I bought a letter box for myself on Fathers Day

How do you like my new letter box?

I've always wanted one of these stone letter receptacles and finally I have one. Bit of an impulse buy for myself on Fathers Day. Why should Dad have all the presents?

It was probably time. The old one was on the other side of the driveway, being engulfed by a daisy bush. I am sure it used to give the postie the shits, having to fight with a daisy bush, let alone our dog who is obsessed with barking at things with wheels. Or maybe it's just the postie. That aside when I tried to bend the metal pole to remove the old letter box, the rust had eaten it and it broke off straight away. Totally justified the 99 dollars I dropped on the new one.

There was some words thrown about concerning where the number eight should go, with me stating  it would go wherever I bloody well wanted it to. I've Tarzan gripped it there so it doesn't "move". 

Last night was spent at my sister's having dinner with Dad. Roast pork with all the trimmings. 

I love listening to Dad tell stories. He talked about the wolves in the mountains in Spain. How they would attack at night, that they wouldn't attack alone. If they came across you alone, they would howl to call for help with the kill. Scary shit. 

He said his first job out of the army was as a goat herder. They would leave at 8am and take the goats up the mountains, when the sun was high in the sky (noon), they'd start bringing them back down and lock them under the house for the night, so the wolves wouldn't get them. He'd seen lambs torn in half, like the wolves had used a knife.

In the army (which was mandatory) he became a chauffeur because he couldn't shoot for shit. They sent him to school for two weeks so he could pass his licence exam, and he drove generals and military big wigs around, mainly to pubs apparently. Well not mainly, but it did come up in conversation.

We remembered the time he made soup for us and stirred it with a plastic spoon, which melted and disappeared into the soup.  The time he made my nephews pancakes and used garlic powder instead of flour. They didn't get eaten. "These pancakes don't smell right Pop".

I'm glad I've written it here actually, because I am forever telling myself to write this sort of stuff down otherwise it's one ear and out the other, and one day he won't be around to talk about it. 

My Dad's mum had dementia, I hope he doesn't go down that path. But it's starting to seem like he is, according to Mum anyway, and she spends the most time with him. It saddens me to think he will not be my strong, invincible Dad forever, just a shell. I want to hear more stories.

An InLinkz Link-up

My phone and I have been living under a rock.

I have a Windows phone. For the last couple of years I have been using the Instagram Beta app. It is shit, it is not up to date and for the last month it hasn't even been working properly. Silly old me didn't even know there was an alternative, or bothered to look.

So over the weekend I googled an alternative, and there staring me in the face was an app called 6tag.

It is the most fabulous app for Windows phone Instagram users, that has filters I didn't even know existed! I feel like such a nit wit because I have been using a beta version of Instagram all along.

I am in love. I am up to date and in love.

It does have ads though and you have to pay a small price (like a few dollars) to get rid of the ads and be able to post videos (which I could never do with the beta version).

I love Instagram and I love that I can now use it better. I can't believe the new filters,  I know I already said that. I feel I have walked out of a time warp!

Mum had a huge garage sale over the weekend, my sister and I went and helped her out. Her and Dad like to go to clearance sales and they'd accumulated a lot of stuff. Dad likes to collect stuff. Every six months or so they have a garage sale.

Dad was in hospital the night before after a health scare, so he wasn't at the garage sale and Mum a little bit beside herself and grateful for the help. Dad is AOK, he's had a stent put in yesterday, the same time they were looking around inside him with a tiny camera. Pretty amazing what they can do these days. Ever so grateful of what they can do these days. We get to keep him a little bit longer.

I was a bit scared.

Instagram beta kept crashing on my phone and I didn't get to share my photo of later that day, when I was using my tea pot for one. I have a tea pot for one. It was left over from the sale and Mum let me have it. She 'let' me have a few things, I slipped ten bucks in the cookie tin till while she wasn't looking.

I am also loving my Dutch hoe. There's probably a few inappropriate jokes here, bound to insult a nationality and all women at the same time, so we won't go there.

