I am fascinated by a recentish news article that discusses a proposition to change the laws of royal succession in the British monarchy. The idea is to change it to the eldest child of any gender, not just through the male line. Continue reading
I have been deathly ill recently.
After several days of sleeping I hauled myself to the Doctors office. I had to wait 45 minutes before seeing what appeared to be an ageing Chinese Shaman. Continue reading
Yep, another cop out post.
So, I’d post a photo of Casey, but I don’t have a recent one.
Instead, here’s a bearded model with a dog, who looks uncannily like a friend of mine. Continue reading
So I’m doing a filler post for today.
And it shall be a photo. Continue reading
I have done something very handy and useful for the first time in a long time Continue reading
Natural remedies!! I’m sure you have heard of a huge amount of these- old wives tales and the like.
A great many hold real value though, and if I have to choose between something in the pantry and a trek to the chemist and I am far more likely to at least try whats on hand first.
I am a great believer in using natural remedies first. I don’t like to pump my body full of crazy drugs with all their wacky side-affects. Not to mention I am super paranoid that when I really really need the phamaceuticals- they won’t work due to a built up immunity.
So! Here are a few that spring to mind:
Olive Oil- fixes dry achy feet. Spruces them up in a flash! Just rub it into the cracks.
Tea Tree Oil- Cures all manner of infections. It is a superior disinfectant. It cures tinea and can be dabbed on sores.
Emu Oil- pure emu oil that is diluted in warm water can be used as an all over body oil. It is said to cure stretch marks and skin problems.
Vicks Vaporub- This little bauty fixes colds! Rub on your chest and breathe easy. Its best to use before a hot steamy shower so it can really get into you. Also before bed. Vicks works great in conjunctions with a humidifier to help sick folks breathe at night. Vicks also works to soothe itchy insect bites with its miraculous cooling effect.
Natural Yogurt- Yogurt works against thrush. Apply topically for instant cooling and soothing benefits. Its good to eat yogurt when taking anti-biotics to help the good bacteria replenish istelf. Never underestimate yogurt. Its a wonder food.
Banana peel- works to heal plantar warts. I’m not kidding. Its just as good as creams. Peel a banana and hold some of the skin onto the wart for as long as you can. Continue until warts vanish.
Deoderant – stops mosquito bites itching. Make sure its an alcohol based one – or there will be no effect. You can always just use straight alcohol but I find deoderant has a much nicer odour!
Vegemite- Thats right good old Aussie Vegemit! Puts a rose in every cheeek! or rather- heals the ones on the insides. Rub vegemite on mouth ulcers and they will heal right up! Stings a bit- just so you are warned.
Metholated spirits- drys out coldsores. Also can be used to disinfect new peircings.
Let me know of any more natural health remedies you have!
This is my first chance at doing a Photo Friday post, and there’s a few photos of things that have made me happy that I want to post up. Hope you enjoy!
Black mountain and the tower looking it's prettiest at sunset.
There was the surprise our housemate compulsively built the day after we’d been playing with my Donkey Kong Jenga set.
Casa del Kong
And last but not least, a lot of people in my office received a surprise present from the Easter Bunny. And we still don’t know who it was. Mystery!
Hand-written message, hand-made box, and two eggs! Thanks Easter Bunny!
Hope you’ve all had a good Friday!
Ah Holidays! Always an adventure!
Here are some of Oracle Juice’s most memorable (in all the worst ways) travel experiences.
Dandanica –
My worst travel experience would be on my fifteenth birthday. I was on a family holiday in Tasmania. And the night before my birthday we went on a ghost tour in Port Arthur and I couldn’t sleep from terror.
So the next morning I had poor sleep, forgot it was my birthday, and didn’t get much in the way of good wishes because I wasn’t hassling people and we had to pack up and shift on a TEN HOUR DRIVE to get to the next destination in our tour.
We had crappy sandwiches for lunch in cold weather while sitting on a log , and shared a small square of fudge between the four of us, that I portioned out while bumping about in the car.
Come dinner time, I was choosing some pizza for dinner, and my dad was giving me the hurry up so he could go back to the motel room and watch some nerdy TV show. At the end of that, I had to hassle for SOMETHING written in my birthday card.
For presents I got a $4 book that I’d got a few days before to only have it then nicked off me to be returned as a gift, and a pair of socks.
Wow. Thanks family. Memorable trip that one! 😛
Jane –
I recently had a family trip to Perth for my cousins wedding. The holiday itself was lovely and the wedding beautiful but it was the actual travelling that really got it up there on the ‘worst list’.
The day began in the freezing depths of the Canberra Airport. It was 5:am. My uncle was jealous we had a newspaper and I felt the first stirrings in my stomach of what I presumed to be ‘early morning pangs of no breakfast/no sleep/pre-airplane nerves. We hit bad turbulance to Melbourne then had to wait for the connection to Perth. I had a coffee and a sandwhich. Bad. Idea. I then started to feel quite horrendously ill. I tried walking around and forcing myself to throw up. Nothing. I was ‘not quite sick yet’. But I could feel it getting worse.
