Waking up is like being in a fairytale, namely “Sleeping Beauty.” It feels like I’ve slept for a hundred years and that I could sleep for a hundred more. But as it is, I call it quits and get up at 9am. It’s just so unusual for me, I’m always up with the birds, and it’s especially out of the ordinary considering my high intensity nana nap yesterday and how early I went to bed last night. But hey, I’m not knocking it!
I actually woke up at 6am but was so out of it, I went straight back to sleep, but not before I took my thyroxin tablet. It’s going to take (excuse the pun) some getting used to, as I have to take it 30mins to 1 hour before food, or even a cup of tea! I guess in the long run, this will be easy as most days I go to the gym before work, so I can take the pill, go to the gym and still have breakfast before I go to work, just like usual. I just don’t like waiting, especially when it comes to food! But it’s a habit I’m sure I can form quite easily!
The nuclear medicine doctors said it was fine to go to the local shops so we take them at their word, me, David and our nana shopping trolley. We must look quite a sight, David striding along up front and me and the trolley keeping up the rear. Everyone must think that a)we’ve had a massive row or b) I’m one of those subservient wives – as we walk around the neighbourhood a few metres apart. I’ve taken off the radioactive bracelet which would have been a dead giveaway. It’s nice to keep everyone guessing!
Using our personal space creatively, we get some take away coffees and sit out on the grass in the sunshine a safe distance away from each other. We even make it to the supermarket where I breeze around in a radioactive haze! I’ve still got that craving for fresh food. All the stuff I loved to eat at the start of the week and that I took with me to hospital makes me want to gag now – just the thought of it makes my stomach heave! I know it’s all psychological but I’m on a total healthy eating binge!
Eating fresh down under is easy but generally, the rule is, you can only buy what’s in season. So, I’m thinking, for once, my timing is spot on, because if you want to eat healthy this is the time of year to do it! The shelves were just jammed full of all my favourite things, big, yellow bananas, round, ripe mangoes, fat, juicy peaches and plump, pink watermelons. It’s just like being in fruit heaven! We get a whole box of juicy mangoes – the mind boggles as to what I can make with them – sorbet, gelato, salsas, salads, smoothies and of course, the pure pleasure of eating them fresh and juicy all on their own! Bananas are a real treat too, after the cyclones and floods that struck Queensland at the start of the year, the prices rocketed to over 15 dollars a kilo so buying one was an extravagant treat. They’re back down to 5 bucks a kilo, so now we can eat them again with wild abandon. Healthy eating never tasted so good.
After we do the grocery shopping, we go to the Butchers. This is another really good thing that’s come out of all this. We always used to buy our meat from the supermarket, we hadn’t really discovered our local butcher’s which was totally dumb as the meat there is the same price as the supermarket if not cheaper, it’s all free range, the butcher cuts it up however you want, (which is just as well as we have a kitchen full of blunt knives,) and the butchers that work there are smoking hot! Always a bonus! We also pick up a picture we had framed that we got when we had a love weekend in Melbourne, it looks great and every time I look at it, it brings back many happy memories!
We come home to prepare our respective lunches, separately of course. At least when one of us is in the kitchen, you can guarantee that the other is a safe distance away in the living room. I make a cracking Mexican Corn and Bean Stew for lunch which is much more satisfying, not to mention much tastier, than a cardboard rice cake. So fresh, so quick and so healthy. And…so iodine free!
One advantage of being radioactive is that I can’t prepare food for other people. Lunch is quite a treat but a complete anathema, preparing food that is only for ME! Later, David cooks the super steaks we got from the butcher. He cooks up quite a storm in the kitchen – I could really get used to this! Check out David’s steak with pea puree. Yum-oh!