It's a little hoe with a long handle. I've tested it out already in the garden and it's so cool. I can stand up and scratch weeds from the dirt, no bending down, no gloves, I don't get my hands dirty. Who would have thought I would be so excited about an old weathered broom stick with a rusty attachment at the end of it! I know.

Yesterday my sister and I, and our chainsaw yielding partners went and cut a heap of wood at the back of Mum and Dad's yesterday. It would take a load of Dad's worries when he gets back home, which shouldn't be too long now they worked out what's wrong, and fixed it.

An InLinkz Link-up

Egg #fmy52weeksofmemories

Easter Sunday morning. Crack of dawn. Isabel came into our bed. She laid there for ten minutes, then asked if she could wake her sister. I said as long as she did it gently. As soon as Isabel quietly mentioned the Easter Bunny to her, she was up!

There was lots of  "Oh my gods" about the foot prints and chocolate treats. Although it was early, it was exciting for me too. I didn't care that their breakfast consisted of Disney chocolate and Cadbury eggs.



Mum put on a pizza night for dinner and we left with our stomachs bursting. I am still getting over it.

The following photos were taken with my camera by Izzy. She likes to use my camera, I know I shouldn't let her play with it, but she loves taking photos and I don't want to discourage her. It could be her 'thing', and I quite like the images she produces from the angle of a six year old.

Are you right? Or are you left?

When I was a kid my dad asked this all the time. The only difference was the twist he put in the question. 

"Are you right. Or are you left?".

My answer was always the same. "I'm right".

In turn, out of habit, I ask Izzy the same thing. The same way. And I get the same answer.

It only occured to me after asking her, that saying "I'm right" all the time, may not be a good thing. Am I conditioning her to always say "I'm right"?

I have to wonder if it is a good thing. I tend to have a 'She'll be right' mentality.  I do believe I am a fabulous optimist, most of the time, with a can-do outlook. 

I am one of those people that, when asked how I am, have the same stock standard answer. "Good Thanks!". Even when I am not. I am the eternal smiler. That smile though, covers a lot of emotion.

There was a chaplain in the mill I used to work at. I'd see him coming, and I knew he was heading for me. Sometimes I just didn't want to talk to anyone. But he'd come up and say with a big beaming smile, "Hello Smiley". I am guessing he knew. He knew the smile was a front, that I was one of those people he needed to talk to the most. I was nice to have that short little chat though. God bless him.

I have to wonder if saying "I'm right", for so many years, has just become the norm and I don't speak up enough when I am not alright.

I don't like to think that my Dad had something to do with that, I am sure he didn't. Dad has been my rock, always. Sometimes all it takes to feel loved, is for someone to ask "Are you right?". Really ask. It doesn't really matter about the left bit. It always made me feel important.

I guess the most important bit, is that when I ask Izzy, I really listen to her answer. I'd like to think if she gave me the stock standard answer, and I was really listening, I would know if she was really left. 

So how are you? Are you right. Or are you left?

Do you have idioms you've gained from your parents and repeated them with your kids?

An InLinkz Link-up

Dad's hot red wine

I know for shizzle I am so over being sick this week. Sick of us all having a cold. It really does suck. What's worse is, no one gives a shit I am sick. There is no one to look after me! Except me that is. 

I know I still forgot to buy tissues. Summer and I used a full toilet roll between us on Wednesday. Summer got a hold of a full toilet roll yesterday when I wasn't looking and unravelled it all over the kitchen bench.

I know it's a public holiday on Monday(God save the Queen). I wonder when the Queen isn't Queen anymore we will stop having the Queens holiday. Will it be King Charles' birthday? The 14th of November. That would be cool. My son will have a public holiday for his birthday! But not cool because the Queen will be dead, or retired. I remember when the Queen's mother died. We were staying in a caravan park. Jake and another boy ran around the park yelling, "The Queen mothers dead, the queen mothers dead". Sigh....., memories.

Having been sick this last week, reminded me of the hot wine drink Dad used to make. He swears by it, and recommends it to treat a cold or cough. 

