It’s Monday morning so time to wrap up the week that’s been and the 5 things that made me smile. As always, I can’t keep it to 5!
This quote
I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers…
Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
Public holidays
Okay, so it’s a public holiday in most of Australia today, although while the southern states celebrate Labour Day, up in Queensland we’re celebrating the Queen’s Birthday – regardless of the fact that her birthday is in April and the rest of the country celebrates it in June. Contrarily in Queensland, our Labour Day is the first Monday in May which is closer to her actual birthday. Go figure.
Despite having plans to catch up on writing work I’ve done little other than faff about and read.
I had most of last Monday off too when my sister was visiting. Even though it was school holidays and there were lots of people around, it was such a treat to head out for a drive on a work day. The pics below was taken at Point Cartwright and yes, we saw whales in the distance.
Daylight Saving
Another thing we do differently up here is we don’t go to daylight saving time even though the southern states all moved their clocks forward an hour on Sunday morning. That means that for the next 6 months my day job days will consist of countless conversations that go something like, ‘is that your time or mine?’
Spare a thought for those who live in border towns such as Tweed Heads and Coolongatta on the Gold Coast where a road determines the time zone.
This will be our third summer up here and to be honest, if it wasn’t for the fact that my day job is based in Sydney and I have to occasionally travel to Sydney I think I’d be perfectly happy never switching the clocks around. It was different when we were living in Sydney and commuting ridiculous hours – I used to really love it then.
The whole daylight saving thing was originally instigated during WW2 to save energy, but it’s interesting to note that EU members have now voted to stop the practice in 2021.
This meme
I meant to post this last week but forgot.
Tasmanian magpies
Did you know that Tasmanian magpies hardly ever swoop? Of all the reported swoopings on the magpie reputed swoopings site, only a few are from Tasmania.
This has, of course, got the scientists baffled and the explanations are going from Tasmanian magpies being nicer at a DNA level to Tasmanian magpies not being as threatened by people to Tasmanians being nicer to magpies.
The sea-eagles in Mooloolaba
They’re strictly not eagles – I think the technical name is “kite” but the pair that we see in their nest high up near the river have a couple of babies. They were out the other day testing their wings and taking flying lessons. It’s enough to warm the hardest of hearts.
Last year I was able to snap a photo of the babies, but not, so far, this year.
This quote
By Robert Brault that I saw on Life at No. 22:
If minutes were kept of a family gathering, they would show that “members not present” and “subjects discussed” were one and the same.
The Masked Singer
Yes, it’s the most ridiculous show on TV at the moment, yet I’m strangely addicted…
Rewards
I finally hit the first 5kg milestone of my Excess Baggage journey last week and that meant it was time for my reward.
When my friend and I first started on this little project we agreed our rewards up front for each stage and mine was to be, wait for it, a new cookbook. And yes, I know just how counter-intuitive that sounds, but 5kgs isn’t enough to come down a dress size and I wasn’t going to reward myself with food.
And the book I chose? Diana Henry’s new one – From Oven To Table. I’ll tell you more about it once I cook from it, but like all of henry’s books, it’s a delight to read.
These biscuits
The rosemary shortbread that Sammie posted last week. If you want the recipe, you can find it here.
I’ve so far made them twice – once on Thursday and once to take to some friends on Saturday evening.
Speaking of which…
Check out the view at our friend’s place in the hinterland. Just gorgeous.
T made a proper suet beef and mushroom pudding for dinner that we all gathered around to see when it landed intact from the pudding bowl and A baked a Dutch apple cake that she last baked when she was a teenager living in The Netherlands. I love how food can be associated with memories like that.
Speaking of things Dutch…
Niksen – the Dutch art of doing nothing. I like words like this, but according to researchers doing nothing is apparently difficult to define. After all, doing nothing to avoid doing something is procrastination, and being told how to do nothing is actually doing something. So, doing nothing is about mindfully stopping and doing nothing for the sheer pleasure of just being.
Saturday Kitchen on Sunday
The theme this week was Indian and the menu was:
Indian- spiced salmon with Bombay potatoes
Cardamom shortbread with mango fool
No photos sorry, but I’ll blog the cardamom shortbread separately…
Okay, that was my week…how was yours?
And Anyways... 
Hi Jo, a lovely round up! I salute the word Niksen and could probably define it quite well at the moment. I laughed at the be more pacific quote π My mother lives in Murwillumbah and dreads the start of daylight saving every year because of so many appointments over the border and she gets herself so confused with travel time! I feel for her but enjoy our longer daylight down here. Anne of Green Gables were my favourite books as a girl, a fabulous quote you shared. Congrats on the loss of 5kg, you’re doing really well! My week has been much better with my sister and husband popping up for the weekend from Melbourne, just to catch up! So much fun. And my tooth is better too, so all is well!
Two Monday in a row (mostly off), your sister visiting and distant whales — what could be better? This time I got smart and had a slice of pie with me while reading your post. It definitely helped with the drooling! π
So much goodness in one post – your Indian menu sounded delish and oh, my that beef pud had me drooling! I love both Jenny Colgan and Carole Matthews – they make reading such a pleasure. Thanks for the shout out about the biccies, you reminded me I have some rosemary to use up so I see a few more rosemary biscuits in my future. I for one love daylight savings, if only because I can get semi decent photos of dinner. When it’s not daylight savings I have to make dinner at lunchtime just so I can get a decent pic! Enjoy the short week!
Hi Jo – as always your 5 things equal my whole month and more! I like the word Niksen and think I’m perfecting it as time goes on in this new retirement phase! Also we don’t have daylight saving in WA and I’m SO glad – the idea of getting up an hour earlier each day just messes with my head. They’ve tried to force it onto us several times with a 3 year trial a few years ago and each time it gets voted out with a resounding NO and I’m always glad – we have more than enough sunshine and benefit from sunsets over the beach rather than behind mountains so our evenings stay lighter longer anyway.
I love that word too. The whole idea of mindfully unbusy is a lovely one.
Daylight saving time is always a controversy around here, Joanne. I wonβt get started:) I have heard about βThe masked singerβ yet, not seen it. I agree with above comments on how your photos always make me drool:)
People are so passionate about daylight saving aren’t they? Whether it’s for or against. Sigh. The Masked Singer is a Korean concept & has celebrities singing in masks (go figure) and you have to try and guess who from the clues and the voices. Ridiculous but also fun.
Lovely catch up Jo. Beautiful photos and great news too. Like your news of 5kg down. That is excellent. Your reward was most fitting. Thank you for linking up for #lifethisweek. Next week the optional prompt is 41/51 “Your Choice of Prompt” 14/10/19. Hope to see you there, Denyse.
Thanks Denyse…a lot of hard, slow work for 5kgs & to be honest so far I’m not feeling any different.
The shortbread look amazing. Love the hinterland view. (Sigh) And am intrigued re the Tasmanian magpies!
I loved that story about the magpies. The things you read randomly when you’re avoiding what you should be doing…
Always the most gorgeous photos Jo, you live in a beautiful part of the world. I didn’t know you had daylight saving time in parts of Australia. I also didn’t know the EU have planned to scrap it, haha, although being in the UK I don’t know what we’ll be doing now.
Hi Lorraine, most of the country goes to DST – except Queenlsand & WA. It plays havoc on the East Coast when half the country is on DST & half isn’t…Who knows what will be happening with Brexit…