Tomato - itis

Of all the people to fall fowl to an accidental lack of sunscreen; the least likely would be the Irish skinned Lime having grown up here and also being my chief lecturer in my own application of sunscreen. You would think...

A post Christmas round of golf went awry as he forgot to sunscreen his legs. 2 days later he has cankles from the swelling and is rather 'sensitive' shall we say. There is limping. Some groaning. Difficulty with anything touching te legs an general radiating warmth coming from them.

To top it off the tomato ness has added to the symptoms and suffering of a man on the verge of man flu. Or at least a chest infection. (I'm praying it won't become full blown manflu). This is being blamed on skype. As both ma and pa marsh have been sick with lurgy of late. And Lime saw them both. Through skype. So skype is at fault I have been told!!

So between the hobbling and the coughing my man has Tomato itis. If your man starts suffering from this contact me for tips and tricks. Cold cloths and super duper strong nurofen work well and are complimented by cough medicine (the drowsy option is best if available).

Fun times.... Which has unfortunately meant our Christmas time off involving loitering around the house. We have an exciting new year planned involving sitting on the couch or directly in front of the aircon with the mercury rising and expected at 36 by Sunday... With a sick man too. Yey...

Happy New Year! x x

Something small and shiny?

Lime asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Amongst my list was a basket for my bike. So I can take picnics on our bike rides. The usual fabulous variety of Lush produce presented in a keeps box/tin. But that was pretty much it as we bought each other bicycles as early Crimbo pressure in September.

On that note - last Saturday I saw my first wild blue tongue lizard. And I gave his head a good stroke while he struggled to nibble at lime. This wa the point Lime demonstrated to hold the lizard behind his front legs so he couldn't get the leverage to reach round and bite you. I don't think he understood we weren't going to kill him. I just wanted to pet him and we wanted him out of the way in case the next cyclist suspected him of being a branch and safe to cycle over. Silly lizard.

Anyhoo, so yes we bought bikes. So for Christmas we are on a set limit. And Lime said to me "you like all shiny small things". Yes, yes I do honey - you can buy these really pretty small shiny circular shaped items which have transparent rocks attached to them - small. And shiny. Winner!

Then I get a text soooo much better. With the tag 'Merry Christmas'. We have a new latch on the gate to our units. Oh my god this is fabulous!! We have been woken twice in just one night by our lazy arse neighbors who can't be bothered to bolt the gate. And the prevailing Melbourne winds slam that gate repeatedly, irritatingly and noisily.

The lazy arse neighbors live far enough from the gate to not be woken, irritated or even mildly concerned over te gates unbolted issues.

For 18 months we have been promised a 'fix'. Well we have had one. It is called Lime the saviour. Lime the handyman. Lime 'I will invoice the building managers' McDonnell.

And he bought me a fabulous present both shiny and small that I shall cherish for as long as we live in this unit. Which was the bargain price of $4.95. (he will need to spend more than that one day for a small shiny present...) ;o)

Merry Christmas!

Sangria... It makes me happy...*

*Please sing the above to the tune of the Tequila song!

Every year for summer our Melbs version of Borough Market opens late on Wednesdays to help us locals get over hump day. And we do this with large sangrias! Unfortunately they mask their light alcohol content with cloves so you're tricked in to thinking there is more in it!! Lime did not like his sangria so I got his too - yey!! And between us we ate from the Nepalese, German and cupcake stalls and stopped for some gelato on the way home. Yum. And almost bought me a necklace but we forgot to get cash on the way and had spent it all on food. Maybe next week I'll take a photo of the ATM queue to demonstrate why you get cash out before you get to the market...

So be it.

I have a feeling this is a sign that I may be killed by champagne cork...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

On a dull and otherwise normal Friday night - Lime and I jumped in the car and headed to a little unknown place called Shoppo (Westfield Doncaster).

We trudged around for hours (maybe only half of one hour) between Big W, Target, Coles and David Jones. "Too thin" "too thick" "too fake" "too green". No tree was good enough for Liam ad his stiff requirements for a fake tree. But there it was... It was away from the other trees, sitting on a display covered in brightly colored glass baubles with mini red babushka dolls dangling. It looked perfect - and they had more in stock - yey!

It took about 20 minutes to get it out of the store. There was a snow globe incident with an 8 year old (I'm sorry Pp & Dee- but there is now one less snowglobe in the world) and the mess those big things make when split open on a department store floor...

But here it is. My baby. Who is a foot taller than me. It took an hour to fluff and position each individual branch (they weren't attached to the trunk in the box) and then I waited til the next morning to decorate with Christmas music (Liam was out).

I'm thinking a few giant baubles to make it pop. And maybe some more garlands (not tinsel).

T'is Christmas people! And without Clare to help save me from a hundred baby spiders hatches from my tree (this actually happened last year) - the way forward is fake! No earwigs! No spider eggs! Good times!

Gluttonous Gluten

I know two people who are officially coeliacs. And a couple more who choose to not eat wheat or gluten.

Many moons ago there was a dinner cooking incident where my dinner plans were thrown in to turmoil by sausages with 'rusk' listed in the ingredients. I wrote a hearty email to said producer of the only wheat free sausages I found. As of course rusk is made with wheat. Said producer was apologetic but did not compensate me.

In the quest to feed Donna it has never been hard, you just don't cook sausages you have steak instead etc. But in more recent years, I loved the ease at which I could buy gluten free breadsticks from tesco's or sainsbury's.

I may have aired my disappointment a few times at the limited choice in our Aussie supermarkets in comparison to the UK ones. But then what do we need ten different types of the same cream of tomato tinned soup for anyway?! (please don't remind me I said that next time I'm whinging).

But one thing they have oodles of is gluten free. It's like Australia was invented for Donna. The butcher is predominantly gluten free. Some of our local cafe's have a whole menu just for the coeliacs (or fussy) amongst us. And the supermarkets and bakers too.

Britain needs to catch on more.

But Donna, let me assure you - when you get to visit me in Ausland I will have a whole variety of snags on the barby! None of which (unlike that dinner many moons ago) will cause any coeliac complications!!

(and obviously a large selection of gluten free pastry yumminess!)

The best t-shirt ever?

Hell yeah!

I have made it more appropriate to Aussie weather for me - with sleeves cut off. As opposed to Christmas themes jumpers in England.

But I think it speaks beautifully. And I'm not sure how I've survived so long without one!