Cold Prevention

I haven't had a cold so far this year *touch wood*, but I've come close a few times. When I start getting a scratchy throat, like I did yesterday, I do two things: megadose on vitamins, and have a spicy stir-fry.

Vitamins
I don't take any vitamins at the moment, but if I do feel a cold coming on, I immediately start taking Cenovis Echinacea, Garlic, Zinc & C

source
I usually take two with each meal (approx six per day) for two to three days after I start feeling yucky. Apparently if echinacea is taken at the onset of a cold it can help reduce the cold's duration - works for me!

Spicy Stir-fry
My meal of choice is a Thai basil beef and chilli stir-fry. It all started about five years ago when I was feeling unwell and not up to making dinner. I bought a basil beef stir-fry from our local Thai takeaway, and the chilli and onions helped to clear out my sinuses. Since then I often make one when I start to feel a bit sinus-y. The last couple of times I've used Marion's Kitchen Thai Basil & Chilli Stir-fry meal base. The first time I made it according to the instructions on the packet (with red capsicum and beans as my vegetables), but found that the meat needed longer cooking time than 1 minute at the end of the stir-fry process (although I am cooking with an electric frypan at the moment) and it came out quite tough as a result. Last night I cooked the meat as I usually would for a stir-fry: browned it in batches at the start of cooking, removed it from the pan while cooking the other ingredients, then returned the meat to the pan when everything else was nearly ready. Much better!

And I'm feeling fine again today.

Do you do anything special to prevent a cold?

Painting Started

The electrician still hasn't come back to finish off the wiring (which means no oven or cooktop). Luckily we still have two working powerpoints in the kitchen so the electric frying pan and microwave have been getting a good workout. Rob has been making our espresso coffee on the wok burner on the BBQ.

In the meantime, I decided to make a start on the painting. You might remember that we originally had one green wall in the kitchen, with the adjoining wall a 'taupe' colour

Way back in April I put some prepcoat on the green wall as I was planning to paint it a lighter colour. This weekend I finally got around to painting the walls at that end of the kitchen. The first pic below was taken Saturday afternoon, with painters tape applied to the cornices so I didn't colour outside the lines. The second pic was taken on Sunday afternoon after the second coat of Dulux Clotted Cream.

The paint was still wet when I took the second pic, so it looks a bit patchy. It should look better once it's dry. I haven't painted below the windowsill as the splashback will cover that area. Speaking of windowsills, that's next on the list to paint.

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Plumbing Complete

Plumbing Complete

We have running water again in the kitchen - yay! The novelty of washing dishes in our teeny tiny laundry wore off pretty quickly.

So here's our new sink and tap. The sink is a Domsjo from Ikea. The Aquaport tap has a lever on the left side for filtered water, and a lever on the right side for regular hot and cold water

The dishwasher and gas cooktop have been plumbed in too but won't be operational until the electrician does his bit.

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Wiring, Plasterboard and Benchtops

Wiring, Plasterboard and Benchtops

Edited to add a pic of our new benchtops

On Thursday I finally ordered our new rangehood

The electrician also came in and disconected our old oven, put in wiring for the dishwasher and rangehood, and added wiring for a couple of new power points. We now have little holes all over our kitchen...

We discovered that area behind the old splashback was held together by...
masking tape

No plasterboard, just masking tape then the exterior brickwork. At this stage I realised I didn't have the time or resources to put in new plasterboard before Stuart came to install our benchtops, so I rang him and asked him if he would be able to put in some new plasterboard for us as well (he is a carpenter by trade). He agreed, so in the meantime I began fixing cabinets to the wall that had good plasterboard.

This morning Stuart came and took out the rotten board and masking tape and put in new plasterboard

Once that was done he modified the sink cabinet to fit our new sink, fixed the remaining cabinets to the new plasterboard and installed the wooden benchtops he made for us.

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No Exercise = No Appetite

I've been doing a lot of nothing since hurting my lower back. And as a result my appetite has significantly reduced. I'm not really interested in eating anything first thing in the morning, start to get hungry around lunchtime (have mostly been having soup as it's so cold here at the moment), then eat a regular dinner (spaghetti bolognese has featured a lot lately). I might have a snack in the afternoon or before bed, but that's about it. Rob commented yesterday that I looked like I'd lost weight, so this morning I got the scales out to see if he was right.

For about two years now I've been exercising regularly and usually eating pretty carefully (but way more than what I'm eating at the moment) and my weight has hovered around the 62-63kg mark.

I haven't done any exercise since Saturday (today was the first time I ventured out of the house) and haven't 'worried' about what I've eaten - I had a baked potato with butter before going to bed last night because that's what I felt like.

So what was the number staring back at me this morning? 59.7kg. Huh.

