Friday Eudaemonism

jump

2012-02-16T22:53:00.004+11:00

"I know it's scary for you, but despite that.. close your eyes," he says.
Pause.
"But-" her small voice wants to say.
Pause.
"And jump," he says.

Dandelion root tea. Art Journal, valentine's day 2012 - "Close your eyes, he says, and jump".

Tonight she sips Dandelion root tea and grins and trembles at the all the possibilities of the future. Tonight the teacup rattles against the saucer as she walks upstairs and downstairs and she wonders which wild dreams to bring to life first. Part of her wants to stay small and possible, but this is something she must not be.

Because the universe doesn't get out of bed for anything short of the passionate and the impossible. Because she has a lionhearted boyfriend. Because she has a God who specialises in miracle-makers.

xo

bare feet

2012-02-13T20:24:00.003+11:00

Kind of realised yesterday that I'm super very happy. A million a one little things. I like the way round abouts work. How is it that accidents don't happen every 3.41 seconds? I love the idea of eating, then stop eating, then get hungry, then eat again. How is it that something so simple is such a marvelous scheme? I like friends with red hair and friends with red dresses. I like enrolling when it's part time and online (no time table clashes, no travel needed).

I like pre-breakfast swims, and the book of Hebrews, and I like being brave enough to leave messages on other people's voicemails. I like hats. Changing address via phone instead of filling out forms. Brand name swimwear. A clean kitchen. Smoked salmon from the markets. I like a pair of shoes you can wear just about anywhere. And I like enough places for bare feet.

What things do you like today?

Cherry Tomatoes

2012-02-06T17:46:00.004+11:00

When you wake up hungry for a million cherry tomatoes, you decide that you will find a million cherry tomatoes.

Juicy, ripe, warm in the sun. And then you think up ways to eat a million cherry tomatoes.

This is the making of semi dried tomato halves, putting them into the food drier for about a day on medium temperature. Later they were put into jars with garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and assorted fresh herbs.

Tea, good weather & good food

2012-02-01T21:33:00.005+11:00

These days are good days, I suppose. It is raining a lot, which begins to feel blasé after so many days, but it is good weather for teacups, good weather for happy wet dogs, good weather for phone calls, cookbooks, boardgames and food journals. Good weather for a boyfriend 568kms south with wordswithfriends on his new iphone 4s. Good weather for my plans to drive, my plans to move north, get a job, learn some more, laugh some more, cry some more.

Strawberry Cream Tea - hibiscus, rosehip, apple, strawberry, rose.

My new favourite food is baked eggplant, because it tastes as good as cheese without the cheese. I read somewhere that most Americans eat about 35 different specific types of foods in a week but Japanese eat over 100 different foods. I'm really liking the idea of try eat as many different things as possible. I'm finding new thoughts about health, new thoughts I really like.

What thoughts do you like?

Cucumber Pickles

2012-01-26T20:39:00.008+11:00

I tweaked this recipe for bread & butter cucumbers. This is my version, half quantity & slightly different flavours. :)

Ingredients:

3 Long Green cucumbers
1/4 capsicum
1 onion
1/6 cup of salt (a little less than 3 tablespoons)

2 cups apple cider vinegar
10 tablespoons white sugar (a little more than half a cup)
2 teaspoons fresh dill, chopped
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoons fresh coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon black peppercorns

Method:

Peel & slice cucumbers. Slice onions & capsicum. Sprinkle with salt. Cover & refrigerate overnight.
Drain cucumbers, capsicum & onion. Cover with water once & drain, to rinse some salt off.
In a large saucepan heat vinegar, sugar, dill, mustard, coriander, turmeric & pepper until boiling.
Add cucumbers, capsicum & onion to vinegar mixture. Bring to boil for 2-5 minutes then remove from heat.
Using a slotted spoon, add pickles to prepared jars*.
Pour remaining vinegar mixture over pickles until a few millimetres from the top of the jar. Wipe any drips from the top of the jar so it will seal properly.
Use a skewer to remove air bubbles from full jars.
Screw lids on tightly. Lids should pop in and seal properly in the next hour or so

* You want jars and lids clean, hot and completely dry before you add pickles, so wash, rinse and dry completely with a teatowel. Then place in the oven on trays on about 100˚C until you're ready to put the pickles in.