The only problem is I had no idea how he made it. Funnily enough the day after I reminisced about it, he asked me if I had 'done the wine'. 

Now Dad said to just boil the wine with some honey for a couple of minutes and then drink it.

However, as always, Mum puts her two bob in, and corrects him. She says to put in a tablespoon of butter and then set it alight to burn off the alcohol.

Although I do remember seeing Dad light up the wine when I was a much younger girl, after I had boiled the wine for a couple of minutes, I couldn't get a flame from it. I do remember having a taste when I was a kid, making this and drinking the cup brought back good memories of smells and tastes.

It's supposed to be drunk as a nightcap before bed. It's warming and soothing, and according to Dad, you should wake up feeling great.

1 cup red wine

1 big globby tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of butter or marg

Place all in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Let boil for a couple of minutes.

You can try light it up if you'd like. 

Tip the saucepan to the side and use a lighter at the edge or use a match. Be careful.

Serve in a heat proof glass or mug. Enjoy the warmth.

Memories with Dad #openslather

Dad came for a drive to Beachport for the October long weekend market. I was so glad he agreed to come. 

Mum had been away for almost two weeks over in The Gippsland visiting with and looking after my nephews while they were on school holidays and their parents worked. I dropped in to clean up the house and to make sure he had some homemade food to eat. It's not like he can't cook things for himself, he can, but I like to spoil the old bugger.

Check out the mutton chops, he's had those for as long as I can remember, since
Tom Jones had them probably, and his trademark hat. It used to be towelling ones :)

He in turn spoils the grandkids, all of them! He now has more time he is retired and my girls probably get to spend more time with him than the others did, and they adore him. 

While we waited for our fish and chips, Dad got them a ball each out of the $2 machine and played with them, they were in hysterics and so was he.  He does this thing where he throws his hat on the ground in jest, they crack up at his silliness.

As we ate, Boggy asked Dad about his family in Spain. I had to turn and pretend I was getting something out my bag as I blinked away tears when Dad said he hadn't seen his little brother since the age of seven. My uncle lives in the south of France now. Dad has two sisters still in Spain, and a brother, my Uncle Roger, who lived next door to us growing up. He's still in Australia. 

Dad left Spain after his mandatory national service in the army, so he would have been about 21 I think. He spent some time in England, as a porter(yep! I'm thinking Manuel from Fawlty Towers lol) and then came to Sydney in 1964(I think).

Dad has no plans to go back to Spain, he wants to remember it the way it was when he left. I wish he would go back.

On the drive home Dad asked with a laugh in his voice if I remember the Toyota Dyna we used to have. How could I forget! It was a faded rusty red double cabin, tray top truck. It's motor was under the front seat, and I recalled the time smoke started coming from under the seat and there was bedlam as Mum pulled over and five screeching kids jumped out. 

I will never forget when we first moved and Dad drove straight through town, like The bloody Clampetts, with furniture piled high. My sister and I sunk down in our seats in the desperate hope no one saw us, with Madness probably coming out of the cassette player. It's the only music I remember hearing in that jalopy.

I then recalled the time the bonnet flew off the Bedford van while we were careering down the highway. Mum had a few choice words about Dad that day. Boggy then chirped in with "What sort of cars did you have?", with a bellowing laugh, which had Dad proudly admitting that he never spent more than $400 on a car. He probably would have got more for his money in the 70s and 80's than he would have now. It's no surprise then just before Mum and Dad sold their business, Mum went out and bought a new Holden, she had waited a lot of years for a brand new car!

Dad went on laughing as he recalled the piglet incident. He had bought a piglet to fatten up and put it in the back of the station wagon in a cardboard box, only to have it escape while waiting at the main traffic lights in the Mount. He says he will never forget the sound of that pig squealing along with five kids and a wife screaming too. Bloody funny......now.

Don't you love it when all the funny family memories get rehashed? 

It's one of those special things about being part of a family.

