a 'decadent' day...

yay – i’ve got absolutely nothing planned today!!!

the weekend’s been quite busy… had to do some shopping for me mother on saturday morning 'cause she didn’t feel up to getting down the street – she’s having bad effects from one of the medications she’s been on - spiriva for her copd - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – knocks her about for most of the day, and on reading the information that came with it apparently people with kidney disease and glaucoma maybe shouldn’t take it – she has both of those 'conditions' as well – way to go alfred hospital renal department – now that sounds competent!!! i spoke to her this morning though and she's rejigged when she takes this one until she goes for a check up next week and was feeling much better...

here's a photo of me mum with me brother at 5 months (big fucker wasn't he!! - i need to record my mother telling her story about his birth - it's priceless!!!) - that would make it june 1952... and i thought i'd 'throw in' one of her mum with their beautiful spaniel honey - that would have been in the very late 50s or early 60s because i remember honey and recognise the house in highett where they were living at the time - although it looks like there's another dog (that looks very much like my allie) on the verandah - but i don't remember them having 2 dogs at the one time...

talking of allie, my beautiful old incontinent girl keeps me busy – I’m forever mopping up piss and washing towels!!! a small ‘price’ really for her years of companionship, love and loyalty – but it can get you down sometimes – but there is only limited time for depression and self-pity – coming from a working-class background of battlers and survivors I learnt early that you just have to ‘pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get on with life' – until the next crisis anyway... and of course there's shadow too - he has needs and demands on my time as well!!!

the malmsbury mob came down saturday evening and stayed the night - it’s always pleasurable to have irene and the gang visit – i get to see my louie boy… we laughed, smoked and enjoyed the poodles antics…i made us a yummy pasta that we had with some beautiful sourdough bread...

the contract for the land is being signed this week so we’ll know when settlement will be at that point – either 30 or 60 days - and then we’ll be able to move ahead with the ‘retreat’ design and plans… we’re still ‘umm-ing and ahh-ing’ about which design and company to go with but i’m really excited about it - it’ll be new, and it’ll be my home!!!!

sunday morning meant a run over at the leash free park for the poodles – where we met montgomery the beautiful cinnamon coloured standard poodle – and did he love meeting up with the poodle pack – poodles just love other poodles no matter their size!!!! then we met and cried with another womon who had recently lost her old dog, her companion of 15 years, to cancer – but she had just rescued a wee little terrier cross so we shed a few tears of happiness for the lucky little girl!!! a weepy start to the day - you just never know what a walk to the park will unveil!!!

time for the gang to go home then and me to psyche myself up and get ready for work – at least I only had to go to AP so the shift was only 3 ¾ hours – and it turned out to be a nice cruisy shift this weekend (unlike last Sunday!!!) so we got pretty much all of the shelving done – now that doesn’t happen very often these days!!!

so here it is monday morning - i’m blogging, having a smoke and thinking about making some decadent chocolate truffles or rum balls (recipes below) before i relax with either a movie or a book – haven’t decided yet… but that’s not until after I do some ‘domestic shit’ - after that sheer decadence is the order of the day!!!

Decadent chocolate truffles

• 1 x 8 ounce container nondairy cream cheese
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 cups nondairy semisweet or dark chocolate chips (or any high-quality chocolate), melted
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Ingredients for coating truffles (see below)

In the large bowl of a food processor, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add confectioners' sugar, 1 cup at a time, until well blended. Add melted chocolate and vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight. The longer you refrigerate the batter, the easier it will be to roll into perfect balls. However, it will definitely require elbow grease to scoop them out.

Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate again if the batter is too soft, especially if your kitchen is warm. Use a strong spoon or melon baller to create uniform sizes.

Once rolled, either send balls back to fridge or coat in any of the following:

• Finely ground nuts (pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds)
• Sifted cocoa powder
• Toasted or raw coconut
• Sifted confectioners' sugar

• To create a hard chocolate shell, refrigerate rolled truffle balls for at least 30 minutes (longer is fine, too). Melt some nondairy chocolate, either a good quality chocolate bar or chocolate chips, and dip each ball into the chocolate. Return to the refrigerator and let set for at least 1 hour.

Rum Balls

60g dairy-free margarine

2 tbsp treacle (i might use agave syrup)
60g brown sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp rum (or other liqueur)
2 tbsp almond meal
1 cup mixed chopped dates or fruits of choice
1 cup chopped mixed nuts


place margarine, treacle (or alternative) and sugar in saucepan and slowly bring to boil. Remove from heat and stir in remaining incredients. mix well, cool and roll into balls. roll in favourite coating.

nothing left to do but eat and enjoy!!!!

and here's an evening update...

it's 6.15 and this is a picture of the decadent chocolate truffles i made earlier this afternoon!!!

i halved the truffle recipe above, added chopped nuts to the mixture, rolled some in cocoa and some in crushed nuts - i got 14 truffles - they're decadent and oh so yummy - allie gives them the seal of approval too!!!!!