Australia Influenced
Why do men never listen?
We are at the beach, mr.Natey and I and a few other people we don’t know. There are quite a few people in the water, but somehow I don’t feel comfortable. Not only because it’s winter. No, something isn’t right.
All of a sudden I see shadows in the water. They are about an arm length long and quickly moving. Sharks?
I am pretty sure, but mr.Natey doesn’t think so. He wants to go into the water. I say “Please don’t go, there are sharks in there.” He’s going a step forward and I’m now whining: “Please don’t go. I promise you I’ll cook you dinner every night until the rest of your day, but please don’t go into the water!” I’m totally frightened, but mr.Natey thinks I’m overreacting, as so often.
Then I’m going a few steps back and see all those sharks lined up on the shore. They are standing on their back-fin and they organized themselves from small shark on the left to humongous and extremely large (2-story-house tall) on the right. A line of about 6 sharks, all shapes and sizes. They are kind of smiling at me and the other people at the beach.
Nathan, oh why, is going towards the shore and is lining up next to the largest shark with his back to the ocean. He’s like “Look at me, I’m not afraid, I can even stand next to the biggest sharks and it’s all fine.”
Then, all of a sudden, the humongous shark smirks and swings his left fin, which is about the size of an American-sized van, and hits and pushes (or rather smashes) mr.Natey way far away into the deep and dark ocean. No one would survive that hit. Not even a mr.Natey “hero”.
Why do men never listen to their missy? 
[image by C.Haugen]
Feb 7, 2012 • A-life & English & Natey&Cola ♥ 0 comments »Dreams
[image by Elfleda]
Dreams are
…slippery things.
…like stars…you may never touch.
…so difficult to remember.
…making you smarter.
…answers to questions we haven’t yet figured out how to ask.
…unique.
…real.
Really real?
Well, that’s what g00gle spits out when I ask what dreams are.
I have always been a very vivid dreamer. I sometimes feel like I have a second life, living it in my dreams. Often I “act” so much that the sleeping partner next to me wakes up and thinks I am awake – but I am just in my dreams; even when sitting up, moving around; all with eyes wide open.
It doesn’t surprise me anymore that my fantasy often goes to the extreme, but what really surprised me, so much that I want to write it down here, are the last two dreams I had this week.
The first one was about a former work colleague/friend from my last job in Australia. I don’t remember what it was about exactly, but the morning after the dream I had a facebook message in my email, about me being missed and that someone called with my old work phone which apparently still displayed my name; to the shock of the friend. 
Isn’t that strange – first the dream and then the email?
The other dream was similar, but slightly different.
I dreamt about a girlfriend I knew when I was a young teenager (maybe 12/13). I have no idea how she looks like these days, but in the dream I just knew it was her. We were happy that we met and reunited; we hugged and talked and laughed. She was actually not a very close friend, but we shared an important part (the party part, ya know? *g*) of my teenage years together.
But hold tight-here it comes:
When I woke up the next day and checked my email at around 10.30am, I had an email from the social network stayfriends with the following message:
The email said: “Why don’t you go visit the profile of your friend M.J.?”
My jaw dropped almost onto the floor!!! My eyes stared at her name. I had t blink to realize I am not dreaming any more.
Nathan always said I’m psychic. I think I’m at a high at the moment.
Another psychic situation that happened on the same day. We were driving a small side road quite a ways away from where we live and I somehow thought that we probably see Nathan’s mom driving by. I don’t know why I had that thought, because it was rather silly, because his mom works in a totally different area (other town) and would not drive this road really on a daily or even weekly basis. And we drive that road multiple times a fortnight and never met her on the road.
Well….you guessed it, although the little side road had no traffic, a few moments, seconds later her silvery car just came into our direction.
I am a bit scared!
I’m hoping to dream of my future job next. Haha.
Season change
And by the way….this is really exciting news!!! How could I forget!
After 6 months without rain, it finally rained yesterday! Unbelieeeevable! 
It was so weird (to hear, smell, and see the rain…no I didn’t do a rain dance).
Unfortunately, the temperature also dropped quite a bit, from a very hot 35ºC weekend, to now 15ºC at night. Everything below 25º feels cold! Brrr.
That means:
* we had our first night since December that we slept without the fan next to our bed.
* we had our first evening tonight, where both doors to the street and the garden stayed closed.
* tonight is also the first night we sleep with our regular blanket (and not just with a thin sheet).
I can’t wait for the cosy cuddly time of the year; for more tea, hot chocolates, candles, oven bakings, less suncream on the skin, and finally cuddles from/with my heartman.
Lucky Cola
Although I’m quite clumsy lately somehow a bit of luck is mine.
As you may have read in the previous post, I have accidentally broken my new bottle of valuable olive leaf extract.
The other day I went to my health food store of choice and bought a new cream. While paying and chatting to the woman behind the counter, I saw the olive leaf extract bottle sitting behind her and mentioned that I was so clumsy that I dropped the bottle while shaking it, because the olive leaf stuff was stuck to the bottom of the bottle. She grabbed a new bottle, typed something into the cash register and gave it to me, saying that I could have that one for free; she has just written it off.
I said that it wasn’t my intention to tell her my story to claim a bottle for free. She didn’t worry and was happy to give me a new bottle, saying they have hundreds of them and usually get a few dozen for free (due to the large amount they order) anyway.
Clumsiness meets luckiness. 
Awesomeness!!
Clumsy Cola
Well, the thought of getting back into the daily habit of taking olive leaf extract to boost my immune system was great.
It wasn’t so great that I had to shake it hard to mix the stuff that was stuck to the bottom of the bottle, because my enthusiastic efforts of shaking caused the bottle slipping out of my hands and smashing with high speeds onto the floor…where suddenly a huge brown olive lake emerged. Well, there were the thirty dollars just spent. Bummer! 
