July 17 - Feeling Drained

  Got up and ready for work in plenty of time for once.  It was kind of nice having company in the morning.  A sleepy nephew munching Coco Pops on the couch, an equally sleepy sister planning out loud her myriad tasks for the day.
  For breakfast I made up my usual yoghurt, berries and fibre toppers but as I sat down to eat it Bertie asked "Aren't you going to take a photo first?" Well I wasn't going to as I've already shown it more than once, but Bertie assured me she'd never seen it "all smooshed up like that", so here it is.
  Work was draining, very draining.  I wasted most of the morning dealing with the fallout of a power outage which fried the programming on our phone system.  It's infuriating too, because all that work is overridden when the system gets upgraded later this week!  These semi-regular phone fritz-es are why we're getting the upgrade of course but that was on top of feeling increasingly snowed under with my regular work!
  I did get one good piece of news this morning from my lawyer's office.  My divorce was granted this morning.  Despite the fact that I've been anxious about it, this news left me surprisingly flat.  I'd forgotten about the decree nisi you see, so it's actually another month before it's final.  There's nothing more to be done now and I can't make the time elapse any faster.  I probably wouldn't if I could, I have some fun things on between now and then.

  The morning having been taken up with phones, a lunch break was in order.  A Mission Corn Wrap with a smear of Rosella fruit chutney, a slice of Bega Tasty cheese, half a tomato, some delicious double-smoked ham and cucumber slices!  I also had a passionfruit for morning tea somewhere in amongst the phone malarky.
  I don't think I'll get the corn wraps again, they are not very robust.  I might try the Mission Sundried Tomato and Basil Wraps that Bertie likes, or the Wattle Valley Soft Toasted Oat Wraps that Captain Cupcake has recommended, they both sound tasty to me. Now to my afternoon.
  My beloved right-hand gal is off to the pastures of parenthood for a little while so I have to find a suitable substitute.  Now the job is by no means an entry level position but I guess job seekers could be forgiven for thinking so due to the title however, going through 39 resumes of an afternoon is a particularly grueling task so here is some advice for prospective job seekers:

• Read the job ad.
• No really, read the job ad carefully.
• Tailor your application to suit the specifics of the job ad.
  This applies equally to your cover letter and your resume.
• Two pages is sufficient for a resume.
• I only care about your last three jobs.
• If your fancy degree is not position-related, then I am not impressed.
• Spellchecker is not sufficient proof reading!
  Stationery, as in envelopes!  Stationary, is standing still.
• Keep it clean and simple. One font, no fuss.

I have about 27 more to get through tomorrow. Groan.
  So it was unsurprising that I got home today and thought about skipping my exercise.  Indeed I procrastinated a lot longer than usual, but finally I got on the cross-trainer and got it out of the way.
  I procrastinated dinner too, it was nearly 9pm by the time I ate something.  I didn't much feel like cooking so it was a 'what's in the fridge' type meal.  Toasted English Muffins with Pate followed by a Kiwi fruit with skin on.
  Let's hope tomorrow, being another day,
is also a better one.
  Jess

July 16 - Bertie Comes To Dinner

  Back to the grind of the weekday and a big ole case of Mondayitis.  I had a fair bit of catching up to do with my unexpected Friday off last week so the work day passed quickly at least.  I did my exercise pretty much as soon as I got home because tonight my dear sister Bertie and my adorable little nephew were coming for dinner.
  My nephew was already zonked on arrival from a big day at day care so we set him up on the couch with his most favourite TV program in the whole wide world, Futurama.  Which left us free to chat and enjoy dinner.  I'm just quickly writing up today's blog as now that my nephew has fallen into a sound sleep, Bertie and I can watch a movie uninterrupted!

  Breakfast: Yoghurt/berries/fibre toppers.  And I remembered to buy a new pot of yoghurt today so I can have the same again tomorrow!  Today was the last of that first pot, turn outs 1kg of yoghurt goes a long way.  It's definitely working as a stable breakfast so I'm hoping to high heavens that the diabetic educator gives it a hard tick on the 23rd.
  Lunch: I'm trying out a new lot of wraps due to the tendency of the Khobz to go stale pretty quick.  Today I bought Mission Corn Wraps.  Bertie swears by the Mission Sundried Tomato Basil Wraps and I may well go with those next time as they seem to fold better without breaking.  The corn one survived today, but it did tear a bit on folding.

  Lovingly enveloped in my wrap today was one slice of Bega Tasty cheese, half a 95g tin of Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil (drained), some baby cos lettuce, a third of a Lebanese cucumber and two slices of tomato.  And I followed that up with a small almost ripe banana.  I know bananas are pretty high GI but I don't know any other foods with potassium in them!
  Afternoon snack: One Panama passionfruit.

