Lately we have adds on the telly about meal boxes such as Marley Spoon which can be found here:https://marleyspoon.com.au/ now this post has nothing to do with meal boxes as I have never used one and have no interest in them.

So why mention it well because on the add they talk about having the evening meal prepared and on the table by 7pm. This has had me thinking about what time people have their evening meal, on tv shows they make out that the only people who have an early evening meal are old people. That also annoys me as it is wrong.

I grew up having our evening meal (known as tea here in Aus by most people) between 4 & 5pm and when my girls were little I would have tea around 4-4.30pm most days as when they would get home from school they would be hungry and instead of letting them have junk food I would give them tea and then they could have junk food including ice cream.

Now that the girls have children of their own they have carried on the tradition of eating tea around 4.30pm because like me and my mum they feel it is better to give the child a proper meal when they are hungry before they have junk food.

So here is a question for you what time do you have your evening meal?

Do you call it dinner, supper, or tea?

Do you like pizza?

Do you buy pizza?

If you buy pizza do you get it ready made from a pizza joint or do you buy frozen or fresh made pizza from the supermarket.

Maybe you prefer to make your own pizza.

How do you feel about having pineapple on pizza?

Occasionally Tim & I will order pizza from Dominos because they are just down the road, we don’t get it delivered as that costs twice as much as picking it up.

Tim likes frozen pizza which he adds extra toppings to, sometimes I will buy a fresh pizza when I do my weekly shopping but not very often.

However, for me I prefer to make my own pizza, I buy the pizza base and make my own pizza, I would do that a lot when the girls were little.

Also I love pineapple on pizza, as does Tim

Good morning world or good evening depending on where you are in the world, it is somewhat cool here this morning. My weekend was a good one, didn’t have Leo on Saturday as he went to Kelli’s for the day for a change. Although I ended up having him spending last night here because his mum was snappy and he thought they needed a break from each other.

The other day Kathy-Lee asked me if it was too soon to start buying Christmas presents, my answer no it isn’t I started months back, her partner Michael thinks it is too early but he is one to leave it till November or December to start thinking about Christmas.

So when do others start their Christmas shopping?

My great-aunty Joyce told my mum just after she married dad that she should start her Christmas shopping in June/July at the mid year sales which mum has always done except for this year, not being able to get out to the shops has meant she hasn’t been able to get a start on her Christmas shopping.

I think I need to introduce mum to sites like Wish and Ebay so she can do some shopping online for stocking fillers.

Let’s talk about friends, are you a social butterfly?

Do you have close friends or would you say you have acquaintances instead?

Do you consider your online friends to be the same as in the flesh friends?

How about pen friends, do you have any of those?

I am not in any way shape or form a social butterfly, I do not have any in the flesh friends, however, I do have a lot of online friends and a lot of pen pals. I have never been good at forming friendships and have pretty much been a loner my whole life.

My best friend is my mum along with my husband and I am lucky that I am part of a large close knit family. Some people have friends others have family, I have family.

Who performs the most random acts of kindness out of everyone you know?

Or do you not know people who perform random acts of kindness.

Maybe you are the one who does random kind things for others.

I myself try to do kind things and I try to help others and think about other people.

My mother says I am a giver not a taker and that I am always thinking of others just like her mother did, being compared to my nanna makes me feel good, as nan was an amazing woman.

What’s in a name, do you like your name?

Were you named after someone special?

Do you know how your parents decided on your name, have you always felt like you do now about your name.

I was named by my dad and nanna when I was only hours old, dad knew that mum liked the name Jo-Anne and that her grandmother was named Mary Anne and she was very close to her grandmother she lived with her till she was 14 when her grandmother died. Mum was also close to her Aunty Nita so I was named Jo-Anne Nita in honour of her grandmother and aunt.

I was christened in the hospital when I was only hours old as they didn’t think I would live. My mum didn’t get to see me for a few days after I was born.