Some people need to pay more attention
I could not believe my eyes when I was reading in a forum and read the signature of the top person followed by the comment/reply of the second person. How bad is that???
[click to enlarge]
I am surprised how many people cannot spell/write correctly…even PR agencies that I am working with, they cannot copy and past MY correct words…no, they somehow copy it and make mistakes like “dilivery” instead of “delivery”. I often cannot believe it! How can I have ever thought that my English might not be good enough for working in public relations/journalism/etc. I am now writing advertising briefs, press features and ads and have to make sure that the publishing agency doesn’t make spelling mistakes. It is a hard job, I can tell ya.
What will the world be when I have kids? It will be a challenge to guide them through the jungle of bad spelling. The internet with its copy and paste mentality contributes to copying spelling mistakes. The more people who cannot write correctly the more people will see “bad spelling”, the more people think it is correct and copy it.
I am not perfect but I cannot believe how native speakers (in a professional job/environment) often write as they speak… without even using a spell check. Maybe it is the “no worries”- “I don’t care” mentality? I am wondering if this is different in YOUR country?
Muuh Mooo Milk Issue
I thought my lactose intolerance had vanished. After a long strict diet and 18 months later I could eat milk products without having a bloated belly, without skin rashes and all that. I never touched fresh (raw) milk again, because I was now used to soy milk and didn’t really like cow’s milk any longer, but I enjoy eating cheese and cakes, ice cream and (milk-)chocolates again.
Until yesterday! 
It was a beautiful Sunday. We went for a walk at the beach and felt like ice-cream! It is weird, but we’re living the Australian dream, at the Indian Ocean coast or let’s say in a coastal city where the life happens outdoors, but there are so few ice-cream shops! Hardly any! When I think of my small town back home…I immediately know of at least three ice-cream shops.
Well…we found a beach kiosk and bought a Cornetto and a Magnum (better than nothing). Having a proper fresh ice-cream shop by the beach seems to be luxury down here. I really miss it.
Well…we went for a long stroll along the beach, sat down by the water and watched the kids play in the water. Then we went to a park nearby to continue our walk there.
All of a sudden I got lower belly cramps. They were so strong I had to hold my breath and stop walking; stop moving at all. My belly was totally bloated. The mister felt it and thought it was so hard and felt like I was a few months pregnant. I was in pain! We left the park and stopped at a supermarket, but I could not walk any further, so we had to drive home. I spare you with more details, but it seemed that it was the ice-cream that my stomach could not take. So weird, because I had a coffee with thickened cream and cow’s milk at my friend’s house just a few days ago….and my insides didn’t ache.
Maybe I had too many lactose-products lately….maybe Magnum’s are evil.
[image by Petra Kress/pixelio.de]
Nov 15, 2010 • A-life & Delicious & English ♥ 0 comments »Spam
I often read your blog and always find it very interesting. Thought it was about time i let you know…Keep up the great work
Manchmal kann Spam auch ganz nett sein.
Dear Blog and readers
Why oh why….
I have more spam (messages, comments) than real people comments.
Only two people played with me. Wanna play? Please!! German readers, that one is for you (only)!
Only two people were so nice to answer my little poll (in the sidebar). Too boring (I mean lazy), nothing to say (I mean you don’t understand a thing), or simply over-read (I mean ignoring)? I guess surveys (polls) are not so cool any more…
My dearest chef-de-la-cola-cuisine is ill. I passed on that nasty cold as quickly as I could. Men suffer more. No, they just need a bit more attention than usual. I made a very nice homemade chicken soup. The sufferer’s comment: “hon, this is the best ever chicken soup I’ve had”. Either he felt like he was almost dying or he had fever or he was just happy that he didn’t stand in the kitchen cooking for 2 hours or really meant it, but there was no single complaint after the first spoonful.
We sold our 4WD to two German guys. Two of N’s friends and I’m invited to a dinner in one of our favourite restaurants, because the outcome was so positive (unexpectedly they didn’t bargain…. )
It is still spring, but we suffer by having 36ºC. Too early to have such heat. Honestly, I don’t mind waiting until end of December to have this weather. Why now already? Writing this while our fan is pointed at me at high speed. Sigh…
Tomorrow is cola’s exciting hair day. I booked myself into a hairdresser appointment, which is a very rare occasion in missy’s life. Of course I spend hours and days and weeks of research to find the right hairdresser. Let’s hope the raving reviews I found online are honest and true. Fingers crossed.
Nov 3, 2010 • A-life & English & PiColaQUIZ ♥ 0 comments »What’s ill Cola doing?
She’s resting and resting…and resting. Also drinking much green tea with honey. Eating fresh fruit. Went for a short walk today (the mister said I needed some Vitamin D ![=]](http://planetcola.com/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/adiumicons/sideways.png)
). Very windy today, but felt nice.
Came back and had a craving for some baby food and ate a jar of organic pasta bolognese suggested for “month year one to month year five”. This reminds me of being back home (in that German land), where I often ate the “HIPP” baby pasta bolognese as a snack. Warm or cold. Very delicious, don’t you think? Same with Semolina – what’s the name for Griessbrei? Semolina mash? Love it, too! Or even better: Semolina soup!
I tried to get up from bed bed to move my tired body a bit and here’s the result:
Date Scones!!
My version: 3 cups self-raising flour, 150ml lactose free cream and 150ml soy milk, 2 tablespoons raw caster sugar, 1 egg and 1 cup chopped dates. About 12 to 15 minutes at 220ºC (or 200ºC fan-forced).
I’m much better today and decided I’ll go back to work tomorrow. Only one day and then weekend anyway (in case I get worse).
Now the man came home and I will surprise him with my scones. 