One of life's little mysteries

While I was waiting for the train this morning at Upper Gully station, I decided to have a Pepsi Max from the vending machine. Paid my money, pressed the button, and then came the thud in the bottom of the machine. I put my hand in to retrieve the PM and pulled out a green can of VB. The PM was also there - but what was the full can of VB doing there and icy cold as well?! Two other ladies waiting for the train didn't want it, the man on the ticket counter didn't drink, and I certainly didn't want it - now, if it had only been champagne.....

So the icy cold VB went in the garbage bin - and officially became an LLM.

Going bush

I love going bush. It's why I own a station wagon which has a rubber mattress in the back and I can camp in it. My favourite part of the bush is the outback and I have spent a good bit of my life there. So I am enjoying and thrilled to bits with Going Bush, a documentary starring Cathy Freeman and Deborah Mailman. Cathy and Deb are North Queensland girls like me. In fact, when I was a librarian at the Mount Isa Public Library in north-west Queensland, I remember the Mailman girls coming in to the library. While Cathy was born in Mackay, she too spent part of her life in north-west Queensland in Hughenden. Going Bush is fun - Cathy and Deborah are open faced and open hearted and identify so readily with their surroundings. If you haven't caught up with it yet, don't miss the chance for some telly viewing that is fun and heartwarming.

An incredible story of hardship and triumph

ABC's morning program First Person is always worth listening to. For the past few weeks, Noel Tovey has been reading his book, Little Black Bastard. It is a stunning story - and this week, particularly to-day, I have been in tears. His story is not only one of survival upon survival upon survival, it is a triumph of the human spirit. I become a sucker for these sort of stories when they have a spiritual component - and Noel's certainly has this. It is a thread that runs through the story - not dominating it but like a thread that runs behind a piece of fabric that is only drawn visibly to the front occasionally. I don't want to give details of the story but let's say that I now want to read the book for myself.

The crop keeps on croppin'

Enough tomatoes to make Tomato Relish.
This relish is made from yellow tomatoes.
Red tomatoes make red relish.
The yellow tomato relish is brown.
It tastes delish.
Recipe can be found at Food from Oz.