I don't know what possed me, but the other day something reminded me of the show A Country Practice (ACP). This was the kind of show that if you weren't watching it, your tv must've been broken! According to Wikipedia ACP had "8-10 million viewers weekly". At the time the Australian population was 15 million. It aired from 1981-1993 on channel seven and 1994-1994 on channel 10.
ACP launched the careers of many Australian actors, some who are still acting today. I found a few episodes online and just had to watch them, oh my god! You don't realise how much society both changes and stands still as time passes!
One episode I watched featured Brendan the male nurse, he was referred to as a p00ft@ by a patient who also then continued to refer to him as girly for the remainder of the episode. Could you imagine if this kind of dialogue was aired today?!?
The other episode I watched featured a woman who was ill, she stated that she knew that there was no more that modern medicine could do to make her comfortable and when the pain became too much, she would take an overdose of her pain medication. She went on to say that it was her body, her choice and that animals aren't allowed to suffer at the end the way she will. Thirty years on and we're still having this same conversation!
Between all the drama happening in the hospital and out on the farm, some snippets that had me either in awe or laughing like a lunatic were that every time Shirley was at home - usually under her pyramid, she was downing glasses of wine like water and lighting up cigarettes at every given opportunity LOL! One episode had a number of the actors performing CPR on a patient, lol they all looked like they were convulsing!!! Then there was Frank, the police officer, he attended a car accident. There was an open can of beer in the car of which he tipped out. The"beer" was so clearly water lol They could've added some food colouring lol
I might go and see if I can find some more retro tv shows to watch LOL!
Thanks to the current run of disgustingly hot days, I've done some work on my Old School Is Cool cross stitch from CloudsFactory. As I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't have all the floss colours required for this project, so I purchased the ones required online. Now, this isn't a whinge about paying for postage because I have no issue whatsoever with that, it's a bit of a whinge about the size of the parcel!
So I purchased nine skeins of floss from Spotlight. Now unless you're ordering a huge amount of floss, it pretty much weighs nothing, however, it arrived in a 3kg bag!!!! Not only did the postage cost almost as much as the contents, but nine skeins could have been posted in a much, much smaller bag. Apart from the ridiculous price of postage, imagine how many people aside from myself are purchasing floss online from Spotlight and are being posted this size bag, which is then thrown into general rubbish and goes into landfill! In the future, I'll no longer be ordering floss from Spotlight unless I'm purchasing other items which require a box that can be recycled.
Rant over, onto my progress. I've finished one out of five cassette tapes and started a second. I still haven't decided what titles I'll put on them as yet, but as those are backstitch and I leave that until the very end, I've still got plenty of time to think about it.
This is my first-time stitching on opalescent aida and I'm not sure I'll stitch on it again. You can't see the sparkles in the photo, but they're there. Some of the sparkles are also over the holes and create some resistance on the needle and to the floss. The aida itself also has a sticky feeling, liked it's coated with hairspray... Who knows? Maybe by the time I finish, the feeling will no longer be an issue for me.
Our new Annette Sym - Symply Too Good To Be True recipe books arrived as well, we also ordered the Healthy Snack Bible and for some reason, it was missing from the order, so I've emailed them about this. Apart from this book being missing, the newly revised editions are great! Both the photos and instructions are clearer, and the nutritional information tables have extra information as well. So if you're wanting to change your diet as well as controlling your portion sizes, I can't recommend these books enough!
Just as the title says! Wow, so far I've posted twice as many times as I did last year lol Given I only posted once last year, I'm not going to rehash everything that's happened from March 2017 to now.... That would just be silly! I may write about certain things, but only those that stood out.
So what's happened recently? I finished a cross stitch that I started sometime last year. It's called Primitive Ouija Board and it's from CloudsFactory. I love their designs, you can choose something as for a quick weekend stitch or something that will take a bit longer. Plus they're downloadable. This one's stitched on 16 count "Ancient" aida from Picture This Plus. I was really happy with the end result. I did take the picture above before washing and ironing it, which I'm yet to do.
I looked for an Ouija board design for ages until I discovered this one. As soon as I saw it, there was no hesitation lol
Since finishing the Ouija board I've purchased another design from them called Old School Is Cool, I love the "rewind" pencil lol
It also comes with an alphabet chart so that you can create your own cassette labels.
I wanted to add an extra bit of 80's daggyiness to this piece, so instead of stitching on the grey coloured aida, I purchased "Ballerina" Opalescent from Sew It All Australia. It's a fluro pink colour with silver opalescent sparkles through it.
I started it last weekend. I have about half the floss colours required, I could've exchanged some of the colours for ones I already own, but it just wouldn't have looked the same, so I've ordered the floss I need which should arrive this week.
It's currently summer here in Australia, so why am I inside stitching and not outside in the sun? Because it's too damn hot! We've had a run of days from the high 30's to mid 40's. Thank god for air conditioners!
Catch you next time!
My poor, poor blog! Only one post last year and none in 2016! What can I say? 2017 kept me busy and quite preoccupied. I plan on making a more concerted effort this year to blog. Trust me, there were many times last year when I wanted to blog, however, I chose not to as I didn't want to commit to re-starting when I wasn't sure I could follow through lol
So committing to this blog for 2018 isn't a new years resolution, I don't do those lol I do however set goals!
So what are some goals for this year? Well, my first two are:-
1) Making an effort to write posts for this blog even if they're about absolutely nothing (just so the blogosphere knows I'm still alive and kicking because I know you all fret when I'm not about lol) :)
2) Lose weight. Yeah I know this starting to sound like a resolution lol It isn't! I've never been one to be overweight in the past, but I am now and changes have to be made. I'm not talking about going on a diet because diets are temporary and "fadish", I'm talking about making a sustainable lifestyle change (to quote a friend). I'll add more goals as I go along, that's the difference between goals and resolutions, they're not set in concrete, they can be added, changed or removed completely.
How am I planning on my lifestyle change? Well, prior to owning the shop my wife and I used to cook from Annette Sym cookbooks. Somewhere along the line we cooked less of her food and ate more junk or became a little blase with our diet. The long hours of owning the shop - I believe had quite a bit to do with this.
We own books 1-7 of the original versions and they were all revised at the end of last year, so yesterday we purchased the full set of the revised editions. You're probably wondering what's so special about her books? They're no fuss recipes, the ingredients used aren't obscure - use them once and push them to the back of the pantry type ingredients, each recipe has a Nutritional Information Table, there's a wide range of cuisines, they contain recipes for snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sweets, cakes, drinks, etc. Last but not least, her books are endorsed by Diabetes Australia.
I think one of the problems today surrounding food and diets is that there's so much information at our fingertips online. The issue is that it isn't all correct! Everyone wants a quick fix and that's what so many of the fad diets promise. To be healthy, it just takes a bit of common sense. For our body to function correctly, it needs to be nourished properly. Forget the low fat, high fat, no sugar, high protein, no protein diets. They're simply not sustainable! Look at portion control and eating a wide variety of veg, fruit, protein etc. As well as getting up off your butt and moving a bit more. Food is the fuel that powers your body, a cliche I know, but it's true. For the record this isn't a sponsored post, just my experience in using Annette Sym's "Too Good To Be True" recipe books. If you're interested in what she has to offer, there are some sample recipes on her website.
Okay, I'm outta here! I'll catch you next time!
