Sorry its been a little while since my last post – lots of things going on, so here’s a quick round-up of what I’ve been up to – and what’s coming next! I’m certainly not just sitting on my ass watching daytime TV in my retirement, that’s for sure!
First up – my girls trip to Cancun in Mexico. The reason I was there was to participate in a “ReBoot Camp” – basically a fitness retreat combining bootcamp style training with yoga – with some serious relaxation thrown in for good measure. Now, big groups of ladies haven’t usually been my thing in the past (too cliquey and, frankly, bitchy) but somehow I said “yes” to this trip where ordinarily I would have been a “Hell, no!”. It was held at this gorgeous all-inclusive resort on Isla Mujeres (which means “woman island”) so I took the easy-peasy public ferry to get over to the island after checking out of the Hotel Tortugas on Saturday morning. I was met at the ferry terminal by someone with a “Reboot Camp” sign and was soon checking into the hotel.
It was a LOT of fun – and I enjoyed the experience way more than I expected! There were 30 of us in total – most of the ladies were from the Northern suburbs but there were also a few from further afield, including New Mexico and New York. Each day started with a short meditation session, then a walk or run followed by a boot camp-style workout on the beach. Yes. Planks and push-ups in the sand! I had to fend off instant Sand Rage as I wibbled and wobbled my way through the workout (its hard AF to do ANYTHING in the sand other than drinking pina coladas) – but I did it – even if it took several hours for my face to return to a semi-normal color!! In addition to the daily workouts, there was also a catamaran trip, a Dolphin “experience” (which was very cool) plus a wonderful (and very inexpensive) massage down at one of the beach clubs in the nearby main town.
Here are a few pics from the trip to give you just a flavor – sunsets here were just glorious and it was soooo nice to be in the warm sunshine. On the day I returned, winter had finally caught up to Chicago and I was plunged straight into temperatures in the 20s and snow!! I’m not ready for winter! Is it too late to go back into my high 80s and glorious sunshine?!
Since I got back from Mexico, I only had a few days back home before it was time for our family outing to Vermont, to see ManpanionTM’s brother and husband for Thanksgiving. We managed to wrangle the kids and their significant others to join us too – given they are all getting older and may soon have other obligations on their time, this felt like a special occasion to get everyone together. Thanksgiving was also MPTMs father’s favorite time of year and this was the first one since his passing so it was extra meaningful for MPTM to be surrounded by his family for this holiday. I’d already checked in and was officially Off the Hook with respect to doing all the cooking (yey!) but as we were going to be celebrating two birthdays (on the same day!) during our trip, I decided to bake a birthday cake for them – a delicious coconut and pineapple confection that is absolutely delicious! (I’d made it before about a year ago and amazingly managed to find the recipe again – here it is in case you want to try it – https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/pineapple-coconut-cake/
I also tried my hand at another floral arrangement – I think I may have gone a little overboard – but I wanted it to be a nice centerpiece for BIL plus the florist had so many beautiful flowers, it was hard to choose! I don’t know enough yet to not feel a bit overwhelmed as soon as I walk into a well-stocked florist cooler!!
Unfortunately, while we were in Vermont, I managed to pick up a stinking cold from somewhere (thankfully it wasn’t COVID) so that kinda knocked me off my feet for a solid week and a half. As of writing, its been over 2 weeks since we got back and I’m still not back to full health yet – grrr. For me, the worst bit about colds is that they always migrate to your chest as a parting gift so, even if your head is no longer congested and sniffly, the dry unproductive cough it leaves behind is irritating AF. However, despite feeling pretty shitty (ManpanionTM also started to feel rubbish a few days after me – sorry, my love!) we managed to drag ourselves out to the 177th Annual Scots Feast of the Haggis celebration – held at the Chicago History Museum. I had booked it about a month ago and thought it would be nice for us to get all dressed up for a fancy night out – but really it was just an excuse for me to get to see ManpanionTM in his kilt again! I just love me a man in a kilt – soooo sexy!! I was having a fabulous Hair Day (thanks, Jessie!) so it was fun and also for a good cause, as it was raising money for the Caledonia House – an assisted living and memory care facility out in the burbs. So that felt good to support a worthwhile local charity.