Delivery Damage, Plumbing & Heating

Delivery Damage
When our dishwasher was delivered I got the delivery guy to take the packaging off and take it with him. I'm not sure why I didn't do that when our new oven was delivered yesterday, but I wish I had. When I opened the box, here is the sight that greeted me:

The handle didn't look quite right, so I took a closer look:

Yep, a bent handle! I wrapped the box back around the oven and there it was, a ding in the packaging where the damage must have occurred:

Luckily it's just the handle that's damaged, so I'm waiting to hear back if I can get a replacement one.

Plumbing
We have been living with the sink like this for a while now

Today the plumber came in and took the old sink and tap out.

He then moved the plumbing slightly to the right in preparation for the new sink and tap

There's a bit of plasterboard there that's going to need replacing

Another skill for me to learn, LOL.

Heating
The plumber also moved the kitchen's gas ducted heating vent, which was sitting where we want our new cabinets to go.

Before, in the floor

After, in a new kickboard, which will have new cabinets sitting on top.

Tomorrow the electrician is coming (fingers crossed!)

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Frustrated

Warning: negative post ahead

I was feeling pretty happy on Friday last week. I finished an in-house contract job and was looking forward to having this week off while the tradies did their stuff in the kitchen.

On Saturday I injured my lower back. You know when you see someone on TV bend over then can't straighten up again? That was me - I bent over to pick up my socks and my back froze. I'd been doing far too much sitting (train travel, lunch breaks in front of the computer etc) and one of my lumbar discs decided to 'derrange' itself. I can't move much without feeling sore, tired or nauseous, so I've been lying on the couch watching lots of movies.

So far this week two of the tradies didn't turn up when they said they were going to so I've had to rearrange everyone else as each bit of work is dependant on what has gone before.

Today our new oven was delivered. The handle for the oven door is bent. Sigh.

Slowly Coming Together

Monday
Ordered our new oven

LG 600mm freestanding electric oven with gas cooktop

Tuesday
Our new dishwasher was delivered

Bosch, from Appliances Online

Wednesday
Lined up plumber, electrician and benchtop installation for week starting 6 June.

Thursday
Our new tap was delivered

Aquaport tap with built-in filter

Friday
In contact with draftsman about drawing up plans for the permit to take out a structural wall (I should have done this earlier).

Saturday
The ducted heating vent in our kitchen is being moved.

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SKINS A400 Review

A while back the people at SKINS sent me some gear to try out.

SKINS A400 Women's Compression 3/4 Tights

I trained for one week with without them, choosing three non-consecutive sessions I knew would give my legs grief:
1. a full-body weights session including pull throughs and split squats (12-rep sets)
2. a full-body weights session including squats and Romanian deadlifts (12-rep sets)
3. a 45-minute run including hills

Straight after doing my first weights session my glutes felt shaky. Twelve hours after I could start to feel DOMs in my hamstrings. Twenty-four hours after, DOMs had well and truly set in to my hamstrings, which ‘grabbed’ every time I moved. Forty-eight hours after I still had DOMs and it was time to train again. The second session didn't seem to have as much effect, possibly because the exercises were a similar style to the ones I had done in the first session and my muscles had adapted already.

The run hurt in a different way - tiredness in my quads and calves afterwards, then painful aching in my quads the next day. In a way, this was worse than the pain in my hamstrings, because they ached constantly, whether I moved or not.

I had a break from training for a couple of weeks while I was renovating, then I replicated the training sessions wearing the SKINS A400 Women's Compression 3/4 Tights.

After not training for a couple of weeks, I expected to feel similar effects from my weight-training sessions. Indeed, straight after doing my first weights session my glutes felt shaky. I decided to wear the tights for the rest of the day after training. Twelve hours after I could start to feel DOMs in my hamstrings. I decided to sleep in the tights. Twenty-four hours after, the DOMs in my hamstrings was only marginally worse, and forty-eight hours after it had diminished and I was ready to train again. So an improvement on the results without the tights. Once again, the second session didn't seem to have as much effect.

The run was where I noticed the biggest difference though. My legs didn’t tire as quickly, and even though I got changed out of the tights straight after my run, my legs didn’t feel as tired after the run as they did in the session without the tights. They next day there was no painful aching in my quads. One of the first things I noticed when putting the tights on was that they were quite firm around the knees, and I think that this compression effect made a big difference in helping my legs during and after the run.

I’ve worn the compression tights several times since for my runs, and would be happy to recommend them to others for the same purpose.