Tea & resolutions

2012-01-25T16:03:00.000+11:00

Turmeric Tea
- 4 cups hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon honey

Resolutions for 2012:

eat fruit & vegies every day & eat less processed foods
be fit enough to jump with a skipping rope 500 times in 3 minutes by March 3 2012
daily prayer am & pm.
try natural remedies to clear my skin
introduce 10 new people to the delights of neways
get a job
become a justice of the peace
have $8000 in my bank account on Dec 31, 2012
take a dog for a run along a beach
finish reading Ezekiel 44-48, Matthew 7-Acts 10 and Titus - Revelation of the Bible
publish my 300th blog post on this blog (150 to go)
get my license
own a car
rent a house
do a first aid / CPR course
celebrate my 21st birthday
revise my spanish textbook pages 1-183
travel in australia & overseas

outlive the night

2012-01-17T19:33:00.000+11:00

We race into twenty twelve with these dreams held tight in our grubby hands. Running into the darkness, hope clutched high in a triumphant fist, heels over stones and hair bleeding carelessly into the night behind us. Run with abandon, still believing the fantasy that our intentions will be ours and ours forever. Believing that morning will come and these dreams will outlive the night.

Lucy's Icecream

2012-01-14T11:17:00.004+11:00

1.5 cups of homemade kefir
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup of frozen raspberries

1 Nectarine
1 Mango
1 Banana
1 teaspoon honey

Blend ingredients.
Freeze in ice block molds.
Add paddle pop stick when slightly frozen.
Makes about 6.

Birubi

2012-01-11T08:19:00.001+11:00

It was one of the first hot hot afternoons of summer, too much sun to be anywhere else, backwash on ankles, sand on legs and three big puppies tangled up the ropes I'm hanging on to as we walk south west past surfers and sandcastles. Christmas day at Birubi beach, and I'm the happiest girl alive.

x

bananas

2012-01-10T15:55:00.005+11:00

Too many bananas? I don't know what you're talking about.

100% wholewheat bread

2012-01-04T12:40:00.003+11:00

ingredients:
3-4 cups of wholemeal flour
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
375mls warm tank water, approximately
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried yeast
a few teaspoons of chia seeds

method:

Combine dried yeast, most of the warm water and a teaspoon of honey to small bowl. Stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, or until the yeasties start sounding like lemonade when stirred softly.
Add oil, salt and rest of honey to yeast mixture.
Combine all wet ingredients and all dry ingredients (except chia seeds) in a large bowl, adding the flour quarter a cup at a time.
Knead by hand for 15 minutes.*
Set aside to rise in a covered bowl in a warm place for several hours. *
Put dough into a greased loaf pan, 20cm x 10cm.
Sprinkle chia seeds on top.
Cook in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 45 minutes or until done.
Stand for 5-10 minutes.
Remove from pan. Slice.

* wholemeal flour needs a longer kneading time, and takes longer to rise compared to white flour.

intentions

2012-01-02T21:06:00.000+11:00

The first week of January is breathing and bursting with new things about to happen. It smells like hope. It tastes like promise. Wild plans are spilt out over the day, dripping. Passionate intentions are born, not curled up, crying, but alive, kicking, running, before reality has a chance to reach out with her babying hands and whisper "careful, lovely, don't wish for so much." Today, we leap without looking. We throw caution to the wind and dream.

shivers

2011-12-13T20:19:00.004+11:00

An intense sense of peace when you open your eyes first thing in the morning. Fresh pineapple with every meal. Many people singing grace. Red-headed friends. The swish of long skirts as you walk over mud. Enlivened conversation about pigging dogs. A handsome gent who really really wants to hold your hand. Old relatives who all look the same. Four colours of ink that write in my Typo book about how great is my God. Fourteen hymns a day. The good kind of shivers down your spine. Stories from Mexico. Casting aside doubts. Yellow and orange umbrellas, too small to keep 2 people dry in the rain. Hard wooden chairs, sometimes a cushion. Young couples who want to get married next year. Black tea and honest conversation for supper. Thumping hearts and grinning faces. Prayer.

rain

2011-12-05T13:16:00.001+11:00

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. - Helen Keller.

Jumpers and scarves and floral socks in the first week of summer. Rain water. Fresh sprouting mung beans. Homemade jam on handmade bread. Grandad home from hospital. Aunties coming, aunties going. Kiva loans. Stories about what God can do with even our 1%. Teacups and teapots whenever you please. Purple sheets on a double bed. If you're here for breakfast, mum makes you a green smoothie. If you're here just before 9pm you get vegie vegie stirfry and chopsticks and Rummikub, and after that you'd get a loud game of Bohnanza with an auntie and a sister, and then you'd hear the piano until 11pm.

xo

Peach Jam

2011-12-01T13:25:00.001+11:00

Peaches are fairly sweet, so use a peach to sugar ratio of 1:3/4 and cook until it's done how you want it.