Stuff with Dad

It's chorizo time again #openslather

My brother Auto was flown to Adelaide early last week, he's a bit crook. Thankfully he will live to fight another day, as long as he looks after himself. Mum drove up with his girlfriend and is still there. 

Right before she left Mum had minced an entire pig and added all the flavours, ready to make chorizos. I'm not sure of exact measures, but this entails soaking garlic in white wine overnight, then adding to the meat with lots and lots of paprika.

My sister and I, the kids and Boggy, turned up to give Dad a hand on Wednesday night. We got half way through the mince and I returned on Thursday to help him finish it off. 

All my kids are crazy for these chorizos, they are seriously good. I fried a bit of the mince up for lunch, Dad and I laughed as Summer and Izzy scoffed it up. If Jake had been there it would have been and all in brawl.

I helped Dad last year too, as Mum was working, she left her cleaning job about a month ago. Just as well, and it's weird the way things work out, with her having the time free to go be with Auto. Worrying about and breaking down when things happen to your kids is never easy, no matter how old they get.

I really loved doing the chorizos with Dad again. It's the same recipe and the same way he used to do with his family in Spain years ago. I know it meant a lot to him, to have his family helping just like he helped his.

String, lots and lots of string. We used almost four boxes.

Dad has just spent the weekend in Adelaide with Mum, he flew home last night. I talked to Mum yesterday, she said the first thing he will do is open up the shed and check on his sausages. I can imagine the first thing he'll do is light the little wood oven to help dry them out a bit. Just like last year too, he'll light a little fire beneath them in an old plough disc to smoke them a little. 

In a few weeks I can imagine him dashing across the road with a few cured salami chorizos for the old italian ladies when they are on their daily walk. Everyone loves them.

My legs and butt were feeling it the next day after going up and down that ladder

God save the Queen

If you didn't see my last post, my first Sunday Session, then you didn't see the awesome Freddie Mercury vid. It made me realise how great Queen were. If you haven't had Freddie Mercury aka Queen belting out your car stereo full blast and sang along in full gusto, then you haven't lived!! (Feel free to let yourself go and join in joyful chorus at any time) ;P

I have fond memories of my dad chiming in when the lotto ads played "I want to break free', with a joyful and happy "cross lotto!". I swear without my dads weekly punt he would be lost, his greatest joy is announcing a tiny cheque in the mail nowadays from SA Lotteries :) Love him to bits xx

Turn it up now!!

Slippery dip with Dad

Mum and Dads chorizos

Got a phone call from Dad, he needed some help to tie the pork sausages up. These are not any ordinary sausages, they are mum and dads spanish chorizos. 

We have grown up with them, my son loves them, Isabel loves them, everybody loves them. The mince is mixed with paprika, garlic, salt and white wine, left overnight and then put into the casings.

Mum was in bed, she didn't get much sleep and had to work later that day, and the chorizos needed tying and hanging up. We were half way through eating our lunch at home when he rang, so we progressed our lunch to dads shed.

After a long working life, Dads hands aren't the best at tying fiddly string, he sections up the sausages and I tie string, lots of string! I really enjoyed spending time with him, he reminisced about doing this with his mother in Spain when he was a kid. Now he has retired we see a lot more of him, and I loved that my girls were there too, participating in a family tradition.

Brett is still on time off work, and he came half way through to help. It took us nearly three hours. They will hang here to dry out a bit, and Dad will put them in the smoke house for a couple of days.

This is a pork leg in salt, a familiar sight from my childhood too, only on a smaller scale. Dad used to have an old bath full of salt in his shed for salting pork. This will end up delicious proscuitto, Mum has some pancetta on the go too.

I brought home one sausage and some loose mince. We were having chicken wings for tea, so I stuffed some of them with the mince. I hung up the lone sausage in the kitchen to dry out and froze the rest. The flavour was amazing with the chicken. I freakin love the taste of this stuff, I wish you could smell it, taste it even, it really is the best!

Do you have favourite food traditions in your family? I'd love to hear about them.