Anyway, its been a while since I last updated you on the continuing adventures of Life According to Rod. You’ll remember the last task was to learn how to do flower arranging and I’ve been loving it. Well, I finally got to do my intro sampler class with the incomparable Michael Gaffney at the Chicago School of Flower Design last week – and it was fab! I’ve been watching quite a few of his videos (yes, I’m a bit of a groupie!) so I was already somewhat familiar with his story and his schtick. He’s been incredibly successful (which he isn’t at all shy about telling you) and so it really felt like a treat that he was actually teaching this course himself. Apparently, he did delegate it out but took the teaching back over himself about a year ago as he just wasn’t quite happy enough with how it was being taught. Anyway, he has a very distinct style of teaching – very dry and laconic, takes no nonsense and has no problem telling a bunch of middle-aged suburban white ladies to basically shut up, put their phones down and listen to him! There were about a dozen of us in the class (all doing different courses ranging from just the afternoon sampler (me) to a full week Design Star course) and I could just see a couple of the ladies bristle at his tone (“doesn’t he know who we ARE?”) as they probably don’t get spoken to like that much! I thought it was brilliant. The format was that he would demonstrate a style of floral design – and then we would try it ourselves. We did 3 arrangements in total – starting with a European mass arrangement, then a mixed hand-held bouquet followed by my personal favorite, a Beidermeier style where you have concentric rings of flowers and foliage, with each ring composed of the same material. Very simple concept – and actually a very cost-effective arrangement as there are a lot of greens, relative to the blooms – but absolutely stunning! Here are a few pics from my very enjoyable afternoon – I am definitely signing up to do the full week’s course next year!
I did pick up a few other nuggets for how he gets his flowers to last so long. I’ve already posted previously about using the Crowning Glory spray to seal in the moisture – but I learnt from him that he dilutes the bottle so cuts the concentration in half before spraying. Not only will a bottle last longer, but it might also help reduce the faintly unpleasant celery-type smell that Mum noticed in the first arrangements I did for her using it. Another top tip- use just a couple drops of bleach in your water vase – this will reduce the growth of bacteria in the water, which is one of the main reasons the flowers die. He also does not recommended using flower food as he believes the crystals do not dissolve sufficiently before people add the flowers to the vase and so the food crystals can actually clog up the flower stems. One way to overcome this is to use liquid flower food – but he didn’t think it was even necessary. Obviously there are different schools of thought on this I think. I asked about his recommendation to submerge flowers in a sink full of water when you get them home so they can hydrate from the leaves, petals as well as stems. I was having a problem with my flowers kinda floating on the top of the water – so he suggested just using a bath or hand towel to keep them submerged for a good few hours.
And then – I had a surprise end to that day. Just before I set off from the burbs into the city for my flower class, I get a text from one of my Bootcamp ladies saying that she had a couple of spare tickets to go and see Michelle Obama being interviewed by David Letterman that evening at the Chicago Theater – and was anyone interested? (this was to our bootcamp group chat). And – similar to my train of thought around the bootcamp itself – I thought “yeah… why not?”. So I said yes, I was interested – and that’s how later that evening, I found myself meeting up with one of my new bootcamp ladies and her friend, listening to Michelle in conversation with David Letterman for about 90mins. I didn’t know what to expect – but I certainly didn’t expect her to be as funny as she was. She was brilliant. A great story teller – very witty and articulate and incredibly inspiring. She was there to promote her book and talk through some of the main ideas in it (it was written in the early days of the pandemic and is about how to overcome difficult times) and I have to say “I’m sold!” I haven’t bought the book yet – but I definitely will as I’m sure there is much more in the book that she didn’t have time to cover. If she is as good as writer as she is a conversationalist, it should be a terrific read.
And I think that was it – at least for now. I have pulled another task from Rod – which I will tell you about next week because for this week, I am back in Vermont and about to head off to the King Arthur School of Baking in Norwich, VT for a 4-day long Artisan Baking course! I signed up for this a while ago and I am hoping to FINALLY crack the nut of why I’m not able to keep a sourdough starter alive!! And – rather than wait and blog about it all at once when I get home at the end of the week, I’m going to try something new and instead just write down a few lines or observations each day, diary-style (thanks for the suggestion, Mum!). Sometimes I’m so busy (or recently sick) that as more and more time goes by between blog posts, they actually get harder and harder to write as they start to feel just too “big” and cumbersome. So maybe little and often is a better approach. We shall see.
Tonight, I’m staying at the thoroughly charming Blue Horse Inn in Woodstock, VT – the snow has finally started to fall so it’s looking very festive and picture postcard-y. The town is very quaint and historic, so I spent a very pleasant couple of hours browsing the little boutique stores, looking for Christmas gifts. Now its time for an early night, before heading off to Norwich mid-morning, ready for the start of class at 12pm tomorrow. I’ve not received any additional information since I signed up so I don’t really know what to expect – but I know for sure that bread products will be involved and created, so that’s good enough for me! Good night!!
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Busy lady x