Monday 26 March 2018

Broadchurch!

As I was reading through a bunch of blogs this weekend, someone had mentioned watching the third season of Broadchurch on Netflix. I was so excited to read that!


Do you know it? It's a British detective series. I had watched the first two seasons on Netflix and loved it. I love that the characters look and act like "real people". I love the lead investigator's (David Tennant) thick accent. His partner's last name is Miller, but when he says it, usually barking it at her, it sounds like "Mellah!!" Anyway, if you are looking for a well written, well acted series - murder mystery and the whole nine yards, I highly recommend it.

We are still making our way through that coconut cake, so of course it was good for me to sit on my arse and power watch my way through an entire season on Netflix!!

Saturday 24 March 2018

Saturday, March 24

Today was a nice, normal Saturday, which I welcomed gratefully. After morning coffee and reading blogs, I dressed for the day and grabbed the vacuum cleaner. We live in an old double brick house and now that the weather is warming up (??) and the sun is shining with a bit more regularity we are entering the fly season. By this I mean that flies are waking up, well actually I don't know if they are waking up, but they appear, spin around for a while, and then die. They die all over the place: floors, window sills, counter tops, in the cats' water bowl. So, I have a vacuum that has a detachable feature where I can just carry around the canister and the hose without the rest of it, which makes it lighter to lift. I go around looking for flies to suck up in the vacuum. Sometimes they camouflage themselves with my granite countertop. It is an ongoing quest. Do any of you have old house / fly problems at this time of year?

I've been thinking about coconut recently, kind of a "craving" in a way. I was determined to make a coconut cake. I do not have a favourite recipe because my daughter really dislikes coconut. I don't make desserts or meals with coconut in them for that reason. However, she is not home now and I knew she wouldn't be coming home this weekend, so I had a good look for coconut cake recipes on Pinterest and came up with one which didn't look too terribly difficult.

This recipe called for a simple white cake (i.e. cake mix from a box) with coconut extract added to it in which you poke a bunch of holes.


I was supposed to use instant coconut pudding and pour it all over the cake so that it would seep into the holes. I couldn't purchase instant, so I had to make the pudding that you cook on the stove.


It turned out fine and made enough to form a layer on top of the cake as well.

I've never bought coconut extract before.


After the cake with the pudding sits in the fridge for a while to set up, you whip cream and a bit of icing sugar until it has nice peaks, then spread it on top and sprinkle with a bit of shredded coconut.
Supper was leftovers, but it was a nice treat to have cake for dessert.

Now that I am feeling better and have more energy, it was time to put my house a bit more in order, so along with seeking out flies, I dusted, and washed the kitchen floor. It felt good to have a more tidy house.

The sun was shining today, but it is still quite cold. There are still some remnants of snow here and there, but I don't see it lasting too much longer, especially if the weather warms up a little. I do feel for many of the bloggers out there who have been hit hard with ongoing snowfall. We've had those kinds of late winter / early springs where it seemed like we were never going to get out from under all that snow.

I've just been watching the movie, "Unbroken" on tv with my husband. It was really difficult to watch in some spots and I had to leave the room, or focus on my laptop instead. Have you seen it? It tells the story of prisoners of war in Japan, one being an Olympic runner who survived. Holy, that was exhausting, but then I cried at the end. I'm looking forward to a relaxing Sunday. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Sunday 18 March 2018

This and That and Back to some form of Normalcy

Well folks, I believe I am returning to work this week. My previous health problems are basically "back to normal" and I really have no idea what it was all about. The only lingering issue I have, which I don't think is even related, is a nasty case of vertigo. I basically feel somewhat drunk all the time. The world doesn't spin around me, but I feel shaky and weird, and like I'm walking on a boat. I feel like everything is rather ethereal, if you know what I mean. So... I see the doc tomorrow and I'll ask him to assess me for an inner ear thing, or test my electrolytes, or whatever else might determine why I feel like my head is being pressed back and to the side (Seinfeld episode anyone?) and why I feel like there is a slight tremor in my body at all times. (Theories are welcome, as long as they aren't too scary). I did have something like this a few years ago which started one day after getting off a plane and it lasted for three months and just went away on its own.

Anyway... onward. We have been very fortunate here in Midwest Ontario with very little snow compared to others. The sun was even shining today. It's still chilly, but we are not buried under three feet of snow and are grateful.