   Dinner:  A chicken and avocado filo parcel from Hill's Poultry at Forest Hill Chase.  The steamed veggies accompanying were Heinz Steamfresh with broccoli, carrots and sugarsnap peas.  I find steamed veggies on their own a little bland so there is also a tiny sprinkling of Masterfoods Celery Salt over them.



 
  Dessert: Fruit!  I decided to show you the aftermath of sharing my fruit with Bertie.  We each had, half a passionfruit, half a tamarillo (which Bertie did not like at all, visually, texturally or flavour-wise) and a whole Kiwi fruit.  Bertie doesn't eat the skin on her Kiwi fruit, but then she's odd like that.



  Last but not least, my oft looked forward to 20g of dark, seductive Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.  Nom Nom Nom.  That's it from me for today!  Talk to you all again tomorrow.
  Jess

July 15 - Lazy Sunday

  There wasn't much of today.

  Breakfast at noon was half a Khobz wholemeal flatbread spread with Rosella Low-Joule Fruit Chutney then layered with baby spinach, four slices of salami, one slice of Bega Tasty cheese and two fried eggs (fried in cooking spray only).  I like the contrast of the cold spinach and salami nestled against the hot eggs.  The flatbread was a little dry but I think that's end of use-by staleness.

  Did a bit more laundry getting things ready for work tomorrow and started pottering around in my pig-sty of an office, cleaning up and trying to find all the documents necessary for the annual pilgrimage to the accountant to see what I can gouge back from the government.
  I'm struck by how much crap I still have lying around my house.  I checked the council leaflet on my fridge and my hard rubbish week for this year is coming up on August 6th.  I am going to try and make this the year that I actually get rid of the big clutter that lies around, bulky and useless.

  Dinner was unplanned for and unfortunately unpleasant as a result.  I had a few cans of ready made meals on the shelf and thought, for the want of ordering takeaway, I'd just get rid of one of those.  So with a can of Heinz Big'N Chunky Butter Chicken in hand it was off to the microwave.  Let's break down the claims on the can versus the actual meal shall we?

Claim 1 Big'N Chunky -
Do you see many chunks?? Check it against the picture on the can!  It was maybe 40% chunks if that.
Claim 2 Butter Chicken -
In all that I ate of it (about half, including all chunks) there were two pieces of chicken.  The ingredients states 78% vegetables and 5% chicken.  That's bloody cheek right there.
Claim 3 Fills you up - Maybe if I'd been able to stomach it all but I stopped after half of this salty/sugary pap.  It even looks revolting and was texturally paste-y.
Claim 4 Tender Chicken - What little chicken there was was overcooked and dry even swimming in all that gravy purporting to be butter chicken sauce.
Claim 5 5.5 Serves of Vegies - Only if you eat the whole can which states that it contains 2 servings! I know they clarify that in teeny tiny writing to cover their butts.  The whole two serves thing is dodgy as though because they market it as a ready meal in a can, not a ready meal for two in a can.

  So since I was still hungry after that abomination I toasted an english muffin.  One half had Vegemite and cheese and one half had Nutella for which I make no apologies!!  I did only use about a teaspoonful.  And then I had a Kiwi fruit with skin on and 20g of Lindt 85% Coca dark chocolate.

  I didn't exercise today but I didn't sit still all day either.  Yeah, sounds like justification to me too...

I watched Switch today!  A classic movie from my teen years.  It was as good as I remembered (which is somewhere in the B-grade grouping, but I love it all the same).  It was kind of weird watching a movie by myself, but in a good way.  It's a feel good movie and funny and it was nice to have the company of it.  I find sometimes I need the TV on or music just to stop the quiet.
  Well it must be time for me to head off.  I still have a few chores to do to prepare for work tomorrow and I've started a new book, We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver (who is a woman I discovered).  So far it's an interesting read and I could see straight away why they cast Tilda Swinton in the lead of it's movie adaptation.  I've not seen it yet but Captain Cupcake and I decided we'd both read the book, then see the movie together.
  Until tomorrow chaps,
  Jess

July 14 - Cooking Dinner

  A productive day and for a Saturday, I didn't do too bad keeping on track with my eating either.  I woke up and milled around a bit checking emails and whatnot then I was about to head to the shower when I thought.. No! I don't want to be exercising this evening, I have a nice dinner planned, I'll do it before I shower!  So bleary eyed and unfed I got on the cross trainer, did my 40 minutes and was done by 10:20am!

  While still puffing and panting (though believe me, it's already getting easier) I used my cool down time to prepare breakfast.  Luckily Captain Cupcake made me remember the berries last night while she casually mocked the level of detail I go into on my blog!  It is a very attractive breakfast I must say,  just look at those tart berries, creamy acidic yoghurt and juicy ripe passionfruit pulp. Well.. it's attractive at the pictured stage, right before I add the fibre toppers!

