No chemo this week. Only one more round to go. Decided not to go away for the weekend. (To be honest a couple of the places were disappointing and now I think the Ritz has spoiled me!)

Just enjoying being home and using my present from Erich.

Did I happen to mention how much I love my new ‘Magimix Cook Expert” ?

I have been trying new things almost everyday. I am particularly taken with the way it does soup almost automatically. So being the compulsively driven woman that I am, yesterday I decided to have a soup making afternoon. In my solidly packed freezer I have added:

• Cream of Celeriac (never used it before) and Spinach Soup
• Pear and Watercress Soup
• Butternut Squash Bisque
• Creamy Chestnut Soup with Pancetta and Sage
• Creamy Carrot with Spinach

Part of my taste success is that I use my own chicken bone broth as my stock. Yesterday I depleted my supply in the freezer so I went to Prahran market early this morning to buy 5kg of chicken bones. They are now in my gorgeous copper stock pot. I’ll cook the stock for 24+hours and it will be a very healthy and tasty base for my next batch of soups.

We had the chestnut soup last night. I had never made it before and it was amazing. Too expensive though as I had to buy frozen chestnuts and they weren’t cheap. Everyday Erich and I have a soup for lunch. Each recipe usually makes for 6 so we get 3 lunches out of each batch. The freezer at work also has lots of our soups in it. If there is a gold medal for healthy soup making I claim it.

I gave my Thermomix to Rebecca and PJ. So I expect there will be some yummy stuff coming out of that kitchen as well. I have to share a cute thing in French. The way you say ‘in law’ is ‘belle’ so daughter is fille so daughter in law is belle fille – which literally means beautiful daughter, Mere is mother , so mother in law is belle mere. So ma belle fille now is the proud owner of a Thermomix. So I asked my tutor how do I say my beautiful daughter in law? Not belle belle fille but ma merveilleuse belle fille – even if you don’t speak French it sounds great, n’est pas!

I bought 400 Soups a few years after Soup Bible and when I got it home I discovered it was the same content just repackaged.

Peter is selling up a storm. There isn’t a lot for sale on the market in Melbourne at the moment which is keeping prices up. Erich and I are both enjoying having him in the business. It gives me more peace of mind when there is a family member there when Erich and I are not.

Maddie is still coming in and doing some data entry stuff for us. She is enjoying her course and last weekend she did her first paid make-ups. She turned 19 earlier this month.

Our Paris photos arrived this week and we are thrilled with them. Now my dilemma is choosing and figuring out how and where I can make a small display.

Well the magical holiday is over and after some jetlag which seemed to last almost a week I am back in the swing of things. Last week I went for genetic testing. I won’t see any results until mid September. Actually it will be on the day of my last chemo. I am not overly excited with this testing as the thought of passing a yucky gene to one or both of my daughters is very upsetting.

I had my first chemo of round 5 on Friday and already some the skin irritations are starting on my arms. I am not as upset this time as they did improve enormously during the break and they didn’t really effect me in Paris. I am mindful that my oncologist said I would be able to make the trip and I would have hair. So I am grateful. Now I need a new target as my hair is falling out at a great rate. I am more upset about the side effect of neuropathy as the damaged nerve endings in my feet which gives numbness/pins and needle may never recover or take a long time to do so after the treatment finishes. They have reduced the drug that causes it so hopefully it won’t get any worse – it can effect fingers as well.

We are delighted that Liz has had such a good result re the girls and the possibilities/ for living in New York for a longer period. It is still sad for us as we probably won’t get to see the Buchanan/Joyce clan for quite a while. I am thinking of my special birthday bucket list next year and am thinking of a Singapore Paris New York jaunt end of Aug into Sept for Erich and me.

Kate was into thinking about painting this week and she managed to do in 10 minutes flat what I haven’t managed in 41 years. She not only worked out the name of the Dominican painter of the market and woman paintings (Plutarco Andujar), she talked via email with the owner of the gallery where Geoff and I bought them.

I think when things like this happen it is worth telling the story around it. It was probably around April, May 1974. I was pregnant with Liz and we were leaving the Dominican Republic. We had previously started the habit of buying a piece of art from where we had visited or lived. We never had much money so they were fairly modest pieces, originals but usually bought at a market or the like. We had been told of a gallery in the capital, Santo Domingo, which had an exhibition/sale of one  of the countries best artists. When we arrived the exhibition was outstanding and the gallery was filled with Americans who were apparently in the D.R. working for Gulf and Western (later we discovered it wasn’t the oil division it was film making – they were there making Godfather 2 but that’s another story).

I fell in love instantly with the market one but we couldn’t afford it so Geoff tried to move me to the woman which I hesitated about. One was better than none I was thinking. Then something amazing happened, a big yank behind me said “Ma’am make up your mind as we are buying all that are here!”. Something happened to Geoff, he said we are taking them both!! He wrote out a bouncing cheque to pay for the two. I am not sure how we covered it – probably he had saving stashed away, but there weren’t funds in the account to cover it as he wrote that cheque. The painting went back to Canada, PNG and then Melbourne. It was finally framed in Hampton Street in the 1980s. The woman came framed.

Two smiling Sydney-siders this week: