Laugh More Live Longer



 Laugh More- Live Longer  so says  the Campervan and Motorhome Club, of which we have just become members. An apt slogan to adopt on the eve of 2011 as thousands of wrinkly wanderers like ourselves laugh their way around  Aussie on The Big Lap.  Well who wouldn't be laughing with the promise of  pristine beaches, towering canyons,spectacular waterfalls and  all that outback topped with a really big sky.Who doesn't want to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, be dwarfed by Uluru or ride a camel along Cable beach at sunset...........we are going to have to live longer so we can enjoy it all!
This is my last blog of 2010 and what a  year it has been. Marrying my soul mate, Tommy, on the cliffs at Schoenies in Port Elizabeth,after a memorable Christmas spent with friends and family . Honeymooning at Coral Bay in Western Australia and swimming with Manta Rays. Another honeymoon in Kenya  at Watamu with my precious sister Kathy and family. Starting the Soul Food Kitchen back in South Africa, a school reunion and connecting with  friends 40 years on, but most of all a year of decisions, decisions, decisions.
One of the biggest to move back to Oz,  sell  our permanent homes and to embrace a new nomadic lifestyle.The most important thing I have learnt this year is that my vision for my life is only limited by my lack of imagination. I must stop imagining of what I think is possible but rather what I want to be possible. Life is infinitely larger and more glorious than we can ever imagine and the possibilities are endless.If I could make one resolution for the New year it would be to be fully present in any given moment, to savour  and find enchantment in the simple. Wordsworth said it well...........     

 And I have felt, 

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated  thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things.

 We are loving this cool, calm forest at Quininup and will stay here a while longer. We go for long walks along paths that follow what used to be the old railway line. The bird life is amazing. We are fast becoming "twitchers" and now know where to find the Kookaburra and beautifully coloured Western Rosella Parrot . Yesterday we had a wonderful experience as we walked past a huge clump of bramble . Out of the corner of our eye we saw a flash of iridescent cobalt blue and came upon a flock of Fairy Wrens ,tiny birds of the most exquisite colour. As the setting sun caught their plumage they flitted through the bush like sapphires.Is this the fabled bluebird of happiness I wonder? It works for me!

To you who have followed me so far on my travels I wish you love, joy, the gift of friendship, good food, great wine,and a fresh adventure for every day of 2011,and remember" Life can only be understood backwards; but it has to be lived forwards"Soren Kirkegaard.

Catch yer later................................



Soul Food Kitchen

Cardamom  Ice Cream

This must be one of the most requested recipes from the Soul Food Kitchen. Its magic after a curry but great any time of the day or night whenever the craving for ice cream beckons!

I tin of Ideal Milk
1 tin  of full cream condensed milk
250 ml tub of thick cream
10 green cardamom pods.

Bring ideal milk to the boil with the green cardamom pods. Remove from heat and cool, (overnight is good to infuse the flavour of the cardamom but not essential.) Strain. Whip cream and fold in cool ideal milk and condensed milk. Put into ice cream maker or freeze in a container in  your fridge. Take it out 10 mins before you want to serve it so it can soften slightly. Delicious served with a fresh mango coulis.
Warning this can become addictive, do not eat whilst operating machinery or driving, causes extreme feelings of well being and subsequent lassitude.