  After that it was shower, dress, grab recipe for Crumbed Duck Sausages and off to the shop to hunt down all the necessary ingredients!  I managed to find everything though I couldn't find Duck Marylands so I'm using Duck Breasts instead.  Also, the recipe says it serves 4 - 6 people so due to that and the price of duck ($37/kg!), I scaled the quantities down to suit 2 people.
  Home again, home again, and the kitchen was a mess.  I have not spent much time cleaning in there this week!  So chores-wise, dishes I needed to use tonight was the first priority, once those were on in my marvellous still new-ish dishwasher, with Bruno Mars' crooning in the background, there was time enough for a lunch break!

  Lunch was half a Khobz flatbread topped with half a tomato, half a 95g tin of Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil and a handful of baby spinach!  It was a little dry and I would normally use mayonnaise with tuna but I figured the olive oil would be sufficient.  I think the trick will be to drain off a little less of it next time.  Now, why don't I use Tuna in Springwater? Well, yes it is lower in fat, but it tastes like crap.  Sole Mare Tuna in Olive Oil is the only canned tuna I like, and I've tried quite a few.

  I finished lunch off with a Kiwi fruit with skin on and as the music switched from crooner to curvy boppy Dutch jazz goddess Caro Emerald, it was time to return to the fabulous drudgery of chores.  I have found that chores are vastly easier to do with something boppy on.  I also get more exercise because my bum tends to wiggle to the music with little to no say from my brain!
  Laundry, more dishes, a Tamarillo at snack time, cleaning the benches down.  The dishwasher drainage hose overflowed the U-bend a bit on the first load so I'll have to keep an eye on that!  And after all that, it was pretty much time to turn this:

Into this:

  I need a little bit more practice cooking sweet potato and coordinating the mash and sausages to be cooked together.  The sausages were on the more well done side of cooking but despite a little singeing they were tasty enough to warrant a second try.  I think if I made the full quantity and pre-made the mash and just re-heated it quickly in the microwave that might work a bit better.  Overall though I enjoyed the experience!
  After dinner Mr Smart and I enjoyed a few glasses each of Lipton Light Peach Ice Tea and watched What's Eating Gilbert Grape? which I had never seen before.
  Today was a good day :)
  Jess

July 13 - Followed by Frustration

  Well folks, yesterday was blessed relief, today was less relief, more frustration.  The email from my lawyer yesterday read: "I have just received an email from xxx sending the signed Acknowledgement of Service.  Can you telephone me to make an appointment to come in sometime tomorrow to swear an Affidavit of Proof of Signature."

  O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay! I chortled in my joy.  (Apologies to the Rev Charles Dodgson).  So dutifully I waited until their office opened at 9am and rang.  Could I be there by 11am?  Sure!  I called in to the office and advised I would need to take a day of annual leave and off I set, city bound.

  I arrived in the city at about 10am so due to it's proximity and my high spirits, indulgence was in order.  See I eat when I'm sad, this goes doubly so for when I'm happy!  It was off to the croissant shop on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Therry Street for breakfast.  Now Gub will attest, I usually have two croissants so I was at least a little restrained.  I substituted one croissant for fruit salad instead.  The delicious creamy croissant was filled with cheese and asparagus.

   It was then on to the lawyer's office to deal with the matter at hand.  To say I was disappointed as I looked down on the paperwork only to see something that no person should've mistaken for a signature is a gross understatement.  It was typed ffs.. in what was recognisably a printed font, not to mention that they have a copy of my marriage certificate with his signature on it.

  Anyway long story shortened, after way too long a time, the lawyer dismissed me and said he thought that if he did blah blah blah because he had blah blah blah he thought the divorce would probably go ahead on Tuesday anyway.  Which left me a mixture of relieved and incredibly pissed off that I had to take a day off work for no good reason!  Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.....  But I will just include here a big huge thank you to Mr Smart.  Without your support today I may well have gone pottier than usual!

   Eventually home, I got on the cross trainer and took in 40 minutes of vampire slaying kick-assery from Buffy and felt a lot better for it.  Then did a spot of laundry and awaited the arrival of this evening's dinner companion, Captain Cupcake.

