Knock Knock

I am not a great joke teller. My tongue tends to trip over itself all the time, I don't have that flow of words, or I am just crap at remembering the lines. I used to start laughing before I finished the joke and had trouble finishing the punch line. It just didn't work.

I admire people, and a couple come to mind, that always have a joke to tell. It's their thing, and I don't know how they remember them all.

I hear a great joke, and ten seconds later, it's gone! Wiped from my memory forever!

We all sat in bed together the other morning, cracking each other up with 'Knock Knock' jokes.

I don't know where Isabel picked it up from, but her go to joke is The Interrupting Cow. She cracks herself up with it, and seems way too pleased after executing it. She actually tells it amazingly well. I am proud. It goes like this -

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Interrupting Cow.

Interrupt...

MOO!

When I was younger I loved joke books. I remember borrowing just about every book on the shelf, and then annoying the heck out of my family. 

I distinctly remember sitting at the kitchen table, reading jokes from one of those joke books. My mum was pottering in the kitchen, and I must have been driving her bonkers with my jokes.

I am fine delivering them straight from a book, but from the top of my head. No.

I can still appreciate a good joke book, and yes, none of them every stay in my memory, except The Interrupting Cow.

Isabel is quite shy though and wouldn't tell her joke in company over the weekend. Brett and I told it and it wasn't the same. 

We stayed at Casa Pelicano (our holiday house in Pelican Point) over the weekend and had a few visitors drop in. Go away, and we have more visitors than we do at home!

On Saturday arvo, some of them joined us down the beach for some surf fishing. Brett got so excited about the HUGE fish he had on his line, which turned out to be a sting ray. Fair to say we let this one go, but the kids had a ball checking it out and watching it returning to the sea, eventually. 

I could add a sting ray joke in here, but the ones I googled mostly refer to Steve Irwin, and I'm not going there, so here's a lame arse fish joke instead -

What's the difference between a piano and a fish?
You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.

What did the fish say when it swam into a wall?
Dam!

Where do shellfish go to borrow money?
The prawn broker!

Why did the whale cross the road?
To get to the other tide.

I know, sorry that was more than one...aren't you glad you're not my mother?

Joining in with Denyse this week for #lifethisweek

An InLinkz Link-up

When road tragedy strikes

Something tragic happened in our Limestone Coast community this week. Four young men lost their lives in a terrible and unfortunate road accident, just outside of Penola. 

They were on their way to work in the wee hours of Saturday morning, when the ute they were travelling in hit a tree and rolled. None of them survived.

It was sad and shocking. It rocked the entire forestry community, with a ripple effect to the rest of the Limestone Coast community, other parts of the country, and even further afield.

I was talking to a retired old forestry worker yesterday. This man is a real character who wears his heart on his sleeve. He's was a pine faller from way back and loved this industry. He was devastated at what had happened to these young blokes, commenting, 

"What really got me, is that it happened in an industry I love to bits......these were young men just starting out in the industry."

It affected me the same. My Dad worked falling pines in the forest and also in the saw mill, in the town where I grew up.

Every single day of my schooling life, I rode the bus on pine plantation lined roads, and even worked in a timber mill myself for a couple of years.

My husband Brett, drives trucks, loading from pine chippers in the local forests. He's on the roads going to work also, at the same time these young men had thier accident.

#putyourhardhatsout

An amazing suggestion by a local company, Merritts Logging, out of respect for the boys, was for people to place a hard hat, or hi vis vests to be left at our front doors on Monday.

I was so proud to see the response unfold on social media. It was such a stark reminder of how precious life is, and the amazing supportive community we have. To see people from Queensland, and even Los Angeles paying tribute was also amazing.

Port Douglas

The day after the accident, the third Sunday in November, just happened to be World Road Traffic Victims commemoration day. Our town has a memorial in one of our local parks, and there was a gathering there on Sunday.

It is vital that we are all aware of the fatal five behavioural factors that lead to tragic vehicle accidents on our roads.

1.  speeding
2.  not wearing seatbelts
3.  drink or drug driving
4.  fatigue
5.  inattention 

We are coming into one of the busiest times on the roads in the lead up to Christmas. The events of this week is a painful reminder to be patient and vigilant on the roads, and most of all, to never leave anthing unsaid and hug your loved ones tight.

2016 Mt Gambier Christmas Parade

This happened on the weekend. The annual Mt Gambier christmas parade. 

The weather was gorgeous, just the sort of weather we've been waiting for. 

I know, I know, this is photo overload. Believe me, there were lots more. This is just some of the 130 photos I took!

You'll feel like you were there too.

It's tradition for us to go home and set up the decorations, and our christmas tree. And that's what we did.

Christmas is coming, whether I'm ready or not!

My morning rituals

I don't know about you, but I most definitely have a morning ritual.

On school days, it starts by turning my phone alarm off, which I leave on the kitchen bench. It means I have to actually get OUT of bed and walk to the kitchen, where my routine starts. This is intermingled with packing bags for school and feeding animals. If I am lucky the kids aren't awake yet and I can do most of that in peace.

A lot of the morning tasks are ritual, like opening the curtains, putting the kettle on and usually, going to the loo.

Whatever order I do things in, there are three things that I do (for myself) religiously every morning.

img cred

Drink hot water and lemon juice.

This is the first thing I do in the morning. Every morning. It's habit.

Drinking warm lemon water is supposed to aid digestion, be good for the immune system and liver. Lord knows my liver could do with all the help it can get!

What I do know is, it keeps me regular! Which must be good for my colon too (a little extra information you probably didn't want to know). Lemon juice contains Vitamins C and B6. With my history of depression and anxiety, the B6 is important. 

I squeeze half a lemon's worth of juice into a mug, then fill with hot water from the tap. It's at this time that I take my multi vitamins too.


Make a herbal tea

I have never been much of a coffee drinker, and when I was, I felt sluggish and weighed down. It just doesn't agree with me I don't think. That's not to say that I never have coffee. I was bought one the other day, by someone who didn't know my tendency for tea, so I drunk it anyway. Every now and then is OK with me, it's just not one of my habitual drinks.

I do however drink a lot of herbal tea!

Straight after I've had my lemon drink, I make a cuppa tea. Sometimes it's drunk while perusing Facebook, or making lunches for school, or watching the morning news. It depends how much time I have on my hands or whether the kids are up yet.


Eat breakfast

I always make and eat breakfast. My staple breakfast is porridge, with added goodness like pumpkin seeds, LSA, coconut and sesame seeds. Sometimes some dried or fresh fruit.

I always seem to fit it in before school drop off, even if it's a quick piece of toast or some fruit and yogurt. Porridge seems to keep me going until lunch time though, without dipping into the pantry. It's the space between lunch and dinner I have trouble with, and all the sweet crap I have in the pantry.

How does this differ or similiarise with your morning? 
Are you a coffee or tea person?
What is your weakness, when it comes to the mid afternoon slump?

An InLinkz Link-up

Lake McIntyre in spring time

This is one of the best places in town to get back to nature, especially in Spring time. I wouldn't leave the camera home, as there is so much beauty to capture.

I love seeing the changing environment, the birdlife, flowers, and also the changing levels of water. I've said it before, this has been one of the wettest years and we are just getting some nice spring weather now (thank you mother nature), so the lake has plenty of water.