wonky (technical quilting term!), and subsequently the seams were not easy to sew the white pieces onto.

The white section should have been 5 cms wide which would have made more of an impression - so there is a lot of white on the reverse side to compensate for wonkiness.

I made the outside L Shapes larger than they needed to be to reach our requested 32cm square.

I learnt a lot.



Process and planning photos can be found on my flickr site here.

I saw fe2h2o doing Foundation Quilting on the weekend using paper which looks WAY easier than trying to do it my way, so I think I shall try that next.

So excited about the next colours and fabrics. Then! November is MINE!

This afternoon I spent some time with one of the most courageous men I have ever met.

Listening to him calmly talk about his illness, his operation, his impeding continuing treatment ... and then hearing him talk about the prayer, positive energy, love and support he has received, and how he is going to fight his illness...

I was awed.

Thank you for sharing some of your journey with me, mikey_ob, I am honoured to know you.

Many positive thoughts and energy flowing to you and redbraids.

There is nothing quite like playing with a one year old all afternoon and having him fall asleep on you, gradually getting floppier and floppier, fighting sleep because of all the exciting things happening but eventually succumbing...

*bliss*

*sigh*


It was lovely to see everyone else this afternoon too but I have to admit Cygnet had most of my attention.

Background: I received a courtesy call yesterday about a job I was pretty sure I would get - letting me know that my referees checked out and that the paperwork was going up to HR and that they would offer me the position when they had organised the paperwork. This is good news, but it isn't the excellent news. I didn't blog about it because not counting chickens until they have hatched and all.

The excellent news goes like this...
In the process above of checking referees, my former, former boss (who gave me a glowing reference) realised I was looking for work. She sent me an email today saying she was desperate for a tender writer for one month work. I called her and we caught up for about 1/2 an hour.

I will have the RfT on Monday, I will be going to Sydney (where org is based) sometime this week to help write the tender template, then I will come home and write my sections.

Some of the best bits about this news:
1. Cash injection which I need before other job comes through
2. Former, former boss is lovely
3. They are going to pay me at my former (quite high) rate as an hourly casual
4. Opportunity to work at my own pace and at home
5. Opportunity to write professionally again
6. Going to Sydney
7. Seeing everyone at org in Sydney again
8. Working with WA Members to write the tender on their behalf
9. Chance to get my confidence back (work-wise) in a gentle, easy way


In other news, today was a very productive day and I managed a walk, so win... win... and... win!

Last night's performance of the Australian Chamber Orchestra reminded me how versatile they are and how much I enjoy going (I have missed the last two for various reasons).

Although the director (Richard Tognetti) is usually a high drawing card for me, he wasn't there last night (he's in Slovenia apparently) and there was a Guest Director - Anthony Marwood. Interesting he looks a lot like, and plays a whole lot like, Richard.

The Mozart was quirky and funny - its not often you hear the ACO grey-haired crowd laugh out loud at an ACO concert.

There was a piece commissioned by the ACO to celebrate Richard's 20th year with the ACO by a composer called Carl Vine (from Perth originally) - the piece was called "XX" ('ecks ecks') and captured the relationship between the ACO and their director beautifully, and although it was Anthony leading it was clear that Vine knew what he was about and knew the ACO very well as musicians.

(Secretly though, I would still like to hear Richard play it!)

Some delightful Mendelssohn before the intermission - 22 minutes of chasing violins and cresendo's.

Timpani for many of the pieces - we don't often get percussion.

After intermission, in between the apt Vine and some truly awful Golijov (well, let me qualify that... it wasn't my bag, baby), was 25 minutes of Schumann - a marathon for Anthony and the orchestra which had them all panting at the end.

Anyway, enough about my drooling over the ACO.

Today was reasonably productive. I still find the after lunch bit hard to get re-motivated about. Successes were: getting up on time, completing 7 tasks and remaining positive all day. (Oh, and also made final table at poker tonight, but that happens regularly and I was out pretty quickly...)

Since starting to read my flist again I have noticed lilysea doing regular 'Gratitude' posts. This is something that was talked a lot about in hospital and at the CBT course and I really like the idea, so I am going to steal it :)

Things I am grateful for today:
1. ACO Concert last night
2. My room - which is becoming more and more my space, with the new addition of some postcards I put up today
3. Music - in all its forms
4. James Patterson's imagination and young adult fiction
5. My family
6. Toe nail clippers

Delightful swimming adventure with callistra and mynxii this morning. I am so glad I went swimming, I have been meaning to go back and the lovely ladies were an excellent temptation.