Ingredients:
57% Peaches
43% Sugar (raw and/or white)

Method:

Peel and chop peaches into pieces that are relatively the same size. (This is so it cooks consistently.)
Weigh peach pieces.
Weigh out sugar into a separate bowl.*
Slowly heat peach pieces in large saucepan. They will get very juicy. Bring to boil.
Stir thoroughly to avoid sticking on the bottom. ("Stir it, and don't be silly," Granny says.)
Boil until the peaches start to thicken a little as some juice evaporates.
Add sugar, half a cup at a time so the peaches don't cool down too much. Keep stirring.
Prepare jars between adding sugar. **
After all sugar has been added it will take half an hour to an hour or longer. The jam will go clearer and less lumpy and start to thicken. Keep stirring to avoid sticking to the bottom.
Remove the froth from top of jam if you want. (Nothing wrong with froth, it just can look funny at the top of the jar.)
Test the jam until it's as thick as you want it. ***
Turn stove off.
Using a teatowel, remove a hot jar from the oven. Spoon jam into jar until a few millimetres from top of jar. Wipe up any drips from around top of jar (it won't seal properly if there's jam in the seal).
Loosely put lid on jar. Set aside.
Fill remaining jars.
After about half an hour, screw the lids on tightly. Jar lids should pop in and seal properly in the next hour or so.

* How much sugar? You want 3/4 the amount of sugar as you have peaches. (eg, 2kg of peach pieces, 1.5kg of sugar).

** How to prepare jars? You want jars and lids clean, hot and completely dry before you put jam into them, so wash, rinse and dry completely with a teatowel. Then place in the oven on trays on about 100˚C until you're ready to put the jam in. If the jars aren't hot, they will crack when the hot jam hit them suddenly.

"Why do the jars have to be completely dry?" I asked Granny.
"That's too silly to answer. It's just common sense. If you've got any common sense, that is," came the reply.

***How to test the jam? When the jam with all its sugar has been boiling for more than half an hour or it starts to thicken a little, take a teaspoon of jam to test. Put a small amount of jam onto a cool plate in the freezer for 5 minutes or so. Once cooled down completely, tip the plate up - if the jam runs too much it's not done yet, so keep boiling and test again soon. If the jam sticks well and wrinkles or is at a consistency that you like your jam, it's ready to put in to jars. You can make your jam as runny or thick as you want it.

peaches

2011-11-29T22:04:00.001+11:00

I don't know what you prayed for, but it must have sounded a lot like 'peaches!'

Sweet Potato Bread

2011-11-28T22:39:00.004+11:00

I tweaked this recipe for sweet potato rolls. This is my version, as a partly wholemeal loaf bread with less sugar:

Ingredients:
2 small-ish sweet potatoes, boiled.
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
sprinkle of cinnamon and nutmeg
3-4 cups plain flour (2 cups white flour, nearly 2 cups wholemeal flour)

Method:

Stir milk and yeast together. Add a teaspoon of the sugar. Stand at room temperature for 10 minutes.
Mash sweet potato. Add to milk mixture.
Add sugar, salt, spices and half the flour to a large bowl. Add milk/potato mixture.
Mix well. Add more flour 1/4 cup at a time. Mix well after each time you add flour until the dough is still sticky but can be handled with wet hands. (Bit of guesswork here, pretend you know what you're doing, and hope for the best!)
Knead by hand for 10 minutes.
Set dough aside to rise in a covered bowl for 1 or 3 hours, until dough has roughly doubled in size.
Put dough into a greased loaf pan. (It'll go back to original size as you handle the dough again so it'll fit in a 20cm x 10cm dish)
Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Cut designs into top if you want.
Cook in a preheated oven at 200˚C for 40 minutes or until the top is turning brown.
Enjoy!

wants

2011-11-27T20:14:00.005+11:00

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." - Hellen Keller.

Need more epiphanies. Want more enthusiasm. Pray for inspiration. Perhaps if I start writing my morning pages again, epiphanies and action will follow suit, hand in hand. Write write write every morning, write my own complaints down about me until my red typo journal is filled with multicoloured ink. And something happens. Because you can't sit there every morning telling yourself how you'd rather your life was different, without eventually taking steps to make it different.

But let me tell you why I want more epiphanies and action. The older I get the shorter I can stay at Mum & Dad's before the feelings of stagnancy and ennui start to resurface. Trapped in a paradise here. Caged in a small piece of heaven. I know I'm not captive here, yet part of me wants to escape. Is it foolish I want to run away, and make a few more mistakes? I want to cry a bit more. Shout a bit more. Laugh too much. Love too much. I want blood and tears. Sun in my eyes. Sand in my hair. Stretch and strain and doubt-inspired action.

The future seems such a terrifyingly huge place. I don't know where I want to go, who I want to go with, who I want to become. I don't know yet. I want to take some risks. Exploration. Trepidation. Anticipation. But today we are crouching and waiting. Tightly crammed into this perfect world where incubation feels like suffocation. Want to crack through the eggshell of this sanctuary and find the wide open weathered sky to breathe in again.