We boarded the plane and I felt really sweaty. Then we got delayed on the tarmac, WHY!?!?!? We weren’t allowed to get out of our seats and I needed the bathroom NOW. When the seatbelt light went off ten horriffic minutes later I sprinted down the plane where the hostesses made me sit down. They said the light was only for them and I had to wait a few minutes. I’m not ashamed to say I cried a bit.
A few panicked minutes later they let me use the bathroom. After that I had the full unending sympathy of the Virgin Blue staff. I cannot thank them enough. They set me up on spare seats with free water, lemonade, pillows and blankets and checked on me every five seconds. I spent the first hour of the flight in the teeny weeny plane bathroom and the other three hours wishing I was dead and trying to reassure people I wasn’t dying. It was the. worst. trip. ever. I had the most extreme gastro I have ever encountered and no drugs. Apparently I was ‘freakishly pale’ and I fluctuated between burning and freezing. It was full scale fever time.
On the plus side I got oodles of free things! :p
When we set down in Perth to extreme heat it pretty much couldn’t get worse. And thanks to a time difference we were all asleep by 7pm.
I was pretty excited for the trip back- I was feeling fine! I even had a hearty congratualtions thrown my way for not causing a scene – thanks family. So naturally after a good plane ride, I disembarked in Canberra to come face to face with a nervous young Virgin Blue staff member informing me that red wine had exploded in my bag on the way over, and would I like some plastic bags? FML.
CaseyMichelle
I haven’t done as much traveling as some, but I’ve done a fair bit, visited some incredible places, seen some truly amazing sights, made beautiful new friends, tasted delicious food and drink. Most of my travels have been incredible! But like anything, not all of it was good.
The worst experience I ever had was in-between Greece and Italy. It was the first time I had been not only overseas, but also away from home for so long. One of my closest friends and I did a tour around Egypt then spent some time in Greece.
The whole thing was a bit of a culture shock for us and after our Egypt tour, we were by ourselves, nothing pre-booked, no transport already organized. We were traveling for three months and were determined to save our money and see as much as we could, we were also really nervous about being on our own and facing the language barrier.
We decided to take a ferry from Greece to Italy, and in a effort to save money, we didn’t book a cabin. Woooorst move ever! How were we to know that they were going to show an R rated movie with various violent sex scenes TWICE in the general seating areas annnd turn off the heating overnight!
There were other people who brought a whole BED with them! She laid out a doona then another blanket then another doona then a huge blanket over the top with pillows and everything. They looked SO comfortable!
To make matters worse there was a school group on the boat, groups of teens running around going back and forth from what I imagine were heated cabins looking all comfortable and refreshed.
We survived the trip and got off at Bari, a town in Italy. We stood around for a little while waiting for a bus that was supposed to arrive, before deciding to catch a taxi.
We ended up in a strange ‘hotel’, which seemed more like someones apartment that they had decided to convert into a hotel. They only took cash and the room just had a padlock on the inside….very strange
So lessons learnt
Jane’s Advice:if you walk into a room that smells of weed and you have to step over the beer bottles and remove the mens shirts to get to the bed its probably best to change rooms- or hostels!
Also- always pack panadol, gastro-stop, water and a small towel or cloth that can be easily transformed into a comforting headcloth!
Well, there are no fingers in it – this time!
This is actually my recipe for Italian Meatball Soup (or Minestrone plus meatballs). But last year, the first time I cooked it, I massively sliced open my finger whilst opening a can of tomatoes – and then bandaged it up and kept cooking. So, my friend, who I subsequently fed this meal, dubbed it Finger Soup. Then the next day I got stitches. But the soup was delicious!
Mmmm, finger soup/stew/casserole!
Finger Soup (makes A LOT, like about 9 serves)
Ingredients:
NB: Again, I make it pretty well onion and garlic free, so you you might want to add as much of that as you like.
A VERY large pot and most of the ingredients ready to go!
Method:
1. Get a very large pot to put all this in.
2. Cut up all your vegetables.
3. This is when you might cook the meatballs if you were worried they might not hold their shape in the pot (I cheated this time and used pre-cooked ones that I could chuck straight in the pot, because I usually give myself hand cramps making a kilo’s worth).
4. Tip stock and tomatoes into the pot and bring to the boil.
5. Skim the weird frothy bubbles off the top, if it bothers you. I forgot this time, and it seemed to cook away (although I did over-boil, so maybe that’s why).
6. Throw in meatballs, turn down to a simmer and cook for about 7 minutes.
7. Throw in pasta, vegetables, mushrooms, herbs, spices and red wine. Simmer for about 10 minutes, or until pasta is cooked.
8. Hey presto! Delicious soup! Serve with parmesan cheese and oven-warmed bread. Bellissimo!
Hmm, this finger soup is too hot. But tasty!
When I made the soup this time, I put it on the very large burner, and left it too high while simmering for the final part, and accidentally boiled away a lot of the water. This left me with two results: a) the soup turned into some stew/casserole; and b) I served it up really hot.
My housemate reviewed the Finger Soup, describing it as “scaldingly delicious.”
Oops!
I hope you enjoy this kitchen classic too! 😀
ORACLE JUICE 