I was looking through my photos from last week, trying to decide which ones to upload for the Week Three post, when I came upon this one.

And I wondered what people would think in years to come. What would our great grandchildren say about it?

”  I think that’s Dad’s grandfather.”  “I reckon that’s our Great  Aunty, you know the one who used to take Mum to Macdonalds when she was little and people were still allowed to eat takeaway.”  “What are they doing? Why is she out in the garden,  look’s like she’s being interrogated or something!” “What’s with the gloves?” But folks who were around in 2020 will know exactly what it’s about!

At the end of last week  my boss( me) and I had our now regular chat about my attendance at work and productivity.

I did point out to her  that the whole ‘area of concern’ in my breast didn’t help, she countered with an assertion that it was all resolved a week ago and there hasn’t been a rise in productivity. I thought she was actually going to produce a spreadsheet or chart but then I remembered that it is Papa Bear who is fond of a spreadsheet. Anyway, we did end up having a a fruitful conversation where I told her that it didn’t actually matter if the To Do dot points in my Bullet Journal didn’t get a cross through them today, tomorrow or next week, I’m not going anywhere and the world will not come to an end if I miss day of Spanish. She was a bit grumpy but ok with it.

I found an article in the New Yorker called Stop Trying to be Productive which was quite fascinating.

“Putting all this pressure and stress on myself, it’s incredibly counterproductive,” said Ms. Ulstrup. “I’m putting stress on myself during a time that’s already stressful.”

Now I totally get this, but the issue for me is  is getting the balance between scheduling every minute of the day with projects and spending every minute of the day playing Candy Crush Saga. Because believe me I could! And my blog would then consist of “I was stuck on level 723 for ages, but  I paid some money and got through it,  and would you believe I am now on level 756.”

 

And just as an aside, Papa Bear can spend quite a lot of time playing Free Cell!

Anyway, enough of all that! I have to say Week Three was fun. And I do feel some guilt in saying that but I won’t go into that this week. You know what I’m saying.

I didn’t walk as much this week, the seaweed was gross, it stunk and there were lots of tiny flies flying around. I still managed some walks and even with seaweed the beach still worked its magic.

I did lots of cooking, of course. Papa Bear requested a boiled fruit cake which I have never made, and never expected to make! His mum used to make one for him each term to take to boarding school. I couldn’t find any family recipes so looked online for anything called  Gran’s boiled fruit cake cos I figured a fruit cake is a fruit cake. He was pretty happy with the result.

 

Who remembers the 60’s or 70’s obsession with meals made with packet soups. Mum used to make something just like this with Chicken Noodle soup, I loved it. I found the recipe when I was googling mince and cabbage!

 

Yotam Ottolenghi provided a delicious recipe for Semolina Gnocchi

And for lunch we often had a scatter platter salad – grab a platter, scatter salad, protein like left over chicken or a tin of tuna or cheese, add something with bite like radish, and there you go, a different said each time!

There were some beautiful skies at night

I was obsessed for a couple of days with reflections

 

 

D1 popped around early before her drive back to work so I could wave goodbye from the balcony

 

We had our first Zoom Writers Group meeting which was fun and you pretty much forgot you weren’t all in the same room together

And the highlight of the week was a Saturday night virtual dinner party with D2 and D3

 

21 days down, how many to go ? I hope all is going well wherever you are, keep safe.

What better day than Easter Monday to try out the new pop-up restaurant in the neighbourhood, El Balcón? Word has it that it is pretty good but you don’t know how long these pop-up  places last. It turned out to be one of these places where you ‘cook your own.’  Much like those steakhouses  which were so popular in the 70’s where you chose and cooked your own steak, until people realised it was much cheaper to chuck a steak on the barbie at home.

The decor could be best described as ‘faux Bali’ but we were lucky enough to get the best table, overlooking the ocean.