You too, huh? You too?

magnificent things

2011-11-26T19:05:00.005+11:00

Sister tea parties at 5pm. Ham and cheese grilled on homemade bread. Researching postgrad education options. Black Swan. Taking mangoes to Grandad in hospital. Driving for the first time in months. Thinking up ways to outsmart centrelink. Vacuuming the bathtub. Wearing Hello Kitty watches. Kangaroo steaks for tea. The Magician's Nephew. 50kg bunches of bananas fresh from the tree.

I've been home for 9 days now. Beginning to feel a little stagnant already. Same old same old same old. Feel like I can't go anywhere, can't do anything, need to get organised and inspired. I think I will start my foolproof plan of action again: Tidy bedroom. Do a load of laundry. Listen to amazing music. This will start the ball rolling and magnificent things will start happening. Watch this space.

don't happen by accident

2011-11-25T23:09:00.004+11:00

My current favourite thing is things that don't happen by accident.

You can't accidentally pick a basketful of homegrown cherry tomatoes out by the cattle yard fence.

You can't accidentally sit down for an hour for a cuppa with a great uncle and the rest of your family.

Litres of cold drip coffee doesn't just happen.

Fresh loaves of bread don't make themselves.

The piano doesn't teach itself to play and sing.

This is my present epiphany. Good things are things that don't happen by accident. Don't happen instantly. Can't happen by chance. In a world obsessed with bigger louder quicker, it feels good to have things that are slow and full of soul.

strawberries

2011-11-24T21:42:00.000+11:00

Strawberry tea in floral teacups with saucers. 6pm sunshine and strawberries eaten in a magical garden. Into The wild. Magnificently huge cookbooks. Frozen Planet documentaries on an iPad 2. Carrying pruned macadamia nut branches uphill to be mulched. Working up a sweat. Attempting to train a hairy jack russell to walk sensibly. Salads at 9pm every night. Local newspapers. DVDs in the post. The promise of absurd dentist bills ("If your mum's going to pay for this, you'd better buy her a bunch of flowers," Mr Dentist advises in his Irish voice). A new second hand iphone from Brother. Grandad in hospital. Deciding to name all uncles 'Great Uncle ___' because all uncles I know are great. Sister's homemade muesli for breakfast with Mum's homemade kefir. Nine-thirty phone calls with someone incredibly handsome. Enough sleep and more than enough happy.

15 Egg Pie

2011-11-23T21:49:00.000+11:00

Ingredients:
- 15 homegrown guinea fowl eggs
- equivalent of a few mouthfuls of milk
- vegetables of your choice
- grated cheese

Method:
- mix everything together
- put it in a dish in oven on less than 180˚C
- cook until set in the middle
- sprinkle cheese on top, leave in oven until cheese is melted

nectarines

2011-11-21T21:08:00.000+11:00

Yesterday.
Today.

anywhere

2011-11-20T20:36:00.000+11:00

If you could live anywhere in the world... you'd pick here, too, wouldn't you?

alice

2011-11-19T17:38:00.005+11:00

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
- Alice In Wonderland

miracles

2011-11-18T22:40:00.000+11:00

At what point did I start feeling a little bit invincible?

When did I first have an inkling of the idea that I would always have happiness?

When did I stop doing things I don't want to do?

1496 days ago, that's when.

Woke up. Opened windows. Found that happiness happens.

Terribly ordinary, really, for a day that changed my life.

I guess most miracles are illogical and simple like that.

x

from your seventeen-year-old self

2011-11-11T00:03:00.002+11:00

My Dear FutureMe,

I want you to have all the most beautiful words and thoughts in the world... but I feel like I have no words for you. I feel... I feel everything for you right now. You know?

The world is an utterly huge and terrifyingly (beautiful) place... the future is just the same, only more so. And if it weren't for you, my dearest most bright Future Me, I do not think I'd have the courage to go on right now. I think I am scared sometimes, because school has finished, and I'll be moving out of home next year, and everything's happening and I'm not as thin as I could be. And in my mind, you are perfect, you are everything I want to become, everything I will become.

I'm listening to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls today, and Coldplay music, and 'I Don't Like Mondays'... this is my depressive music, that overwhelming feeling, that flood tide feeling, because I'm a teenager and I don't know what I'm doing, really.

Well, I'll give myself one more minute, and then I'll smile for you, darling Future Self. You are too good for me. You're giving me a reason to smile, you are, you are making this world a better place, you are making history, you are banishing negativity, you are changing this world for the better, just by... being.

I know you've got all these great plans for the future, and all these things you want to change, and all these negative thoughts you're keeping at bay, but I also know you've got this supernova of happiness inside you. I know this, because it's here in my life, too. And something as beautiful and bright as this happiness in my life can't come from nowhere... it's you, my dear. This happiness is your creation. I really believe that.

