mortiz044

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne? CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne. And surely you’ll buy your pint cup! and surely I’ll buy mine! And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne. At the stroke of midnight with fireworks exploding around us we joined hands and nannannaaad .....Auld Lang Syne.  It was a fitting end to a great night spent with friends in Palm Cove.   The theme of the night   was “The Great Gatsby” and as we walked into the decorated room we all gasped at the  lavish decorations.  We  were served a delicious theee course meal.  First course Prawns and Scallops with mango salsa on a bed of wakame salad. Second course alternate drop of Fillet Mignon or Twice cooked Duck. Third course house made Lavosh with cheese and fruit. Happy New Year to you all and may we all be blessed with health wealth and hap

Christmas 2018 is now done and dusted and as I now sit down and write this blog I wonder why there is so much commercialised hype surrounding this day.  We really have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and I was reminded of this by listening to Katherine who comes from a very strict Catholic background.  She described how her family celebrated Christmas in the Philippines with the whole day very much celebrating the birth of Jesus.  They have their Christmas celebration dinner on Christmas Eve and attend midnight church service.  Christmas day is very laid back but certainly another visit to church is expected. The gift giving is limited, as are the decorations. So different to what we can expect in Australia. Having said all that, I think it is lovely to be able to get together with friends and family, many of whom we only see once a year.  It was that way for us this year with Philips step-brother and his wife joining us for the Christmas break.  Our son and DIL were also going

It's just two weeks until the first of our Christmas guests arrive and I'm feeling just a little bit excited/nervous!  Excited to see the family but nervous at how busy it will be with all the cooking.  Fortunately for me my daughter in law is very proficient in the kitchen so I will be delegating. Something I'm not very good at :-( To me it is not Christmas without a Ham, Turkey (it used to be chicken) and Pork.  I've already ordered these three things and have intentions of preparing everything on Christmas Eve.  The ham will be already glazed and I will set the alarm early on Christmas morning to pop it in the oven so that we can have ham and eggs for breakfast.  My DIL makes a smashing Passionfruit & Champers cocktail that we will also have for breakfast.....just one glass for the cook! Lunch is Roast Pork and Turkey with all the trimmings.  I found some great recipes in last months Better Homes and Gardens magazine so I will be following that to the tee.  After

This week has broken temperature records right across tropical Queensland.  Cairns recorded it's highest ever temperature at 42.3 degrees and here at Julatten it got to a smouldering 40 degrees.  Our summer temperature rarely gets above 30 degrees so this was staggering. But the strangest thing for us was that there was almost zero humidity and so very much like living in Julia Creek again!  However it was really only one day that was uncomfortable and we spent most of the day in and out of the pool to cool down.  We never stayed in the pool for more than 5 minutes because our skin would have burnt badly.  We don't have any air-conditioning in our home because we designed the house to have cross breezes from any direction making ceiling fans adequate. This has been perfect for the past 12 years but we did ever so slightly regret our decision for that one very hot day.  The garden has really taken a hammering with the hot dry conditions and we have been watering non stop.  We ar