The menu was limited, sourdough pancakes with berries and yoghurt. However the ingredients were mostly fresh, the sourdough starter  activated overnight, the yoghurt home made,  but I suspect the berries were frozen. However given the present difficulties in sourcing fresh food this can be forgiven.

The staff were friendly, the meal nicely presented, although the 1970’s crockery somewhat dated.  The chef and the barista worked well as a team to present a delicious meal accompanied by freshly made spinach and pineapple water and hot coffee.

Overall it was a pleasant way to spend Easter Monday morning. I would love to return but have found out since that El Balcón has closed its doors, no doubt another casualty of the time.

Its been an interesting week. I’ve been backwards and forwards about how much I was going to share, but I figure it is all part of my life right now,  so I might as well tell y’all.

A few weeks ago I had a mammogram, promptly forgot about it and went on with S-L life until I got a phone call from Breast Screen WA. It was a lovely lady with a very soothing voice telling me there was an ‘area of concern’ in my right breast and I had to to have another mammogram. Suddenly the whole coronavirus thing went right out the window and my mind was running at 100 miles an hour. Over the last two weeks I have had another mammogram and a breast scan. All the ladies at these places are so calm and caring which is nice when you are feeling anything but calm inside.You exchange pleasantries about how life has changed, what you are watching on TV, whether you have a vegetable garden, but inside you are just wanting someone to say its all fine, there’s nothing to be concerned about.

I had some moments of omg!  what if I have to go to Perth? where am I going to stay? I can’t stay with the kids in case I pick something up in the hospital, who’s going to look after me? will I have  to go into self-quarantine when I get home? who’s going to look after Papa Bear? Mostly I was quite calm though, I reminded myself what strong stock I came from,  us Louis/Stokes women can get through anything! And as it turned out all is well and I can go back to worrying about coronavirus, which seems a lot less worrying now.

We’re over the hump of Week 3  so I’m just going to do a quick run through of Week 2. My boss was a lot happier with me this week,  I was a lot more organised. But really I just did the same, except a bit more of it!

I didn’t do as much beach walking this week , and certainly no swimming. It was quite chilly and seaweedy, happy to report everyone on the beach is behaving themselves

I’ve done lots of cooking! I’d resurrected my sourdough starter and made delicious rustic pizza

The recipe for my fig, fennel and walnut loaf instructed me to prove it for two hours. Perhaps I should have checked earlier!

However , I cooked it anyway and it turned out ok!!

A mate of Papa Bear’s dropped off some freshly caught dhufish, we had crumbed fish, rosti and Waldorf salad. I love Waldorf salad but it still makes me think of that Fawlty Towers Episode!!

I made Mum’s granola and had it with home made yoghurt and mango puree from the freezer

Papa Bear cooked Saturday Big Breakfast, including his amazing home-cured bacon

As always our dining room living art room was amazing

 

I read this book which D3 sent me. Loved it, loved it, loved it. It tells the story of the “Marsh Girl’ who grows up on her own in the marshes of the North Carolina coast and her relationship with two young men from the nearby town. One of them is found dead and she is an immediate suspect. The description of the marshes are beautiful, I tried to savour these when I first started reading the book, but then I just wanted to find out what happened. I will read it again! Do yourself a favour and read it.

Papa Bear and I gardened, mostly Papa Bear gardened, but I did a bit. He put up a new wire and arranged the bougainvillea artistically along the wall

The beans sprouted!

D1 came home from work, she usually stays with us but wasn’t able to this time. She did some shopping for us. I never thought the words “See if you can get a plastic tray of it”  or “Try and get the plastic-wrapped continental cucumbers” would ever leave my mouth again. But its easier to disinfect if its in a tray.

Although she didn’t stay with us we did have drinks a couple of couple of times, making we sure we exercised appropriate social distancing

Papa Bear converted my office desk into a stand up desk. We saved hundreds of dollars with a couple of plastic tubs and a printer box!!

And I managed to get out of my ACDC t-shirt and Nepal pants

All in all, a good week. Keep safe everyone.