Recent Work on the Kitchen

Taking the skirting boards out where some of the new cabinets are going to go (the ducted heating vent will be moved)

Sanding and painting the timber kickboards that are going under the cabinets (the plan is timber floorboards, Dulux Antique White USA kickboards and cabinets, and timber benchtops)

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A Cockatoo Enjoying Our Apples

Awesome Weekend

Some of the food we ate over the weekend

back left: piquillo pepper stuffed with tuna salad, fetta salsa
back right: spanish chorizo manolete, guernica peppers
front: ceviche of yellow tail kingfish, orange blossom, lime

grilled octopus, soya marinated scallops, pork crumble, olive oil puree

slow roasted lamb shoulder, israeli couscous salad

Chilled new season pea soup with spanner crab, blood orange and salmon caviar

Scallop 'pasta', jamon and finger lime

Marron, witlof and vanilla

Caramelised black kingfish, braised pork belly ravioli, shimeji mushrooms and parsnip puree

Baked aged Gympie goat's cheese, brioche and local figs

I particularly liked the ceviche of king fish and the soy marinated scallops (so tender), the israeli couscous (bigger and rounder than normal couscous - great texture), the pea soup (the crab in it was nice but I loved the pop of the caviar), the marron (freshwater crayfish, which I hadn't tried before - it has a similar texture to a balmain bug), the parsnip puree (I'm going to try replicating this at home) and the goat's cheese and figs (great combination).

Happy Anniversary!

Just finished editing a 120,000-word chapter on Sydney and New South Wales for Lonely Planet. I am taking a well-deserved four-day weekend with my hubby to celebrate our anniversary. We have been together 17 years today. We got married on our 10-year anniversary.

Pics: Thurtell Photography

Back in Business!

Had a bit of drama on Monday morning. Turned on my laptop and it wouldn't do anything. Turns out my hard drive was damaged (don't know how, as it was working fine on Sunday night). I had a couple of days of panic as I had been a bit lax in backing files up recently and was worried about losing 19 hours of work (that I REALLY didn't want to have to do again) and a few months' worth of photos. Luckily the tech guy at the shop I bought the laptop from was able to recover all my files, and then replaced the hard drive. Big PHEW!

Now I have about four days' worth of work to catch up on...

And just to be on the safe side, I've bought an HP Simple Save external hard drive for my laptop - it just plugs in via a USB and automatically backs up my files any time my computer is idle for more than five minutes.

Taking the Rangehood Out

Hope you had a great Easter!

Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to...

Getting quotes for our benchtops
We decided on Tasmanian Oak. Click here to see some examples.

Going out to Movida Aqui for our birthday
The highlight was our entree of slowly braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez on cauliflower puree - it was melt-in-the-mouth tender and absolutely delicious.

Here's a pic of our main, Paella de Marisco (Bomba rice cooked with seafood and saffron):

Taking the rangehood and splashbacks out
Before

After

All of the old cabinets are out now, apart from the area around the sink, but that is going to wait until the benchtops are nearly ready (in about three weeks). The old sink will come out, the plumbing will be moved, the new sink cabinet will go in, the benchtop will go in, then the new sink will go in and be reconnected.

Ripping the kitchen out has been my 'weight training' lately, but I've been doing some sort of cardio at the gym Monday to Friday.

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Taking the Pantry Out

I went to the gym a bit later this morning, so my 45-minute treadmill session went uncommented on - thank goodness!

Today I attacked the other side of the kitchen, taking out a base cabinet and wall cabinet, the cupboards over the fridge, and the pantry (to the right of the fridge).

Before

After

It's tiring work!

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Taking the Breakfast Bar Out

This morning I did some incline walking on the treadmill at the gym. There is a 20-minute time limit on the equipment, and most of the equipment is set up so that it automatically times out after 20 minutes. If it's quiet in the gym and I want to use something for longer than 20 minutes, I usually restart the machine at the 20-minute mark and keep going.

Today I used a treadmill I hadn't been on before and it didn't time out after 20 minutes. There was another other treadmill free, so I decided to keep going on the one I was on, since there no-one was waiting to use a machine. After I had been going for 37 minutes I heard the woman on the treadmill behind me get off, walk up behind me (to see what my console display said), then go back to her machine. Then I heard the muttering begin: 'Thiry-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble. Thiry-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble'. I couldn't make out exactly what she was saying, but I could gather she wasn't happy about the amount of time I was spending on treadmill. I couldn't work out why, since she was on a treadmill, and there were other machines free.

I finished up at 45 minutes, then spent a couple of minutes cooling down before jumping off. As I walked away I could hear the woman saying 'Forty-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble. Forty-seven minutes! Grumble, grumble'.

I stretched quickly and left the gym, but it wasn't a great start to my day to (literally) have someone talking about me behind my back. And this from a woman who runs on the treadmill while holding onto the console.

Any suggestions about what to do if she does it again?

---

Before the new kitchen cabinets can go in, the old ones have to come out. I have this week off work so today I took out the breakfast bar and surrounding cabinets.

Before

After

I will call the plumber tomorrow about getting the pipes capped so I can take out the sink and remaining cabinets.

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