When I spent too many hours sitting on the couch, I managed to binge watch the entire three seasons of Grace and Frankie on Netflix (Canadian Netflix, I must add, which is not the same as what my American friends can access). Is it wrong that I want to base my whole wardrobe and fashion sense on the character of Grace (as played by an 80 year old Jane Fonda)? The funny thing is I worked with a woman for many years who is basically Frankie with her hippie clothes and personality.  I also watched quite a few episodes of Comedians Driving in Cars Getting Coffee (Jerry Seinfeld). I enjoyed those.

I read a couple of books and realized that two books that I took out of the library were ones which I had already read. Has anyone else done that? I also read blogs. Thanks everyone for writing your blogposts and putting in great pictures and neat links. I do not do any other form of social media, I'm not even sure if you consider blogging social media, but this is my little way of finding out about others in different parts of the world, enjoying what they write, and sometimes commenting.

I've been a bit introspective these last few weeks and was thinking about what makes me happy. I realized that when we had our little backyard flock of chickens, it made me very happy indeed. We had chickens for quite a few years. I got rid of them about two or three years ago because I just hated the whole winter upkeep. Chickens still need to have fresh water and their eggs collected even when you have to wade in thigh high snow with sloshing buckets of water. Sometimes the heater stopped and the water froze and sometimes the chickens got sick and sometimes they were just too old and didn't lay much... but I mostly loved watching them and hearing them. I loved taking kitchen scraps out for them and watching them enjoy pecking at watermelon rinds. I especially loved the wonderful big eggs. We were never short on eggs. Sometimes friends and colleagues would buy extra eggs. Not that it was EVER a money making thing, god knows! But a little piece of me kind of wants to get chickens again. My husband said he would consider putting a waterline in so there would be water right at the chicken coop. That would be fabulous. I must say, there is a ton of stuff out there on Pinterest showing great chicken feeding systems made out of PVC pipes. Chickens are always nice in the spring, summer, and fall. But we'll see.

It was St. Patrick's Day, of course, this past weekend. I did not celebrate. At all. But, university daughter who is a Don had a BUSY weekend trying to keep the merry makers on her campus from hurting themselves or each other. I think she is very glad that's over with. Did you know a big hassle in dorms is the constant fire alarms going off because students are vaping in their rooms? Who knew? I think if I were to do university all over again, I would live in residence my first year. I didn't. I always lived "off campus" in a couple little houses which had been chopped up into a bunch of bedrooms rented out by a local landlord who had quite a few student rentals. The houses were pretty nice, actually and on a main bus route to be able to get to campus. But, I think I really missed out on meeting people and getting involved in things.

Well wasn't this just a stream of consciousness type of post? But I've been absent for quite a while and I guess it's like sitting down with a friend and catching up. Time to get ready for bed. Goodnight all.



Friday 2 March 2018

Follow up to History

It took a ridiculous amount of time, but results finally came back saying there was no evidence of a parasitic infection. However, I am still off work dealing with D. I have finished a one week course of an antibiotic called Flagyl (not a fun medicine to endure either) which a doctor put me on, in case it was a parasite. The head space that I'm in  is pretty difficult because way back when... there were tests and so forth that never caught the entomoeba histolicia (probably spelling that wrong) until it was detected through a second colonoscopy two months of hospitalization later.

Obviously, I am very wary of these test results. The coincidence is too great that we were in Mexico and went off resort (and ate in a jungle and used incredibly questionable washroom facilities) and one month later I developed this.

In Ontario, some people have doctors who they can get in to see within a day or two, and some don't. I'm one of the ones who don't. It will not be until Monday (3 days from now) that I actually get to speak with my own doctor. Up until now I have been dealing with the emergency department.

So... I'm slowly going bonkers sitting on my couch and realizing that day time t.v. is a fate worse than hell and not even sure what I should be feeding myself, and just trying to drink enough fluids, and not let my mind go to very bad places. My husband is an incredible support and keeps telling me that everything will be fine in the end.

I have to remind myself that I am an otherwise healthy vibrant woman who hasn't had problems prior to this and I am in control of what people do to me, and what drugs I will choose to take or not, and how I choose to pursue this (as opposed to when I was in my twenties and lying in a hospital bed unable to even understand what was happening to me). I also realize that it could always be worse, and some bloggers have shared their own personal health issues. I know that this is relatively small on the "life threatening" scale and there are others going through far worse. My husband has helped me realize that it is so much more difficult to me because I'm carrying with me the mental baggage of my previous circumstances. And so, I read your blogs daily, don't always comment, but do always read. It is nice to be distracted by others' lives, and senses of humour, and book reviews, and funny pet stories. I'm posting this as a release, a therapy, just because I work through things by writing... Your previous comments on "History" were so appreciated.  Back I go to watching yet another home renovation programme...