Welcome to the blogspot of Melbourne writer, Elizabeth Jane

Welcome to the blogspot of Melbourne writer, Elizabeth Jane

Monday, January 30, 2012

Five More Fantastic Blogs

hundred and one things
toast for tea
fluent in 3 months
mocking bird don't write
Helen in Wales

Make sure you check them out.


The Rules for excepting the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:

Thank the person who nominated you. Tell 7 things about yourself, so that your readers may learn more about you, and nominate 15 other newly discovered bloggers, then let them know you nominated them.


Sunday, January 29, 2012

Food glorious food

Food glorious food,
Hot sausage and mustard
While we're in the mood
Cold jelly and custard
Pease pudding and saveloy
What next is the question
Fructose friendly it has to be
A gluten free sandwich!

The things I hate about day surgery

1) walking past the Hudson's cafe when you are fasting.
2) finding out your surgery is not scheduled until mid-day even though you have been told to arrive at the crack of dawn
3) trying to talk seriously to a man in a shower cap about your odds of waking up, and the fact that you have missed your morning coffee
4) looking for a quiet corner in which you might sit and do your Welsh lesson, only to be told that you MUST stay in the waiting room
5) thinking naked we are born and naked we depart as you change into your theatre gown
6) walking down the hospital corridor with your clothes in a shopping bag and your unstrapped sandals on your feet wearing your old black dressing gown which you washed specially for the occasion
7) lying in a corridor (let's call it what it is) behind a pale blue curtain, waiting and waiting
8) looking into the rheumy old eyes of the woman opposite and wondering how much it's going to hurt
9) squeaky rubber shoes
10) soap
11) disinfectant
12) running water
13) machines bleeping
14) the smell of the nurse's coffee
15) the rheumy eyed lady being wheeled away
16) knowing your next in line
17) thinking yikes! This is it. My turn

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

My First Fabulous Five

Okay, here are my first Fab Five nominations for the Versatile Blogger Award, an eclectic mix - some completely new, some re-discovered (while I have been working on updating my feed-reader), and others I have been meaning to read for some time.

1. Five Star Friday
2. Mulberry Road
3. Reading the Past
4. From Hook to Book
5. Dusty Heaps


The Rules for excepting the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:

Thank the person who nominated you. Tell 7 things about yourself, so that your readers may learn more about you, and nominate 15 other newly discovered bloggers, then let them know you nominated them.


Sunday, January 22, 2012

Versatile Blogger Award

Last week, I found out that Meg Dunley had nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award.

Wow, I thought. What a lovely surprise. Someone actually read my blog - and found it interesting.

You never know do you?


The Rules for excepting the Versatile Blogger Award are as follows:

Thank the person who nominated you. Tell 7 things about yourself, so that your readers may learn more about you, and nominate 15 other newly discovered bloggers, then let them know you nominated them.

I have been slow to accept the award because life is so terribly itsy-bitsy during the January holiday season and also because I needed to work on my blog feed-reader. I decided to use the award as a motivator. I have been trawling blogs and working through a backlog of reading. I am not quite ready to nominate my Fabulous Fifteen yet, so keep watching. But I thought I may as well get the ball rolling by telling you seven things about me:

1. I was born in the summer - but, I celebrate my birthday in the winter

2. I became engaged at nineteen years of age, married at twenty, and had my first child before I turned twenty one

3. I had four children but only had three pregnancies

4. I am trying to write the next great Australian novel

5. I like silence, strong coffee and siocled (chocolate)

6. I learn Welsh

7. Self-doubt has been my life long companion
 
 I will work on the blog lists this week so please keep reading. But I just wanted to thank my nominator, Meg Dunley, and to point out that she has three blogs, and a travelogue. They are all worth reading:

Meg's Threads

Living Green and Thrify

By Meg's Pen

Monday, January 9, 2012

Mae periant bara gyda fi - I have a bread machine

Rhoidd ein plant i ni beriant bara am Nadolig – Our children gave us a bread machine for Christmas.


Yn gyntaf, ro’n i’n synnu gan y anrhegion – at first, I was surprised by the gift. 

Dw i ddim yn ‘domestic goddess’ neu ‘earth mother’ – I am not a domestic goddess or an earth mother. 

Dw i wedi bod gwybod i ddweud ‘best thing’ ac ‘sliced bread’ yn y un frawddeg – I have been known to say best thing and sliced bread in the same sentence. 

Ond y mwy meddyliais i e, y mwy wnes i sylweddoli  roedd e’n syniad da – But the more I thought about it, the more I realised, it was a good idea. 

Dw i ddim yn gallu bwyta gwenith – I can’t eat wheat. 

Prynais i bara arbenigedd a rhio e yn y rhwegell – I buy specialty bread and put it in the freezer. 

Ond fy ngŵr, Andrew, ddim yn hoffi bara wedi i rewi – But my husband, Andrew, doesn’t like frozen bread. 

Mae fe’n prynu bara ffres – he buys fresh bread. Ond wedyn, mae gormod o fara gyda ni – but then we have too much bread. 

Mae rhaid i ni daflu e yn y bin yn aml – we have to thow it in the bin often.

Roedd periant bara yn syniad da – the bread machine was a good idea!

Darllenais i llyfr gwydbodaeth – I read the information book. 

Wedyn, es i allan a prynu y blawd arbenigedd – then I went out and bought the specialty flour. 

Roedd amser yn dechrau – it was time to begin. 

Wnes i mesuro y blawd ac y ‘yeast’ yn ofalus ar fy nghlorian newydd – I measured the four and the yeast carefully on my new scales. 

Wnes i dywallt y dŵr mewn – I poured the water in. Ac wedi troi y periant ymlaen – and turned the machine on. 

Wedyn arhosais i ac arhosais i – then I waited and I waited. 

Cymerodd y periant pedair a hanner awr i bobi y bara - the machine took four and a half hours to bake the bread. Ond pan daeth e allan o'r periant roedd e’n berffaith – But when it came out of the machine, it was perfect.

Diolch yn fawr plant – thanks very much kids!

Mae'n ddrwg da fi am y llunia yn ddrwg - apologies for the bad photos (and Welsh). 

Dw i ddim gallu bod yn dda yn bopeth - I can't be good at everything. :-)

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

New Years Resolutions

If you haven't settled on your new year's resolutions, you may like to consider this little gem.


That's right. A book on Facial Fitness.  If you had a less worthwhile pursuit in mind: Stop right there!

Turn around.

Ignore the 365 Steps to Self-confidence.


And the Flat Belly Diet.


Ignore your racing blood pressure and your high cholesterol levels Forget that you have always longed to meditate. And that life-long ambition of playing the guitar.

It's time to head on down to the library and start tightening your smile.