Funky mood

Not funky like feel like breaking loose with some retro moves, just in a funk, down and out.

As always, I will be ok.

My mother is not doing so well. She has been fitting which is unusual for her despite her having lived with Epilepsy for many years now. Trivial piece of information- Epilepsy comes in different forms and my mothers to date has not been of the fitting variety. She has however, been trialling a new medication for her Skitzophrenia (yes I know, she's not a lucky bird), and I really feel that this must be the problem because the 'fitting' coincidentally began shortly after starting the new med.Anyway to cut it short because I'm not in a cyber mood of late and just don't have the energy, things have got worse to the point that she can no longer stay at home by herself as she has been collapsing suddenly and is at risk.

My father works full time so I will have her here with me for a couple of days from tomorrow onwards and after a fair bit of prompting, much to my relief, he is reaching out to everyone and seeking assistance at least for the next couple of weeks. The doctors are aware and are running various tests (more could be done in my opinion but thats a whole other story) so it's just a waiting game at the moment. This is all new so it's too early to think long term but I'm worried about where this is all leading for Mum foremost and selfishly...for the rest of us.

Happier days are ahead, I know it but for now, the funk cloud lingers..

Meeting Helene

My friend across the globe who I have never met but over time, we had developed a special friendship. We arrived at Buckingham Palace and were overwhelmed almost immediately by the crowds, how in the heck would I find Helene and family in all that?!

So we went back to our hotel and drank cocktails instead.

Ok that didn't happen. We found each other with the aid of our mobiles, it was that crowded and headed off in the direction of Hyde Park. It was a lovely sunny day, the daffodils were blooming, the birds chirping and the squirrels were out to play! We had a yummy lunch, chatted our heads off, laughed at Helene's son in a hole and at Darren's getting shirty with the 'chair vendor' dude (you had to hire the deck chairs). We all got along like a house on fire. Being close in age, Charlotte and Adrian paired off with Helene's mini laptop and enjoyed each others company. Andy was lovely and Helene was all I imagined her to be and any worries that there may have been periods of silence were forgotten, only wish we lived closer.

There are so many pictures I want to share with you so I have added a flickr tab to the right here, you can click on it and go directly to my day with Helene. I miss you already dear friend.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Mothers Day noodles

Ok well Darren said the pictures I wanted to put up were reminiscent of cat vomit so I chose a photo he agreed with. We made Spätzle! German noodles basically. I made the doughy paste, Darren cooked the noodles, grated the Jarlesburg and cut the onion. I fried the onion and put that, the cheese and the noodles in the oven together for around 15 minutes....then we ate! It was really good actually, more pebble poo in appearance then anything but tasting very much like what we had over in Ulm, Germany. Perhaps they could have been a little lighter in texture and another cheese would have been good to give a more interesting flavour, but we were proud of our efforts.



Interestingly, upon surfing the net for more tips on cooking this fine dish, I stumbled upon yet another Indian living in Germany (our host wife in Germany is Indian), who likes to cook and is an excellent photographer of her culinary skills.. http://whatsforlunchhoney.blogspot.com/2006/04/allgaeuer-kaesespaetzle-cheese.html

So using her recipe, the recipe on the noodle utensil and the Swabian recipe book our hosts gave us, we came up with our own yummy version. We liked it so much, we're making it for our Sunday lunch guests!

Mothers Day tree??

Yep, that's right. The boys are usually good for a last minute shop in the final hours of the day before, but this time they have gone above and beyond. They huddled in the office together wrapping presents and yelled out almost violently when I wriggled the door knob or threatened to come in. I was later presented with an apparently new Mothers Day tradition...

The Mothers Day tree
Do you think these could be mass produced and sold to Myer and DJs? Could be a hit right?

Bewildered I was, what a strange concept! And how funny are my boys, not to mention generous, check out the loot under that there 'tree'!

Darren said Adrian was really helpful and pretty much led the way with the gift shopping, saying I must have taken Adrian shopping with me before. Looking forward to unwrapping this bounty, just about rubbing my hands together with excited anticipation. Even the cats took their little baskets down to the Square for the yellow gift you can just make out on the right. And there is Noah's Ark gift wrap on one pressie from..well you guess.