I am hoping to go more regularly.

Did a stack of chores I needed to do - like cleaning before the cleaner comes tomorrow... I know, seems weird, the house has to be tidy so she can clean.

Realised quite late that I hadn't organised dinner. The menu item for tonight was complicated so I decided to go with tomorrow night's instead, which was my first ever attempt at Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni.

And thus began an adventure in ridiculousness, which includes a chopstick and an incident with spinach in the laundry sink...

I made it somewhat from the directions on the packet of dried pasta tubes. Next time, I will make my own real pasta and roll the mixture.

This is what it looked like at the end and it was VERY yummy... despite it not being ready until 8:30 pm.


Feel free to not read any further...

If you are curious about the chop stick, the full step by step disaster adventure with pictures below the cut.

( Adventure )

Last night I made the Vietnamese chicken salad (again!, yes, firmly addicted) and the chicken is poached in water with lemongrass.

Pretty simple poaching liquid really.

The smell through the house is amazing while its cooking. The last couple of times I have thrown away the poaching liquid with regret, so last night I decided to keep it.

I have skimmed, filtered and decanted, and now have bottles of gorgeous smelling stock in the freezer.

Not a 'traditional' stock.

I imagine it will add flavour to any soups or dishes I try that require stock.

Fun!

Today was a less productive day than planned due to mega sleep in.

I am assuming the sleep in was due to the drug mishap on Saturday night. The mishap was not remembering until 9 pm that I had forgotten to fill a prescription for one of my sleep meds...

I went to be later than I am supposed to 12:30 am and was still wide, wide awake at 3am even after trying the many sleep strategies I have learnt.

And then I did the thing you should never do, and I know you shouldn't, and I thought I shouldn't do at the time, but by then I was so over-wrought (sleep is a big trigger for me in terms of anxiety) I thought "I need sleep more than I am worried about taking wrong meds.."

So I did it, I took a small dose of a sleep med I haven't taken in weeks and which I now realise was the main reason I was so dopey in hospital.

Sunday I was completely wiped out to the point of being awake, standing up, and feeling my eyes close. But managed to be awake for the rest of the day but chose not to drive, just in case.

So, today I slept in until 9:30 when I was woken by a call (a good call as it happens, about a job), but slothed around until I realised I needed to get my skates on if I was going to get everything essential done.

Lots of rushing ensued. Which I do not find productive, more stressful, and certainly some hand shaking was evident and deep breathing was required.

On the other hand; did mountain of dishes, delivered packages to various people, delivered documents to short-list job in Belmont, had a haircut, did shopping, and made a yummy dinner. Plus, I guess, I am writing this post. So not as productive as hoped, however not a total loss.

Dinner = stuffed potatoes and green salad with strawberries - potato stuffing (aside from potato :P )included cheese, nutmeg, corn, peas, spring onions, capsicum. Simple but yummy. I am also a fan of fruit in salads.



BTW - for those of you who are worried about my safety, the dose I took was very small and although it had the lasting effects above, I was safe.

This one was more recent - 1 September.

On mashed potatoes:


The entire pot:


Tasted fine but it took so long that by the time I ate it I was a bit over it.

Smell through the house was amazing throughout the night.

Next time I will use chuck steak as suggested - the cut of meat I used didn't work as well. Also, I will 1/2 or 1/4 the quantity as I managed to farm large quantities to my mum and dad, and my sister and her husband, and still had much left-overs.

It was my first attempt at this type of slow-cooked 'stew' type meal and I wasn't happy with it so I need more practice and more recipes.

I haven't posted for a while - been avoiding it a little, having little of excitement or joy to report.

So... this meal was from a while ago ... 28 August





I am not a fan of soups so I added 'non-recipe' vermicelli noodles.

The end result was AMAZINGLY tasty and authentic - right balance of sweet, sour, salty, spicey etc

One of those Thai dishes that hits different parts of your palate in sequence and then go smoothly down to warm your tummy.