See, I am really really happy, really. My existential moments of despondency are fleeting. Life is small, my love, but Happiness is huge. Like, epic epic of epic proportions. And I'm not forgetting that.

There is some small part of me that is worried - desperately worried about the past and the future and the present. Tomorrow is my Society & Culture exam, my last HSC exam, the last last bit of school work I'll ever do. I need to get all these things done. I'm going away for a few weeks, and I know it'll be a brilliant holiday and God is always with me (you too, darling?), but it is a lot of work. I'll be going to Uni next year, moving away and never ever going back to school with my same old lovely beautiful girls (who, by the way, know every last little once-debilitating secret of mine. Rejoice!) And, you know, I keep making great intentions and making mistakes and saying the wrong thing. And I'm not as thin as I could be. Yes, there is a part of me that is desperately worried about too many things. But you know what?

There is a huger brighter part of me that is utterly completely in love with the world, excited about the adventures to come, overjoyed with the possibility of a Future Self as beautiful as you. It is most terrifying and beautiful, this life is.

And when I feel this brightness, this epic and ridiculous supernova of Happiness, unjustified uncontained unrealistic unplanned impossible sort of Happiness... I feel your power here with me, and I really really know it's you, my dear Future Self. Just your existence is bringing me hope and warmth and joy and strength. Forget the rules the laws the expectations, and just for a moment I want you to do nothing but exist. And in that moment realise that you are still everything to me, my beautiful flawless being of hope and truth. Yeah, that's you, even when you're not even trying. To me, you are perfect.

Still skeptical? Look at it this way. There is mountain loads of Happiness in my life. That, my dear one, I cannot deny. You know what I'm going on about, I trust you understand me on that one, because I can go on and on about supernovas but it doesn't even come close to properly describing the immensity of what is inside me... right now, right here, right now. And each new and wonderful miracle of a day is better than the last - it's true!! I think to myself Wow, surely this is as Happy as Happy gets, but sure enough the next day is even brighter. This is an endless supernova, it seems, my love.

Well, because each day I get closer to you, the brighter the sun feels, the wetter the water feels, the Happier this Happy feels, the lovelier the love is, the closer to God, the colours have intensified minute by minute ... it's more than more and more absurd than the impossible infiniteness of this wild and wonderful universe. I'm convinced it's you, my dear one, the closer I am to you, it all feels so much more radiant and rich, the colours, the feelings, the love, the hope, this Happiness.

You are so tremendously magnificent, in fact, that the Happiness you have today simply cannot be contained by the confines of a single day. It leeches far into your past, it leaks, it spills, it overflows... to me. There is an amazingly constant surge of this Happiness, a supernova that tells me all is well in the future, all is well, all is well.

And even if that is the only this you've got, the only thing you've ever done for anyone on this dear fleeting earth. That, my love, is enough. Bask in your accomplishment, revel in your victory, arise in your resplendence, celebrate this Happiness.

I'm not worried any more. Disregard my quiet mumblings about depressive music and terrifying futures. Let go of my doubts, and shoo away your own small hesitations. There is much to be decisive about, there is a great and beautiful war going on, and for as long as we breathe we must fight this ineffable battle for infinite stakes. It's not about wealth or health or land or race or religion, because in the end I think we're all the same, and a war against people is a hopeless distraction because really we should be fighting for our Happiness, fighting to give our Future Selves a chance to glow and exist in all their majestic brilliance. That, I guess, is what I'm doing for you, and I know you're doing the same for me. I feel it, I know it, I live it every waking moment of my days. Even when I sleep, I sleep with peace and my soul is awake with the universe, and beyond the confines of time and space, I am with you, fighting alongside you. We are here together, we are never alone, and I almost cry with awe, contemplating the knowledge that I have always got you here with me.

We are fighting for our Happiness, this shared-and-halved-and-multiplied-again sort of Happiness, this glowing racing surging absurdity of supernova Happiness. Yes, we are fighting, and, my love, we are winning. Victory is ours, well beyond our tiny human capacity of comprehension.

You are a worthy ally. I'll see you when the sun goes down.

With an infinite amount of love and good tidings,
from your seventeen-year-old self.
xx

The sky above was never clearer

2011-10-29T23:17:00.001+11:00

bread

2011-10-16T18:56:00.000+11:00

does the smell of fresh bread make you as happy as it makes me?

puppy

2011-10-14T18:50:00.000+11:00

So he buys himself a puppy. He sure knows how to woo me!

the long and the short of it

2011-10-03T18:46:00.000+11:00

fish

2011-10-02T21:55:00.000+11:00

I liked when it was 8pm and dark at the bay, and the crisp cold air was throwing itself at us, trying to push us into the water. We were huddled by the edge of the rocks on the breakwater, dolphins were playing in the water half a metre away and the guys were waiting for fish to bite.