I have three daughters the oldest is Kathy-Lee when I was expecting her Tim wanted to name her after Jamie Lee Curtis I didn’t like the name Jamie Lee but I didn’t mind the name Lee so after talking for a bit we decided to name her Kathy-Lee, Kathy had to be spelt with a K nor a C.

I don’t remember how we came up with Natasha’s name or Jessica’s name I know we decided that Natasha’s middle name Nicolle had to have 2 l”s so he had 7 letters and Jessica’s middle name is Mae the same as my sister Sandra’s middle name.

My mum’s name is Mavis and she has been called Mae for as long as I can remember and before I can remember. The name Mae is popular in our family it is Sandra’s daughters middle name and my granddaughter Sydney-May is named May spelt differently but still its Mae/May. In total 6 people have the name in the family.

When my sister Jeannie had her second child she a decided to take my middle name Nita and mix it up and called her daughter Tina, her next child got the middle name Joe also after me.

Both Tim & Blain have the same middle name of William.

Where do you come in the birth order of you and your siblings?

Do you think it plays any part in who you are?

I am the oldest of five children and as the oldest I have always been in charge, and have taken responsibility of my younger sibling. I would always make sure they had presents for our parents on special occasions such as birthdays & Christmas.

I am more responsible then my younger siblings, I am not saying they are irresponsible because they are not but I am a tad more responsible. I also am more organised then the rest of them,I don’t know if that is part of being the eldest or not.

What do others think?

Ok here is the thing, as everyone should know last year we had a big party for my dad aka poppy’s 75^th birthday at that time we didn’t know that he would get so sick. Next month he will be 76 and we have been told that it will most likely be his last birthday, in fact we have been told that he may not even make his next birthday but none of us want to think of that happening.

So I am asking all those who love him so much and who’s life he has enriched by being part of it and who will fill a void when he is no longer with us, to this year spend a little money and by a nice birthday card for him and either send it to him or take it and give it to him next month for his 76^th birthday.

Do this not just for him but also for mum/nanna who after he is gone can look at the cards and be reminded of how much he meant to people. It is a little thing that could mean to much to both dad & mum.

Dad is so proud of his family, he has lived for them and when he was struggling with cancer his family was the reason he kept fighting.

I cannot make anyone do this and if you think it is a silly idea then do not bother with it but if you think like me it might bring some joy to his and mums life please take part.

Good afternoon everyone here I am on a Monday afternoon writing a post been a normal Monday I went to my aqua class this morning haven’t been in a few weeks and it was good to go again. I do enjoy the class.

It is also my precious first born daughters birthday she is 33 today and we had a birthday lunch for her on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday Tim dragged me out of bed at 8am because he wanted to go shopping for a new lounge and of course when we got to the store it was closed and didn’t open till 10am because of the sale so we ended up going home and not looking for a lounge.

I don’t think we need a new lounge but for some reason Tim does although after the girls told him the same thing he might change his mind but who knows.

Blain came home from school yet again he is supposed to be sick this goes on day after day and his mum is getting fed up with him.

After taking the bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai we were met by another tour guide this time it was a man named Kevin he was nice he took my small suitcase for me as we headed to the bus. The following day we headed for a canal tour but we were told that we had a short walk from the bus to the boat maybe 10 minutes.

Well silly me thought I would be ok to walk that far, well was I wrong I got about half way there and couldn’t go any further, I sat down and started to cry from the pain and feeling useless. I told Tim to go ahead and I would make my way back to the bus but of course Tim would not leave me. We slowly made our way back to the bus and when everyone else turned up Tim had a talk to Kevin and yes Tim was mad because he doesn’t like to see me upset.

After talking to Tim, Kevin said he would arrange for a wheelchair to be on the bus for me for the next two days, it cost us $20 for each day but it made it so much easier for me.

We learnt over time that Kevin was married with a daughter and he drove a Ford and that he was 40yrs old.