From... you guessed it ... the Bowl Food cookbook I am obsessed with at the moment :)

I am also very very addicted to lemon grass... I wonder if I could grow it in a pot...

I finished my course today.

I got a pretty tattoo on my wrist ... "sane"...

:D

Just in case my subtle sense of humour is...

I am joking.

ex⋅ult⋅ant /ɪgˈzʌltnt/ [ig-zuhl-tnt]

–adjective
exulting; highly elated; jubilant; triumphant.

(Just sent job application for job I am particularly excited about)

Writing job application ... this used to be so easy... I used to do it for other people... when did talking myself up get so difficult?

(ETA 23:13 - finished, it looks good, will re-read in the AM... bed now)

I went to my first "Five Great Medieval Women - the good, the bad and the devious" Lecture at UWA Extension tonight. (Professor Phillipa Madden)

The 5 week course will cover a different medieval woman of note each week - understandably she could not cover all the amazing women and she tried to provide a varied of backgrounds, time periods, and genre.

Tonight's special woman was Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, the first known medieval dramatist.

Prof. Madden began with discussion about Hrotsvit's social and cultural context. How were women treated in the period c. 500-1000? Three views of gender; theological, medical and social. Womens role in family, economics, and religious institutions. She covered Hrotsvit's context in terms of politics, religious norms and gender and culture. She then described some of Hrotsvit's writings, her focuses and themes.

Hrotsvit's name is translated as 'strong voice' and she alludes to this in a pun in some of her writings.

Some of Hrotsvit's amazing qualities include:
* She was a scholar of some note - well renown for her writings
* She wrote in impeccable Latin of a high standard
* She wrote in a variety of genres
* She was an unusually prolific writer for her time and MOST of her manuscripts survived, which means they were highly valued
* She was well regarded by her patrons, or the patrons of the Abby

I note from Prof. Madden's energetic and amusing storytelling from Hrotsvit's plays that Hrotsvit had a great sense of humour and used a lot of puns - which shows intelligence as well as literary prowess.

- Superb


I'd like to be '... of somewhere'... It seems like all the cool people are "Someone of Somewhere". Suggestions? 'Jennifer of Perth' seems too low brow :)

As part of this two-week (every day) Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) course (aimed at people with mood disorders) we are encouraged to do a thing called 'Active Practice' - homework in other words.

A way of thinking about Active Practice is that CBT is about changing thoughts and behaviours, so by 'activly practicing' to do things a little differently you are showing yourself that you can safely change the behaviours.

I guess the old saying ... "If you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you always got"

An example one of the therapists used is, if you are someone who struggles with super markets, thinking that people are looking at you for example, you might deliberately choose the longest line every time you go to the supermarket - this is one of our therapists regular active practice in his life because he is impatient.

Someone with extreme mood disorders would work up to the above of course.

Another example he gave was someone who is impatient in traffic and always changes lanes... their active practice might be to get into the left lane at the start of their journey... and stay there...

You get the idea?

So... some of my active practice tasks include:
* Live Journal again, as a way of beginning to re-establish connectedness to friends and community
* Cooking new recipes, to enjoy something
* Thought monitors - looking at negative thoughts and the feelings behind them, and noting distortions, then processing the alternative or healthier thought - and trying to think it!!
* Keeping up with emails
* Painting - I took this up in hospital and it brings a lot of joy, as well as focusing my brain

I am sure I will blog/journal about others later.

Anyway... I have been aware of the theory of CBT for a while but this is all day every day and you get the active practice so you get to practice it as you go - and cement it into your brain.

Its making a huge difference - which is surprising me

I never thought my self-esteem was that low - and it isn't, comparatively, but there is still stuff I never knew I was thinking when I was feeling the feelings... does that make sense?

My brain is naughty :)

As noted in the title, these should have been pork mince and prawns but SO doesn't like prawns so slight modification.

The sauce included hoisen, soy, rice wine, chicken stock, black bean sauce (substitute for brown bean cos I couldn't find it) and sugar.

Pork and chicken stir-fried with spring onions, garlic and ginger.

(Next time I need to use less oil in the cooking)

The rice vermicelli was SO MUCH FUN... made WAYYYYYY too much exploding vermicelli cos it was SO COOL... hot oil and expandy things are always a joy...

From: "bowl food" (cook book) published by Murdoch Books (ISBN: 978-1740451406)