You and me won't be unhappy.

2011-09-29T23:23:00.000+10:00

We are blessed well beyond our brilliance, sitting here for longer than an hour. Wind kicking up at my face. Sun purring into my shoulders. A tonne of sparkling water merrymaking at the rocks.

Isn't it awesome how flat the horizon always is? How open the sky always looks.

brunch

2011-09-28T21:51:00.001+10:00

I love september mornings that involve brunch with a gentleman.

this

2011-09-27T15:35:00.001+10:00

If you look down you'll see this.

If you look up you'll see this.

moments

2011-09-25T16:52:00.002+10:00

"Is everything okay?" she asks after a few moments. Belly-up to the star-spotted sky. Cold concrete beneath their backs.

"Yeah, I now know where you belong," he says, arms wrapped around her. "Right here."

And when spring-storm lightning and a handful of shooting stars flash across the sky, nobody here makes any wishes. Nobody here wants anything more than this.

How to have a great Thursday in 37 magnificent steps:

2011-09-23T15:50:00.001+10:00

Bounce out of bed.
Before 9am be walking to the computer lab with your fresh-washed wet hair drying in the sunshine.
Print final draft of article critique. Happiness predicts longer life for healthy people.
Leave a note for 7 remaining flatmates to water my peace lily, cordyline & ferns while I'm away.
Bus to the city and then people-watch at Starbucks.
Have unagidon eel for lunch at Hosaku with brother.
Coordinate a speedy exchange of a can of coke for a monopoly card game.
Walk to the train station only to discover trains aren't working due to a power outage and consequently get a free taxi to the airport (3rd time in my life I've been in a taxi).
Squint at the hazy sunshine & wear red prada sunglasses if necessary.
Remove boots with buckles for airport security whilst security guys stare at your chest trying to work out what your shirt says. Have a conversation that concludes with "well, I guess the world does need more cheerful t shirts and less rude ones."
Call your father for a chat while eavesdropping on small children who are SO excited to watch planes land and take off.
Get excited to watch planes land and take off
Grin at the wide open blue sky as you walk across the tarmac to board the plane.
Ask a lady to get out of your seat so you can have the window seat 28A you booked and proceed to chat about her kids and her travelling misfortunes while watching the hot flight attendant's safety instructions.
Don't purchase anything from the inflight cafe.
Write several postcards instead and do some spanish verb conjugation.
Contemplate a nap.
Take photos of what you think might be the Gold Coast.
Don't have any checked in baggage to wait for.
Get picked up by Paul and Aaron in a vehicle playing loud Bliss n Eso, and stop at Bilo on the way home to buy razors.
Claim the spare bedroom with a double bed and huge stash of huge pillows.
Greet Tia the and a cat called Mountain Puss.
Admire a guy's new moto boots.
Plot to use popcorn as bribes so we can borrow someone's car over the next week.
Have difficulty finding the Thai restaurant we booked for dinner (ie walk up & down Beaumont street holding hands with someone handsome)
Eat chicken satay sticks, moneybags, macadamia king prawns, plenty of vegetables and Siam duck until we pleasantly get extremely full of great food whilst discussing things with gusto and with Paul (wide eyes, gestures, giggles and grins).
On the way back to the car get stopped by a guy inviting us to church & have a good chat with him about christianity, peace, the local area, how he works as an electrician & how Paul wants to work in sales.
Notice the night air is beginning to get rather chilly.
Stop at Macca's on the way home to use their toilets and look for Rich (don't find him).
In the car, listen to inspirational CDs about network marketing.
Stargaze on the driveway.
Grin a lot. Confirm that most everything is brilliant.
Grin a lot more.
Enjoy some additional mandatory admiration of the new moto boots.
Nibble at a cube of cheese while chatting with Maxine about life and work and uni and health and happiness.
Check results for Adult Development & Ageing mid semester exam & discover you got a grand 82%.
Spend forever trying to get to sleep 'cause you're too busy grinning at the ceiling and being horrendously happy.

hazy

2011-09-19T08:25:00.001+10:00

These days have been so hot and hazy. It feels like summer already or Japan in July again.

So I like goodmornings with fresh strawberries or frozen strawberries and cute pots of Jalna yoghurt and an article I'm critiquing about happiness makes you live longer.

breakfast

2011-09-09T08:32:00.002+10:00

Could breakfast be any better?

Could my legs be happier than this?

ink

2011-09-06T15:23:00.004+10:00

Large Oil Pastels, Colourfun.

Watercolour Pencils, Derwent.
One Year Bible, KJV.
Art Journal, Derwent.

Red Journal, Typo.