  Captain Cupcake arrived in the early evening and we made pizza!  I know! Pizza two nights in a row!  Tonight I had, beef salami (was meant to be kangaroo but the guy at the market gave me the wrong one!), baby spinach, mushrooms, olives, bocconcini and broccolini and a sprinkling of Mainland light tasty cheese.  Washed down with the refreshing but very low-calorie Lipton Light Lemon Ice Green Tea.
  We managed two movies tonight, first Little Miss Sunshine which neither myself or the good Captain Cupcake had seen.   It was a well told story; touching, moving, insightful, warm and funny.  I really enjoyed it.  The second was UHF which is a cult classic that we enjoyed in our high school days.  It was fun to relive all the old jokes that made us laugh so hard in our teens.  Was it dated?  Hell yes, it was dated when it was released!
  Tomorrow I am attempting to hunt down the ingredients for Crumbed Duck Sausages to make for dinner!  Wish me luck in my culinary escapades!
  Jess

PS: I forgot 20g of Lindt 85% Dark Chocolate after dinner!

July 12 - Blessed Relief

  Just a quick blog today folks.  I let my hair down a little today but I feel good and that it was appropriate and still relatively good compared to the years leading up to it!

  I was running late for work as usual.. just so damn hard to get out of a warm bed and then even harder to get out of the hot shower.  I did go to get my yoghurt out but I had forgotten to defrost the berries again!  Breakfast was therefore bought once I got to work.
  Many thanks to the wonderful people at In A Nutshell Forest Hill who took payment, prepared and then delivered my toasted wholemeal ham, cheese and tomato sandwich to the office.

 
  I finished my days tasks in record time then dashed out the door to drive to Chadstone to deliver a training session.  Yes folks, multi-tasking, it'll kill you every time.  So since I spent my lunch hour driving I stopped in at Capital Kitchen and grabbed a Mexican Chicken Salad to go.
  It was quite nice.  Lots of chicken, tomato, lettuce, red capsicum, corn, avocado and a creamy salsa dressing.  It was a good portion too, not too big, not too small.
  The training session went well and afterwards I walked to the other side of Chadstone to Coles to pick up ingredients for home made pizzas then back again (not exactly a short walk).  Then it was off to Darling station to collect Mr Smart.  Apparently they are doing works on the Glen Waverley line at the moment which means trains stop at Darling and it's replacement buses from there to the line's end!  Blech!
  Dinner was a homemade pizza, each one customised to our personal preferences, though somehow one of Mr Smart's olives found it's way onto my pizza!

  My pizza had mild salami, baby spinach, bocconcini and broccolini.  I rounded it out with a Sanpellegrino Aranciata Rossa, my very favourite soft drink (first one in more than a week!).  Dessert was a lovely bowl of cherries!
  So you see.. I did let my hair down, but I was still restrained!

  Oh, and good news everyone! I needn't have stressed for the last two weeks.  The paperwork is signed as of today!  Talk about leaving it to the last damn minute!  Now I just have to have another trip into the city to swear that it's really his signature... tomorrow... how convenient.
  Ahh the quaint formalities of the law.
  Jess

July 11 - A Woozy Start

  Very weird night last night.  I was fine until about 11:00pm and then started to get kind of woozy.  Thinking back on it now, I think I spent too long with my eyes glued to the computer screen and probably dehydrated myself a bit with the heater (it's soooo cold here at the moment).  The weirdest bit was that I got more dizzy when I lay down.  I've had dizzy spells because of blood pressure loads of times, but that always gets better when I lie down.  I woke up at 4:45am too and was still woozy.  I was relatively better by sun up though.  I will mention it to my doctor next visit.

  Apart from the odd night before, the day was relatively normal.  Breakfast was yoghurt/berries/fibre toppers.  It seems to work as a standard and doesn't take me too long to make and eat, so I can convince myself to do it even if I'm running a little late (like I was today).  Luckily with the lack of normal traffic due to it being school holidays here in Victoria, I was still on time for work (just).
  For lunch I decided to try something new but a bit the same:
  Brown rice sushi hand rolls!

   From left to right we have salmon, prawn, teriyaki chicken and cooked tuna with cucumber, and yes, a little mayonnaise to go with the salmon one.  Chewing it is an interesting textural experience.  It has that kind of shiny squeaky texture that brown rice always has.  Also, it seems to mesh into the filling rather than just hold it, though that is potentially the quality of the build rather than the effect of it being brown rice.  The range of flavours available is not as good as the white rice ones so I think I might just have to stick to sashimi heavy boxes rather than sushi.  The trouble with sashimi though is it's not terribly filling.
  Dinner was the last of the chicken wellingtons, consumed to the tune of Futurama after doing my exercise.  Again, I am totally tempted to eat chocolate.  I'm trying not to think about it but the stress of the 'pointy end' of my divorce, as Gub puts it, is really stressing me out.  I just want it over.  Also, I found that I still have Magnums in the freezer when I opened a new box of berries last night.  Sooooooo tempting.. especially the ones with almonds on them.
  Jess

PS:  I remembered to go to JB HiFi and get the new Newton Faulkner album!