Psych Assessment Textbook, Oxford.

I like tuesdays because I don't set an alarm but there is sunshine streaming through my windows. There are spanish classes but not spanish exams. There is watermelon and colourful salads and chilled water. Blue paint on fingers. Psych assessment notes sprawled all over my bed.

Pink ink in a red journal. Great for writing secrets, making vows and discovering epiphanies. How can something as simple as ink on paper be so good for the soul?

.

riverfire

2011-09-05T09:01:00.000+10:00

first saturday of spring.

6.50pm we are at the botanical gardens.

dangling our feet over the edge of the riverbank, a little bit afraid we might fall in.

sharing chocolate. setting up cameras. shivering.

waiting for the fireworks to light up a cloudy sky.

could you hope for a happier life than this?

yours

2011-09-04T08:32:00.001+10:00

I will fight my battles & you'll fight yours.

most

2011-09-03T14:02:00.001+10:00

Most books will not change the world.

But this one will.

.

eudaemonism

2011-09-02T13:55:00.001+10:00

september

2011-09-01T08:44:00.005+10:00

Where should she start?

x

august

2011-08-30T16:06:00.002+10:00

I love that it's the 2nd last day of winter & we have a summer storm. Thunder and lightning and yellow umbrellas at five past four pm.

I love that we have pot plants by open windows, lilac nail polish, and quarter watermelons in August.

june/july

2011-07-30T15:58:00.000+10:00

It's the strangest sensation to be in a huge crowd of people and suddenly remembering that you're probably the only person who is thinking in English instead of Japanese.

Best thing about coming home to Aus is that I can eavesdrop on people again.

Loved every minute of it.

masterchef

2011-05-29T21:12:00.004+10:00

I cook baby octopus for dinner.

I eat pomegranate and avocado and chicken nuggets when I feel like it.

I'm studying spanish.

It's tremendous to watch Masterchef every evening with flatmates.

Does it get any better than this?

headache

2011-05-26T09:43:00.004+10:00

Stats report is presently a black dog on my head.

I want my stats report to be finished. So I will finish it. And then it'll be finished. The simple brilliant logic of the universe never ceases to amaze me.

I like: when you go to bed with a headache, and in the morning you wake up without a headache. The universe is brilliant at fixing things, is it not?

What has the universe fixed for you?

X

ducks

2011-05-23T22:03:00.001+10:00

If I kept a blog, I would blog about the mondays I like. The mondays I like tend to involve feeding birds.

Mondays of that windy-happy-about-to-storm feeling, lunch in a park with a brother, feeding ducks and water hens and ibises and crows.

apple

2011-03-26T17:58:00.003+11:00

I've decided I like saturdays a lot like this.

I'm the girl wearing a black hat and wet hair, getting on a city-bound bus. Weekend public transport seems more relaxed. This bus has windows that actually open. Wind in my hair. Grin on my face.

I'm the girl sitting under a tree, waiting, taking photos of blue sky and city. Eating a green apple. None of this half-hearted namby pamby take three bites and throw the core away business. Really eat an apple. Eat the whole thing. You'll be left with nothing but 3-5 seeds and a centimetre of stalk.

I'm the girl with a brother, ooh ahh-ing over his iPad 2. Walking through the fruit/veg/fashion/gifts markets.

Discussing plans for April. Carrying heavy pink bags.

Have breakfast like you mean it.

2011-02-02T21:10:00.002+11:00

"When are you going to use the fancy napkins?"
-- Suzi Blu

Sometimes I have hurried snacks as I race out the door or half a glass of juice now and something later when I feel like it. Sometimes I have last night's left overs, cold and straight from the fridge. Sometimes I have overripe fruit eaten sans plate and cutlery, leaning over the kitchen sink.

But sometimes it is nice to sit down at the table. Use the sunday dinner plates, set out napkins and use the good cutlery. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn't it? I want my breakfasts to be amazing.

xo

When you wake up WAKE UP.

2011-02-01T20:48:00.001+11:00

When you wake up, WAKE UP. It's healthy.
-- the sound of music.

An excellent breakfast is a green smoothie consisting of locally grown seasonal leafy greens, apple juice, mango juice, pineapple, watermelon, banana and/or pear.

I'd like to learn how to have a morning routine. Mornings that I want to wake up to. Mornings full of good things. Mornings I love. Because I think there's some part of a morning person inside me and she wants great things to happen before 8am.

xo

going

2010-12-28T22:55:00.003+11:00

Mondays are good when there are blueberries for breakfast and most people sleeping in til eleven thirty and having breakfast again when Paul is awake and cooking eggs for me. Mondays happen when it is raining and I'm saying goodbye to brother & his girlfriend who are just beginning to make brownies in the super yellow kitchen, and I'm saying goodbye to mum & dad who are picking homegrown fruit and feeding the cows in the pouring rain.

So these kind of Mondays happen when Paul & I are driving 500 odd kms south, eating kfc, taking unflooded shortcuts, listening to beethoven and laughing at the increasingly sexual overtones of a triple J radio host. We are going places we are.

sundays

2010-12-26T21:38:00.000+11:00

Imagine sundays at our place - guys with ties and girls with heels that match, a lunch table set for twelve, pork AND turkey and a myriad of vegies, cheesecake and fresh fruit for dessert. I'm wearing two new watches on the one wrist and I'm sitting back with grand company to read comics, listen to some phenomenal piano playing and play a game of Billionaire and a game of Bohanza while tyring not to fall asleep. I've eaten so much that I feel like I won't need to eat for a week. More friends and family arrive, more food is eaten, more piano is played. That's how sundays are at our place.

christmas

2010-12-25T21:27:00.000+11:00

This year christmas has kisses and apricots for breakfast. It has parents who sleep in, but a guy who goes surfing with dolphins and a girl who takes photos in the rain. It has an easel and a canvas we are repainting white, world of warcraft, piano playing and at 6pm it has pork crackling and sparkling grapejuice and people at the dinner table laughing at everyone's jokes.

rain

2010-12-24T23:52:00.001+11:00

The best fridays happen the day before christmas. Plenty of driving in the rain, buffet breakfasts, oversized bunnings stores, both harry potter and narnia, swish new clothes for someone handsome, the splashing of feet in puddles, the eating of noodle box noodles, D & M conversations in the car, headaches and when we get home there's nectarines, asterix comics and corn on the cob.

driving

2010-12-23T22:47:00.002+11:00

I like the kind of thursdays where I wake up at 6.30 because someone attractive is knocking on my door, good morning, good morning. The kind of thursday where I have good morning hugs but curl up in my doona on the couch while he plays world of warcraft and I fall asleep again for 2 hours. The kind of thursday where it's raining and paul is driving and we check out the waves at 5 or 6 different beaches, get petrol, buy croissants and bacon at our local IGA to cook with fresh eggs and dance around the house to loud music and big smiles.

The kind of thursday where we drive places in the rain, get wet feet on wet grass, hold hands in shopping centres, drink boost juice and buy bobby pins. Listen to beethoven while driving around the car park with the windows down. Have dessert before dinner. Play the piano. Eat homemade lasagna with huge piles of salad. Kick each other's feet underneath the dinner table.

This is the kind of thursday I like. :)

wednesday

2010-12-23T01:00:00.000+11:00

Wednesday I am sweeping and mopping the outside walls of the house with Mum, getting spiderwebs on my elbows and in my eyes, and chatting to a Wilbur puppy about happy things ... how has your week been, what are your plans for the day, did you know it's christmas really soon?

Wednesday I am making lasagna, eating fig jam on rye bread toast, watching out the window for Paul to arrive, reading Hebrews 10 and deciding that our God is pretty marvelous for giving us a Jesus.

Wednesday I am holding hands with Paul, shaking hands with old friends, chatting to Lisa about girls in Brisbane and vintage stores in Melbourne and ooh ahh-ing at christmas lights.

Wednesday Paul & I are driving in the dark, walking through the rain, playing scattergories & left-handed pictionary with Tegen, Leo, Jenna, Ryan & Jared, eating mocha cheesecake with fruit salad & icecream. Wednesday I am hugging friends goodnight and saying merry christmas and walking on wet grass back to the car with Paul & almost running over 6 million cane toads on the drive home.

X

Mocha Cheesecake

2010-12-21T21:35:00.000+11:00

Base:
250g packet of choc ripple chocolate biscuits
110g butter

Filling:
Half a cup of milk
1 tablespoon of gelatine
1 tablespoon of instant coffee
500ml thickened cream
500g cream cheese
400g sweetened condensed milk
250g chocolate chips
Extra chocolate to grate on top

Crush the biscuits.

Melt butter for about 30 seconds in microwave.

Add melted butter to crushed biscuits and mix well.

Line dish with nonstick paper.

Press biscuit crumbs evenly over base of dish. Refrigerate or freeze while making the filling.

Mix milk and coffee in a saucepan over low heat. Add gelatine and stir until dissolved. Leave to cool while making the rest of the filling.

Whip thickened cream in a large bowl until soft peaks form.

Remove from packaging and soften cream cheese in microwave for 10 seconds.

Chop cream cheese into smaller pieces.

Add cream cheese to whipped cream. Mix.

Add condensed milk and gelatine mixture. Mix well.

Fold in choc chips.
Pour over biscuit base and refrigerate overnight.

Decorate with grated chocolate to serve.

Serves 12-15.